Not a Crutch!
I so enjoyed our services this morning, Lord! I am not surprised in the least, but I prayed for Your presence to be amongst us and You showed up! Praise Your name that You are with us individually and corporately!
Mark 8:34-38 (<<click to read the passage)
It is interesting how culture sees those who whole-heartedly follow Jesus. One perception is that we are weak and malleable. They see us as individuals needing a crutch, if you will, to get through the many struggles of life.
Opponents to Jesus often see themselves as being self-reliant and independent of anyone else’s assistance. They are strong in-and-of themselves. They can take care of themselves. They don’t need God or any of His trappings!
First of all, one blanket statement. That is flat out a lie of the devil! We need others and, most importantly, we need God. When it comes down to the reality of our lives, we are weak and incapable of taking care of ourselves. Much to our frustration, we are most definitely not infallible.
But what of this weakness of which we are accused? Jesus very clearly proclaimed in Matthew 8:35,
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Right off the bat, it is extremely difficult to “give up our own way”. We want what we want when we want it and we will not be denied! “I will do it myself!” (Emphasized by a firmly stomped foot!) Just try convincing a young child or an aging parent otherwise and you will see a keen example of what I mean!
And, as I’ve stated before, we really have a very poor understanding of what it means to “take up our cross”. A footnote referencing Matthew 10:38 from the Amplified Bible brings some clarity to taking up our cross.
“The historical background behind this statement is that those who were about to be crucified had to carry the crossbeam to which they would be nailed or bound. In addition to the terrible agony that crucifixion inflicted, it was such a great indignity that some of the Roman writers used the word cross as a curse word in the expression “Go to a bad cross!” (Latin i in malam crucem).”
Jesus is talking about a horrifyingly brutal form of public execution that, He personally, was going to go through…and die from. He was most definitely not malleable. He was not weak. And if we truly take up our cross and follow Him with all that it means in our culture, neither are we.
To truly seek to follow in the footsteps of Jesus is hard work. It requires daily discipline to accomplish that feat! Any honest believer will make it abundantly clear that we fall…we fail…but as with pursuing anything worthwhile, we push forward. We do not give up. And Jesus is there through it all. Giving of Himself. Lifting us up. Interceding on our behalf… because only in Him, and His strength and in His love can we be the overcomers of this world that He knows we can be! We are strong in Him!
May 12th, 2019, Sun, 7:16 pm
Leaves of Three, Leave Them Be!
Father, it is much later than normal but things for worship Sunday are much further along and an outside chore that needed to be done is complete. Then this evening was some quality family time. I know that it makes no difference when I come to sit with You for You are already here.
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Karen and I have now put out two truck loads of mulch around our home. It has been a job and a half and we are not quite done. In the midst of weeding out our flower beds, I have come across a couple of areas in which I found a plant growing the I do my best to avoid – poison ivy! Karen doesn’t react to it at all but I sure do!
I remember when I was in high school there was a lot behind our home that in the summertime was covered with miles of poison ivy vines. Well, one winter I decided to clear the lot and began yanking up the vines by the handful, thinking no leaves, no reaction. And that is when I learned that the leaves are not the primary source of the poison. (I had such a bad reaction that I had to get a shot!) The oily sap in the vines and the leaves is what we react to. And speaking for myself, it is nothing to mess with and I avoid it at all costs!
A couple of points here. When you pull up poison ivy, you must get all of it pulled up or it will come back – hence the return of it to our flower beds. Also, one thing that I have learned is that the oil from the plant is very much like grease that you would find on engines it doesn’t just wash off with a little soap and water.
Poison ivy is a lot like sin. One area they are not alike is that every single one of us has a reaction to sin. The wages of poison ivy is an itchy rash. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) Pick up a little spot of sin and not have God deal with it and you are going to have to deal with the results.
In the final hours of Jesus’ life, Pontius Pilot, the Roman governor of Judea, thought he could wash his hands of his final judgment condemning Jesus to death. His sin could not so easily be washed away. It was a stain that only the Man sent to be executed could eradicate.
All in all, and I’m not just speaking for myself but all of us, sin is nothing to mess with and every one of us should avoid it at all costs! We see a little three-leafed vine and we turn the other way. We see sin’s enticements and far too often we grab handfuls of it – we can’t seem to get enough! But we will pay… Only our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ can remove it.
Lord Jesus, help us to not be lured into what looks so appealing – it all leads to death. May we come to You anytime we come across anything that even resembles sin so that You can take care of it for You are the only one who can. Amen.
May 9th, 2019, Thurs, 9:14 pm
Stop! Wait! What?!
It’s a glorious day, Father! I try to be grateful for each day You so graciously give me but days like this lend themselves so well to praise!
Mark 8:31-33 (<<click to read the passage)
I truly feel that if I had been a disciple of Jesus that this would have the chain of events,
Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed… v31a
That’s it.
Whoa…whoa! Stop! Wait! What?!
Isn’t that what we all would have heard? Nothing else after “killed” would have even registered! At this point in time, after roughly three years with this vibrant young prophet leading them, this would have been the absolute last thing they would have expected to hear Him say.
It would be like slamming on your brakes because something had run out in front of your car! At that moment, nothing else would have mattered! They had to realize that Jesus’ relationship with the religious leaders of the Jewish faith was tense and extremely uncomfortable for them but killed!
They couldn’t do that! They had no right! Jesus had done nothing wrong…except to put the windbags in their place! He had touched so many lives! He had shown love in so many situations where rejection would have been the only reasonable reaction! He had healed hundreds…thousands even! They won’t get away with it!
Would we have thought any less? No. Our defenses would have been up in a heartbeat! This. Would. Not. Happen. Period!
…but it would… …it had to….
Lord Jesus, as I write tears are welling up in my eyes… Your sacrifice had to take place, for without it I would be lost. I would have been damned to eternal separation from You. Just thanking You is too paltry for what You did. The least I can do – and it is as I have done for many years – is to give myself daily over to You. All blessing and honor and praise to You, my Lord and Savior!
May 8th, 2019, Wed, 1:06 pm
Fragrance Purveyor
Father, now that I’ve worked some on Sunday’s sermon, my mind is settled enough to sit down with You for a while. Bless our time together, may I hear clearly what You have for me today.
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Smells communicate a lot of information. I think I have a pretty sensitive nose, my family laughs at me but at just the right point in summer I can smell corn growing! (It really does have a scent!)
Anyway, one thing I have noticed on my bus route is that many kids have an odor about them when they get on my bus. It’s not usually a hygiene problem. Often, I can smell the lingering scent of smoke. It’s a good chance the family heats with wood and maybe their coats dry out by the stove. Other times I catch a whiff of masterfully applied cologne or freshly washed hair. Whatever the scent may be, it follows right along with them.
Thinking along those lines makes me think of 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 (ESV)
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
So, what scent follows me? Do I carry Your scent with me? Lord, does the smell of Your presence in my life waft about in the situations of life in which I find myself? Do I cast for all to “smell” Your “sweet fragrance” (AMP) or do I bring tears to the eyes of others that smell the rancidness of my bad attitudes, selfishness, and bitterness?
Lord Jesus, help me to fill myself with You at the beginning of each day so that Your aroma will permeate every conversation, that I will impact others with whom my path may cross. May I be a purveyor of Your fragrance for all. Amen.
May 8th, 2019, Tue, 12:44 pm
All or Nothing
I am grateful, Father, for a day of clear skies and warm temperatures. I realize the world is all discombobulated but life in You is like the eye of the storm. You bring a deep settled peace in the midst of the chaos. I am Yours and You are mine – there is no better place to be.
Mark 8:27-30 (<<click to read the passage)
The problem Jesus had with His disciples telling others about who He was is that they really didn’t know who He was. Yes, He was the Messiah – the Christ, the Anointed One.
I’ve written before about the common misconceptions of who the people of Jesus’ time thought the Messiah would be –a conquering, politically based leader. The whole spiritual aspect was probably just somewhere on their backburners.
But more importantly, was the fact that the disciples wouldn’t really get the full picture of who Jesus was until His death and resurrection were a part of their mindsets.
So here’s the question for us, is it possible for us to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah but to not really understand what that means? I believe that part of our problem today is that many can’t accept who Jesus is in His totality. We have this “pick and choose” mentality.
“I like this portion of who I believe Jesus to be but that part…uh, that part makes me feel uncomfortable.”
“I can accept the areas of Jesus’ teaching and lifestyle that fit my mindsets and lifestyle but the rest of it just doesn’t gel with who I am.”
We absolutely cannot accept Christ on our terms! It is literally an all or nothing deal. Oh, He has unfathomable patience with us as we deal with it all but to truly be His disciple we have to embracing Him in His entirety. Doing it any other way is making Jesus a god in our image.
May 6th, 2019, Mon, 5:09 pm