Praise to the Father

If the idea of God the Son praying to God the Father gives you pause, so will the realization that God the Son praised God the Father.

On the return of the seventy(-two) evangelists, Jesus is joyful at their report:

"At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." ~ Luke 10:21-22

Jesus praised God for making a relationship with Him so simple that a child could understand - but that those who would complicate it could not. That filled the Son with joy through the Holy Spirit.

Shouldn't those who know the Father and Son praise God with joy through the Holy Spirit, too?

Two Masters

Money is getting tight, and most of us find ourselves getting tighter with it. In this summary to the perplexing tale of the shrewd financial planner, Jesus explains that trust is the key to interpreting it:

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." ~ Luke 16:10-13

In which do we put our trust?

No Needy Among Them

05/29/2008 - "Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. " ~ Acts 2:45

"There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." ~ Acts 4:34-35

These followers in the aborning church took Jesus seriously when He said:

"Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys." ~ Luke 12:33

Everything All At Once

05/28/2008 - That's what was left behind when Jesus called some of His closest followers, and how it was abandoned - everything, and at all at once:

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him.
"Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him." ~ Matthew 4:18-20

"After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. 'Follow me,' Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him." ~ Luke 5:27-28

It was the same call made to a rich young man(Mark 10:21), to a man who wanted to bury his father (Luke 9:59), to someone who wanted to say goodbye to a family (Luke 9:61).

Some left everything that very moment and followed. Some didn't.

Does He make the same call to us, in the same way, with the same requirements implicit in it?

Is it the part about leaving everything behind that makes us hesitant to follow Him the way some did?

Or the part about doing it right now?

Or both?

To Know Christ

05/27/2008 - It is in the context of refuting circumcision and checking off laws kept that Paul says:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." ~ Philippians 3:10-11

In any context, though, he states a worthy goal and ambition and hope. Still, he recognizes that it is not enough to know Christ and the power of his resurrection without knowing also the "fellowship of sharing in his sufferings."

If we share in His, will He not share in ours?

Lament As Worship

05/23/2008 - Lament is not often a part of our gathered worship - except when we gather for the memorial services of those we love - but it has a legitimate place in our worship, public or private.

The book of Lamentations mourns the exile of Israel and the overturning of Jerusalem with deep passion and a sense of irretrievable loss. In the middle of the collection of recorded sorrows, like a flower in the desert, are these lines of dependence on God's mercy:

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

"They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

"I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'

"The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." ~ Lamentations 3:21-26

Following - The When and The Where

05/22/2008 - "Peter asked, 'Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.' " ~ John 13:37

" 'I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.' Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, 'Follow me!' "" ~ John 21:18-19

Much has been said about Peter's impetuous zeal to follow Jesus. Yet he seemed to know what the cost would be - his life. And though he may have denied knowing Jesus three times as predicted, he may well have been in closer proximity to his Lord than any of the others who followed. Jesus, returning in resurrected form, meets Peter on the shore with another prediction.

If we knew what was ahead for us, would we still follow?

Even at a distance?

Enjoying the Favor

05/21/2008 - We live in a time when Christians are not well-perceived. It hasn't always been that way, even within the lifetimes of most of us.

At the time described by Acts 2, followers of Christ are described as "enjoying the favor of all the people."

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

What practices contributed to their good reputation then?

Would they help now?

Feeding the Hungry

05/20/2008 - "Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.' " ~ Matthew 15:32

Three days.

Had the crowds been out in the wild, away from their cities and homes and jobs, for three days while He taught them? Was it the kind of encampment that Restoration churches picture at Cane Ridge, Kentucky? Had they exhausted the food that they had brought, hungering so much to hear His words that they were willing to put up with a little growling in their stomachs?

We don't know. But the possibility does cast doubt on the idea proposed by - and with all due respect to the intentions of - folks like former minister Barbara Brown Taylor or Frank Cottrell Boyce, scriptwriter of the movie Millions: that the "real" miracle may have been that Jesus persuaded the crowds to share what they had brought and hidden away in folds of their cloaks for themselves. He did say, "...they have nothing to eat." And He was rarely wrong about such matters.

What we know for certain is that Jesus cares for people in the here and now, as well as in the hereafter. He shared the words, the bread that brings life here and to come, but He also shared the bread and fish that sustain it now.

Else He would not have placed such a priority on feeding them by the five thousands or the four thousands or as an instruction to His followers in Matthew 25.

An Important Request

05/19/2008 - "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.' " ~ Luke 11:1

Luke begins his account of Jesus teaching His followers what we call "The Lord's Prayer" with their simple request. We have the prayer they asked for as an example, and while it has value as a prayer that gathered worshipers can repeat in unison, the principles of prayer within it have perhaps more value to the individual worshiper.

In Luke's record, Jesus tells a story recommending persistence in prayer, and another that points out the Father's love in giving gifts to those who ask - especially those who ask for His Holy Spirit (v. 13).

For at the times when words fail and principles of prayer have temporarily lost their meaning " ... the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." ~ Romans 8:26

Ask

05/18/2008 - Jesus' followers asked a lot of questions.

"The disciples came to him and asked, 'Why do you speak to the people in parables?' " ~ Matthew 13:10

"Then the disciples came to him and asked, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this' " ~ Matthew 15:12

"His disciples answered, 'Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?' " ~ Matthew 15:33

"The disciples asked him, 'Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?' " ~ Matthew 17:10

"Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, 'Why couldn't we drive it out?' " ~ Matthew 17:19

He may have been frustrated with them sometimes (Matthew 17:17), but if He hadn't wanted them to ask, He wouldn't have told them to (Matthew 7:7-8; 21:22; Luke 11:9-13).

As followers, we should ask. It's part of our job description.

No Longer Following

05/17/2008 - It sounded like He was advocating cannibalism. What Jesus had just said was so unexpected, so repulsive in its seemingly literal meaning, that ...

"On hearing it, many of his disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?'
"Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, 'Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.'
"From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." ~ John 6:61-66

Was it literal? Was it hyperbole, exaggeration, symbolism, prophecy, a foreshadowing? They could not have known about a Lord's Supper before He began it. Did He mean to pique their interest so that they would follow Him to learn His meaning? Did He mean to winnow out the ones who could only see reality in literal terms?

He seems to have been angry that some had demanded a sign like manna though He had just fed five thousand; that they grumbled as He sought to explain that He was the true Bread from heaven, the One that gives life without end. So He turned to the ones closest to Him:

" 'You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve.
"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.' " ~ John 6:67-70

So they kept following.

Even though He said one of them was a devil.

Do we abandon Him when His manner seems harsh or His words abstruse, hard to understand?

Jesus Called Them ... Two by Two

05/16/2008 - The children's Bible School song notwithstanding - "Jesus called them one by one ..." that's what Mark's gospel seems to indicate, at least for the first few disciples.

"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him.

"When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. ~ Mark 1:16-20

Perhaps He recalled His Father's wisdom in the garden that it was not good for man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18) Perhaps He recalled the wisdom of the law, that the credibility of every matter must be established by two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 19:15) Perhaps He recalled the wisdom of the Preacher that two have a better return for their work. (Ecclesiastes 4:9) Whatever the source of the wisdom, He chose them by twos - and sent them out by twos (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1)

Perhaps we should call on that wisdom as well - and work together when seeking to help build His kingdom in this world.

The Toll on the Narrow Way Road

05/15/2008 - Jesus was not evasive about the costs of pursuing a life of worship - not to a would-be follower; not even to one who was already following Him.

"When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, 'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.'
"Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.'

"Another disciple said to him, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father.'

"But Jesus told him, 'Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.' " ~ Matthew 8:18-22

Nor was He any less harsh in winnowing out huge numbers of people who sought to follow Him:

"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.' " ~ Luke 14:25-27

There is a cost to following Jesus.

And it isn't cheap.

The Harvest is Plentiful

05/14/2008 - In our labor to serve the Lord, to tell His Story and draw souls closer to Him, it's easy to become discouraged when there aren't immediate results, or when we can't see them, or when we realize how huge the task before us is. We'd do well, in our moments of public and private worship, to remember the words of encouragement that Jesus shared with His followers:

"Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.' " ~ Matthew 9:37-38

Do we ask?

They Went and Did

05/13/2008 - It's a short sentence, a short verse among many others. But it contains a principle you see over and over again in the gospels and the book of the Acts of the Apostles:

"The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. " ~ Matthew 21:6

When He sent them off with many instructions by twos by the dozen or six dozen, they went and did what He asked. (Luke 9:6)

When He sent them with simple instructions to prepare the Passover, they did exactly as he asked. (Matthew 26:19)

After He died and returned briefly to encourage them and give them their last set of instructions, they went into all the world and preached the gospel (Acts 8:4), even if it took tough times and persecution to scatter them from the infectious joy of the inbreaking kingdom in Jerusalem.

Even Judas went and did quickly what he had resolved to do and was told to do quickly (John 13:27-30.

Whatever He asked, no matter how strange or precognitive, they went and did.

It became the definition of "disciple."

Whatever You Do

05/12/2008 - While decrying the practice of feasting at the table of man-made "gods," Paul the apostle nevertheless will not legislate a combative attitude toward pagans who might invite Christians to dinner or sell them food in the market that might offend their conscience - nor will he legislate a fast from dining with pagans. He asks pointedly, "Why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?" and recommends eating with thankfulness and a clear conscience:

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." ~ 1 Corinthians 10:31

Embedded in this specific advice is a larger principle found scattered throughout early Christian writings: "... whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

It is both a license to be obedient and a law to be free to put God's glory first in everything we do.

The Mothering Nature of Jesus

05/11/2008 - On perhaps two different occasions - or on one told differently by two authors - Jesus displays a hint of His Father's motherly nature, brooding prophetically over the holy city's refusal of Him in these words:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" ~ Luke 13:34; Matthew 23:37

It is with that same protective instinct He watches over God's children now, and for His protection we should always be grateful.

The Mothering Nature of God

05/10/2008 - We call God our Father in our prayers and our private meditations, but we don't often think of Him in "motherly" terms. Yet, that is exactly how God chooses to express His tender affection and compassion toward His children when Isaiah speaks for Him in chapter 66:

"For this is what the Lord says: 'I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you, and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.' " ~ Isaiah 66:12, 13

In another setting, Isaiah's words reassure Israel that God has not forsaken her:

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?Though she may forget, I will not forget you!" ~ Isaiah 49:15

As we approach Mother's Day, it would be worth a moment of our time to praise God for the motherly aspects of His vast heart.

More Rules Taught By Men

05/09/2008 - The openness of our hearts to God and His Word is directly related to the depth of our worship:

"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.' " ~ Isaiah 29:13 (quoted by Jesus in Matt. 15:9, Mark 7:7)

Rules for worship devised and taught by men have no real power to draw us closer to God's heart – but His Word shares what will bring us closer.

A Complicated Relationship

05/08/2008 - Our relationship with God is complicated. While it can be intimate as a parent's relationship with a child, there is also a sense in which God's holiness inspires an awe and a kind of distance that patriarchs respected - and that the Lord commanded:

"Then he said to Moses, 'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.' "

So it might be wise to be wary of trying to establish a relationship with God that is too "chummy;" too informal; too casual. He is worthy of our praise. And He longs to draw us close to His heart.

The House of the Lord Forever

05/07/2008 - David wasn't the only person to speak of dwelling in the house of the Lord forever ... the same was said of the man who anointed him king of Israel, Samuel. Samuel's mother Hannah had prayed to the Lord to give her a son, and when He did, she gave him right back:

When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always. "

"Do what seems best to you, " Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

Worship from the Heart of a Worthy Woman

05/06/2008 - At what must have been a perplexing time in her life, Jesus' mother-to-be praises God, realizing the magnitude of the blessing bestowed on her:

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name." ~ Luke 1:46-49

If we perceived the magnitude of the blessings God has given us, would we be more likely to sing our own Magnificat?

The God Who Knows Us

05/05/2008 - David, king of Israel, seemed to know how well he was known by his Creator when he wrote the 139th Psalm:

'O LORD, you have searched me
  and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
  you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
  you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
  you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before;
  you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
  too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
  Where can I flee from your presence?' ~ Psalm 139:1-7

Surely an inescapable God who knows His children so intimately and loves them so deeply deserves our praise, David reasons - and he declares his loyalty; his fealty to his God.

And he asks God to lead his life.

Why We Do What We Do

05/04/2008 - A children's song answers that in simple words – "because He first loved me." The first epistle of John's fourth chapter elaborates. And many of David's psalms speak of God's love for us long before He made it complete in Christ – and of the motivation behind our worship:

"I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word." ~ Psalm 138:2

" ... for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth." ~ Psalm 23:26

"Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies." ~ Psalm 36:5

"I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise." ~ Psalm 101:1

Rules Taught by Men

05/03/2008 - Rules for worship or service to God, devised and taught by men, have no real power to draw us closer to God’s heart – but His Word shares what will bring us closer. The openness of our hearts to God and His Word is directly related to the depth of our worship:

"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.' " ~ Isaiah 29:13 (quoted by Jesus in Matt. 15:9, Mark 7:7)

Heaven

05/02/2008 - We sing a fair amount about heaven. We used to sing about it a lot more than we do now: Beautiful Isle of Somewhere. Beulah Land. Beyond This Land of Parting. Home of the Soul. Mansion Over the Hilltop. No Tears in Heaven. Sing to Me of Heaven. There is a Habitation. This World is Not My Home. To Canaan’s Land I’m On My Way. When We All Get to Heaven.

But it's a place that - even in the lyrical poetry of a hymn or the Revelation to John - is really hard to describe.

Jesus' words in John 14 were simple:

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." ~ John 14:1-4

He shared no physical descriptions: Just a house with many rooms. A place for us. And preceding it, a simple instruction:

"Trust in God. Trust also in me."

Justice and Worship

05/01/2008 - Civil rights attorney Fred Gray wrote in his autobiographical book Bus Ride to Justice this summary of the change brought about by the Rosa Parks case in which he was involved in 1955-56:

"One could say that Mrs. Parks' refusal to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus created an ever-widening ripple of change throughout the world ... A pebble case in the segregated waters of Montgomery, Alabama created a human rights tidal wave that changed America and eventually washed up on the shores of such faraway places as the Bahamas, China, South Africa, and the Soviet Union. And it all started on a bus."

God's prophet Amos made it clear that He does not hear our worship if we do not practice justice that rolls like a river … or like a bus where there are no seats denied:

"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. ... Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" ~ Amos 5:21; 23-24