Have a steady heart!

Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish! (Psalm 112 ESV)

So what do you do when you get bad news? Most of us do not deal with bad news well. We let it get to us. We let it take over our space and make our day seem dark and gloomy. We do not usually take well to bad news.

Yesterday my eldest daughter was in a gymnastics meet which she needed to do well enough at to advance to the next level. She did her best and even did some of her best routines her mother and I had seen her do. She was hitting things she had not hit and was making connections that seemed to elude her before. The scores did not reflect this, but that is the nature of the meet, and the sport. She did a wonderful job and her mother and I ware very proud of her. She needed to be in the top 26 to advance on to the next level. She was 29th.  She missed going on by 3 places, but she did her best, but the news was devastating to all of us. We were so looking forward to moving on to the next level. But is this new the end of the world?No there will be other meets and she will have a chance to advance to the level she now missed again later in life. This does not mean she is a failure as a person. She is a wonderful woman who has done wonderful things for many people and will continue to do things for people. She will be a light in the darkness because of the love of Christ that lives in her.

You see one failure does not constitute the end of the battle, or the end of your life. If you learn from any defeat or bad news, and move on, trusting in God to see you through, as the psalmist tells us. The darkness can not hold back the light and there is no need to be upset with bad news, it is merely a bump in the road and God will be there to help you over it.

Today my daughter is going to gymnastics practice to learn how to do it a little bit better, so next time she will do even better. She is learning from her past meets and listening to those around her that might have a better understanding of the sport. If we can learn from the sins we have made, or the shortcomings in helping the last, lost, least, and little and be in community with the other children of God, we can move forward in the light, spreading that light to all of the world. So trust in God and know that He will be your light in the darkness and the hope in the day that looks gloomy and dark.

Who is better?

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”  They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.  But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’  ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,
  and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”  And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,  and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”  And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”  And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. ( Mark 10:2-16 ESV)

Here we go again with divorce. But today rather than Pharisees looking for money and having people do things that will not help them be in relationship. We have Jesus bringing in a child.

You see today in Mark Jesus throws the understanding of society completely on its head.

The reading ends with Jesus saying that you have to come to the kingdom like a little child. And children were property and were not to be seen or heard. They were suppose to learn how to act in society from the women who were OK to be seen but should not be heard. Children were not cute and a wonderful thing to have around. They were property and not always wanted. Jesus said though these people who are shunned by society and looked upon as disposable are really the ones who know what the kingdom of God is. And if you want to be a part of that kingdom you need to accept them and be like them.

The other thing that Jesus does here in Mark is to make women equal to men. You see at this time only men could divorce because women are property. But Jesus said if a woman divorces her husband and marries another… that was unheard of. Women could not do that, but Jesus said they are able to this and in so doing this He declared them equal to men.

You see it is again about relationships. It is about thinking of the other before ourselves. Not thinking too highly of ourselves like we are better than everyone else, because on our own we are all going straight to hell. We are all equal sinners that deserve to be punished. But because of the grace of God we are able to be in a relationship with Him.

So don’t think you are better than anyone else. Because God loves all of us just the same.

Divorce ~ Marriage ~ or More…

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:14-18 ESV)

Why is the verse about a person divorcing their wife and becoming an adulterer in the mix with Jesus informing the Pharisees that they justify themselves before men, but God knows the real content of their hearts? Maybe it is because it is really not about divorce but more than that…

You see these verses all fit together because it is about relationships. To divorce a woman in Jesus time was to through her to the streets with no support and would warrant her being stoned to death. She would not be accepted by her family and would have no means to survive. She was as good as dead. But the relationship that fabric that binds together the community would be ripped and cause issues and have rippling effects across many families and places…

So it is a bout living in and with others. Relationships are the key to all of this and the key element all of us need to remember is not to look out for #1 but to think of the other before we think of ourselves. It is about how we treat and care for the other, the last, the lost, the little, the least of these. We can not be as the pharisees and look out for ourselves at the cost of someone else. We have to take care of them first and we will be provided for. It is about living for the betterment of the community, rather than building ourselves up.

So what does divorce have to do with the pharisees amassing lots of money at the expense of others? It is about living in relationship and not getting what we want all the time, but looking our for the need of the other, the last, lost, least, little, those who society says have no voice and do not count. Those are the ones we need to help. We need to stop worrying about what society says about us and get to the work God has set before us!

Who is in Christ?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:1-11 ESV)

I love Romans because it really makes you think. You have to wrestle with Paul and your intellect and really chew on what is written to try to get it in you so you can integrate it into your life. But it raises just as many questions as it answers…

You see this passage for instance says that he who lives in the Spirit and not the flesh has been found to be in Christ and there for there is no condemnation for them. But who is living in the Spirit? And who is living in the flesh? Who is in Christ?

Those who set their minds on things of the flesh follow the flesh. But what does that mean? Because this person and their mind is hostile towards God. But what does it mean to follow the flesh or dwell in the flesh? We are not thinking about God or what is best for the other. And that does not mean that we are forcing the other to conform to some code that we ourselves do not follow. The law of the Israelites is not what gets us to heaven and is not what we need to force others to follow when we do not follow and when Jesus and his disciples did not follow it. They broke the oral law that was transmitted and was thought to be just as important as the rest of the written law. This code is not what saves us and makes us right with God. Only Jesus does this. So if you think you are right with God, please remove the log from your own eye, before helping me remove the plank from mine. Yes I know that I have sinned and continue to do so even though I do not want to. We do the things we do not want and can not follow after Jesus… Jesus asks us to follow Him and to be like Him. Not judge but accept the other where they are and love them as they are. Knowing that the relationship will make them to be who they need to be. Change is not necessary before coming to Jesus  Jesus will do it all. We can not expect people to be perfect or not sinful before they come to Jesus, other wise we all would have to leave.

So to live in the Spirit is to think of the other, before yourself.

What are you?

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8 ESV)

How majestic is the creator of everything? That the hosts of heaven worship and adore Him every second of every minute of every hour of every day…

Yet He is still concerned with you! He cares for you and wonders about you. He plans your days, and has counted every hair on your head. (which for me would really not take that long!) He knows the intimate details of your life and He still wants to be in a relationship with you. He knows your deepest darkest secrets and He still picks you to be on His team. He has made us a little lower than Himself, or the angels or heaven. We are His creation and therefore He loves us and wants what is best for us. Even with everything else in creation He cares for you and wants to spend time with you.

So next time you think no one cares, think again, because the creator of the universe cars for you and wants to be with you. You are His creation and therefore you are loved by Him!

So what are you? You are loved. By God!

Make straight the path…

Give ear to my words, O LORD;
consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5 ESV)

Make the path straight is something when I hear it I think of John the Baptist, quoting the prophet to make the path straight because the Messiah is coming. It is something we do. We make the path straight to prepare for the coming of the lord… but that is not the same here…

You notice above I have verse 3 and 8 in red… Verse 3 says O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch or some ancient texts read O LORD, in the morning I direct my prayer to you; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. So does the Lord hear your voice in the morning, or do you direct your prayers to Him? The one action in this psalm that we do is speak aloud to our creator. The psalmist says that every morning they prepare their heart by going before the Lord in prayer. They go to Him in conversation, laying before Him the wants, the trials, the daily grind stuff. They lay it our there, and do you?

The psalm says that only the righteous will stand, and we will enter His house through the abundance of His steadfast love. But in order to remain with Him, we must know the path to follow, so rather than trust on his own judgement the psalmist asks God in His righteousness because of the forces around him that will pull him away, to make His path clear before him. Verse 8 “Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.” It is God who makes the way clear, and we are the ones who muck it up, with our broken relationships, our need for power and notoriety, our desire to make ourselves known and more liked… We look for our own uplifting, when God wants us to humble ourselves and rely on Him.

So each morning, carve out the time you need to go to God, in the sunrise and give Him everything and ask Him to help you through the day. He will not let you down, and the path will become clear!