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Category Archives: Matthew

Peter & John — Matthew 4:18-22

26 Aug

18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.

21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Matthew 4:18-22

 

Dear God, I’ve decided I’d like to learn more about Peter and John, how they related to you, and how they compare with each other. To that end, I’m going to start a series where I look at all of the Bible stories that include them as well as the books that they wrote. They were very different people, and yet they were both critical to your earthly ministry and the formation of the church thereafter.  

In this case, I just noticed how Matthew captures these stories. The first people you called were sets of brothers. It wasn’t Matthew, working alone as a tax collector. It was Simon (later renamed Peter—I’ll need to get deeper into that) and Andrew, and then James and John (I wonder if Matthew listed each set of brothers by age or by his perception of their importance). I wonder if it was easier for them to break with their families if they went along with their brothers. Did Simon go along more willingly since Andrew went along too? James with John?  

It can be hard to feel like I am doing the absolute right thing according to your will and feel at odds with your family. I have several examples of my own life, but one example I’ve been thinking about lately is the example of Joseph and Mary. I’m sure their parents were very disappointed with how their lives were turning out. Did Joseph have living parents, and did they express any disapproval to him? After all, he married a pregnant girl and moved with her to Egypt. On the surface, it’s a disastrous result for your child back then. And then the family moved back to Nazareth with Jesus still a boy. Did Jesus understand isolation from this? Did he intentionally call the brothers together for their sake because he saw something in his dad’s experience? I know that I am making all kinds of wild guesses here, and that can be unsafe. But it just seems interesting that Matthew’s first recording of Jesus’ called disciples were brothers.  

Father, give me the courage to do what needs to be done at any given time, regardless of who joins me in it. But do a few things for me, please. Help me to really be sure it is you I am following in it. And please help me to be completely united with my wife through any of it. Speak to her the same thing you are speaking to me at any given time so that me might be one soul, mind, heart, and body at all times.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2018 in Matthew, Peter and John

 

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Matthew 11:28-30 – “Power in the Blood”

19 Aug

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Dear God, I want to look at this passage through several translations. The one I have above is from the NIV. Here are some different versions of the same verses:

KJV
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heaven laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you , and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

NAS
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

NLT
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

The Message
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

While I typed out each of these translations, I had “Power in the Blood” playing in the background. I asked myself, what is that power? A lot of us have sung about it through that song all of our lives. What was the power the author discovered that they wanted to share? Well, it feeds into this passage pretty nicely.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
Come for a cleaning to Calvary’s tide.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
Sin stains are lost in the life-giving flow.

Four questions? The first and the last relate to each other–release from sin. The second had to do with our victory over evil (whether we can see it with our earthly eyes or not). The third is a release from passion and pride.

Father, as I prepare to preach this morning, I feel a burden on this one like no other I’ve felt. And with that burden, I feel like I am pressing too hard. I am trying to much to come up with my own plan. I am trying to think my way through this too much when, in reality, I will be most successful if I simply lay this out through prayer, which I think I successfully did yesterday, and then let your Holy Spirit take over and guide me where it will in the moment. So I offer this to you. I offer my thoughts, my experiences, and my best-laid plans to you. Do with them what you will, but do it for your glory. I don’t care about getting one accolade today. I really don’t. I just want to know that your Holy Spirit did what it wanted to do and planted the seeds it wanted to plant.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 19, 2018 in Hymns and Songs, Matthew

 

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What are we selling?

18 Aug

Dear God, I am giving a sermon tomorrow morning at the Presbyterian church. It will be the first time I’ve done two Sundays in a rom, and I have felt the leading for a long time to give them a good serving of the Gospel–the Good News. But is it for them or is it for me?

A couple of years ago, I heard David Brooks say something that I’ve looked for online and I cannot find. He made the comment that Christians have this great message of grace, love, forgiveness, compassion, etc., but what we communicate to the world as a group is that all we really care about is what happens in their bedrooms. While I think there is a call to a certain level of purity by you and that cannot be overlooked (for example, porn is extremely toxic and dangerous), I completely agree with this thought. We do have this great message to give people.

I just stopped in the middle of writing this to see if I could find that David Brooks quote. I didn’t find it exactly, but I found a good interview with him. I found this quote in the middle of it: “Some of my more popular columns have been those about forgiveness, or the role of suffering, or what graciousness looks like. There’s a widespread hunger to hear people talk about those issues. When you touch upon those themes, I think, ‘I’m not the only person out there who is wrestling with these things and troubled by them or comforted by them.”

Later in the interview with him, the interviewer asked, “To grasp the beauty of a love for thngs that are unlovable, you have to recognize yourself as unlovable. If we don’t want to reckon with sin, is it possible to see grace?

Brooks replied, “I think you have to have a sense that you’re loved beyond what you deserve. I think we experience grace both in this world and in a divine sense when we have messed up and don’t deserve to be forgiven but are. That’s when grace becomes shocking.

So with all of that said, let’s look at the passage I have set out for tomorrow after praying to you and see if I can make some sense of the message you want me to share.

Exodus 34:29-35: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. // When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

2 Corinthians 3:7-18: Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!//Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over this face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Matthew 11:28-30 [Jesus speaking] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Father, it’s time for me to start to work on my outline, but I think it’s going to come down to this. We need to be reminded of what you are offering us and what we accepted:

  • Forgiveness of our sins and freedom from our shame
  • Peace to know that the circumstances in our physical world are all under your control, whether them seem to be working out for us or against us
  • Hope that even if tomorrow isn’t better, in the end, we win!
  • Joy that is driven by the freedom, the peace, and the hope

Then we need to be reminded that this is what we have to offer others. We have it to offer our friends and acquaintances. And as a church, they have it to offer their neighborhood and our community.

We aren’t selling morals and judgment. We aren’t selling condemnation. What we are selling is the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. And the only cost for the person is a willingness to humbly confess their sin before you, turn from their sin as they know it, and then pursue you. If those things happen, it won’t necessarily be an easy life, but the trials will shape us, and the fruit will be love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Who wouldn’t buy some of that?

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 18, 2018 in 2 Corinthians, Exodus, Galatians, Matthew

 

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Matthew 2:13-16

30 Jul

After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.

Matthew 2:13-16

Dear God, I was reading a missionary friend’s newsletter this morning and I saw they are doing work in Europe with refugees there. It made me think about people fleeing danger in their home countries and this brought to mind that Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to escape violence and death. I wonder what Egypt’s immigration process was at the time. How did they secure their borders?

While we deal with our government figuring out our own border policy, I think there is a point where we as Christians should turn our attention to the causes of violence in their home regions and pray through our responses. Are there organizations on the ground we should help? Should we put pressure on our government to help? At the very least, should we be praying fervently for the families who are like the ones in verse 16–the ones who lost their children?

Father, there is a lot to pray for here. There is the violence in the countries of origin. There are the scared families. There is the response once they get to our border. There is the assimilation into our culture. And this is only scratching the surface. Make me smarter about this. Make me wiser. And use me however you will.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 30, 2018 in Matthew

 

Matthew 19:13-15

23 Jul

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.

Matthew 19:13-15

Dear God, I wonder how these children’s lives turned out. Their parents too—I wonder how this experience changed them. First, we know we are starting with people who were motivated enough to do this for their children, so they obviously loved them. I guess what I’m wondering is what kind of impact Jesus’ actions here had on everyone’s lives.

Praying for your children is one of those interesting mysteries that I just don’t understand, but I think I’ve started to realize something over the last year or two. Due to the idea that all of us need to be broken down at some point and brought to the end of ourselves, sometimes your answers to our prayers for our children will not look anything like we think they should.

Father, to quote a song, I don’t know where all this is going or how it all works out. Lead me to peace that passes understanding. A peace beyond all doubt.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 23, 2018 in Matthew

 

Matthew 4:3-4

12 Jul

During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 4:3-4

Dear God, as I read this passage this morning and asked myself what thoughts come to mind when I read it, the first thought that came into my mind is that I’m so sorry you had to go through this. Living on earth and the struggles. Fasting for 40 days. Dealing with Satan in this way. Of course, brutal crucifixion. And it was partly for me. I’m really sorry you had to do that.

But as I now continue my journey, one of my jobs is to live by your bread. Not the communion bread (eat this in remembrance of me), but by the scripture prepared for me and the still small voice that speaks to me. Both must be run through a discernment filter. I can’t always trust my interpretation of scripture, and I cannot always trust the voices inside my head. But awareness and discussing my thoughts in community help to mitigate any selfish interpretations that will deceive me.

Father, thank you for everything you’ve done. Everything Jesus had has done. Everything the Holy Spirit has done. My life is small and my time on earth is short. Help me to make the most of the opportunities you put in front of me.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 12, 2018 in Matthew

 

Matthew 16:24-26

27 Jun

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Matthew 16:24-26

Dear God, okay, I’m going to go old school reference here, but every time I read this passage I think of an old Silverwind song called “I am in Love.” The first verse of the song is largely these words. I think I first heard it when I was about 9 or 10. I think we even saw them sing at a church in San Antonio at one point.

The heart of this passage has been my prayer for a lot of people who have worried me over the years. When it comes to needing peace, hope, joy, and freedom, this passage is the answer. A life built around chasing my own desires is just not going to bring me peace. And a life that holds onto my sin and protects the things of which I’m ashamed will only bind me up and hold me hostage. And in the end, when all of this is happening, I’m of no real value to anyone because I have nothing to offer someone in need.

Father, help me to not forget these lessons myself. Help me to be humble, transparent, and gracious. Help me to deny myself. I try, but I’m imperfect and there are still things to which I hold on. I’m sorry.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2018 in Matthew

 

John 25:14-30

06 Apr

14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’
23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’
26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’
28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30

Dear God, this is an interesting story for Jesus to tell. It’s one of the last parables Matthew records. This harshness on the part of God is a little out of character for Jesus to represent. But it’s followed up immediately by the story of those who are at the final judgment and told that they ignored the hunger, thirst, loneliness, etc. of those around them. I think the two need to be read together. I think that’s how Matthew intended them to be digested. That’s one of the problems with having our Bibles separated into not only chapters and verses, but also with little subheadings for the stories so they are easier for us to find. Our brains tend to take those artificial divisions and apply them to the text when the author might not have intended for there to be a separation between those two stories at all.

When I think of what you expect from all of us as your believers, followers, and disciples, I think you expect us to take the “talent” you give us and then do something for your kingdom with it. And some of us will have more than one talent. I met a woman last night who seemingly has a lot of money and I know that she is generous with it. And it would be easy for her to sit back, write checks to people, and accept their gratitude. But that wasn’t her spirit. She also has construction contracting ability. She has bookkeeping ability. I talked with her last night about a big project we are working on to build a shelter for domestic violence victims. Can she write a check? Sure. But her eyes lit up when she talked about the other things she can bring to the table. You gave her more than one talent. You gave her five. And the spirit I saw in her was a desire to bring all of them to the table to see what kind of return you kingdom can get from them.

Father, help me to evaluate the talent that I have, bring all of it to the table for your glory’s sake (NOT mine), and multiply it for the good of your kingdom, our community, and at least one individual life. Help me to do it with joy and an attitude that desire my own decreasing and your increasing.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2018 in Matthew, Uncategorized

 

The Last Supper & Confusion

31 Mar

Dear God, I was at a church service Thursday night (the night before Good Friday), and I got to thinking about The Last Supper. I started to think about the real-time confusion the disciples must have experienced. There were things going on that they had no way of understanding. Jesus was saying things they didn’t understand. They were assuming things would play out in one way, but things were actually on a much different course—a course for which they had no paradigm. So I’ve decided to sit down and try to make a list of everything that happened that evening (as represented in all four Gospels combined), starting with Jesus washing their feet and ending with their walk to the Garden. Here’s what I came up with:

  • Jesus washes their feet and asks if they get what He’s teaching them (John 13:4)
  • Jesus wants to eat Passover with them before his suffering begins (Luke 22:15)
  • One of you will betray me (Matthew 26:21) Jesus says he’s telling them that so that they will know, after the fact, that He is who He says He is (John 13:19)
  • Jesus labels Judas as the traitor, but “no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.” (John 13:28)
  • Jesus says He is leaving soon and they cannot follow (John 13:33)
  • Disciples are troubled because Jesus tries to comfort them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (John 14:1)
  • They ask about the way to where Jesus is going. Jesus answers vaguely that He is the way…” (John 14:6)
  • Jesus tells them He is sending the Holy Spirit (John 14:16)
  • Jesus does some last-minute teaching about being the vine and branches (John 15:1)
  • Love one another and ignore hate for them (John 15:17-18)
  • Telling them this so they will not go astray (John 16:1)
  • Tries to explain Holy Spirit (John 16:5-16)
  • The disciples are openly confused and talking among themselves about what He means (John 16:17)
  • Jesus prays for Himself (John 17:1)
  • Jesus prays for His disciples (John 17:6)
  • Jesus prays for all believers (John 17:20)
  • Breaks bread as body and wine as blood for sins and covenant (Matthew 26:26-28)
  • Jesus will not drink wine again until in Father s Kingdom (Matthew 26:29)
  • Disciples argued about who would be greatest in Kingdom (Luke 22:24)
  • Everyone will scatter and abandon Jesus (Mark 14:27)
  • After  raised from the dead  Jesus will meet them in Galilee (Mark 14:28)
  • Get money, travel bag and a sword (Luke 22:36)
  • Peter’s denial predicted (Mark 14:30)

When I went through this exercise I either realized for the first time or remembered some interesting facts about this that I had forgotten. And they are all mainly about John’s version of the story. First, John gives us so much more about the conversation between them that night. There’s a lot of detail there. Second, John’s version of the story is five chapters long (chapters 13-17). Third, John makes zero mention of breaking the bread and pouring the wine. That part of the evening was apparently unimportant to him when compared with the other parts—and yet, as Christians of different denominations, we allow something like how we do communion divide us and count it as of the utmost importance. Are we missing something there? Has Satan used something beautiful as a way to divide us? But I digress.

The real point of all of this is to show that, even when Jesus spoke plainly to them about what was happening (e.g. pointing to Judas as His betrayer), they had no clue. They couldn’t see it. They were about to go through a horrific 72 hours and it seems that they were not prepared for it. Or were they?

Father, at the end of the day, you give us what we need to get through a crisis. It might not look the way we want it to look. It might all go bad. Things might get very dark, and we will need to find our way, moment by moment, with no light. We might be scared, confused, and overwhelmed. We might even feel like giving up. But you call us to press on in the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil (Psalm 23:4). And you will give us little remembrances of you and your words. So as my wife and I go through a current confusing time, and as we love some different relatives through their own uncertain times, help us to take your peace with us, embrace the confusion and overwhelmedness (is that a word?), and look forward to what we will have learned from this when it is all over.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2018 in John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Psalms, Uncategorized

 

Matthew 5:8

26 Mar

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

Dear God, this one verse was the focus for the My Utmost for His Highest devotion today so I thought I would just spend a little time with just these words.

So what does it mean to 1.) have a pure heart and 2.) see you? I think having a pure heart starts with, in my own eyes, me becoming less and less and you becoming more and more. The more I decrease and the more you increase in my own eyes the less I seek out worldly pleasures that will feed my ego, and look to worldly things to heal my emotional wounds. I love to get praise and attention. If I’m not getting what I want, I love to feel sorry for myself. All of that leads to an impure heart.

So what does seeing you mean? I assume it means seeing you in the afterlife, but I think it means something now too. I think it means that I get to lose myself in you and that enables me to both know you better and see the world and others the way you see it. In our church group last night, we talked about not judging others. I think that only truly happens when we have allowed ourselves to “decrease” to the point where we only see you and love others through your perspective on them.

Father, I will continue on this journey. I am not there yet. I still have so much desire for personal acclamation. I’m sorry for that. But, with your help, I will get better today. I worship you as my Lord and my God.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2018 in Matthew, My Utmost for His Highest Scripture of the Day

 
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