Devotion.al

Tag: Scriptures

  • Valuing the Heart

    Psalm 6, Mark 5:24–34, Luke 7:36–50 (read online ⧉)

    We greatly our doctors and nurses who nurse ourselves and our loved ones to health. However, what we do today is different than it used to be. Science and medicine have provided us information that is beyond ancient . Even we untrained people have a far greater knowledge of than was available to the person many years ago. Thus when the ask for healing, and when healing occurs it is a miracle. This is not to diminish the healing received then or now. However, there is something here in Scripture that is only recently coming into mainstream thinking….

    The woman who touched ‘ cloak was both desperate and had faith. An interesting combination to say the least. Suffering from an injury/illness for 12 years and bankrupt because of it. We’ve heard stories of or known people who may have not suffered as long but certainly lost everything. Healing was great. Peace was needed too with all that she had gone through.

    Then there was the woman who poured perfume on and washed Jesus’ feet. Obviously infamous among the “clean” and “appropriate” people, she was probably a societal outcast in some form or another. Her entire life was not likely to be a gentle one. She needed peace.

    Neither woman, at the point we them, are doing well in life. Based on context, we can reasonably say that they were the downtrodden of the downtrodden, and they were women. All of this piled together in that time meant that even being healed or being defended by Jesus would not necessarily make their lives easier.

    What Jesus did is justify their existence. He saw them for what they were…children of God. He valued them. By valuing them, and publically doing so no less, he gave them an opportunity to have something they may have never had, or hadn’t had in a very long time…peace.

    Our medicine and science are great. We are doing so well on the “mechanical” side of healing. We aren’t, however, doing as well in healing hearts. In cases of severe health issues, just being healed is only the beginning. There are some forms of emotional trauma that go along with that. Those that have suffered need peace.

    1) The “mechanical” nature of medicine resembles other “mechanical” areas of our society. Why do we avoid dealing with emotions? What does it mean to you that Jesus brings peace in those situations?

    2) Societal healing is painful. Currently, there are a lot of scabs being peeled off and oozing sores finally being treated. Thinking of the above stories, what does that tell us about how Jesus would today?

    3) Christians regularly pray for healing. Why? What do we miss when we pray for physical healing alone?

  • Herald of the King

    Isaiah 40:3–11, Malachi 3:1–2, Luke 1:39–44, Luke 1:59–80 (read online ⧉)

    It has been said (by Christians, of course) that John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet. By that, they meant that Jesus (and his life, , , and the subsequent of the Holy ) was the New Testament. In some ways, they are correct. The New Testament is about the life and work of Jesus Christ, and the new work of the Holy Spirit (through the ). John the Baptist was the last one (though not really) to say that God was coming before God actually came. John the Baptist sounded like many of the prophets of old.

    It seems peculiar to call John the Baptist, well, the Baptist. According to the Scriptures, perhaps he should be John the Herald. It would certainly be appropriate. It would also call to mind John’s purpose, heralding the coming of God, rather than focusing on his acts of baptism. It’s not that the baptisms he performed were bad, but ultimately they were a witness to the coming of Jesus.

    That John, in the womb (!), “leaped” at the of Mary is startling (though babies do recognize voices in the womb). Even in the womb, John was heralding the coming king. It is sad, in some ways, that John’s place seems to have been decided from a young , yet he could have made a different decision.

    Ultimately, John’s purpose was by heralding Jesus’ arrival. Like so many do, he could have opposed Jesus, and many would have listened. He didn’t. By his actions, he fulfilled the words of his . John guided the people to the only one whose way is the path of .

    1) John’s place was definitely one of number 2. Have you ever been a number 2 or lower? How did you feel? Did you just spiritualize your answer?

    2) Why do you think “the Baptist” became John’s title rather than “the Herald” or something else?

    3) What do you think about John going to the wilderness when he grew up? Why do you think he did that? Do you think he was alone?

  • To Be Called

    Psalm 34, Isaiah 49:1-6, 1 Corinthians 4:1-16 (read online ⧉)

    What does it mean to be called? That is a question many people ask themselves at various points in their lives. When we were children, the question could be, “what do you want to be when you up?” Granted, in businesses there could be an of “call” which presents its own dangers. As we enter the teenage years, beings to become a focus (“Who am I?”). This will often take shape and be shaped by activities and friends. In the last decade, or so, we’ve seen a new trend, and that is “calling” children to more and more activities or to multiple seasonal versions of the same activity (often sports). Young teenagers are now being pushed to decide career paths while figuring out who they are, as certain decisions (such as the fantastic programs of Running Start, College in the Classroom, and AP courses) affect college decisions, and potentially financial-aid decisions, too. As the average lifespan increases, we are beginning to compress the childhoods that many of us treasured to resemble earlier eras. Also, as lifespans increase, career changes (not just jobs) are becoming increasingly common. That is one of the interesting pieces, as our jobs are increasingly less of our identity.

    Isaiah did not have a question of his identity to a great degree. Since he felt that he was called before he was born, it was likely that he followed seers or prophets or sages. He was probably often following priests and scribes, too. It was his identity. It was his calling. It certainly wasn’t an easy one. It might have given him resilience during his ministry, and it certainly isolated him from others. describes himself as a “manager” of the mysteries of God. It is a strange calling, but it was his.

    Do not judge yourself, or your calling, by Isaiah, Paul, or any others in the . Evaluate your call against them for insight and wisdom. Each person in the Scriptures was unique and uniquely called, just like you.

    N.T. Wright (former bishop now educator and researcher) recently said, “…I think a lot of people feel guilty that there are some things which maybe when they were called…they thought they would be doing. And they either didn’t seem to be very good at it or they didn’t get the opportunity to do it. And I really want to say that we all have our particular gifts. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of the fact that there are some gifts that we might have thought we were going to be given in ministry or whatever, which we don’t have…I think of extreme examples of people who served God with everything that they’ve got, in a very what looks like to most of us a very bleak and obscure way. I think of Alexander Cruden, who did the great concordance couple hundred years ago. And, and he was, we would today say he was really far out on a spectrum. He was quite an unbalanced . But he needed to be like that for the very odd job that God had for him, which was producing—by hand—a concordance which served the amazingly well for a very long time. And I possess my grandfather’s copy of cretins, concordance, and it was a great help before all the modern computerized stuff can So I really want to say if somebody has an academic bent or a bent for lexicography, or… if somebody has the real pastoral ability to spend hours working with, say, Children in Need or at risk or families that are in trouble, …that’s fine. God needs those gifts.”

    Sometimes we are blind to our gifts and/or our calling. Other times people will ask for our help and we realize that it isn’t our call, but something connected is. The question isn’t, “are you called?” The question is, “What are you doing with your calling?”

    1) Do you know what your calling is? If not, who are some mature Christians you know that could help you figure it out? If you do, how did you come to that conclusion?

    2) Do you think your calling has or will ever ?

  • 25 November 2019

    Zechariah 12:1–8, Revelation 18:1–10, Matthew 20:20–23, Luke 22:14–20 (read online ⧉)

    A cup is a common thing. You probably have a few in your cupboards. You might even have so many you have to get rid of one to fit another. You might have ones for special times (like china for Thanksgiving). You might have Christmas themed ones. You probably have ones that were given to you as a reminder or an advertisement. There is nothing special really special about cups. However, as we read the , cups star in a number of places.
    Joseph used his cup (his very special one that only he had) to entrap his brothers. Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar had their cupbearers. These cupbearers had authority within the courts of the . Cups, it seems, were not always so common.

    The prophet Zechariah has a of Judah being a cup. Nations would drink of this cup. The consumption part represents well the takeovers, wars, slavery, and exile. The nations around Judah (even their Semitic cousins in Samaria) really did a number on Judah. It’s not that Judah did the right things and was still on the losing . Judah had continually made the wrong decisions. God wasn’t just going to restore his people once they yielded their hearts. God would use Judah as the source of retribution for all the nations that had (by their actions) treated Judah wrongly.

    This imagery is echoed in Revelation. This time, instead of the small underdog nation being the source of retribution, it would now be the leading city (symbolized as Babylon) that would be the source of its own destruction and the nations that followed it. This symbolic Babylon was completely lost in the depths of unGodly practices. The nations that idolized it or followed its practices would end up with the consequences of their choices.

    In Matthew, Jesus uses similar imagery to hint to James and John that the contents of Jesus’ cup will do the same to them as it will do to him. Of course, they did not yet understand what that meant. Is some ways, while Jesus did not “give” them the seats at his right or left hand, he still symbolically handed his identity to them when he said they would drink from his cup. They probably felt better about not getting their “seats”, at least until they realized the cup’s contents.

    This really comes to a culmination in the Cup of . The “blood” of the New Covenant shared by Jesus with his disciples and eventually with us. The cup is Christ’s. When we share the cup, we share in the and identity of Jesus. We also identify ourselves with and by the New Covenant. We also identify ourselves by his and the we bought. Lastly, though, each of us may have something that needs to be sacrificed to live a with and for Christ. We have chosen to drink from the cup and by so doing stated that we will accept what it brings.

    1)Do you have a favorite cup? Why is it your favorite? Without knowing the story of if, what could people about you from it?

    2) God’s grace and love are often found in “ordinary” things. In what other “ordinary” things do you find God’s grace and love?

    3) Why is it important to look for and see God’s grace and love in ordinary things?

  • 23 November 2019

    Jeremiah 22:18-30, 2 John 4–11 (read online ⧉)

    It is always a parent’s that something of them will be passed on and carried by their children, and even their grandchildren. If it is a company or wealth, people generally make detailed preparations to make sure that all goes as planned. There are wills, contracts, foundations, trusts and so on that exist to do this. Are they always successful? No. The same is, sadly, also the about . Sometimes the parents don’t have the tools or support. Sometimes the children don’t connect. Sometimes circumstances occur that drive the child (or the parents) away from the faith. Then the next generation falls, too.

    King Jehoiakim was the of Josiah. Josiah was a (to God) king. Johoiakim’s brother, Jehoahaz, was king 3 months before being deposed by Egypt. Jehoiakim’s original name was Eliakim, meaning “God will establish.” The Pharaoh of Egypt renamed him to Jehoiakim, which means “Yahweh will establish.” Why does this matter? Josiah named his son in faith that he would carry on. He didn’t. Neither of these brothers did. Did Josiah mess up? Possibly. Were there lots of people pressuring the men to stray from God’s path? Most definitely. The Pharaoh probably renamed Eliakim/Jehoiakim as a matter of dishonor, dismissal, or a statement that their God established him (Pharaoh) as their ruler.

    Do we hold Josiah accountable for his sons? Biblical commentators nor pastors preaching on passing on the faith seem to. Yet, when a child or grandchild turns from the faith, we often feel and as if the parent is solely responsible for that choice, or mostly responsible for the choice. There are plenty of individuals in the Scriptures that are held up today as examples whose children walked away from the faith. Rarely do people recognize the disconnect.

    John’s letter to the “lady” is oddly phrased. Some commentators believe that John was referring to a house as the lady, but with the variables of singular and plural words, it is more likely that there are singular “you”’s and plural “you”’s that are intentional. Regardless, John celebrating that some (note, not all) of her children are following the faith reinforces that this is nothing new. Perhaps we are putting too much pressure on people to be “perfect” in passing on the faith. Should we all try hard? Yes! Should we still try when it seems impossible? Yes!

    Ultimately, though, we have to recognize our responsibility to do our best as we are able. We are not God. God calls them. They must choose to .

    1) Is there anyone you feel called to bring into fellowship with ?

    2) Why do you think they don’t know Jesus, or may not want to know Jesus?

    3) What the part in their to Jesus are you responsible for?

  • Bridal Party

    Matthew 25:1–13 (read online ⧉)

    This is an odd parable. It makes some sense on the surface, but even then, not much. One of the surface tensions is that refers here to the . Jesus often refers to the having already come, but here it is in the future. Some scholars struggle with the tension of now and not yet, however, that tension is quite common in the New Testament, and it shouldn’t be any surprise here.
    Jesus immediately turns to a common tactic in such parables, dividing the subjects into wise and . This, of course, sets the stage for the unfolding of the parable. Sadly, antisemitic tendencies have often divided the foolish as Jews and the wise as Christians. That wasn’t Jesus’ intent based on the . He’s usually a little more obvious, and the writers are usually quick to tell us when he’s talking about certain people when Jesus doesn’t say it. As we don’t have that, let’s agree to not read that into this.

    This really is straightforward, right? Be , for the Day of the Lord will be coming, and you don’t know when! That’s the point, it seems, of the story. However, (you knew this was coming, didn’t you?), we seem to be missing someone.

    We have the . It’s pretty safe, based on the Scriptures, that this could be considered Jesus himself. We have the wise and foolish virgins. Now, Jesus is not having multiple wives. That isn’t it at all. The allusion is to a bridal march, where the virgin (or young unmarried women) would escort the to the groom’s home, where the ceremony would be done, and things would become official. If it happened at night, as in the parable, the bride’s escorts (i.e., bridesmaids) would the way. So, have you guessed who is missing?

    The bride. We talk so much about the bridesmaids (granted, they are the “stars” of the story) that we forget about the bride. Even as we talk about who was foolish or wise and why we missed the bride! So, who is the bride? Well, if Jesus is the groom, then the church is the bride.

    1) If the church is the bride, who are the wise and foolish bridesmaids (keeping in mind our agreement above)?

    2) If Jesus is the Groom and the Church is the Bride, where is the marriage ceremony held?

    3) If Jesus is the Groom and the Church is the Bride, who announces the approaching groom?

  • Are You Blind?

    Matthew 23:16–22, Luke 18:31–43 (read
    online ⧉    )

    uses the concept of blindness as a teaching point. In the ancient world, blindness was a severe handicap. Over the years we have developed tools and practices to help blind people navigate a world of sight. This was not the way of things in Jesus’ day. All the blind were good for was consuming food, space, and getting alms. This is not to dismiss their value as beings, but in that , there was little they could do. Today, with help, blind people can read. Blind people can operation manufacturing machines. The blinds can navigate the world, and the world works to help that. That wasn’t so.

    Jesus wasn’t being nice. He was being brutal. He was telling the world that the teachers that people looked up to were useless, at best. In Matthew, he implies that anyone that follows these teachers will not end up anyplace good. However, they vaunted religious teachers aren’t the only blind ones. His disciples were often blind too. The prediction of his death was “hidden” from them. In many ways, thought Jesus’ death wasn’t so much hidden as denied. Why would the disciples want to think about Jesus’ death? Have you ever had a “hilltop” experience? Imagine having them for 3 years. It is likely that it got to a point that they couldn’t see beyond that. Sadly, in at least Judas’ case when he did see beyond it, he likely felt betrayed and thus betrayed Jesus.

    That the future was hidden from them per the , and then we immediately get to a story about a blind man receiving sight does not appear coincidental. In fact, according to Jesus the man’s had both saved him and led to his being able to see. In some ways, the 11 disciples that remained (after Judas’s and death) did not see either until they had faith. It’s not to say that they didn’t have faith in God, or even in Jesus, but that their faith matured and transformed so that they were able to look back and look and see God in .

    1) Have you ever lost any sense (taste, smell, sight, touch) for a time? What was it like? Did it have far-reaching effects?

    2) Blindness of the can lead anyone down a false path. What areas of blindness have you had to deal with? How did you deal with them?

    3) The world is often spiritually blind. If the world cannot see without faith, how do we get them to “see”?

  • You…Priest…You

    Malachi 2:1–9, Colossians 3:5–17, 1 Peter 2:1–8 (read online)

    In a number of bibles (both translations and iterations), this passage in Malachi has the header of Warning to the Priests. You may have read that yourself. This passage is indeed to the Israelite priests, who fulfill the forms of , , supplication, and sacrifice, but do not fulfill the heart of any of it. Tying the heart of worship to honoring God’s name should any of us pause. Look at what God is equating to the behavior of their hearts: animal poop and entrails. In other words, what’s coming out of them is crap. Pretty harsh.

    The problem that many Christians have reading this passage is, “this doesn’t apply to me.” Except if you read ‘s and Peter’s letters, the category of Israelite/Jewish Priest actually does apply to all of us. Paul’s letter removes the -based barriers between people. Peter removes the concept of non-priest. In other words, the warning of Malachi does apply to each of us.

    Now, we could say that the Law doesn’t apply to us. Okay. Yet, the “Law” of (love the Lord your God) would seem to wipe that argument out in context. While we use and have the titles of priest, pastor, reverend, minister, and while they have a certain place within the , that does not spare us from the priesthood of all believers.

    Re-read Malachi. Replace “you” with “me”, and “your” with “my”. Take this personally.

    1) How have you violated what God calls on us to do/be according to the words in Malachi?

    2) Scripture is pretty down-to-earth. This passage in Malachi shows it (along with a little rephrasing). Why is it important that the are so down-to-earth? What happens when we over gentle the of God?

    3) Barriers are a common tactic. Why do you think it is important that Paul and Peter removed them? What barriers need to be removed in your , particularly with how you categorized and interact with other people?