It's tempting...

What is your greatest temptation? What was it for Jesus....power? Avoidance of death and the future that he was moving towards?

We are challenged today in a simple and profound way...resist temptation and it will flee from you. (James 4:7) See how it works today....let's do it together. When we face temptation we will be conscious in our resisting the devil.

*Join me in this day in praying for all of the others that read this blog and will make a choice to resist the evil that faces them.

To do Nothing

We talked about it at Bible Study last night...the fact that Pilate has become a villain...and yet he wasn't the only one involved in the death of Christ...the Jewish leaders certainly played their part as well.

What really was Pilate's sin? He obviously doesn't want to find Jesus guilty...he gives the crowd another choice in Barrabas, he continues to try to release Jesus, but he eventually gives in to the crowd, to those pressuring him, and even to his position. He does what his is supposed to do, according to his position. However....

It's a challenge, isn't it, to live outside of the opinion of others. And yet, to follow Christ and to accomplish our purpose in life we will need to do just that. Let's face it, we can't make everyone happy all of the time. It just isn't humanly possible! Instead of focusing our moral compass on those around us and their opinions (however good or not so good those opinions might be) it is infinitely better to focus on the opinion and teachings of Christ, as we understand them to apply to ourselves and our own situations. It is also a worthy challenge not to impose our judgments on those around us, as the pharisees did, but to understand that we are on a journey together and we are meant to love one another...to care for one another, not to tear each other apart but to lift one another up.

*Who can you encourage in this day? Don't let the sun go down without doing just that!!!! Go...NOW...encourage someone that needs you!!!!!

Fair is fair...right???

It only seems right....Jesus, we are working really hard for you...SO.....we want you to do anything we ask of you...just give us this one wish. In other words...we scratch your back and you scratch ours....

But, thank goodness, that's not how it works. The justice and mercy of God are not like ours. So often we see things in columns...you do this, I do this. You get this, I get this. It is all really on the surface. It doesn't take into account the whole person, the circumstances, the past, the present, the future...and it certainly doesn't reflect our ability to forgive and move on after someone has made a mistake. And when we look at things that way we become so focused on others...what THEY have or don't have...who THEY are, what THEY do....it's quite childish, actually. We expect children to act in this way, but part of our job as parents is to help our children understand that it's not for us to constantly compare ourselves and our possessions with others. We are to move beyond this behavior into a more mature form of communication, which takes into account many factors in processing information and relationships.

In essence, we are to become more Godly. Imagine that?! My prayer for us, for all of us, is that we will stop focusing on others and what they do and don't do, what they have and what we don't have...and be intentional about our own journey.

May we all be filled to overflowing today with God's grace, so much so that it splashes out of us and gets others wet!

In the Middle

I'm not sure where or who the quote comes from...but I've appreciated it.

"The truth is in the middle."

Have you ever heard that before? Jesus tells Thomas that those who believe and haven't seen are blessed. So, when we act on faith, we take leaps towards believing the unseen, we are blessed. However, I also believe that we are to engage our thinking minds as well. Jesus lived a life of discipline and study, he knew the texts of the Hebrew Bible, he went to the temple with his family...and then on his own! In this I see value, too.

So, when we hear of Thomas engaging his logic...of getting the wrap "Doubting Thomas"...we might scoff at him, but I think our lives should be made up of a balance of knowledge and faith. I believe in the unseen, but I also attempt to take time to understand what is visible, as well. I believe that the truth is in the middle.

*Would you ever name yourself as a "Doubting Thomas"?

To Live

I was in college when I learned the word "vivir". It's the Spanish word that means "to live". I remember after learning it in Spanish class that I kept using it in sentences...of course mixing Spanish and English because I am certainly not bilingual! Now, some 20 plus years later, I still love that word!!! It is so filled with energy, I'm not sure if it's the v sounds mixed w/ the trill of the r....but it makes me smile and want to move around..to get excited even.

Can you imagine what the women at the well must have experienced when she encountered Jesus? She is doing what she needs to do to exist...get water. She goes in mid-day, perhaps to avoid others so she doesn't face their judgments of her and her multiple husbands, and now the man that she is with but not married to. She is expecting her social status as a women, her past, her present, even the town and culture that she comes from to be a repellent for Jesus. However, he flips all of that around...and offers to her LIVING water. She encounters Jesus and he offers her a chance to move from merely surviving/existing to being ALIVE. He offers her a chance VIVIR (to live!).

*Have you experienced being alive in Christ "vivir"?
*Is there anyone in your life today who needs to hear the good news of Christ, that we can move from merely existing to being fully alive?

I hope your day today is filled with the sense of "vivir"!

Sight

We saw the movie "Shutter Island" last night. Yikes! It was so intense...and in some parts so very, very sad. It was interesting...when we came out of the theater I felt sort of dizzy, my perception was off just a bit. Because the main character in the movie has such a shift, or at least a perceived shift, in how he sees his reality, I was really shaken by that and felt kind of...well...creepy. (That's my technical/ professional, diagnosis!)

Jesus says to the Pharisees “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

It reminds me of a riddle, but more likely is reminiscent of the teachings of great philosophers, a turn of phrase and thought meant to make the listener pause and reflect, agree or disagree, and then mount a rebuttable or counter-argument. The section that grabs my attention is that Jesus came into this world so that those who do not see may see.

In a way I have felt that my whole life’s journey, especially my faith journey, has been a series of “waking up” moments thus far. As I continue to study scripture, to encounter God’s children, to experience nature, to feel loved and to love my family and friends…I wake up, over and over…or my blind eyes are given sight. It is my prayer that I continue this process; that I journey on in this life as a traveler waiting for the next encounter that will help me to see, as opposed to one who is just absolutely sure that my eyes have been opened completely and now you need to do it my way…end of story. Lord help us.

*What has been your most recent “eye-opening” experience?

*Are there people in your life who have been essential in your eyes being opened?

Appearances aren't Everything

Simon seemed to "have it all"...and yet.... It was customary for the day for him to have given Jesus a kiss as a greeting, to wash his feet, and to anoint him with perfume. He did none of these things...yet a women who was a known sinner enters into the picture, and lavishes expensive perfume on Jesus, and washes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair!

I think it's easy to get caught up in appearances...and making snap judgments based solely upon what a person looks like, or what we perceive their reputation to be. And to a certain extent that is necessary in the world that we live in...but when we live ONLY that way, not looking beneath the surface, not giving ourselves the gift of time in getting to know a person, we become dangerously close to functioning like Simon the Pharisee did.

I tell you what, some of the most remarkable relationships that I have had have been unexpected. That is the beauty of taking the time to care for and get to know one another.

*Do you have any relationships that were unexpected?
*Do you ever find yourself in the position of Simon the Pharisee? What about the woman who is branded "a sinner"?