Volume 8 Post/Email 6 – Daily Bread
Three weeks ago I prayed the Lord's prayer for 2 consecutive weeks as part of my daily praying. One request that has become more meaningful for me as a result is the phrase, "Give us this day our daily bread."
I could have titled this message "Daily Prayer." Instead, I have chosen "Daily Bread," because Jesus teaches us to pray specifically for daily bread.
What does this mean? For what are we asking?
In my judgment, this has two meanings, if not more.
One, we are communicating our need and desire for our heavenly Father to provide our basic resources for living. We confess our dependence upon Him for food.
What a simple, yet important need and request! It is humbling and sobering to mentally clarify, understand, and accept that we even need God for food.
Two, we are expressing our need for Jesus. Jesus is the Bread of Life, and we need Him daily!
We need both physical bread for living, and spiritual bread for life!
Ultimately, we need Jesus for sustenance and nourishment!
Reflection Question: Am I receiving a steady, daily diet of bread (Jesus)?
-Brian
Volume 8 Post/Email 5 – Servant Leadership
The temptation of power is a matter any leader can face - political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power. What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible?
Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God and easier to control people than to love people.
Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" We ask, "Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your kindgom?"
Ever since the snake said, "The day you eat of this tree your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good from evil" (Gen. 3:5), we have been tempted to replace love with power.
We learn from Jesus (both his teaching and example) that true spiritual leadership is servant leadership.
Reflection Question: Do I love people or try to control people?
Remember that love (agape) is action. To love others is to help and serve them, not to use and dominate them.
-Brian
Volume 8 Post/Email 4 – Jesus’ Humility
1. Consider the commencement of His ministry. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus opens with "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3) The very first words of His proclamation about the kingdom reveal that it comes to the poor, who have nothing in themselves.
2. Jesus offers himself as Teacher, stating "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:29) Humility is our salvation.
3. The disciples had been disputing among themselves who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and had agreed to ask the Master (Luke 9:46-48 ; Matthew 18:2-3). In the first story, he answers, "He who is least among you all - he is the greatest." In the second story, He placed a child in their midst and said, "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." The question ('Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?') is far-reaching. The answer is surprising. The least is the greatest.
4. The Sons of Zebedee asked Jesus if they could sit on His right hand and on his left, the highest places in the kingdom. Jesus said it was not His to give but the Father's, who would give to those for whom it was prepared. They must not seek it or ask for it. And then He added, "Whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." (Matthew 20:27-28) The lowliest is the nearest to God.
5. Speaking to the multitudes and the disciples, of the Pharisees and their love of the chief seats, Jesus said once again, "The greatest among you will be your servant." (Matthew 23:11) Humble servanthood is the only ladder to honor in God's kingdom.
6. On another occasion, in the house of a Pharisee, He spoke the parable of the guest who would be invited to move higher, and added, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:11) There is no other way. Self-abasement alone will be exalted.
7. After the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, Jesus spoke again, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14) In the temple and the presence and worship of God, everything is worthless that is not pervaded by deep, true humility toward God and mankind.
8. After washing the disciples' feet, Jesus said, "Now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." (John 13:14) The authority of command and example, every thought, either of obedience or conformity, make humility the first and most essential element of discipleship.
How little this is preached. How seldom it is practiced. How faintly the lack of it is felt or confessed. One cannot say how few attain to some recognizable measure of likeness to Jesus in his humility. How little the world has seen it. How scarcely it is seen in the inner circle of the church.
Here is the path to the higher life. It is the lowest path!
That is God's work. We are to humble ourselves, and take no place before God or man but that of a servant.
Jesus, the meek and lowly One, calls us to learn of Him the path to God, and to His favor and joy in kingdom living!
-Brian
Volume 8 Post/Email 3 – Divine Purpose
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I, send me!" (Isaiah 6:5-8)
Is this not a picture of grace? As Isaiah experiences God's holiness or otherness, he feels his personal unworthiness. Yet God, through one of his angels, provides atonement for his sin and removes the guilt!
Furthermore, the LORD's voice speaks in Isaiah's presence, questioning whom he shall send, providing Isaiah with the opportunity to go.
In this story we are reminded of the dual nature of God's calling for Christians. The divine purpose for us is two-fold. We are called to love God and love others. We are called to communion first - being together and seeing together with God. We are called to commission second - serving together and sacrificing together with God.
2 Timothy 2:21 reads, "If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work."
Each day is an opportunity to be holy and useful to God. Because of his grace, we can be vessels or instruments for noble purposes. We can be ministers or servants who focus on doing good works.
We are all unclean and unworthy without the mercy of Christ. Through his mercy we are justified and set apart for divine purpose or holy living.
Everyday let God use you as a Christian neighbor, parent, spouse, friend and member in the Lord's church. Remember: Each day God has a divine purpose for your life! "Here am I LORD, use me!"
-Brian
Volume 8 Post/Email 2 – Renewed Vision
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:14-17)
We used to be a scorekeeper or faultfinder. We stood with the Pharisees, stones in hand, staring at a woman caught in adultery. All we could see was a sinner needing punishment. Now, we stand with Christ, in Christ, beholding a daughter needing love. (John 8:1-11)
We used to stand with the disciples, disgusted by a Gentile woman, an outsider who had the nervee to ask our Messiah for help. Now, we stand in Christ and behold through his eyes a woman of great faith and great love. (Matthew 15:21-28)
Once we stood with Peter, seeing Cornelius and his friends as "unclean," because they were different from us; now, we behold people "in Christ," beyond the old categories of us and them, clean and unclean. (Acts 10:1-48)
We are a new creation, experiencing a new reality in Christ! We see ourselves differently. We see others differently. All things are new, and better! The old has gone! We now live with renewed vision and purpose for Christ.
-Brian