Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
Mark 10:32-52
Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time
They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
The Request of James and John
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Read: Luke 5:27-32
Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew)
Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?[a]”
31 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
Footnotes:
5:30 Greek with tax collectors and sinners?
Insight
The role of tax collector in first-century Israel was quite different from what we would think today. Ancient Rome operated on the back of the taxes drained from conquered lands like Israel. This was overseen by the local governor (or procurator), but it was actually accomplished by local citizens like Levi (also known as Matthew), who worked for Rome. These tax collectors, however, were not viewed as simple agents or bureaucrats. They were known to charge higher taxes than were due and to pocket the excess. They were despised as collaborators who had aligned themselves with the hated occupying force. The taxes they collected were a continuing symbol of the oppression the Jews felt as a conquered people, and the tax collectors were considered participants in that oppression.
Undeserved Praise
By Julie Ackerman Link
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. —Luke 5:32
Even before I could afford a self-cleaning oven, I managed to keep my oven clean. Guests even commented on it when we had them over for a meal. “Wow, your oven is so clean. It looks like new.” I accepted the praise even though I knew I didn’t deserve it. The reason my oven was clean had nothing to do with my meticulous scrubbing; it was clean because I so seldom used it.
How often, I wonder, am I guilty of accepting undeserved admiration for my “clean” life? It’s easy to give the impression of being virtuous; simply do nothing difficult, controversial, or upsetting to people. But Jesus said we are to love people who don’t agree with us, who don’t share our values, who don’t even like us. Love requires that we get involved in the messy situations of people’s lives. Jesus was frequently in trouble with religious leaders who were more concerned about keeping their own reputations clean than they were about the spiritual condition of those they were supposed to care for. They considered Jesus and His disciples unclean for mingling with sinners when they were simply trying to rescue people from their destructive way of life (Luke 5:30-31).
True disciples of Jesus are willing to risk their own reputations to help others out of the mire of sin.
Dear Lord, give me a heart of compassion for
those who are lost in sin. Help me not to be
concerned about what others think of me but
only that Your holy name will be honored.
Christ sends us out to bring others in.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith . . . —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
The Galaxies and the Groceries - #7247
I'm pretty easily amazed by technology, so I am totally amazed by my wife's camera. She's a great photographer. You can take the same camera and get two totally different views, just by using two different lenses. She taught me this. For example, we took a lot of pictures at our local football games, because I worked with the team there. And when you put on the wide angle lens, you can see the entire field through that camera. Amazing! Now, when you change that to say a zoom lens, it really magnifies things. You can fill that camera's view with just one face. It amazes me to see how it can go from the big picture to some small, little detail.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Galaxies and the Groceries."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 6:9. I think you might just recognize these words. Jesus says, "This is how you should pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.'" You might have been kind of saying the words along with me. That's the Lord's Prayer. Did you know the Lord's Prayer is really a camera with two lenses? First, it's looking at our Heavenly Father.
Now, I don't know what you feel when you hear the word father; I don't know what that word means to you. It may depend on your growing up experience. I don't know what your father was like or if he was there for you. But remember, when you hear about God being our Father, we're not talking about the father you had on earth. No, God is the Father you and I wish we had.
Now, let's look at that God with the wide angle lens. He's in heaven. His name is to be reverenced, hallowed. We should be driven to our knees by who He is. He is the God who rules a hundred billion galaxies. And when you pray, you are in the Throne Room from which a hundred billion galaxies are governed. Prayer should never be boring. It should never be wimpy or trivial. Not when you know who you're with when you're praying.
The prayer then goes on and says, "Your kingdom come." This is talking about God's agenda on earth, His whole cosmic agenda. And the prayer is, "Lord, help me plug into Your cosmic agenda with my life." Your will, when it's done so awesomely in heaven we want that done on earth, Lord. So you pray with a sense of humility and awesomeness to God.
All of a sudden, "Give us this day our daily bread." Whoa! What just happened here? We just went from the galaxies to the groceries. Jesus is telling us that we can come to this awesome Father with this incredible plan and ask Him about today's lunch. Boy, you talk about going from the wide angle to the zoom lens. You can aim all the power of heaven on what you need on earth. Here is this unbelievably, awesome, powerful Father in heaven who is creating this great kingdom, who has this eternal plan, and you can talk to Him about "our daily bread." Wow!
Hebrews 4:16 says we can go boldly to "the Throne of Grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." That's God through the zoom lens. He's the God who cares about the little details of your life. He's our Father, and we can come right to Him and curl up in His lap and know that He cares about the details of our life, though He runs a hundred billion galaxies. What a miracle this is, that Jesus brings us into the presence of a heavenly Father who is big enough to rule this mighty universe and small enough to live in your heart and care about your daily bread.
