Remember

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 3:1-4 (day three)

My son, do not forget my teaching.”

Memorizing Bible verses will not guarantee that you don’t forget God’s word. How can that be? Because the Bible presents to you not just theoretical concepts for you to discuss but a way of living for you to experience. It is a continually unfolding mystery that invites you to grow and be transformed. The letter kills, says the apostle Paul, but the Spirit gives life. He ought to know. As a Pharisee, the rigid letter of the law was his stock-in-trade. When the Spirit blew into his life, he entered into a way of experiencing the life of God that he would never get over. Merely to memorize is to risk understanding the word of God as frozen in place. But to learn to live it out is to remember it. That will renew your spirit.

Seek

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 2:1-15 (day three)

If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.”

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament teach that you will find what you seek. Will the search take as long as your entire life? It might. Will seeking prove hard? It will. Time and effort are characteristic of any quest. Otherwise, you might not even know what you’ve found or why it’s important. Time will give you room to contemplate and to grow in your ability to recognize what it is you seek. And effort will reveal your longings, leading you to understand the you God has made. When you find the wisdom you’ve looked for, you’ll be ready for it, and you will treasure it. This is God’s word to you.

Riddle

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 1:1-7 (day three)

A man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
To understand a proverb and a figure,
The words of the wise and their riddles.”

Why don’t they just say it plainly? Why all these allusions and riddles? This was also the question of Jesus’s disciples. Time and again, they asked him to explain what he meant. Jesus could have said, “Your neighbor is anyone with whom you are in effective contact regardless of station in life.” Instead, he told the parable of the Samaritan. Proverbs could have said, “Some things are beyond the control of even those with absolute political power.” Instead, it says, “A lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.” Plain talk will eventually get lost in the noise of life. Riddles, parables, and puzzles will intrigue hearers and invite curiosity for generations.

Open

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:24-29 (day three)

“The crowds were amazed at his teaching; for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

Whatever teaching justifies people in positions in which they hold power over you; whatever teaching conveys that you possess little worth; whatever teaching encourages you not to advocate for your well-being; whatever teaching claims God’s will as a trump card to quell dissent; whatever teaching tends to favor the powerful; whatever teaching places some people above God’s judgment – such teaching magnifies man, not God. It wasn’t the downtrodden, the spiritual outsiders, the sinners whom Jesus disturbed. Rather, it was the celebrated, the spiritual elite, the most biblically literate who became alarmed. The prostitutes and tax collectors? They knew hope when they saw it. This is what happened when the real authority taught the scriptures. Jesus opens doors the system has slammed shut.

Theater

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:15-23 (day three)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Who did Jesus refer to time and again throughout his sermon as having taught his listeners? Hypocrites, or actors. Eager for the best seats at the banquets? Actors. Making prayer into performance art? Actors. Skirting the law for their own financial gain and in so doing devouring widows’ houses and depriving the elderly of financial support? Actors. Laying claim to the mantle of Moses and with it the special status of a select few blessed by God? Actors. These actors, also known as teachers of the law, are very good at their primary craft – acting. “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” And Jesus says, “What does that have to do with anything?”

Little

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day three)

“The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Everything about Jesus runs counter to your expectations. Little is much, servanthood is greatness, the poor are celebrated, and now this. Does everything have to be counterintuitive? It’s only that way because you’ve been told that there’s safety in numbers: lots of dollars, lots of people, lots of admiration, lots of publicity, lots of approval. That way of life links security to external factors, though. That way of life tells you that there’s nothing worth much on the inside, so you’ve got to prop yourself up with whatever you can grab. But Jesus says you don’t need a Las Vegas-style entryway to convince you of your value. You’re already worth much to God, so come on towards him through the little gate.

Open

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:7-11 (day three)

“Knock, and it will be opened to you.”

A slamming door, a closed sign, a missed deadline – what has it been like for you when you’ve experienced these things? Just thinking about those descriptions can evoke anxiety or dejection or panic. To miss out, to be left out, to be thrown out, to feel like you’re not cut out or that you don’t stand out – these are among life’s hardest circumstances because they can invite you to believe that you don’t amount to much. On the other hand, when someone recognizes you, opens up to you, desires your company, and confides in you, a sense of welcome, worth, encouragement, and hope begins to rise in you. God doesn’t slam doors, but opens them, Jesus reveals. To you. You’re so used to finding them closed that it might take you a while to notice.

Worth

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:25-34 (day three)

Are you not worth much more than they?”

Rather than trying to talk you out of worry, Jesus agrees with you that your grip on security feels tenuous much of the time, as if you’re barely going to make it. He’s stating that circumstances are mostly beyond your control, and that feels scary. Finally, somebody is just saying it: life is hard. What’s more, that somebody was, of all people, the Son of God. This divine human being was telling his hearers, “I deal with this difficult life, too. Everyday.” He goes on to tell them that a God who would give flowers a bigger break than you would not be very loving. In a world that says you don’t matter much, Jesus declares your worth. Your confidence won’t come from trying not to worry, but from this news of your immeasurable value.

See

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:19-24 (day three)

If your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.”

A large swath of Jesus’s audience were people who had learned to accept their lot in life as spiritual paupers – that is, people who would never be considered particularly worthy in God’s eyes or in the eyes of the religious powers-that-be. Jesus goes right for the jugular of “the system” when he opens up with the shocking beatitudes, declaring that such poor in spirit, mournful, meek ones are actually blessed, because they are exactly the ones whom God desires to come near and befriend. Here, he goes further still. He proclaims to his hearers that as his words wash over them, those words can bring clarity to them, doing away with their dependence on the myopic teaching of “brilliant” spiritual “actors.” Who needs a bulb when you’ve got the sun?

Earth

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:9-15 (day three)

“Your kingdom come.”

What does it mean to long for God’s kingdom to come on earth? The next two phrases of the prayer lay it out: it means that earth, also, would be a place in perfect harmony with God’s will. Jesus’s words themselves are in perfect harmony with the Old Testament prophets who longed for the day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. God pronounced his creation good. To pray this way is to yearn for the day that you will see that goodness in all its fullness.