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October 10 2023 – Hebrews 2 – Christ Became Like Us, for Us

It is easier for us to identify with people like us. When we are around other people, we gravitate to those like us. We look, consciously or subconsciously, for those who look like us. We try to identify people we have something in common with.

I went to a meeting once with people from across the state. One of the first people I spoke to was a guy with a motorcycle helmet. I like riding motorcycles and was curious about his bike I passed in the parking lot.

The author of Hebrews chapter two points out how Jesus identified with us. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same…” Hebrews 2:14 NASB1995

Reading that line made me think of Joan Osborne’s song, (What If God Was) One of Us. The lyric in the song that stands out in my mind is…“What if God was one of us. Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus. Trying to make His way home.”

Jesus became one of us. He looked like us. He ate and drank like we do. He laughed and cried. He taught us how to understand the Father.

Hebrews 2:14 also tells us that he died like we do. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Not only did he identify with us by dying for us, but he also took the power of death away from the devil.

“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Hebrews2:17NASB1995 We are attracted to Christ because the Holy Spirit draws us to him. We are also attracted to him because in every way, he became like us.

The chapter concludes, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Hebrews2:18NASB1995 He even allowed himself to be tempted like us.

A few chapters over we read that Jesus sympathizes with our weakness because he himself was tempted in all things. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews4:15NASB1995

Jesus made it easy for us to identify with him. In every way he was one of us. He was also tempted like we are so that he sympathizes with us and helps us when we are tempted!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for being so much like me, yet without sin. Lord help me to identify with you so much that I become just like you. Amen

February 20 2023 – Luke 8 – Scattering Seed and Conditioning Soils

I am a beekeeper. I like to give my bees something to make honey from, so I have planted Dutch White Clover seeds occasionally. I don’t have an expensive seed drill or even an aerator so I have hand spread the seed. It is hit or miss. There are lots of factors for clover growth. The soil composition is one. Is it too hard for the seeds to get in and germinate? Does it have too much acidity? Is there too much shade on the lawn? Clover seed is not cheap so I don’t put it out every other week.

In Luke 8, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. He talks about someone going out and sowing seed. Some seed fell beside the road where it is trampled and birds eat it. Some fell on the rocky places where it springs up quickly but withers because it has no root. Others fell in the thorns and is choked out. Still other seed fell in the good soil where it produced “a crop a hundred times as great.”

The seed is the word of God and the different soils are the hearts of the people who hear it. I invite you to read the parable to hear about the hearts of people and how that affects their receptivity to the word of God. However, I want to think about how the seed was scattered. If I were a farmer listening to this parable I would think, who scatters seed on the roadside, the rocky soil, and in thorns? It must be very cheap seed to scatter it in those places.

The way the seed is scattered is often overlooked to talk about the soil conditions, or rather, the conditions of the hearts of people. How shocking to farmers or people who buy seed to think of sowing so broadly that you are casting seed even in places that you have little expectation of harvesting a crop. However, that is exactly how God operates in spreading his word. He makes no distinction in where the word of God is shared. He doesn’t just pour his word on good people, or people who go to church. He scatters his word everywhere, on the good and the bad.

He does this because God is patient and wants all people to be saved. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter3:9NIV

There are ways to condition soils to make them more receptive to the seed sown. We can fertilize, balance the pH, remove thorns, weeds and rocks, and we can till the soil to make it more hospitable to seed sown. We can also, through our living witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, condition the hearts of people. By our genuine love and care for others, we can change the condition of their hearts whereby they are more receptive to the word of God. Heart conditioning doesn’t happen just because we bombard people with the word of God. It happens as we intentionally care for, and love others.

God does not discriminate in who should hear the word of God. The Bible is the most widely translated book in the world. He spreads his word to the good people and the sinners alike. We can help in producing a bountiful harvest to the word by scattering abundantly and broadly, and by conditioning the hearts of all people by loving others as we love ourselves.

Prayer:

Lord thank you for planting your word in my heart and changing my life! Help me to share your word with everyone and help me to genuinely love others so their hearts will be receptive to your word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

January 30 2023 – Hebrews 7 – Atonement for Our Sins

I am no expert on Old Testament law, but as I understand the instructions in Leviticus, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest was to go before God and first make sacrifices for his own sins, then make sacrifices for the people. Unless you had a special need to go before God, (and there were lots of special needs… vows, to prove you had been cleansed for a skin issue, etc.) you were okay with God. However, that was a perpetual, year after year event. Every year sacrifices had to be made on the Day of Atonement to remove the sins of the High Priest and the people of Israel.

The concept of resurrection from the dead wasn’t as completely developed in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. The Israelites were having their sins removed on the Day of Atonement so they could be right with God in the here and now without much thought for the afterlife. In the New Testament the reality of resurrection is realized. We understand that sin needs to be atoned for so that we are right with God in the here and now and in the world to come.

In Hebrews 7, Jesus, as our great High Priest is being compared to those priests in the Old Testament sacrificial system. There needed to be many of them because they sacrificed every day, year after year, and eventually they all died out. “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews7:23–25NASB1995  Because Jesus lives forever, he is able to save forever all who put their faith in him.

The Old Testament sacrificial system, was an imperfect foreshadowing of the perfect that was to come. “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” Hebrews7:26–27NASB1995  Jesus died to do away with, sin “once for all when He offered up Himself.”

Our sins… past, present, and future… have been completely atoned for thanks to our great, High Priest, Jesus our Christ!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your perfect Son to save me from the curse and penalty of sin. Thank you that Jesus’ perfect work of atonement covers all my sin and saves me forever. Help me to share this good news with those still trying to atone for their own sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

December 13, – Galatians 2 – Love Is the Foundation of Relationship

Exodus 25, John 6, Galatian 2

When I was a child, I was taught the rules of our home. There are certain things you do and things you don’t do. When I went to school, I was taught the rules of school. The principals and teachers taught us what was allowed at school and what was not. When I went to church with my grandmother, she taught me what to do and not to do at church.

In all of these settings, I knew what was right and wrong. In all of these settings, I did both what was right and what was wrong. When I broke the rules, I was spanked as a child. Most of us in my generation were to some degree or another. I got spankings at home. I got paddled at school, from teachers, to the principal, and on down to my bus driver. My sweet grandmother who never raised her voice, even gave me a pop at church. She told me that I said, “Nanny, I deserved that” and it made her feel like “a sheep killing dog.”

I broke the rules in all of these settings yet I was never disqualified from love and kindness. My parents, my teachers, and my grandmother still loved me even though I had broken the rules in each of these areas of my childhood. That is because my love and  my relationships with these important people didn’t stand on me keeping the rules. My relationship with all of them stood on love.

In Galatians 2, Paul is relaying an important truth of our faith, the central truth of justification. We are made right with God, not by keeping the rules, but by our faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says it like this, “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians2:15–16NIV

Our relationship with God stands on our faith in Jesus Christ, not on our keeping the law. Because of love, God sent Jesus to die for sinners. Because of love, God accounts the righteousness of Christ to us when we put our faith in him. We are right with God solely based on our faith in Jesus Christ, and that faith is a gift given to us because God so loved the world. Paul closes chapter 2 this way, “… The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians2:20NIV

If you have broken a rule or two, don’t disqualify yourself from being justified by God. The love and kindness we enjoy from God our Father, comes from faith in Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. That is Good News!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, Thank you for your love and kindness to me even when I broke your law! Thank you for Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me! Help me to respond to your loving kindness by living in your will for my life. Amen.

December 13, 2022 – Exodus 24 – Confirmed With Blood

Exodus 24, John 5, Galatians 1

There are some churches these days that deemphasize the blood of Jesus. They don’t want to offend people with songs like Nothing But the Blood and the Old Rugged Cross. They believe that most people don’t understand about those things and so those churches are afraid blood talk will run them off. Sometimes, even well seasoned Christians wonder why Jesus had to shed blood to redeem us.

Just because we don’t understand something, doesn‘t mean we can discount it. There are many things in Scripture that we don’t understand and that is inevitable because we are finite and God is infinite. We cannot completely understand God because of our human limitations.

In Exodus 24, Moses is ratifying the covenant between God and the people. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Exodus24:7–8NIV

There is no in-depth explanation in the Old Testament as to why God required blood to ratify a covenant. If you want to look at another example of a blood covenant, check out the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15.

In the New Testament we hear these words of Jesus as he gathered to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew26:26–28NIV

Covenants ratified by blood were serious. We don’t completely understand why God required blood, but we do know one thing from the example of the covenants God made with the Israelites in Exodus 24, with Abraham in Genesis 15, and in all of his other covenants. God is faithful and keeps the promises he makes in his covenants. That is Good News for us! Our sins, though many, were forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured out for us!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, there are many things about the faith that I do not understand, but I am thankful to know one thing for sure! The blood of Jesus washed away all of my sins. Thank you Jesus for shedding your blood to ransom and redeem a sinner like me! Amen.

December 1, 2022 – Good People – Luke 18

Exodus 12, Luke 18, 2 Corinthians 2

I was in a conversation with a person once and he was explaining why he felt he was going to be in heaven. He said I am a good person. I do this… and I do that… I didn’t use quotation marks because people say it all the time. It is a common misconception about getting into heaven. The idea is, our good deeds will be weighed on the balance against our bad deeds and if we have more good than bad, we are in. As I said, it is a common misconception.

We are judged for what we do in life and we will give an accounting of how we use what God has given us. However, whether we are saved or not, whether we go to heaven, will depend entirely on whether we know Jesus or not. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” Ephesians2:8NIV

That should give you a considerable amount of comfort. You are free to approach and know the Holy and Righteous God of the universe without worrying if you are good enough. If you have received this gift of God, if you have made Jesus your savior, you will be in heaven. You will still give an account of how you used what God gave you and hopefully you will be rewarded for your faithfulness.

In Luke 18, Jesus is addressing our attitudes about our righteousness or goodness. He tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee could have been the man I was mentioning a minute ago. He told God how good he was. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Luke18:11–12NIV

The Pharisee did what we all do. He compared himself to other people in order to measure his goodness. Look at the people he had to compare himself to in order to feel good… robbers, evildoers, adulterers, and tax collectors. With robbers and evildoers as your standard of measure, it is not too hard to look good. The tax collector, recognized his sinfulness and humbly asked, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Jesus said, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke18:14NIV

To further emphasize that our standard of measurement for whether we are good enough for heaven is God and not other people, Luke tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with a rich, young ruler. The man addresses Jesus as “good teacher.” Jesus replies, “Why do you call me good?…” “…No one is good—except God alone.” Luke18:19NIV

Are we good enough for heaven? Maybe if we compare ourselves with robbers and evildoers we would appear righteous enough. Unfortunately, that is not how it works. We don’t measure ourselves against others. We are measured against God.  Compared to the Holy and Righteous God of the universe, we are woefully inferior. We too should pray, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The Good News, the Gospel, is that is exactly what God has done! Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God sees us as righteous because Jesus imparted his goodness and righteousness to us. When Jesus said, only God was good, he meant we were not good. He, however, is good because as the Son of God, he shares the righteousness and goodness of the Father.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for seeing me as good and worthy because of my faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Help me to be humble before you and my fellow man, recognizing that my goodness and my salvation are a gift from you. Help me to share the Gospel with others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.