expecting nothing

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:35-36

God is merciful to a world that ignores and rejects Him. He sent His Son, Jesus, into that world. And Jesus was rejected by an angry mob that crucified Him. God raised His Son from the dead, and left behind a church that believes and preaches eternal salvation and abundant living for any who would believe and follow Jesus. And that message is changing those who believe, even as it is increasingly scoffed and rejected in the world. God continues to show mercy so that some may come to Jesus. He asks us to be the same way.

I write these words on a Monday morning, the traditional start of a “work week” for most folks in my culture. I will soon dig into my daily agenda, start answering messages and working a plan for today and beyond to be what we often call “productive”. It is results-focused living. It looks for something to come from the effort. But now I must take as my first organizing thought this command from Jesus: “Be merciful... be merciful as God is merciful.”

Very practical concepts from Jesus are behind the call to be merciful like the Father. I must love enemies as Jesus loved them. He died for them. I must give away my time and my money, not lend it for gain. I must expect nothing in return for this commitment to be loving, good, and generous to those around me. I should expect them to provide no productive gain. I should rather expect to experience some rejection, ungratefulness, and perhaps even evil treatment in response to this. My reward is greater than what they can give me. It comes by being a son of God through Christ.

Doing these things, I will then know how God is treated in His mercy. And then my heart will be changed to be merciful as the Father is merciful. This will please the Father. And that is the finest result!

Pressing On

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Philippians 3:12

I’m not there yet...

not even close

Sometimes I see it...

my heavenly goal

Over the crest of life’s hill

I can catch the faint sight

but then the sun goes down

and in fading light

I press on

It’s getting near...

my final day

when I will be home

with Jesus to stay

The journey is constant

as I take the path

that will only end

at my death...

So I press on

I want to see Jesus...

make life with Him my own

And I long to be forever

in my Savior’s heavenly home

I can do this because

He first saved me

I will dwell with Him

In a glorious eternity...

I will press on

the sum of truth

The sum of your word is truth,

and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Psalm 119:160

Add up all that the Bible says and you get one result: TRUTH. God’s Word is the truth. It is all true... every book, every chapter, every teaching, and every word. The search for life-changing truth begins and ends in the Bible. It is what I know I need. And I will dwell there.

The world however is a very unreliable source of truth. It is too changeable. It is full of conflicting viewpoints. It is deceptive and will lie convincingly to us. Search for truth on the internet... You won’t find any of it you can trust now in the era of the “Deep Fake” video and the insta-famous celebrity. I cannot trust what humans say is true. I will be disappointed and deceived.

But I can trust what God says. In the Bible I have deeply tested truth that has carried generations of believers through good times and bad times for millennia. I have the Word of my Creator to show me all that really is. I have the Word of my Savior to show me how He wants me to change and grow. I have the Word of God to show me how to worship and please Him. I have the truth and every bit of it lasts forever.

growing over time

Long have I known from your testimonies

that you have founded them forever.

Psalm 119:152

Although I feel like the very first word of this verse is my personal experience with scripture, I in no way possible, even come close to trusting God and His Word as fully as I should. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God still must daily chip away at what does not look like Jesus in me. Long I have known the surety of the scriptures. And I have a long way still to go. Repentance, faith, and growth in understanding the Bible are a constant and consistent daily need in me and will be my lifestyle until I die.

Growth has happened. I live substantially different (and better spiritually) in my fifties than I did in my twenties. For that I am so thankful! The Word of God that is founded forever is bringing me so much. It will lead me well into the autumn and winter of my life, where I hope to still see God bless the “long obedience in the same direction” (a great term for the Christian life coined by the late Eugene Petersen).

The stability of scripture sustains me at a “pilgrim’s pace” (to switch to Bunyan’s ageless analogy now). The daily drip of an infusion of God’s mind and thoughts via the intake of scripture are what I always need. Long I have known His testimonies. May I know them even longer for they will sustain me, as I follow them to Jesus, every day... until my last earthly day opens my soul up into living forever with my Lord!

Sickos

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31-32

When I am least cognizant of my status as a sinner, I am least aware of my Savior. But when I readily search my heart and know the sins I’ve done and the depth of sin of which I am capable, I lean hard into heeding Jesus’ call to repent and turn to Him. I need a physician for this sick heart. I need a Savior for my sins. I need Jesus, for I am not well and I am not righteous!

Jesus upset the religious elite by His constant association with people they deemed “sinners”. Everyone came to hear Jesus preach the truth and to receive His healing touch. The mercy He gave to sinners... a mercy consisting of common conversation and the power of His presence, was vastly different from the separationist policies of the Pharisees. Jesus saved from the midst of a crowd of broken, sinful people. He was with them. He lived among them. He ate at their tables, talked with them, challenged them, healed them, and made them His disciples.

Lord Jesus,

I want my heart to be forgiven of my great sin, so I will live with an awareness of the redemption You bring. I also want to freely follow You among a crowd of unpretentious sick people in line for You, the Great Doctor, to make them whole. You are the friend of despised people and outcasts. You are the friend of sinners. Help me to love sinners who need You as much as I need You!

Amen

wonderful word

Your testimonies are wonderful;

therefore my soul keeps them.

Psalm 119:129

I find joy

in what You say

Your living word

shows the way

I should follow

every day

In Your word

I delight

it fills my days

calms my night

as You speak to me

what is right

I find the truth

of Your Word

showing me

my precious Lord

pointing me home

heavenward

Wonder and delight are

what I’ve found

in scriptures pages

my joy abounds

I will keep enjoying while

glory bound

gifts of faith and suffering

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Philippians 1:29-30

There are two gracious gifts through Christ that Paul mentions to the believers in the Philippian church. The first it the gift of faith in the gospel of Jesus. This gift from God had saved them. The second gift is one we may be tempted to see as something less that a gift of God’s grace. But suffering for the sake of faith is a blessing granted by God. It shows the genuine nature of faith. It strengthens belief in the gospel. It extends the reach of the gospel. It draws those under persecution closer to their Lord.

Paul reminds the church at Philippi that their sufferings for the sake of Jesus root them closer to Christ and closer to Paul’s own experience of persecution. When the gospel is under attack, the church unifies around Jesus. The gospel is strengthened. The church endures. The gift of faith often expands in the experience of persecution.

An evil age despises a holy Savior. And His church will also be hated. Christianity grew rapidly as the gospel was watered by the blood of Christian martyrs. And though Jesus had been brutalized by Roman whips, He is now our risen and living Lord! Death could not stop Him from saving us! It will not stop the gospel we love and proclaim.

“And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us...”