Mission Faithwalk

                 I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord . (Psalm 27:13-14) Back in the 1800s, people go listen to a debate or a speech, or attend a long play and return home to spend hours talking about it. Since the advent of social media, our attention span has reportedly dwindled to under 5 seconds. There are times I can attest to this in my own life. Another reality with the media is that to hold our attention and earn ratings (which means money), reporters are bringing the biggest, baddest, most spectacular, and most frightening news they can. “No news is good news” has become “good news is no news.” These are problems we face when we seek something positive – especially something from God. Unless the goodness of the Lord is splashy, sexy, or spectacular, our minds don’t consider it worth...

                 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. (Matthew 27:11-14)   Yesterday, I listened to a podcast in which Jesus’ trials were mentioned. The key point about the trials was that Jesus didn’t respond to Pilate or Herod. While we (the speaker said) tend to try to prove ourselves, to make ourselves look good even without being on trial legally, Jesus didn’t act on a need to control. What the speaker didn’t point out is that from Jesus’ point of view, everything was going according to the plan. Why speak up and potentially mess up? Jesus spoke up w...

                 One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27: 4) But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:7) At the end of the last calendar year, I set Ephesians 4:7 as this year’s verse, along with the notion of double blessing. And since I found it mentioned in my garden journal, I clearly meant it in terms of my garden first, and everything else second or later. This morning, I’m playing with numbers again. First, the purely amusing. David says “one thing” and “this only” then goes on to say, “dwell in the house of the Lord…,” “gaze on the beauty of the Lord,” and “seek him in his temple.” I count that as three things. If it’s one, it’s compound or complex, like a three ingredient recipe in which one of the...

              Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)           Back in the 80s, there was a series of commercials for Prego Spaghetti sauce in which one person kept talking about how they make their sauce, and the other kept telling the first, “It’s in there,” referring to Prego. That’s what came to mind as I saw this verse this morning. Jesus can save completely because he always lives to intercede for them. When life gets hard, he’s in there, interceding. When we sin, he’s in there, interceding. When we’re oppressed, he’s in there, interceding. When others abandon, deny, or betray us, he’s in there, interceding. When we get a majorly negative diagnosis, he’s in there, interceding.           And the intercession isn’t, “What she did wasn’t so bad,” or “...

                 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.. (Psalm 39:4) This is a good verse for today, since today ends a year in my life and tomorrow begins another. There are times when I consider my age and want to get anxious, because I only have “a few” years left and who knows how soon dementia or physical disability will reduce my ability to do what I want to do. But the real reason for this verse today is because some of the translations use the words “Teach me…to measure my days.” The homework assignment for the Bible study I’m in is to work on a “rule of life.” The founders of various monastic orders wrote a rule of life for their abbeys (monasteries.) It wasn’t so much a set of commandments as it was a constitution for their order. It described how they would function as an entity, in its relationship with God, with the outside world,...

                 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (I Peter 1:18-19) Imagine a world in which every person had to redeem him/herself. How much of a “fine” should you have to pay for the sins you’ve committed? How much should Jack the Ripper or Adolph Hitler have to pay? How about the folks in countries where the average income is fifty cents a day or less? Should it be 10% of one’s income for the worst sins? Should we divide that by a thousand for a little white lie? So, if rich person and poor person both tell the same lie with the same results, one pays a million dollars, and the other one dollar? How would that be fair? How would it be fair to reverse it and charge the rich person a dollar, and the poor person everything he/she has...

                 When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive . (Proverbs 23:1-3) If you’ve worked anywhere, including for yourself, you’ve probably noticed a tendency for employers to expect their employees to buy the company’s goods or services rather than to shop at or hire a competitor. You work for them. How could you commit treason. In ancient days (and in some cultures even today) eating with someone could be considered allying with them. The meal is your purchase price. At the same time, if a ruler invited you to dinner, you weren’t exactly free to decline the invitation without suffering the consequences. The alternative is to be cautious in what we eat, in how much time we spend, in what we say, etc., so that it’s clear that the other person does not have too great a hold on us. ...