The Everyday Prayer

RE Verse reading–Matthew 25:31-46 (day five)  “I was hungry and you gave me food”  (vs 35)  It is a shocking idea.  A God who needs our help.  Requires it, in fact.  A God who (by His own choice and gracious purpose) humbles  Himself to the point of no longer being self sufficient.  Why?  Why would He desire/need the prayers of His friends at Gethsemane?  Why would He ask for a drink of water as He hung on the cross?  Couldn’t He have supernaturally provided for His own needs?  Yes, but He didn’t because He loved.  By giving us work to do ( preparing it beforehand says Ephesians 2:10) He was loving us.  He was giving us value, a reason to grow up.  Like a Father loving a child, one of the great gifts the Lord gives us is to communicate that we are needed, useful, valuable.  Self sufficiency is not strength.  True strength is love expressed in fellowship that allows others to help.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 25:31-46 (day four) “Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food?”  (vs37)  I disagree with those who teach that we will be surprised by the standards that Christ will apply to our lives/choices at the end of time.  It is a fairly common interpretation of Matthew 25 to present a picture of unconcious goodness.  A moral surprise.  People saying, “I didn’t know that this was what You wanted”.  I disagree.  The surprise registered by “sheep people” is that we never saw Christ.  We expected to.  We expected Him to be more obvious, to “show up” so that could love Him more directly.  Instead, we were presented with churches–people called by Christ, doing His will.  We knew that we should help them.  He told us.  “He who receives you, receives Me”  (Matthew 10:40).  The fact that He expects us to help His people do their work is not what will surprise us on the last day.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 25:31-46 (day three)  “Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (vs 34)  When the Lord prepared the kingdom (before time began),  He had in mind a glorious reward and appropriate end for people who had loved His son.  Sad history has shown that many will not pass this test.  The good news is that some will!  Some people (may it please God for us to be included) will devote themselves to the work of God in the world.  Some will (by His grace) extend their hands to support the missionary/ministry/benevolent work of the church.  Many will refuse to endorse.  Goats.  Some will support with their time, talent and treasure.  Sheep.  It will indicate a right relationship with the Lord, Himself.  How great is God to rescue us and then reward us for being rescued.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 25:31-46 (day two)  “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another”  (vs 32)  The future will reveal two facts.  We are all the same but different in one eternally significant respect.  Jesus saw the day when all nations would be gathered before him.  Every person.  Made in His image.  Accountable. EVERY knee shall bow.  NO diversity here.  Having shattered all superficial distinctions (nationality, race, gender, wealth), the Lord will then separate us using His own evaluative standard.  A dividing line will be drawn–those who served and welcomed Christ, and those who rejected and refused Him.  Upon this distinction, the destiny of the soul will rest.  A common secular idea is that all people are equal.  In some sense we Christians agree.  We never surrender, however, that at every moment of history,  two separate groups have been living their lives.  Different responses to God make different people with eternally different outcomes.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 25:31-46 (day one)  “To the extent you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to me”( vs 40)  Historically, there have been two main ways to interpret Matt 25.  One view takes “these brothers of Mine” to mean the poor generally.  Christ’s criterion for judgement is charity.  (Neither of these two interpretations teaches salvation by works. “We are saved by faith, and judged by works” is the old Puritan proverb)  In the second construct, “these brothers”  refers to the Church, the people of God spread out over the world and time doing His will and work.  We are (history will testify) often hungry, in prison and in need by virtue of our obedience to Savior’s mission.  In this scenario, the nations of the world (and the people) are judged by their support of and welcome to the Church.  Which did Christ mean?  More this week as we think together. . .

RE Verse reading–Mark 10:17-31 (day seven) “No one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age–houses, brothers and sisters and mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions–and in the age to come eternal life”  (vs 29-30)  It is a mystery.  Loss for God is gain.  “I have suffered the loss of all things. . .that I may gain Christ”  (Paul–Philippians 3:8)  No one makes any sacrifice in keeping with the will and request of God that is not multiplied and returned.  Jesus saw this principle in operation.  Perhaps He had in mind Peter’s new family–the worldwide church.  New fields and brothers and problems were now available for his use, if not his ownership.  By following Christ, he had become a rich man in a wide world.  He had received more.  We all do.

RE Verse reading–Mark 10:17-31 “When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving” (vs 22)  “He didn’t run” may be the highest compliment.  One of my tasks as a leader, and human, is to see problems, seek the Lord and then be willing to pay the price of a solution.  Courage x 3.  Hard to do.  Even Jesus said so.  (see vs 23)  To see the situation, to call it by it’s right name requires courage.  To seek the Lord, to wait for wisdom does as well.   To follow the Spirit, to “not turning left or right” is the hardest step of all.  Given these realities, I am especially challenged by this story.  The RYR had courage to admit the problem.  He knew his heart was restless and empty of assurance.  He was intrepid enough to ask for help from Christ.  What he lacked, however, was the courage to act. God forbid that we should fall short in the same way.

RE Verse reading–Mark 10:17-31 (day five)  “Good Teacher, what must I DO to inherit eternal life?”  (vs 17)  It is fairly common to hear the RYR criticized for his question.  To some it indicates his spiritual confusion.  Didn’t he know that we are not saved by works of righteousness but by faith?  (see Ephesians 2:9)  The Lord does not feel the need to challenge or correct him on this point.  Neither does Paul in Acts 16 when the jailer poses a similar question, “what must I DO to be saved?”  We must be careful to let the scripture speak its own story.  We are NOT saved by works.  Clearly. There is no merit to our salvation. We are, however, told to ACT in faith.  Go!  Sell!  Give!  Come!  Follow!  These are all expressions of faith and doors into eternal life.  Simple faith, saving faith does what is commanded by the Lord.  Obedience, in this moment, is equivalent to faith and leads to life.

RE Verse reading–Mark 10:17-31 (day four)  “Jesus looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing’ ” (vs 21)  Really good news.  When we are selfish and blind to the fact that we are selfish, the Lord is generous.  When we do not love as we should, the Lord still loves us.  The RYR has just demonstrated that he was clueless. The discussion of the 10 Commandments had not pierced his conscience.  So far as he is concerned, he has made no mistakes, done everything right.  Rather than reject this proud donkey, the Lord loved him.  Rather than challenge his pride, the Savior invited him to become a disciple and learn the eternal life he hungered for.  “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”  (Romans 5: 8)  This is the good news.  When we are unworthy, Christ sees value. Even when we do not love, He loves and calls us.

RE Verse reading–Mark 10:17-31 (day three)  “Why do you call me good?  No one is good by God alone”  (vs 18)  The Lord is not brushing aside a compliment.  He is not quibbling over choice of words.  He is pursuing this man, pressing him forward to a deeper understanding of God and himself. He is forcing this man to think!  Interesting!  God is not satisfied with some of my heart or part of my mind.  Like a jealous lover ( read jealous LOVER) God knows that all  of Him in all of me is the way of LIFE.  If He is pressing us forward (right now, all of us)  shouldn’t we join Him?  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6) “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”  (Philippians 3:13-14)  Forward.  It is the direction of His love!