Examine whose life?
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10 ESV
How many of you hate to take tests? I know I am not all that fond of them. I get worried whether I have all the right stuff in my head, if I studied the right things. Do I remember everything I need to know.
Then after, or during, the test there is second guessing. Did I answer that question right? Was it A or was it C? Which one?
And today Paul is telling the Corinthians to make sure they are in the faith. That they have examined their lives and determined if they are following Jesus. We are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. We are to test ourselves.
Hold on. Did you hear what Paul said? He said we are suppose to examine the lives of the people we worship with, or work with and determine whether or not their lives are following after Jesus from our standpoint. Right we are to test all other people and determine if they are followers of Christ. No that is not what Paul said. He said to test yourself. Not others. We are suppose to be making sure we are following after Christ, doing what is right even when we don’t. We are to make sure our lives are right, not anyone else’s. We are not the judge of anyone’s life but our own. Christ is the judge of all, not me or you.
So test yourself, and walk in the path Jesus has set before you and allow that to be what shows His love and grace to all.
Set free, whose way?
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, (Luke 9:37-43 ESV)
O faithless and twisted generation… Wow! How do we take this? Jesus asks how long does He have to bear with us. Wo is He bearing with? The ,an asking for his son to be set free or the disciples? And why were the disciples not able to cast the demon out?
We can only speculate, as Luke does not go into it specifically. When Jesus hears the boy is held by a power and the disciples could not cast it out, He knows why, but does not tells us right out. He asks how long He has to put up with our faithless and twisted generation… Oh if Jesus were here now what would He say?
Why are they faithless and twisted? Why can the disciples not cast out the demons?
Maybe the generation is faithless and twisted and can’t cast the demons out because of the reason they are trying to cast them out. What is the reason the disciples are trying to cast out the demon? Yes the father asked them to, but are they motivated by freeing the child, or because they want the notoriety of casting out a demon? Why do we do the things we do? Is it because we are truly motivated for others to feel and receive the love of God, or because we want people to see the things we are doing and give us the credit?
You see Jesus is telling us it is not about us, and it is not our way. Jesus calls us to follow and to give everything up and allow Him to guide us and to lead us where are is taking us. It is not my way but His way that matters.
Back door friends…
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22 ESV)
Once we were far of, we were not a part of the circumcised, and were not a part of the hope…
Do you always feel like you are filled with hope?
Life comes at us hard and we it is really easy to get bogged down in the day in and day out tasks in front of us and lose track of the bigger picture. You see we have hope through the promise that God made to Abraham, in the offspring. Jesus has come and bridged the chasm that separated us from the Father. Jesus made us not strangers or aliens, but part of the family.
We are no longer people who have to knock on the door or ring the bell, but we can open the door and walk right in. We know where the key is, or the code to the garage door. We are a part, we belong. And that is the hope. When everything else in life is falling apart we have the best gift we could ever have by being accepted into the family of God. We are now all apart of the building that is, and the body of Christ…
Remember when it seems all hope is lost, remember you can always go to God’s house and walk right in the back door!
stumble..
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ESV)
What happens when you trip over something? There you are walking down the street and your foot catches on something… Do you keep walking or do you stop and look back to see what you tripped on?
Most people will look back to see what they tripped over.
And those who think themselves wise and learned think that anything they do not understand is foolishness… We want to think that we have it all together and know all we need to…
What we need to do is let go of our knowledge and our pride and let God have control. Only when we let Him have control will we not stumble and be a beacon of hope for the world!
Perfectionism and Awe
Hello My Name Is ~ Matthew West
What is your name?
You Are More ~ Tenth Avenue North
This song reminds me of what Jesus has done for each of us, as He did for the man bound by “Legion”.
It is not about what you have done, but about what’s been done for you!
Hello my name is…
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:26-39 ESV)
I read a commentary this week about the sad part of this story is the man’s answer to Jesus when He asks him what his name is.
The man does not respond Frank, James, Joeseph, Allan, Henry, or any other name, but he answered Legion, because he is defined by what has taken control of his life. He is no longer who he was but has become the very thing that controls him. And this is something we do to know in our age do we?
You see we have this today as well. People are stil defined by who they were. Alcoholics, drug addicts, sex offenders, and the like are defined by their life and the thing that controls them. We are all in that same boat. When we are alone we think about what we have done and how we are kept from God. We define ourselves by the very thing that are has freed us from. Jesus healed the demoniac and released him from Legion and He will also release you from the very thing that holds you captive.
Remember that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But we are also all set free by Jesus, released from our past failures, released to our future in Him.
Your name is Child of God, received at your baptism, so live out your baptismal promise. Love deeply as you were loved!
what separates us
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. (Isaiah 59:1-8, ESV)
Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened and His ear is not dull. He can always reach you and hear you…
So when it feels like you are far from Him, why is that?
The psalmist makes it clear “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” It is all our doing that moves us away from God. Our nature is what creates the chasm. We are sinners, and that is what God can not be around. Our hands “are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.” We look out for our own good, and try to make ourselves better than we are. We are looking out for number 2. (Ok really that is number 1, but we are not number 1, we are number 2…) We do things that raise us in stature and the eyes of the public. We do it for business and if we are honest we do it in the church. God sees all of this and this is what is keeping Him from us. Motivation is the key… What motivates you do to what you do, is it sacrificial or is it for your own gain?
But back to our sin… Yes we are all sinners and it can define us, it would be very easy to just write down all of the things we have done wrong and define our selves by this list, but God can and will release us from this list. As the picture above shows us, and Paul told the Romans (8:38-39) “nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus.”
Do not be defined by the sin that separates you from God, but allow God to redefine you!
aSacredRebel 