delivered
Save me, O God, by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For the insolent have risen against me,
the ruthless seek my life;
they do not set God before them.
But surely, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will repay my enemies for their evil.
In your faithfulness, put an end to them.
With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
(Psalm 54, NRSV)
I will give thanks to the Lord for He has delivered me from trouble, not because I was never headed the wrong direction, but because He listened to my cries and my prayers and helped me in my time of need.
He bent His ear to my supplications and helped me overcome the trials that were too much for me on my own.
He listened, and heard my need.
He came to my help.
He delivered me!
cast
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:6-11, NRSV)
Humble yourself under God.
Acknowledge you are not in control, and follow His commands.
In doing this, you free yourself to cast all of your cares in Him. And you can do this because He cares for you.
He will never leave you nor forsake you, for He cares for you.
You are a sheep of His redeeming, a lamb of His fold.
Cast your burdens, concerns and cares upon Him and allow Him to have His way in your life!
Doing good
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:13-17, NRSV)
Who will harm you if you are doing good?
Have you ever helped some one and just left behind in the dirt?
But you see here is the thing, we are called to be salt and light.
We are called to give up our coat, and to walk a mile in the others shoes, so that we can show forth His love to the world.
Not so we can be treated right, or fairly, or anything.
We are to show His love because He called us to.
So follow after Hi and know that your reward is in heaven, and keep showing His love.
Cross-eyed
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:1-13, NRSV)
This passage describes what Jesus endured for us.
He could have stepped out of this at any point being He was/is God, but He didn’t.
He is the one we should fix ours eyes upon and look to and follow.
That is how I learned Hebrews 12:2 Fix your eyes upon Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith! He is the one that made our faith and He is the one that perfected it. He is the one we should see, and if you do not see Him, then you need to refocus your self!
So be cross-eyed, and always look upon Jesus!
Rubbish!
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:7-16, NRSV)
This passage is wonderful and a part of a great book.
But here Paul tells the Philippians to press on in life and not let the stuff around them take hold of them and keep them from God.
Paul said that he has suffered the loss of all things and has regarded them as “rubbish”. At least the NRSV says rubbish, the KJV says dung… The word in the Greek is σκύβαλα (skubala). It means dung, filth, refuse. But its derivation is uncertain according to my Greek dictionary. This si probably because this is the only time this word is used in all of the Bible and it is hardly used, if at all, in other Greek literature. I was taught this was probably a street term used by Paul to make a point. All things are shit next to the saving power of Christ!
You see we can press on towards the goal of obtaining the gift of eternal life, forgetting everything that is behind us, because really what does all of this matter. If we are pressing on towards God and the life that Jesus has for us, all of life is nothing compared to the immeasurable joy we will have in Him.
So press on! Knowing He will always be with you.
Not Ashamed
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17, NRSV)
How does your life speak that you follow Christ?
Or does it not speak that you follow Christ?
All of our life, not just the hour we go to worship needs to point people towards God.
How do we proclaim His love through deed and word?
Declare our loyalties…
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:27-38, NRSV)
What is the one thing that gives you the greatest joy?
I’m sure we could think of many things that give us joy, but what is the one thing that seems to always make us feel like we have accomplished something, that we have a great joy deep down in our soul? Frederick Buechner said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
But what keeps us from that?
We can see in our reading for today that Peter seemed to get it. And he proclaimed it loud and proud, in Caesarea Philippi, the place where Pan was worshipped surrounded by pagan gods and goddesses, and statues, and all kinds of distractions.
It would be like being in the Mall of America and claiming Jesus was the Messiah. Or at Lambeau Field! In the midst of the things that can draw us away from God.
So what are the distractions in your life?
How can you focus your life on Christ and follow Him?
And not the God we want, like Peter wanted, but the actual God we get.
The God who meets us in our vulnerability and lifts us up to Him.
How can we direct all of our life to Him?
Give Him back everything He has given us, and live our life for the God that lifted us, not the God we want to keep in a box.
So push the distractions aside and live your life for God, in the midst of a world that tries to draw you from Him, stay focused. And declare your loyalty to the one who asks you to bear your cross.
And you will soon learn that bearing the cross is not a punishment, but a release to the life He has in store for you.
The Lord will save me!
O Lord, by these things people live,
and in all these is the life of my spirit.
Oh, restore me to health and make me live!
Surely it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but you have held back my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
For Sheol cannot thank you,
death cannot praise you;
those who go down to the Pit cannot hope
for your faithfulness.
The living, the living, they thank you,
as I do this day;
fathers make known to children
your faithfulness.
The LORD will save me,
and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
at the house of the LORD.
(Isaiah 38:16-20, NRSV)
God will save us!
He will restore us to the health He has for us!
He will make us live!
And because of all of this we will sing to Him in His house for all eternity on stringed instruments and show Him our praise and thanksgiving!
a few quick provisos, quid pro quos
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37, NRSV)
When I read this text this time, because it is the story of the Good Samaritan, like there could not be a good Samaritan…
The lawyer stands to test Jesus, so he already had it in his heart that no matter what the answer was good/bad, right/wrong, there would be a retort. The lawyer was not letting Jesus off the hook easy here. So after the lawyer answered what the law says, and Jesus commended him and told him to go and do just that, the laywer then, “wanting to justify himself.” As if doing what Jesus said is not good enough, now we have to put a few provisos, a few quid pro quos into place.
And don’t we all do that? Limit where Jesus love, grace and mercy can reach?
We want to know who we can forget about and who we actually have to help.
Well here is the answer: there is no limit to God’s love, mercy and grace, otherwise you would not be included.
So you have to love everyone.
You have to offer grace to everyone.
You have to offer mercy to everyone.
There are no provisos on God’s love!
aSacredRebel 