Tag: Jesus

Thanksgiving

And then there was one

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

One of the lepers realizes his skin healed.  This man turns on his heals and heads back to Jesus.

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

Can’t you see this guy?  I doubt he stopped when the first sore healed.  Not even the second.  But when he realized the ulcerated sores were gone, he knew it was real.

This guy didn’t set there trying to decide why he once was sick but now was well.  He knew.  He didn’t second-guess the source of his healing.  He knew an answered prayer when he saw one.

So let’s look at how he reacted to answered prayer as compared to David’s guide on Thanksgiving.

So the ten lepers came to Jesus crying out for Him to heal them.  So I think we can agree they meet two of David’s points.  We might call this level 1.  The starting point.

2)   Call upon his name

7)   Seek the Lord and his strength

Let’s go to level 2.  Here are some of the points David mentions that I think are part of level 2.

1)   Give thanks to the Lord

3)   Make known his deeds

4)   Sing unto him

5)   Talk about his wondrous work

6)   Glory in his holy name

 (we will get to level 3 and 4  in a little bit)

Only one leper returns.  All were healed as far as we can tell from the scripture.  But only one stops and heads back to Jesus.

Can’t you see him?  This man runs back down the road yelling out loud and praising God.  The heads of people passing by must have been turning.  I doubt there was one person who passed who didn’t know this man had been heal.

I can think of so many times God answered my cries. Those moments when I had hit bottom and had no idea what I would do.  God acted and I knew it was Him.  I thanked him and my heart sang.  But to be honest, I don’t think I told others, I don’t think I called up praises or documented what God had done.

Those moments fade into my history and don’t become a building block for greater faith.  In fact, as time passes, I think I sometimes start second guessing did God act.  At the time, I know only God could have acted, but later I think maybe just coincidence or something I didn’t know about happened.   Those doubts actually bring down faith rather than building it.

Exercise

Earlier we made a list of times when we cried out to God and He answered.  Look at those moments.  How did you react to God’s answer to your prayer?  Did you run through town praising God and telling people what God had done?  Did you sing songs to God glorifying Him for what he had down?

I would like to spend our Thanksgiving working on treating one of those answered prayers as David would have treated it.  Or as this leper naturally treated it.

The Colt
Christian.

The Colt

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Luke 19: 28-31  And it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples saying,

“Go into the village opposite you, in which as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it, and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, why are you untying it?  thus shall you speak, ‘The Lord has need of it'”

 

Question:  If someone came to you today and started to take your possession, and when you confronted them, they said the Lord has need of it, what would your answer be?
I am not sure what my answer would be.  I suspect I would be suspicious.  If I let the colt go, I would have insisted on taking him.  What trust this unnamed servant had.  Imagine what God could do with people who were this obedient to his requests.

 

First Day of Christmas (Season of Celebration Begins)
12 Days of Christmas · Christian. · Christmas · Christmas Traditions

First Day of Christmas (Season of Celebration Begins)

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Jesus stepped into the world as a little babe.  We celebrate Him as Lord and as King.  The angels tell us our savior is born.  Yes, our savior! The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one who existed at the beginning of the universe came to earth to die.

The Shepherds in near by fields watched over the passover lambs.  The shepherds tended the sheep assuring those without flaws would be available in the Temple for the Passover sacrifice.  Jesus came to be our true Passover lamb.

Two thousand years before, Pharaoh refused to release the Israeli slaves.  Over generations they were forced into service.  Now, God wanted his people freed.  Moses told Pharaoh to release the people or the first born son in every home would die.  But God provided a method for salvation.  If the family sacrificed a lamb and placed the blood on the two door posts and the beam above the door, death would not come to the home where the blood of the lamb was found.

Jesus came into the world to teach us, and to demonstrate right from wrong.  But the truth is that Jesus came into the world to die.  He is our Passover Lamb.  And when the book of life is open to judge the just and the unjust, if the blood of the lamb is found on our hearts then we will be covered in his righteousness.

We celebrate our King, but it is the greatest of Kings who chooses to die so his people can live.

Jesus came the first time as the Sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus came to die for us.

Next time, he will be coming as our King.

Come Lord Jesus!!!

Light
Advent · Christmas · Uncategorized

Light

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Lights decorate our homes and line the streets blinking with reds, whites and greens.  The advent is counted by lighting candles.  We hold candle light services to celebrate the birth of Christ.  Our Christmas trees twinkle with light.

So what does light have to do with Jesus.  Oh the traditions probably just grew over time from different events, but the idea of light is very important when thinking about the baby who grew into the man we know as Jesus.

John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ” I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

And

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

And

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,  purifies us from all sin.

And some day

Revelation 22:5 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever.

Prayer: Dear Lord, you are the light of the world, help me to walk in that light that I might have fellowships with those who are yours.

Meditation: Think about living with God where there is no need for light or the sun, because the light of God will light the world.

Action.   Sit outside and look up at the stars and the moon, just think about the one who spoke all of this into creation.

 

The Passover Lambs in the Fields
Advent · Christmas · Uncategorized

The Passover Lambs in the Fields

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Luke 2 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

That flock of sheep sitting in the field probably had something in common with the babe in the manger.

Bethlehem sits about six miles from Jerusalem where the temple was.  The sheep in the fields, more than likely, were being raised to be a sacrifice.  At Passover people flooded into Jerusalem, they needed a lamb without flaw for their sacrifice.

The babe in the manger would grow up to be the only perfect human.  This man would lay down his life as our Passover lamb.

And on the day of His birth, the shepherds were called by the Angels to view the new born baby who would be the final Passover Lamb required.

John 1 29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

I am constantly amazed that Christ chose to leave heaven to be a sacrifice for me.  He came to be the final passover lamb.  I am in awe constantly just at the thought he was willing to leave heaven, but to come knowing that he faced being the passover sacrifice.  That is just amazing.

John 3 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Babe in the manger was your gift from God.  The Father provided the Lamb to be sacrificed for your sins.

Genesis 22:8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb or the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

Prayer: Thank Jesus for coming to earth, for being our Passover lamb, for giving us the comforter.

Meditation:  Think about what it would like to be in heaven and then to leave for earth.  Think about the love Jesus had for us to be willing to sacrifice himself to build a bridge between us and God.

Action:  Write a Thank You note to Jesus for what his coming to be a sacrifice has meant for me in my here and now.

Tickle Me Pink
Advent · Christmas

Tickle Me Pink

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Early days of advent, the people spent the weeks prior to Christmas in preparation.  This included fasting and prayer.  The third Sunday was a day to break the seriousness.  A rose or pink colored candle was used.  This Sunday we concentrate on Joy.  The joy we have in Christ.  Not the giggly always bouncing around happy type of happiness.  But the deep inner joy and contentment of a relationship with Christ.

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

The Joy of Christ comes from keeping Christ’s command.  And what is that command?  What must a person do in order for Christ’s joy to be in you and for that joy to be complete?

John 15:17 This is my command: Love each other.

True contentment and joy comes from loving our brother’s and sister’s in Christ as He loved us.  Christ’s love is sacrificial love.  Jesus loved us so much  He stepped down from heaven to be born in a stable and slept in the trough where the animals ate. Walked the earth and taught the people.  He  died on the cross to cover our sins.
This the type of love we are called to possess for one another.

The idea of loving fellow Christians as Christ loved us has been on my mind a lot lately.  It occurs to me that many of us have become proficient at pretending to love. We hug and kiss and say we love one another when we are together.  But who are we when we are alone or with a different group.  Do we bad mouth? Do we shake our heads?  Are our thoughts about how we are better than Sue?  Or boy, Josie needs to get her act together?

I think the love that Jesus wants is the kind of love that doesn’t talk behind someone’s back.  It cares about the person and will sacrifice for that person.  Joy comes from a heart free of self righteousness,  a mind clean of mean thoughts, and a mouth silent if nothing good can be said.

Prayer:  Lord you know those who I have difficulty with.  Please help me to love them.  I place on the altar before you all my selfish thoughts and self righteousness.  Please forgive me and fill me with your joy.

Meditation: Why do some people make me angry?  Why do I talk about some people behind their backs?  Are there times when I act like I love someone, but actually resent them?

Action: Watch my actions and thoughts during the day, when I start to talk about someone or feel resentment, I will pray for the person.

Action:

Ring the Bells
Advent · Christian. · Christmas · Uncategorized

Ring the Bells

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Bells, church tower bells, hand held bells, bells on bob tails, bells, bells everywhere bells.

Nothing is more Christmas than bells.  Yet, history rings loud with bells well before Jesus. Bells sounded a warning, or signaled people to come together.

The early church had no tower bells or loud bells to identify where they were meeting.  No, they would use little hand bells in the early days to indicate they were starting a service, but drawing attention was not high on their list of things to do.  For the first few centuries, they faced off and on persecution for their faith.

Then the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be acceptable and the churches started adding bells to indicate when special events would occur.  They built buildings with bell towers to ring out for events like Christmas.

As caroling started growing in popularity, some carolers would ring bells as the music for the singers and to draw attention.  The bells became more and more a part of the Christmas traditions.

But today, the bell ringers we think about most with the season stand outside of stores ringing their hand held bells.  Cold weather or hot, rain or snow, these men and women hold their posts from Thanksgiving until Christmas. The bell rings as we walk past.  If we drop a coin, we hear a Merry Christmas in reply.

Over a hundred years ago, one man saw the need of the poor in his town of San Francisco.  He desired to find them food for Christmas.  This one man found a pot and stood out asking people to drop coins in it to feed the needy at Christmas. He collected enough to feed over a 100,000 people that year.
Now similar pots are positioned all over our country and others who care about the poor stand outside of stores ringing a bell to draw attention to the need for the poor. Captain Joseph McFee and his Salvation Army pots have feed millions since the 1890’s

Today, we think of Christmas when we hear those bells ringing.  And when we think of Christmas we should think of the poor and needy.

Matthew 25

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Prayer:  Lord help me to see those in need.  Help me to know how to help in a healthy way.  Guide me to a person who cares for those in need.

Meditation:  When I face Jesus will he see me as a sheep who cared for Him when he was hungry, sick or in prison. Or am I a goat?

Action:  As I see people in need, visualize them as if they are Christ, before deciding how to respond.

13 Shopping Days–What Do I Get Jesus?
Advent · Christmas · Uncategorized

13 Shopping Days–What Do I Get Jesus?

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Only 13 shopping days till Christmas, seems I should give to Him who is celebrated

What do you get the one who created the world?

He asks for so little.  Only trust and love.  Not your ordinary love but that agape kind  The sort of love that God shows us.  That is the love He wants us to give.

But how do you give the love he desires.   This love refuses to get upset when offended or hurt  My typical reaction is to get angry instead of being patient  Could I give to God my anger and pain?  Would He want that for Christmas?

Or maybe I could be observant and watching. Looking for those times, I can be useful to others.  Would God appreciate 13 acts of kindness?  That might be a good stocking filler anyway.

I wonder if God would be satisfied with just plain love?  Agape is hard.  I mean not getting angry, or lashing out.  Not thinking about getting revenge.   Not keeping records of other wrongs.  I like to have my list and check it twice of all the ways that someone has hurt me.

I wonder if He would be satisfied if I just donate some money?  No, He wants agape.  Guess I need to keep thinking.

Agape expects me to protect my brothers and sisters in Christ, to trust them, to hope the best for them. And it expects me to persevere with them through all things.

I feel like the child who wants to get their parent a gift, but doesn’t have enough money to buy what they want to give.  Mom or dad gives the child a little money so they can buy the gift they to give.

I need my heavenly father to fill me with Holy Spirit without the Spirit working in me I cannot give Agape to my Jesus.  I cannot love all His children as he asks.

Jesus please help me to give you the gift of Agape

Prayer:  Fill me with the Holy Spirit and teach me to love as You Love

Meditation:  Who do I know who shows Agape type of love

Action: One act of kindness every day until Christmas.

Tired of Christmas Plays Blame Francis
Advent · Christmas · Uncategorized

Tired of Christmas Plays Blame Francis

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Do you feel excited about remembering the birth of Jesus?

Seven hundred years ago, the people did not read and did not own bibles.  Francis of Assisi wanted the people to understand and be energized by the birth of Jesus.

St. Bonaventure (d. 1274) Life of St. Francis of Assisi

It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff.

Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise.

The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem.

Thus started the tradition of Churches acting out the Nativity Scene, and eventually other Christmas plays.
But have we become unexcited over the story of Jesus?  Do we think of the babe and become filled with tenderness? Jesus existed before the world was formed yet He stepped down from heaven to become a human baby.  He entered the world in as humble a way as I can imagine.

Some times I think the traditions and the rituals which I love so much have caused me to lose the excitement over the reason for the season.

Prayer:  Lord help my mind and heart to feel the trill of the story of your birth.  Please forgive me for allowing myself to have lost the excitement of your birth.  Help me to find ways to tell the story so others are excited by your birth.

Meditation:  Jesus existed before he came to earth think about what He left to be born of a young woman, in a stable.  A babe to be cared for by its mother.  A child that must grow and learn and be subject to his parents. And then remember He did it for me.  He did it for each individual person on earth so they would have  the opportunity to be reconciled with God.

Action:  Come up with at least one creative way to share the story of Jesus birth.  Something different.

They Will Know You by Your Love
Advent · Uncategorized

They Will Know You by Your Love

purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

I Love You; You Love Me; We are a great big family.  My daughter loved Barney when she was young.  Horror of horrors if she ever reads this and finds I let out her secret.  But the second advent candle represents Love.  And the Christian love is much like that song.  God loved me; I love Him; He wants me to love all his children so we will be a great big family.
God gave us the ultimate present one night two thousand years ago and He gave it out of love.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus guides us in three areas of love:

1) Love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul

2) Love our neighbor as our self

3) Love our Christian brothers and sisters as Christ loved us.

1 John 4 verses regarding love.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Christ instructed us to love our neighbor, but my understanding of the verses above and the verse in John 13:34-35 is that we are being given a higher command than to love everyone as we love ourselves.  We are being commanded to love as Christ loves and we are not capable of this with our human selfishness.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This love as Christ loves is not for everyone but for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are not capable of this level of love on our own.  Only through the Holy Spirit living and working in us can we live out this kind of love.  This love sacrifices self for others.  This love humbles itself to wash the feet of the lowliest member of the family.  This love says I will do without so you can have.  This love does not enable but also does not make excuses for not helping.  This love always has the other’s best interest at heart.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”
Can people tell I am a Christian by my love?

Prayer:  Jesus please fill me with your spirit and help me to love.  I must pray sincere prayers for those who I have trouble loving.

Meditation:  Does my life show love or does it show selfishness?

Action:  Find the people who I know are disciples by their love.  How do I know they love?  Journal what tells me they love.