Hello again!
Today the pastor preached on Luke 2: 8-20. His main point was that we should, “let the Angel’s song encourage us to:
His point was that we, as Christians, often lose the wonder of how Jesus gave His very life for us. The sermon encouraged us to regain the wonder we had for the amazing work Jesus has done for us.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:38-39)
In yesterday’s post, we talked on how going to the cross, repenting, and asking for forgiveness is the only way a Christian who is lacking peace (or anyone else) can gain true peace in Christ. In these verses, we see the proof of that. Jesus assures them that He is not a Spirit by telling them to look at His pierced hands and feet, and to touch Him. Now, quite obviously Jesus is no longer with us physically, however, we are still invited to Spiritually do what the disciples did physically.-To see Christ’s pierced hands and feet, and to “touch” Him (when I talk about Spiritually “touching” Jesus, I’m talking about times when we feel extremely close to Christ; where it’s almost as if we were “touching” Him). And when we do so, it should create the same response in us as it did in the disciples:
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, (Luke 24:40-41a)
They couldn’t hardly believe in was Him for joy. For us, this might equate to having such a profound revelation in Scripture that we can hardly believe Jesus would show us such a thing for joy and marveling, or some other such thing. Regardless though, the point is this: Looking at Jesus’ nail pierced hands and feet, and realizing that He truly did die for us, should produce nothing but peace, joy, and utter marveling at how great our God truly is.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
(Luke 24:25)
Jesus said these words to two of His disciples while on the road to Emmaus. His disciples, at the moment, still don’t believe that Jesus truly rose from the dead. So, to confirm to them that He had indeed risen, Jesus reminds them of what the prophets have said. Not only that, but read the next couple of verses:
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:26-27)
He showed them, in all the books of the Prophets, the things which concerned Himself. Not only that, but He interpreted them in light of how the Christ was to suffer and then enter into glory. In essence, He shared the Gospel from the Old Testament.
The good news that Jesus has died, and risen again for the salvation of all, can be found all throughout the Bible, including the Prophets. And, if the references to the cross are there, then there is no reason that we should not look for them. All Scripture has a purpose, and passages which reference or point us to the cross are no different; they are there for our benefit and encouragement.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19-20)
Just like our physical bodies, our Spiritual selves need to eat. Jesus has shown us how we can feed our starving Spirits in this passage.-Through eating His body, and drinking His blood. (Quite obviously, Jesus never intended this to ever have a physical meaning; any physical interpretation of this is barbaric, rather than Christian.) And we are able to do this, in the Bible. The Bible is to the Spirit as food is to the body… or, to be more accurate, understanding the Bible is nourishment.
Jesus has given himself for us in every imaginable way. He has died, given up Heaven for a time, and even taken time while He was on Earth to teach us, and He even provided a way for us to grow Spiritually. It would be foolish of us not to take what He’s offered.-It’d be foolish of us not to acknowledge Him as our savior, and then to find nourishment for our souls in the Bible.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:11-16)
The thing about inheritances, or as the son in the story called it, “The share of the property which is coming to me.” is that they are only given when the father is dead. So, for this son to ask for his inheritance early, was the equivalent of telling his father that he considered him to be dead. More than that though, when he was actually given his inheritance, he squandered it, followed by a term of feeding pigs. This poor person has scorned his father, and now is, in essence, living in a pig sty, starving to death. When we forget about the Father, bad things can happen. When we starve our Spiritual self through treating the Father as though He was non-existent, and instead long for junk that the World is feeding for them-self, there is really only one possible solution that can exist for us.-The very same solution which the man in the parable finds:
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:17-24)
Running back, admitting that we’ve sinned, and begging for forgiveness. God will always forgive us! His son died for us; He will now never look on us, when we’re asking for forgiveness, and not forgive. He will always feed us with His word, and hold a celebration, when the lost son returns from the dead. And when we ask for forgiveness, that is exactly what happens to us.-We die with Christ on the cross, and come alive with Him in His Resurrection [Romans 6:2-5].
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ (Luke 15:1-6)
There are people who believe in extreme separation from the World. They get this belief in passages such as John 17 (specifically verses 11 and 16), and while it’s a very valid belief, some people take it simply too far. Jesus took it “too far”, in the opinions of the Pharisee’s, in the exact opposite direction. Jesus loves the cheating tax collectors and sinners, He doesn’t participate with what they did, but He loved them. He always told them the way to be right with God (which was through Himself), but never once did He scorn them.
In fact, Jesus actually died for these people.-For you, and for me. He went above and beyond, times a thousand. We aren’t to separate ourselves from, but instead we are to love, and show the right way, those who aren’t yet followers of Christ. Jesus died for these very people, how can we now pull away from them? If it hadn’t been for Jesus love for us, while we were still sinners, no one would be a Christian. Is it should be our challenge then to show to others, the love which He showed to us.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26-27)
It seems then, that no one can be saved. If we interpret all of this at face value, there’s really not much to be said: It’d be nearly impossible for me to hate my family, nor am I suicidal (I don’t hate my life, in other words), and bearing a cross is an unappealing thought to any and everyone, I’m sure…
The thing is though, we shouldn’t take this at face value. Jesus is speaking metaphorically here: He’s using the most extreme examples possible, to tell us, in essence, we have to be willing to give up everything for Him. The question then, is, are we willing to? Jesus gave everything for us, but are we willing to do the same? If we aren’t willing to, it’s time we asked God to make us willing.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:47-49)
Christians, just in general (myself included), have a problem, and a very important one at that: we hear (in the case of those listening to a pastor), and we read (the Bible), but we tend not to obey. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, but do we? Jesus tells us to give to everyone who begs from us, but do we? He also tells us to turn the other cheek when we’re struck, do good to those who hate us, and to give freely to those who would steal from us, yet I’d dare to say that we haven’t done any of those. We have a stunning obedience deficiency.
And, the real problem about our obedience problem, is that, ever since Adam and Eve sinned, being disobedient to God is our very nature. When we are hit, our instinct is to hit back. As Paul says in his letter to Titus:
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
But Paul doesn’t stop there, the next part tell us how it is we can live a life obedient, and in submission to God:
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
If we aren’t living lives obedient to God, we either don’t fully understand what Jesus has done for us, we are not saved at all, or we are not repentant. In most cases, it’s the last of those: we don’t want to do anything different, so we don’t. It’s only by repenting of our disobedience, and letting Jesus give us His grace, that we can live obediently to God.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:41-42)
Now, the teaching here is probably obvious to most people: don’t try to help a brother overcome sin, when you have a much “bigger”, life dominating sin. Now, of course there is no such thing as “big and small,” or “major and minor” sins. All sins that we commit are good enough reason for us to get thrown into Hell, whether the sin in question is a little white lie, or murder. However, there are levels, or magnitudes, of sin. For example, we see Jesus here talking about a two people: one has a log in the eye, the other has a speck; we know both the speck and the log are sin, but the “log” can be seen as a much more evident, and life-dominating sin (think: gluttony, drug addiction, alcohol addiction), while the speck can be seen as something where only a little improvement needs to be made (think: occasional lying, and other things which are seen as “small”).–Obviously, someone with the life-dominating sin, cannot effectively help the other person.
When your life is characterized by any sin, be it anger, or excessive lying, or any other seemingly unbreakable sin, it is no wise to try to help someone whose only struggle is, let’s say, jealousy. It’s impossible to help someone else, when you can’t help yourself, and in all likelihood, the problem will only end up being made worse. For example, if someone is being jealous of someone else, and you come along and tell them that, “Being occasionally jealous of someone else isn’t necessarily ‘bad’, but ought to be stopped before it gets too out of hand.” The person will only gains an excuse to continue sinning, rather than understanding the need to stop.
So long as we are in sin, we can’t help others, because we (in that circumstance) don’t know how to repent, accept Christ’ forgiveness of our sin, and change, much less know how to share those things with others.
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
Hello again!
This is what God gave me today in His word:
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. (Luke 6:27-30)
This is actually a very easy demand that Jesus gives us here. Just love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless when we’re cured, give to the beggar and the thief alike, all that good stuff. The only possible problem that we might have with doing this, is if we so happen to be a part of that pesky race known as, “humans.” Humans tend to have a problem with resisting their urge to hit back, curse back, and in general abuse their abusers.
We are really quite a cruel race, in reality. I mean compared to even animals, we’re insane: animals may fight on occasion, but mostly their whole World revolves around eating, drinking, and in simply living, or if they are so inclined, it revolves around living in a pack. They only real reason they kill, is so that they can live. You will never find an Adolf Hitler squirrel.
This squirrel doesn’t have to worry about suicide bombings going off in it’s neighborhood. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
But us? A fairly different story than the one of the above squirrel. But how can we stop? How can we actually obey what Jesus has called us to do?
Well, the only way we can obey what Jesus has told us to do, is by Jesus’ power. Through Jesus’ death for us, our old nature; our fighting, hit back, abusing the one who abuses us, nature, has died. We can now live peaceful lives, in Christ. He, and He alone, enables us to love those who hate us, to give to the one who would steal (and then report him to the police), and to pray for those who abuse us (followed by reporting them as well to the police. Just because we live in peace, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t obey the local and governmental authority, and turn in crooks.).
You are Loved!
Joshua Cleveland
