When you are hired for a job do you watch for when the boss is looking and then make it look like you are working? Do you work harder or more diligently when the boss is looking, or when others can see you?  When you are alone do you surf the web and do personal stuff and not do your work? Do you miss treat those under you and have them do your work, so that you get credit?

We can not get and keep a job by merely working when the boss or those over us are watching us. We can not miss treat others because the boss or those over us are not around.

Jesus is always watching and therefore we can not get away from Him, nor should we want to.  He is always watching us, and expects us to always be acting in a way that shows him to those around us.  He wants us to be busy showing forth His love and doing His will so that all can come to a relationship with the father.

Be about the work of the father treating everyone as God has treated you. Excepting them warts and all, loving them and working with them to bring forth His kingdom.

Daddy God, guide me to be your worker and to do your will. To not seek my own desires or wants, but to work your mission and vision so that all will come to know you and live with you. Amen.

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

Have you ever had a guest coming and you did not know when they would arrive?  You make sure the room is ready and that you have stuff available to make a meal, you can’t cook anything because you wouldn’t want it to get cold waiting for the person to arrive, so you plan ahead and have food available for preparation and you make sure it is something easy and yet also good.

But while you wait for this guest to arrive, your life as you know it is put on hold.  You are waiting for them and therefore not living your life or going about your business.  You are waiting on them.  If you knew when they were going to arrive you could do what you need to and then also be ready, but since you don’t know you must wait. Have all preparations ready and wait.  Like the homeowner who would stop the thief if they knew when they would be robbed, but we don’t know.

But Christ does not tell us to stop our lives while we wait. He wants us to live in a way that we are always expecting him to return. Live in a way that when he comes back and finds us doing what ever it is we are doing that he would not be put off or upset by what we are doing.  But what we are doing shows forth his love .

So live in a way that Christ is shown through and in your life and actions.

Loving Daddy, help me to be prepared for you to come and visit me, by living in a way that helps others to see you and also start their own preparations for your coming. Amen.

Advent is the season of Hope…

As I read the gospel passage for the day, I really have a hard time seeing or hearing the hope. I see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place and think it is time to flee.  Let’s hope that it is not winter (uh oh!) and that it is not the Sabbath (we’re good on this one), so we can try to get away… However will we be able to get away?

As the gospel says “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”  So be careful to not be caught with the corpses, so the vultures get you.  But who will be able to escape, to get away from the destruction and desolateness of that day?

“Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.” When all of this happens the sun will not shine and there will be no light as the moon is no longer reflecting, and the stars have fallen from heaven, the night sky is a black sheet, and all of the heavens are shaken up…

But yet there is hope!!!

“And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” His elect, His people, He will call by the trumpet of the angels from the ends of heaven and earth together. That is the hope that we are the elect, and will be called at the trumpet blast to join our savior and to overcome the darkness and evil that will be surrounding us.

Gracious Saving Lord, help us to remember that we are your children, and even in the darkest hour, you are with us. Amen.

And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.

Good news?!?!

We will have to endure all kinds of hardship and being turned over to the authorities and questioned and reviled because of Jesus.  We will be hated and put to death because of our beliefs.

Where is God our refuge? Where is the shelter from the storm?  Why must we endure these things and go through all of this turmoil? Is not God in control? Can He not do whatever he wants and save us, protect us from all harm?

Yes he could, but endurance of these things shows hope in the promise.  God never said it would be easy, or a cakewalk. He promised that no matter where His children went or what happened to them, that He would be with them.

So know now as we await the coming of our savior in the manger, that He is with you, as He promised he would be. And live in the hope that this season brings.

Daddy God, guide us in this season and all of our lives to follow you and cling to the promise of the hope that you give us through the faithfulness of Jesus to follow through and go to the cross, so that we might be made right with you. Amen.

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.

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.