Luke 18:1-8

Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night?

I think one of the reasons Jesus tells us to pray persistently may very well be due to the way God created the brain to work-whenever we think of something, it is like chopping down a path in the woods to get somewhere. The more you walk that path, the smoother and wider it gets. Therefore the easier it becomes to walk it.

Prayer focuses our brain on its subject and takes our thoughts toward it. The more you think of something, the easier it is to think about, and consequently, the more difficult it is to NOT think about.

Proverbs 3:1-2

My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands; for they will bring you many days, a full life, and well being.

The way God set up life for humans to work best is given in his loving commands. They are not oppressive rules, but quite the opposite. They are freedom, giving road signs directing you toward abundant life that really is life.

Proverbs 2:1-5

It is worth spending your whole life pursuing God at a thousand miles per hour via His word and Spirit.

Why?

Because seeking Him in truth means we will get to know Him, and to know the true Him is to love Him. And loving Him brings peace, joy, and supernatural strength to live in this world among much that we have no control of.

As the old catechism states:

What is the chief end of man?

To know God and enjoy Him forever.

You will never get to know God if you do not take the intentional time to do so, to spend time with Him in prayer, reading, meditation, and nature.

The frequency and quality of our interactions determine the strength of our relationships. With people. With God.

Interactions.

Talking and listening and being.

You don’t get to know someone by yakkin all the time. Eventually you have to shut up and listen. And hopefully you move into the place where, at least for some portion of the time, you don’t have to use words–you can just sit in the presence and absorb without the requirement for talk. I have a couple of those friends. It’s pretty special. It’s very deep. It’s consanguinity. 

Luke 17:10

When you’ve done everything you’re told, say this: “We’re just ordinary slaves. All we’ve done is what we were suppose to do.”

To give God our entire life is merely what we were made to do, what He asks of us. We are owed nothing. But what a good task it is, for it is how we were made to live.

Don’t act like you’ve done anything special by doing work for Him tho. That’s just doing what you’re suppose to do. It’s like when they interview a firefighter after a heroic act and he/she says, “I was just doing my job.” How true this is. They actually were not going above and beyond their call of duty. They were doing their duty, what they’ve been called upon to do. It’s just that theirs is what some may refer to as a “high calling.”

Imagine a firefighter saying, “Yeah, I just didn’t want to go thru the inconvenience of going all the way down in that ravine to get that trapped person out of their car.” RIDICULOUS! That’s what you’re trained to do!

Same with the spiritual life. It’s just we don’t look at it the same way. We are made to love God and love all people, to live in constant reflection of our Creator. And whenever we don’t, we are not fulfilling our purpose. And when we do? We are living in our sweet spot, however it may look for each person.

So may we never become puffed up in our area of ministry, but rather just do what we’re told and rest in it. Let YHWH do the heavy lifting.

Luke 16:31

“If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!”

The Pharisees did not listen to Scripture for God’s voice.

They memorized it. They interpreted it. They used it. They enforced rules which they wrung out of it, but they did not listen to it. If they did, they would have embraced Jesus, the One who rose from the dead.

Scripture is to be listened to, for it is alive and YHWH speaks thru it.  To you. Today. It is not to be shackled and forced thru narrow doorways of interpretation to squeeze out what we would like it to say.

The Bible is like a person. If you torture it enough, it will say whatever you want.

If you don’t listen to God, not just in Scripture, but in all of life, you will not believe Him. You will believe in a god of your own fashion and design, but not the true God of the Bible, the one who Jesus perfectly revealed to us.

Meditation on Scripture, listening to God, is necessary to understand it and Him. Meditation is a vital nutrient to our growth.

Proverbs 1:7

Living in reverential awe of God’s sovereignty, goodness, and mercy and in obedience to and relationship with Him is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Fools can’t stand to be told anything.

There are some people you simply cannot be a help to. They are the ones with no teachable spirit.

The more teachable you are, the more you will be taught, the more you will absorb, the more you will enact, and the more you will grow in wisdom and maturity.

If you want to tread water and be “Stagnant Man” just keep on shunning wise instruction, good advice, and truth being poured into you.

Proverbs 28:10

It is a terrible thing to cause someone to stumble, to be the catalyst for someone to fall or do what is evil in God’s sight. Be careful in your words and actions that you lead no one astray. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of a millstone hung around my neck and being cast into the sea. Partly, just because I’m hydrophobic, but still…

Proverbs 28:13

No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Whatever iniquity (division) you keep hidden in the dark recesses of your heart will hinder you in life. Any unforgiveness harbored will hold you back. Any bitterness or idol allowed to sit on the throne of your heart that rightfully belongs to God (because He created your heart for Himself), will greatly and negatively affect you day to day.

There’s no escaping this. It’s a law of the universe instituted by the Maker and Designer of said universe. In the wonderful words oft quoted by Will Ferrell, “It’s just science.”

Only by giving God back His rightful throne in your life will peace come to you.

Luke 15:3-10

Just because something is lost does not mean it has no value. Quite the opposite. Take your lost car keys for example. They have a high level of value, which is why you look so diligently for them.

How much more value does a lost PERSON have! They are of very high value to our Father. Never stop going after them.

Something or someone who is lost cannot fulfill their purpose.

Lost keys cannot start your car.

Lost people cannot live in loving relationship with God and heal the world.

 

Proverbs 27:18

Let’s do our part to care for our pastors in some way, according to the gifting YHWH has bestowed upon each of us.

Pastors receive plenty of critique. Let us balance those scales with a hefty load of prayer and encouragement. They have a tough task (see picture).

I read last week to take what you don’t like in your church, or church in general, and then pray to ask God how He sees it. A good centering practice to give proper perspective. Take everything to Him first. Then do whatever you want.

Proverbs 27:19

As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the person.

Who you really are is what lies hidden in your heart.

You are not the mask(s) that others are allowed to see.

YHWH loves us anyway.

To be loved, truly and authentically loved, is to be fully known and fully accepted.

May we reflect our loving Maker if in no other way, in this regard. Imagine someone who is ALWAYS glad to see you, no matter what you’ve done or failed to do. They are open armed at every moment regardless of your actions, words, thoughts.  The only possible way you cannot be with them or enjoy their company is by your own rejection of it, your own pride, your own stubbornness, your anti-Christlike rejection of yourself. What if more people were totally accepting? Imagine someone who hugs you tighter the more you screw up and miss the mark.

You’re imagining Jesus of Nazareth.

May we be conformed to His image and heal the world.

Proverbs 27:23

Ministry involves loving and studying people in order to know their needs and how best to pray for them and serve them.

-Luke Mertes

Luke 14:25-33

Count the cost of discipleship.

Are you willing to give yourself to following Jesus?

To submit to Him as your teacher and guide on how to live this life well?

Rabbis’ followers would commit to memorizing and following their teachings.

All Jesus asks of you is your entire undivided heart, your inner eyes and ears.

Is He worth it?

Proverbs 26:12

There’s even more hope for the willfully ignorant than for those who think they know it all.

Luke 13:6-9

There’s two things we don’t like, but that help us grow:

Having our roots messed with, and

crap in our life.

But aren’t these necessary for real growth? For maturity?

We must find the root, the real source, of our sin and traumas if we are to give them to God for the only true healing that we desperately need. But it is painful to dig up the roots, to find the lies that were implanted in our lives, perhaps long ago. And for some, this requires deep digging over a longer period than we’d like. Yet when we do find the source and name it to YHWH to be healed, there is such joyful freedom that the victorious release far outweighs the pain of the arduous excavation.

And then there’s the manure in our life. We know we can grow immensely thru suffering. Our response to what we deem as excrement in our life makes or breaks us, not the excrement.

Let’s take a simple example-this winter. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard “I can’t wait for spring!” People get so down in these cold, dark months. Understandable, but can we respond differently than damning the present moment and discontentedly wishing for the next season? What if we responded more with an awe for the beauty of the snow and ice formations from our heavenly artist? We can take this time to choose growth in the midst of something we don’t especially care for.

Over the two warmer days last weekend I was out with Gaby & Zayra on separate occasions. Saturday, I practically froze my face off walking around with Zayra because she could not get enough of walking over every piece of ice, listening to it crackle under our feet, and exclaiming at least 47 times, “Look at the beautiful creations!” referring to the designs in the ice. Leaves were sunken three or four inches down into the ice with a perfect outline of each curve and point. We would take the leaves out and look at the awesome design in the thick ice that was cut in by each uniquely shaped leaf. I had never seen anything like that before. Had I just never looked for it?This was a beautiful time.

On Sunday I took a long walk with Gaby, again still not the hottest of days. She also looked at the ice formations and wanted to walk in the woods…and walk, and walk. It could’ve been boring, but in those times, it is good to just listen and be together. To “waste time” together as some say. That is when we get to really know one another. She wanted to walk the extremely long way home, then our neighbor talked to us for what felt like three days…but it was all pure gold, you know?

Thank you God for the beauty of each moment and allowing me to see what You have to offer in it. Even in the midst of this record-breaking winter.

Proverbs 25:14

Please, for the love of God, don’t be that guy who is always talking about what he’s gonna do and rarely delivers.

Proverbs 25:16-17,27

Don’t do too much of anything, even good things. Don’t fill your schedule to the brim. Leave space for God, for self, for divine appointments AKA interruptions.

Proverbs 25:21-22

Actively showing kindness to those who do you wrong acts as the refining coals of fire placed upon something to be purified. This is God’s way, and it is much more powerful and effective than striking back.

(How different our lives would be if George Lucas named his second Star Wars movie “The Empire Shows Kindness!”)

Luke 12:4-7

Fear no one or nothing but God because only He has the real power and ability to destroy you.

People can only hurt you. They cannot destroy you or bring irredeemable harm to you.

Do not be afraid of God tho, for we are of inestimable value to Him who made us out of His love.

Luke 12:22-31

We literally have nothing to worry about, ever. We are ultimately taken care of by the Ultimate One.

The only thing we should devote ourselves to fully, is Knowing God and His Kingdom. Everything else is an infinite, distant second. The rest will be taken care of. He promises this. And He can back that promise because, well, He made everything.

Do you believe this?

Do you live as tho it’s true?

Luke 12:54-56

We study so much with very little value in comparison to God and His word.

It is ridiculous when you think about it.

We try to land things on Mars, searching for answers to who knows what, yet we are depressed, starving, and killing each other.

We surf the internet for hours, when there are fatherless children in increasingly great number who need a mentor.

What if just 10% of this “ridiculous time” and “ridiculous energy” was spent on these much more worthy pursuits of people?

We could change the world, quite literally.

But we don’t.

We keep on with our selfish little pursuits of ridiculosity in our numbed sleepwalking substitute we call life.

Meanwhile, the world bleeds.

This is sad.

This is sin.

As Christ-followers, we are God’s healing agents in the world. May we not get caught up in the numb ineffectiveness the world would have us call “life”.

May we get caught up in Life that really is Life indeed.

God’s Kingdom. Where His desires for the world are carried out.

Proverbs 24:5-6

Wise warriors are mightier than strong ones, and those who have knowledge than those who have strength; for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

You can essentially “stupid-proof” your life by surrounding yourself with wise people. Anyone can do this, really. As we say over and over:

You become the average of the three to five people you spend the most time with.

I choose to surround myself with brilliant, loving people.

It will rub off on me.

Luke 11:2

A few ancient authorities render what we have as “Your kingdom come” with “Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.”

How beautiful.

Luke 11:5-13

This passage has been a game-changer for me.

Perseverance in prayer.

It is worth it.

He will answer. He will give the Holy Spirit.

How often we wuss out after praying for something for a week or even a meager few days, when God is prepared to answer, if only we keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Perhaps in His grand plan and infinite wisdom He wanted us to pray for 17 days for that thing we prayed for for only 9 days…

We have no idea what needs to happen in the invisible, spiritual realm in order for our request to be answered accordingly. Just check out Daniel 10:12-14 if you want your mind blown to bits for a few minutes.

We don’t know so much.

Proverbs 23:12,23

Apply your mind to instruction.

Work at it.

Acquire wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

These are worthy pursuits via God’s path. Think of all the worthless pursuits we engage in day after day that amount to nothing but distraction from what is truly meaningful.

Luke 10:2

“There’s a great harvest out there,” He said to them, “but there aren’t many workers. So plead with the harvest-master to send out workers for the harvest.”

One of the very few places in Scripture where there is instruction given to pray for a specific thing that is named.

Tho we are to pray specifically I believe, we are rarely told in the Bible what exactly to pray for. All that to say, this is very important and worthy of our full attention.

Luke 10:25-37

The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as much as we love ourself.

Who is a good neighbor?

The one who shows mercy is a good neighbor.

This is straight from the top.

Whoever you come into contact with who you can do good to is your neighbor. Whoever is in need in your path that you don’t have time for is your neighbor.

Let’s not be that person who does not help someone because we have to get to church, or we might be late to Bible study.

Luke 10:41-42

This is one of the pinnacle passages in all of Scripture in my opinion. Think of all that this encompasses and says to us:

“You are worried and distracted by many things when there is need of only one thing-TO LISTEN TO ME.”

Luke 9:46-48

A dispute arose among them about which of them was the greatest. Jesus knew this quarrel was going on in their hearts, so He took a child and stood it among them. “If you receive this child in my name,” He said, “you receive Me. And anyone who receives Me, receives the One who sent Me. Whoever is the least among you-that’s the one who is great.”

So here, Jesus turns the normal thinking upside-down to show the Kingdom thinking thru an illustrative object lesson.

Status was a preeminent concern in ancient society.

Children in this first century culture had no status. But Jesus shows that in the Kingdom of God they  have the same status as Himself. Those with zero status in the world have the highest value in God’s Kingdom. Heiarchy disappears in God’s world. You see, under Jewish law, a sender could authorize messengers to act with his full legal authority to the extent of the commission given them.  Jesus declares that in God’s sight children are like messengers in Jewish custom, who bore the full authorization of the one they represented, so they did not need worldly status. Representatives of someone who had great authority exercised more authority than others who acted on their own.

What greater honor can anyone ask for than to be received as a messenger of God and Christ? This is what Jesus ascribes to this child. And this lesson came after Jesus was transfigured and God said to listen to Him. Now Jesus, God’s representative, says to listen to this child.

May we be inspired to listen only to God. To listen only to the person who listens to God.

May we be inspired to smash our pedestals so that we have none upon which to place anyone thereupon. For no one can live up to the greatness we ascribe to them when we elevate them so. For the greatest in the Kingdom, you might say, is just the one with more of God flowing thru them. So tho you may admire them, you are really just admiring God. Therefore, may it always point us to the Source.

How you listen to and treat children says a lot about you.

Listening to children, I believe, is listening to God. He has so much to tell us thru children. We miss much of it. Sad loss this is. Let’s start listening today.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up children the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.

This is a much used and abused verse of Scripture.

First of all this is a proverb not a promise. This is a general truth allowing for countless variables.

“Train up” here refers to dedication. Dedication to God and His ways. And also, “the way they should go” is very important here as it could likely refer to raising children with regard to their individual uniqueness. Train up the way each one should go by fully knowing your child and embracing the unique temperament and personality and talents and gifts he or she possesses. This can be more smoothly accomplished thru dedicating them to God and seeking what He has created them to be, not what you want them to be.

Do this while they’re young; do this consistently, and they will not forget it. It will be goodness ingrained. Tho they may stray, even for a while, the truth you instilled will be in there and will be remembered. You hear of very few children straying forever from two good parents who have loved them well in this manner.

And remember, a good example is worth a thousand sermons. What you do has more impact on your child than all the lectures you could ever give.

As has been said, truth is caught more than taught.