Loving Jesus Style

Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-4 (ESV) 1  The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. Habakkuk’s Complaint 2      O Lord , how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?        Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3      Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?        Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4      So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.        For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.   Meditation              This reading from the prophet Habakkuk is definitely a prayer that God’s people can and should pray today. We as God’s faithful people need to continue to ask these questions of our God until God answers us. We must be like the widow in the Gospel story who kept bothering the judge until she got justice.             Our world is a violent and dangerous place. It seems like the wicked abound. Go

Scripture: 2 Peter 1-2 (ESV) 1  Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.   Meditation         Today’s word from 2 Peter is a great encouragement to the church. According to Peter we, through no action of our own, have obtained equal standing with Peter through faith and righteousness. The purpose of this statement was intended to raise up the level of the average believer to that of the Apostle Peter.         So often we get discouraged and think we are of no use to the Lord. The Holy Spirit through the pen of Peter would beg to differ with that assessment. Our faith is just as good as Peter’s because of the action of the Holy Spirit within us when we believed.         We, therefore, are called to let God do through us the things God did t

Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16 14  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [1]   Meditation:             Just as our culture has lost the taste of salt that the church should bring to it, so also it has become a very dark place. Christians have taken to the habit of hiding their lights under baskets so that no one will see them. There is a great deal of fear in modern culture of being known as a Christian. Fear that one will be thought to be backward or not culturally “with it” on social issues of the day.             The light of the world was Jesus. He claimed to be that light in John 8:12 where he says” I am the light of the world.” He knew that his light would shine so brightly that e

Scripture: Matthew 5:13 (ESV) 13  “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. [1]   Meditation:             The culture seems to be rushing by the church in these days. Moving in more and more distasteful directions. Why should this be? I think we need only to look to the words of Jesus above to come up with a hint.             We as Christians and thus the church are really not much like salt at all in our communities and even in our own families. We complain about the ways the culture has changed but feel powerless to do anything about it. When we do try to be salt we come off as grainy and hard making even our saltiness unpalatable. Therefore as Christ has said our saltiness is cast on the ground and walked upon. What is the secret to true saltiness in this world?             Our saltiness must be after the example

Scripture: 1 Peter 3-4 (ESV) 3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,   Meditation:             Peter here gives us a good follow up to Easter Sunday. Too often we simply celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter and then go about our daily lives as if the resurrection doesn’t really matter. But the resurrection does matter.             Because Jesus has been raised from the dead nothing in our lives can ever be the same again. Life has been transformed into an amazing new adventure with the resurrection at the center, We have a profound hope for the future and a sure grasp of the present as we walk with God moment by moment.             So let us not lose hope! We have the assurance of an inheritance in heaven becaus

Scripture Matthew 5:39-42   39  But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40  And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42  Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. [1]   Meditation: Recently there has been a lot of attention paid to religious liberties in this country. Upon reflection it seems to me that our country may not be in a place where it is very friendly to religious liberty. So many other voices are demanding to be heard in our culture that it is hard for those of us who hold religious liberties to be so dear to get a fair hearing. I do not think we should give up the fight all together. But I think the scripture above may provide us a way forward through the cultural fog that has developed. The culture that Jesus operated i

              There has been much ink spilled over the new “Religious Freedom” act passed now in both Indiana and Arkansas. It is clear from listening to the arguments that it is time for some remedial logic training here in these United States. I am going to point out just two of the major logical fallacies that are being spread there are others. Then we will attempt to exegete the reasons for all of the confusion regarding this law.             The first fallacy is that of the “straw man”. Opponents of the law bring up the specter of segregated lunch counters and other images from our racist past. They say that restaurants and other places will be able to refuse service based on sexual orientation. This ignores the fact that in this economy no restaurant owner or manager I know would be willing to turn away someone on this basis. They may not like their lifestyle, but their dollars would be welcome. The straw man of segregation and discrimination simply are fear based attem

Peace in the Church Scripture: Isaiah 48:22, Luke 19:42 22          “There is no peace,” says the Lord , “for the wicked.” [1] 42  “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. [2] Meditation             My denomination (the PCUSA) made headlines yesterday and today by voting to change the church’s definition of marriage from “one man and one woman” to “two persons”. Those who have supported the change have been pushing for this for a long time say twenty or thirty years. It has been a fight, sometimes an acrimonious one. The peace of the church has suffered greatly at the hands of those involved in the fight.             Even now those on the side of the traditional definition of marriage are pledging to get up from the mat swinging and continue the fight. That’s the problem with this church fight, and in truth most church fights, they never end. The church has been fighting itself almost

Scripture: Mark 7:26-30 24  And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25  But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26  Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27  And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28  But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29  And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30  And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Meditation             This is an unlikely passage to pick for a devotion. It is an uncomfortable passage to read. In it Jesus calls a woman a “dog” for no ot