Let it go

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I assure you that it will be very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 In fact, it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.” 25 When his disciples heard this, they were stunned. “Then who can be saved?” they asked. 26 Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible for human beings. But all things are possible for God.” 27 Then Peter replied, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you. What will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “I assure you who have followed me that, when everything is made new, when the Human One sits on his magnificent throne, you also will sit on twelve thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And all who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or farms because of my name will receive one hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first. (Matthew 19:23-30, CEB)

There is nothing we can do to make it into heaven.

But there are many things we can do to keep ourselves out. Or at least that is an impression I get from this lesson. If you are in love with your stuff and can’t let it go, then your stuff will keep you from heaven.

We need to not be worried about stuff and what we will get, but what Jesus has called us to.

We will get more than we could possibly imagine when we follow Christ, but that isn’t why we follow, because then we won’t get it. It is a very interesting catch 22.

And if we try to be last to be first that won’t work either. God knows our hearts and why we are doing what we are doing.

So just be and love as God loved you, and follow after Jesus loving everyone along the way, because that is what God told us to do.

Examine yourself

5 Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Don’t you understand that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. 6 But I hope that you will realize that we don’t fail the test. 7 We pray to God that you don’t do anything wrong, not because we want to appear to pass the test but so that you might do the right thing, even if we appear to fail. 8 We can’t do anything against the truth but only to help the truth. 9 We are happy when we are weak but you are strong. We pray for this: that you will be made complete. 10 This is why I’m writing these things while I’m away. I’m writing so that I won’t need to act harshly when I’m with you by using the authority that the Lord gave me. He gave it to me so that I could build you up, not tear you down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10, CEB)

Test yourself to see if Jesus is in you, but know that you can’t fail the test?!?!

I had to read that a few times, Paul is telling the Corinthians to test themselves to see if they are in the faith. Yet he doesn’t tell them what the test should be or consist of. And then he says that if you fail the test Christ is not in you and you are not in the faith, but remember you can’t fail the test!

But we should still always take note of where we are and how we are connected to God. God will never leave us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t walk away from God.

So be mindful of where you are and how you are connected to God.

Power

This is the third time that I’m coming to visit you. Every matter is settled on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 2 When I was with you on my second visit, I already warned those who continued to sin. Now I’m repeating that warning to all the rest of you while I’m at a safe distance: if I come again, I won’t spare anyone.3 Since you are demanding proof that Christ speaks through me, Christ isn’t weak in dealing with you but shows his power among you. 4 Certainly he was crucified because of weakness, but he lives by the power of God. Certainly we also are weak in him, but we will live together with him, because of God’s power that is directed toward you. (2 Corinthians 13:1-4, CEB)

I wonder how does Paul know that the Corinthians are sinning, and what is their sin?

Whoever they are they were sinning and have continued to sin.

God has the power to stop us from sinning, but when will God stop those who are sinning, and what sin will warrant this?

Sin for some is a list of rules that we must follow, like not wearing clothing of mixed fibers, or eating the dairy of an animal with it’s meat, or eating bottom feeding fish… All of these are things that most if not all of us break that are rules in the Bible.

So what is sin and what were the Corinthians doing?

How can we know we are living the way God calls us to live if we can’t define sin?

Power, Prayer, Forgiveness

20 Early in the morning, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered from the root up. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look how the fig tree you cursed has dried up.” 22 Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God! 23 I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you. 25 And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings.” (Mark 11:20-25, CEB)

Power in the name to do what God has called us to do.

There is also power sin prayer and believing it will come to pass.

Let us all know of the wonderful power of prayer and forgiveness to repair our lives and make us whole.

Strive for Peace

13 So stop judging each other. Instead, this is what you should decide: never put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister. 14 I know and I’m convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is wrong to eat in itself. But if someone thinks something is wrong to eat, it becomes wrong for that person. 15 If your brother or sister is upset by your food, you are no longer walking in love. Don’t let your food destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 And don’t let something you consider to be good be criticized as wrong. 17 God’s kingdom isn’t about eating food and drinking but about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.18 Whoever serves Christ this way pleases God and gets human approval. 19 So let’s strive for the things that bring peace and the things that build each other up. 20 Don’t destroy what God has done because of food. All food is acceptable, but it’s a bad thing if it trips someone else. 21 It’s a good thing not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything that trips your brother or sister. 22 Keep the belief that you have to yourself—it’s between you and God. People are blessed who don’t convict themselves by the things they approve. 23 But those who have doubts are convicted if they go ahead and eat, because they aren’t acting on the basis of faith. Everything that isn’t based on faith is sin.
We who are powerful need to be patient with the weakness of those who don’t have power, and not please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good in order to build them up. (Romans 14:13–15:2, CEB)

If someone is doing something you think is wrong but is giving them joy, keep it to yourself. If you don’t think it is good, then don’t do it, but let them have their joy and do not force your views on someone else.

That is what I read when I read these words from Paul to the Romans.

If you think it wrong to eat meat, then don’t eat meat but don’t make a spectacle out of it. Let others eat meat if that is what brings them joy.

We think this following God is about rules we have to follow and all be the same. God didn’t create us to be the same, God created each of us unique, and special, so we will not all do the same things or act in the same way. And to think that we will is putting God in a box.

Do everything in faith to the way that God has made you!

Might

13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:13-17, CEB)

This passage is often quoted or shown on signs at sporting events, or at least one verse is.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him won’t perish but will have eternal life.

Which means if I don’t believe in Jesus, I will not have eternal life and will perish. And if that was the end of the Bible or the text that would be true. But it isn’t the end.

Jesus continues with verse 17, which I think is way more important in the whole understanding of our lives.

God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus didn’t come to judge us for everything that we did wrong. Jesus came so we might be saved. Might. Not if you don’t believe you will perish, but the ability to be saved. Jesus came to save the world. Not to judge it.

We make the Bible out as a book we have to follow or wee will be damned to hell. No the Bible is a source to help us see who Jesus is and how Jesus wants us to live in this world. And it is a help to point us in the direction of Jesus who came so that we might be saved.

Jesus loves you as you are, created by God and beautifully and wonderfully made. Know that you are loved and Jesus came to save you.

Unforgiving Servant

21 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times. 23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. 25 Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. 26 But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 27 The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan. 28 “When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’ 29 “Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt. 31 “When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. 32 His master called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 His master was furious and handed him over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt. 35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35, CEB)

This reading is interesting on many leaves.

  1. The first servant begs for time to pay back a loan that is basically 164,383 and a half years worth of labor. Like even paying part of your wages toward that would ever make a dent in the amount owed. Yet the king forgave him!
  2. The forgiven servant finds another servant who owes him money and doesn’t listen to his friends pleading when he is owed a 1/600000 of what he owed and was forgiven. This amount is easily repaid over probably a couple to 3 years.
  3. And when the king finds out he throws the first servant in jail. and Jesus says if you don’t forgive, God will not forgive you. And not just saying you forgive them, God knows if you actually forgave them in your heart.

How does this help us forgive? It is more into scaring us to do what the right thing is. This kind of passage read the way I outlined it above is what keeps people in abusive relationships.

The story is supposed to be outlandish. It is over the top. With the amounts differing by so much. And show us how much God has forgiven us. And what not forgiving does to us. When we don’t forgive those who have wronged us it is as much or more a prison for us.

May we all see and know the love that God has for us, forgiving a debt that could not possibly be repaid. May we love those around us as God loves us, not because it will make God happy, but because of what we have received.

How to pray

7 “When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask. 9 Pray like this:

Our Father who is in heaven,
uphold the holiness of your name.
10 Bring in your kingdom
so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.
11 Give us the bread we need for today.
12 Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you,
just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
13 And don’t lead us into temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.

14 “If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:7-15, CEB)

This is a wonderful model for us to learn to pray from. But have you noticed we really don’t use this as a model, but we pray the words above. Jesus didn’t say, “When you pray, say these exact words.” He said, “Pray like this:”

So why then do we have to say these words each week win worship?

Why can’t we use them as a model?

Gracious daddy,
remind me of how different you are.
Help me see your presence all around me here and now
so we will do what you need us to do here.
Make sure everyone has what they need
Help us to acknowledge when we are wrong
and to forgive those who have wronged us
guide us down your path for us
and pull us out of the mud when we willfully walk in. Amen.

That is a model for how we can pray everyday!

Evil turned good

9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was with him, however, 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. The grace and wisdom he gave Joseph were recognized by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole palace. 11 A famine came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great hardship came with it. Our ancestors had nothing to eat. 12 When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13 During their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five in all—and invited them to live with him. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a certain sum of money from Hamor’s children, who lived in Shechem. (Acts 7:9-16, CEB)

Sometimes bad things happen because people think they know better than God. The brothers of Joseph didn’t like him because their father seemed to like him more than the rest of the kids. Now as a parent I try to make it clear to my children that I love them all the same and I can tell you that I fail at that every time. My hope is they know that I love them as much as they need to be loved because I can not actually love them, all the same, all the time. I will love one more when they need love, or maybe a better way to say that is I will show one more love at the moment they need it.

But how ever I love my children or Joseph’s father loved his children, his brothers did evil to him because they knew better what needed to happen than God. And when we take actions into our own hands and do what we know to be best for us and those around us, sometimes evil happens. But God works in and through all things. I have seen this and experienced it first hand.

Believe that God is always with you, and a seed is buried in the ground and uses that to grow!

Loving each other

11 This is the message that you heard from the beginning: love each other. 12 Don’t behave like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he kill him? He killed him because his own works were evil, but the works of his brother were righteous. 13 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The person who does not love remains in death.15 Everyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that murderers don’t have eternal life residing in them. 16 This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:11-16, CEB)

Love each other. Seems pretty simple. But obviously it isn’t and hasn’t been for a really long time.

The author of 1 John brings up the offspring of Adam and Eve as an example of how not to love someone. This is an issue that has always plagued the human race.

To love another when they do things that are not helpful or even hurtful to us is not in our nature. But isn’t that what God did for us?

Even when God could not be around because of our sinfulness, God still loved us.

So love the people around you, like God loves you. Faults and all!