Bryan Richardson

Near

Re: Verse reading – Ephesians 2:11-22 (day three)
“You are no longer foreigners and strangers.” The reality of God’s nearness keeps repeating throughout scripture: “God with us;” “Here are my mother and my brothers;” “The word is near you.” This nearness involves God’s drawing near us as well as God’s drawing us near one another. When God said “It is not good for the man to be alone,” he spoke the truth about a particular instance, and the truth about the entire human race at all times. It seems as if fellowship with others is but one of many good ideas about Christianity, but it is only in the community of God’s people—when you draw near to others—that you will draw nearest to God.

Human

Re: Verse reading–Ephesians 2:1-10 (day three)
“God raised us up with Christ.” When God raised Jesus from the dead, he did not raise a ghost, or a zombie, or a metaphor. He raised a human being—a divine human being, to be sure, but a human being nonetheless. That was new. God’s power had raised the dead before, but never to life everlasting in a renewed physical body. There is now a way for human beings to live as human beings—that is, beings with both a physical body and a spirit—forever. Jesus was the first. And because God the Son lives forever as a resurrected human being, so can all of us who count on Christ. When God raised Jesus, he raised the possibility of eternal life for the entire human race.

Enough

Re: Verse reading–Ephesians 1 (day three)
“…the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” We live in the fear that everything is a zero sum game: Whatever we give away means that much less for ourselves–be it money, possessions, or affection. The concept of “shortage” doesn’t have a place in the economy of God, though. The universe he has made, and the community he has birthed, knows nothing of scarcity. One of the results of taking seriously his lavishness is that we, too, become people who lavish what we have on one another without fearing that we will be left with nothing.

Actuality

Re: Verse reading–Isaiah 6:1-8; Revelation 4:1-11 (Day Three)
“The whole earth is full of his glory.” In one sense, the worship of God means seeing things as they actually are. The vision that the prophets in the Old Testament had in common reflected this understanding: “The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Elisha prayed for his servant: “‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” If we would worship God, we must be convinced of the reality of his reign. Perhaps a prelude to worship is this prayer: Open my eyes, Lord.

Invitation

Re: Verse reading – Romans 10:8-15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (day three)
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It’s not uncommon for some to claim that Christianity is exclusivist, whereas other religions or systems of thought possess much more generosity of spirit and remain open to anyone. The hallmark of God’s revelation in Christ, though, is not exclusivity, but radical inclusivity: “Come, all that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” While the world measures every man by this or that standard to determine his worth, Jesus Christ says that whosoever will may come. Invitations don’t get more inclusive than that.

Dust

Re: Verse reading–Psalm 103, Luke 17:11-19 (day three)
“He remembers that we are dust.” A person who does not express gratitude, who understands no need for thanksgiving, is a person who forgets that he is dependent. He is dependent on the mercy of others in order to live his daily life. And finally, he is dependent on God, who has made him. We chafe against this dependence. We consider it beneath us. But this life will end because we are indeed dust. How will we not be taken by surprise at this inevitable fate? By practicing thanksgiving. Gratitude will form us into people who will meet the end of these days with joy for the days that await us beyond. Thankfulness, therefore, is not just polite. It is life-giving.

Resources

Re: Verse reading–Deuteronomy 8:1-20; Matthew 25:1-46 (Day Three)
“I will put you in charge of many things.” It’s easy to read this portion of scripture as if it says, “You can now take it easy, because you’ve arrived.” But we don’t steward resources in order to get rewarded with a life in which we can waste resources. We steward resources because are made in God’s image. God is the maker of all things, and he stewards the things he has made. When we steward what we have been given by honoring God and doing good to others, we live true to that image in which we are made. We then rise to the high calling of living like God lives.

Actual

Re: Verse reading–Mark 10:35-45; John 13:12-17; James 2:14-17 (day three)
“You also should wash one another’s feet.” Question: Why did Jesus wash his disciples’ feet? Answer: Because their feet needed washing. Jesus did not take this action in order to teach his disciples a lesson, though it did teach them. He did not do what he did as a demonstration of servanthood, although it demonstrated plenty. His action was rooted in actual service, not servanthood theater. The example Jesus set for them was not one of sentiment (“How sweet that the Son of God is doing a menial task”), but love (“I will do good to you”). When we move from a motivation that says “I am supposed to serve” to one that says “I will do good to people in need”, we begin to serve like Jesus taught us.

Waking

Re: Verse reading – Psalm 24:1-6; Ephesians 5:1-16 (day three)
“Wake up, sleeper.” As a sleeping person knows life only in a dream instead of as it actually is, so a person untaught by Jesus Christ knows only fleeting images of good and love and beauty, and not those things as they actually are. Consider the words of C.S. Lewis: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Pray

Re: Verse reading – Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-8 (Day Three)
“Lord, teach us to pray.” It’s not uncommon for evangelicals to think that the best kind of prayer consists of spontaneous, off-the-cuff, stream-of-consciousness language. While speaking to God in a moment of unstructured outpouring is often a good and necessary practice for a Christian, this passage helps us to see that a studied, carefully planned approach to prayer can also help. A person would do well to contemplate and to pray the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, the composed prayers of devout disciples of Jesus Christ through the centuries of Christianity. As for the concern about reciting “rote prayers”, two observations: First, rote learning is actually a good way to become accustomed to ways of speaking (including prayer); and second, any prayer—spontaneous or not—will be as sincere or as distracted as the person praying it.