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

 

Twelfth Day of Lent

Twelfth Day of Lent

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

From that time on, Jesus began to preach, “
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17

It’s so easy to hear what I want to hear, not necessarily what the other person is saying! I remember a professor stressing the importance of even one letter for communication. He showed us how a conversation can become completely unintelligible if we changed a “u” to an “r” thereby changing “house” to “horse.” If he said “house” and we heard “horse,” nothing he said that followed made any sense! You bought the “horse” to live in? Never! We need to be sure we hear what is intended!

Jesus said kingdom, and his followers heard Davidic rule, with Jesus enthroned as King David had been, with all the trappings of a royal monarchy! We know that’s true because they argued about which one would get to be “Secretary of State” one the kingdom was established! So what about us? Do we understand? Or do we just let the word slip by without thought since we know so little about living under a king’s rule. We are free! We don’t have kingdoms here!

He does indeed mean that he will be a royal king, sitting on a royal throne. He will reign in authority. The problem is that we barely hear him when he names his new kingdom. He calls it HEART – the kingdom of our hearts! He intends to sit there in authority, in a heard that has yielded authority for its government to his rule! Isaiah said that “the government will be upon his shoulder.” The government of all yielded hearts!

I’m pretty sure that they didn’t understand what he was saying. I am very sure that I don’t always!

Prayer: Father, help me to do as the hymn says, “to bow in humble adoration,” as you sit on the throne in my heart. 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

Eleventh Day of Lent

Eleventh Day of Lent

Monday, March 13, 2017

Strike the shepherd and the flock will be scattered.

Zechariah 13:7b

I’ve read so many stories about sheep and how absolutely mindless they can be, but once a shepherd has won the trust of his sheep, they stay with him – no fences, no restraints. He talks to them, sings to them, comforts them, and they feel secure. They trust him – as much as a sheep can trust. That is, until the unexpected!

An unexpected animal, a threatening noise, or, heaven forbid, something happens to the shepherd, and they are suddenly helpless. They just scatter everywhere, aimlessly wandering and unprotected.

Strike the shepherd and the flock will be scattered. The unexpected happened! Jesus was crucified, and his closest friends fled. Even today Jesus is being struck from every direction, and unfortunately many of us scatter!

Though he has given specific instructions about how we are to live, others challenge his words as old fashioned and irrelevant. We believe them instead of him, and we scatter.

We think we are so smart; the Bible’s message appears out of touch, written for another generation. We select those portions that we think apply to us today. Books are written telling us that there is no such thing as sin; we determine whether or not something is good or bad. The Book of Judges warns, Everyone did what seemed right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6 and 21:25). True then, true today! They have struck our shepherd; often we scatter!

Prayer: Father, all we like sheep have gone astray! Forgive us and return us to the security of our Shepherd who leads us into an eternally safe relationship with you. 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

 

 

 

Memory Verse 1017 -- Week 11

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Trials and Temptations

 

Dear friends, 

do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal 

that has come on you to test you, 

as though something strange were happening to you. 

1 Peter 4:12

If you are doing the Lord's work, Satan gets all hot and bothered. Then he gets after you to try to derail you. 

If you are not actively involved with the Lord, you are not a threat to Satan and he leaves you alone.

So...

Don't be surprised when Satan throws some fiery ordeal at you. Consider it normal for a healthy Christian. Consider it a complement. Stay the course.

Spend the week focusing on this scripture: 

• Read the verse in your Bible. 
• Read the passage before and after it. 
• Write it in your journal. 
• Ask the Lord to show you how it applies to your life. 
• Put it on a piece of paper and post it in a prominent place in your home so that you can see it often. 
• Put the words to music. Make up a tune or use one you already know. Singing always helps in the memory process. It's a left brain / right brain thing. 
• Always memorize the scripture reference with the verse so you can remember where to find it in the Bible. 

Lenten Feast Day

Lenten Feast Day

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy but there was none,
for comforters but I found none.
They put gall in my food, and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
Psalm 69:20-21

If we ever doubted that Jesus suffered because his own intimate friends forsook him – didn’t pay careful attention to what he was trying to tell them -- didn't comfort him in his agony as he moved toward the cross – these prophetic words from the Psalms should dispel such doubts!

David knew, through the Holy Spirit, that Jesus was going to suffer loneliness, and friends would flee. He would long for comfort but find none. He would want understanding in the pain of his scorn, but find no comforting voice or hands.

Reading this makes us sad. We console ourselves by thinking, “If I had been there, I wouldn’t have rejected him or failed to understand. I would have comforted him.” But deep in our hearts, we know that that is not the truth. We’ve seen too many who were going through bad times and not stopped in our hurry. We have seen the disfigured and looked the other way because we didn’t know what to do. We have hurried through a hospital and ignored the cries of the sick. We know that Jesus said, “If you have done for the least of these, you have done for me,” but we’ve done nothing.

We have to admit that we have often ignored “the least,” so we cannot allow ourselves to think that we would have done other than what the disciples did had we been there in the first century with Christ.

Prayer: Father, we are ashamed that we have been insensitive. Help us this Easter to understand more fully just how painful it was for Jesus to be alone – and all for us! 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

 

 

 

Tenth Day of Lent

Tenth Day of Lent

Saturday, March 11, 2017

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering . . .

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3

Isaiah is talking about a future even God has shown him, yet uses the past tense, as though it had already happened. He even includes himself in the act of despising, using the plural first person pronoun we, in recognizing his own guilt for his future occurrence. He has spoken as God has revealed, and it is difficult for us to realize that for God there are no tenses.

We can’t think without time. Tenses tell whether something has happened, is happening, or will happen. And if we had been writing this, we would have used the future tense – He will be despised. This pivotal event in history was planned before sin even occurred, so it was past but to Isaiah also future.

The important thing to remember is that Isaiah knew supernaturally that Easter would happen. When the time came for Jesus’ abuse and crucifixion, the masses would despise him, reject him, and show no esteem or admiration for him for what he was doing or for the manner in which he endured death.

 

Jesus was despised then, and he is often despised now. Many think that we Christians are deluded because we worship a crucified and resurrected Savior. They don’t understand, so they count us a little crazy and esteem him not.

What about us? We don’t have the same opinion of Jesus that the world has, but do we recognize him as a man of sorrows? Do we acknowledge his suffering? Do we let Good Friday slip by with too little contemplation?

Prayer: Father, thank you for the man of sorrows. Help us to esteem him, accept him, and appreciate him now – today – for all he has done to bring us life. 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

 

Ninth Day of Lent

Ninth Day of Lent

Friday, March 10, 2017

See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him –
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness.
Isaiah 52:13-14

The danger of becoming too familiar with Scripture is that we will just read without really hearing what God is saying. I think that Isaiah 52 can be one of those Scriptures.

Matthew tells us that after Barabbas had been released to the Jews at Passover, Pilate had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. (Matthew 27:26) That is easier to read than the Isaiah verses above. Flogged sounds somehow less difficult to accept than beaten beyond any human likeness or disfigured beyond that of any man. Isaiah’s description demands that we recognize the brutal death our Savior endured.

I have been told many times that anything – everything – is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. People pay millions of dollars for paintings. They spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on houses. They even spend tens of thousands to buy a car.

But God went further than that. He spent the life of Jesus to purchase us – to purchase me – back from a fallen state in sin. God thought we were worth that enormous price! That’s Good Friday! Jesus was paying the price demanded to redeem us.

It is so difficult to understand why God would think us worth it. Especially when he knew that we would only on occasion really contemplate what he had done.

Prayer: Father, forgive us for not remembering that we have been bought and at great price. Cause us to remember and to daily serve you gladly in thanksgiving. 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