Day Fifty-Four: John 14-17

John 17 is unique because the whole chapter is a prayer: it is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.  It is also unique because it is the last chapter in John before Jesus is betrayed, arrested, tortured and crucified.  

To hear someone pray honestly and earnestly is a chance to look into their heart and see what they really care about.  To hear some pray before just hours before they die is a chance to see what they care about more than anything else in the world.  

In this prayer, Jesus starts by praying for the glory of God.  That the Father would glorify the Son, showing the world who he is.  Then he prays for his disciples, the twelve dudes that he surrounded himself with, to whom he has entrusted the ministry – that they would be protected and empowered for the mission. Then he prays,“not just these who have already believed in me, but also those who have not yet believed but who will believe when my disciples share the word.”  

He is praying for all the people to whom the faith will be passed, all the people down through the ages who will believe as the word comes to them.  Which means something extraordinary: Jesus is praying for us.  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” 

The reason we are here today is because these disciples, at the price of their lives, faithfully shared Christ with others who shared the word of Christ with others so that today, almost 2000 years later, the baton would be passed to us.  We are in John 17.  We are a part of the story.

The reason why we are here today is because the disciples believed that Jesus had given them a mission, a reason for being.  They saw themselves as being sent on a mission – to continue the ministry of Christ on earth, to show Jesus to a hurting world.  Now that ministry, the ministry of Christ and the apostles, has been entrusted to us. And so Jesus prayed for us.  And, we could say, Jesus also prayed for the people who will believe because we share the word – people in your schools who will believe when you share the word.  

Notice: Jesus expects two things in this prayer: he expects others to believe; and he expects that his followers throughout history will faithfully show others who he is.  In other words he expects that his followers will be courageous, and be willing to say, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

Lord, thank you for praying for me.  Now let me faithfully carry out your mission in my generation. Amen.

Day Fifty-Three: John 9-13

“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this to indicate how he was going to die. (12.31-33)

This phrase, “lifted up” comes out of the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was a description of God in his glory.  When Isaiah has a vision of God, he says, “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up.”  Man was never to be “lifted up” it was a position reserved for God alone.  In fact, three times Isaiah speaks of God as being “lifted up;” three times in the gospel of John, Jesus says that he will be “lifted up”. 

But Jesus takes this description, “lifted up” and uses it an incredible way.  For Jesus, the phrase “lifted up” has a double meaning.  It refers figuratively to his glorification – when He will be lifted up – when He reveals who God is.  But in a grand twist, it also refers literally to the crucifixion, to the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, as he was suspended above the earth.  

The moment of his greatest revelation will be the moment of apparent defeat.

The great wonder that staggered the Jews in the Old Testament was, How could the Lord of glory, who is high and lifted up, condescend so low to be near to the crushed?  

But far greater than that is the wonder that the Lord of glory comes so low that he is not only near the downtrodden – He becomes the downtrodden.  It is not enough for the Word to become flesh and to befriend the lowest of the low.  It is not enough for him to be near to the broken and the Lover of the outcasts.  No, He becomes the broken.  He becomes the outcast.  And the way that he is lifted up is not at first in glory.  He is lifted up on a cross in incredibly painful suffering and death. 

In a way that no one ever could and no words could ever describe, Jesus – through his life of servanthood and sacrifice utterly reveals the loving, self-giving heart of God.  When He picks prostitutes up out of the dust, when he washes his disciples filthy feet, when he prays for them in the garden and when He stretches out His arms on the cross, He is saying, 

“This is who God is.”  

The God who loves so much that He invades the world to ransom a people for Himself.  The God that loves so much that it hurts. God crucified – the God who suffers, the God who serves, the God who saves.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the way that you define yourself for the world.  May I never move beyond fascination with the Cross. Amen.

Day Fifty-Two: John 5-8

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” 

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.  (8.31-34)

Jesus tells them he has come to offer them freedom.  They respond, “What do you mean, Jesus? What do you mean to say that we need to be set free?  You see, they failed to see the kind of freedom they really needed. And so when he offered them freedom, they didn’t understand what he was talking about. 

Our generation has the same problem.  We don’t understand the kind of freedom that we truly need.  The prophets of our age tell us that freedom is found by looking within ourselves and “following your heart.”  That is our generation’s recipe for freedom: “Follow your heart.” It is the theme of movie after movie after movie and television show after television show.  The worst crime in today’s culture is to not be “true to yourself.”  Find yourself.  Be yourself.  Then, you will be free.  

Let me tell you something.  You want to be free?  Good.  It’s good to be free.  Being free is a wonderful thing.  But you’re not.  Jesus pronounces the verdict that all of humanity is enslaved to sin.  

Sin is not just missing the mark; it is living in a fundamentally different way than you were made to live.  It is like trying to put milk into a car to make it go.  Cars were made to run on gasoline.  We were made to run on God, and the way we try to run on everything else besides God shows how deep our un-free-ness really lies. 

You see, freedom is not simply “doing whatever you want to do”.  If a girl can do whatever she wants – but what she wants is to keep shooting heroin up her arm – is she truly free?  She is not.  She is an addict and her slavery goes so much deeper than simply “doing what she wants”.  What she wants is destroying her; what she wants is the problem.  

Our problem is that not that we can’t do the things we want to do; our problem is that we don’t want the things we should want.  We don’t want the things that are truly good for us.  We don’t long to see the things that are truly beautiful.  We don’t desire the things that are truly desirable.  We are free to do what we want; but we are not free to want the things that we ought to want – the things that will truly give us life. The problem is we want to keep drinking poison because it tastes so good.

And only Jesus can set us free.  

Lord, set me free, and I will be truly free. Amen.

Day Fifty-One: John 1-4

 “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’” - John the Baptizer (1.23)

John the Baptizer, messenger of the Messiah, began his ministry in the desert, probably because it was such a vivid picture of the dryness of Israel’s spiritual life.  The wilderness represented their faithlessness, their forgetfulness, and their inconsistency.  They were, as it were, dying of thirst.  

Many of us are right there today. Just kind of wandering around through life.  Any desire for God or the things of God is very weak.  The Bible just seems boring.  Prayer seems boring.  Life seems boring. Wandering.

There are two attitudes you can have in the wilderness.  You can resign yourself to the wilderness.  You can get used to the wilderness and convince yourself that the wilderness is all that there is.  “This is all there is.  Nothing I can do can change anything.  Things will never change, so I better get used to it.” And so you begin to set up a kingdom for yourself in the wilderness. 

You can resign yourself, or, you can search for the way out of the wilderness.  “There must be more than this.”  You can listen for the voice of someone crying in the wilderness.  You can believe that the desert is not all that there is – that somewhere there is an kingdom, ancient and strong.  You build your kingdom on the sand or you can go in search of this kingdom. 

What have you done with your wilderness?  Have you begun to build a kingdom without God?  Have you just taken it for granted that God seems silent to you?  Or does your heart ache for the Messiah?  Have you prepared your ears to listen to the voice that comes screaming in the wilderness?

Lord, help me not to be satisfied with the wilderness.  I want to want more.  Amen.

Day Fifty: Hebrews 9-13

In Book Two of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, (a scene left out of the movie) Frodo and Sam find themselves climbing the steps of the dreaded Cirith Ungol.  It is a place where, as Frodo says, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed.” They rest, and Sam asks Frodo, “I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?” "I wonder," said Frodo, "But I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to.”

Frodo’s point is that when you’re listening to a story (or in our day, watching a story unfold in a movie), the fact that the characters don’t know what is going to happen enhances the drama.  It is quite a different thing, however, to actually be living in the story. When the story is happening to you, you want to know what’s around the corner, what kind of a story you are living in, and if it has a happy-ending or a sad-ending.

If you are a Christian who believes that God is the author of history and specifically the one writing the story of your life, then maybe you know a little bit how Sam and Frodo are feeling.  What’s around the corner for me? Where am I going to go to college?  Who am I going to marry?  What’s my story? Will it be a tragedy or a comedy? 

If we’re honest, most of the time we want to write the story ourselves – and that’s what we try to do – we try to run our own lives, be independent, and write meaningful stories for ourselves apart from God.  One of the hardest things to do is to trust God as author of our story.  One of the hardest things to do is to live our lives through faith.  

Hebrews 11 gives us a glimpse of all different kinds of people – mothers and martyrs, patriarchs and prostitutes – who found themselves inside God’s story.  They had different personalities, lived in different places, and were given different instructions by God. Yet all of these people responded the same – in faith.  

These are people who decided that the author of the story could be trusted.  

It’s the same story we are living in.  Will we make the same decision as they did?

Lord, sometimes my story doesn’t make sense.  Help me to believe that you are writing a better story than I could write for myself.  Amen.

Day Forty-Nine: Hebrews 5-9

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. (9.11-12)

The writer of Hebrews has been describing the tabernacle and the Day of Atonement, and then says that all of these were shadows that pointed to the reality of Christ.  God paints a picture in the Old Testament, and then fulfills it in the New Testament. 

He says, don’t you realize that all of those sacrifices never brought lasting cleansing? There was never a sure and abiding promise of the presence of God.  That is why they had to be offered again and again, year after year.  It was almost like those sacrifices postponed the judgment another year, put it on the credit card, and ultimately there was the need for someone to come and pay the balance.  

What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that at the fullness of time, Christ comes, as it were, to settle accounts, to pay the balance and make lasting atonement for sin.   Unlike the high priest, there was no need for Christ to offer sacrifices for his own sin.  Instead of offering the blood of bulls and goats, he offers himself.  His own body, and his own blood.  

Notice, rather than demanding our blood, Jesus offers his own.  Some people say, “I don’t like this angry God who requires blood.”  But don’t you see that this portrait of God is different.  Rather than demanding our blood, God offers his own.

Isn’t this amazing?  That God would offer himself for us?

“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Lord, thank you for what you’ve done so that I could come into your presence. Amen.

Day Forty-Eight: Hebrews 1-4

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. (1.1-2)

These verses say that God speaks and has been speaking for a long time. In times past, God spoke to the people through prophets – at many times and in many ways.  That phrase “in many ways” literally means “in various pieces.” This means that the revelation of who God is and what he is like has been piecemeal, incomplete.  Each prophet captured a piece of the picture of God, but there was always more to say.  

But the writer of Hebrews says that all this has changed “in these last days.”  What has changed?  Not the fact that God speaks, but the way that God is speaking.  “he has spoken to us by his son.”   This verse is telling you that there is something different about the way that God has spoken through Christ and the way that he has spoken through the prophets of old.  Verse 3 elaborates:

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

It’s like he saying, through the prophets, God had been sending advance sketches of himself, and now, in Christ, he gives us an exact portrait.  God expresses himself completely and fully through Christ.  

This does not simply mean that Jesus speaks the words of God.  It means that everything about Jesus images, depicts, embodies God: everything he says, everything he does, says, “This is who God is.”  

God’s words, spoken through the prophets, are powerful and beautiful and meaningful.  But the coming of Christ communicates something deeper than words.  Jesus is the supreme expression of God breaking the silence and speaking in a way so much more powerful, and vivid and effective than with words.  How do we know what God is like?  We look at Jesus.  Jesus is the exact representation, the perfect picture of God. 

Let’s look at him today.  Amen.

Day Forty-Seven: Matthew 25-28

Notice that almost everyone in Matthew 27 who faces up to Jesus’ claim as king decides against him.  They decide that he’s not the king.  And they don’t just decide this casually, they decide this violently.  Why the violence?  Why the mocking?  Because they know that Jesus is a threat.

Why did the priests and the elders and the religious people plot to kill Jesus?  They plotted to kill him because he was a threat.  He was a threat to their political and religious system; he was a threat to their control of society.  Why did Pilate assent to the death of Jesus even though it says that he was convinced of his innocence?  Because Jesus was a threat to his comfort and control. 

Why is everyone mocking Jesus? They aren’t mocking him for his teachings; they aren’t mocking him for the Sermon on the Mount; they are mocking him for who he claimed to be.  They are mocking him because he is claiming to be a king.  

If Jesus merely said, “I’m a teacher pointing the way to God,” then you could say, “O.k., you have some good things to say about God, that’s nice, I’ll integrate some of that into my life.”  But if Jesus says, “I’m the king,” then you can’t say, “that’s nice.”  If Jesus is really the king who comes to restore and redeem the world, then that forces us into an all-or-nothing decision.  You can’t be wishy-washy about Jesus.  You either say, “Command me Lord!” or “Who do you think you are telling me what to do?!”

You have not come into contact with the real Jesus, unless you have been confronted with the magnitude of what Jesus is claiming.  If you have been confronted with the real Jesus, then it is impossible to merely “like” him. 

Lord, I submit my life to you today.  You are not my personal assistant.  You are my king. Amen.

Day Forty-Six: Matthew 21-24

If I asked you to give me an example of hypocrisy, chances are it wouldn’t take you very long to be able to come up with a handful of examples.  In fact, one of the most common ways that people avoid Jesus is by pointing to the hypocrisy of Christians: “There are too many hypocrites in the church.” There may be times when the “Christians” will seem so fake that you wonder if Christianity is real.  When this happens, what do you do?

In Matthew 23, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and the crowd, and warning them about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the dominant religious and political party in Jewish society during the life of Christ.  And six times in Matthew 23, Jesus calls them hypocrites.

Look at what Jesus says in 23.2-3: “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach.”

Did you get that?  Do as they say, not as they do.  Jesus is saying that the fact of others’ hypocrisy is no excuse to keep you from responding to the truth.  Do what they say when it comes from the Word, not because they are trustworthy, but because the Word is trustworthy. The truth is still true even when we don’t embody it.  

Jesus is saying, “If they don’t obey the commands they teach, be more obedient than them.”  They will be held accountable for the way that they have responded to God’s truth, just as you will be judged in accordance with how you handle the truth given to you.  

Here’s why I think Jesus spends so much time telling non-Pharisees about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees:  Even when others respond unfaithfully, we are still called to respond faithfully.  

Put it another way: when we see others responding with empty words, we should respond, not by being silent, but by truly meaning the words that we say and sing.  

Lord, set me free from hypocrisy.  And set me free from using the hypocrisy of others to avoid you. Amen.

Day Forty-Five: Matthew 17-20

The desire to be rich and successful and to have a lot of nice things is so woven into the fabric of our culture, especially in the suburbs, that the words of Jesus in 19.23-24 hit us like a train: 

“Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 

If you, like most people, want to be rich, then you need to weigh the weight of these words.    

So what would we say today, if Jesus said to us “Sell all your possessions and give them to the poor”? What would we say in ten years, when we are comfortably established in those careers and making money?  Will we, like the rich young man in this text, go away sorrowful because we have such great possessions? Will we choose earthly treasures, great possessions over Christ?  That is the force that this text is meant to have.  It is meant to make us question where we are putting our security.  

You think, “the more money I have, the more I will give away.”  And with all due respect, no you won’t.  All the statistics show that the richer a person is, the less they give.  

Don’t assume you will give it away later if you’re not willing to give it away now.  Are you willing to be poor for Christ, if Christ calls you to that?  Are you willing to hear the call to minister among the poorest of the poor? Would you teach in the inner city?  Would you be a doctor in Haiti?  Would you be a missionary?  Are you willing to be poor if that is the life that God calls you to? Or do you implicitly rule out certain kinds of vocations and professions because “it doesn’t make enough money.  I must be comfortable.”?   

Please don’t mistake what I am saying – there is nothing wrong with being driven, working hard, and desiring excellence.  But if you find that your life is motivated by little more than a desire to succeed and to be rich and to be comfortable, then you have missed the point of life.  You have placed your faith in another gospel, the gospel according to consumer culture: “If you have a lot of money, you will be happy.  If you have the nicest things, you will be satisfied.  If you climb to the top and are successful, then you will be validated as a person.”  

And all the while Jesus holds out the gospel of the kingdom and says, “If you have me, you will be happy.  If you have me, you will be satisfied.  If you have me, I validate you.  I justify you.” 

Lord, set me free from the love of money, from which all kinds of evil springs. Amen.

Day Forty-Four: Matthew 13-16

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who plants seeds on different sorts of soil.  In the parable, something happens to the seeds to keep them from doing what seeds are supposed to do.

Some of the seeds were devoured by birds.  Other seeds fell on the ground, but because they did not have roots, were scorched by the sun. Other seeds fell among thorns, and while they put roots down, the thorns choked the life out of them.  Notice that despite the progression in these three categories of seed, that the outcome was the same: no fruit.  

The seed is the gospel. Why didn’t it grow?

In the parable, the gospel isn’t allowed to go in deep enough.  In the first case, it’s devoured by birds, it doesn’t even go in.  Then the seed goes in, but it doesn’t go in deep enough to put down roots.  The sun, rather than causing it to grow, scorches it.  Finally, some of the seeds go in, but it only goes as deep as the thorns.   It’s at the same level as the thorns, it’s just as important as all the other cares of this world, as all the other pursuits, it never goes deeper than that. 

Our culture encourages superficiality. We are satisfied in being shallow in our relationship with Christ, because we are satisfied being shallow in general. We don’t want to do the hard work of going deep, and so we only receive the word at a shallow level – at the level of feelings.  And so it is no surprise that the thorns so often choke the seed of the word.  Because we never take it in deeply.  We have never gotten past using the word as something to make us feel better. 

Jesus seems to be saying, if the message of the gospel is going to bear fruit in your life, and accomplish real change, then the seed must go in deep.  It ultimately has to go in deeper than the thorns: you can’t be shallow in the way that you hear it and respond to it.  This means taking and listening and reflecting and applying and discussing the gospel over and over again.  You have to let it go in deep.  When that happens, explosive growth occurs.

Lord, let the gospel go deep in my life and do what it is supposed to do.  Help me to put down good roots and grow up strong into you. Amen.

Day Forty-Three: Matthew 9-12

Jesus was unlike any teacher, healer or exorcist these people had ever seen.

What was it about Jesus’ teaching that astonished people?  It was the fact that Jesus taught with authority.  All of the scribes would make a practice of quoting other rabbis, other teachers who were respected as a way of gaining authority for their own teaching.  Even prophets would begin their prophetic oracles by saying, “This is what the Lord says…” But Jesus never does this.  He never quotes an outside authority, he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you.” 

Notice also that Jesus is no conjurer of spells, no witch-doctor manipualtor of spirits. Jesus never invokes a higher power. When he heals people, when he casts out demons, when he stills the storm, He never says, “Stand back. In the name of…”  He never invokes a higher power.  Why?  Because he is the higher power. 

You see, Jesus’ authority over diseases and demons is an indication of who He is.   The primary purpose of the signs and wonders in the ministry of Jesus is so that people will ask what the disciples asked: “Who is this?  What sort of man is this?”  


Tim Keller says that there have really been few people in history who taught and lived in such a way that people asked them not merely, “who are you?” but “what are you?”  You could probably make a case for Buddha, and then Jesus.   The difference between these two is that Buddha repeatedly pointed people to his teaching.  He said, “don’t look at me; look at my dharma, look at my teaching.”  But Jesus repeatedly pointed people to himself.  

Everything that Jesus did while he was on earth He did to show people who He is.  Accordingly, Jesus’ miracles were not the treasure themselves – they were signposts to point to the treasure.  They were meant to scream in no uncertain terms: 

“God is walking among you.  Behold your God!  He is the one who commands the wind.  He is the one who opens the eyes of the blind.  He is the treasure. Embrace Him.  Believe in Him.” 

Lord, let me not be a person who never sees the treasure because I am so fascinated with the signs. Amen.

Day Forty-Two: Matthew 5-8

Matthew 6:19-34: Why I hate [and love] my stuff

I recently scored a great deal on a cooking pan. It was originally $150 and I go it for seven bucks. That's right, seven dollars. Who doesn’t love a good deal, right?

The problem, though, is that it took me a week to even use it. When I eventually worked up the nerve to cook chicken in the pan, I probably sat at the sink and scrubbed the thing for fifteen minutes afterwards. I even eyed Justin with suspicion one night when he washed the dishes, making sure he cleaned the pan really well.

I loved my treasured pan. Then one day something happened. No matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn't remove the cooking stains from the bottom of the pan. Suddenly my new $150 pan was slowly becoming like my cheap $5 pan from Walmart.

Silly story, right? Turn that $150 pan into something more expensive and it doesn't seem so silly. How about an iPad? A car? An iPhone? At what moment do we treasure our material possessions too much? At what point do we have too much stuff?

I'll be the first to admit I'm materialistic. I challenge anyone who has grown up in the West to prove that false in your own life. We love our stuff. We want more. We are never satisfied.

 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."

It's amazing that a book written thousands of years ago can still cut right to the heart of "things".  The equation is simple: whatever/whoever you desire, that's what/who you love. I hate that I love my stuff so much. I wish I desired God with the same intensity that I really want a new car.

What are your desires? Can you say that your desire for Christ is more intense than anything else you want in life? I'm no there yet but I trust that Christ is slowly bringing me to that place. Let's pray for each other as we learn to love Christ more and our stuff a little less.

Day Forty-One: Matthew 1-4

Matthew 1-4: No Hesitation 

There's a pattern as Matthew begins his gospel. Did you notice it? Matthew is so understated that it's easy to miss. Just in case you did, here's a summary: when God commands, you obey immediately.

Joseph was commanded to wed Mary.

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel commanded.

The wise men saw the star.

They came to worship the Messiah.

God warned the wise men about Herod.

The wise men left Herod alone.

Joseph was warned in a dream to go to Egypt.

Joseph woke up and took his family to Egypt.

Joseph was told in a dream to go to Israel.

Joseph awoke and took his family to Israel.

Jesus called a few fishermen to follow him.

They left their nets and immediately followed him.

When God calls you to obey there really isn't a need to pray about it, to think about it or to ponder it over as you buy time to hopefully avoid the situation altogether. No, when God calls he desires immediate response, no hesitation required.

Joseph seemed like a devout, simple man. I once heard the bible scholar Ravi Zacharias say that we preach Christ simply but not simplistically. I think Joseph would have agreed. I think the wise men would have nodded their heads. I think the fishermen turned disciples would get tears in their eyes.

As Lenten season begins remember to keep things simple. As you make more space in your life for God, chances are He will begin to speak truth into your life and when he does, simply obey. As He commands, respond. God tends to work this way. He tends to use people who think they know so little, to do the most astounding things for His kingdom. May we be counted amongst those so blessed.

(Melissa Bailey)

Day Forty: Titus 1-3

So Titus is a young pastor who Paul left in Crete to pastor the church that they planted there.  Now you need to understand that Crete was a difficult place to pastor a church.  We might think that a place like Las Vegas would be a difficult place to pastor, well Crete was a place like that.  In fact, one of the Cretan poets, probably Epimenides, said this about his fellow Cretans: “Cretans are always liars, cruel animals, lazy gluttons.”  And Paul says, “This testimony is true.”  

The Cretans, they always lie, they are like animals who only indulge their animal instincts, they are lazy, and they are gluttons.  And Paul says, “yeah, that’s probably true.”  So what do we do, Titus?  Do we just abandon them, leave them to wallow in their gluttony and laziness?  

No, in fact, we plant a church there, an outpost of hope and the gospel, to take people who are liars, who are lazy, who are addicted to all kinds of sinful stuff, and to introduce them to the person who can change everything.  There’s hope for you too, by the way, if you are always a liar, a dog, lazy, a glutton.  

In the midst of this kind of culture, how do we create a counter-culture?

“In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely.  And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind.” (2.6-7)

Paul is saying, Titus, just because the Cretans are known as being lazy, it doesn’t mean there’s no hope for them.  In fact, there is all of this potential energy waiting to be unleashed!  You have the opportunity to set an example and to lead them to use their bodies, to use their untapped strength – to do good, to devote themselves to good works.  

Good work, the right use of strength, using your energy to serve, is the way you love God with all of your strength.

Lord, help me to love you with all my strength today, and to set an example for others to do the same. Amen.

Day Thirty-Nine: 2 Timothy 1-4

Biblical scholars have suggested that Timothy’s father wasn’t really in the picture, at least when it came to his spiritual life.  This is inferred from the fact that Timothy’s mom and grandma are mentioned as part of is spiritual heritage, but his dad is not (1.5).  Either he had abandoned the family, or he refused to believe in Jesus when the rest of his family did.  

That story will sound familiar to many of you, because it’s been replayed in your life. 

This also explains why Paul refers to Timothy as his “dear son”.  Paul steps into the fatherly role and gives the fatherly exhortation that Timothy (and many of us) so desperately need.  

His message: “You are strong.  Be strong!  Use your strength well!”

Paul encourages him by telling him that “I know that same faith continues strong in you.”

We wonder if we have anything to offer, if we have what it takes.  And we do:

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.” (1.7)

God has gifted us with strength, the power to serve and to love and endure.  It is up to us to use that strength well:

“Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.... Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2.1, 3)

Many of you, especially those of you who have a spiritual disconnect with your fathers, do not hear very often that you are strong.  You do not hear that you have something extraordinary to offer the world.  You do not hear a challenge to use your strength well.

So hear it from God’s Word today.  Paul, speaking as the father that Timothy never had, speaks for the Father that some of us never had.

Lord, thank you that you provide the strength to do what you have called me to do.  Help me to use my strength well today, to endure and to serve. Amen.

Day Thirty-Eight: 1 Timothy 1-6

In 1 Timothy, Paul writes to his young disciple Timothy, who has been like a son to him.  His aim is to encourage Timothy, who is ministering in a difficult place: Ephesus. When Paul was in there in Acts 19, there was rioting in the streets.  And now Timothy is there, leading the church.  Paul writes him a letter to encourage him to stay strong and to instruct him in what it means to care for God’s church.

The interesting thing is that the majority of Paul’s instructions relate not so much to what Timothy should do as to who Timothy should be.  In other words, ministry is not so much about figuring out the proper techniques, but cultivating a genuine heart for God that can then be shared with others. Paul writes:

“The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.” (1.5)

“Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear.” (1.19)

“Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas... instead, train yourself to be godly.” (4.7)

“Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, your purity.” (4.12)

“But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things.” (6.11)

In other words, your walk with God doesn’t just help your ministry; it is your ministry.  You only give what you have received.  

So focus on loving Christ, not on technique. 

Focus on walking with God, not on saying all the right words.  

Focus on purity, not getting people to respond the way you want them to.

Focus on cultivating genuine faith.  That kind of faith is contagious.

Lord, help me to care for and cultivate my relationship with you today. Amen.

Day Thirty-Seven: 2 Corinthians 9-13

The last five chapters (10-13) of 2 Corinthians are strikingly different in tone than the first 9 chapters.  This is probably because as Paul was writing the letter, he received new information about the Corinthian church that gave him concern.

So in the latter part of the letter, Paul comes out swinging against his opponents who were attacking the legitimacy of his apostleship on the basis of his weaknesses.  

His opponents called themselves the “super-apostles”.  These were professionals, polished, eloquent, trained in rhetoric, who would come with impressive letters of recommendation.  Since they were professionals, they came asking a fee for their services, something Paul had not done.

They contrasted themselves with Paul: “He’s not even eloquent!  His speeches are long, boring and worthless!  He doesn’t charge you because he’s not a professional!  And where are his letters of recommendation?” (Read 10.10)

The problem with the super apostles was that they were not talking about the real Jesus or preaching the real gospel (11.4).  Their presentation was all show and no substance.  

They were giving the Corinthians a nicely wrapped box of crap.

We are easily deceived by appearances.  We are fooled by the glitz and the glamor.  We think, how can this person be wrong?  They are so cool, so beautiful, so stylish, so well-spoken.  But we must consider the truth of what they say, not the hipness of their person or presentation. 

The truth is, people who judge according to appearances are the kind of people who miss the crucified Jesus.  After all, dying screaming and naked on a cross isn’t very cool.  And yet, this was how God was saving the world.

Don’t be deluded by appearances.  Go for substance. 

Lord, help me to see through the nicely-wrapped lies that I am so prone to believe, and to embrace the truth, even when it isn’t so pretty.  Amen.

Day Thirty-Six: 2 Corinthians 5-8

One important background detail in 2 Corinthians is that there were some teachers in the Corinthian church who were questioning Paul, primarily on the basis of his sufferings.  They were saying, “There’s no way that God could be blessing someone who is suffering so much.  The fact that he has been rejected so often shows that God’s hand is not upon him.  On the other hand, look at us!  Look at how wealthy and respected and successful we are!  Isn’t God with us more than Paul?”

It is easy to judge success by worldly standards.  It is easy to think that God is only with the rich, the strong, the successful, and that he has abandoned the poor, the weak, the failures.  But Paul writes his letter to show that many times, the opposite is actually the case.  In fact, your reaction to failure and rejection say much more about your heart than your reaction to success.

In chapter 5, Paul talks about “those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than a sincere heart.” (5.12)

Did you get that?  Sincere heart > Spectacular ministry

And sincerity of heart really isn’t demonstrated in success and strength but in failure and rejection and weakness.  Everyone likes to succeed.  But it is those who keep pushing forward in the midst of adversity who show what’s really in their hearts.  

When you do not give up you show Who it’s all for.

“...our goal is to please him.” (5.9)

Lord, help me to react to weakness, failure and rejection in a way that shows that my heart belongs to you.  Amen.

Day Thirty-Five: 2 Corinthians 1-4

The tone in 2 Corinthians is unlike the tone in any other of Paul’s letters with the possible exception of 2 Timothy.  His vulnerability is on full display, and for those who think that Paul never felt weakness, we hear him say:

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we never thought we would live through it...” (1.8)

Have you ever felt that way?  Ever been through something that you knew was bigger than you, and you didn’t think you would make it through it?  

Sometimes when we are going through something like that, it is impossible to think of what you’re supposed to “learn” from it.  It seems POINTLESS.  You are just trying to make it through it.  

But after the storm has passed, you can sometimes look back and see God’s hand.  Paul does this.  He writes:

“...but as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” (1.10)

When you come to the end of yourself, the end of your capacity, you learn that there is still more of God.  Pain can be PURIFYING.  It humbles us, takes our gaze off ourselves and fixes our eyes on Jesus.  That’s where we experience God’s comfort.

This is why Paul can write that “God offers us comfort in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.” (1.4)

This is amazing.  God can use our pain, our hardship, not only to purify us, but also to PREPARE us for ministry to others.  

When you don’t understand why something is happening, consider that it could be there is a person in your future who will need what God was giving to you in the moment when you didn’t think you could go any further.

Lord, sometimes my struggles see so pointless.  Help me to see how you want to purify me and prepare me for the future.  Amen.

Day Thirty-Four: 1 Corinthians 13-16

I’ve read 1 Corinthians 15 many, many times.  And yet today it broke me and spoke to me in a fresh way.

Paul is addressing the false teaching that the resurrection has already happened.  Remember, the Corinthians were pursuing a hyper-spirituality, and were saying, “we have already attained perfection, we don’t need to wait for some future resurrection.”  As he answers their objections, he begins to give us a glimpse of what it will be like to have a resurrected body.  

He says, the difference between a seed that goes into the ground and the living plant that comes out of the ground is like the difference between your body when it goes into the ground and the living body that will come out: 

“What you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting... Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.” (15.37,42)

This thought just washed over me as I read:  

One day, they’ll put me in a box and put that box in the ground.  

But if Jesus is true, then it will not be the end.  I am planted like a seed, and one day, after the winter, spring will come and I will rise.

Just like the flowers rise out of the ground, exploding open to greet the rising sun, one day he will call my name and I will rise.  

How would I live differently if I woke up each morning and remembered two things: 1) one day I’ll die.  2) one day I’ll rise. 

It changes your perspective on what matters.

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.  Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless.” (15.58)

Lord, help me to live knowing that I will die.  My time here is limited.  Help me to know also that I will rise.  Nothing I do for you is useless.  So help me live like.  Amen.

Day Thirty-Three: 1 Corinthians 9-11

If you’re like me, 1 Corinthians 11.1-16 might sound like one of the strangest passages in the New Testament.  What?  Paul wants women to wear head coverings?  What?  Men aren’t allowed to have long hair?  (What about the pictures I’ve seen of Jesus?)  

Maybe what makes it more striking is the fact that head coverings are only worn in obscure corners of Christianity.  The majority of female Christians in the world worship and pray with their heads uncovered.  Isn’t this a clear violation of what Paul is saying?  

Doesn’t it sometimes seem like we choose to follow some passages and not others?

Sometimes this argument is used to invalidate the entire Old Testament.  Point out OT Law regarding homosexuality and you will hear that no one takes the OT literally, since the OT Law also says that we shouldn’t wear clothing of mixed fabrics, a command almost no one observes today.  

I guess the question is, when we come to an ancient text like the Bible, when do we take things literally (i.e. the Ten Commandments), and when do we look for underlying spiritual principles?

Put it another way, how can Christians today know which parts of the Bible are "culturally relative" and which parts apply to all believers in all cultures throughout history?  If you’ve struggled with this, I wrote an extra long post for you.  If you don’t, feel free to just skip ahead.

This is a hotly debated topic, and so of course my response will seem simplistic.  I am mainly trying to be helpful to the inquisitive students who read this blog. 

First, you can’t just disregard something because it seems strange or unpopular in our culture.  

For example, in our culture, people don’t like what the Bible has to say about sexuality (too strict!) but like what it has to say about forgiveness.  In the Middle East, however, they like what the Bible has to say about sexuality but don’t like what it has to say about forgiveness (not strict enough!).  So if we don’t apply Paul’s words on head coverings, the reason can’t be just because it’s unpopular. 

Second, you interpret each passage based on the kind of writing it is.  

Luke, for example, says that his writing is the result of careful research and eyewitness accounts.  He’s telling you, take this literally, I’m telling you history.  Other sections of the Bible, like the Song of Songs, are clearly poetic and metaphorical (or else you actually have a very ugly woman!).  How literally you interpret Scripture depends on In the case of Paul’s letters, we read them like ordinary letters, which means that we try to take them as literally as possible.  

Third, you must consider how similar the original context is to our modern context?  The greater the similarity, the more literally we should expect the application to be.  

This helps make sense of why we don’t follow many of the OT civil laws; in modern times God’s people don’t live in a agrarian theocracy but are scattered throughout various nations under diverse governmental systems.  This doesn’t mean those laws are meaningless, it simply means we attempt to discern the underlying reason or value that led to God making such a law.  “Do not cook a baby calf in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 23.19) thus is applicable to our modern day in that it has something to say about cruelty to animals and our stewardship of God’s creation.  

Moving to the NT, there are many instructions that are given that had cultural significance at the time it was written that simply don’t have the same significance today.  1 Corinthians 16.20 literally reads, “greet one another with a sacred kiss.”  Kissing is not a normative way of greeting in our culture, so NLT updates this to “Greet one another with Christian love.”  The meaning has been accurately preserved.  The literal “kiss” is not the point; the show of Christian affection is.  So to apply this text, we look for a more modern expression of Christian affection.  (No kissing the girls, guys. Sorry.)

When it comes to head coverings: head coverings in Paul’s time, or long vs. short hair were cultural representations of the differences between men and women.  As we discussed yesterday, believers in the Corinthian church were pursuing a hyper-spirituality where they not only spoke in the language of angels but also were trying to sexless, like the angels. 

In response to this, Paul writes in 1 Cor. 11 that men and women are interdependent (11.12), complementary and each has a unique glory to offer the world.  When we flatten the differences, the glory is turned to shame. The literal length of hair or head covering isn’t the point; the distinction between the sexes is.  Paul is particularly concerned about bringing unnecessary shame that would distract offended outsiders from the gospel (11.6). 

In our times, women don’t distinguish themselves from men by covering their heads (at least not in the U.S.)  So to apply this text we would strive to preserve the uniqueness and the distinction between men and women.  Men shouldn’t wear lady clothes, and women shouldn’t dress like men.  God made us different, and the difference is good!

This post has been long and overly simple at the same time.  But I hope it at least shows you that we can’t just pick and choose what is comfortable to believe.  

We work hard to discern God’s heart, to care about what he cares about and to not care about what he doesn’t care about.  

Lord, help me to rightly understand and obey your word. Amen.

Day Thirty-Two: 1 Corinthians 5-8

One of the things that makes the first letter to the Corinthians so difficult to read and interpret is the ambiguity and complexity of what was actually going on at the church in Corinth.  

Paul is obviously responding to some very specific problems throughout his letter.  Some of them are straightforward: the tolerance of sexual immorality in the church (ch. 5), lawsuits between believers (ch. 6).  Others are less so clear: Paul’s rather cryptic instructions on marriage (ch. 7), the discussion of “idol food” (ch. 8), instructions about head coverings for women (ch. 11, etc.).  I decided to use today’s blog post to try to illuminate the situation behind the text.

Here’s what I think was going on in Corinth (standing on the study of scholars like Gordon Fee): 

Corinth was a church that made a big deal out of spiritual gifts.  One spiritual gift in particular, the gift of tongues, involved miraculously speaking in a language previously unknown to the speaker.  Paul refers to this as the “language of angels” (13.1), and he is probably using their phrasing.  Whether it actually was an angelic language is not the point here - at the very least, Paul grants it for the sake of discussion.

The point is that this spiritual ability gave many of the Corinthians a sense of inflated spirituality - they felt that they had somehow become like angels - and thus had a new sense of elitism and superiority.

This sense of hyper-spirituality led to dualism: the belief that the body is not really that important and it is only the spirit that really matters.  So the Corinthians focused on spiritual “wisdom” and “knowledge” on the one hand (chs. 1-4), and did whatever they wanted to do with their bodies on the other hand (chs. 5-7).  

Apparently, some of the women began to reject their marriages, to argue that they should be divorced, and that engaged young women should break off their engagements.  They felt, after all, that they were now experiencing a sort of angelic life, and Jesus said that angels do not marry (Luke 20.35-36).

Some of the men, in response to this, had begun to use this as an excuse to solicit prostitutes to satisfy their sexual desires (ch. 6).

Some were saying, we can eat at feasts in idol temples, because we know that there’s really no such thing as idols (ch. 8, 10).

Some were saying that there would be no future resurrection since they already had achieved spiritual, angelic perfection (ch. 15). 

Sounds like a mess, doesn’t it?  And it all began with a deadly disconnect between looking spiritual and actually walking with God.  If we aren’t careful, we can give into this as well.

Do we think, if I give my heart to God at church on Sunday, I can do whatever I want with my body during the week?

Do we think, if I understand the Bible, I don’t really have to obey it?

Passionate worship, speaking in angelic languages, looking spiritual, knowing a lot of spiritual things - none of it really matters if these things don’t actually make a difference in the way you live your life.

“Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.  but the person who loves God is the one God recognizes.” (8.2-3)

Amen.