‘What do you want me to do for you?’

What would you say if Jesus said to you,  ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

Hold on just a minute I’ve got that list here with me, let me pull it up, it is in my dropbox and I’ll be able to tell you…

Can you think about what it is you would want from Jesus if He could do anything for you?  Because you see the thing that is “most obvious” is not what Jesus thinks we want. For instance see our reading for today from Mark 10:46-52.

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

When Jesus heard the blind man calling He told the disciples to get him and bring him to Him. Now I bet that Jesus knew the man was blind. And if He knew this wouldn’t you think that the thing the man would want would be to be able to see? Or maybe the blind man needed to ask for what he wanted… But Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” This makes me think that maybe there was something else Jesus saw in him that needed to healed, or forgiven or done for him. Wouldn’t being able to see be the best thing for him? What else could be better?

I am not blind and hope I never am, but there are many things in my life that could be better, and if Jesus could let me know what they are, maybe I would know to ask for that part of my life to be healed, or for the better thing that He sees I need.

Maybe the most obvious is not the best thing, but Jesus still heals him and tells him to go, and his faith has made him well. The blind man was healed because he believed that Jesus could give him his sight, and that is what healed him. The fact he knew Jesus could do it… What if we all truly believed that Jesus could do the thing that we want, what would you ask Him to do for you?

work out your own salvation!?!?!?!?

Am I the only person on earth that has a problem with this statement? Or am I the only person on the planet that is not weirded out by working out my own salvation? I mean I am Lutheran and there is nothing I can do, to the point that most of us Lutherans do nothing because it is already taken care of. And while that is a topic for another post, the point has to be made that Ephesians 2:8-10 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” We are saved by grace and can not earn our way to heaven, but we were created to do His works. So we need to get off our butts and do something, not for what it will get us, but because of what we have already been given!

But working out our own salvation?!?!?!? Really? Here again as my Roman Catholic friend will point out we stopped reading too soon. Ephesians 2:8-9 is his beef, because if you leave off 10 you don’t get that we are created for good works. And if you stop at work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, you miss the best part – “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God is working in you! He is enabling you to will and to work and do His good pleasure.  God is working in and through you to make His mission happen in this place at this time.  He is helping you work out that salvation in fear and trembling. Fear and trembling because of what could happen, or the life we would have to live on our own…

And Paul goes on as usual to hash this out a little more for us.  We are to “do all things with out murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.” If we help others and give of ourselves freely and do what God has prepared for us to do without grumbling the world will see God through our lives and will be drawn to Him.  We will shine like stars in the darkness of what is the world we live in. We need to be beacons of hope because this world needs to see God for who He is. Their creator who loves them enough to give up His only Son so that we could all be in a relationship with Him.

So all God to work in and through your life, making you to shine like a star and give light and hope to this world trapped in darkness. Allow God to fill you with His Holy Spirit and lead you in working out your salvation so that other see Him through you and drawn to Him.

Make my joy complete…

What does Paul mean when he says “make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” What does this mean? Does he mean we all have to believe and think the exact same things? That we have to love exactly the same way? Does being in full accord and of one mind mean that we have to think the same things and understand things the same way as everyone else? Does this mean that the disciples drove a Honda? Because they were all of one Accord… (sorry bad joke, but I had to…)

If so I think we are all in trouble, or at least I know I am. Sometimes I have a hard time agreeing with myself or always thinking the same thing about a subject for more than 3 seconds.

I believe what Paul was saying in the be of one mind and in one accord was explained in the next part of Philippians Chapter 2: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Regard others before yourself! Do nothing that helps yourself, but rather do the things that will lift others up and by that you will be feeding your own soul and life. If we can think of the other before we worry about our own needs, then we will be of one mind and work in one accord.

Then Paul unpacks this statement even more in the next verses which is better known as the Christ Hymn. This section of Philippians was thought to be an early hymn that Paul used to talk about how Christ was. How he gave up His own life, not thinking about what He was going to go through, but rather what it would do for the other. What His sacrifice would do for you.

Paul is telling the Philippians that they are not the center of the universe! The world does not revolve around them. That there are other people that matter more then they do. And if we can understand that, then our lives will be richer and filled with such love and grace and mercy that we will wonder how we lived before.

So think of the other before yourself and give love, grace and mercy to everyone freely, because Jesus will give you more when you need it, and more when you don’t because that is how He is. And that is how He wants you to be as well!

Who is the judge?

Have you ever heard anyone tell you “The Bible says do not judge.”?

And what is your response?  We try not to judge because we think that the Bible tells us not to judge, but that is not true. The Bible says in Matthew 7 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” It does not say don’t judge, it says don’t judge unless you are ready to be judged by the same judgement you give. The splinter we see in the eye of the other is akin to the log we have in our own eye…

But I find it interesting that in John 12:34-50 Jesus talks about why he came. We will say that we are not to judge because the Bible tells us not to, and because Jesus it the judge. Yet John 12 tells us something different. In John 12 Jesus says:

 “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

Did you get that? Jesus said “I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” I did not come to judge anyone who does not hear my words and do them. I came to save the world… So Jesus is not the judge. But he tells us next who the judge is, His word. We will be judged by not hearing what Jesus said and doing it. I am actually more scared by this than by Jesus judging me.

How many times have I failed to love my neighbor as myself? How many times have I put myself first and thought about my own needs before the needs of the other?

Who is going to judge us? The words of Jesus…

Spirit induced

Have you ever seen something that you couldn’t explain? Somebody understanding something they shouldn’t be able to understand? Something that has no explanation and science seems to say ‘that can not happen’?

Peter told us in Acts about how the chosen spoke and people heard the word in their own languages. They spoke and others understood who should not be able to understand…

God spoke through the prophets that things would happen that people could not explain. Things will happen that should scare us senseless, but here is the kicker – God is in control and causing these thing to happen so everyone will come to know Him.

So next time something happens that has no explanation thank God that you get to play a part of His wonderful master plan.

Competent?

Are you a self made man?

Ok ok… If you are a woman, are you a self made woman? Did you make yourself be the person you are today by the sweat of your own labor? Building up your life and making a name for yourself? And you’ve done this all on your own? With no help from anyone?

We all know that this is not true. No one has made their own way in life without the help of someone else. The question might be did you acknowledge the help of others or did you use them? We all have had people that have helped to get us where we are today.

Paul tells the Corinthians “Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,” (2 Corinthians 3:5). None of us are competent in and of ourselves.  We are only competent because of God.

So tell every one just how incompetent you are! But remember you can do all things through Jesus who gives us all strength, and the competencies to do what He needs us to!

Written on your heart!

A new covenant I will make with them, I will be their God and they will be my people and I will write my law on their hearts… The prophet Jeremiah tells us this is what God says in chapter 31. God writes His law on our hearts. He no longer wants us to teach each other but live our lives as we are inhabited by God. Not that His law is something we know, but is actually a part of us, and written in us.

Have you ever had something written on your heart? Been so in love with someone that you hurt when they are not with you? That you can not image your life without this person in your life. This is how God thinks about you! When the veil of the temple was torn, Jesus not only gave us a way to engage God in a relationship, He helped God tear the veil of our lives and have His law written on our hearts.

Live in the fact that God loves you so much He gave up His only son to be with you, and he has written His law and His name on your heart!

Wouldn’t you believe?

What if you saw a miracle would you believe? Would you forget about following that religion you were following if you saw someone do a miracle that professed to be a part of “another” religion?

That is what happened in our reading for today from John. John 12:10-11 says “So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.” Why were the people believing Jesus because of Lazarus? Well duh, it was because Jesus had raised him from the dead. Lazarus was dead, and Jesus made him alive again. It was a miracle! People were not listening to the Pharisees and the high council any more because they weren’t doing miracles… They were just ordinary people like you and me and they couldn’t do anything special like Jesus, so we have to follow Jesus.

But are we just that oblivious to the miracles happening all around us? Have we become so accustom to the miracles we see that we do not even see them as miracles?

Ask any father who has been present at one of his children’s birth. They will tell you of a wonderful miracle they witnessed. And what about people who have had a by pass surgery. Miracles!  We are surrounded daily by miracles that we just gloss over because they are second nature and happen all the time and are really nothing special.

Why do you believe? Is it because of the miracle, or is it because as Mary knows, there is just something about Jesus that I need to adore Him. Oh how I wish I could pour the nard and wash His feet with my hair…

Approach the throne with boldness…

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16 NRSV)

We have a great high priest that has been where you have been. He has seen heartache, he has been hurt by the pains of human life, scarred by death of a loved one. He knows what it is like to be you…

So the writer of Hebrews tells us that because of Jesus we can approach the throne of God with boldness. We can come to the place we do not belong because of our sin because Jesus has been there and been through the same things we have. Because He has sprinkled the altar and made the bridge to get us over the gap that separates us from God we can boldly come before the throne and ask for the things we need in times of trouble. We can seek mercy and grace because of the high priest that knows us better than we know ourselves.

So boldly go as Jesus tells us and seek mercy and grace from a God who loves you.

Create me…

Psalm 51:10-12 ESV

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Create in me Lord! Make me what you are and purge me of all of my transgressions and blot out all of the wrongs in my life. Make me as you are, pure and white as snow.

For all of my transgressions and the wrongs I have done are not to those hear whom I have hurt, but I have sinned against you. Lord you alone can wash me clean.

Think about that for a moment… when you are driving and some one cuts you off and you think a bad thought or think about telling that person they are number 1 you are doing that or thinking that about God. When you do something that brings someone down to raise yourself up, you have done that to God. Every sin you commit, even the ones against yourself are actually done to God. Because all of our actions point people to God, either closer to God or farther from Him. In everything we do and say we are showing our relationship with God. So everything we do is done for God and either shows His love or makes people wonder why they would want anything to do with God.

So I pray that God would create me and make me the way He is so that all of my actions bring glory to Him…