John's Ministry in the Wilderness

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 31, 2019

John's Ministry in the Wilderness

Page 41-42

Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:2-8; Luke 3:1-18

John the Baptist’s preaching reveals the dual mission of the Messiah. The Messiah will judge the oppressors and set free the oppressed. The coming of God’s Kingdom will bring God’s justice into the world through the lives of the followers of the Messiah. To prepare the way, John preaches the need for both confession and repentance.

Except for Communion Sundays, many churches no longer include prayers of confession in their worship liturgies. On Communion Sundays, there is a congregational prayer of confession and maybe a time for personal prayers of confession. How deep is your confession? When I recently visited a church on their Communion Sunday, the time allotted for personal prayers of confession was less than ten seconds. It was just a brief pause that was barely sufficient for a shallow confession that only listed a few sins. However, even if we have a deep, meaningful prayer of confession, in our reading today John the Baptist reminds us that God calls us to repentance, not just confession.

Repentance does not mean feeling guilt for sin. Repentance is a basic reorientation of your life. You turn from one way of thinking about yourself, others, the world and God, and turn to another vision. Repentance is admitting that what you have been basing your life on is a lie, on a flawed view of what is true and of lasting value. Repentance is coming to the place where you believe God in Christ Jesus is telling you the truth about yourself, others and what has lasting value in life.

My Takeaway: The Apostle Paul applied the teaching of John the Baptist in this imperative:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:2

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.

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.

My Mother's Ancestry

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 30, 2019

My Mother's Ancestry

Page 36-38

Luke 3:23b-38

When Luke recounts Jesus’ genealogy, he differs from Matthew in three ways. First, he includes the list of ancestors without any comment. Secondly, he does not mention the five women in Matthew’s list. The third difference is that while Matthew traced Jesus’ ancestors back to Abraham, Luke’s genealogy goes back to Adam. Interestingly, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God five times, and here in the ancestry of Jesus, Luke refers to Adam as the son of God. The Apostle Paul also made this connection when he wrote, “The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45).

My Takeaway: I believe the inclusion of Adam in Jesus’ ancestry is for the revelation that the Messiah is coming for the entire human race, not just Israel. It wasn’t just Israel that needed saving; we too stand in need of a Savior.

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.

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.

Joseph's Ancestry

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 29, 2019

Joseph's Ancestry

Page 35-36

Matthew 1:1-17

When Matthew wrote the Gospel bearing his name, he did not consult Ancestry.com to learn about the genealogy of Jesus. He learned about Jesus’ ancestors from Jesus. Jesus knew we can learn much about the nature of God, and how God has been working His plan of redemption, by taking the time to look and see how He has been working through generations of His people to accomplish His purposes.  Reading the list of names is like walking through a hall of fame. Two parts of this genealogy stand out to me.

First, there are five women mentioned among Jesus’ ancestors. This is important beyond the fact that each of the women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary) contributed greatly to God’s redemptive work. The inclusion of the women at the writing of this Gospel was hugely counter-cultural, and underscores that from the very beginning of the story of Jesus’ life, gender equality was emphasized.

Next, the promised Messiah was to be a descendant of King David. This ancestry flows to Joseph, but Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. There is much theological debate on this point; however, for me it is very personal. I am not the biological father of two of my children. Even so, to me they are as much bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood as my biological child. I know Joseph understands how I feel.

My Takeaway: Matthew’s inclusion of the genealogy and references to fourteen generations is a common Jewish literary technique of diving epochs into equal parts and thus is not intended to be taken literally; these are signs. The signs point to the truth that the history of God’s redemptive work is not haphazard. It is both orderly and purposeful, just as are the heavenly bodies of His creation.

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.

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.

I Reasoned with Religious Teachers

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 26, 2019

I Reasoned with Religious Teachers

Page 31

Luke 2:41-52

The way Jesus tells this story has an interesting similarity to the story he will tell about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Pages 321-22) In both stories, there is a period of three days where Jesus was ‘lost’ and then found again. In both stories Jesus used an imperative to explain what happened: “I must be in my Father’s house”; “the Messiah would have to suffer all these things.” From Jesus’ perspective in both stories, he is not the one who is lost; he is just doing what was necessary for the Messiah to do.

Jesus’ perspective creates a dichotomy for me. On the one hand, I know from the Apostle Paul that nothing can separate me from Christ, because Christ lives in me. (Romans 8:35-39 & Colossians 1:27) But on the other hand, from this story that Jesus tells, he is going to be doing what he needs to do, and it is possible that I might lose sight of him.

My Takeaway: This dichotomy reminds me that I cannot go off in any direction I choose and assume I will always be aware of Christ in me. However, I can rest in the knowledge that if I do lose sight of Jesus, he can be found again. I just have to look in the right places: the sacraments, prayer and the Bible.

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.

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.