Matthew 10:32-39
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
What is the main point of these verses?
What does Jesus mean when he says that he did not come to bring peace?
In what ways do you think we can love family members more than Jesus? What does it "look" like?
What does it mean to lose your life for the sake of Jesus?
Notice how Jesus uses the word "worthy" in this passage.
What else is on your mind this week?
Sunday, November 04, 2007
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20 comments:
Hey, I like this "fall back" thing with the clocks. I get an extra hour of beauty sleep.
I'm just guessing that you like folks to take "shots" at ya.
Tony
Nearly 3,500 Chinese Named 'Olympics'
The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China—it's such an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Doesn’t have much of a ring to it, in my humble opinion. It did cause me to think of something from my past. Back in the late ‘80s I worked with Laotian refugees, also know as the Boat People. It was a wonderful experience. Many of them became followers of Jesus as we taught them to speak English using the Bible. [There is great power in the Word!]
These people were so thankful to be in the U.S.A. One family named a little baby USA Yang, and I guess they were thankful for me too. Somewhere in the world an Allen Cha exists. I guess he would be about 27 by now.
I am watching the Colts as I do this.
Multi-tasking.
Nervousness control.
Looks like the only shot, Tony, is the one you imply.
I did take some heckling this morning from people in the back, when I commented on my beauty sleep.
What's wrong with you people? Jealous of my stunning, nearly heart-stopping, good looks?
For all you Turkey fans out there, This Site might be useful to you.
I think things may be settling down over there? Their main man is going to visit our main man this week.
I was just re-reading the passage and it really got me thinking. You know, we've really got it good here in the US. We've never had to worry about someone coming in and taking our kids or having to denounce God in order that our family members might live. I think it realy puts a lot of emphasis on how much our words really mean. In this scripture it says that we have to love God more than any thing or anybody. That was really put to the test under the Roman ruler Domitian(sp?).
It make me wonder sometimes, if I could really do it if I was faced with what the first century churches had to deal with.
It also worries me that with the influx of Radical Islamics, if and when this might happen here in the US. Are we running full circle? Will my kids have to face this? Their kids? Will God step in and stop this or is it a way to weed out the luke-warms? Am I a luke-warm?
Just something to think about?
Brent
Hey, hey, check THIS out. It’s the freshly remodeled house across the road from us. Kedra, the kids, and I have spent a lot of time over there the last couple of months. I would appreciate your prayers for a quick sale.
Good thoughts, Brent. I'll have more to say later.
Danger Years for Starting to Drink as Young as Fourth Grade
Interesting article. We’ve tried to be clear and consistent with our kids that we don’t want them to drink, and we started early.
Early Sunday morning I was sitting in my office at home. I have my beautiful, huge Paoli Inc. desk (a former V.P.’s of Paoli Inc. desk – thanks to a good friend who goes by J.J.). This desk fills my little office, but the part where I do most of my sitting/working is strategically placed so I look straight out a window into my back yard where I have bird feeders carefully placed.
About daybreak on Sunday a little downy woodpecker was dining on some black sunflower seeds. I guess he got mixed up about where he was supposed to go. He flew, full-speed, right into my window. It was a feathery thud. He bounced off and landed on a little feeding tray that I made and placed for “up close and personal” viewing. He was motionless. I could see his little heart beating, and my heart hurt. I really thought it was just a matter of minutes until his woodpecking days were over.
As the little fella laid there not moving, another little bird, a different species–the round brown ones with sharp little beaks (sorry the name escapes me), flew down and sat next to the woodpecker. He hopped around all sides, seemingly expressing concern and offering to help. It was pretty touching. Really.
After a little while the brown bird flew off; his work was done. Much to my surprise, the little woodpecker suddenly revived and flew away too.
I think there might be a lesson in there somewhere.
You really should be thankful for your job.
Roadkill Detail Not for Meek
And why is it that we don’t pick up the dead animals in Lawrence County anymore? I just see piles of lime poured over them.
Allen, what a beautiful story about the downey and the 'different' bird. Lots of good lessons there about encouragement. I wonder if Jesus saw the same thing happen when He related the parable of the Good Samaritan. When we open our eyes to the world around us and see His plan we cannot help but believe. I think He sends people and His creation into our lives to teach us. Regarding the lesson this week. It at first sounds a little harsh and cold to turn your back on your family to serve God first. We know that He wants us to honor our parents and our families. There are too many scriptures pointing us in that direction. The commitment to Him comes first then to everyone around us. When we make Him our first priority, the other falls in place as we grow in His Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit grow in our lives. There is an order in nature and there is an order to our lives when we put God first and trust Him with our lives. Our goal as Christian parents is to see our children grow up and be God's children so that one day there will be a grand family reunion in heaven. Not just our physical families but our church families who become family to us. When our children grow a little older and their families get a little older they have more demands and time constraints hinder our time together. When we as older parents fill those voids of time with good things the family can still be strong and each in his own way honor God. A parent's first priority after his commitment to God is to lead the family to Him and be an example. When you get so strung out doing too many things it can take away from the family and also from God's family because we cannot be all things to all people. It's a balancing act but with His guidance it can be done. There is no greater reward on this earth than seeing your children following God because we know our family will continue in Heaven. Encouragement is the gift we can give our children as they grow and fly into solid objects and get knocked down for a while. Just like those little birds. Have a great day everyone. Roots and wings. Sherron
What do you think lukewarm looks like? Is it evident on the outside, inside or both? I am thinking about this for myself not to judge others. I would love a bunch of scripture if all of you out there could give me some.
5 Kinds of Christians
Interesting.
Does any of this relate to “luke warmness”?
I think you determine a “luke warm” Christian by comparing his/her life with Scripture, where the “worthy” demands Jesus makes in our text are found. Those demands are a relationship with Jesus first and foremost, and that relationship produces a certain kind of human – being and doing.
I think for example of the section in Ephesians (4:17 - 6:21) that the NIV titles “Living as Children of Light.” It begins with these words:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul continues to unpack just what a relationship with Jesus looks like by talking about issues that we all face: anger, speech, sexuality, etc.
I got this email from Darrin C. yesterday.
I came across Ezekiel 16:49 and wanted to share it with you. The context is God’s displeasure because of the faithlessness of Jerusalem. What was Sodom’s condemning sin? In Genesis we are told their sin was “grievous”, the word “wicked” is used, and we know that there was homosexuality involved (Gen. 19:5), but look at how God summed up their sin through the prophet:
(NIV) 49 Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
(ESV) 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
Tallest US Man Is 7-Foot-8 Va. Deputy
How would like to be pulled over by this guy?
Here’s a weird one for you.
Falling Cow Smashes Van
Hey everyone,
Since I'm not sure if we're still doing the prayer blog, I thought I would drop this here.
I have a buddy here at work that's girlfriend passed away this morning in Columbus. She was having surgery for some pretty minor things earlier in the week and was supposed to come back home this week. An infection set in, they went in to see if they could find the problem, organs started shutting down and she passed away this morning at around 6:00.
Her name is Wendy Hall, she was only 36. I don't think she had God in her life and Dave doesn't either. He's pretty torn up right now, but I expect the anger and bitterness is going to set in soon. He's also a diabetic and lives by himself. I'm a little worried that he won't take care of himself.
Please just say a prayer for his comfort and health. His name is Dave Egly.
Thanks,
Brent
Here's a great post from Mike Cope. This is related, in my mind, to our text this week.
The story of Obadiah begins in Genesis 25 with the birth of the twins: hairy (Esau) and heel-grabber (Jacob). Rebekah was told that two nations were in her womb — more, I think, than most women are wanting to hear. The older would serve the younger.
Fast forward to Deuteronomy (2:1-8; 23:7) and you learn that this relationship still mattered centuries later when the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land after the exodus. The Edomites (descendents of Esau) were to be treated respectfully, because they were relatives.
This area of Edom was just south of the Dead Sea — about 70 miles north-to-south and just 15 or 20 miles east-to-west. It’s a hilly area that felt to the residents like secure protection.
One famous Edomite in the New Testament was (apparently) Herod the Great. His father, Antipater, was an Idumean, or an Edomite. Herod married into the Jewish royal family and kept the Jewish law. Ok, some of the Jewish law. He had minor lapses like the propensity for killing off family members.
Despite the warnings to treat the kinsmen Edomites well, when you move ahead many centuries later, the Edomites are roundly condemned. Check out Psalm 137, Lamentations 4, Ezekiel 25 and 35, and Jeremiah 49.
There’s something vile the Edomites did when Neduchadnezzar and the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. But what was that?
It’s in Obadiah that we find out.
For the most part, their sins were not sins of commission but of omission. While Jerusalem was attacked, they kept their distance from the south, up in their mountainous crags, and cheered on the defeat of Judah. They are the nanner-nanner-nanner people of the Bible.
Their central offense appears to be that they stood by when they should have stood with their relatives being attacked.
If that’s true, then could this, the shortest book in the Old Testament, be a piece of prophetic literature that has a fresh word for the church today?
It invites us to ask how we are standing by rather than standing with. Wasn’t that what offended so many religious types about Jesus? He kept stepping into the messes of the world. He refused to stand at a distance condemning.
The conflict at his home town synagogue (Luke 4:16ff) was over his examples of how God wants his people to move beyond their own safe, gated communities. His story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16) highlights the evil of standing by while another is in need. (Note that there’s no evidence the rich man was actively doing harm. He just stood by.) When he talked of judgment (Matthew 25), the key questions weren’t about obtuse questions of doctrine but about standing by or standing with. When you see him naked, thirsty, hungry, and in prison, what is your response?
Obadiah says that the moutains of Seir would not protect the Edomites: “‘Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,’ declares the Lord.”
Apparently God takes this seriously. His final evaluation isn’t based on the edict: “Do no harm.” It goes beyond that: when we see Lazarus . . . when we see the person beaten along the road to Jericho . . . when we see someone hungry, hurting, or lost — what is our response?
Do we stand by? or stand with?
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