The Hardest Thing

OK ladies, I have to admit - I picked the "hardest thing" I read in these two chapters for me to do - Love your enemies. True confession? Absolutely - but I'm not proud of it!

In Luke 6:27, Jesus instructs us to love and to do good to our enemies, to those who detest and pursue us with hatred. I dare say that most of us do not have these kind of enemies - those that want to kill us or physically harm us. Thank heavens we don't meet those people every day! But enemies may include those who treat you unjustly. Enemies may be those who live under the same roof who day in and day out make life difficult for you, who betray you, or are mean to you. Jesus expects us to love these people. We are to pray for good things to be in their lives. We are to be kind to those people.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat people the way you would like to be treated - not the way they deserve to be treated. What if God treated us as we deserve? We'd all be doomed. But He has shown us grace, and now expects us, as his followers, to show that same grace to the world in His name.

Hatred and anger are powerful emotions - and when we allow them to rule our lives, we will not be able to yield to the love that God tells us we must display. And even though this is not easy - it is possible. And who makes it possible? Our Father. How can this be possible? Only through the Holy Spirit living in us. God not only makes it possible - He has shown us the way. He gave us His own example of loving at Calvary. Mocked, blasphemed, cursed - and what did Jesus do? He prayed for them: Father forgive them. Not only did He pray for them, but He gave an "excuse" to the Father on their behalf. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a master at addressing the subject of loving your enemies - he made it a life vocation. The following is an excerpt from a sermon that he gave in Alabama on Nov. 17, 1957 on the subject of loving your enemies:

And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, "Love your enemy." And it's significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don't like what they do to me. I don't like what they say about me and other people. I don't like their attitudes. I don't like some of the things they're doing. I don't like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." . . .

This loving thing is not a "suggestion" nor is it a "recommendation." It's a real command. He expects us to do it. It's not easy. How can we learn to love our enemies and do good to those who mistreat us? How can we learn to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who use us? The word bless in the Greek is eulogeo (yoo-log-eh'-0), and it means to speak well of.

We must learn to pray for them and ask God to bless our enemies. Praying for those who do us wrong breaks the power of revenge and helps us to do good in the face of evil. God's love embraces saints and sinners alike. And because we are made "in the image of God," we must show kindness and mercy to those we think of as our "enemies." Because we are representatives of Christ, we must learn to love our enemies. We must understand how important it is to show our family resemblance to those that are unlovable in our eyes. Remember - love covers a multitude of sins.

Walking His Path.

As we opened the reading today, Jesus' words to Peter from our reading Sunday were rolling around in my head. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation..." Jesus himself, following the Spirit's leading, went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Because Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, we can know that His temptation was ordained by God. You may think that's odd...but I think it has some very real implications to our lives today. As we read Job, we all struggled with how God could ask so much of such a good man. Along the same lines, why would God send His own son into the desert to be tempted by Satan? Why would God want us to face temptation, or the enemy of our souls, face to face??! The same reason Generals send troops to the front lines of battle. Sometimes we have to face the enemy square on to achieve victory. What if our mindset changed? What if as we face temptation we walk into it knowing that God sent us there for a victory? Jesus needed this victory under his belt before He began the rest of His earthly ministry. Sometimes, we have struggles and temptations that need to be faced with the Spirit head on before we can move on to do other things God has called us to.

What tools can you take with you into battle? The same thing Jesus did. The Word of God. Satan tried to take Jesus' focus off of his eternal purpose and put it on earthly things. As our pastor preached about on Sunday, he does the same thing today. It's interesting to me to note, that the wilderness was where the Israelites failed their test before God. Jesus came to do what they (and we) could not!

One final interesting point from this section (I promise the whole blog post won't be on this one section!) I found was that it said at the end Satan left Jesus "for a time." While we are never told in scripture of additional specific temptations of Satan to Jesus, the implication in this wording is that Satan did tempt Jesus later. I can't imagine why he wouldn't. In fact, I would imagine that Satan was on Jesus' back pretty often during the rest of his earthly ministry right up until the point of his sacrifice on the cross. Getting Jesus to fail in his mission would have been a priority in his battle strategy. In fact, I think that at some point Satan may have actually thought he won...how wrong he was!!

Moving on...Jesus leaves the wilderness and goes to Galilee, where he is generally well received. As He reaches His hometown of Nazareth, initially everyone is excited about His return. I'm sure word of His popularity had spread. As He read in the synagog, he read the prophecies about himself "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor....to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Interestingly enough, Jesus stopped before the end of the verse He was reading from in Isaiah, which states, "and the day of our God's vengeance." He stopped because that wasn't what He was here for THIS time...that refers to His job when He comes back AGAIN! I'm sure there was some murmuring at his direct proclamation that He was the Messiah...and they completely turned on Him at His implication that God would accept the Gentiles and reject Israel. No wonder...the Messiah was supposed to deliver Israel, right? I found the end of this story intriguing as well. The angry mob basically forces him to a cliff. Once there, He simply "passed right through the crowd and went on His way." How exactly?? A miracle? Maybe. We won't know. All we know is that it wasn't time for Him to die. So He didn't.

Understandably, He moves on. He drives our unclean spirits, heals the sick, and preaches to the large crowds that begin to follow Him. Obviously people were drawn to Him and His teaching. His first disciples were so drawn to Him that they left everything they had, right where it was, and followed Him. That seems so impressive to me, but it really is what Jesus asks of His followers. Would I be willing to leave it all behind? I hope so. Matthew was so impressed he wanted all his other friends to meet Jesus as well. I hope I have that excitement as well!

The Scribes and Pharisee's even seemed impressed with Jesus' early ministry. They were willing to accept Him as a healer, prophet, and even an excellent teacher. The problem came for them when they had to submit to Him as the Son of God. That, they were not willing to do. It makes me wonder what it would have taken for them to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah they had been waiting for?

As they begin questioning Jesus about His disciples adherence to the Jewish law, we see the problem. In response to their questioning about why they don't fast, Jesus states that you don't fast when the bridegroom is there. That is the time for celebration! And then He says,

"No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, "The old is better."

Jesus was illustrating that His message was radical (the new) and could not serve as a patch for the existing form of Judaism (the old garment) as the Scribes and Pharisee's were probably hoping. They wanted Jesus to revolutionize and revitalize the existing religion, not start a new one. But Jesus goes on to tell them that the new wine (His message) could not be poured into the old wineskin of Judaism because it could not contain it. His new wine needed to be poured into new wineskins (the church of Jesus.) And at the end, Jesus addresses the reason behind the resistance in so many hearts. Jesus' hearers continued to cling to Judaism because, like old wine, it tasted "better"- was familiar and comfortable.

I pray Jesus keeps my heart just uncomfortable enough that I am willing to pack it all up and follow Him wherever He leads, like the first disciples. "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation..." The temptation of the comfortable is so strong for me. Jesus was able to keep an eternal perspective during His time here on earth. I pray that I can too. I pray that I can walk His path... and even if it leads to the wilderness, I pray that I can trust God for the victory. He's already won it for us!

It is That Time of Year Again.

My mom and I walked into a children’s shop last night to find something for my children to wear during the Christmas holiday season. My mom always loves to buy them matching or at least coordinating outfits for the special times of the year. I turned to my mom and said, “I remember when the Christmas music didn’t start playing until at least the day after Thanksgiving.” This was my response to the music playing in the store, and they had the volume jacked up too. I think the loud music is to keep you confused while you are shopping so you don’t pay attention to the price as much. I am making a joke just in case anyone was confused, but yes, it is THAT time of year again.

Every year about this time I start asking the same question, “Why?” Why do we celebrate Jesus’ birthday? Why do people put lights all over their yard for a month and a half (or longer)? Why should I go to all the trouble of putting up a Christmas tree? What does it mean anyway? Many of us know that most of the traditions come from pagan origin anyway so what is the purpose? The answer to these questions is as simple as Linus’ deliverance of Luke 2:8-14. I hope you enjoy this short clip. It is one of my favorite “traditions” to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas.



I ask these questions not to be cynical but to challenge myself to make it mean something. I desperately want my children to understand the importance of doing everything for the glory of God. This years blogging experience has been a great blessing and it has been a great challenge. I have had many questions answered and many questions have come up (I know there was a blog on this very subject not too long ago).


Jesus' first time in the temple
Because Jesus was a first born son it was the Jewish law to offer a sacrifice to God. Isn’t it strange to think of this sacrifice? Joseph and Mary bought back Jesus, their first born son so that one day he would buy us all back by paying the price of sin once and for all. Just for refresher, God spared the first born sons (in Egypt) of those Israelites who marked the doorposts with the lambs blood. God then commanded them to present a sacrifice for each first born male, to buy them back - redeem. We must remember that Jesus did not come to demolish the law but to complete it.

Can you imagine the feelings Mary and Joseph had when the prophet Simeon came in and held their son, proclaiming that he was the Messiah? Even after all the events of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph’s dream, the shepherds’ adoration, I wonder if their confidence wavered? I wonder, out of my own convictions, if they might have wanted to hide away with him and wait for more clarification to come to them? As they listened to the prophet Simeon he prophesied about the affect Jesus would have on Israel.

“Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” Some people like to joke with me about my four little lambs when we are going places. One question I get a lot is, “Do you constantly do a head count?” I usually laugh and say, “It depends.” Think about Mary and Joseph who was raising the Son of God and they lost him. Now we know he was never lost but I just wonder if Mary was afraid that God might ask her, Mary what did you do with my son? To lose a child is one of the biggest fears of a mother. Jesus tells his mother that he was simply about his Father’s business and that she should not have been worried. She and Joseph did not understand but Jesus went home with them and was obedient to his parents just like his word says to.

John the Baptist Preaches and Baptizes
John begins to teach and rebuke the people about their attitude towards God. He wanted them to understand their need for repentance. Then he baptized them. As he was baptizing, Jesus approached him and was also baptized. This signified the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and the approval of the Father. Jesus did not need repentance he was setting an example for all of us to follow.

Luke chapter 3 ends with the lineage of Jesus all the way back to Adam. In my study notes it tells me that Luke did this to show how Jesus is related to all human beings and to help us have the picture that Jesus is the Savior of the world not just one people group. Praise God!