Break it down

I was reading Luke 23:44-46 the other day and I came away with some new thoughts.  This passage takes place when Jesus is on the cross, he has been there for a few hours and it says that darkness took over the whole land.  In fact, the sun stopped shining.  Some of Jesus’ followers were there watching him die.  Then, the curtain in the Temple tore in half.  Everything these people could hold onto, in any way, shape, form and fashion, was breaking down.  What did they have to look forward to?  Where was any sense of hope?

In our lives, sometimes it can seem like everything thing has broken down.  Nothing is in place as it should be.  I think those are times when God can move powerfully or times when we can grow disheartened and give up.  When everything falls apart, do we embrace change and what God might be doing through that change or do we turn our heads and hide?  Do we fear the worst has taken place?  God might need to shake us up to do what he ultimately desires and what is ultimately best for us.  I want to be open to that.

Radical

I have been reading a paragraph from the book of Luke each day for about 3 months now.  Last year, I read through the Bible in a little over 90 days and that was awesome, but I wanted to study Jesus in depth, soaking on each word he had to say.  Today I came to Luke 13:10-17 and I came away with this one thought: Jesus was a radical!

Jesus was a radical.  He didn’t function as this nice guy around all of the people that were supposed to be churched and had it all together.  He was a radical.  Sometimes, it can read like he did things to make the religious people mad.  Really, he was just doing what was right and by him doing the things that were right, it ticked people off because it made them look and feel bad.  Why did it make them feel bad?  Because THEIR HEARTS WERE IN THE WRONG PLACE.  Their faith had become all about them and how close they could seemingly get to God.  Jesus sought out the last, the least, and the lost at all costs, regardless of whether or not it was the socially acceptable thing to do and when he did that, he did it solely out of love for those people.  Because he did that, the religious people got mad.  He came to serve.  The religious people had no idea of service, it was all about them.  They were just consumers of religious information.  Jesus didn’t necessarily target the religious people or try to make them mad.  He made them mad when he focused on actually DOING something for those that were unfamiliar with God, those that were in need.

How many times are we focused on the last, the least, and the lost?  How many times are we only focused on consuming religious information ourselves and we could care less about others?  How often are we out just to make people mad?  These were questions I came away with from my reading about the radical Jesus, the one I want to get to know better.

Thoughts?

Steady

Have you ever tried to walk on a tight rope or tried to balance on something with one foot?  It’s really hard (even for people with short legs)!  I think we feel that in life sometimes, like it is hard to be in all the places we need to be or keep up with all the things we have to do.  Work, school, friendships, sports, basket-weaving…ok, so maybe not the basket-weaving, but you see what I mean.  We have a lot grabbing for our attention.

In the same way, we have a lot of things grabbing at our character, things that try to reach in and grab our attention.  Maybe we have opportunities to lie about someone or lie to our parents, maybe opportunities present themselves to engage in things we know are harmful for us.  Whatever the case may be, it’s hard to stay focused, to walk on level ground where choices are simple.

People in the Bible knew this tension and we can see that in Psalm 143:10, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”  I pray that God becomes real to you as you try to keep on level ground in every area of life.