God's Mother Love

What if God loves fiercely and relentlessly like a devoted mother does? After all He did give her that love.

We can see today that part of Matthew 23:37-24:14 hints at this love: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."  Do you hear the ache and longing that a mother can have for wandering children? No wonder the scripture says: "Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." II Peter 3:9

Added to this, we need to remember that God's love is multiplied by trillions, really infinity, to include how big He is. Experiencing the Pacific and Mt. Saint Helen's power lately has me thinking on the Creator's bigness.

What a thrill it is to realize that God's love is deep enough and big enough to cover all my need, your need, and all His children's need. 

Lord, please give us eyes to see Your children like You do and a heart to feel for Your children like You do. We ask for more of this "mother love". 

An Inside Job

Can you hear the love pleading in Matthew today? (Matthew 23:15-36)  Jesus cries out five times to those leading the people: Woe, Woe,Woe, Woe, Woe. It can be translated, "What sorrow awaits you".

Being the resident cleaning lady, I noticed verse 25: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."

Hmm....  It reminds me how I still feel drawn to clean up the place verses playing that  game of ball or calling that long-winded lonely neighbor. I still get great satisfaction from things and me - looking good. 

Lord, help me to become satisfied with Your perspective - the inside order and beauty of love. Thank you for reminders that cleaning should be an inside job. 

Who's the Expert?

It's sure easy to ask the experts. They are everywhere. Just a click on the old computer will get you a list of hints from people who have found the answer. Then there are all the "doctors" nowadays who have put in all those years becoming the authority in their field. But in our reading today Jesus reminds us who the real expert is. (Matthew 22:41-23:15)

I like how it is stated in the Message: "Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do."  (verses 8-10)  

Seems like it would be a good idea to at least pray for God's guidance especially in big deals before we jump into an "expert's" theory or experience. God surely is the One with wisdom.

Our Hero

Jesus was a hunted man. And it is not looking good in today's reading. (Matthew 15-23:40) Powerful groups have gone and "laid plans to trap him in his words." And they sent some of their guys to Jesus to ask Him a "polite" question: "Teacher," they said, "we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?"

Do you hear the flattery and trickery in their words? Jesus did. And He knew their evil motives. 

But, oh, our hero comes out on top in this word duel! He calls for a coin and asks whose picture and inscription is on it. Of course, it's Caesar's so it's obvious you should give Caesar his due.

My, I would have loved to have seen how Jesus shut up these sneaky guys. "When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away." Jesus is the wisest, most wonderful of all heroes. The only one worthy of worship. Let's do that today.

The New Look!

There's one awesome party coming up. It's going to be a wedding banquet that outdoes anything we've ever heard of. Jesus told a story in today's reading (Matthew 21:33-22:14) that teaches us some things we need to know about this party. After all, He is going to be the bridegroom. (Revelation 19:7-9. This party is scheduled, of course, at the end of time.)

The first thing is to be sure that we show up. Some of the invited guests just ignore God's call into the kingdom of heaven: "But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business."

The second thing is to have on the right outfit. One guy in the story at this feast did not have on the right suit and got sent to what sounds like hell! Whew, sounds a bit drastic.

Well, my notes tell me that at this kind of feast the host would provide an appropriate robe. This man evidently refused the king's provision and decided to do his own thing. When telling this story, I wonder if Jesus was remembering that beautiful prophecy in Isaiah 61:10: "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

Whew! It sounds like we don't have to worry at all about the right outfit for any of God's events coming up. As we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He clothes us more beautifully than anything this world offers. Let's enjoy the new look today.

Need Faith?

Need faith? I sure do! And we aren't the only ones. We're getting to the end of Jesus' journey with these disciples, they had seen miracles galore, and they still are amazed at how Jesus made the fig tree wither all at once. (Matthew 21:18-32).

I can almost imagine Him thinking, "Come on guys". But He patiently says, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done." Wow, that is quite a statement. How many people do you hear commanding mountains to jump into the sea?

However the next sentence seems to sum up His point. "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." I find this straight out statement quite unsettling. It seems that there are two ways to respond. I can get woefully discouraged about my lack of faith. Or I can believe that you and I have pondered this truth right now for a reason.

Could Jesus be right now calling us to more faith? It's quite likely. He desires truly powerful partners in prayer.  Let's answer His call.

Yes Lord, I ask for more faith. Thank you for calling me to partner with You.

Intentional to the End

What was it like to be in the crowd around Jesus? As we read about it in the Word, can we experience it? We are used to  people being healed after enduring weeks of surgery recovery or months of chemo side effects or repeated days of physical therapy. But what if you were standing by the blind and a man touched their eyes and immediately they saw! (Matthew 21:1-17)

Suddenly light flooded in, color coalesced, shapes firmed up, beauty was revealed and they could begin life whole! No doubt you would experience a taste of their surprise, joy, excitement, and gratefulness. Seems to me it would be thrilling.

This excitement delighted the crowd around Jesus. So when He came into their precious city of Jerusalem, they rolled out the red carpet - their coats.  Notice, though, the fame did not taint Jesus one bit. Instead of just continuing to bask in praise, He went straight into their hallowed temple to wreck the establishment. Tables and chairs were toppled and opportunistic businessmen were thrown out. 

In our surprise at the violence, maybe we get a clue that our Lord came to do more than promote goodwill and brotherhood. He was fiercely intent on God's will being done. "My house shall be called a house of prayer but you are making it a den of robbers." Jesus was intentional about doing God's will no matter what the cost. And that cost was going to be big.

Thank you Lord for being intent on doing the Father's will. Help us to do the same.

Readings this week:

M- Matthew 21:1-17

T - Matthew 21:18-32

W - Matthew 21:33-22:14

Th - Matthew 22:15-40

F - Matthew 22:41-23:15