Compare

“How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. You say, ‘If we had lived in our ancestors’ days, we wouldn’t have joined them in killing the prophets.’ You testify against yourselves that you are children of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, complete what your ancestors did. You snakes! You children of snakes! How will you be able to escape the judgment of hell? Therefore, look, I’m sending you prophets, wise people, and legal experts. Some of them you will kill and crucify. And some you will beat in your synagogues and chase from city to city. Therefore, upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been poured out on the earth, from the blood of that righteous man Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. I assure you that all these things will come upon this generation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your people together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you didn’t want that. Look, your house is left to you deserted. I tell you, you won’t see me until you say, Blessings on the one who comes in the Lord’s name.” (Matthew 23:29-39, CEB)

We shouldn’t compare ourselves to people from the past.

We shouldn’t even compare ourselves to our old selves, unless it is to see how far we have come, knowing we still have miles and miles to go.

We say if we had been there we wouldn’t have done what they did. But we honestly don’t know how mob mentality would effect us. Or what we would have done. We may not have the information we do now and what they did was what seemed like the right choice.

We did what we could with what we knew, and now we know better so we do better.

Do better

Don’t compare…

Loving People. Loving God.

Humility

I don’t want you to be unaware of this secret, brothers and sisters. That way you won’t think too highly of yourselves. A part of Israel has become resistant until the full number of the Gentiles comes in. In this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodly behavior from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. According to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but according to God’s choice, they are loved for the sake of their ancestors. God’s gifts and calling can’t be taken back. Once you were disobedient to God, but now you have mercy because they were disobedient. In the same way, they have also been disobedient because of the mercy that you received, so now they can receive mercy too. God has locked up all people in disobedience, in order to have mercy on all of them. (Romans 11:25-32, CEB)

We are to be humble in that we do not draw attention to ourselves so that we get recognition. This is not to say we let people walk all over us or we shy away from proclaiming our gifts.

For the longest time, I have downgraded myself as a musician and not told people about that part of my life. I am now living into it and letting people know. I have met many new and wonderful people because of this.

Also, I had a conversation the other day about the ministry I serve and fundraising and I commented that my biggest issue for asking for money for that ministry is that when you boil it down to the brass tax, I am asking people to pay my salary and I don’t like doing that. My friend said, “Why don’t you deserve to get paid?” I have gifts to do the ministry I am doing here and in order for that to happen, I deserve to take care of my family, which means I get paid and compensated for the gifts I have that allow me to do this. This is not bragging so I get noticed, it is lifting up the gifts I have been given by God to be who I am.

Be humble. Don’t draw attention to yourself, but allow your gifts to shine to show who you are in God’s love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Jesus Christ Crucified

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, CEB)

I made up my mind not to think of anything except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

This is key to Paul. Jesus was the Messiah and he was crucified and rose from the dead.

We don’t need great speech or wisdom or anything else. All we need is to know Christ and him crucified.

That is the power we need for life.

Loving People. Loving God.

them…

Some people from Jerusalem said, “Isn’t he the one they want to kill? Here he is, speaking in public, yet they aren’t saying anything to him. Could it be that our leaders actually think he is the Christ? We know where he is from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he exclaimed, “You know me and where I am from. I haven’t come on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” So they wanted to seize Jesus, but they couldn’t because his time hadn’t yet come. Many from that crowd believed in Jesus. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man does?” The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about Jesus, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent guards to arrest him. Therefore, Jesus said, “I’m still with you for a little while before I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come.” The Jewish opposition asked each other, “Where does he intend to go that we can’t find him? Surely he doesn’t intend to go where our people have been scattered and are living among the Greeks! He isn’t going to teach the Greeks, is he? What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me, but you won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come’?” (John 7:25-36, CEB)

What does Jesus mean that he is going where we can’t find him? Is he going to teach them?

Any time we single out a group we make an us and them situation, whether that was our intent or not. The problem with the country we live in and the world is we make to many things an us verses them issue. We are the body of Christ, all of humanity. The longer we make it about them, we keep the body from being whole.

We need to love like Jesus. Unconditionaly.

Loving People. Loving God.

Focus on others

Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. Think about the things above and not things on earth. You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. So put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth, such as sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). The wrath of God is coming upon disobedient people because of these things. You used to live this way, when you were alive to these things. But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language. Don’t lie to each other. Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it. In this image there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all people. (Colossians 3:1-11, CEB)

The things we are to put to death are the things that make us focus on ourselves.

When we focus on our needs and not the needs of those around us we lose focus of God.

Look to the needs of others.

Love Like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

We are worthless…

So what are we saying? Are we better off? Not at all. We have already stated the charge: both Jews and Greeks are all under the power of sin. As it is written, There is no righteous person, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who looks for God. They all turned away. They have become worthless together. There is no one who shows kindness. There is not even one. Their throat is a grave that has been opened. They are deceitful with their tongues, and the poison of vipers is under their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are quick to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and they don’t know the way of peace. There is no fear of God in their view of the world. Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, in order to shut every mouth and make it so the whole world has to answer to God. It follows that no human being will be treated as righteous in his presence by doing what the Law says, because the knowledge of sin comes through the Law. (Romans 3:9-20, CEB)

Paul says here that all of us fall short.

And as I typed the title for this I recall a conversation with a student who was with me for a resource fair at Texas A&M. We have stickers that say You Matter. This student took the stickers and said we need to get rid of these because they lie. The student was joking but we all look at ourselves as if we are worthless. And Paul here is reinforcing that. But Paul also says that we are all under the power of sin and because of that we are worthless. We turn in on ourselves and think only about us and what is best for us.

In Christ though we are made new and not worthless but priceless.

We all fall short, but that doesn’t matter.

You are not worthless.

God sees you as priceless.

Love like God.

Loving People. Loving God.

Know your place…

Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.” He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him. Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.” After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:27-38, CEB)

We are supposed to be behind Jesus. If we see his face, we are in the wrong place.

The words here Jesus says to Peter are the same words Jesus uses to call the disciples to follow him. Get behind me, is translated earlier as follow me. We are not buddies with Jesus, but modeling our life after his and following where he leads us.

We need to give up control and do what God called us to do.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Who and what?

When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I have a question for you. If you tell me the answer, I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?” They argued among themselves, “If we say ‘from heaven,’ he’ll say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But we can’t say ‘from humans’ because we’re afraid of the crowd, since everyone thinks John was a prophet.” Then they replied, “We don’t know.” Jesus also said to them, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. “What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ “‘No, I don’t want to,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. “The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ But he didn’t go. “Which one of these two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first one.” Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you. For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn’t believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and you didn’t believe him. (Matthew 21:23-32, CEB)

This is an interesting pairing.

First Jesus answers a question with a question and then he tells a parable to ask a question.

Which son did what the father asked. Well actually neither.

The first one told his father no which is actually against the commandments. The second son said yes and didn’t go. The first one only went because he felt guilty. We should not do things out of guilt.

We need to not worry about what others will say to what we know is the truth either.

Speak the truth at all times. Show love in everything you do.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Dead faith?

In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. (James 2:17-26, CEB)

We can say we have faith but if we act like we don’t then do we really have faith?

The same goes for loving people. We can say we love people, but if we show them we don’t then do we really love people?

Faith without works really isn’t faith. God loves us and wants us to love others, we show that through how we act to the world.

Show your faith.

Love the world like God loves you.

Loving People. Loving God.

By faith

By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested. The one who received the promises was offering his only son. He had been told concerning him, Your legitimate descendants will come from Isaac. He figured that God could even raise him from the dead. So in a way he did receive him back from the dead. By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau concerning their future. By faith Jacob blessed each of Joseph’s sons as he was dying and bowed in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph recalled the exodus of the Israelites at the end of his life, and gave instructions about burying his bones. (Hebrews 11:17-22, CEB)

Abraham was promised by God that his descendants would number more than the stars or the sand on the beach. But he waited until he was 100 to have a son from his wife, and then was asked by God to sacrifice the boy. What would you have done?

Would you have been like Abraham and followed through or would you have questioned the whole thing? I think maybe even Abraham was a little concerned at the point of leaving to go up the mountain. But he went.

Abraham trusted God’s promises.

Do we?

Do you trust the promises of God enough to let go and let God have control?

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.