284 - "Watch Every Dream Go Down In Dust and Yearn to Be Involved in Kingdom Living" Matthew 25-26

Matthew 25:21- "You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your Master."

Matthew 25:25 - "So, I was afraid..."  The servant did nothing with what he was entrusted. The Redeemer had given him just a little.  The servant should have, at least, invested the one talent given to him by the One who owned him.  Do I live afraid to take the risk with the investment of what God has given to me?   The Parable of the Talents does not imply that by improving our talents, our abilities, our resources, we are then entitled to Divine Grace. We are all called to be servants of our Redeemer promoting ourselves---No!---promoting His Glory. There's a Grander Story here than just our story. We are constrained by the Love of Christ, controlled by His Love, to live no longer for ourselves. Am I willing to take a risk to invest in Eternity? These words come to mind again this week:

"Faith as I'm growing to understand it more, is about looking beyond my circumstances to a person. To have faith in better circumstances, even in God creating better circumstances, is not true faith. I want to be the kind of man who can watch every dream go down in flames and still yearn to be intimately involved in kingdom living, intimately involved with my Friend the King, and still be willing to take another risk just because it delights Him for me to do so. And my flesh shivers to think about it."    Shattered Dreams

PHOTO: 

283 - "What Circumstances Riddle My Soul?" Matthew 23-24

                                                                 

What circumstances riddle my soul this day?  Will faith be found among us?  The Kingdom is near!  I can wrestle with a Good God just like these disciples wrestled to find faith.  "I can live to give and not to grasp.  I can bring a taste of heaven to earth."  66 LL. Thy Kingdom come. Stay Awake. Be Vigilant. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up. Matthew 24:30-31. The Arrival of the Son of Man will fill the skies---no one will miss that! Get Ready. his angels with a trumpet sound will pull in God's chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole. 

A Son of Adam, bothered by Satan, not only spiritually (like us all) but also physically.  Followers of Christ, not able to do anything about it.  Do the things of God rest on our hearts with deep conviction? What am I truly convinced of? How can the Truth be instrumental in our own hands of becoming faith in others? By our tiny faith, we will draw out from others the people God intended for them to be. 

PHOTO: A new sun. A new day. God arrives. And This Day may be the Day He fills the skies. Live like it is. 

282 - "The Messiah of My Dreams" Matthew 21-22

                              

Matthew 21:9 - "Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!"  And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is This?" The point is that a king would come riding upon a horse when he was bent on war; 

but he came riding upon an ass for he was coming in peace. 
This action of Jesus is a sign that He was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, 
but the Prince of Peace. No one saw it that way at that time, not even the disciples...
They were looking for the Messiah of their own dreams and their own wishful thinking.  William Barclay

Do I look this day for the Messiah of my own dreams, my own wishful thinking?  
Or do I embrace The Deliverer Who Has Come to Save Me and Set Me Free?

PHOTO:  The clouds 2,000 years later.

281 - "No Big People/ No Little People" Matthew 18-20

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Matthew 18:2.   I wonder if the disciples thought it would be one of them since they left it "all" for Him.  Left their jobs.  Left their families.  Left their children.  Surely!  Yet, they are still raw around the edges in ambition and selfishness and jealousy and the list goes on.  They ask for themselves, don't they?  For their confirmation of their own self worth.  What's the problem here?  What's the problem with me---for I deeply struggle with what others think of me and where I am in my life.  Would my life be validated if I was a flourishing bestseller author and speaker, like a Woman of Faith touring brigade.  Or, if I had one million friends on Twitter.  Or, if I had a church of 10,000 who loved my every bible study word. 

There are no degrees of greatness on earth.  We all wrestle with evil.  We aren't the example----Christ is.  So, why do I still struggle to be somebody?  It could be that my world shouts out to me that I have not arrived nor ever will.  Maybe, it's my own words that I say to myself.  Never the matter, it's not the question to ask.  There are no big people and little people in God's Economy, not in this life even though our world is set up as the bigs and the littles.  

So, what's the point here:  Humble yourself as a child.  Matthew 18:4.

280 - "Curved In On Ourselves" Matthew 15-17

                                                       

Matthew 15:18 - "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."   Incurvatus in se----Latin for "curved inward on oneself."  Romans 7: 18-19 - "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."  

       Augustine coined the phrase "curved in on itself."  
       Martin Luther expounded on the phrase by writing:  
       "Our nature, by the corruption of the first sin, 
       being so deeply curved in on itself 
       not only bends the best gifts of God towards itself & enjoys them 
       (as is plain in the works-righteous and hypocrites), 
       but rather even uses God Himself in order to attain these gifts, 
       and also fails to realize that it so wickedly, curvedly, and viciously 
       seeks all things, even God, for its own sake."

PHOTO: A bridge over troubled waters. Troubles happen to all of us. But it is our arrogance in our hearts that wreaks the most havoc. All because we are curved in on ourselves. Lose your life.

279 - "Five Loaves & Two Fish" Matthew 13-14

Are you listening, really listening?  Jesus told stories to their God-blessed ears and God-blessed eyes.  He repeated the question again and again---are you really listening.  Tell stories.  "Whenever someone has a ready heart, the insights and understandings flow freely" when Jesus told stories (13:12).  Shouldn't we?
Matthew 14

We're here to talk about God and what He's up to in our lives. Our experiences are not the means to find  God---they are the context in which we find God. 

It's the stories that nudge us to a welcome awakening. Matthew 13:13. 

It's my story that has provided the context of knowing God.

We see the rest of the story in this chapter.  John had called Herod's relationship with his sister-in-law what it truly was---adultery.  And it cost him his head.  I'm so "taken" with John in a dungeon and Jesus answering his question that the blind would see, the deaf hear, the lame walk.  But not you, John.  Life is so upside down than what I think at times.   When Jesus learned of his death, He slipped away but was so "taken" with the crowd that gathered that He not only spoke to them but also fed 5,000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish.  

How in the world will I ever find rest for my soul knowing I might be left in a dungeon waiting to be beheaded.  5 Loaves and 2 Fish.  Only God can change my weary worn soul.  Next, a storm comes up at sea....the disciples are panicked.  At 4:00am Jesus walks on water to His Followers.  Take Courage - 14:27.  Makes me think how God never sleeps, never slumbers to watch over us each night.  Only He can walk on water to make us stay alive, come alive.  5 Loaves and 2 Fish.  Would you make each of us a little more alive today than yesterday?

PHOTO: Rockport, Texas. Walking on the shore, thinking about God and how we can even come close to understanding an all-present, all-knowing God. 

278 - "The Unforced Rhythms of Grace" Matthew 12

The images of the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba condemning Jesus' generation in Israel at the judgment would have horrified Jesus' hearers.  They didn't expect a Savior to come preaching with such harsh judgment.  And they thought they were religious. Thought they were okay---good enough.  Just because you think you know the truth and act on it doesn't mean that what you think and do is right.   Most people in Israel did not accept the introduction by John---the Light of the World Who had come.  Countries asked him to leave.  Israelites shrugged their shoulders.

Matthew 12: 41-42 ~ "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here."  Nineveh and the Queen both knew far less facts about Christ than Israel first-hand witnessing miracle after miracle.  Yet, they believed.

Even John himself, the one full of the Holy Spirit introducing our Savior replies in Matthew 11:4 “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” John knew Jesus came to change people's hearts not fix their world.  Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see:  the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”  John sat in a damp dismal dungeon knowing he had heard and embraced the Truth.  He would not be rescued.  He would be beheaded.  And he would die at rest knowing God and advancing His Kingdom.  

Am I disrupted by the story of John the Baptist and how he learned the unforced rhythms of Grace?  "I should be!  God prefers a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual (Matt 12:7)."  "This is war, and there is no neutral ground (Matt 12:30).  If you're not on my side, you're the enemy...Consider this---"There's nothing done or said that can't be forgiven (Matt 12:32)."  Take heart!  "It's your heart that gives meaning to your words (Matt 12:34)."

So what did John the Baptist know that I don't know in the midst of trials?

277 - "We Know The Rest of the Story" Matthew 10-11

John in the Book of Matthew in 11:3 is still asking - "Are you the One we've been expecting or are we still waiting?"  John asks the question from a dark damp dungeon---a prison cell for preaching truth.  But it's Jesus' reply knowing the rest of the story that grips me this day.  "Go to the prison and tell John:  The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side."  We know the rest of the story in Matt 14: 11-12...John's head would be carried on a platter at Herod's birthday party at the request of Herodian and her daughter.  John wasn't healed or saved from a horrendous death.  John knew something I don't know as he wrestled through Jesus leaving him from prison cell to prison cell.  Yet John was free.  When I lost one of my babies to miscarriage, Elisabeth Elliot wrote me the words of this passage. 

Are you burned out with what God is asking of you?  Are you worn out with your life, your family, your friends, your ministry?  Matt 11:28-30 - "Come to Me.  Get away with Me and you'll recover your life.  How do you get away with Jesus?  He will show you how to take a real rest.   "Walk with Me and work with Me---watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of Grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."  

276 - "People Are Ruined By Not Repenting" Matthew 7-9

                                                                 

God says right here if we ask for a fish, He won't give us a snake.  Oh for deep discernment to see what is truly going on around us.  The transition to verse 7 is stark.  The preceding verses talk of judging others.  We are bent on changing our husbands, our children, our friends.  But God interrupts us here and says---Ask!  How shall we dare love and give and seek?  Only by His Power.  So, ask!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7. Absolute words!  Ask! Seek! Knock! "Distinct degrees of intensity," says Matthew Henry. 

The beautiful point of this sermon on a mount is that in all of our difficulties, large or small, we are to seek God's Hand. Persevere importunately. It is always right to desire the good things.  It is always wrong to demand and connive to get them for ourselves.  Do we walk after our own eyes? 

God interrupts my life a whole lot. He has been oh so faithful to me. God interrupts in Matthew 7:7. You have been judging others: you have been bent on changing your husband, your adult kids, your friends. God interrupts and says: Ask. Seek. Knock Matthew 7:7. Intense words. 

275 - "Enough on Earth; Everything in Heaven" Matthew 5-6

                                                            
So many things to fear.  Yet...
If we love and trust our God,
it is Enough on this earth.
it is Everything in heaven.
Beyond words that God has reassured this wanderer and
in the absence of what I thought life would be for us all,
He is Enough on earth.
He is Everything in heaven.
The word shield means active not passive in the hands of God.
A shield ready for what simmers within.
A shield round about it for what lurks without.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Matthew 5:3

Matthew 5. Go with God. Be a peacemaker for all that is broken.                                                                                                                                    

That we may keep the peace that it be not broken.                              That we may recover the peace when it is no more.  

PHOTO: The first two people on Earth to call me Meme. May you find quickly in life that God is Enough on Earth and Everything to you in Heaven. May you live to be peacemakers.