aSacredRebel

Rooted

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:1-7 ESV)

Walk with the Lord and be rooted in Him and built up through Him.

A root is the system through which a plant gets its nutrients, it’s substance for living.

So the author of Colossians is telling us to be fed and get our substance for living from Christ.

This text made me think of Pando the largest living organism. Pando is a collection of Aspen trees in Utah that share the same root system. They are really one tree or branches off the same root system. Isn’t that exactly how we are to be in the body of Christ? Rooted together in Christ we are all interconnected, and part of one another. We are one, rooted together in Christ.

pulled, dragged, jerked…

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:38-42 ESV)

Here we have a text some would say leads us to think we only need to sit at Jesus’ feet, and listen. That doing is not necessary. And if you only read this text, then yes you could come to that conclusion. Yet we can not take this text by itself. We must remember what came before it, the story of the “Good Samaritan.” So we must do and also sit at Jesus’ feet.

You see the word distracted in the verses above means, pulled, dragged, or jerked. Martha was pulled, dragged and jerked around by many things. How many of us are pulled, dragged or jerked around by lots of things?

We let so many things creep in and take our time and attention, but as Jesus tells Martha, on,y one thing is necessary, and what is that one thing?

From last week, and the lawyer answered Jesus, 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. (Luke 10:27 ESV) This is the one thing that is necessary. That is why Jesus says to Martha, that Mary has chosen the better thing and it will not be taken from her. We need to have a balance of loving God and loving neighbor. If you only love your neighbor but take no time for God, then you are incomplete, and if you only ever sit at His feet and listen, you are not living out your faith.

So go and serve, and come and sit, and allow God to work in and through you.

What soil are you…

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that “seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” (Luke 8:4-10 ESV)

What kind of soil are you? We sing from time to time, let my heart be good soil… We want to make the seeds of God’s word fall on a place in us that will take root and blossom into something beautiful.

And to us has been given the secrets of what all this means that means we should understand all the words that God has told us.

Do we not water the words of God when we receive them? Do we allow the word of God to get what it needs or is it choked out before it takes root in our lives?

We can help to make our lives a place where God’s words are ready to grow and blossom into the life God has prepared for you.

know the love

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV)

How many of you pray? D you pray every day? Do you pray for your needs and wants, or do you pray like the writer of Ephesians, that someone else will receive strength with power through the spirit?

Here we see a great model for pray that is focused on God mission to others. Here the writer is asking that the Ephesians be filled with the Spirit and strengthen, that Christ wold dwell in their hearts through faith, that they would be grounded in love and have strength to under stand the saints, so they would know the mission of God. That the fullness of God would be within them.

Wow! Can you imagine someone praying for you like that? Or better yet, can you Mage praying for someone else like that? You can, and should. We should be lifting our brothers and sisters up in pray asking for the Holy Spirit to fill their lives and that God would overflow them, so they are consumed with Christ and the love that He has for all of creation.

Gracious daddy God, I pray you be wi the readers of this blog, that you would strengthen then through the power of the Holy Spirit in them, that Jesus would dwell deep within them through His faithfulness and graciousness, that they would overflow with His love and mercy and understand the lengths and depths and heights that He went to because of His love for them. Lord I ask that you bless them and keep them as your own, and that you send them out and watch over them as they go, soothe world might also know your love.

Advice for life…

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:1-5 ESV)

Who is able to go int the tent of the Lord?

We are told time and time again it is those who follow the law. Those who do what is demanded by the Lord. But what does the Lord require? Amos tells us, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV)

We must do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. The psalmist tells us the same thing, just lays it out for us.

We must speak the truth always, and is blameless in the sight of everyone. That does not mean we are perfect, but when we wrong someone we make amends for it. We do not gossip or talk behind people’s backs. We do not come against a friend for any wrong. We do not lend money with interest, or take money to do something hurtful. We honor and fear God with every aspect of our lives, we are number 2!

Wouldn’t it be great if the world actually worked this way and everyone did this? Now don’t get me wrong I’m just as guilty of not doing these easy things as anyone, and I bet if you honestly look at your life you have not always done these things. Yet if we all strived to be like this, what would the world be like?

Be humble knowing you are not number 1 and look out for your neighbor, always being truthful and honest I. All of your dealings and start a change in the world!

last, lost, least, little

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” “Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)

“Sometimes I think we forget about others needs, to busy trying to reap life’s crops to be sowing seeds, our own selfishness blinds our eyes until we can’t help others see, how can I lea a blind man to the Lord if my eyes are stuck on me?” so begins one of my favorite songs by Todd Zielinski, The Least of These. What we do for the least of our brothers and sisters we do to the Lord.

You see in Jesus’ day those outcast by society had no support mechanism. If you were in prison, then you had nothing, and needed someone to provide for you. The prison did not provide clothing, bedding, food. We think of prison as a life where things are provided for you, but that was not the case and most of the time, the family of the prisoner shunned them, so they had nothing. Even today this is the case south of the border in the USA. Prisons in Mexico provide little if anything for inmates and they must rely on the family or the stranger to provide for them.

You see we have been tricked into believing that this verse is about getting into heaven. Because Jesus is separating the sheep from the goats, and sending one to the kingdom prepared for them, and the others to the fires prepared for them. We get hung up on wanting to do the right thing for us, we forget about the other. We lose sight of what Jesus is really telling us here, that we need to treat everyone with respect and not be so concerned with ourselves that we miss the world around us. We need to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus, not worrying about our own needs, but the needs of those around us, and if we all do this, then someone is worried about your needs, so you can take care of the last, lost, least or little…

So do to the least of these, as you would have done unto you and know that Christ is watching over you.

Hate…

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:11-17 ESV)

I do not believe as Christians we are ever surprised that the world hates us. We can all get it. The hypocrisy and way we as a church treat people sometimes is not what we say we are suppose to do. John tells us to love one another because if we do not love we abide in death…

How many of you have hated someone? If we are all honest we can all say yes. Even possibly a beloved relative, who did something that did not sit right with us and for a moment, however brief it was, we hated them. If this is true, you (and I) were abiding in death and life has no place in us. And then let’s take it to Jesus’ level, where if you think bad thoughts about someone you have murdered them in your mind. So how many of us have ever thought bad thoughts about someone?

So we are all guilty of not loving, and not showing forth God’s love to those around us…

So what can we do?

Maybe smile at the person who hands you your coffee after you corrected them 25 times on the order and they still get it wrong…

Maybe we hold the door for people around us.

Maybe we help someone who we see struggling carrying a heavy load.

Maybe we are open to God’s leading and guiding to put us where we need to be, and do what we need to do…

Be ready to love everyone the way God loved you. Putting your needs before His own…

Show no partiality…

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, You stand over there, or, Sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? (James 2:1-7, ESV)

Why is it when we see some one at a light or on the street corner with a cardboard sign asking for money we lock our doors or walk on the other side of the street? Why do we assume they are making more pan handling than we are slaving away at our job?

Why do we judge people by what they where? If someone has a gold ring and fancy clothes so what? Are they really any different than someone who wears jeans and t-shirts all the time? We look at people and think we know who they are and their life situations by seeing them once or twice… Look around you today at the people you work with. How well do you know these people? Some of them you may have known for years, but do you know what struggles they are facing? Do you know the pain that is taking over their lives?

We can not know a person by their appearance. We can not judge a person by what they look like, because deep down inside where it really matters we are all the same, and we are all loved by God and were given the same mercy from Him.

So go and show mercy this day, not judging others, but living out God’s mercy through your life.

Go and receive likewise…

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)

This story is so familiar to us we think we know it…

But did you know that Jesus was asking the lawyer, the one who should know the law and the scriptures what his interpretation of the scripture was, because in Hebrew there would have been no vowel points and the word for neighbor and the word for enemy are the same root… So the only difference is the vowel points which would not have been present in the text the lawyer was reading. So was Jesus asking the lawyer what he read meaning, “do you see the double meaning?” Is it love your neighbor or love your enemy as yourself?

And then there is Jesus’ question at the end of the text, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer asked who his neighbor was and Jesus told a story and asked who was neighborly to the character in the story… so maybe what it means to be a neighbor is you are willing to accept help and be open to the stranger giving assistance. It is not all about going and doing, but also going and receiving…

So go and love God and your enemy as yourself and make yourself open to receive what God wants to give you!

into the light

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16-21 ESV)

So who among us really can stand? The one who always does what God wants us to do. Because if your deeds are wicked you will love the darkness so your deeds do not become made known.

How many of us have things we never discuss because we do not want anyone to know about it? We all have things hidden away in the recesses of our lives, yet God knows all about them, and some day they will be made known, so why do we hide them?

You see that is exactly what is being discusses here. We all have things we want to keep in the darkness. But if we love the light and follow after Jesus then all of our deeds will be made known.

So step into the light and follow Jesus. Remembering that He loves you regardless of what is hidden in the darkness.