365 Reflections

How often do we forget what God has done for us? Think of this: what is the Bible but a collection of God's acts among His people from times past and a guarantee of God's acts on behalf of His people in times to come? Thus, Hosea outlines that Israel's forgetfulness led to their idolatry and shame.  Hosea 11:1–2 (ESV) When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. God called Israel out of Egypt. God made a way for them to respond by delivering them through His mighty power. The call and the deliverance work together. What a picture of salvation! Who enables the response to His call but the One who calls! How can anyone respond to the Lord's Word without the Lord making the way for them to do so? The problem with Israel is that the deliverance did not lead to lasting obedience. The more they called, the more they drifted, forg...

This verse has to be the biggest gut punch for knowing God's love in the Bible.  Hosea 3:1 (ESV) And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” Could you imagine this ask of the Lord? He wants Hosea to remarry his wife, purchasing her out of slavery while she is the property of another man. And God says plainly, this is how the LORD loves the children of Israel.  Hosea actually has to purchase her.  Hosea 3:2 (ESV) So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. We see in this passage a picture of two things. The insidious nature of sin and the indescribable love of God. Hosea's name is close to the name of Jesus in Hebrew. This is on purpose for Jesus is the true Hosea who does not give up on wayward people. He loves us even when we are ensnared in our sin. Moreover, He PAYS for u...

Deuteronomy 24:17-18 (ESV)   “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge,  18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. Oh how much better we may treat one another if we all remembered that who we are is the result of God's grace and goodness. Israel was given many laws regarding how to treat each other in Deuteronomy. Here in chapter 24, all of the laws are horizontal in nature. Do not take essential items in pledge. Do not kidnap and slave trade another human being. Leave lots of leftovers from harvest for the poor. Let the punishment fit the crime (Deuteronomy 25). The interesting thing about this particular set of laws is that right int he middle of the list is a call to remember where they came from. The Lord redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. Yet how did they get to Egypt in the first place? B...

Think of all the evil Joseph suffered because of his brothers. Yet shortly after his rough conversation with them and taking Simeon into custody, Joseph rolls out the red carpet for his brothers in acts of tremendous generosity.  Genesis 43:16 (ESV) When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” Genesis 43:24 (ESV)  And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, Genesis 43:34 (ESV) Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. Joseph does everything to be kind to these men who treated him with such hostility. I don't know if I would have done the same. But there is only one reason. He loved them. ...

Paul writes about an offender in 2 Corinthians that the church must now restore. Obviously, there has been repentance and remorse of his sin, and Paul is clear, they must welcome him back to the fellowship. Many people believe this is the man from 1 Corinthians 5 in the incestuous relationship with his stepmother, but we cannot be sure. We CAN be sure it was someone who wronged Paul personally, turning many people against him and his Apostolic ministry. He was dealt with by the Corinthians with proper discipline and he now seeks restoration within the body. What does Paul say? 2 Corinthians 2:8 (ESV) So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. How would we do in Paul's place? When someone turns people against us, are we ready to beg others to forgive and love them? Or are we a bit skeptical of their remorse? Are we slightly turned off by them? Do they now wear a "scarlet letter" in our minds? We may not be nasty to them but we may simply regard them as pre...

Right on the heels of the parable of the shrewd manager, Luke makes clear that the Pharisees began to mock Jesus for His words.  I couldn't imagine how what they did with the resources in this life would affect what happened to them in the next life. With that in mind, Jesus shares the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And he (rich man) called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ( Luke 16:24 ES V) While in hell he gives us a glimpse of his heart. He's in torment, he's in agony, and yet when he calls out to Abraham he doesn't ask for a second chance to do things right. He asks for Lazarus to be sent to him to make his pain go away. He's just a selfish, just as egotistical, just as domineering as he was in his life.  Nothing's changed except his location. His heart is the same as it was in this life. He has the audacity to send orders to Abraham. F...

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? .....In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:4, 7 NLT) I wonder what some churches value more than people who don't know the Father... Because it's pretty clear from Luke 15, the Father's heart beats for lost people.  Jesus has just dined with a Pharisee in Luke 14.  He is no doubt fed up with religious pretension and show.  He is going to be as emphatic as possible so that those who may not yet know where His values lie will be absolutely certain.  Three parables, all with equally stunning statements of the Father's love for lost sons and daughters. The problem is.  We rarely see this value in some churches and in many Christians...

Luke chapter 14 has to be one of the funniest and most serious passages and all the Gospel. The Pharisee invites Jesus over for dinner party and gets more than he possibly could have bargained for. The first six verses are the funny part: they are examining Jesus and without them saying a word he responds to their critical spirits and heals on the Sabbath. That part of the story ends with this verse: And they could not reply to these things. (Luke 14:6 ESV) Then he watches as everyone chooses the best selves and send some more interesting things that I'm sure cock their attention... "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, "Give your place to this person," and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he ma...

(Luke 11:41   NLT ) So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.  In this verse Jesus is challenging the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day. They were so absorbed with their religious fanaticism, that they forgot about the very reason for serving God. That God is the one who reaches down to those who cannot help themselves. And those who claim to follow him must also be those kind of people who seek to help those who cannot help themselves. The thing that surprises me most about this verse is how even religious devotion can be an idol in our lives. We can look to our own devotion as some sort of acceptability before God and feel that we have arrived based on our works. Jesus calls them hypocrites. That they are playing apart. They look religious but deep down inside there is nothing about them that reflects the character and nature of the God they claim to serve.  Who can't possibly be challenged by this verse? Jesus indeed had ...

Evangelicals tend to be afraid of the term "social justice."Sometimes we think the term weakens the Gospel, the nature of our sin and redemption only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But when John the Baptist starts his ministry is clear what is intended by God before the coming of Christ. He wants justice in the world. And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages." (Luke 3:10-14 ESV) The interesting thing about the word "justice" in Hebrew is that it...

There's a difference between us and Jesus. We tend to care about people and Jesus shows us how to care for people. Big Difference. Now when Jesus heard this , he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." (Matthew 14:13-16 ESV) What had Jesus just heard? He heard that his cousin, forerunner, friend and partner was just brutally murdered by a wicked and immoral king. No doubt his own crucifixion was now looming over his head and he understandably wanted to be alone. But the crowds would not have it. They n...