Cheerios Under the Fridge
A surprise day together, Father! Snow days are always welcome, and we have just enjoyed it so much! Thank You for out-of-the-blue gifts!
Luke 22:7-13 (<<click here to read the passage)
I don’t know how you do it, but our home is vacuumed and dusted weekly…whether it needs it or not. Life happens and though we may not intentionally dirty our home, it gets dirty just by living here.
In today’s passage, Jesus directed Peter and John to prepare for the Passover. In some of my research I discovered that Passover isn’t a week or even a day, but a meal…
Peter and John had to buy and prepare the lamb as well as the unleavened bread, herbs, wine, and other food.
But what I would like to emphasize in this passage is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At twilight following the Passover meal, the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin. Interestingly enough, no matter what day of the week Passover took place – it was always to be the 14th day of the month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to a date in March or April on our…calendar – the feast would begin on the 15th.
The feast began with a Sabbath and ended with a Sabbath – and this was different from the weekly Sabbath (Saturday), but this is the part of this feast that points us right to Jesus.
When the nation of Israel made their exodus from their years of slavery in Egypt, part of God’s command would be that they were to get rid of any leaven – or yeast – from their homes. God used the fact that they didn’t have time to let their bread rise to symbolize the ridding of sin from their homes and their lives.
Jesus often referred to the “yeast of the Pharisees…” (Luke 12:1b NLT) and He equated it with their sin.
It would be a chore to rid our lives of leaven. Beyond the cakes or packages of yeast, you may have, think of everything that has yeast in it. If you had to get every last crumb of it from your homes, that would take some effort. You can easily find loaves of bread and boxes of crackers but how many young parents with toddlers could find every single Cheerio in your home? How many would they find between the cushions and under the fridge?
In the same way, it’s easier to get the big, obvious sins out of our lives, but more difficult to get the hidden, seemingly small ones out before they fester.
In Jesus’ timeline, this is the last week before His crucifixion. Understand that there are no coincidences with God. Everything was planned out to the very smallest detail. His last week very purposely overlapped the time for attempting to remove every last speck of sin from our lives. But is that even within the realm of possibility? We are after all sinners by birth, so even though we can’t get all of the sin out of our lives, we have Jesus to cover them all. Though we should still strive to live in a way that pleases God, if we believe in Jesus as our Savior, he even forgives the sins we’d rather leave in the dark places under the fridge. Even if the “home” of our life is sparkling clean, chances are that there’s some leaven hiding somewhere. *
I realize that we’re coming up on Christmas and not Passover, but just like Karen makes sure our home is cleaned regularly, it would be of great benefit to make sure our lives are clean of sin even more regularly.
Lord Jesus, help us to rid ourselves of all that so easily entangles us. May we strive to search out even the nooks and crannies, and those areas that we might rather leave untouched. And when all is said and done, may we allow Your grace to take care of the rest. Amen.
*The Feast of Unleavened Bread vs. Passover: What’s the Difference?
Dec 1st, 2020, Tues, 6:59 pm
A Camel’s Nose Under Your Tent
Our first snow of substance and it is beautiful, Father. The love is in the little things. All praise to You!
Luke 22:1-6 (<<click here to read the passage)
Here’s one you may not have heard before,
Do not allow a camel to put his nose under the edge of your tent, for soon you will have a camel in your tent. – an alleged Arab proverb
How often does this concept play out in our lives? There is not one of us who has not struggled with some temptation or another. And from experience I know that quite often it can be something almost imperceptible…at least to others around us. If we shut it down right away, we can just move forward. But any leeway given, and we have a camel’s nose under our tent!
Yield to one little thing and then it’s easier to yield to that thing again…and again…and again. Then something more impacting comes along – something more damaging – and our defenses are lowered enough that we succumb to that next level of temptation. That impulse conquers us much more readily. It starts with the camel’s nose but then, little by little, we allow other body parts to enter until the camel is entirely inside our tent and at that point, we have to deal with the whole camel!
I don’t think that “Satan entered into Judas Iscariot” out of the blue with no warning bells going off in his heart and mind. It must have been a gradual thing. Jesus had spoken several times of His pending death. There were confrontations with religious leaders. Many things said, many things done but “things” weren’t heading in the right direction – at least to the mindset of an Israelite chafing under the heavy hand of Rome. Especially when hopes had been raised.
So, what was Judas’ motivation for betraying Jesus? The Bible doesn’t clearly spell it out. Satan may have played a part, but as my study Bible* says, it does not remove any of the responsibility from Judas. By his betrayal, Judas may have been trying to force Jesus’ hand and make him use his power to prove he was the Messiah. Or perhaps Judas, not understanding Jesus’ mission, no longer believed that Jesus was God’s chosen one.
Regardless, it is very possible that one single stray thought on Judas’ part led to another then another until eventually, he allowed more than just the camel’s nose under his tent. Satan got his foot in the door and kept nudging and pushing until he had complete control.
But in reality, Satan nor Judas even began to understand what they were messing with. They thought God’s plan would be thwarted but little did they know, their actions set the last parts of His plan into motion.
Lord Jesus, help us to keep that old camel’s nose out of our tent. Fill us with Your presence to the extent that everything that shouldn’t be there can’t even fit in because we are full to overflowing with You! Amen.
The Final Word
Father, thank You for the ability to accomplish so much this weekend. My body is rebelling a bit, but I am pushing forward. Thank You for extra hands and the determination of youth.
********
I love Christmas music, as anyone knows me can attest. And I have very eclectic tastes, as well, as can clearly be seen in my Christmas playlist on Spotify. It is composed of 972 songs by a wide variety of artists in a wide variety of styles. If you listened to every single song it would take you more than two days – it is 54 hours and 38 minutes in length!
But one thing that gives me pause every Christmas season – and this is a bit morbid – I cannot help but think that so many of my favorite songs are sung by people long dead. And it just makes me stop and think.
Not many listen to music from the 1940s but a lot of us do at Christmas time. In fact, many of us know many of them by heart!
“White Christmas” (1941)
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” (1943)
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1944)
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)
…to name a few!
And who sang them in those early years? Bing Crosby, Perry Como, The Andrew Sisters, Frank Sinatra…again to name a few. And not one of them is still with us.
Another famous Christmas (technically Advent) song goes back even further, all the way back to the 700s – not the 1700s but the 700s! Its author is long gone, and it is so old that we don’t even know who wrote it! The hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel to our knowledge was originally written in Latin and was used in a call and response fashion during the vespers, or evening, service in worship. Eventually, it was translated into English by John M. Neale in 1851 and that is the version we know. (If you’d like to read a bit more of its history, click here.)
The point I want to make is that regardless of who writes a song or who sings a song, it can go on literally for centuries, impacting innumerable lives. But most important of all is the fact that Christmas did not begin with snow or jolly old Saint Nick, it began with the birth of Jesus over 2000 years ago!
And, truth be told, though He lived amongst us so long ago, and yes, He died as well, but the difference is, He did not remain in the grave. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, rose from the dead on the third day, conquering sin and death. And because of His victory, we too can conquer sin and death, as we live in obedience to Him.
Know that as we once again enter this time of remembering Jesus’ birth that death, though it is all around us, does not have the final word! God Himself saw to that!
[Christ] has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:26-28 NIV
A beautiful rendition of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel for you to enjoy.
Nov 29th, 2020, Sun, 9:51 pm
Choose Wisely
I day for giving of thanks, Father. Were we of a mind to make it not just this fourth Thursday of November but every day as we think of You and the blessings which You richly pour out on each of us. May we not forget.
Luke 21:34-38 (<<click here to read the passage)
Though I don’t watch a whole lot of them, I do enjoy movies. Adventure movies pique my interest. In a few of them, characters die rather than let go of what they have strived so long to obtain. It usually is some great treasure to which they have gone to great lengths to finally hold in their hands. And in the end, they must relinquish their hold on their treasure or perish with it.
One film of fiction that stands out in my mind is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. At the end of the movie a leading female character, finally holds in her hands the chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper. She tries to leave with the treasure causing the structure in which they find themselves to begin collapsing around them. When the grail falls into a chasm in the floor, she plummets to her death trying to recover it. She dies solely because of her obsession.
As Jesus wraps up His discourse on what the last days of earth will consist of, He proclaims,
…be on guard, so that your hearts are not weighed down and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of self-indulgence and the worldly worries of life… v34 AMP
Here’s a little expansion of our understanding of a few words in this passage,
Depressed – unhappy, miserable, despondent
Giddiness – frivolous
Debauchery – excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures
In our lives today many are delusional, seeking some sort of happiness and fulfillment no matter what path it takes them down. They frivolously immerse themselves in all kinds of sensual pleasures – you name it, they’ve tried it! – to lay hold of the elusive treasure which the seek…but to no avail. And unfortunately, many lose everything in the process, their livelihoods, their families, their sanity…even their lives. All in the pursuit of that one great reward.
We all have a choice to make. A reward beyond our wildest dreams is easily within our reach but we stubbornly wish to seek it on our own and reject what will truly bring fulfillment and eternal satisfaction.
Jesus has paid the price…with His very life’s blood. It cost Him everything, but it costs us nothing but giving ourselves over to Him. We each have but one life to live.
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:27-28 NLT
The question we all must answer – for it is no one else’s responsibility to do so, we each must answer for ourselves – we must decide if we will follow Jesus…or not.
We cannot wait with the hope of squeaking in at the end for we must not let it come on us suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who live on the face of all the earth. But keep alert at all times [be attentive and ready], praying that you may have the strength and ability [to be found worthy and] to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man [at His coming].” vs35-36 AMP
Don’t delay, choose wisely…
Nov 26th, 2020, Thurs, 6:48 pm
Now Thank We All Our God
This year we continue to experience things totally foreign to the norm but through all the ups and downs, through the victories and loss, God has not left our side. In the midst of it all, we can be grateful for a Father who cares enough, not just to hold our hands here in this life, but enough to prepare for us hope beyond it.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 AMP
The text in the picture for today is the opening verse of the old hymn Now Thank We All Our God, a beautiful hymn regularly sung at this time of year. I thought this was going to be an orchestral rendition, then I thought a choir was going to sit the hymn but boy was I surprised! Enjoy!
Nov 25th, 2020, Wed, 2:27 pm