Mercy…

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness! My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! (Psalm 57:1-11 ESV)

We all want mercy.

We want people to treat us not like feed for the lions. Or to use us for what we can give them. We want to be valued and seen as a productive part of society.

We want to have what we want…

Yet sometimes life gets in the way. But in the midst of the lions all around us and those who would dig a trap for us, we can find the mercy the world will not give us. We an find refuge under the wings of God.

Cry out to the Lord when the world around you seems to use you for their gain, know that the Lord always has a place of refuge for you and will shelter you and shower you with His mercy.

Name

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:22-30 ESV)

Here we see Jacob wrestling with a man…

And morning comes and Jacob will not let the man to unless he blesses him. But the man wants to know Jacob’s name. Because he wants Jacob to confess to the life he has lived by cheating everyone out of what was theirs. Jacob is a cheat.

But instead of the man giving him his due, he changes his name.

Just like God does for us. He takes the names that society gives us and throws them away and calls us His child.

So forget what the world calls you and remember what God calls you: child!

Blind man…

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:46-52, NRSV)

I wonder who the blind man was in this story?

You see I think there were many blind men, as there were many who tried to keep Bartimaeus quiet…

Many sternly ordered him to be quiet… Who were these many?

Were they people standing there, or people from Jericho, or were they disciples, or followers of the way?

Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was and that if he could but see Him his whole world would change…

Do we look at Jesus this way?

Bartimaeus was made to beg because his blindness kept him from being an active part of the community, and thus he knew that if he could but see Jesus he would be accepted as a whole person. He knew that his understanding of who Jesus was/is would bring him back into the life everyone else knew as normal.

Do we look on Jesus as the one who can make our lives normal?

Do we look on Jesus as the one who will change our very existence?

Do we use Jesus to get what we want?

You see it would be easy for Bartimaeus to stay the way he is. He knows how to beg and obviously was doing ok, he is still alive… But to see Jesus means he can’t beg any more and he will have to work for his living.

Why risk it?

Is that how we want it?

Jesus just let me be blind and sit here and beg… I’m better on my own…

Or are we ready to shout all the louder when the world tells us, orders us sternly to be quiet?

I’m ready to see Jesus! To risk getting a life that is filled with beautiful colors and imagery and unlike anything I have ever known!

How about you?

Are you a blind person who wants to see?

help…

I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore. (Psalm 121, NRSV)

Where do you get help when you need it?

When you are walking in the valley and the world seems to be closing in around you, where do you go for help?

The psalmist says that his help comes from the Lord, the creator of everything. The Lord neither slumber or sleeps, so He is always available. He is your shade and protection against the sun, moon, stars, wind, rain and all things! He protects you.

The Lord will keep you in all ways and be your protection.

So look up and see the Lord is there for you. and know He is your help.

unknown God…

Then Paul stood in front of the 040118_08 and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.” Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. (Acts 17:22-34, NRSV)

To an unknown god…

How many of us have ever said who is god?

Or where is god?

We get hung up on the things we can see and touch and sense that we get lost on the things that just are and we have to take on faith!

Paul told the Athenians that their unknown god was very known to Paul and could be to them to. He explained who Jesus was, and when Paul got to the part where God raised Jesus from the dead, they lost it. They couldn’t take it because it was not logical and it did not make sense because they had never seen that.

We get so hung up on the possibility of something we can not see.

I have never seen the wind, but I know it exists. Yes I can see the effects of the wind, and I can feel the wind. But I have never actually seen the wind.

I can feel the effects of God and see the effect He has in peoples lives. And I have never seen anyone rise from the dead. But I take it on faith that I will rise, just like He did, because God said it would happen.

We can not get hung up on the logic of understanding who God is, but we also can not take blind acceptance of what we are fed either.

God gave us all minds to use and to question our faith and Him. He is big enough to take your questions.

So wonder where He is…

Wonder how He interacts with your life…

Then think about it and talk it over with a friend over coffee or tea or a beer…

Let Him know you wonder, because He is always wondering about you and looking for you to live the life He has in store for you.

So question the unknown god, but know that He is always there ready to be known by you!

give without payment

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. (Matthew 10:5-15, NRSV)

We have hit a bump in the road…

When you go somewhere to do the Lord’s work take no money, or a change of clothes. You need nothing as all will be provided. But do not take any extra, for you received without paying and therefore must give without receiving payment…

Yet I ask you, when are you going anywhere that you are not up to the Lord’s work?

If you are a child of God, then every where you go and everything you do is for the Lord.

If is an interesting word. It is the smallest biggest word in the English language, because if it is then… Plus for me the interesting thing about the Greek word for if can also mean since…

So since you are a child of God you are going everywhere and doing everything for God. So there is nothing you need to be paid for… That is there is nothing you need to get gain from. We are all paid by the blessings and mercy we receive from God, and that which we receive for being His work, but to want, or seek gain, or goods for doing God’s work is not what we are called to do.

He will provide for us, as He always has. Go and do what He has called you to do and give without payment!

WIIFM?

But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off too lightly by not accepting from him what he offered. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.” So Gehazi went after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he jumped down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is everything all right?” He replied, “Yes, but my master has sent me to say, ‘Two members of a company of prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim; please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.'” Naaman said, “Please accept two talents.” He urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to two of his servants, who carried them in front of Gehazi. When he came to the citadel, he took the bags from them, and stored them inside; he dismissed the men, and they left.  He went in and stood before his master; and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant has not gone anywhere at all.” But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when someone left his chariot to meet you? Is this a time to accept money and to accept clothing, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you, and to your descendants forever.” So he left his presence leprous, as white as snow. (2 Kings 5:19b-27, NRSV)

Elisha took no payment from Naaman because this was the work God has led him to do and there was no need for any extra payments. We receive from the Lord…

Yet you still think in the back of your head, really is that it? As if what God will give you needs this question.

Yet we all wonder from time to time what’s in it for me? We want to get our fair share and here Gehazi sees a way to get a little bit from this. And so he goes and gets silver and clothing…

But what did he really get? He got a disease and removed from community, because he was not content with what Elisha gave him, or God gave him. We need to be content with what we have, and with what God gives us.

It is far better than whatever we will come up with when we start asking what’s in it for me…

 

No payment

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!” He urged him to accept, but he refused. Then Naaman said, “If not, please let two mule-loads of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god except the Lord. But may the Lord pardon your servant on one count: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I do bow down in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant on this one count.” He said to him, “Go in peace.” (2 Kings 5:15-19a, NRSV)

Naaman was just healed of his disease and he wants to repay the man who did it for him.

We have all been there. Someone does something nice for us and we want to show our gratitude.

Only difference here is, Elisha is not really the one who did it for Naaman. And when we do tho gs for the Lord and people want to repay us, we should not accept, because it is not us, but God and we do not do the will of God for selfish gain, or prizes.

We are to do as God leads us, knowing the promises He has made and the blessings we have already received, not for what is to come to us.

God has richly blessed us to be a blessing, and that is all the payment we should need!

Thankful…

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19, NRSV)

10 are healed…

One comes back to the one who healed 10 and falls at His feet to give thanks!

All 10 are cleansed, and healed of the disease that is keeping them from the community…

But one is made well by his faith. Or he was saved by his faith. He asked for healing and by being thankful for what he was given he was made whole, well, or saved!

What are you thankful for?

Do you focus on your needs or what you have been given?

Be thankful or what you have and remember to give thanks!