Thirteenth Day of Lent

Thirteenth Day of Lent

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

You have heard . . . but I tell you . . . .

Matthew 5:21, 27, 32, 38 40

In our politically correct world, people tell us how to live, to accept new life styles, to be open-minded, to realize times have changed. This is no new thing! Others before us – long before us – have tried to change God’s moral law.

Jesus is pretty clear about how we are to live in the new kingdom. Five times in this chapter Jesus says, “You have heard . . . but I tell you . . . . “ Others may have some ideas about how things are to be done, but Jesus is emphatic that his is the way we are to choose. He only had three years to lay the ground work for is church, and over and over again he tells us how to live in his new kingdom.

Not only are we not to commit murder, we must make right those things that are wrong between us and another. We can’t get by with just loving each other – we must love the enemies who try to destroy us. We must not give our word to do something and then not honor that word.

Kingdom living is going to require some changes in our nature, and even while Jesus is contemplating his own death, his focus is on helping us learn how to live in his kingdom! Paul understood this well and he told us, Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Romans 12:2, The Message)

Jesus died to reconcile us to God, but he lived and taught those three years to teach us how to live.

Prayer: Transform us, Father, to be real, honest-to-goodness kingdom people, living according to what you have said and not what others say. Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator