follow

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 9:57-62, NRSV)

I will follow wherever you go!

We are so quick to jump on the band wagon and put our loyalties in God. And don’t get me wrong, I think we all should. We should all trust in God and follow where He leads.

The problem is things get in the way of that.

Let me go and bury my father.

Let me go say farewell to my household.

Let me first take of this.

We all get distracted when we need to be focused on Jesus.

Because you see God’s plan is not our plan. We want it our way, which is fine if the church were Burger King, but it is God’s house and so we must follow where He is leading us!

what must I do

Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”  He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22, NRSV)

This is a great interchange between Jesus and what could be any of us…

The person asks, “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

What do I have to do to get the gift, we all want to know, right!

And Jesus replies, “Don’t ask me about what is good, only God is good, keep the commandments.”

And here is where the conversation gets good.

The person replies, “which ones?” I need to know what I have to do and what I don’t have to do.

Which part of the Bible do I need to follow and what is up for interpretation!

Then when Jesus tells him the commandments to keep, the person replies, “I’ve kept all of those!”

Really?

You’ve never thought bad thoughts about any one…

You’ve never looked on another person lustfully…

You’ve never thought about or taken anything from someone else…

You’ve never said something about someone else that wasn’t the full truth…

You’ve always honored your mother and father and never said anything cross about them…

And you’ve loved everyone as you love yourself…

Well then ok, then you only lack this one thing.

Why is it so hard to love like Jesus? Because He loved (loves) everyone where they are and doesn’t need them to be perfect before He will love them.

Stop worrying about how to make Jesus happy and start looking at the needs of others, then Jesus will be happy!

fall away

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:1-8, NRSV)

I love this passage for the shear engineering aspects of creating a golden calf out of gold in the desert. I mean what kind of tools did they have?

But more to the point of the passage for this week.

The people saw Moses go up the mountain to have time with God and when he didn’t return in the amount of time they saw fit, they gave up on him.

How easily we give up things we can not see, or do not fit our understanding.

We want everything to be our way, now. But that is not how it happens.

God works in strange and mysterious ways and on His own time-table.

So trust in God and don’t fall away, even if His timing is slower than you would like, His plan is perfect.

crosseyed

April 16Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:56-69, NRSV)

Have you ever wanted to walk away from your faith?

The people following Jesus here had for a while and now they hear what Jesus is saying and it is too hard for them.

Sometimes life has a way of slapping us upside the face and we want to retreat into a nice dark hole and keep everything away.

Trust me I know this I have been there. When it seems like everything is going against you. Every where you turn there is rejection. Every where you turn seems to be another door slammed in your face. It is hard to keep moving forward.

So why do we? I kept moving forward because of my faith. I kept the faith not because it was easy, or honestly because it felt like God was there with me, but because of the promises it gave me.

Even when I couldn’t feel God with me, He was! Mother Teresa helped so many people when she lived in what she termed “the dark night of the soul.” She did nto feel God close to her! Yet she continued to serve andhelp others see and experience God. Now I am not saying I am anything like Mother Teresa, far from it my friends, but we do not have to feel God near us in order for us to continue in the faith!

What makes the 12 any different from those who left?

Peter’s answer is the best one yet, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Even when it is hard, we know were to look!

Keep your eyes focused on Jesus. Be Cross Eyed, constantly focused on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith!

Know your focus!

 

Feast!

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
(Psalm 36:7-9, NRSV)

God gives us everything we need.

We get to take refuge in the shadow of His wing, and we get to feast on the abundance of His house!

We are given drink from the fountain of life and He is our light!

What a wonderful time we have in store for us!

Are you ready to feast?

What can I do?

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:1-7, NRSV)

Have you ever found yourself asking the question, “What can I do?”

We seem to get caught in this web of deceit, seems like a good way for the devil to work. What can one person do?

Well Martin Luther would tell us we all have a gift to use in service to God, and we serve in the way He called us to we free others to use their gifts.

You see the apostles were serving food and distributing things. Which is not bad work, but was work that needed to be done by someone else so the apostles could do what they needed to. We all have a gift to use in the ministry of God, and by doing it we free others to use their gifts.

So know you are chosen to a task in the mission of God.

So what can you do?

 

abundance of what?

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.  And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21, NRSV)

I always found this verse to be a bit humorous…

The man asked Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him, which leads to questions about their father and dynamics of the family, which may not be funny, but I always find Jesus answer a bit humorous, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

The gospels seem to make it clear that while He was here He was not to judge, but He is coming back, to judge us, or to over see what will happen. We know He is coming back…

But Jesus tells us here clearly in the rest of this verse that it is not about what we have in possessions. Jesus is the first to say, “You can’t take it with you!”

We do not need to make barns to store our abundance and keep things for ourselves when there are others around us in need.

The kids at the VBS at the congregation I serve learned this year that God’s plan is to love us forever and He does that by loving through us. We see God’s love for us and for others, by being the beacon of God’s love in our communities. So love the people around you like God loves you, extravagantly!

If you love like God, then you will be rich beyond your wildest imagination and you will have an abundance!

What would you give?

Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. When the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us food! Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.” And Joseph answered, “Give me your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” So they brought their livestock to Joseph; and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock. When that year was ended, they came to him the following year, and said to him, “We can not hide from my lord that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. Shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; just give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.” So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you; sow the land. And at the harvests you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” They said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh.” So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh’s. (Genesis 47:13-26, NRSV)

What would you give up to feed your family?

There was a severe famine in all of the land, and people gave all of their money, and then their land to Pharaoh so they could eat.

They literally gave everything they had except themselves.

Which led me to think about this passage as I read it, what do we give to God?

Do you give God all of your money?

Do you give God all of your land?

Do you give God your family?

Do you give God yourself?

Or maybe the better question is, what don’t we give God?

You see everything we have is already His. He gave us our family and our land, our money and our home. What are we holding back from Him?

Are we ready to give Him our lives, so that He can give us the life He has for us?

given food

Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten up the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.” But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food; but if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and let us be on our way, so that we may live and not die—you and we and also our little ones. I myself will be surety for him; you can hold me accountable for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.” Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry them down as a present to the man—a little balm and a little honey, gum, resin, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the top of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. Take your brother also, and be on your way again to the man; may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, so that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” So the men took the present, and they took double the money with them, as well as Benjamin. Then they went on their way down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. (Genesis 43:1-15, NRSV)

The brothers of Joseph sold him off to slavery because they did not like the way they were treated differently by their father.

But what they intended for evil, came around to be for their good.

Joseph in their time of need was there to provide for them.

He gave them food when they needed it.

And once again God turns things that were evil into something that is good…

So follow God and He will give you what you need.

Need food

Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten up the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.” But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food; but if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and let us be on our way, so that we may live and not die—you and we and also our little ones. I myself will be surety for him; you can hold me accountable for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.” Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry them down as a present to the man—a little balm and a little honey, gum, resin, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the top of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. Take your brother also, and be on your way again to the man; may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, so that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” So the men took the present, and they took double the money with them, as well as Benjamin. Then they went on their way down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. (Genesis 43:1-15, NRSV)

There was a severe drought in all of the land and people needed food.

Have you ever needed food?

When you did not have anything to eat, and no resources to get something to eat?

Most of us have never had to deal with this situation. We may have been down on our luck for a while, or had times where money was tight…

But these brothers of Joseph had nothing and had to go and ask for a hand out.

That is a hard place to be, and a scary place, yet we can hold to what the Bible promises, that God will always be there for us.

So what would you have done if you were in their shoes?