Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Thursday, November 22, 2012     The Cares of Life   

Page 98-99   Matthew 6:25 - 7:6; Luke 6:37-42

Sometimes Jesus doesn’t seem very realistic. Just because he didn’t turn the stones into bread when he was in the wilderness, didn’t mean he couldn’t if he had wanted to. He fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. When you have that going for you, it’s pretty 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 condescending.

But I know Jesus well enough to know that he couldn’t be condescending if he wanted to. That’s just not in him. What then does Jesus want us to see in his radical statements?

I hear him continuing the theme from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is showing us that our relationship with God is all about trust. Can I trust God with all of 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 and 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 it is 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 into 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, Jesus gives me concrete examples of what my life will look like when I live my life by trusting in God who loved me and gave himself for me. I made these examples into a little check list to help me stay focused of what is really 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 do I read Scripture, good 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

<><  <><  <><  <><

What word or phrase in today’s reading attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

<><  <><  <><  <><

(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 available by email. Contact me at Amkrom812@gmail.com to be added to the email list.

This BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Friday, November 23, 2012          Ask, Look, Knock   

Page 99-100           Matthew 7:7-29; Luke 6:43-49