Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Just a quick explanation for today.  Most of our reading for today is challenging, but easy to understand.  I had a bit of trouble though in understanding the parable of the yeast, so I looked into it a bit more.

This parable is very similar in meaning to the first parable about the mustard seed, telling us about the qualities of the kingdom of heaven.  The mustard seed is small, but grows into a great tree.  The yeast, however, is slightly different but related. 

The woman takes a small bit of yeast and puts it into 3 measures ("seah") of flour.  This would be about 50 pounds of flour.  Despite this being a very LARGE amount of flour, the yeast still works its way through the entire batch.

So what does this have to do with the kingdom of heaven?

"What starts out as an insignificant movement will cover the whole earth in the end.  Jesus tells these parables to call for trust. He is building the kingdom, and people should trust God that it will come, even though the movement starts out looking so insignificant. God’s plan is advancing; his kingdom will come. Nothing will stop its coming in fullness." [1]

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Sin and Punishment?
The beginning of today's passage deals with an issue that has been around probably as long as there have been people on the earth.  As Ecclesiastes says many times, "There is nothing new under the sun."

So the question is this:  why people suffer, is it because they are being punished for sin?  Jesus deals with two different situations:

"In the discussion of the two tragedies in verses 1–5, the question emerges whether a worse level of sin causes a person to suffer a special judgment, either in being the victim in a series of events or in being the victim of a natural catastrophe. The temple massacre of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with Jewish sacrifices raised the question whether God was exercising a special act of judgment against them. The collapse of a tower at Siloam that killed eighteen was a natural catastrophe—one of those things that just happens. But here the question also becomes, “Did God judge them for excessive sin?” In both cases the question is the same: Is God giving back to people what they deserved?" [1]

More personally, it's easy for us to feel this way (though we might not verbalize it) about people we know.  "It's sad that he has cancer, but he kind of deserves it for the way he lives."  Again, we'd never say it, but sometimes we might think it.  This obviously has a huge application in our family as my wife Rachel is in a wheelchair.  She's talked many times about her experiences and what God brought her through.  In one telling of her story, she put her original thoughts/feelings after the car accident this way:

"This is all my fault!  God’s punishing me because I cheated on those homework assignments at school.  God blesses those who obey and Him and punishes those who disobey Him.  This is all because I’m such a horrible person and God’s trying to wake me up!  God, please don’t punish my family for my mistakes!  If you take care of my family then I promise I’ll never cheat again!  Please just help everyone be alright and please help my legs to get over this and start working again soon!"

A lot of us have this subtle, unspoken deal with God:  "I'll be a good person and you keep things going good in my life."  If something bad happens, the whole system falls apart - either it's that God is not good and hasn't kept His end of the bargain, or that we have messed up in some way.  Rachel went through both of those feelings before realizing that the "deal" doesn't exist and that God has other purposes in suffering.  She's talked a lot about this before (even in our church), but if you have questions, please ask her!  God uses suffering, just like everything else, to work His good purposes in our lives.

We might not always think these "bargain" ideas straight out; we won't necessarily believe in a prosperity Gospel where if we are good Christians God will bless us with money.  BUT...we do it in small ways.  "I'm having a bad day today...OH! I know! I didn't read my Bible today" or "Things have been bad lately.  I need to deal with ________ sin in my life."  No! You need to deal with that sin because it is sinful and you are being sanctified by God, not so God will "make things better" in your life!  It's a subtle line of thinking that can have DISASTROUS and SOUL-KILLING consequences.  It makes fundamental false assumptions both about ourselves and about God and usually ends up with God getting the blame when the problem is our twisted thinking.  This is a HUGE topic that we don't have time to fully deal with here, but we'll be dealing with these things in-depth in the coming months.  Later in the New Testament some of the epistles deal a lot with the issue of suffering and its purposes.  Additionally, when I finish up my current sermon series on Colossians I'll be doing a series on suffering.  The point is:  I know there are a lot of questions.  Feel free to ask them.  We'll also be dealing with these issues and many more in the coming months.

This is a hugely important topic, but we've gotten a little off track.  Going back to our passage for today:  Jesus understands the purpose the people have in bringing up these tragedies.  What is His response?

"Jesus responds by changing the import of the question. The reason such events are so tragic is that they expose our mortality. Death exists in a fallen world, and nothing exposes our mortality more than when death comes suddenly and unexpectedly, cutting short a life that had the potential to be much fuller. Jesus argues that what should be contemplated is not the cutting short of these particular lives, but the fact that life terminates. This raises an even more basic question, what comes after that? How does one prevent the end from being the ultimate end? Jesus has taken a question about mortality and made it a question about the possibility of eternal punishment. So he urges the people to repent, without which all will perish—only in a death that is more than a mere loss of mortality. His point is that with death comes a decisive encounter with God, one that does deal with sin. Whether one is a little sinner or a big one, repentance now is the only way to survive that coming encounter." [2] (bolding mine)

The point:  don't worry about others.  Worry about yourself!  You don't know anything about those people and God's purposes in what happened to them.  Consider yourself and deal with your sin, not out fear of punishment, but to please and glorify God!

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Keep Your Lamps Burning
"We will be held accountable to the Lord at his return. This concept is frightening only if we have something to fear because we are unfaithful. With his return comes the hope of casting off our sinful humanity for a glorified and purified existence forever with God. These texts exhort us to live like what we shall become. If we live righteously, we will have nothing to fear when the Lord returns.
    Not everything in this passage warns of judgment. Is there a more amazing promise in Scripture than that the Master will serve the faithful at the table?
    ...So we serve and wait expectantly, not knowing exactly when he may return. This uncertainty has a warning with it. Though Scripture tells us to keep watching and be ready, it compares Jesus’ return to a thief in the night. We cannot know exactly when he will return, and we should be suspicious of anyone who dates Jesus’ return. Instead, we should concentrate on being faithful the whole time he is gone and look forward to the day when the master appears." [1] (bolding mine)

We don't need to fear!  Live in expectation of His return.  Live like Jesus is watching...because He is.  This isn't a burden, it's a comfort!  Sometimes we think of Jesus' return and wish it would wait.  Why?  "Because I didn't get to do ______" or "What if heaven is boring?"  There are a lot of possible reasons, but I think it comes down to one major reason:  we are being unfaithful.  For the one that seeks Jesus on earth with everything in them, how could something we miss here compare?  How could we worry about a place where Jesus is present being boring?  Some of this might also come from a misunderstanding/lack of understanding about heaven and the New Earth, but again, for those who seek Jesus, what is there to fear? 

Live your life to honor God.  Store up your treasures in heaven and you will have NOTHING to fear.

Finally, some thoughts from Randy Alcorn about perspective and what we'll remember in Heaven about our time on earth:

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Do Not Be Anxious
This short reading for today relates very closely to yesterday's thought: "Do Not Fear".  As always someone else can write about and demonstrate this principle much better than I can.  I recognize that a lot of you don't have time to listen to the sermons I've been posting, so for today I'll post a short article by Josef Tson (the preacher of yesterday's sermon) from To Every Tribe that summarizes some of what happened to him and what he says in the sermon.  If you don't listen to it, make sure you read this!

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Do Not Fear
There is so much that I could write on this topic.  I think that the best I can do is provide you with some resources.  For me, the best examples of this principle are stories of martyrs.  The most "traditional" book telling some of these stories is "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" (read it for free at ccel.org).  The language is older and can be difficult for some people, so I would also suggest "The New Foxe's Book of Martyrs" for an updated version.  I've mentioned two other books before, either on this blog or in a sermon.  Check out:

Jesus Freaks: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus

By Their Blood,: Christian Martyrs from the Twentieth Century and Beyond

I have all of these books, so if you'd like to borrow any of them, please do.

Finally, I'd like to recommend another sermon. This is a sermon title "Persecution and Christlikeness" given by Josef Tson, a Romanian pastor who endured a lot of persecution.  It was delivered at my home church back in 2000, and it has definitely been one of the greatest, if not THE greatest sermon to influence my life and thinking.  I know I just gave you another one to listen to, but this one really also is a must-listen:

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Light
A somewhat difficult to understand little section in today's reading.  I hope this helps:

"Finally, Jesus uses the image of light to make his point more strongly (vv. 33–34). He compares his teaching to “a lamp,” which in the ancient world was a candle or some type of oil lamp. One does not go to the effort of lighting a lamp in order to place it where its light is covered. It goes on a lampstand, where it can give light. Thus, Jesus’ teaching is light made available for all to see. What he says is not designed to be concealed, since God intends Jesus to reveal God’s promises.
    But light not only has to be lit; it has to be received by the eye. The juxtaposition of this image with the previous one suggests the need to draw on the light Jesus provides...What the eye lets into the mind makes up the person. When such eyes are good, letting in light, then the person is full of light and reflects light in life. But if the eyes are bad, letting nothing good come in, then the body is a dark place, since our inclinations unled by divine revelation take us in destructive directions. Of course, what is let in is a reflection of where our heart is. Jesus, therefore, calls for people to be full of light. They are to respond to the light of God’s Word by receiving it. To take in light is to shine from the inside." [1] (bolding mine)

What do receive?  To you consistently let in darkness or light?  Do you seek to know and understand God, or do you fill your "eyes" with things that will pass away?  Just as what comes out of our mouths reveals our heart, so also does what we put in our eyes and ears.  Do we seek to fill them (and therefore ourselves) with light or darkness.  The choices we make about our music, entertainment, etc. reveal more about our hearts than we probably want them to. 

Thoughts?

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Today's post is less directly related to our passage, but I wanted to offer something worth thinking about on the line "Your Kingdom Come".  It's long, but I BEG of you, PLEASE take time to watch this sermon, "Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions" given by David Platt a few days ago at this year's Together for the Gospel conference.  If you only watch one sermon online in your life, this should be the one.  I can't say it enough.  PLEASE watch this sermon.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:41-42

"Part of Martha’s problem was that she worried too much about what others were doing. In asking Jesus to enter into her complaint, she assumed that her evaluation of Mary’s choice of priorities was right. Jesus’ refusal to endorse Martha shows that although she was doing valuable work, she should worry less about Mary’s choices. We often spend too much time evaluating the walk of others and too little time being self-critical about our own actions for Jesus. Think of how more effective the church would be if we gave half the energy to assessing our own walk than we often do to assessing the walk of others. A community suffocates when all its energy is spent being an assessment agency for one another. What is really crucial for an effective community is for each member to take individual responsibility for his or her own walk and to allow the community to minister in a positive and encouraging way to each other. That does not mean ignoring sin in the midst of the community, but it does mean being slow to make assessments in areas that have nothing to do with sin. Martha crossed this line. The Lord refused to hear her complaint. Mary needed to be honored for her choice." [1]

This short little narrative is an especially stinging rebuke for a lot of pastors and people that spend a lot of time "serving" in church, myself included.  There was nothing wrong with Martha's service - it was a good thing.  It's important to note that the rebuke was not about her service, but about her judgement of Mary. BUT.....there is more there as well.  Martha's service was not BAD, but Mary chose "what is better" (NIV).  It so tempting to get caught up in DOING things for Jesus (yesterday's post!) and forget to slow down and KNOW AND BE KNOWN by Him.  Mary worshiped instead of working.  I think there are many of us who might get upset if that happened in church....a lot of things to do, and there sits ____________, doing nothing!  But Mary chose the better thing.  God does not need our service.  God does, however, demand our worship.  It's a tough balance, but I think it's much easier for a lot of us (*not all*) to err on the side of "being productive" and "getting something done".  We need to learn instead the discipline of silent adoration and worship, of exulting in knowing and worshiping God with our heart, soul, and mind, not only with our strength.

I don't know about you, but that passage just gave me A LOT to reflect on today about my own heart...

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

"The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20

BAM!  OUCH!  This is both an amazingly great and an incredibly important rebuke.  The 72 return, happy that they have spiritual power Jesus, amazed at what they were able to do.  How does Jesus respond?  "Don't let the power go to your head. Don't miss what's important."  I doesn't matter if you can heal 10,000 people.  It doesn't matter if you cast out hundreds of demons.  If you evangelized millions.  If you changed the world for Jesus.  Don't rejoice for yourself in any of these things, because this power and work was only given to you by God.  Without Him you are nothing.  Rather, rejoice that you are known by God.  Rejoice that your name is in the book!

Nothing we do is worth anything compared to being known by God.  This is what we rejoice in!  Anything God gives on top of that is a small gift, because that gift is the greatest and most important.  That gift, not our works in Jesus' name, are the source of our joy.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Luke 9:57-62
1) My family
2) A comfortable place to live
3) A "successful" ministry
4) Good food
5) Good books

This is just a very short list (in no particular order) of things that I would find difficult to deal with losing/giving up.  If God demanded these things of me, would I give them?  Would God ever demand these things of me? Hard questions.

Hard questions, but necessary ones.  It's very easy to build a God and a Jesus and a religion in our mind that suits our tastes perfectly.  That doesn't challenge or correct or rebuke or demand anything.  That God and that religion isn't CHRISTianity.  Jesus makes it abundantly clear that many SAY that they will follow Him, but few actually do.  The cost is high.  Consider what the cost is and what it may be in the future.

"The picture of looking back while plowing is apt, since in Palestine the terrain is rugged. To look back while plowing was asking to make mistakes in preparing the field. The task required a focused eye on what lay ahead. So discipleship demands attention to the rough road before us. To look back risks being knocked off course." [1]

What's on your list?