Worry is a Faith Matter - Luke 12:22-28

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing" (vs. 22-23). Jesus told a parable about greed to a crowd of people and then He turned to His disciples and proceeded to tell them not to worry about their daily needs for life, specifically, food and clothing. Jesus said that ravens don't plant or harvest crops yet they have enough food (vs. 24) and King Solomon was never dressed as beautifully as a lilly (vs. 27). God takes care of both the birds and flowers, so how much more will He take care of human beings (vs. 28). What's interesting is after Jesus admonishes His disciples to quit worrying about their basic needs for life, He then indicts them for a lack of faith. Jesus links worry to faith. In other words, when you worry you are demonstrating a lack of faith. Thus, worry is a faith matter! So the way to reduce or eliminate worry from your life is to build your faith in God. And the way to build your faith in God is to seek His Kingdom above all else. Before pursuing your everyday needs you should first and foremost seek the Kingdom of God. Then when you seek God's Kingdom first each day, your daily needs (and more!) will be supplied as a result or benefit of working for His Kingdom (vs. 31). The point is that when you work first for the Kingdom of God, the other work you undertake each day will serve to supplement your main vocation of building God's Kingdom. And then you won't have to worry about all your other needs because you work for God and He takes care of you.

You Can't Take It With You - Luke 12:15-21

"Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own" (vs. 15). A man from the crowd of people who constantly gathered around Jesus called out for Him to tell his older brother to divide up the estate of their father so he could receive his inheritance. Jesus replied that He was not a judge who makes decisions about legal matters. Recognizing that greed rather than spiritual development was the man's focus, Jesus made the statement in vs. 15 and then proceeded to tell an alarming parable. I characterize it as alarming because the financial plan of the prudent protagonist of the story is frightenly similar to that of most of us. In the parable Jesus described a rich man who was a successful farmer and so he kept building bigger and bigger barns to store his crops. His plan was that once he had enough stored up then he would retire, relax, and enjoy life. (Of course, the implication is that enough is never enough.) Then God confronted the man and said that He required his life that very day and asked who would get everything he worked so hard to accumulate. Jesus concluded the parable with this observation: "Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God" (vs. 21). If we're not careful, we can spend our lives working for a bigger house, a bigger car, a better vacation, a bigger savings account, or a comfortable retirement. Accumulating "earthly wealth" or even saving for the future is not necessarily evil or sinful. However, spending your life saving and accumulating to the detriment of building a "rich relationship with God" is foolish because it has no eternal significance. The meaning of the parable is that your focus in life should be on God's Kingdom and fulfilling His plans and purposes rather than being obsessed with accumulating possessions and saving for the future because in the end you can't take it with you and somebody else gets it all.

Dark Corners - Luke 11:33-36

"Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light" (vs. 35-36). These verses from Luke are a reiteration of Jesus's well-known teaching from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:22ff. Light and darkness are metaphors for good and evil. Luke develops the metaphor with some details about the properties of light--specifically, the magnitude and direction of light. Light travels in a straight line and if it is not bright or intense enough or is deflected by a surface, then it can leave dark corners in a particular space. If Jesus is the light of your life, then make sure that there are no dark corners caused by a lack of intensity (radiance) or because something else in your life is deflecting His light. The light of Jesus should be so radiant in your life that it is like a floodlight filling you with the light of God's love and salvation.

Four Reasons, No Five You Should Read the Bible - Deuteronomy 17:18-20

"When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives" (vs. 18-19). Included in the book of Deuteronomy are guidelines that future kings of Israel are admonished to follow. Some of these guidelines address a program of daily Bible reading and study. The king was to make his own personal copy of God's instructions by writing them down himself and then reading them daily. (Writing about what you read in the Bible is a good practice as it will help you remember what it says and means. That's what this blog tries to do.) Four reasons are given as to why the king should have a daily devotional time of Bible reading and study:

1. "That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees." Daily Bible reading and study facilitates spiritual growth; it develops one's relationship with God through a better understanding of who He is and how He works.
2. "This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens." Through daily Bible reading and study, the Holy Spirit reveals one's sinfulness and imparts the power to overcome sin.
3. "It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way." By being rooted and grounded in the Word of God, a person is enabled to remain faithful when problems arise because God's presence through His Word and Spirit will be a sustaining force.
4. "And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel." Daily Bible reading and study makes an impression on one's children and grandchildren; they are more likely to follow an example and serve the Lord when a life of devotion to God and His Word is modeled to them.

And there is a 5th reason to read and study the Bible daily suggested by these scriptures. If the king of Israel was commanded by God to read and study the Bible on a daily basis, then shouldn't that be a good practice for us to follow as well?

The Great Society - Deuteronomy 15:4-11

"There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession. You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today" (vs. 4-5). In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson declared that America had an opportunity to become "The Great Society" where poverty and racial injustice would be eliminated. God intended for His people to be a society where no one would be poor because of His blessings and because of the generosity of His people: "Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need" (vs. 10-11). So while God's intent is that there should be no poor in His society because of His blessings, the reality is that there are poor people and people in need. So the problem of poverty is mitigated when God's people are generous with His blessings. Unfortunately, God's people often perceive giving as a command. However, these verses clearly illustrate generosity is an attitude that God's people should have because of His blessings--the mercy and lovingkindness He shows toward His people--and giving is the result of having such an attitude. Besides, there's really nothing to be lost from giving and when you give generously or because you are generous then God will bless you in everything you do. In God's Great Society, when you are generous, you receive back more than you ever give away!

Mercies in Disguise

"What if your blessings come through raindrops. What if your healing comes through tears. What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near. And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise." Unlike other posts, this post is not based on a scripture reference but on the lyrics to Laura Story's song, Blessings. The lyrics are so powerful, biblical, and personally meaningful that I was impressed to write about it. The song describes how we pray and ask God for blessings and His answer often comes to us in the form of trials. While blessings and trials are both the product of God's mercy, it's not so obvious to us how trials are actually the dispensation of God's mercy. So the song suggests that trials are God's mercy in disguise. You may wonder how this makes theological and biblical sense, especially since Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer to pray for blessings ("give us this day our daily bread") and to pray for deliverance from trials ("deliver us from the evil one"). However, this tension between blessing and trial is the praxis upon which God's plan of redemption is based: knowing the right way by experiencing the wrong way, redemption by non-example. In teaching, a non-example is an illustration of a wrong way in order to learn the right way. We know we need redemption because we are sinners (Romans 3:23-24). When you are a follower of Jesus, then your life becomes God's classroom. Trials are the lesson theory and blessings are the lesson application. It is through trials that you can best learn about God and how He works and it is through blessings that you then apply what you have learned about God by sharing the message of redemption with people through words and deeds. Thank you, Jesus, that you love me and want me to know you better.

Eraser - Deuteronomy 12:2-5

"When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods...Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars...Completely erase the names of their gods....you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored." When the Israelites were about to enter the land of Canaan, Moses instructed them that an important aspect of possessing the promised land would be to dispossess the evil that was in the land. God cannot cohabit with sin and evil. The Israelites were commanded to destroy every vestige of pagan worship and build a nation where only God would be recognized as God among them. And then God would live among his people in a designated location by placing his name there. What was true for ancient Israel is also true for us in our present lives. When God places His name on you and lives in you, you must eliminate all visible trace or evidence of those things that once existed in your life but no longer exist because of the new life you have in Christ: "So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life" (Romans 6:11-13). When you possess the life of Christ, then you must erase sin and all the things that can cause you to sin from your life.