First Thoughts Bible readings February 1, 2008

Morning: Psalm 147:12-20
Genesis 16:15-17:14
Hebrews 10:1-10
John 5:30-47
Evening: Psalm 116:1-19

As our Covenant Groups at South-Broadland continue in our "Into the Word, Into the World" daily Bible readings and weekly discussion groups, it has occurred to me that we can all get off on reading the Bible together, growing in fellowship, and excited about what we're learning. But Jesus distinguishes between assenting to what the scriptures testify about him, and actually receiving Jesus into our life. Jesus puts it this way in John's gospel:

³⁹"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

How easy it is to refuse to come to Jesus, while we proclaim God. We can come to church, teach Sunday school, lead a small group, even tithe. We can preach the gospel, and pray. We can quote scripture, chapter and verse. But unless we "come to Jesus," surrender all we are to this relationship, it's all rubbish, as Paul would call it.

Yes, the scriptures tell me that. But it ain't nothin' unless I come clean with Jesus about my own life. Coming to Jesus for me, means active participation in what Christ did for me. Coming to Jesus is a giving up myself to take on Jesus' life - giving up my schedule and agenda, a bad habit, or attitude. And a taking on God's will, not my own. That can be a vocation, a relationship, a commitment to my church, accountability for my shortcomings, responsibility for my actions. Coming to Jesus is coming to grips with how sin is real in me, not just in the bad boys and girls in the Bible, and I'm dead to it without Jesus. Coming to Jesus is coming to God.

Coming to Jesus also means to me that I believe in the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, and even though I'm terrified about what the Spirit might do in and through me, I come anyway. Coming to Jesus is letting the Spirit have his way, knowing I couldn't even come to Jesus at all without Him. Coming to Jesus means my life will never be the same old, same old. Coming to Jesus, my friends, is much more than assent. It's the difference between life and death.

In reading Psalm 116, it is to me a fitting litany for coming to Jesus. Say it out loud, and let the Holy Spirit make the words alive in you, as the Lord hears your cry. Come to Jesus:

¹I love the LORD, because he has heard

my voice and my supplications.

²Because he inclined his ear to me,

therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³The snares of death encompassed me;

the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

I suffered distress and anguish.

⁴Then I called on the name of the LORD:

"O LORD, I pray, save my life!"

⁵Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;

our God is merciful.

⁶The LORD protects the simple;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

⁷Return, O my soul, to your rest,

for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸For you have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling.

⁹I walk before the LORD

in the land of the living.

¹⁰I kept my faith, even when I said,

"I am greatly afflicted";

¹¹I said in my consternation,

"Everyone is a liar."

¹²What shall I return to the LORD

for all his bounty to me?

¹³I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the LORD,

¹⁴I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.

¹⁶O LORD, I am your servant;

I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

You have loosed my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the house of the LORD,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD!

¹⁷I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the house of the LORD,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD!

First Thoughts January 30, 2008

Morning: Psalm 147:1-11
Genesis 16:1-14
Hebrews 9:15-28
John 5:19-29
Evening: Psalm 91:1-16

¹⁰His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;

¹¹but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

How these words comfort me today as I consider how limited I am, in matters of life and faith. Discerning God's will for my life, settling disputes, loving the unlovely. I am guilty like the rest of us for not praying enough, trusting enough, loving enough, forgiving enough. Certainly, I need to take better care of my body - resting and exercise, nutrition. Add to that the temptation to compare ourselves with others - and it can be down right discouraging.

But that's what Satan would have us believe. "You're not ____ enough."

Then come the words of the psalmist.

I will delight in the Lord today as one of his beloved. In his steadfast love is my strength for today and my hope for tomorrow. He's already taken care of yesterday.

Amen.

First Thoughts on the Scriptures January 29, 2008

Morning: Psalm 146:1-10
Genesis 15:1-11, 17-21
Hebrews 9:1-14
John 5:1-18
Evening: Psalm 99:1-9

In reading the gospel today, I got a new slant on the invalid by the pool. I had always read this story as another miracle of Jesus - attesting to his signs and wonders and the unmerited grace toward the least of these, and of course another episode of stirring up trouble with the Pharisees. I had seen the poor, marginalized invalid, always overpowered by the sick and lame rushing to the healing waters of the pool. I remember somewhere it was believed the first one in got healed, so the stampede always left him trampled in the dust, eating dirt. Jesus takes pity on him and heals him on the spot in front of everyone, and then disappears. Just like Jesus.

Today, I was struck by the encounter the invalid, now healed, had with Jesus in the temple later. ⁴Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." <sup>15

It stirs some questions for me, and leads me to an radical conclusion. What was his sin? Was it unbelief? I'm not convinced of that, because Jesus healed others without faith but never called that sin. Was it something he'd done in the past? It was a popular notion that sin caused sickness - we remember everyone wanting to know what sin the blind man or his family had committed that made him blind. But the Bible dismisses that as the unilateral reason for all illnesses.

I think that perhaps Jesus knew the man better than we did. He was and still is - a sinner. He was still engaged in some kind of sin against God, or others, or both. Don't know what it is. Nor did John. But Jesus seemed to know.

The uncomfortable part of this story is that Jesus might choose to heal someone of one thing, but will not let us off the hook for sin. He will call us on it, if we are listening and if we care. Just because we go to church, and praise God for our blessings (I assume that's why the now healed man was at the temple), doesn't mean we have surrendered everything to God, and turned away from sin in our lives. In fact, some remain in denial and outright defiance about sinful lifestyles, and still testify to God's goodness to them and give God glory in the church. That's dangerous.

It's true, God CAN show mercy on whomever He pleases - but God will NOT tolerate sin. Jesus knew what it was and called the man on it. It's easy to get hung up on the Pharisees' hard hearts and legalism about the Sabbath, but what about us? We who spend the Sabbath at church but don't deal with the sin in our lives? In our families? In our churches? Attitudes of anger, immorality, greed, pride, power, denial, irresponsibility, unkindness, unforgiveness, you-name-it. Just because we can now walk, doesn't mean we won't be cut off at the knees again someday by God. Jesus warns us - deal with that sin in your life.

That starts with not making any more excuses. Especially to the church.

The psalmist today also reminds us that God shows mercy and will also deal with our sins, because he is holy:</sup>

⁸O LORD our God, you answered them;

you were a forgiving God to them,

but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

⁹Extol the LORD our God,

and worship at his holy mountain;

for the LORD our God is holy.

First Thoughts on the Scriptures January 28 2008

Morning: Psalm 145:1-21
Genesis 14:(1-7) 8-24
Hebrews 8:1-13
John 4:43-54
Evening: Psalm 47:1-9

I appreciated the psalms today. Reminders of how big and cosmic, how eternal is my God. I need that because I get wrapped up in my own problems and intercessions, my thanksgivings for my simple and not-so-simple blessings. I am grateful for the mercy God has shown me, in Christ. Yes, I know by faith that God cares about every hair on my head, about my sins, and has come near me, has forgiven me. I know and believe that Jesus died for me and that I have eternal life with God. The writer of Hebrews also reminds me of God's love for me: ¹²For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." I am grateful for what God has done FOR ME, now and for eternity.

But the psalms humble me too, to see that God cares about every hair on EVERYONE's head. Every peasant and every ruler in every land, the rich and poor, men, women, children, from the beginning of time, through the present and into the future. Everyone - wayward or obedient, Christian, Jew, Muslim or not. A cosmic eternal, sovereign God love me and loves you, and loves everyone. And wants us for His own.

Like the royal official in Johns' gospel, who did not have the Law - was not part of the promise or the covenant made with Abraham. Don't know what religion if any he had. But he believed in miracles only Jesus could do. He knew Jesus first by faith, and then through experience, but not from knowledge, or following the Law, or belonging to a religious group. Jesus healed his son - a sign to confirm what the official already suspected, I imagine. And at that moment, he believed for sure, and the official became a part of the "new covenant", rooted in person of Christ alone.

I reflect on the Hebrews text, and it says to me that for all people in every nation and religion, certainly first for the Jews according to the word, there is ONE God, manifested in Jesus Christ. There is one high priest, and intercessor, one miracle-worker, one Savior. Jesus. Belonging to God, sharing in the Covenant, is manifested in a personal relationship with him, at once particular, and at the same time, cosmic and eternal.

For though God "found fault" with Israel, though Israel could never be purified or fully atoned with sacrifices and priestly work, God had a more excellent way - Jesus Christ. The same blessing I have in Christ has ALWAYS been available to Israel, and to all the people of the world, yesterday, today and tomorrow. But there will be a time when God will bring it all to an end. And some will still not believe the signs and wonders, the truth, to their peril.

This fuels my mission as a minister of Jesus Christ. I pray that all will come to "know" him personally, for in Jesus is their hope and salvation. I believe I am called to minister this truth to all, in love, as God so loved the world. To proclaim the exclusive covenant God made with us in Christ alone. This is the truth that transcends all other religious knowledge or practices - even Christian practice and doctrine. It is the truth that extends beyond me or you - our blessings and miracles, even our own iniquities. This is the truth that Jesus Christ alone, is the high priest of heaven and Lord of all.

Psalm 47: God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.⁹The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted.

Thanks be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - LORD of all.

Sunday Rest - first thoughts January 27 2008

I've been on study leave since Wednesday, in part to get caught up on reading, to plan Lent and Easter services, consider a long range planning process for SBPC. We call it study leave, but for me this leave has also been a Sabbath of sorts. More like a week of Sundays, lived in Old Testament obedience, like we're reading about now in our Covenant Groups. I've been trying to keep these Sabbath days holy - with worship and the word, sleeping late, a nap or two, reconnecting with my family, plus deeper reading and prayer. A time for rest, from the phone, email, church, housework. That was the plan for my week of Sundays.

It's been interrupted somewhat - a granddaughter rushed to the emergency room, a personnel issue at a ministry I serve as board chair, caring for my ill mother, comforting a few discouraged folks.

But I've also been able to listen carefully to the Lord. He has spoken to me through the word - Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers as I review the 10 commandments, the purity laws, and marvel at the precision and beauty of the tabernacle. I have heard the Lord as Israel wandered and grumbled in frustration toward the Promised Land. God has spoken to me through the interruptions. God has spoken to me in my dreams and my doubts, in my inquiries and my worries. God has spoken through my husband and God has spoken to me through my flesh. God has spoken to me in the silence, and in the thunder. God has spoken to me in my fatigue. And this is what God is telling me.

I will have no other gods before ME - not the church, not the blessings or your disappointments, not your friends or family. Not your gifts or passions or your dreams for your church. I desire first that you rest in me. And only then can I get your attention.

I am also hearing God telling me, I am God and you are not. I will provide. I was struck by Moses, always insecure and tired and discouraged as he led the people out of Egypt. But God provided instruction and signs and others to help. The Israelites were enslaved and constantly pursued by the enemy, but God always went before them. They were near death more than once, and God always provided food and light and protection. They were stiff-necked and rebellious, and most of them never made it to Canaan, but the next generation did. Leaders died and God raised up new ones. Promise fulfilled. Presence assured. Power Divine. God's way.

I realize I am weary carrying my dreams and responsibilities, plans and decisions, even in my loving, with too little resting in God. I will finish my Sabbath leave, and I know God will grant me more rest, more love and more direction for the future.

God knows the plans He has for me and you and the church - to prosper not to harm...Jer. 29:11.