Month: August 2023

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QTVOTD: Not My Best Moments…

My reading today was the first 4 verses of Luke 11 which is Jesus answering one of the disciples’ questions about how to pray. Luke’s recollection of this moment is a little brief compared to Matthew’s.

The reason I have titled this QTVOTD the way I have is because I kind of got into it with my oldest daughter tonight. She is not in the best form right now and I don’t think anyone would disagree but nothing she could do or poor treatment she could throw my way, could remove any of the responsibility I have to honor the Lord in my response and character with her. I was raised in a generation where respect was something that was prevalent, and we were taught to treat others a certain way. This started with being responsible for your actions and behavior. When I interpret behavior coming from my daughter as disrespect, I get “triggered” (to use one of her words). So, when I look at the ‘triggering’…what the source of that triggering is; it is a deep-seated set of rights I feel for the way I should be treated and respected.

When I look at the Lord’s prayer today it becomes clear Who my focus should be on in fear of disappointing should be…

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

Luke 11:2-4 [ESV]

“Father, hallowed be YOUR name” — Not Ben’s name.

“Your Kingdom come” — My thoughts should not be on a yearning to receive more respect from my daughter here on earth but an anticipation of the coming of the Lord’s rule over everything…including my life…which can start now.

“Give us each day our daily bread” — As a sinner and worthy of the wrath my sin deserves, bread is an awesome provision for someone who deserves death…but no, God in His Mercy sent my Savior to rescue me from that certainty.

“and forgive us our sins,” — This should be a prayer I am praying every 5 minutes.

“for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” — Dog gone it!! Every part of this prayer is touching on very raw nerves…too soon Lord!

“and lead us not into temptation” — James 1:13 tells us that God does not tempt us, in that, I recognize my weakness and the ease with which I give way to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, I have to pray to be delivered from them all and being responsible for my actions when I see the temptation to burst out in anger coming, I must lean into the strength of God to resist…and forgive.

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BITE: Communion…

Today I had the honor of leading all four services at Canyon Hills in communion. This activity we do as Christian’s is so special and important to our faith.

For this BITE I am going to post my notes that I used today. Kind of a cool way to record these in a way I can reference them later.

Opening:

  • As I prepared for leading us in communion this week, the Lord laid the significance of this ‘Physical’ action connected with the ‘Spiritual’ acknowledgement and remembrance of God’s Son and what has been completed for us on the cross.
  • As we prepare our hearts for this time, it is important to remember a few truths.

Truths:

  1. We remember who we were before the Lord called us to Himself; separated from Him and without Hope.  We realized that there was nothing we could do of our own power or might to earn our way into Eternity with Him.
  2. Now we sit here looking back to that surrender to Him knowing we have been justified through our faith in Christ.
  3. [Galatians 3:13-14] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us
  4. BUT…We forget!  We walk out of church and into the hustle and bustle of life and all of its distractions.  The noise of our circumstances and situations pushes us into self-sufficiency and feeling the burden of life’s challenges.
  5. Even the apostle Paul says in [Romans 7:22 – 8:1]
    • 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
  6. Communion is a break from the worldly onslaught on our flesh to remember who we are in Gospel story of Salvation.  Jesus asks us to remember what He ‘did’ on the cross…a once and for all payment of our sins.  We are to remember His body broken for our sin, His blood washing away EVERY sin. 
  7. This spiritual acknowledgement through taking of the bread and the cup reminds us that He is our HOPE, the price has been paid, He stands in the place of our sin as a Living Sacrifice.

What is our response?

  • Acknowledgement of WHO Jesus is…the resurrected Savior of our lives Who LIVES today at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.
  • Acknowledge who we are in our sin and flesh and therefore the value of the gift of grace we have received in Jesus Christ
  • A renewed commitment in this realization to move forward in deliberate service to our Savior within this life under the sun

A warning:

Communion is for believers and must be done with the right heart.

Paul tells us in [1 Corinthians 11:27-29] – Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Time of personal prayer and reflection – allow congregation 50 – 60 seconds of personal prayer and heart preparation.

Take communion:

  • [1 Corinthians 11:23-25] …the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
    • Let’s take the bread together now.
  • In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
    • Let’s drink the cup together now.

Prayer:

  • Thank you Lord God for the beauty and gift of Communion.
  • We pray Lord that your Holy Spirit would be alive in us this week to stay afresh in this mindset and spiritual connection with You.
  • Lord be with us as we continue in worship to You; glorifying and praising you for all that You are.
  • We ask these things in the name of You Son the Lord Jesus Christ – AMEN
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BITE: Ben, Ben…

My time in actual devotions was short today as I continued my preparation for leading the church body in communion tomorrow.

My passage was Luke 10:38-42. This is a very interesting conversation between Jesus and Martha after she had invited Him into her home to teach to those who were with Him. Martha had a sister, Mary who lived with her. While Jesus was teaching, Martha was running all around trying to finalize all the preparations for hosting all that were in her home. Rather than help Martha with all of these preparations, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to His teaching. Martha was so frustrated with Mary not helping her that she went to Jesus to get His help in petitioning Mary to help her – Jesus’ response was priceless.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42 [ESV]

I literally chuckled to myself when I read this but after thinking about what Jesus was saying, I became quite convicted about what I let come before my time at the feet of the Lord (in my quiet time with Him each day). “One thing is necessary, and Mary has CHOSEN the good portion…” There is no doubt that what Martha was doing was important but listening to the Lord was more important still. It will be awfully hard to say ‘Yes’ to that other thing that is vying for my time before my time with the Lord in His word each day.

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QTVOTD: Show Mercy…

Today I read through Luke’s recalling of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The man who was beaten had been walking from Jerusalem to Jericho; a distance of about 17 miles and the road descends more than 3,000 feet. It is the kind of wild country in which robbers might well be safe.

As the story goes, the man was left “half dead”. When the first traveler (a priest) came by the man, he walked by on the other side. This is likely because the man on the the road being half dead might appear to the priest as ‘dead’ and for the priest to touch him would make him ceremonially unclean (Lev 21:1ff). In this case ceremonial cleanliness won the day over assisting a man in need.

Next a Levite, also concerned with ceremonial purity, went by on the side as well; avoiding the man in need of help.

Then to the astonishment of the reader, in view of the traditional bitterness between Jew and Samaritan, a Samaritan was the last person who might have been expected to help. But this man had compassion on the sufferer. He attended to him as best he could on the spot. He put the injured man on his own beast (meaning the Samaritan would have to walk) and then checked him into an inn and cared for him further. When the Samaritan needs to leave, he gave the inn keeper 2 dinari for his trouble told him to take care for the man…if more money was needed, he would pay the inn keeper when he returned. According to the historian Polybius, a man could secure accommodation in inns in Italy in his time (c. 150 BC) for half an as a day, i.e. 1/32 of a denarius. If rates in Palestine at this period were at all comparable, the Samaritan was paying for about two months’ board.

Application:

If I am being truthful with myself, I can’t be sure I would stop and help; I hope I would. What Jesus is saying to the lawyer in this story is that caring for others goes above sacrament. Care for our neighbor is the second most important command after “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”. I have made one of the top two goals at work to “invest in people” but I feel convicted to take this a step further.

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BITE: Not Too Fast…Not an Endorsement of Faith by Works…

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”  And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28 [ESV]

Some see this passage as a formal commendation of the way of works. If you want a way of salvation by doing works, this is it (with the implication that you won’t be able to do it). It is more likely that it is a word against faith-by-works. It is not what we do, considered as a work that counts toward merit, that matters, but our attitude. If we really love God in the way of which Jesus speaks, then we rely on him, not ourselves. This kind of love is our response to God’s love for us, not the cause of his acceptance of us. Jesus is not commending a new system of legalism different from the old one, but pointing to the end of all legalism. The lawyer wanted a rule or a set of rules that he could keep and so ‘merit ‘deserve’ eternal life. Jesus is telling him that eternal life is not a matter of keeping rules at all. To live in love is to live the life of the Kingdom of God. When we recognize the importance of the realm of the soul and spirit; if that area is sound, our whole person is well. Our attitude towards God determines the rest. If we really love Him, we love our neighbor too.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:20
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QTVOTD: Only Those Who Jesus Wills, Can Know the Father…

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Luke 10:22 [ESV]

I LOVE this! It is through Jesus and only through Jesus that people come to know the Father as He is.

When I look back on my life as a believer, I can see that I could never have known the Father until I had the Son IN me and I IN Him. When I read God’s Word and the Living Word speaks to me through the interpretation the Holy Spirit gives me, I am able to see the character and person of God. I see His mercy, kindness, grace, love, and holiness. This knowledge leads to a Fear of the Lord because I have been given a glimpse of the Father through the person of Jesus.

Application:

It is only through a consistent closeness with Jesus that I can know the Father. There is a really important word in the verse above -> “Chooses”. Jesus has to Choose to reveal the Father to me…this needs to become part of my prayer routine…to ask Jesus to reveal the Father. The more I know God in all three persons, the more I will live with my view and focus on the hope of Heaven to come. I will also be more aligned to what the Lord’s direction in my life.