After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Matthew 2:1-2
The growth group that meets at the Halls began a study in the book of Matthew, while waiting to receive our materials from BILD International. In my study of Matthew, I found that there is an actual Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) written as a handbook, drawing heavily from the book of Matthew, to be a guide for the early believers. It was in this study I realized Jesus Christ came first as a King when He came to this earth. Like earthly kings, He had a pedigree and a birth record. As a heavenly King, He was prophesied through His ancestral lineage before they were born--Abraham, to King David, through the Babylonian Captivity, to the birth of the King of Israel.
My understanding of Jesus (Yeshua) simply casts Him as the gentle Teacher, who becomes the Saviour by His sacrifice. This is not completely accurate. If I were truly to understand His message, Matthew compels me to first see Him as the Promised King.
It is easier for me to understand Him as the Saviour and I am the sinner, or as the Great Teacher and I am the student. Even the disciple would be more accurate, because the disciple has to leave home to follow the Rabbi. The student goes home after his lesson. To say He is my Master and I am his slave takes my whole existence and brings my entire being captive. I am to be all of these things and can be to Him, His creation, when I first realize that He is my King.
The Magi recognized the King by a star in the East and came to worship Him. The Angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and they came. Why didn’t all Bethlehem of Judea, the City of David, come to worship the King of Israel?
They already had a King, a pseudo protector, and though they knew the prophesies of a coming King, a baby in a manger, without the herald pomp and circumstance, did not meet the cultural expectations in the tradition of King David and King Solomon.
When I first met Jesus Christ, I did not understand His majestic heavenly royalty and who He really is. He calls us all differently--a star, an angel, a still small voice--but once we know Him as Saviour, then we can know Him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and then we can be to Him, His creation!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God … our comfort is abundant through Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
When I was pregnant with Jennifer, our oldest daughter, I had an ovarian tumor. Denis and I elected not to have diagnostic testing and chose to tell only a few close Christian friends about this complication.
The “what ifs” were difficult and I found it hard to pray and trust God with my life and the life of my child. Dave and Barb Kendall were among the couples who held us up in prayer.
During those months I experienced the comfort of Jesus in a powerful way. When I awoke in the morning and at random times during the day, my mind was filled with Scripture and song that reminded me of His love.
I am thankful for the faithful prayers of believers who pleaded with God for physical healing and emotional peace. And I thank Jesus that He was my Comfort and kept my mind focused on His love.
My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
I John 2:1-2
Jesus is my Advocate. He stands between me and condemnation by our Holy God. His Spirit intercedes for me in prayer.
An advocate is a promoter, a supporter—a voice speaking for another. Christ is the ultimate Advocate because He actually paid the price for our sins. Normally an advocate is not willing to make this kind of sacrifice. A lesser defender would try to soften the blow, but would not take the penalty onto himself.
Because Jesus is my willing Advocate, I am able to sing, “…That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul…It is well with my soul.”
Are you feeling separated from God today? Remember Jesus is on your side. He understands your circumstance and intercedes for you as you pray.
Jesus, my Advocate, thank You for paying the penalty for my sin and giving peace to my soul. I ask You to intercede for me today as I bring my requests before You.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed..." Luke 4:18
My co-teacher and I taught junior and senior high students who had been expelled from inner city schools but were required to attend classes. I prayed daily, sometimes hourly, for my challenging students, who came from dysfunctional, broken, and battered families.
On one occasion I was hard-pressed to come up with a creative writing lesson idea to inspire my class. As I prayed about it, I got a picture of hands and how they are used.
The next day I told a story of my grandmother and how I loved her hands that held me, baked bread, played croquet, and set a Thanksgiving table. I told my students to look at their hands—hands that could hold a gun or love a child, hands that could harm, or hands that could teach. Then I asked them to close their eyes and think about what they wanted to do with their hands. They wrote their hopes and dreams, their fears and sorrows. Some of them opened up for the first time.
Those papers stayed on the wall the rest of the school year as a testimony of their ability. We shared them again at “graduation” in May.
Christ worked in them and works in us, healing our broken hearts. The Great Physician always knows how to touch His children.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2
I felt directionless and was looking for purpose before becoming a believer in Christ. Then, as a new Christian, Jesus taught me to focus on His light. The world has become less troubling and its ideas are less important as my spiritual journey has continued.
When my brain cancer was diagnosed, my focus did not change. Cancer is only a storm; Jesus is the lighthouse. He is on the cliff and He brought me in through the storm. I have learned that no matter what happens—whether life is stormy or placid—I will focus on the Light until I get home.
The song “Praise You in the Storm” was an encouragement as I faced the cancer surgery. My grandchildren call the song “Grandpa’s Song.” It has been a privilege to share what Jesus has done for me with them.
Sing to God, sing praise to His name, extol Him who rides on the clouds—His name is the LORD—and rejoice before Him. Psalm 68:4
George Handel, in his famous oratorio called “The Messiah,” proclaims the names of Jesus as quoted from Isaiah 9 where the promise of a coming Messiah was prophesied. In that promise, Isaiah, by divine writing, gives us a few names of Jesus. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The Bible, with more then 200 names for Jesus, gives us a picture and a description of who the Son of God is. God reaches down to us even in our own language so that we could somehow connect in our humanness with the God-Man Jesus Christ.
The names of Jesus are far more than descriptive. They embody spiritual truths and an essence characteristic of who He is to us personally. When we need guidance, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. When we go through darkness, Jesus is the Light of the World. When we need spiritual nourishment, Jesus is the Bread of Life.
We need to remind ourselves that the entire essence of who Jesus is is beyond human comprehension or description. The one thing that sets Jesus’ name apart and above all names is that God has given Him a name that is above every name. It is this name that helps us understand His position as Son of God and equal with the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” That is why, as it says in Revelation 5:13, He is worthy of all praise, glory, and honor due to His name.
As we begin this season of Lent and we focus on the names of Jesus, reflect on those names and see how God has revealed Himself to you through the descriptions of Jesus. Also take time to pray and use the names of Jesus in your prayers. Just as we humans like to hear our name spoken by others, one way we show love for the Father is to use His Son’s names in prayer back to Him. Join us in this Lent season to meditate on and grow deeper in the one who is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world.
Challenge: As we begin this series, write down several names that are dear to your heart as you think upon Jesus. Pray those names back to God, thanking Him for revealing that aspect of who He is in our lives.
Prayer: Lord, we thank You for Your Word that has revealed many descriptive names of who You are and who You want to be in our lives. As we go through life, You are like a finely cut diamond that changes in the reflection of the light. You become more dazzling and brilliant as we see You from different seasons and vantage points of our life. Help us to revel in the names of who You are.
As I prepare to preach a series on prayer for the Lent season, I am reminded how important prayer is and how much I want to make it more of my life. Now that I have crossed the 50 year old threshold, I realize more time in prayer and less doing is more profitable. After going through a traumatic experience where we were let go by a church we served fifteen years, I rededicated myself to prayer and less doing. Over the last five years at this church, I sacrificed my health, my family, and prayer to try to take a traditional dying church and make it a healthy, vibrant, relevant church that was growing. In many ways I succeeded but there was a cost and I am still paying that today as I try to get the weight off and be healthier. Prayer has brought a peace and calm to realize it is God's church and my life and times are in His hands. I need to pray and do my part but I need to go home everyday, knowing I did my part and leave the rest in His hands.
So as I begin this series, I am hungering for more of God. It is like an itch in your back that you cannot reach but once someone scratches it, you are satisfied. I have a longing in my soul to be less productive and let God and others do more of the work. I am learning to relax and workout more without feeling guilty from being away from work and family. God wants me to have time for myself.
How is your hunger for God? Are you feeding it? Are you ignoring it? Are you allowing distractions and other priorities get in the way like I did for so long? Join me this Lent season in giving up something significant so that you can scratch that itch, that desire to know God more deeply and build a joyful relationship with Him.
Your thoughts on hungering for God and how to spend more time with Him. What will you give up this Lent season as a sacrifice to be committed to your relationship with God?
Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on
I remember as a teenager hearing these words penned by Bill Withers for the first time. I was on vacation with my parents and sister sitting on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina listening to surf music on my cube Panasonic transistor radio. I loved that song then and even at Christian concerts over the years, I have heard this song. It has been a song that I think about from time to time and it reminds me of what Alex Haley said. Alex Haley wrote the book "Roots" and other books as well. In his office was a picture of a turtle on a fencepost. Someone came into his office and commented about that unusual picture. They asked Alex why he had that picture on his wall. Of all the pictures one could have chosen, why this one. Alex Haley said it was a constant reminder that he did not become famous by himself but others helped "put" him there.
We in this world need each other. As technology changes rapidly and we get into our computers, phones, blackberries, etc, for social networking, we see our society getting more isolated and lonely. We were created by God to have relationships. God created Eve for Adam so that he wouldn't be alone. Even a relationship with God wasn't enough for humans God decided. We need someone with flesh and bones like us to communicate with and understand us and have companionship with. So what I am saying is that we need each other and we need each other to keep us on the pathway of walking with Jesus. We cannot do it alone. That's why it is important that we look at the 32 one another passages and look for ways to live them out with other Christ followers and others that still are in need of Jesus.
This idea of teamwork and loving companions can be seen in scripture. If you were to ask me what my favorite story in the New Testament was, I would say Mark 2:1 -12 where four men took the paralytic to Jesus. Mark's gospel records this amazing story.
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
The four men represent what I call the 4 C's, all important in building and maintaining a relationship. One man who held on to the mat and was carrying this man was Concern. He saw a man in desperate need and knew only Jesus could heal him. He had deep concern for his friend. The second man was Care. He loved and cared for his friend. He was there for him but now he wanted to move beyond concern and help this man at least see Jesus. Then the third man was Compassion. He was the one who probably got the four guys together, got the mat and prepared to take his friend to Jesus. He put his care and concern into action. The last man of the four was Commitment. When he got to the house where Jesus was, he saw that they weren't going to get their paralyzed friend through the door. He got his buddies up on the roof and tore open the roof, with ropes lifted their paralyzed friend up and lowered him into the house where Jesus was. Commitment was not going to be deterred by all or any obstacles. He believed that this was a divine appointment, a once in a lifetime appointment and he was not going to miss this opportunity. Underlying their emotions for their crippled friend was a faith that God could do the extraordinary. He could do what no doctor or anyone else could do. As the story unfolds, we see Jesus not only heal this man physically but forgave his sins and healed him spiritually.
We need each other in this life. So don't get so focused on facebook and myspace, etc. that we don't have face to face encounters, conversations with people. There is something that feeds our soul when we have a good conversation with someone or we listen to those who are hurting. There are no substitutes for relationships. We need them, others need us. Will you help others by helping them get their turtle on a fencepost this week.
In the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, we get to see dramatically how one life uniquely touches others and how important we are as God's creation in this world. Who will you listen to and have a conversation with this week, without texting? Your thoughts are welcome
