Lessons from the Gospels 8 – Burdened

I am tired, sweet sisters. My job is currently very busy with opportunities that I, as director of sales, am tasked with turning into clients. I have a lot going on at church with teaching opportunities and events, kids classes, blogging and SOS. I’ve been traveling for work and for pleasure. Family birthdays and anniversaries, getting together with friends, and babysitting grandkids. Add to those good things the starting of a new entrepreneurial business venture and am training for a 5k.

I am very much over 21 and I don’t last as long or spring back as fast as I used to. But these are sweet “burdens” that I enjoy bearing, even though they tire me out. These are physical “burdens” that actually feel light to me due to the joy I have in them.

You know what wears me out more than those activities? The emotional and mental stress of the suffering of the world – from friends and family facing health, financial or interpersonal issues to the various wars, depressing and unnecessarily adversarial political environment, famine, prejudice, abuse and more going on in the world around me. These are too much for a human to bear and I sometimes ask God how He can look down on the earth and see it ALL (He sees so much more than I can), and not just send Jesus back right now!

You know what is not a burden? My relationship with God.

Matthew 11:28-30 [NLT] 28 Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

When Jesus calls us, He calls us to “light duty”. The Greek work translated “easy to bear” in the New Living Version above is translated and just “easy” in the King James, and it means “fit, fit for use, useful, good, virtuous or manageable”.

Something that is fit for use or useful hardly seems like it should be called a burden. God does ask us to carry a load, but it is a light load, and easy load.

We are not asked to carry the guilt or debt of our own sins. Those were pinned to the stake with Jesus.

We are not asked to carry the mental burdens of this world. Those Jesus promises to hold for us.

We are not asked to carry the burden of trying to save others. God does the calling in His own time.

We are not asked to carry the burden of “pay back” and revenge. Revenge-taking can be exhausting, and God offers to take that burden off of us. [Romans 12:17, 19] How much more peaceful would this world be without individuals or nations seeking revenge or to “get their own” back?

Matthew 11:28-30 [NLT] 28 Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

The burden He asks us to bear is light. And we can think of it in two ways. (1) It is light as the opposite of heavy. Not so much to ask of us.  (2) It is to BE the light in the world. [Matthew 5:14]

Our “light burden” sweet sisters is to be the light of this world - light that shines this suffering world toward God. Light that brings hope and happiness. Light that brings the warmth and comfort of peace rather than conflict.

Our churches should be a haven of peace and joy in this world so void of both. They should be places where the world-weary souls can come to find rest from struggle, doubt, gossip, ladder climbing, etc.

Our relationships should, to the best of our abilities, be sewn in peace. [Romans 12:18] We should be the people who do not “bring the drama” to our workplaces.

Why? Because we follow Jesus who healed people, taking away that burden. We follow Jesus who lifted the burden of adherence to all the extra things the leaders had added to the perfect law of liberty. [James 1:25] Our congregations and 501c3 organizations should not be places that add to the law what are really just the man-made burdens of “tradition” or opinion.

He asks us to help others who are burdened by sin – NOT to add to their burdens with opinions and rituals. [Galatians 6:1-2]

I know that Matthew 7:14 says the way that leads to life if difficult, but that is not because it is a heavy burden. That is because we, as humans in a world led by Satan, struggle against the good way, the peaceful way. That is because we, as humans in a world led by Satan, too willingly take on the burden of sin and its consequences.

God and Jesus offer us peace, hope, a future. We know God’s plans are for exactly that. [Jeremiah 29:11]

We bear the “burden” of being the beacons of peace, light, and hope in this world, and of spreading that message of a beautiful, bright future out into the world.

That is no great burden to bear.

I welcome your comments and questions. You can write me in the chat or at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org

Lessons from the Gospels 7 – Two things

In the movie City Slickers, the character named Curly, tells Mitch to find his own “one thing” to guide his life. Well, today’s blog is about the two things that Jesus gave us.

1 John 4:20 [NKJV] If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Three out of the four Gospel accounts address incidences where the two great commandments are addressed. In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus was asked for the greatest or the first commandment and He responded that the first or great commandment is “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” But He did not stop there. Although no one asked, Jesus volunteered that there is a second commandment that is like the first. That is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In incident found in Matthew, Jesus concluded with, “On these two commandments hand all the Law and the Prophets.” [Matthew 22:34-40]

In Mark’s incident, Jesus concludes with “There is no other commandment greater than these.” [Mark 12:28-34]

In the incident recorded in Luke, Jesus was asked what to do to inherit eternal life. He turns it back on the lawyer who asked, saying, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” The lawyer then outlines the two great commandments and Jesus says he is correct. [Luke 10:25-28]

It is of great importance to us, sweet sisters, to see that these two great commandments are inextricably linked.

Although he does not address a similar incident in his own Gospel, John does show that he knew the importance of and the link between loving God and fellow man in one of his letters.

1 John 4:20 [NKJV] If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

John goes as far as saying you are liar if you say you love God if you hate a brother.

In a previous blog, I mentioned that I believed if the only scripture one had from the Bible was Matthew chapter 5, one would have everything needed in order to live as a Christ follower in this world.

Turns out, all we really need is a couple of sentences: Love God with every part of you. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus Himself said that the entirety of the Old Testament teachings/law and all prophesy hinged on these two.

Since prophesy has the role of outlining God’s plan of salvation for all people, we know that they tell us about God’s great love for us. If you study into God’s interaction with His people, Israel, you will see that He often took them to task or even punished them for either not loving Him (often shown in idol worship or Sabbath-breaking) or not loving their fellow man (search for scriptures about mistreating the widows or the poor or oppressing the immigrant).

Jesus said there is no other commandment greater. We can clearly see that the 10 Commandments [Exodus 20] can be broken into two parts – Commandments 1-4 showing how to love god and Commandments 5-10 showing how to love our fellow man. The 10 are just a more granular version of the two great commandments.

Jesus also showed how to love our neighbors or fellow man in Matthew 25:31-46. Feed the hungry. Clothe those in need. Visit the sick and those imprisoned. Take in strangers. NEWS FLASH: That word translated “stranger” is “foreigner”. I’ll let you explore that on your own for now. Might be a subject for a future blog.

Sisters, Christianity is not a complex set of rules and laws. It boils down to love. Love God. Love your fellow man. Show those by your actions and you will find that you have kept all the law and will have gained eternal life.

If the world does not see love when it sees Christians, we have failed to keep the two great commandments on which everything else hinges.

I welcome your comments and questions. You can write me in the chat, or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org.

Lessons from the Gospels 6– Who IS this man?

Matthew chapter 8 is full of the miracles of Jesus. It’s all about miracles and little else. Miracles that surely confirmed He was the Messiah.

But in the midst of this chapter of miracles, we find this interesting miracle:

Matthew 8:23-27 [NLT] 23 Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" 26 Jesus responded, "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

Jesus “rebuked” the wind. To be clear, our Savior was sleeping through this “fierce storm” – apparently not in the least concerned about it. Not the disciples. They were scared.

"Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

But when they woke Him, Jesus got up and “rebuked” the WIND. Wonder if He went right back to sleep, while the disciples stood there with gaping mouths.

Matthew 8:27  tells us, “The disciples were amazed. "Who is this man?" they asked. "Even the winds and waves obey him!"

Who IS this man?! They had just seen Him heal a man with leprosy by touching him – something forbidden as making you unclean.

He commanded the healing of a young servant, from a distance.

He healed Peter’s mother-in-law and then, “That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick.”

With a “simple command” the evil spirits left.

Amazing miracles. We don’t even have actual numbers it was “many”. Too many to be counted?

Who is this man who sends healings, touches lepers, simply commands the demons to get out?

But what drops the jaws (metaphorically) of the disciples is His command of the weather? Perhaps because they felt He saved their lives when all seemed lost.

This is not the only time that the actions of Jesus drew the phrase “who is this man”.

Luke 7:47-49 [NLT] 47 "I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven." 49 The men at the table said among themselves, "Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?"

Who is this man to forgive sin?

Well, if He was JUST a man these things would be astounding. What’s more astounding is this:

Phillipians 2:5-8 [NLT] 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.

Who IS this Son of God that even my life was worthy of His loving sacrifice. Who is this Being, that even for me He gave up “His divine privileges” and took on a human body, with all it’s pains and weaknesses, and then gave that up too?

Who IS this Jesus? Immanuel. Messiah. Son of God. Healer. Good Shephard. Perfect Lamb. Coming King. My Savior. My Lord. My hope. The Rock I build on. The One I follow.

Who IS this Jesus? The Way. The Door. The Gate.

Who IS this Jesus? The Father’s gift to us.

Who IS this Jesus? He is everything – all our hopes and dreams – our future. He is OURS. 

I welcome your questions and comments. You can write me in the chat or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org.

Lessons from the Gospels 1– It Takes Planning

Every year, I spend some time reading through the four gospels again, leading up to what we (in Church of God 7th Day) call the Lord’s Supper and others may call the New Testament Passover. Every time I reread them, I learn something new, have something reinforced, and gain a deeper appreciation for God’s plan of salvation and Jesus’ role in that plan.

Join me on this nearly 3-month journey of review and rediscovery by reading through the Gospels. As I write the blogs it might be looking forward for you as I review my reading from the week before. Or, you can catch up to me by doubling up on daily reading. I will be reading just one chapter per day, and began on Tuesday, January 23rd, so, it’ll be pretty easy to catch up.

You are no more a random selection than was the timing and location of Jesus’ birth.

Reading for January 23-26 = Matthew 1-4. (Note: In future weeks, we consider the reading week to be from Saturday through Friday, since I blog on Friday or Saturday.)

Matthew 1 &2

There is so much packed into the first two chapters of Matthew that I could spend a couple of blogs talking about them. First there is the genealogy, which shows that the lineage of Jesus, on Joseph’s side, includes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba – three women with unusual stories and extraordinary lives. That they are openly listed is a testament to God’s willingness to use the most unusual and even broken circumstances, or people, for His purposes.

But what I want to note for us today are the four prophecies about the Messiah’s birth that are fulfilled in in just these first two chapters telling His earthly story.

Matthew 1:23 recalls the prophecy Isaiah 7:14, telling of His birth to a virgin.

Matthew 2:6 recalls the prophecy of Micah 2:5, which pegs Bethlehem as His birthplace.

Matthew 2:15 recalls the prophecy of Hosea 11:1, foretelling that He would come out of Egypt and back to Israel at some point.

Matthew 2:18 which is the foreshadowing of the massacre of the innocents by Herod, found in Jeremiah 31:15.

The connection of all these details seems incredible in two ways: (1) That God gave these words to the prophets of the Old Testament so that they would know so many specifics of the birth of Jesus (2) That Matthew knew the scripture well enough that he could be inspired to connect them to the occurrences.

That is, it seems incredible from a human standpoint. Not at all incredible when you think about the fact that Jesus is the one who inspired the writing of the Old Testament, which told of His coming, which He and the Father had planned out before time began. [See John 17:5 and Revelation 13:8]

Maybe thousands of years (or, who knows, millions) went into planning every detail from the creation of the world to the fulfillment of the prophesied birth of His only Son and every aspect of His ministry on this earth. We will also see that His death was similarly detailed out for us.

Our God is a planner. He didn’t “wing it” with the birth of Jesus or the plan of salvation. The factors that needed to be controlled were perfectly orchestrated.

However, it is important to consider that, although always perfectly aligned with God’s will and plan, Jesus made His own choices in living His life. Every decision adhered perfectly to the law of God too. But the Father did not regulate has Jesus wore or ate or said each day.

When we take the time to align ourselves with God’s law and will by daily prayer and study, regular fasting and meditation, we too can find ourselves walking according to God’s purpose for us.

God didn’t “wing it” when He called you, sweet sister. I chose the time and place. He specifically selected you from the billions in the world today. Maybe the only one in your family or neighborhood or at your place of employment.

You are no more a random selection than was the timing and location of Jesus’ birth.

How comforting to know that you and I appeared in God’s planner as a link in the chain between creation and God’s Kingdom on earth. We don’t know for sure where we are on the timeline, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you and I are here to do our part to advance the Kingdom cause and schedule.

I encourage each of us to take the time daily to stay connected to God and His Word so that you and I can fulfill His will, whether that is a big splash or a cup of cold water in the scheme of the Kingdom plan.

Are you a planner? Do you carefully select a new planner each year and get pretty stickers and colored pens to stay organized and mark important tasks or occurrences? Well, God is a planner. He has a very detailed and well thought out plan. We are His pretty stickers and colored pens, marking the important steps along the way. So, please be sure to schedule daily time for God and His word in your planner.

God has a plan and purpose for you. Do not doubt that, sweet sister. It is our job to stay connected to Him so we can stay aligned with His will.

I welcome your comments and questions. Write me in the comments section here or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org.