Pay is Not a Gift

Is it payday yet?  We all like it when our check comes in and we receive our payment for the work we have done.  You may love your job and the work that you do, but you still want to get paid!  You still want to receive your just reward for the time and energy you put into your work.  But this concept of getting paid for work sometimes messes with our concept of God and grace.  We have a hard time wrapping our heads around the concept that we can't earn grace and love from God.  

Romans 4:4-5  A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. 5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

It is hard for us to accept that God gives us grace freely if we just believe and have faith.  It makes so much more since to us to earn God's grace.  If I can just be good enough and clean up my bad habits, then I maybe I will be good enough for God to forgive my sins and accept me as his child.  But when we approach God in this manner we find we are never good enough and we can't clean our lives up enough.  

Only when we surrender to the reality that what God is offering can't be earned can we accept is as the gift that it is!  After I receive it as a gift I long to show my gratitude to God by living His way and not my way.  I long to honor God with my life and not just honor myself.  I realize that following God's way is the best possible life for me!  I long to discipline my life to put myself in a place to keep this relationship with God because His grace and love are amazing!  

Betrayal

Betrayal is one of the most painful experiences of life.  To have someone you care about, someone you trust, someone you counted on, turn against you is very painful. It takes someone close to us to really hurt us, or at least the closer the betrayer the more severe the pain seems.  

Betrayal is usually painful because it tends to take some planning.  Judas agreed to betray Jesus and then it says in Matthew 26:16  From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.  Judas had opportunity to change his mind and to take a different course of action.  It wasn't a spare moment decision - it was intentional and planned out. 

Betrayal is also part of the human experience.  We have all betrayed others and we have all been betrayed.  I think this is partly why it was prophesied and fulfilled that Jesus would be betrayed.  To remind us that Jesus experienced the same things that we experience.  He knows our deep pain of betrayal.  

I know in my life betrayal has lead to a deepening of my trust in God.  When my support system crumbles at my feet, I learn to depend and trust in Him a little more every day.  How will you act/react the next time you are betrayed?  How will you act/react the next time you betray a friend? 

Let's Just Hold On Until Jesus Comes

It often seems to me like the church in our day has gotten to the place where we are so confused about what to do that we have decided to do nothing.  We have given up on the political process because we have been burned.  We have given up on culture battles because we have made so little progress.  We feel like if we share our opinion we are labeled as haters and misunderstood.  

But Jesus reminds us in his parable about three servants who are given money to invest that the one servant who did nothing with what was given to him was the servant that the king reprimanded.  

Matthew 25:24-27  “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

So doing nothing with all that God has blessed us with is seen by God as being wicked and lazy.  Not just lazy!  Wicked.  

Of course the good news is that in the same chapter we are informed of what to do when you don't know what to do.  Serve other people and especially serve those people around you who need help and are marginalized by society.  

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’  (Matthew 25:40)

Three Names

In Matthew 23:8-12 Jesus is teaching about the problems with the Jewish religious leaders of the day and he says:   “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Don't call anyone Rabbi or teacher.  The word literally means "great in number." Someone who has great knowledge to pass on to others.  

Don't call anyone Father.  The word means one who imparts life and is committed to it.  

Don't call anyone Christ.  The word means the anointed one of God.  

Some take this concept literally and don't call anyone teacher, father or Christ. Other people use these terms liberally without thought of this passage being literally applied.  

It seems to me a good application is to put God first in these three areas of my life.  God first in my knowledge and wisdom.  I seek knowledge first and foremost from the Lord.  Other teachers and insights are great, but the Bible and the Holy Spirit are my primary teachers.  God is also first in providing and sustaining my life.  I realize that without Him I am nothing and I can't make it a second without Him.  Jesus is my one and only anointed Savior!  He continues to rescue me and I must continue to depend on Him!