Category Archives: Bible Study

It’s Life or Death

Quiet time with Jesus this morning was fast and furious. Some days it’s slow, quiet, and contemplative. Not today. A few days ago I felt led to return to the book of Genesis. It’s a well read, well underlined, highlighted, circled book in my bible, but I was sure that God would say something fresh from it. I was not wrong. Let’s get to it.

 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

A planting from God in the center of man’s world, from the very beginning. Adam, and all who would come after him would continually be confronted with a choice—life or death, and the loving command of God to choose life.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

From one end of the Bible to the other runs a continual theme. Choose God’s way and live, or choose our own way and find death.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12)

After four hundred years of silence between the prophet Malachi and the Gospels, God spoke the same refrain. Choose life or choose death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

But the choice before us isn’t only about heaven or hell. Every day we face small decisions that either breathe life into something or slowly choke it out.

Choosing spiritual apathy will bring death to zeal and passion. But if we will choose the pursuit of God, and zeal for His house, it will bring life to our souls and life to the Church.

Choosing offense and bitterness suffocates forgiveness and restoration—and eventually the relationship itself. But choosing God’s way of grace, mercy, and forgiveness brings life back into our own hearts and breathes new life into relationships that were being threatened with death.

Every time we choose our own way over God’s way, death comes to something. In the center of our existence the choice has been planted, and we must decide the way we will choose to walk. Life, or death.

Jesus or the world. Our own flesh and emotions or obedience to God. Offense that leads to a bitter heart, or forgiveness that heals and restores. The pull of apathy or the call to a “one thing” heart posture, a continual pursuit of the heart and ways of God, and a zeal for Him and His house, the Church.

Choose you this day…

Questions to ask and things to ponder:

  • In the abundance of choices that I make every day, how many of them bring death instead of life?
  • In the big picture of how I live my life, am I choosing life?
  • How can I begin to speak and/or pray life over the people I love?

How, Or If?

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” – Luke 1:18-20

Someone else asked a similar question, with a very different outcome.

When Gabriel showed up to tell Mary that she would conceive a child, she responded with “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) Instead of making her mute, Gabriel explained that it would be by the Holy Spirit.

So, what’s the difference between Zechariah and Mary?

When Zechariah asked “how can I be sure of this?”, it was a dead giveaway that he needed proof, because he didn’t believe what Gabriel was telling him.

Mary’s question arose not from doubt or unbelief, but from a place of wondering how God was going to accomplish this.

As with most things, it’s a matter of the heart. Zechariah’s contained unbelief, while Mary’s did not.

There is a big difference between wondering how God will do what He said He would do, and wondering if He will do what He said He would do.

Do you have a how in your heart, or an if?

It’s Not Random

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. – Luke 1:8-10

Remember, Zechariah’s name means “God remembered” and that means that the time had come for God to fulfill something. In this case, an angel was sent to Zechariah to announce that he and Elizabeth were going to have a child. The one crying out in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3) was going to be conceived in a barren woman who was too old to have children, by her husband, an old man himself.

Let’s zoom in on five words – “he was chosen by lot… “. In our culture today, that would mean it was a random selection. Luck, really. But in their culture, it was understood that in the casting of lots, God was choosing.

“The lot is cast into the lap,
    but its every decision is from the Lord.” – Proverbs 16:33

I think we can easily get pulled into a culture that believes in luck, coincidences, and chance; a culture that does not acknowledge the sovereignty of God. But we are not of this world and their culture is not ours. Ours is a Kingdom culture and in this culture, we know that He stands sovereign over the affairs of His creation.

We are not chosen by chance, nor do we stumble into “lucky breaks.” What may appear random is, in truth, directed by God’s hand and in accordance with His divine will in the unfolding of His divine plans and purposes. Perhaps this realization can mark the beginning of a holy reverence for Him—the awareness that He rules and reigns over every detail of your life. He has left nothing to chance for you.

Lord, help us see You rightly. May we fully surrender ourselves to You, the Master of all creation.

Exodus 20—The Hardest One of All

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.

I don’t know if the ten commandments are in order of importance or not, but I do think it says something that the very first onetold them (and us) to put nothing—and no one— before Him. No other “god” was to command their allegiance, worship, or obedience.

And then He told them why.

Because He is the one who defeated their enemy and saved them from slavery. No other god did that.

And He knew them. He knew they would need something to show them right from wrong, something that would prove their rebellious nature, so He gave them the Law. Commands He knew they would not be able to obey. And because He knew they would fall, He gave them a way to come back to Him, a way to atone and be right with Him again. And again, and again, through the sacrifice of an innocent animal.

The Old Testament is the story of a people loved and rescued by God who then continually strayed from Him. We don’t read of their habitual lying about their neighbor or wishing they could have someone else’s stuff. The story isn’t replete with people dishonoring their parents on the regular or stealing someone’s donkey.

Instead, we discover that remaining faithful to God was their number one hard thing.

There are a thousand more words I could write, but I think we can all come to our own conclusions about the similarities between us and the first ones called God’s people. So rather than a bunch of statements, I’m going to ask all of us a few questions.

? Is there anything that has slipped into the position of “first” in my life? Anything that is challenging my faithfulness to God and to His Word?

? Are there other “gods” that have become acceptable to me? The pursuit of money or fame (likes, follows, a stage). The obsession with anything, including self, that isn’t God. The desire to keep up with the crowd. The push or urge to do things my way, to control the outcome, to make it work apart from complete dependence, or waiting, on God.

? Do I look at or to myself more than God?

Questions not to be asked lightly or rushed through. And maybe the better thing is to simply sit with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to reveal the answers, to lead us to repentance, and back to full and humble submission to the Lord our God, who loved us and freed us from slavery.

His Disciple: Sometimes We Just Don’t Get It

For instance, the story of Lazarus told in John, chapter 11. Every point the disciples made in this story was wrong, but I learned a few things from them.

Jesus said “Let us go back to Judea” when He heard about Lazarus being sick (actually, three days later). The disciples argued that people tried to kill Him in Judea. Jesus responded with words that can sound confusing to us, but basically mean that there’s only so much time to do the work we are called to do, so don’t waste it being afraid. (that’s my take on it. You may have a different interpretation. If you’re feeling angsty about it, go with yours.)

Don’t waste Kingdom time on earthly fears.

Then He told them that Lazarus had fallen asleep. He meant Lazarus had died, but the disciples, bless their hearts, thought He meant their friend was napping, like a sick man would do. Because, as was so often the case, Jesus had a spiritual perspective while His disciples had an earthly perspective, and man, doesn’t that sound just like us?

Where we fix our eyes will give us our perspective.

Thomas said “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” His assumption was based on common sense – that if they returned to Judea, Jesus would be killed and so would His followers. Thomas was there for it, so, wow. Good on him. On one deep space level, Thomas had it right. Jesus did eventually go to His death, and called us to follow Him in doing likewise by taking up our cross every day. But practically speaking, Thomas made an assumption because he had no idea what Jesus’ mission was actually about. It made sense to him that going back to Judea would end in death.

Common sense can keep us from trusting God.

Mary & Martha both said to Jesus, “if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” They judged His heart according to their pain. He was the same Jesus they had been following, serving, and loving. But because their lives had just changed, they assumed He had changed.

We are not the lens for the goodness of God. We cannot use our circumstances or our pain to judge His heart.

“Take away the stone.”

“Lazarus come out.”

“Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Beautiful words that reveal the greater thing that Jesus was doing that His disciples couldn’t see.

Just because we can’t see what He’s doing, doesn’t mean He isn’t doing something good.

Those early ones are our mirror and today they show us that sometimes, we just don’t get it. But we are growing, just like they grew. Learning where to put our gaze, learning to trust Him more, follow more closely, and become more like Him and less like us.

And one day, we will see Him face to face, and we’ll get it. It will be the best. day. ever.

His Disciple—They Went

“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.  As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” – Matthew 10:5-8

They were to go without His physical presence with them, but with His authority and power on them. He told them where to go and where not to go. What to say, what to do. In other words, He sent them with His purpose and strategy not theirs.

And once again He reminds me that I do not call the shots for my life. I am not the decision maker in this relationship.

“Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.” (vs. 9-10) 

He allowed them no means to provide for themselves and it would be their first lesson in trusting the One who sent them out.

“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.” (v. 14) 

Don’t spend breath and time trying to make someone listen to you. Just go. Move on. I wonder if that was as hard for them as it is for us. To just walk away from someone who isn’t ready to repent, instead of trying to convince them to accept something they don’t want.

We are a people called to carry a message to the world. But we are not a people called to try to convince the world to believe and receive our message. Neither are we called to dress the gospel up or dress it down, to cover it in soft sounding language and prime it with the best songs and lights and coffee in the lobby. I’m not saying having coffee for people is wrong. I’m not a monster. I’m just saying that, in so many ways, what we are doing today looks very different than it looked then and I don’t know if that’s such a good thing.

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. On My account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.” (vs. 16-18)

He didn’t sugarcoat it for them. Didn’t frame it as a great adventure. He told them the truth—this was going to be hard. Dangerous. They were being sent out on mission with the authority and power of Jesus on them, and a mandate to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. And, with a promise of suffering.

So they went. Perhaps that is the most surprising thing of all. They chose to trust and obey and they just went. The simplicity of it is stark in comparison to our months and months of trainings and preparations and fund raising and our “let me pray about it” mentality. (Yes, yes, in our world today all of that feels so necessary, and practically speaking it is, I get that. But don’t you just long for the early days? The days when trust was literally all they had?)

They were His disciples, and He said go, so they just went.

Father, break us free from ourselves and our propensity to run with our own plans and to complicate the mess out of what You’ve called us to do. May it be said of us, in this time, that we just went, because You said go and we had learned to trust You.

His Disciple: A Table for Sick Sinners

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

Close your eyes and imagine the scene. It’s ok, just play along with me. Close your eyes. What do you see?

I see a table full of people I probably wouldn’t spend time around. I see the people our society hates, the ones we turn away from, the ones our religious spirit avoids.

And at the head of the table I see Jesus. Laughing, passing the green beans, telling stories. Loving the ones in front of Him because He knows how desperately they need what He has come to give them. A way out. Stripped of their filthy rags and given clean garments. Life. Love. Freedom. Redemption. Forgiveness.

It’s what we all need, but for some reason, the ones who have already had their time at the table of sinners with Jesus resent the ones who are drawn to that same table. And when the religious spirited people have the boldness to ask His disciples about it, Jesus slaps back with what we all need to hear.

I came for these. For sick sinners. I didn’t come for anyone who is already healthy. Do we get what He was saying? Maybe this will help us pick up the sarcasm in His voice – “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

The only difference between us and the sick sinners around us is that we came to the table before they got there. We sat with Him, just as sick as they are, and found healing, forgiveness, and eternal life – all the things they need. The table for sick sinners is as much our table as it is theirs.

We are His disciples. The ones who get to watch Him heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry, and offer forgiveness to all of them, because we watched Him do it in us. Let’s choose to watch with joy, gratitude, and fascination rather than with scorn. Let’s invite sick sinners to the table, instead of questioning why they’ve come and why on earth is Jesus sitting there with them. Let’s get over our indignation that Jesus loves them the same way He loves us.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Ps. 23:5)

Father, forgive us for when we choose to bow to a religious spirit rather than to You. Teach us how to invite others to the same table where we found forgiveness and eternal life. Give us eyes to see people the way You see them instead of the way we see them.