Nothing Changes?

ALL – Psalm 119:129-152
ALL – Proverbs 28:21-22
OT – Daniel 6:1-28
NT – 2 Peter 3:1-18

Interesting passage for the day: This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he ? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.” – 2 Peter 3:4, The Living Bible

Thought: We’re on the brink of 2011. And Jesus still hasn’t returned. Our expectation for His return is getting laughed at more and more in this modern/post-modern world, especially as the news highlights various “prophetic” claims to know the date of Jesus’ return. Of course, each date flies right by with no fulfillment.

Generations of Christians have passed away, waiting for our Lord’s return. It can be easy to question His promises, and it’s certainly tempting to believe scientists, philosophers and other scholars who announce to us that everything has simply followed the earth’s natural processes pretty much forever—since whenever the world was formed, anyways (and not by God, they say).

I love how the next verse begins in 2 Peter: “They deliberately forget this fact…” Peter mentions one unnatural change the world went through: the flood. When God sent His flood on the earth to cover the whole globe, that was a supernatural act of judgment. Secular people don’t want to believe it ever happened.

Here’s another event they deny: the Son of God’s incarnation, life, death and resurrection. The way that God entered human history certainly didn’t seem to change the world on the outside. Jesus looked like any other man, and His death looked like any other crucifixion. But His death was a history-changer, another of God’s acts of judgment against sin. The flood destroyed all humanity with our sins, except for Noah and his seven family members. But it could not conquer sin, because Noah himself was not pure. But Jesus’ death destroyed and judged all sin while leaving men and women around the world untouched—except for Jesus Himself, who died for us. Yes, we still experience sin today, but the cross was Part 1 of God’s judgment on sin, removing sin from everyone who trusts in Jesus without removing us from life. That’s a pretty significant historical change that those without faith deliberately forget.

And why do they forget it? Because they want to continue in their sins without remember Part 2 of God’s judgment on sin, when Jesus comes back. On that day, it will again be like the flood. God will send a flood of fire as a judgment to finally exterminate sin from among all the living. The fire will consume all sinners. Men and women will survive, but not sinners. The only survivors will be those whose sins were judged when Jesus died on the cross, those who will be transformed when Jesus returns so that not even a trace of sin remains in them. There will be no one to carry sin forward into the new creation at all.

Jesus is coming back. For sure. History has changed. All is not the same as it has always been. God has interacted with men. God has judged our sins before, and He’s planning one more major act of earthly judgment. Let’s not deliberately forget anything God tells us. Let’s listen. And let’s live accordingly.

Question: Does Jesus’ promised return scare you? Delight you? Trouble you? Bore you? How is your life different because Jesus has promised to return? If your life’s not different, why not?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

People-Pleaser Evangelism

ALL – Psalm 34:11-22
ALL – Proverbs 21:14-16
OT – Nehemiah 11:1-12:26
NT – 1 Corinthians 10:15-11:2

Interesting passage for the day: That is the plan I follow, too. I try to please everyone in everything I do, not doing what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them, so that they may be saved. – 1 Corinthians 10:33, The Living Bible

Thought: People-pleasing is often perceived as a bad thing. And it can be. When a desire to please people rises above a desire to please Jesus, we can be tempted to do shameful and foolish things. Because sometimes what pleases people is shameful and foolish.

But sometimes what pleases people is honorable. It may be honorable and ignorant, but it’s honorable. What do I mean by honorable and ignorant? I mean that sometimes people ask us to live up to really high standards—unnecessarily high standards (U.H.S.). People may be unaware (ignorant) of the fact that such high standards are unnecessary. But still, they are devoted to their high standards, and their high standards are honorable. Unnecessarily high, but honorable. And living up to those standards when it feels (is) unnecessary for us is another form of people-pleasing.

In Paul’s day, he dealt with whether or not to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Some people’s U.H.S. said that no one should ever eat meat sacrificed to idols. In our day, we deal with things like whether to ever drink beer or wine, for instance. Some people’s U.H.S. say that we should never touch the stuff. And these are not the only U.H.S. There are many more. But when people ask us to live up to these expectations, they are not asking us to be sinful or shameful. In such cases, people-pleasing can be honorable.

So the next time you feel like saying, “Uh… you know you don’t have to worry about that, right?” perhaps it would be better to follow Paul’s rule. Do some people-pleasing. Some honorable people-pleasing. Please others not just for the sake of making them happy, but so that you help them to see that Jesus Christ is more honorable than any standard they can set. Please people so that they can be saved and please Jesus.

Question: Why do we not want to live up to other people’s expectations? What do you think of people who are zealously disciplined about their standards? Why would you not want to be associated with that?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Even Jesus Scared His Parents

ALL – Psalm 60:1-12
ALL – Proverbs 11:15
OT – Numbers 26:1-51
NT – Luke 2:36-52

Boys will be boys. But usually we don’t think of Jesus that way. We don’t think of Him as the kind of boy who could upset His parents at all. We like to think that He was so aware of His parents’ desires and worries that He took care to never ever upset them—and that He succeeded. But even Jesus scared His parents. At least once.

They had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover, and afterwards they were traveling home in a large caravan of people. Mary and Joseph didn’t know where their twelve year old Jesus was, but they assumed that He was with other boys in the caravan. Oops! Bad assumption, it turned out. After realizing Jesus was missing and searching for Him about three days, they finally found Him in the temple.

His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son!” his mother said to him. Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” – Luke 2:48, The Living Bible

They were scared. Jesus had done something they didn’t expect. Not rudely. Not inconsiderately. Jesus’ response to this question indicates that He simply assumed they would know where He wanted to be: in the temple. So Jesus wasn’t inconsiderate. But somewhere along the way, Jesus’ choice and His parents’ expectations didn’t quite meet, and Jesus scared His parents by going missing for three days.

The passage concludes:

Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them; and his mother stored away all these things in her heart. – Luke 2:51, The Living Bible

Jesus may have been surprised that His parents were frantic and uncertain of where He was, but that didn’t make Him argumentative or disrespectful. He obeyed Mary and Joseph and honored them rather than mocking or ridiculing them for not understanding His way of thinking. Such an obedient—sinlessly obedient—son. And yet even Jesus scared His parents.

I wonder sometimes if we parents set our expectations too high, and it’s more our fault that we get scared than our kids’ faults. We need to teach our kids to be obedient, but to expect them never to surprise us, even by accident? That’s asking a lot.

It’s worth asking the question, “How might I be expecting too much of my kids?” Father, help me to be an understanding father, and Christy to be an understanding mother. And please, keep our kids from scaring us too badly…even if they’re doing good things.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

When Elijah Comes!

ALL – Psalm 22:1-18
ALL – Proverbs 5:7-14
OT – Exodus 2:11-3:22
NT – Matthew 17:10-27

Expectations exceed reality. Often.

The Jewish leaders were teaching that Elijah had to return before the Messiah was coming. If you know anything about Elijah, he was an amazing prophet and man of God, a man of wonderful character who boldly proclaimed that God was in charge and would hold even kings accountable. To the Jews and their teachers, the vision of Elijah’s return must have been mouth-watering. To have a man of Elijah’s stature appear, to see the miracles he did, to watch him boldly confront their Roman oppressors, protected by God’s own hand, would be glorious! They had high expectations.

But the disciples were following Jesus, and they couldn’t remember having seen Elijah. Which was a bit confusing considering that Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah. So they decided to ask Jesus about the idea that Elijah would come before the Messiah. And Jesus said:

They are right. Elijah must come and set everything in order. And, in fact, he has already come, but he wasn’t recognized, and was badly mistreated by many. And I, the Messiah, shall also suffer at their hands. – Matthew 17:11-12, The Living Bible

The disciples heard clearly:

Then the disciples realized he was speaking of John the Baptist. – Matthew 17:13

John the Baptist carried on Elijah’s ministry, boldly confronting sin. He confronted Romans, but he also confronted Jews, even Jewish leaders. That’s probably why they didn’t recognize him. Their imaginations had constructed a glorious Elijah who would be on their side rather than opposing them. John the Baptist didn’t fit those expectations. And as Jesus said, he “was badly mistreated by many.”

His mistreatment demonstrated the kind of reception Jesus the Messiah would receive, too. “I, the Messiah, shall also suffer at their hands.” And it helps us today to set better expectations for our walk with Jesus. The world’s not going to run up and pat us on the back. They won’t see anything special in us. They’ll mock us for trusting in a man who lived and died 2000 years ago, they’ll mock our claim that He has any power today, and they’ll ignore us or mistreat us fairly frequently. True religion is not about having everything go our way. True religion is about going Jesus’ way, even if it doesn’t feel so good.

So let’s follow Him together.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.