Seeking the Life in Christ: June 2024

Friday, June 28, 2024

The First Sign

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 28, 2024

The First Sign

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

John 2:11

Responsive listening is one of the most effective ways to study the Bible. Read the scripture passage aloud and then focus on the word, sentence or phrase that caught your attention. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you as you ponder what God is showing you and perhaps what God wants you to do in response to what you are seeing in the scriptures. The Gospel of John is a great place to practice this technique because there is so very much to ponder in this Gospel.

In John’s Gospel, the signs or miracles Jesus performs are heaven and earth coming together in the person of Jesus. How do you see heaven and earth coming together in Jesus transforming the water into wine at the wedding in Cana? As an excellent teacher, John gives his readers much to ponder. As an example, Jesus’ mother is only mentioned twice in this Gospel: at the wedding and at the crucifixion. Why was that detail important in the way John told his story? Also, John begins Chapter 2 and the story of the wedding in Cana by saying, “On the third day . . .” Why does John tell us this? Why was that significant? Are we supposed to see a connection between verse one and nineteen? (“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19)) Something to ponder.

There is much to ponder from the details of Jesus’ visit to Cana. I believe the miracle at the wedding in Cana helps us see signs of the Messiah in the ordinary flow of our life. Fourteen years ago, when Cheryl and I went to the Holy Land, we renewed our wedding vows in a chapel in Cana. In our married life together, a life we describe as living in the F O G, the Favor of God, we see signs everyday of God’s favor and blessing.

My Takeaway: What’s on your agenda for today? Will you ask the Holy Spirit to help you be open and receptive to the signs of the Messiah in your life?

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life. The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

The First Disciples (Part Two)

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 27, 2024

The First Disciples (Part Two)

Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

John 1:49

In my meditation on June 24, 2024, The Testimony of John the Baptist, I noted that John the Baptist modeled for all of us the importance of living our lives within the role God has designated for us, and that while I should not think more highly of myself than I ought to, neither shall I think I am insignificant in God’s grand plan of redemption. The disciple Nathanael exemplifies this. He is only mentioned in John’s Gospel and only in this brief passage. (John 1:45-51, other than an incidental reference to his hometown of Cana in Chapter 21.) Yet it is his conversation with Jesus that completes the foundation of John’s Gospel.

When Jesus engaged Nathanael in conversation, he made a reference to Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28. Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder extending to heaven with angels coming and going on the ladder. He named the place where he had the dream, Bethel, which means House of God. Later, Bethel would become the site of a great sanctuary for God’s people. This belief that God comes to meet his people in worship, to interact with them, finds its fulfillment in the Jews’ understanding of the Temple where God’s presence dwelled. Jesus is telling Nathanael that the miracles he will witness are evidence that Jesus is the new Temple and God’s presence is within Jesus.

Jesus is saying that when you are with him, you are in God’s house. God’s presence is with you. Can you envision a sanctuary where all the disciples of Jesus have an awareness of God’s presence within them for their corporate worship time together? John, in the Book of Revelation, describes such a time as the saints of God gathering around God’s throne. However, as we continue in our journey through John’s Gospel, we will see that John doesn’t think we have to wait until we get to heaven to have this experience of God’s presence as we worship. We may have it every Sunday because the scriptures do say that God inhabits the praises of His people! (Psalm 22:3)

My Takeaway: God is in Jesus. As the followers of Jesus, we know that Christ is in us. Therefore, today we don’t have to wait for a corporate worship service to experience the truth of God’s presence. Our prayer closet is like Bethel, the House of God, as we sit quietly in the presence of God.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

The First Disciples (Part One)

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 26, 2024

The First Disciples (Part One)

“Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

John 1:38

John the Baptist established the mission of Jesus when he said, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). In the Gospel of John, we learn that as the Old Testament Passover lamb was sacrificed for the sins of an individual, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed for the sins of the world.

John the Baptist had pointed to Jesus, and his followers began to follow Jesus. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother is one of the first to follow Jesus. Most likely the other disciple with Andrew, the one who is not named, is the author of this Gospel, John the brother of James. I find Andrew’s meeting with Jesus to be quite compelling in two ways. First is their initial encounter: “Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” (John 1:38). Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist because he was looking for the Messiah. When John identified Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew knew he had found the Messiah. I love the way Andrew responded to Jesus’ question: “Rabbi where are you staying?” Andrew didn’t want to just know about Jesus, he wanted to know him.

Secondly, after being with Jesus, Andrew went and found his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Andrew is an outstanding role model for us. When we seek to fully embrace Christ, to have Jesus fully formed within us, the first fruits of our encounter with Jesus will be a desire to share him with others.

As these new disciples sought after Jesus, they find Jesus was seeking after them. I am reminded of the promise of God in James 4:8, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

My Takeaway: I’m thinking this morning of my meditation of June 14, 2024, on these words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. As we keep seeking to make the life in Christ our way of life, let us remember always these words: “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Jesus, the Lamb of God

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 25, 2024

Jesus, the Lamb of God

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1: 29

John the Baptist proclaimed the mission of Jesus the Messiah, and that mission was much more far reaching than the people listening to John expected. Simply put, John’s listeners expected three things from the Messiah: first, he would save Israel from Roman occupation, secondly, he would purify the Temple so the presence of God would return, and third, he would establish the righteous reign of the Messiah King.

John said the Messiah’s mission was substantially more pervasive than that: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus’ mission was not restricted to Israel’s oppression by the Roman army; Jesus came as God’s Passover Lamb for the entire world to end the oppression of sin. In this Gospel, John the Apostle portrays the work of the Messiah as a new exodus. In the first exodus, God saved Israel from the oppression of Egypt’s Pharaoh. In the new exodus, God saves the entire world from the oppression of sin.

The religious people in Israel had a hard time embracing the mission of Jesus, the Messiah as proclaimed by John the Baptist, and as proclaimed by Jesus himself.

However, those whose hearts resonated when hearing the words of Jesus -- “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” -- embraced the mission of Jesus with joy.

My Takeaway: They still do.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 24, 2024

The Testimony of John the Baptist

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 24, 2024

The Testimony of John the Baptist

“I am a voice shouting in the wilderness,

‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’”

John 1:23 (Isaiah 40:3)

In Biblical times, the nation of Israel lived in anticipation of God doing something mighty to save His people. When the religious leaders heard about a strange man preaching in the wilderness, they were anxious to learn more about him. Was he just another messianic pretender, was he a new prophet of God, was he a former prophet sent back by God? John made it clear to the religious leaders that he was none of those; he had been called by God to announce the arrival of God’s Messiah.

In his encounter with the religious leaders, John the Baptist quotes Isaiah 40. It will be worth your time to take a few minutes to read that chapter. When you do you will discover a treasure trove because, “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

John models for all of us the importance of living our lives within the role God has designated for us, or as Paul put it, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). Note that the opposite inference is just as important. While I should not think more highly of myself than I ought to, neither shall I think I am insignificant in God’s grand plan of redemption. Therefore, “O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!”” (Isaiah 40:9).

My Takeaway: And when you shout, remember,

“He gives power to the weak

and strength to the powerless.

Even youths will become weak and tired,

and young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:29-31

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Friday, June 21, 2024

Christ, the Eternal Word

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John

June 21, 2024

Christ, the Eternal Word

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another

John 1:16

The Gospel of John presents the words and actions of Jesus and includes an interpretative meaning or theological significance of all that Jesus did and said. John is very clear about why he wrote the gospel: “that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name” (John 20:30).

John’s Gospel is almost evenly divided. The first eleven chapters include a series of six signs, that are written so “that you may continue to believe.” Chapters 12 - 21 present Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem, concluding in the seventh sign: the crucifixion and resurrection of The Messiah.

John begins his gospel with the same words the writer of the Book of Genesis used: “In the beginning.” John then describes the creative energy that God used to form the universe as God’s Word. For John, Word is not just words like we read in a book or hear a person speak. Word is the very essence of God. John tells us Jesus is God’s Word. He then concludes the opening passage by telling us that Jesus is God, and that Jesus has revealed God to us. John has us jumping into the deep end of the theological pool in the very first passage.

The crowning achievement of the creation story in Genesis is God’s creation of humankind. As John opens his Gospel, he tells us God’s crowning achievement continues to be His care and love for His people. John writes that when we believe in Jesus, we are given the right to become children of God. We are reborn with a birth that comes from God. “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another” (John 1:16).

My Takeaway: We have received grace upon grace! Yes, and Amen.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Becoming Fully Human

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 20, 2024

Becoming Fully Human

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise,

like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”

Matthew 7:24

Jesus’ last warning (Matthew 7:24-29) is an invitation to fulfill his charge made earlier in the sermon: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33). When we seek to embody within our lives the teaching of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, we become fully human, just as our divine master was fully human. Life lived without adhering to his principles is a sub-human life.

A life lived with a focus on greed, or the accumulation of power, or living only for pleasure will all collapse in time. In contrast, those who make seeking the life in Christ their way of life will experience the presence of Christ in their life today and will inherit the promise of eternal life, which is life in Christ uninterrupted by death.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying that ultimately, the only important thing in life is how we perceive God. If we perceive God as generous, gracious, loving, and faithful, we will then embrace the Gospel as truly Good News and joyfully enter the Kingdom of God. In our culture, so many people believe human life is nothing more than billions of years of evolution and survival of the fittest. Such a worldview hardly motivates people to get out of their comfort zone and live self-sacrificial lives.

My Takeaway: Over and against this reality of present-day life, Jesus is saying that if I choose to live under the reign of my generous, gracious, loving and faithful God, my mission is to live my life as salt and light for those for whom the love of God is still a stranger.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Christ-Like Fruit

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 19, 2024

Christ-Like Fruit

Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit,

so you can identify people by their actions.

Matthew 7:20

Jesus’ second warning concerns church leaders. (Matthew 7:15-23) However, the standard which Jesus applied to judging church leaders is a standard we can apply to all leaders, secular and church alike.

Jesus alerts us that the task of evaluating our leaders can be difficult because often they are disguised in sheep’s clothing; often they speak and act in ways that seem authentically committed to building for God’s Kingdom. But what may be missing from their life is a commitment “to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead” (Philippians 3:10). Repeatedly, the writers of the New Testament make clear God’s goal to form Christ within us. As our lives are transformed to become like Christ, our lives will produce the fruit of Kingdom life. Most notable among Kingdom fruit is the fruit of the self-sacrificial life: “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42).

Jesus includes this teaching in the Sermon on the Mount because it is the responsibility of every one of his disciples to hold our leaders, both within the church and within our societies to a Godly standard of leadership. However, before we start launching an assault on our political leaders, let us remember what we learned in the meditation, Jesus, On Self-Righteousness (June 13, 2024), and before we jump into the fray, first do a gut-check: how is it with our soul? Next, let us first hold our church leaders accountable for their submission to Christ and the fruit of their lives before we take aim at other leaders.

My Takeaway: Do you see? Being a disciple is hard work; it takes time, wisdom, and our own inner development. Hence, Jesus said the road is hard and the gate narrow.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Enter Through the Narrow Gate

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 18, 2024

Enter Through the Narrow Gate

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14 (NRSV)

Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount by giving three warnings, Matthew 7:13-29, which we will consider in three meditations. The first warning is about gates, which was a very easy metaphor for his listeners to grasp. Cites had multiple entrance gates, and the gates, and the roads leading to them, varied greatly. When we think of some of our descriptions of God’s Kingdom, such as peace, joy, hope and forgiveness, it is easy to picture the road not as hard, but as expansive, inclusive, and beautiful. While these attributes certainly speak to the heart of God’s Kingdom, Jesus is alerting us here to the reality of the difficult choices necessary for us to follow him into the Kingdom.

Remember the blessings in Jesus’ introduction to his Sermon on the Mount: the beatitudes. These blessings are not for the casual passerby; rather, they paint a picture of fully devoted disciples. When I read the beatitudes, I immediately think of the comment made by G.K. Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” After the beatitudes, before Matthew finished chapter five, Jesus taught on anger, adultery, divorce, vows, revenge, and love for enemies. Many would be disciples of Jesus, seeking the wide road to the Kingdom, found these teachings difficult and left them untried. Read on, the road becomes more narrow and harder in chapters six and seven.

My Takeaway: Even so, for you lovers of Jesus, despair not. Remember, it is God who is at work within you, and things impossible for us are possible for God. As followers of Jesus, we commit our way to the hard road and narrow gate with this promise ringing in our ears:

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

Philippians 1:6

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 17, 2024

Our Practice of The Golden Rule

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 17, 2024

Our Practice of The Golden Rule

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12

Jesus said the essence of all of God’s law and the teaching of the prophets is, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” Wow! That’s quite a statement. It only seems like such a radical assertion when the Golden Rule is taken out of the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount. When we keep it in the Sermon, we then recall how Jesus took the prevailing norms of his culture and turned them upside down. He gave his followers a new perspective, a new way to pray and new ways to live in right relationships with God and their neighbors. When we put into practice all that Jesus teaches us, then what we do unto others, and what we want others to do unto us, reflect Kingdom values.

Jesus removes any doubt about the application of the Golden Rule when later in Matthew’s Gospel he again distills God’s law and the teaching of the prophets: “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

My Takeaway: How may Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and about the greatest commandments, inform our practice of the Golden Rule? If today we are seeking “the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6), which is to live in the reality of God’s grace and mercy for us, how can we offer grace and mercy for our neighbors as an expression of the Golden Rule?

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Friday, June 14, 2024

How Much More

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 14, 2024

How Much More

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

Matthew 7:7

Jesus teaches us here that God wants our prayers to be bold, adventuresome, and flowing from our heart. Our prayers are not judged on whether we get the words, doctrine, or theology right. Our prayers are not judged good because we rightly understand our own needs, or what is best for us. We don’t need to understand our own needs because “(our) Father knows exactly what (we) need even before (we) ask him!” (Matthew 6:8).

Jesus is telling us to just ‘ask’ God! With childlike trust in God, just ask your Abba; tell Him what is in your heart and trust Him to sort out your prayers. There will be times when you are not able to articulate what you are feeling. In those times, Jesus says we are to seek God. That doesn’t mean God is hiding; rather, this is an invitation to explore different types of prayer such as centering prayer, contemplative prayer, or fasting prayer. With persistence we keep at it until God’s peace gives us the assurance we are in His grasp. Then there are other times when we are desperate. Articulating our prayers is not an issue. Neither do we need to seek to find God; we know where He is. What we need is help, and we need it now! In those times, Jesus says Heaven awaits our holy boldness. Jesus assures us that when we bang on the doors of heaven, the Heavenly doors will be opened for us.

Jesus is teaching us about “the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6). To emphasize the wonder of our right-standing relationship with God, Jesus introduces a wonderful phrase at the end of this passage: “how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11b Emphasis mine). Here, near the end of the first half of this year, it is a good time to pause and ask ourselves, “How is it going with my life?” Where are the places in my life where I can heed Jesus’ invitation to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking?

My Takeaway: And, as I keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, I do so with an expectant heart believing how much more God wants to bless me.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Jesus, On Self-Righteousness

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 13, 2024

Jesus, On Self-Righteousness

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

Matthew 7:1

Jesus’ words, on first reading, seem to contradict the wisdom of Edmund Burke who said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” However, when we read the full passage (Matthew 7:1-5), we see Jesus didn’t issue a command to stand passively in the face of wrong; rather he gave us a formula for how to speak the truth with love and compassion. Again, Jesus wants us to see the application of his beatitudes, especially, “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

Jesus, the master of using hyperbole in his metaphors, invites us to first consider the log in your own eye before we confront our friend about the speck in their eye. This invitation to a life of self-aware humility is so very much needed in our culture. We certainly do not see this practiced by our political leaders or opinion writers in newspapers and social media. At this point, you may be tempted to say, “Why bother” to practice such a virtuous life when it is clearly not the norm in our culture. Good point: why should we aspire to be the odd man out? But wait. Didn’t we just read something about this last week? (Hint: June 6, Salt & Light.)

“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13a, 14a). God’s mission is to form Christ within us: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). As we make the life in Christ our way of life, we become salt and light to the world.

My Takeaway: The desire of Jesus’ heart is for me to trust him and allow him to be salt and light through me, wherever I may be, even, or perhaps especially, where discord and strife abound.

It has been my experience that I can’t be salt and light until I first ask, “how is it with my soul?”

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Living in the Present

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 12, 2024

Living in the Present

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Matthew 6:34

Two of the greatest temptations facing the followers of Christ is living in the past and living in the future. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he addressed this issue and encouraged his friends to not worry. Easier said than done for most of us!

Sometimes we find ourselves in the grip of regret about our past. All Christians struggle with this, not the least of which was the Apostle Paul. We first encounter Paul while he is holding the coats of those who martyred Stephen. Next, we learn that he has been promoted to the leader of those making brutal assaults on the followers of Christ. Certainly, Paul had plenty from his past that could have haunted him and immobilized him in service to God. But Paul fully accepted God’s forgiveness and embraced his calling to proclaim the Gospel of grace. The foundation of his ability to live in the present moment is contained in two verses: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:10 NRSV), and “but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

We also can get easily snared in the trap of fretting about what tomorrow holds. Jesus didn’t sugar-coat his counsel: don’t worry about tomorrow because today has more than enough issues to keep us occupied. Whether we find ourselves tempted to be obsessed with our past failures or consumed with worry about what may happen in the future, the result is the same; we miss out on what is happening right now, where God has placed us.

Today, a person may cross our path who needs a word of encouragement, or correction. Today we may have an opportunity to engage an issue for which God has uniquely prepared us. Today, our great God needs us to be ready and willing to be used as His vessels of grace.

My Takeaway: I don’t want to miss my assignment from God because I am caught up regretting my past or being pre-occupied with what may happen down the road.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

The Way You Live

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

NOTE: My meditations on May 7-14 were on the Lord’s Prayer so I will not include this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:9-13, in these meditations.

June 11, 2024

The Way You Live

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. (v19)

Read Matthew 6:19-34

Sometimes, Jesus may seem too out of reach for us mere mortals. When he was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, he didn’t turn the stones into bread, but that doesn’t mean He didn’t have the power to. In Matthew 14, Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. When you have that going for you, it’s easy to tell other people not to worry. For people with real life worries about bills, jobs, families and their future, Jesus can sound a bit out of touch.

So, how can we understand what He means in today’s reading?

I hear Him continuing the theme He began in chapter 5. My relationship with God is all about trust. Can I trust God with all my life? It is one thing to serve a god that only gives me a list of moral and ethical standards to obey. It is an altogether different thing to trust God with my life, my wife, my children, my job, my retirement, my future. This difference causes many people to hear Jesus’ command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself,” as a thirty second sound bite, but not a realistic way to live life--unless you live in a Monastery and don’t have jobs, bills, and family to worry over.

But Jesus wasn’t into sound bites. He was very serious in His call for me to enter a trusting, loving relationship with God the Father. Because such a relationship is so out of the realm of anything I have experienced in my life, in today’s reading, Jesus gives concrete examples of what our life will look like when we live our life by trusting in God.

My Takeaway: I made these examples into a little checklist to help me stay focused on what I want to be important to me:

Do I give more time and attention to my retirement accounts than I do to investing in the Kingdom of God?

What do I invite into my mind the most? Mystery novels and nonsense TV shows? Or Scripture, literature and other materials that help me contemplate the richness and beauty of God’s Kingdom?

Am I anxious about meeting my needs? Or do I trust God to meet my needs out of the abundance of His riches and glory in Christ Jesus?

Am I anxious about tomorrow? Or do I remember that God’s mercies never end, they are new each morning?

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 10, 2024

Be Perfect! Seriously?

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

June 10, 2024

Be Perfect! Seriously?

But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

Seriously? I wonder if Jesus was smiling when he said that. Maybe he gave a wink and said, “Just kidding.” No, I think Jesus was very serious. Jesus’ statement seems like such hyperbole that we are tempted to pass over it. In truth, we know we can never measure up to this standard. Then, we remember something else Jesus said: “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible” (Matthew 19:26). OK then, if raising us up to a level of Godly perfection is within the realm of possibilities for our Heavenly Father, perhaps we can look at Jesus’ examples of behavior that reflect the heart of God.

Jesus’ teaching on anger, marriage, and our relationships with others (Matthew 5:21-48) can all be traced back to his beatitudes. God is seeking to form Christ within us, to replace our narcissistic, self-absorbed hearts, with hearts of compassion that have love for our neighbors and enemies alike. The first step in this process is to know ourselves. As we truly grieve for the ways our natural instincts are the opposite of the life in Christ, we can begin to hunger, to long, and to thirst from the depths of our souls to be made right with the God of all creation. As we do, the words of scripture liberate our souls: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Now we can shout it from the rooftops, “With God everything is possible.”

My Takeaway: As we live in the reality of our right-standing with God, we express the merciful, forgiving, reconciling will of God. This is living our life in Christ; this is being perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.

Sē’lah

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Friday, June 28, 2024

The First Sign

Thursday, June 27, 2024

The First Disciples (Part Two)

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

The First Disciples (Part One)

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Jesus, the Lamb of God

Monday, June 24, 2024

The Testimony of John the Baptist

Friday, June 21, 2024

Christ, the Eternal Word

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Becoming Fully Human

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Christ-Like Fruit

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Enter Through the Narrow Gate

Monday, June 17, 2024

Our Practice of The Golden Rule

Friday, June 14, 2024

How Much More

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Jesus, On Self-Righteousness

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Living in the Present

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

The Way You Live

Monday, June 10, 2024

Be Perfect! Seriously?

Seeking the Life in Christ

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