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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 15

15 Dec

10 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

John 10:1-10

Dear God, okay, I just noticed something. In this parable, Jesus didn’t set himself up as the shepherd or even the gate keeper. He is the gate. He goes on in the next paragraph to say that he is the Good Shepherd, but you and he are one. For the purposes of this parable, at least the way I am reading this passage this morning, Jesus is the gate through which the people go to you, the Father, as their shepherd. Of course, as being one in nature with you, he is the Good Shepherd as well, but the critical role Jesus plays is he is the gate. There is a wall that keeps me from you. There is a wall that Satan uses to get to me. To get to us. But you are good. You are the Good Shepherd, and Jesus provides you a gate to get to us and then us the use of the gate to follow you.

Now, my job is to hear your voice while your purpose is to us a rich and satisfying life. And how do we get that rich and satisfying life? This short life that is so insignificant in comparison with the tens of billions of people who have come before me? Well, it’s to simply lay it before you, be used by you as best as I can, and then get out of history’s way. To let you live through me. Address the problems of a broken world through me.

Father, I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I am finish the race and complete the task you have given to me. The task of testifying to your grace. Help me to do that today. Help me to do it with my wife and everyone else I encounter today. I love you, Father. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Holy Spirit. I love you, my Triune God. Thank you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 15, 2024 in Advent 2024, John

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 8

08 Dec

 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:2

Dear God, I focused on these verses yesterday, but John Piper is keeping me here a day longer, so I want to take this time with him to sit with the idea of the Magi.

One of the things Piper suggests is that while Luke tells us about the Shepherds, Matthew tells us about the Magi because Matthew is careful to include the Gentiles in his message about Jesus. Jesus’s story opens with these Gentile worshippers, and Matthew ends to book with Jesus sending the disciples out to the world. It’s why I’m here today. Who would I be without you? I don’t even know how to answer that question, but I know you are everything to who I am.

I really like what Piper has to say today. I want to quote part of today’s entry here:

I want to exhort you not to become preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance. In fact, I will risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised and preoccupied with such things as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal…What is plain concerning this matter of the star is that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship…So the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him.

I like the idea that I don’t have to try to wrap my mind around the miracles of the Bible. Partly, I suppose, because they are miracles and, by definition, are not understandable. But there is a great overriding message in the Bible that you are moving history forward regardless of the mistakes we make along the way.

And I was just reminded in my thoughts that I am so small. I am literally 1/7,000,000,000 of the earth’s human population right now. You, on the other hand, are the only God, and you are amazing. You are simply amazing. And you’ve done amazing things. The coming incarnation of Jesus is the pivotal moment in our human history. Amazing. The grace you give us through Jesus is amazing.

That leads me to a thought my wife gave me yesterday morning. She was talking about controlled burns as part of land management. There were huge grass fires in the Texas panhandle a few years ago, and they were destructive because they were not controlled, but the results were still amazing. Streams appeared that hadn’t been there before. New plants grew. We talked about how that is like what repenting before Jesus is like, but controlled. When the alcoholic or addict of some sort hits bottom, sometimes it can be like an uncontrolled burn that destroys a lot, but if they find help at the bottom. If they find a higher power. If they find you, then you can help them restore what was burned. But for the person who is convicted and invites you in for a controlled burn of their heart. For you to burn away the chaff. To search our hearts and cleanse the clutter. Well, streams of living water will start to flow that we had no idea were even there.

Father, these magi didn’t know what they were doing back then. They just knew they needed to act and so they did. I’m sure their conversation was interesting as they left for Jerusalem. They didn’t know what they would find. I’ll pray later about what their conversation must have been like as they left for home, but for now, I will just sit with them in their ignorant compulsion to seek you out.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 8, 2024 in Advent 2024, Matthew

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 6

06 Dec

8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:8-15

Dear God, I just read Piper’s commentary on verses 12-14, the ones on which he focused today’s entry and which I highlighted above. He leaned into the “peace” the angel promised. He noted the angel did not offer peace to the whole world. It was peace for those with whom God is pleased. Of course, I talk about peace a lot in reference to the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22. Of the nine fruits Paul lists there, I feel like peace is the one I cannot fake or will myself to. Peace only comes from you.

For me, when I read this story, I wonder why these guys? Why go to them at all? They weren’t told to do anything. They weren’t told to go check Jesus out. They were just told about him. Were they the only ones the angel(s) appeared to that night? Are they just the only ones who went and told Mary and Joseph about it so it go recorded later by Luke. If they had just gone back to sleep, we’d never have known about this angel visit.

I like the idea that these guys were part of a bigger plan on your part. They were no threat to anyone, including Mary and Joseph, so they wouldn’t try to take the baby away from them like other more prominent people might have tried to do. And they were a source of encouragement to Mary and Joseph as they sat there in the place where Jesus was born, trying to make sense of their lives. They didn’t know it, and they probably never knew it, but you used them to bless Mary and Joseph that night because, in my opinion, they needed a little encouragement and a little blessing.

Father, use me today. Love others through me today. Help me to understand exactly what you have for me to do in the lives of everyone I encounter, including the donors I write letters to. I will be spending time with family later. Help me to be exactly what you need them to have from me. Love them well through me. Be glorified through me. Make me a servant to them.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 6, 2024 in Advent 2024, Luke

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 4

04 Dec

2 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

Luke 2:1-5

Dear God, I like that John Piper paused here before Jesus was born just to spend a little time with Mary and Joseph before Jesus was physically in their presence.

I remember the time before our first son was born. There was so much anticipation. I told my wife over and over again, “I just can’t wait to meet him.” He was so close and yet so far. I can’t imagine what Mary’s and Joseph’s anticipation was like. What would it be like to meet your son? The Messiah? Sure, they didn’t understand the purpose of his incarnation, but they understood who he was. What would he look like? Would he glow? How would they raise him? What were their responsibilities in educating him? So many questions for this young couple.

And then there might have been doubts–at least on Joseph’s part. Did he really hear the angel right? He had been asleep after all. Was it just a dream? Was he being played by Mary? I would have doubted if I had been him.

So they traveled to Bethlehem as a newly married couple and found a place to live for the short-term. Where was that? I have imagined it was a camp for the others like them on the edge of town. They were poor. They probably couldn’t afford regular lodging. Well, we know they couldn’t because we will find out later that while they were there and Joseph tried to find a reasonable place for her to give birth there was nothing available. So they had to use the unreasonable. Their tent with a manger brought in as a crib? Maybe. Maybe it was in a barn, but that seems like a weird choice given their options. Either way, they were solving problems as a couple for the first time. They were ignorant. They had no idea what they had gotten into or what was ahead of them. They just knew they were seemingly part of something extraordinary.

How does this apply to my life? Well, I remember the ignorance of that time in my life. Thinking back on it reminds me that I am still ignorant. I think I know so much, but I don’t. I don’t know what you are doing right now. I look around my life, and I celebrate a lot of it, but there are parts I lament as well. I don’t know how it all fits together. I don’t know what you are doing in my little, insignificant life that is just one of over 6 billion in this world right now. What this story about Mary and Joseph makes me think about this morning is that it was okay that they were ignorant, and it is okay that I am ignorant now. I don’t have to know what is going on. They didn’t either. They just had to be faithful. I just have to be faithful. What is it you have me to do today?

Father, I give this day to you. Love through me. Live through me. Heal me and those I love from our sorrow. Comfort us. Let your truth reign. Bring to light what is hidden so that we might all be healed, and then take that healing and offer it to others who need the healed version of us. But I also want to thank you for how you are not wasting this pain. Thank you for using it to shape me into something that is more humble, compassionate, and loving.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 4, 2024 in Advent 2024, Luke

 

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Matthew 8:5-13

02 Dec

5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, 6 “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

7 Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

8 But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! 11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

Matthew 8:5-13

Dear God, I was reading something from Tony Campolo yesterday out of Red Letter Revolution: What if Jesus Really Meant what He Said? about Jesus being your presences among us. You are the God of the Old Testament, triaging the continual mistakes of the Israelites, but when Jesus showed up, he showed us who you really are. You are loving and compassionate, but you also do not suffer hypocrisy. This story is an example. When this powerful human approached you, he found a God who respected and appreciated his humility and faith. You also, I think, liked the fact that he was there out of compassion for his servant (slave?) and not for himself.

My wife and I were talking while we drove to family for Thanksgiving, and while we were talking about you I mentioned to her that I know you are good and loving because the closer I get to you the more loving and compassionate, without judgment, I find myself being. You put on skin. You didn’t only show up to live and be a sacrifice, but you shared through our own paradigm of life through a human life lived what your nature is. You are amazing. You are good. I’m so grateful for a God who loves and forgives.

Father, thank you that you have as much compassion on me this morning as you had through Jesus’s earthly body on that centurion 2,000 years ago. I am grateful for your love. Help me to share that love with others.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 2, 2024 in Matthew

 

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“It’s a Quest…For God.”

01 Dec

Dear God, I want to quote the movie Jesus Revolution. I was thinking about it this morning after I just saw a headline on my news feed from a reddit thread called “Am I the A*****?” It’s a place online where people bring their anger and hatred and look for redemption and affirmation among others who are angry and bitter. For some reason, when I saw it I thought back to this scene in Jesus Revolution. This is just a little clip, but it doesn’t have everything I was looking for. It cuts off just a little too soon:

Lonnie Frisbee is talking to Chuck Smith, the more traditional pastor. He’s explaining the hippies to Chuck:

“It reminds me of the words of Jesus: ‘To what then can I compare this generation? What are they like?’

“I was up in San Francisco for long time, living in in Haight Ashbury. In the Streets. All over. Man, we did everything and everyone. But that was the point. You see, the drugs. It’s a quest…For God.”

I look around me now as I enter this season of advent and I see people putting their faith in so many things. It might not be drugs. It might be a politician or political power. It might be money. It might be sex. And those idols start to let them down so they get angry. They get so angry. That’s what it feels like to me right now. It feels like I see so many people who are angry, and they are looking for you. They just don’t know they are looking for you.

My wife and I were talking yesterday about different forms of prosperity gospel. Some are more obvious and some more subtle. The more obvious ones say, “Do X and God will give you success.” Usually money. The more subtle ones will tell you that there is a formula for a successful life. This is one I bought into for a while until I was disillusioned. I was worshipping you, but I expected you to deliver me the family life I wanted. I wasn’t as focused on career, but I had an ideal of what a family could and should be, and I was incredibly disappointed in you when it didn’t turn out that way.

Of course, the reaction to an idol that disappoints us isn’t always anger. It can be depression too. Isn’t it interesting that more people in developed countries need antidepressants than those who live in undeveloped nations? We have everything at our fingertips while the person in the undeveloped nation has to struggle for something as basic as clean water. And yet we are the ones who suffer from anxiety at a higher rate. My uneducated guess is that they simply don’t have time to worry. They just struggle. It’s also interesting that those are the areas of the world where your church is growing. I know I always grow more when I am struggling.

So now I am waiting on Jesus during this season of Advent. I feel like I should maybe be doing something special here like I did with Lent. I’m not sure what that is, however. I have a devotion on the way that I will see if it helps. That’s what I did for Lent. But I know I want to continue to root out my own idols, expose them, reject them, and banish them. I want to be at peace with the path you have for me. I want to be willing to risk everything for you. Not my family, of course, because they are your highest calling to me. But if doing what you want me to do costs me reputation, money, comfort, security, etc., then I want to be willing to put that on the table. Thoughtfully. Prayerfully. Intentionally. I want to do exactly what you want me to do. Use the next 25 days to transform me into the next step of who you want me to be.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 1, 2024 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Matthew 4:18-22

30 Nov

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.

Dear God, I’m in a hurry this morning, but I have to start my day this way before I go. I have to touch hands with you. Touch hearts with you. Touch minds with you. Touch my soul to you. I have to be reminded that your Holy Spirit is with me right now. I have to start from this perspective before I get going. So here I am. I’m here to stop for at least a few moments to acknowledge you are my God. You are everything.

And now, Father, send me into this world. Following my prayer yesterday, make me a fisher of men. Help me to offer them Jesus. And it’s the Jesus that’s not the lesser of two evils, but the Jesus who loves me and offers me life. If I lose my life for him, I will gain it. If my neighbor loses their life for you, they will gain it (Matthew 10:39). Help me to take that message with me as I go through this day. And cover my wife and me, please, angels of the Lord.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on November 30, 2024 in Matthew

 

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Revelation 14:14-20

26 Nov

14 Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

15 Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.” 16 So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.

17 After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar. He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are ripe for judgment.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.

Revelation 14:14-20

Dear God, the harvest is the end of the world. That’s actually the name of a song by Charlie Peacock that I just thought of as I started to write this: “The Harvest is the End of the World.”

This song doesn’t necessarily line up with this specific passage, but it includes angels with their sickles so it’s at least adjacent to this passage. My wife and I gravitated to this song because it came out a year after our miscarriage and right when our son was born. As we thought about the daughter we lost and the son we were gaining, this part of the song really struck us:

I see angels in the distance
In the distance, I see angels
And their shadows fall
Like crosses on the fields
Some are swinging low the sickles
Some are binding up the sheaves
Some are sifting out the harvest yield

Rachel, run to join the angels
In the harvest in the distance
Rising from your bed as from a dream
In the feint and splintered line
Where the wheat field meets the sky
You might find your sorrow made complete

To quote another song, “Lord, I don’t know where all this is going or how it all turns out. Lead me to peace that passes understanding. A peace beyond all doubt.” I have concerns. I have sorrows. I have things that burden me. Help me to lean on you as part of this. Help me to trust you when it seems like things are going in ways I do not like. Help me to turn loose of my idols and look to you as my only source of peace and comfort. Help me to repent when I need to repent, serve when I need to serve, and listen when I need to listen. Help me to worship you well throughout my entire being. Then I will let the end of the world happen as you have ordained it and go through whatever you’ve decided I must go through.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2024 in Hymns and Songs, Revelation

 

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Luke 20:27-40

23 Nov

27 Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. 28 They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.[c] 29 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. 30 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died. 31 Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, who died without children. 32 Finally, the woman also died. 33 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!”

34 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth. 35 But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. 36 And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection.

37 “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.”

39 “Well said, Teacher!” remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there. 40 And then no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Luke 20:27-40

Dear God, I really love my wife. I mean, she is unbelievably important to me. I enjoy her. I like her. I cannot imagine life without her. After 35 years of knowing each other, we still spend huge amounts of time talking and sharing with each other. And it breaks my heart to know that the odds are that one of us will die before the other. So I am one of those who would want to know what our relationship will be like on the other side of our earthly existence. Will she be my wife in your kingdom? The idea that she won’t disappoints me a little. But then I read passages like the one I did a couple of days ago in Revelation 4, about the 24 elders worshipping you and I think, “Of course! Anything I know now won’t even be enough to pale in comparison to what I know then! She will be there, but our existence will be on a completely different level than I can comprehend.”

So that leads me to the trap of getting distracted by tomorrow. I start to get defensive about the things that I like about my life and try to protect them from ending instead of staying in the moment. What you have for me is completely different than what the world has for me. What you have for me in this moment might be compromised by my desire to preserve what I think I want in the next moment. I make decisions out of self-preservation all of the time. And sometimes, they might get in the way of what you want me to do.

I was watching a movie last night, and I watched characters take principled stands against injustice. It is possible that I might be asked to take a principled stand against injustice one day soon that will cost me. Am I willing to pay that price? Do I truly consider my life worth nothing to me (Act 20:24)?

Father, I don’t know where all of this is going or how it all works out. I don’t know when you might need me to stand up for others and sacrifice myself in the process. And I don’t know what that sacrifice looks like. But I know that you are so–and I mean SO–much more than I can imagine or my situations. You are SO much more than my earthly or even eternal life. You are God. I don’t need to be equal to you. I don’t have any standing to even ask anything of you, much less demand anything. I am grateful for what I have in this moment. I am sad about the things I want that I don’t have, but I will not let that sadness or disappointment keep me from recognizing you, worshipping you, and offering all that I am for all that you are.

I offer this feeble, humble prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on November 23, 2024 in Luke

 

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Luke 19:41-44

21 Nov

41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

Luke 19:41-44

Dear God, I wonder how things would have been different if they had recognized the time of your visitation. What if everyone had gotten on board. The Pharisees. The priests. The Levites. The common people. What if the disciples, even, had really understood what you were teaching them? What would that have looked like?

Sometimes, I think we are trying to answer that question as the church today, and different churches are coming up with different answers. Some churches want to forcibly bring your kingdom upon the earth, which I perceive is the mistake the Pharisees of the time were making. Some are silent and just quietly worship you without bothering anyone. Those churches are largely dying from old age and attrition. Some are screaming for justice, which is a legitimate cry because there is so much injustice, but it might also distract them from considering their lives worth nothing to them (see Acts 20:24). And then I do believe there are a few churches that are literally doing what they can to follow the radical teachings of Jesus. They love their neighbors. The meet needs. They worship you. They forgive. The eschew hate and lust. They consider the lilies and don’t worry. They give freely of their time and money.

What would it be like if every church in the world, or even in our community, really lived out the Sermon on the Mount? How would we be helping parents raise their children? How would we be helping the school? How would we be working with the prisoners and the courts? How would we be worshipping you so purely and letting your Spirit and its fruit grow so much within us that we would be a beacon that attracts others?

As for me, if I lean toward any of these categories on a personal level, it is probably the kind that silently and quietly worships you. Yes, I volunteer for some things. Yes, I donate to some things. Yes, I talk to those around me about my faith and how I’m living it out. But I’m not really leading people to you. I’m not teaching worship of you. I’m not teaching the fruits that grow from loving you and loving our neighbors.

Father, it was impossible for the people of Jesus’s time to recognize your visitation because 1.) they weren’t ready for that kind of humility and 2.) it wouldn’t have worked with your plan. Maybe that’s one reason you chose that time and place. And it can be hard now to understand what we would do differently if this were the time of your visitation. Would we put you on cable news and have you lead us to power? Would we reject you for your humility when you refused to do it? Yes and yes. But I worship you, now. I thank you now. Help me to love, forgive, serve, and worship well today. And help me to share that faith with others so that they might develop closer relationships with you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on November 21, 2024 in Luke

 

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