Mysterious

God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep! They are as mysterious as his judgments, and they are as hard to track as his paths! Who has known the Lord’s mind? Or who has been his mentor? Or who has given him a gift and has been paid back by him? All things are from him and through him and for him. May the glory be to him forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36, CEB)

God’s ways are mysterious. We do not know what God is going to do, and usually are surprised by the paths God takes us down.

Our ways are not God’s way. God does things in the way that will work for the world, not to make us happy.

Follow and be amazed.

Love!

“You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete. (Matthew 5:43-48, CEB)

You have heard it said. This is Jesus telling you that what you are doing is not enough. Everyone loves those who love them and hate and despise those who think, look, and act differently from them. What sets followers of Jesus apart from others?

They will know we are followers of Jesus by our:

Telling others loudly that they are sinners?
Pointing out the way others live that does not fit our understanding?
Making sure people see us give to charity?
Forcing people to live the way we think they should live?

No. None of these things show that we know who God is or that God is living in our lives.

Love. Love for all.

We need to love like Jesus.

obtain

So what are we going to say? Gentiles who weren’t striving for righteousness achieved righteousness, the righteousness that comes from faith. But though Israel was striving for a Law of righteousness, they didn’t arrive. Why? It’s because they didn’t go for it by faith but they went for it as if it could be reached by doing something. They have tripped over a stumbling block. As it is written: Look! I’m putting a stumbling block in Zion, which is a rock that offends people. And the one who has faith in him will not be put to shame. Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire is for Israel’s salvation. That’s my prayer to God for them. I can vouch for them: they are enthusiastic about God. However, it isn’t informed by knowledge. They don’t submit to God’s righteousness because they don’t understand his righteousness, and they try to establish their own righteousness. Christ is the goal of the Law, which leads to righteousness for all who have faith in God. (Romans 9:30 —10:4, CEB)

Striving for righteousness as something we can work towards and do enough to achieve is not how it works. Righteousness is not something we obtain by doing the right number of good deeds for others. We need to trust, have faith in God that the promise of righteousness is true, and in that, obtain righteousness. Not from doing but just being.

Just being who God created us as is how we get righteousness, because God gives it.

Now that does not mean we do not do anything. But we do because we have obtained, not to obtain.

We love because we have been and are loved.

Why do you do what you do?

others

So don’t let anyone judge you about eating or drinking or about a festival, a new moon observance, or sabbaths. These religious practices are only a shadow of what was coming—the body that cast the shadow is Christ. Don’t let anyone who wants to practice harsh self-denial and worship angels rob you of the prize. They go into detail about what they have seen in visions and have become unjustifiably arrogant by their selfish way of thinking. They don’t stay connected to the head. The head nourishes and supports the whole body through the joints and ligaments, so the body grows with a growth that is from God. If you died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts, why do you submit to rules and regulations as though you were living in the world? “Don’t handle!” “Don’t taste!” “Don’t touch!” All these things cease to exist when they are used. Such rules are human commandments and teachings. They look like they are wise with this self-made religion and their self-denial by the harsh treatment of the body, but they are no help against indulging in selfish immoral behavior. Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. (Colossians 2:16—3:1, CEB)

Do not get pulled down by others who say you are not worshiping God the right way. Stay connected to Christ, and you will be fed.

Some will say you have to deny yourself or you are not actually worshipping God, or that you should worship beings other than God. Remember we are to not have an idol that separates us from God, and love the Lord your God is the first commandment, and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. When we love people and love God, we are fulfilling the need of the scriptures, so when others tell you different, that is their law and nothing for you to be concerned with.

Love People. Love God. Stay connected to Christ.

really?!?

Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, uphold the holiness of your name. Bring in your kingdom. Give us the bread we need for today. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us. And don’t lead us into temptation.’” He also said to them, “Imagine that one of you has a friend and you go to that friend in the middle of the night. Imagine saying, ‘Friend, loan me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has arrived and I have nothing to set before him.’ Imagine further that he answers from within the house, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his friend’s brashness. And I tell you: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened. “Which father among you would give a snake to your child if the child asked for a fish? If a child asked for an egg, what father would give the child a scorpion? If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:1-13, CEB)

Have you ever asked God for something and not gotten it?

Jesus just said, “And I tell you: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.”

When you ask, you get; when you look, you find; when you knock, it is opened.

I’m sorry it has not happened this way for me. I’ve asked for things that did not happen.

But here is the thing. I know God is good and the things God has in store for me are far better than I could ever imagine, so when I ask for something and God has something better planned, I know They just laugh and go, just wait.

Do not get hung up in your plans. God’s are way better.

Faith

One day Jesus and his disciples boarded a boat. He said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail. While they were sailing, he fell asleep. Gale-force winds swept down on the lake. The boat was filling up with water and they were in danger. So they went and woke Jesus, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” But he got up and gave orders to the wind and the violent waves. The storm died down and it was calm. He said to his disciples, “Where is your faith?” Filled with awe and wonder, they said to each other, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him!” (Luke 8:22-25, CEB)

Where is your faith?

I have said a lot lately, the opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.

There were several times when I lived in Wisconsin and was out with friends on their sailboats, I was uncertain about the conditions and what would happen, but I always had faith in the boat and the captain. The person leading us on our adventures knew how to see the conditions and then what to do, and if we listened and helped, everything worked out. I had faith in their abilities.

Jesus was asleep on the boat, so how bad was this storm? And if the disciples see him sleeping, why are they worried? That should show Jesus is at ease if he is sleeping through the storm.

We want to be certain of how things will work, but that leaves no room for faith.

Trust that your life is in the hands of the one who created everything, and then have faith it will work out.

Where is your faith?

fleshed out

“Fellow Israelites, listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man whose credentials God proved to you through miracles, wonders, and signs, which God performed through him among you. You yourselves know this. In accordance with God’s established plan and foreknowledge, he was betrayed. You, with the help of wicked men, had Jesus killed by nailing him to a cross. God raised him up! God freed him from death’s dreadful grip, since it was impossible for death to hang on to him. David says about him,
I foresaw that the Lord was always with me;
    because he is at my right hand I won’t be shaken.
Therefore, my heart was glad
    and my tongue rejoiced.
Moreover, my body will live in hope,
        because you won’t abandon me to the grave,
    nor permit your holy one to experience decay.
You have shown me the paths of life;
    your presence will fill me with happiness.
“Brothers and sisters, I can speak confidently about the patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this very day. Because he was a prophet, he knew that God promised him with a solemn pledge to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Having seen this beforehand, David spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he wasn’t abandoned to the grave, nor did his body experience decay. This Jesus God raised up. We are all witnesses to that fact. He was exalted to God’s right side and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit, and you are seeing and hearing the results of his having done so. David didn’t ascend into heaven. Yet he says, The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right side, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ “Therefore, let all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:22-36, CEB)

Jesus was a man. He lived and was killed.

He was the promise of God to David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever.

Jesus came and lived to show us God’s love fleshed out.

How do we live God’s love fleshed out?

Do you give more than you get, and focus on the other rather than yourself?

Be God’s love fleshed out in the world.

everyone is replaceable

During this time, the family of believers was a company of about one hundred twenty persons. Peter stood among them and said, “Brothers and sisters, the scripture that the Holy Spirit announced beforehand through David had to be fulfilled. This was the scripture concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. This happened even though he was one of us and received a share of this ministry.” (In fact, he bought a field with the payment he received for his injustice. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines spilled out. This became known to everyone living in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Hakeldama, or “Field of Blood.”) “It is written in the Psalms scroll, Let his home become deserted and let there be no one living in it; and Give his position of leadership to another. (Acts 1:15-20, CEB)

Give his position to another.

When our time to leave has come, we must take leave.

But the leadership we have done will continue by another.

All of us are replaceable. Do not think someone else can not do what you do. Maybe instead, think about those who will come after you and prepare the way for them.

We are all interim ministers to the world in what we do. How can we prepare the world for those who come after us, and the people we serve, to accept those who come after us?

Prepare for leaving, know God will bless you and those you serve.

who do you know?

The Jewish opposition grumbled about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son, whose mother and father we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus responded, “Don’t grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless they are drawn to me by the Father who sent me, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. I assure you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that whoever eats from it will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:41-51, CEB)

The people against him grumbled because they thought they knew who he was. “Isn’t this Joseph’s boy?” Like they knew everything about him from this one thing.

Or if they did know him, he hasn’t changed, or grown, or learned and modified he he is.

I can guarantee that people who knew me in high school who have not maintained contact with me do not know me. They know the me I was then, but I have changed, matured (stop laughing), and grown. I am not who they think I am.

And that is what is supposed to happen in life. People change and grow.

The only person we really know is ourselves. And sometimes I question whether I know him.

liar

My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is God’s way of dealing with our sins, not only ours but the sins of the whole world. This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. But the love of God is truly perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know we are in him. The one who claims to remain in him ought to live in the same way as he lived. (1 John 2:1-6, CEB)

The one who claims “I know him,” while not keeping the commandments, is a liar.

Anyone who says they love God and takes away care and funding for people in need is a liar.

Anyone who does hateful things to people who are not like them does not keep the commandments and is a liar and does not love God.

Hate in the name of God makes you a liar.

Don’t be a liar.