THIRD SUNDAY

Ah, Sunday.  The day of rest. 

We’ve gone through a heavy path this week, and I think we need to take a rest.  To just be still, and be aware of GOD.

Lent, I think, is not about making ourselves suffer, but about using our self-denial to keep us focused on GOD.  Fasting and self-denial must never be our end in itself; we need to remember that the only reason we are even trying to be good is so that we can come closer to GOD. 

If we spend our whole day with a long face, bemoaning the grumbling in our tummy and the lack of sugar/chocolate/sleep we will never do anyone any good.  More importantly, we will fall into bed at the end of the day, having tried so hard to ‘be good’ that we forget who we are being good for. 

So let’s take a moment, and rest in is presence.

You know you want to, and so does He.

Day 16 : Maturity

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

We have a simple faith, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to be stupid.  GOD never told anyone to be stupid.  (I know, I looked it up.)

When we first pick up the Bible, we probably won’t understand it.  I’ve been reading it for 25 years and it still tells me a new story every time I listen.  It was given to us as a gift, and failing to understand it is to reject that gift.

We won’t all be scholars, we might take our entire lives to to get to the same place that someone else starts at.

But the willingness to grow is what is important.  To seek to learn more.  The writer to the Hebrews says “by constant use [they] have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”  It doesn’t say they are smarter than anyone else, or more gifted.  It says they have “trained themselves” by “constant use.”

Am I willing to grow, or am I just wanting to rest on my salvation and let others do my thinking for me?

Day 15 : Tenderness

 

Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. (2 Kings 22:19)

 

Not everyone was so lucky.  This verse comes out of a larger prophecy, presented to the King of Judah, where GOD warns that he will destroy the people.  He does however promise that he will not do so until the King is dead, because the King showed a willingness to weep.

TENDERNESS

What does being tender mean?  In this context, it doesn’t mean being soft, or weak.  It means being willing to hurt over things that have gone wrong.  The King felt pain for the sin his people had brought upon themselves, and he humbled himself and wept for it.

I think this is something we lose today, especially men.  We think we have to be tough, and hard.  But we still need to be tender.  To have a place where we allow GOD to touch us, and hurt us.  We spoke earlier this week about letting GOD break our hearts for others, well I think this is the same thing.  We need to be open to his (painful) touch as much as his healing touch. 

Be a man (or woman) of GOD today, and be tender. 
Be open, and willing.

Day 14: Compassion

During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." (Luke 8:1-3)

I think we all know how this story ends: Jesus takes loaves and fishes, and feeds the multitude.

But it all started with a spirit of…

COMPASSION

With some love in action, Jesus showed where his heart was.  Yesterday we asked GOD to give us hearts for others, and to break them when his heart is breaking.  Now today we need to pray for compassion.  Compassion goes beyond feeling for others, to actually doing for them.

It’s not just love, it’s love with skin on it.

What can I do for others today?  Where can I show compassion?

 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
(1 Corinthians 13:1)

Day 13 : Sensitivity

Luke 10:30-37 tells us the story of the Good Samaritan.  It ends with the verse “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."  Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

SENSITIVITY

What we sometimes struggle with each day, and by we I mean me of course, is that there is so much to do in the world.  Do we feed starving children, or starving adults?  Is it better to volunteer at the hospital or the soup kitchen?  If I send my money to mission, am I neglecting those closer to home?

The world is full of needs, and there are just too many to meet.

I think though, that GOD gives us a spirit of openness of heart, a sort of sensitivity to what he wants to place on our hearts.  We need to look for it each day.  To ask him to give us a part of his heart, a heart for certain people, or places.  Then when we feel our hearts breaking for that person or peoples, we know we need to do something about it.

So today, I am going to try and follow my heart, and see where, or to whom, it leads me.

Day 12 : Loyalty

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)

 

I love the book of Ruth.  I think it is like the entire story of the Bible cut down to four chapters.  And running through it all is the spirit of…

LOYALTY

 

Ruth was loyal to the relationship she had built with Naomi, despite the fact that it was not easy for her.  She didn’t just follow her when she could do something for her, but when Naomi lost everything, and went back to her own people, Ruth risked danger and suffering to follow her.

Are we loyal to people, and GOD, because of what they can do for us, or because it is the right thing to do?

Loyalty I think means we need to be honest with them, and ourselves, and that we need to think of them all the time.

How can I work on being loyal today? 

Day 11 : Availability

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 6:8)

 

I think we are all familiar with this verse, when Isaiah shows a willingness to go; a spirit of …

AVAILABILITY

Are we available?  Are we willing to go?

Have we told him that?

 

I know that GOD knows everything, even what is on our heart before we do, but this is not about being ready to go where we are sent, it is about being ready to go, before we are called.   Isaiah received the call, and he was ready; he didn’t have to think about it, because he wanted to do what GOD wanted of him.  He had the right spirit.

Today, I will be focusing on making sure that I am available for whatever GOD calls me to do; whether it is a mission to Ethiopia, or to put money into a beggars tin.  I will say to him “Here I am, send me.” And mean it!