Go and Do the Same

June 28, 2019

Go and Do the Same

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Luke 10:36-37 (Parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37)

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the expert in religious law revealed his affliction of overlooking the obvious when he “stood up to test Jesus” (Luke 10:25). Jesus’ response to the test makes clear that he isn’t calling us to try and be better people. He is calling his followers to come with him to live in a new realm, the Kingdom of God, where life is altogether different. Here all people are valued as the precious creation of God. The contrast between life in the Kingdom of God and the world’s culture is illustrated by the expert in religious law when he affirms the commandment to love his neighbor as himself, as long as he is the one determining his neighbors.

Jesus contrasted the expert’s worldview and the Kingdom of God with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. . .” In this story Jesus tells, three different people encountered the man who was attacked by bandits: a priest, a Temple assistant (a Levite) and a despised Samaritan. Two passed on by. Only the Samaritan stopped to help. What did he see that the other two overlooked? The adjective, despised, was as equally applied by the Jews to the Samaritans as it was applied by the Samaritans to the Jews; therefore, the Samaritan could have justified to himself passing by the injured man. Jesus doesn’t tell us why the Samaritan stopped and the others did not; he just tells us he did and for us to “go and do the same” (Luke 10:37).

My Takeaway: I find it helpful in my evening devotions or meditations to include some quiet time to reflect on all the places I have been throughout the day and the people I have encountered. In this hindsight, that at times is actually 20/20, I find I have missed opportunities to “go and do the same.”  I then pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts” (Psalm 139:23) as I seek God’s wisdom on why I am overlooking the obvious.

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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

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.

How Much More

June 27, 2019

How Much More

“Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?”

Luke 18:7 (Parable of the Persistent Widow Luke 18:1-7)

Near the conclusion to his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used a powerful phrase to illustrate our need for persistence in seeking the life in Christ: “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11 Emphasis mine). Jesus has urged his followers to keep on, keeping on because of the contrast between what we are able to accomplish adhering to our performance-based-acceptance standards and trusting in God’s grace. Jesus is saying if we think we can work out the meaning of our existence through our own efforts, how much more can we realize our potential through the grace of God!

The parable of the Persistent Widow is an affirmation of human ingenuity. As Steven Covey so well taught in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the ultimate secret to a happy, well balanced, effective life, is taking responsibility for your own life. The Persistent Widow took responsibility for her life and used her resources and her wits to pursue vindication of her issue before the judge. While the facts and truth may have been on her side, she encountered a judge who neither feared God nor cared about people. Yet her persistence won over the unjust judge. Jesus calls us to “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge” (Luke 18:6). Jesus is saying that if persistence and ingenuity can prevail over an unjust judge, how much more can we rightly expect from our God who is Justice, Mercy and Grace!

Jesus is not saying that we will win more from God through persistence and ingenuity. Jesus is saying that in this life we will confront adversaries who neither fear God nor care about people. Perhaps through our persistence and ingenuity, we will prevail against our adversary; perhaps not. But in the only eternal issue that matters, our Judge is Just. What then can we rightly expect from our Judge? The Apostle Paul answers this question by contrasting the old way of relating to God through the law, and the new way of grace: “If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!” (2 Corinthians 3:9).

My Takeaway: Because we serve a “how much more” God, I rejoice in this foundational truth of our life in Christ:

“But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6).

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.)

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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

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.

Everything I Have Is Yours

June 26, 2019

Everything I Have Is Yours

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.”

Luke 15:31 (Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:25-32)

Jesus told this parable because the Pharisees objected to Jesus keeping company with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were masters at living their life by PBA – Performance-Based-Acceptance. Not only were they adept at measuring their good works by keeping their religious rules, they were the ones writing the rules. From their lofty peaks of self-assurance, they looked down their noses at all the people who failed to meet their standards. Their whole sense of self-awareness was wrapped up in keeping the law. When Jesus told this parable, he hoped the Pharisees would recall Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). In that vision Israel, who was lost, was made alive again by the power of God. Israel wasn’t made alive again by their own power. They were made alive by God’s Spirit.

In this story Jesus tells, the older brother represents the Pharisees. Not just the Pharisees who listened to Jesus, but the Pharisee in all of us. Like the older brother, we all are prone to find our identity, our sense of self-awareness, in the things we do, the things we own, and in how well we perform according to whatever standard we choose to measure our lives. When we fall into this trap, we miss the whole point of the Gospel message. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that our life is not about our performance; our life is about our identity. At our core, our truest identity has been established, once and for all time, through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Through faith in Jesus, we are now and for all time the beloved children of God.

The older son’s confrontation with his father is a compelling vision of our life in Christ. The father, when he divided his estate between his sons, had already given to the older son all that was his. The older son sinned against his father by refusing to celebrate his brother’s return and by denying his own kinship with his brother. Yet, the father goes out to him and continues to affirm the older son’s identity as his beloved child, affirming that “everything I have is yours.”

God’s will for all of His children is that we would learn to rest in the assurance of His love and acceptance of us. God wants us to learn to live out of the reality of our true identity: we are children of God. This truth allows us to get off of the performance-based-acceptance ways of our culture. The unconditional love of God fulfills our needs to be loved, to be accepted and to be valued.

My Takeaway: When I know who I am in Christ, I can get off of the performance-based-acceptance treadmill. When I am resting in my assurance as God’s beloved, I do not need any outside validation of my identity.

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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

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.

So the Party Began

June 25, 2019

So the Party Began

 “We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.”

Luke 15:23b-24 (Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11-24)

This parable is commonly referred to as the parable of The Prodigal Son because the young son spent his inheritance freely and recklessly; he was wastefully extravagant. However, Jesus’ parable is not about the younger son; it’s about his father. You could call it the parable of the Prodigal Father, because the father was surely free, reckless and extravagant in his homecoming welcome for his young son.

The young son’s homecoming is a compelling vision of our life in Christ. The young son came to his father with all that he had: dirt, filth, sinfulness, brokenness. Immediately, the father gives the young son all that he has: his love, blessing, and affirmation of the young son’s truest identity as the beloved child of his father.

Jesus told this parable because the Pharisees objected to Jesus keeping company with tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus said “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”, Jesus hoped the Pharisees would recall Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). In that vision Israel, who was lost, was made alive again by the power of God. This is how Jesus saw the people accepting his invitation to come into the Kingdom of God. These children of God were dead, but are now alive again. That, Jesus believes, is cause for exuberant celebration.

Henri Nouwen, in his book, The Return of The Prodigal Son, says, "If the only meaning of the story (Luke 15, The Prodigal Son) were that people sin but God forgives, I could easily begin to think of my sins as a fine occasion for God to show me forgiveness. There would be no challenge in such an interpretation. I would resign myself to my weaknesses and keep hoping that eventually God would close his eyes to them and let me come home, whatever I did. Such romanticism is not the message of the Gospels. "What I am called to make true is that whether I am the younger or elder son, I am the son of my compassionate Father. I am an heir. . . . as son and heir I am to become successor. I am destined to step into my Father's place and offer to others the same compassion that he has offered me. The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to become the Father. . . . I know how much I long to return and be held safe, but do I really want to be son and heir with all that that implies? Being in the Father's house requires that I make the Father's life my own and become transformed in his image."

My Takeaway: I am again challenged to examine my own life by asking two questions:

How much exuberant celebration do I extend when a person makes a confession of faith in Jesus?

Is the compassion I offer to others the same compassion that Abba has offered 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.)

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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

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.