watch out…

In the presence of all the people, Jesus said to his disciples, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They love being greeted with honor in the markets. They long for the places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.” Looking up, Jesus saw rich people throwing their gifts into the collection box for the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow throw in two small copper coins worth a penny. He said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than them all. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had to live on.” (Luke 20:45—21:4, CEB)

The widow is not an example to lift up, but an example to use for those in power and those with resources to say, “it is your place to care for this one.”

If you have more, do not tip God. And do not create a system that makes widows give their last pennies.

We need to care for the last, the lost, the least, and the little. The orphan. The stranger. The widow.

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of others, and know others are thinking of you.

all things to all people

Although I’m free from all people, I make myself a slave to all people, to recruit more of them. I act like a Jew to the Jews, so I can recruit Jews. I act like I’m under the Law to those under the Law, so I can recruit those who are under the Law (though I myself am not under the Law). I act like I’m outside the Law to those who are outside the Law, so I can recruit those outside the Law (though I’m not outside the law of God but rather under the law of Christ). I act weak to the weak, so I can recruit the weak. I have become all things to all people, so I could save some by all possible means. All the things I do are for the sake of the gospel, so I can be a partner with it. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23, CEB)

I remember this verse in different language. I am all things to all people. I do what I have to to get into a group to tell them about Jesus. But is this really good?

Paul spread the gospel like no other, and he was great at meeting with different groups and doing things in ways that allowed him to be different in different places. And we all have little nuances that change depending on the groups we are with, but to radically change oneself to fit in?

We need to be radically who God created us to be and live deeply into that. Do not change to fit in; be who you were created to be.

Preach the gospel at all times by living your life out loud.

cornerstone

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them. They were incensed that the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus. They seized Peter and John and put them in prison until the next day. (It was already evening.) Many who heard the word became believers, and their number grew to about five thousand. The next day the leaders, elders, and legal experts gathered in Jerusalem, along with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others from the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?” Then Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, answered, “Leaders of the people and elders, are we being examined today because something good was done for a sick person, a good deed that healed him? If so, then you and all the people of Israel need to know that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is the stone you builders rejected; he has become the cornerstone! Salvation can be found in no one else. Throughout the whole world, no other name has been given among humans through which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:1-12, CEB)

A cornerstone is the stone that holds the walls together for the building. It is the stone that is foundational to the structure.

Jesus is the cornerstone of our lives. Jesus holds it all together when the world would come and knock us down and move us around. Jesus holds us firm.

This is the power that heals and gives life.

Is Jesus your cornerstone?

Dishonest Manager

Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager.’ “The household manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses. “One by one, the manager sent for each person who owed his master money. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your contract, sit down quickly, and write four hundred fifty gallons.’ Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ He said, ‘Take your contract and write eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted cleverly. People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much, and the one who is dishonest with little is also dishonest with much. If you haven’t been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? If you haven’t been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No household servant can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:1-13, CEB)

What is this parable?

A wealthy man hears his manager has done bad in keeping the books, so he calls him in and says make a report to me because I’m firing you. And the manager then makes what the customers or people in debted to his boss owe him less, so they will like him and help him when he is fired. Is this because the wealthy man has cheated those in debt to him? Or because the manager is looking out for himself?

People will say the wealthy man was a crook, and that makes what the manager does the right thing to do, because we are like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but there is nothing in the parable that suggests that.

This parable is not about the wealthy man or the manager per se. It is about both men and all of us.

There is this thing called integrity. Many people strive for it, but few actually obtain it. It is when you say what you mean and mean what you say and do what is right, even when no one is looking. The manager does not have integrity. He in my opinion is looking out for himself, because the parable says, “What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses.” He works the system in his favor and does what is wrong to cover his own needs. Not a person of integrity.

Do you post online things you would not say in person? That is not integrity.

Walk the walk. Talk the talk. Always tell the truth and look out for the last, lost, least, little. That is integrity.

This is not Stewardship!!!

Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44, CEB)

I have heard so many people say, oh be like the widow who gave everything and was lifted up by Jesus. But that is not how I read this passage. This is not a stewardship passage in the way we think it is a stewardship passage.

Jesus watches people putting money in the collection box at that temple and sees a widow who puts in all the money she has, while others have tipped the box. She gave everything she needed to live on, out of her poverty. Because everyone has to give, and she had nothing to begin with, and had to give all she had. The system was rigged against her just like the system is rigged against the poor now. The system is in place to keep the poor in their place. And she is not a model of stewardship; she is the reason the rest of us need to step up our giving. We are blessed to be a blessing, not to tip God.

Do not say she is the model. Give so she does not have to and can live, as we are all given life to live it.

nothing!

So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us. Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created. (Romans 8:31-39, CEB)

If God is for us, who can be against us? Christ stands in our place when it comes to the final judgment, and Christ is perfect. There is nothing that can make us not slide through, because God is for us and Christ has made the way clear.

Nothing will come between us and God. Not life, or death. Not angels, or rulers. Not things happening now, or things that will happen tomorrow. Not any power. Not heights, or depths. Nothing that was created, which is everything, right, because Genesis says that the world was chaos, a formless void if you will.

Powers and created things stand alone in a list of binaries. We seem to love binaries. We want something to be this or that, nothing in between, or no other options. But Life is not made up of binaries but spectrums. And even spectrums will not separate us from God. Our desires to push things into binaries will not keep us from God, or any one else.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.

advantage?

So what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Or what’s the benefit of circumcision? Plenty in every way. First of all, the Jews were trusted with God’s revelations. What does it matter, then, if some weren’t faithful? Their lack of faith won’t cancel God’s faithfulness, will it? Absolutely not! God must be true, even if every human being is a liar, as it is written: So that it can show that you are right in your words; and you will triumph when you are judged. But if our lack of righteousness confirms God’s justice, what will we say? That God, who brings wrath upon us, isn’t just (I’m speaking rhetorically)? Absolutely not! If God weren’t just, how could he judge the world? But if God’s truth is demonstrated by my lie and it increases his glory, why am I still judged as a sinner? Why not say, “Let’s do evil things so that good things will come out of it”? (Some people who slander us accuse us of saying that, but these people deserve criticism.) (Romans 3:1-8, CEB)

God is just even when we walk away. Actually, God gives mercy and grace where we deserve to be separated.

God’s righteousness is what will always prevail.

The advantage of being a Jew is being a part of God’s people. But mercy flows free, and all of us are grafted in.

We are all loved.

cock crowed…

“Simon, Simon, look! Satan has asserted the right to sift you all like wheat. However, I have prayed for you that your faith won’t fail. When you have returned, strengthen your brothers and sisters.” Peter responded, “Lord, I’m ready to go with you, both to prison and to death!” After they arrested Jesus, they led him away and brought him to the high priest’s house. Peter followed from a distance. When they lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant woman saw him sitting in the firelight. She stared at him and said, “This man was with him too.” But Peter denied it, saying, “Woman, I don’t know him!” A little while later, someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, I’m not!” An hour or so later, someone else insisted, “This man must have been with him, because he is a Galilean too.” Peter responded, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” At that very moment, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the Lord’s words: “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And Peter went out and cried uncontrollably. (Luke 22:31-33, 54-62, CEB)

We can all read this and say I would never deny Jesus. But Peter was the rock, the main man; he was the one everyone else looked up to.

We all fall short, and Peter doing this should give us hope. Hope that even when we mess up, we are not alone.

What is the cock crowing in your life?

when???

Don’t let it escape your notice, dear friends, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise, as some think of slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a dreadful noise, the elements will be consumed by fire, and the earth and all the works done on it will be exposed. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be? You must live holy and godly lives, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Because of that day, the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. (2 Peter 3:8-13, CEB)

Do not think God is slow or has missed your needs. To God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a single day. God is patient and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, so that all might come to an understanding of the love God has for them.

So when will God come back?

That is really only for God to know. However, I think it is when we all get it and realize we need to love each other and bring the fulfillment of the kindom to earth.

good war

Timothy, my child, I’m giving you these instructions based on the prophecies that were once made about you. So if you follow them, you can wage a good war because you have faith and a good conscience. Some people have ruined their faith because they refused to listen to their conscience, such as Hymenaeus and Alexander. I’ve handed them over to Satan so that they can be taught not to speak against God. (1 Timothy 1:18-20, CEB)

I honestly sometimes have issues with the things we have in scripture.

If you follow the instructions you were given, you can wage a good war because of faith and a good conscience. What is a good war? How is war ever good? Maybe if you win, but does anyone really win a war? I mean, someone gets a victory, but lives are lost, resources are lost. No one really completely wins. And what is good war?

I would conjecture the only good war is the one we wage against ourselves to follow Christ or our own desires.

This reminds me of the song by Todd Agnew War Inside

Do you feel the tension, do you?
Do you feel the grind?
Do you see the battle ‘tween this
Flesh and soul of mine?

‘Cause there’s a war inside of me
Between who I want to be
And who I am

I do what I don’t want to do
And don’t do what I mean
I end up chasing all my nightmares
And abandoning my dreams

‘Cause there’s a war inside of me
Between who I want to be
And who I am

Is not who I want to be
Shackled like a slave when I know that I’m free
Wrong and right, truth and lie, death versus life
Everything in me is choosing sides
And the showdown begins

Do you feel the tension?

There’s a war inside of me
Between who I want to be
There’s a war inside of me
Between who I want to be
And who I am, who I am