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Tag Archives: Matthew

Emails to God – Was Jesus Good With Kids? (Matthew 19:13-15)

20 Mar

13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Dear God, I wonder if Jesus was good with children. We always get this picture that artists have rendered of Jesus sitting under a tree with children in his lap and him smiling at or laughing with them. But would that really have been the case? Maybe. But, as a father who is trying to make his way through parenting teens, I would love to have seen Jesus in action as a father of a teen. What would Jesus’ son have looked like? What about his daughter? How would they have acted and responded to his authority. More importantly, how would he have imposed his authority upon them?

I suppose the best example of this that we have is the idea of you as our father and how you respond to us. The problem I have with this is that I think you give us too little structure and too much freedom. I can see that model working if my kids are adults and gone and having to live on their own. But right now, by your power and grace, I am trying to raise them and train them into adults who will be able to live successful lives that are willingly submitted to you. Basically, I don’t believe I can give them the freedom as children that you give us as adults, and if I can’t give them that freedom then where do I draw the line?

Father, being a parent is the hardest thing I have ever done, bar none. Nothing has been more complicated and challenging. I really thought I would be better at it, but you have seemingly used it to humble me and bring me to my knees before you. I was in church Sunday and I missed the first half of the service. I was just praying. I was asking for parental unity between my wife and me. I was asking for you to raise up voices in my children’s lives that will draw them into you. I was asking that you give me wisdom as I raise them. I was asking that you parent them through me. I was asking that you continue to purge any of the sin in my own life that might be impacting them and their lives. Those were my prayers then and they are my prayers now. Please do this. I cannot do it on my own. I need to rely on and rest in you.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Marriage, Divorce, & Celibacy (Matthew 19:1-12)

19 Mar

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Dear God, there is so much here. I’m not even sure where to begin. I guess I’ll just do it from my perspective which nullifies the idea that I can be alone. One, I have already married a woman (for nearly 20 years), and I know I wasn’t designed to be one “who can accept” the idea of being alone. So taking that off of the table, and the debate over whether or not priests can marry and if this is something that this passage suggests, I want to go back to the part about divorce.

I am the product of a second marriage, for which I am grateful. Frankly, I have learned something about the Catholic process of annulment, and it seems to me that my mother’s first marriage would pretty easily qualify. I know that my dad has always struggled with these verses and the idea that he married a divorced woman, but the circumstances under which my mother was divorced were unique and I think okay from that perspective (I’ll keep her personal life her own and not share any details on the blog here).

I happened to sit through a session this year on Catholic annulment, and while some Protestants might think of it as a loophole through which Catholics jump to “legalize” a divorce, I came to appreciate it as more than that. I heard the testimony of a couple of people who have been through or are going through the process, and they say that it is gut-wrenching. The Church will tell you that it is about establishing whether or not the original vows were legitimate because they were or were not fully understood by both parties taking them. My opinion came to be that if divorce is the process of man separating what you have joined together, then annulment is the process of you separating it.

Father, I have to say, I knew what my vows were and what my commitment was. I have no regrets. Is it hard? Sure. Do we disagree sometimes? Yes. But I truly love her and I want the best for her. I am committed to being your best for her regardless of what that costs me. Lately, I think we have both been frustrated over a couple of issues, and with each other in the process. But you are among us and we trust you to guide us through it. I simply pray that you will unite us together and protect us from influences that might conspire to try and tear us apart.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Me Forgive Them? (Matthew 18:21-35)

17 Mar

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[g]

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Dear God, does being resentful mean unforgiveness? There is one person in my life who hurt me a few years ago. They are the person who comes to mind whenever I ask myself if there is anyone I haven’t forgiven. This person did something that I felt betrayed me for their own selfish gain. I am publicly nice to them. I don’t trash the person to other people. But at the same time the hurt that they caused me is still there. If I see them in public I don’t want to talk with them. I don’t think I would go out of my way to help them unless it was something they really needed. But I don’t know if that means unforgiveness.

I guess I need to figure out what it means to forgive. Does it really mean to send something away from myself as far as the east is from the west? I know women who are victims of sexual abuse. What does forgiveness look like for them? How does one really turn loose of that kind of pain (for the record, what was done to me is nothing compared to something like sexual abuse)? In order to forgive us, you had to sacrifice your own son and look at us through his pure and holy death. You don’t see me alone, but me through Him. I don’t have that luxury.

Father, I don’t want to disappoint you because of my inability to adequately forgive someone. Please show me what it means to love my enemies. Please show me what it means to truly forgive. If Judas had lived, I wonder how the disciples would have dealt with their bitterness towards him. Could they have seen, in retrospect, that Jesus needed to die to fulfill the plan, or would they have seen that Jesus needed to die, but Judas didn’t have to betray him to make it happen, and therefore had a hard time forgiving him? I don’t know. But I know that I still resent this person, and if it is holding me back from receiving more of you or any of your forgiveness, then I will work on it. I will pay attention to it. I will strive to completely forgive.

 
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Posted by on March 17, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Agreeing with My Wife (Matthew 18:18-20)

15 Mar

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Dear God, I find it interesting to see all of the areas of life where this passage applies. Agreement between believers is huge and it is powerful. I am seeing it in my own family right now.

For probably a couple of years now my wife and I have not agreed on a key issue in our marriage. We have been married almost 20 years, and it has been a great marriage. But I have felt this disagreement slowly tearing strands of our relationship apart. She has felt that she couldn’t trust me in this one area, and I have felt like I couldn’t trust her in the same area. But lately, in fact, just this morning, we abruptly got on the same page. They say that every alcoholic has to bottom out before they will get help. Well, I think we needed to bottom out before we come to agreement on how to manage this one aspect of our lives. While there is some difficulty ahead as we forge this path together, I actually feel more relief and hope now than I did even two hours ago.

Father, help me to be the husband my wife needs me to be—the husband you need for her to have. Help me to be the father you need for my children to have. I have so much to learn, and I make so many mistakes. My wife would tell you (and I’m sure she does because she is a beautifully faithful woman) that she makes mistakes too. But the beauty in her and, I hope, in me is that we are willing to repent and turn from our mistakes. Help me to do that. Help her to do that. And help us to train our children to be able to do that.

 
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Posted by on March 15, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Sharing Information So We Can Pray About It (a.k.a. Gossiping) (Matthew 18:15-17)

14 Mar

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Dear God, I think I’d just rather gossip about the person doing the wrong thing than confront them with it. That’s the truth. When I read this passage my default church mind, full of the platitudes I have heard my whole life, agrees and says, “Of course, that is what I should do. And that is what I do because I believe in this teaching.” But then when I stop and think of examples in my own life when I have come across someone who I think is doing the wrong thing, what are the actions I have taken in those situations? As near as I can tell, I usually don’t confront them, but I might just point out their flaw to someone else. Really, don’t most of us do that?

One of the sayings I love is that Christians don’t gossip. We just share information so we can pray about it. The other wonder saying we use here in the South is, “Well, bless their heart, they just shouldn’t be doing [this, that, or the other].”

So what would it look like if actually refrained from gossiping, but followed Jesus’ admonition here? How could I better be a constructive confronter and not a gossiper? How would it change my life and how others see me if I never talked negatively about anyone, but only took my negative thoughts to the person if I deemed it important enough to do so?

Father, this is a good word for me. It is a good reminder that I need to really watch my tongue and also allow myself to be more confrontational for the sake of those I know and love. So help me to do this. Help me to glorify you. Help me to be the kind of person that people will respect enough so that you can speak to them through me. Help me to confront constructively. And speak to me through others as well. I am sure there are things about me that people see and feel are wrong. Help me to hear you through them.

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Wandering Children (Matthew 18:10-14)

12 Mar

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. [11]

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Dear God, I have to say that I have always really liked this story. It is nice to be one of your children, and it is nice to know that you will come looking for me if I wander off. Of course, if I wander off, you will also let me live with some of the results of the mistakes I make while I am gone.

As a dad of teenagers, I can understand this concept. When they were in grade school it was easy to keep my eye on them and know that they were safe. Now that they are teenagers, however, it is harder to know. I have to let them wander a little. I am blessed in that neither of my kids has wandered too far or done anything that makes me fear, but I can easily see that fear sitting over my shoulder, waiting to grip me. So there are a couple of lessons here. First, it is okay to give your children age-appropriate freedom to live their lives and wander a bit, but, second, it is also important to go after and look for them if they wander too far.

Father, I don’t know how you do it. I have felt rejection as a father, but it is nothing compared with the rejection you feel as our father. I even reject you far too often, and make foolish decisions that must just frustrate you to no end. But you are merciful to me. You are kind to me. You love me. Help me to do the same for my children. And please forgive me for the frustrations that I cause you and those I love.

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Do I Cause These Little Ones to Stumble? (Matthew 18:6-9)

09 Mar

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Dear God, part of me wants to explore the idea of how literal Jesus was being in verses eight and nine, but I think I’m going to leave that one alone. Too complicated.

I am interested, however, in the idea of not being the cause of others to stumble. I was talking with a man yesterday who is leading a “new member class” for a given denomination. I’ve been in the class since September and I’ve decided that I’m not going to join simply because there are a couple theological issues in the way. That and, frankly, they want me to make a life-long commitment to this denomination and I’m not prepared to commit my life to any church or denomination for the rest of my life. But as the man and I talked and I brought up a couple of the theological differences he said that he wished I would have brought them up during the class so that we can discuss them. I told him I had no desire to do that because it didn’t matter to me if they disagreed with me or not and I didn’t want to plant any seeds of doubt in those going through the class. The theological differences don’t imperil the soul so they just aren’t important. I could tell he was frustrated with my answer, but it really was true.

I think one of the harder things to do is to decide how to best advise others when they are in crisis. My temptation is to give them guidance and direction. But what if my guidance and advice is wrong. I have another friend whose wife is going through a hard time. This friend is serving you in a very sacrificial and faithful way. There is a part of me that thinks that his service to you, though admirable, is asking too much of her. But I don’t dare advise him to change his service to you. I would NOT want to advise him in a way that is contradictory to your call to him. So I have done my best to just share my own life with him, invite him to share his with me, and then pray that you will guide him as he figures out how to minister to his wife.

Father, please keep me from feeling like I have to have the answers for everyone around me. Help me to lovingly support others while learning to be your words and hands to them. I don’t want to be a bad example to anyone with my personal actions, and I don’t want to be a bad advisor to someone with foolish words that are not of you. And as far as my eyes, hands, feet, and whatever else gets me in trouble goes, please be merciful to me as I don’t have the courage to disavow them.

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – How Much do I Think God Can Do? (Matthew 17:24-27)

07 Mar

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

26 “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Dear God, the first thing I thought when I heard this story was, “Wow, Jesus is really feeling it now.” What I mean by that is that, after the transfiguration he is seemingly really feeling how much power he really has. I like how he addresses Peter’s issue on taxes before Peter even says anything. Then he tells Peter where to find some gold, and it is in a most unlikely place. It doesn’t say what Peter found when he caught the fish, but I would venture to say that they wouldn’t have told the story if it didn’t work out.

I am thinking there is a lot of power that you have available to me, as your child, that I don’t even come close to scratching the surface of. There is power available for all of the challenges that I see around me. I just need to change my paradigm of what I expect from you. I have my nice little safe Christian version of what I expect from you, and I rarely really tap into your power. And I have to tell you, when I do I am always blown away by what you do.

Father, I want to spend this day focusing on a few issues that are in my life. I want to tap your power in these areas. One is our big issue at work. The other is my mother’s health. I have concerns about me as a parent. I have concerns about me as a husband. I also know we have some patients at work that really need your intervention. And there is my wife’s faith journey. I will dedicate this day to lifting all of these issues up to you. I need your power. I need you to move. And I want to be able to look at all of these things and see how you moved.

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Prophecy & Encouragement (Matthew 17:22-23)

06 Mar

22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Dear God, sometimes you keep us on a need-to-know basis (for our own good), and sometimes the path becomes apparent. But I go back to what my dad said once about prophecy. He said, “Prophecy isn’t as much about us knowing the future now, but about us knowing that God is in control as the future unveils itself.” In this case, Jesus was doing his best to let the disciples know what was going to happen so that they would have some string of hope to hold onto after he was killed.

As for Jesus, I am sure that his time with Elijah and Moses in the Transfiguration plays into this somehow. Were they confirming for him that what he felt was going to happen was really going to happen? Or were they just encouraging him as he faced the last lap of his earthly life? I have a feeling that Jesus knew what was going to happen so he didn’t need that confirmed. I think that God allowed Jesus to spend some time with Moses and Elijah so that Jesus could feel their encouragement.

There are times when you send me encouragement. I talked about it yesterday. There was another time, almost exactly a year ago, when I was concerned about an aspect of my marriage. My wife and I were worshipping at different churches because I had a mental barrier regarding going to the denomination she attended. She had started going there, and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Thankfully, I was having breakfast with a friend on Friday morning and I was telling him about how I was feeling a distance between my wife and me. His admonishment to me was that I needed to “suck it up and go to church with my wife.” That was excellent advice. I followed it, and we have been attending together ever since. That whole experience taught me the importance of not only worshipping with my wife but also having someone in my life besides her who you can use to encourage and advise me.

Father, help me to hear your words through others. Give me the words for others and speak to them through me. I found out late yesterday about a man who passed away over the weekend. He was a patient at our clinic who we sent to specialists, but eventually advised to go on hospice. I feel bad for his family. I feel like I should find a way to reach out to them today, but I’m not sure what to do. I hope that you will provide them comfort and direction. Help them to feel your love for them and draw them into you through this experience.

 
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Posted by on March 6, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – When Life Just Feels Bigger Than You (Matthew 17:1-13)

01 Mar

1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Dear God, it can be so hard to understand what is going on around us at any given time. The stories of two different people come to mind.

The first is a news story I watched this morning about a man who moved to The Sudan with Samaritan’s Purse nine years ago. Now, Samaritan’s Purse has evacuated and he resigned from the organization so that he can stay. He married a local woman and can’t stand the thought of abandoning these people to war while he retreats to the safety of the United States. I admire this man’s convictions, love, and loyalty. I wonder how much of what you are doing in his life he really understands. I’m not saying he isn’t doing your will. I’m sure he is. I’m just saying that life must seem so much bigger than he can handle sometimes.

Then there is a friend who is a missionary overseas. I received a newsletter from him and his wife last night. Frankly, his wife, in the article she wrote, seems depressed. I don’t think she likes the city where they live and I think that other aspects of her life are overwhelming her. Raising her children. Supporting her husband. Missing her family. A lack of ability to use her own gifts. It feels like it is too much. She is trying to make sense of it. In her article, she says that she is seeking you and what you have for her in this time. She doesn’t use these words, but, reading between the lines, she seems to be crying out to you and begging you to get her through this.

Verses 10-13 make me think of all of this because the disciples had a lot of stuff going on around them that they didn’t and couldn’t understand. There is no way they could grasp the scope of what was happening. They didn’t realize that they were part of a plan that would launch your plan for the whole world for thousands of years. They didn’t realize that I would be reading about them thousands of years later. They didn’t realize that there would be churches all over the world named after them. It was just too big for them to understand.

Father, I pray for both of the people I mentioned above. For this man that I do not know, use him to end the war in The Sudan. Love him and his family. Comfort them. Protect them. But please use him. Do not let his sacrifice be in vain. I also pray for my friend and his wife. I am sure that he feels as helpless to help his wife as she feels to help herself. Give them guidance and counsel. Help them to emerge from this in a way that makes them stronger with you and more fulfilled in their lives. Unite them together and protect their marriage. Give them hope.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2012 in Matthew

 

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