Hypocrite!

Woe to you, you hypocrite!

Strong words from our savior here in the gospel of Matthew.

Have you ever been called a hypocrite?  I have.  It is not a good feeling knowing someone knows you so well that the understand that you think one way, but act contrary to that. That is a hypocrite.  I believe it hurts worst when you know it is true.

But worst than being called a hypocrite by someone, one of your friends, is knowing your self that you are a hypocrite…

You know how to act and what to think as a disciple of Jesus. You know what you should do and what you shouldn’t do, yet there you are doing the very thing that you shouldn’t do…

It is what Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes here, “Wash the inside of the cup, so that the outside may also become clean.” Make the inside clean and the outside will follow. Do not be a whitewashed tomb, beautiful to behold, yet dead on the inside.

All of us will always be hypocrites; we will all say one thing and do another. We will all think bad thoughts about our neighbors. That is our humanness, and we can not get out of that until Jesus returns again. Yet we can be whole in Him and see ourselves and others through the eyes of Jesus.

Brother, help me to see others as you see them. To not put up fancy things and follow all of the rules while I neglect the last, lost, least or little. Help me to be like you, Jesus. Amen.

 

Prayer of Mother Teresa

dear Lord,
help me spread Your fragrance
where ever I go.
Flood my soul with Your Spirit & Life.
Penetrate me, posses my whole being
so utterly all my life may only be
A Radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that
Every soul i come in contact with may
FEEL Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
but only You, O Lord!
Let me preach You without Preaching,
not by words, but by my Example
by the catching Force, the sympathetic
influence of what i do, the evident
fullness of the Love my heart bears to You.
amen.

Humble…

All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Why should you be humble?

When I hear the word humble I think of the song, “O Lord it’s so hard to humble, when you’re perfect in every way.”  Now none of us is perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  There was only one perfect person and He is guiding us to live like Him and to show forth His love. We try, but we always fall short, because the need of self comes in and we start to think about how we need to be lifted up, and what we need to better ourselves.

But when we puff ourselves up, this verse says we will be knocked down.  If we exalt ourselves and sing our praises, we will be knocked down and put in the place we belong.  Paul tells the Romans, to not think more highly of yourself than you ought. We are not to make ourselves better than we are, because all of us are sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, and it is only by the grace given to us through the faithfulness of Jesus that we can even hope to stand before the judgment seat and survive.

So humble yourselves, not so you might be exalted, but humble yourselves so that you might see what Jesus did for you.

Gracious and loving savior, as we await your birth and wonder about what we need, help us to empty ourselves and to seek you first in all that we do. Guide us in your love to live the life that you did. Amen.

 

Why do we give?

Why do we give this season?  Why does it seam that during the holidays are hearts are open and our eyes see things we normal miss, and our ears hear things we normally selectively block out?

It seems the last, the lost, the least and the little come to the for front in the holidays, and we focus all our efforts on others, and try to forget ourselves.  But you know that is exactly what we are called to do every day of our lives. Jesus tells the lawyer of the Pharisee’s the greatest commandment, the greatest thing we have to do throughout and through our lives is to love God. And then as He usually does, Jesus expands on that, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.  You see in this one sentence, Jesus tells us our lives should be defined by love, love of God and love of the other, just as we love ourselves.  We need to look out for the person next to us, just as much as we do ourselves.  We need to want for them the things we want for ourselves.  We need to give to them the things that we give to ourselves.

This season of Advent is time spent reflecting on the coming Messiah, it is also time we tend to see the last, lost, least and little more. Not that they are more this season, we are just more focused on them, and that is how all of life should be! Focused on the other, rather then the self!

Dear daddy God, help me to not stare at my navel, but to look beyond myself and give to others as I want to give to myself. Guide me to so love the other, that they become the focus of my life, so that your love will overflow from me to them and we will all be bathed in the mercy and grace that flows from you throne. Amen.

In what do you place your trust?

We have so many things that can seem to be our savior or our god, and from time to time these things change. One day we may place our trust in Jesus our savior, and other days it maybe in our talents or our money.

We may think we have it all together because our bank account is big enough to cover our needs. Or our job is good enough to provide for us for many years to come. Well as we have seen in recent months/years that many things can effect our jobs, and banks accounts.  We are not assured of anything, except for death of our fleshly bodies.  So in what do you place you trust?

We cannot offer a sacrifice to God to get him to turn an ear to us. He does not desire burnt offering or sin offering. We cannot give anything of our own to Him to incline Him to us. Yet He is our God, our rock and our salvation. He is the one who when we cry out is there to hear us and incline His ear to us, and to pull us from the mire we have created for ourselves.

The psalmist says, “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.” You will be happy and secure if you place your trust in God.  Not in your money, or your job, or your family, or anything else you think will save you. God alone is in whom you should trust. As this will give you a sure foundation.

Our rock and foundation, give us a platform on which to build and sustain our lives.  Help us to trust only in you and not in our own lives. Amen.

Trust

Psalm 25:1-2a To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust;

Where does your trust lie?  What is it that is your hope?  The psalmist here asks the Lord to turn to them and to be gracious to them, for they are lonely and afflicted.  They request relief from the troubles of their aching heart, to be brought out of their distress.  They ask the Lord to consider their afflictions and their troubles and that their sins might be forgiven.

Have you ever pleaded with the Lord, for comfort from your troubles? Asked the Lord to take away your pain and burdens, and to give you a free and clear conscious?  The psalms give us a place of refuge in the moments we want to cry out to God for the troubles and pains of our existence, to find comfort and solace in a God that promises us to be our shield and our shelter.  To love us as only a mother loves her child and to shade and protect us from all harm.

Lift your soul to the Lord, and put your trust not in yourself, your family, your community, or your certainty about anything, but be hopeful in the promises of a God who has given His only son to give you a relationship with Him.  Hope in the coming savior, and trust in Him alone.

Gracious God, help us to focus on the coming of your Son this Advent season. Help us also to trust in you alone and not anything else we think is certain. Work in and through us, so that the light you give us will shine brightly in this world that needs to see you.  Amen.

 

Denominations and division…

It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. (Jude 19)

Do we have division in the body of Christ? Yes that is why there are so many denominations in the Christian church. Here is an article from Wikipedia that defines this division. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations) So what is that causes this division, this separation?  We would say differences in theology.  Our dogma is different. We have a different understanding of the Bible.

However this verse from Jude says it is people who are devoid of the Spirit who are causing division.  Does that mean there are people devoid of the spirit in our gatherings of the body of Christ?  Does that mean I could be one devoid of the Spirit if I am causing separation and division?

The unnerving answers to these questions are, yes there are people in the gathering of the body of Christ that are devoid of the Spirit, and yes at times we are the one that is devoid of the Spirit.  This is the understanding of Martin Luther’s statement simul justus et peccator.  We are simultaneous justified and sinner.  We are both saint and sinner. We are filled and following Jesus and we are at the same time someone who is not filled and falling away from Jesus.

So is there division in the body, yes! Is there something we can do about it, yes! Follow Jesus and act like him, and look out for the needs of others and not our own needs.

Gracious savior fill me with your Spirit and help me to not look out for my own needs, but for the needs of the other. Help me to not be the one who causes division, but the one who helps us as your body to be united in you. Amen.

Who can stand before the Lord?

The psalmist asks, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?”  And isn’t that the truth? Who amongst us can stand, because the Lord does mark our iniquities. He remembers the sins of the generations for many to come it says several times in the Bible.  So who amongst us can stand?  We are all in trouble if this is what the message of the gospel is.

Yet we know that is not the full message. And to be honest that is not where the psalmist stops either.  The next verse is “But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.”  The Lord gives us forgiveness, so we may revere Him. The Lord knows and marks all of our iniquities, and has counted all of our sins, but yet forgives them all. He forgives us our trespasses and allows us to be in a relationship with him.

The psalmist continues, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.” I hope in His word and wait for Him, because I know that this darkness will not last forever, and the blackness that surrounds me as the night will soon break away to the light of the new day and there, my God will be to forgive me and cleanse me and make me His own. Not holding me up to what I deserve, but holding me up in the light of His love.

The psalmist reminds us that we are not worthy, yet God still calls us and makes us His own. So do not let the darkness of your world win, or overcome you, live in the light of the coming day, when God will remember your iniquities no more and will wipe away every tear.  Know that He has promised to redeem us from our iniquities.

Saving Lord, help us to remember that without you we can not stand, and because of your love and sending our savior we can be with you forever. Amen.

 

Without spot or blemish…

As we wait we are to be found without spot or blemish.

How are we to be found without spot or blemish?  That means we are to be perfect in everything we do, not succumbing to sin, or allowing ourselves to do things for personal gain, and always looking out for the other and loving like Jesus.  Try as I might, that is not going to happen, because I am flawed and I can not do that all the time.

I do things for my own gain, and think about myself more than others sometimes. I do not look out for others and at times find it hard to show the love of Jesus.  But Peter tells us, as he wrote here, “while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;”  Strive to live up to the scriptures and live out the love they show forth in your life.  And be careful doing this.  Peter urges, as also Paul wrote, that we strive to understand the scriptures and not twist them to our own understanding. “There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.”

The things that are hard to understand are not to be passed over, or worked out in our own minds. God will help us, if we can but turn to him. “You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  Do not be conformed into thinking you know what the Bible says and go off on your own, or after others simply because it sounds biblical. Discover for yourselves what God is saying in the Bible and pray that He guide you to the truth He has for you.

We on our own can not be without spot and blemish but with Him all things are possible.

Wonderful Savior, guide us in your love to seek your wisdom and strength in all that we do. And be with us this Advent and form us into your likeness. Amen.