SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2009
PSALM 23
DEUTERONOMY 9:23-10:22
MATTHEW 11:20-30
Sunday mornings are tough to get on here and write much unless I do it ahead of time (which I didn’t today), so this will be short.
It was 56 in our house this morning. No, I still have not turned the heat on, but will probably turn it on this afternoon.
We start today with the 23rd Psalm. I think most of us have it memorized. It is so comforting and so much has been said about it. Our Lord is a great shepherd. He takes care of us in so many ways, even getting me up and out of bed and to church on a day like today. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” but we know and are confident that we “shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Heaven is our home.
Moses continues to remind the Israelites of their past sins in his pre-entering the Promise Land speech. I’m sure they were standing there wishing he would finish so they could go. And I’m sure the last thing they wanted to be reminded of was their past mistakes. But, his speech goes on.
Jesus seems to have caught a little of Moses’ fire and brimstone. He denounces a few cities who were less than enthusiastic, but then He goes on to promise, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He knows our woes and He knows our grief. He comes to us to comfort us.
Well, I have to get ready for church. Thanks for listening. Have a blessed Sunday.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009
PSALM 119:97-104
DEUTERONOMY 11:1-25
MATTHEW 12:1-21
Happy Monday! Hey, at least it’s not 20 degrees out. We are up, breathing, taking in nourishment. Life is fine.
The Psalm hit is right on the head, we are wiser, have more understanding, and in better shape when we listen to and obey God’s Law. If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves, we are smarter than the average bear. If we were to meditate on God’s Law all day long, we wouldn’t have time to sin. Life would be grand. To be sure, we would still have trouble. Jesus followed God’s will perfectly and look what happened to Him. But even with trouble coming our way, if we were keeping God’s will, we would be in good standing with God and that’s all that matters.
The fact of the matter is that through faith in Jesus, we are perfect and in good standing with God. And it is with that knowledge in mind, that we strive to keep the Commandments, not because we have to, but because we want to out of thanksgiving.
Moses keeps on preaching to the people. My guess is that he knew that this was his last sermon and that he was going to die once he was finished and so he’s in no hurry to wrap it up. But I do have to say, I love verses 18 to 21. It reminds us to constantly be in the Word. Our every waking moment should be focused on the Word of God so that we live long upon the earth.
The our Lord Jesus puts things in perspective concerning the commands of the Old Testament. To be sure, we should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But in Jesus day, their prohibition to refrain from working, went much too far. To be sure, one should not harvest the fields on the Sabbath. But that’s not what the disciples were doing. They were just picking some drain heads, rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. THEY WERE HUNGRY!!! There wasn’t a McDonald’s to visit and it was free. They probably didn’t even break a sweat.
That’s similar to Jesus healing the man with the withered hand. Here we have the almighty God, Jesus Christ, co-creator of the universe. I don’t think heal a guys hand was too difficult for Him. It wasn’t brain surgery. It was a simple act of love on His part. But the Pharisees get all bent out of shape and begin to “conspire against him, how to destroy him.” They weren’t nice people.
Well, it’s going to be busy week. I think I have meetings every night this week. I love meetings. And then, then next weekend I get to travel to Detroit to celebrate my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. So much fun. Have a blessed day.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13
PSALM 111
DEUTERONOMY 11:26-12:12
MATTHEW 12:22-37
So, what does this tell you? I got an email last night that confirmed that my copy of the Lutheran Study Bible would be delivered on Wednesday. So all night last night I’m dreaming that I’m highlighting my new Lutheran Study Bible. Do you think I have a slight fixation or obsession with this?
Pastor Heinert is big on narrowing all the religions in the world down to two: man’s religion and God’s religion. Man’s religion is that we (human’s) have to do something to earn salvation. God’s religion is that God through Christ Jesus has done everything for us to be saved. God’s religion is supported so clearly in the Psalm for today. Psalm 111 is all about what God does for us. “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in Him.” The Pharisees in our Gospel lesson should have read this verse and studied Jesus works. Can you imagine these people? They saw Jesus doing these great miracles. They saw Jesus heal this guy who was blind and mute and yet they accuse Jesus of doing the miracle via Satan. It doesn’t even make any sense. How could they see Jesus do those miracles, time and time again, and not acknowledge that He was the Son of God? I just can’t imagine.
Verse nine of the Psalm even says, “He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever.” Salvation and redemption is from God. It’s not what we do it is what God does for us.
To be sure, our Old Testament lesson can confuse us. Moses again is telling the people what they need to do. You need to worship the Lord and not follow false gods. You need to present your offerings to the Lord. But that is not going to save them. It will allow them to live long in the land that God was giving them, but it was not going to get them into heaven, because as hard as they tried, they wouldn’t get it perfect and God requires perfection. But they trusted in God just as we trust in God. They trusted that God was going to send a Messiah and they were saved through that trust just as we are. It’s all about faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, enjoy the day and the sunshine. We are going to London in a few weeks and from what I hear, they enjoy 1.75 hours of sunlight per day. In other words, it’s going to be cloudy and rainy the whole time. But it’s going to be fun.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14
PSALM 114
DEUTERONOMY 12:13-32
MATTHEW 12:38-50
My Bible is coming today. It left Cudahy at 4:15 this morning and is on its way to Racine. I have my old Bible out on my desk, with 50 colored pencils and a straight edge so I can start transferring the underlines and notes from my old Bible to the new one. My secretary thinks I’m obsessed. Is it a bad thing to be excited about a new Bible?
Do you see God working in the world? When you look at events going on in the world and in your life, do you see God? Our Psalm points to the world to nature reacting to the world. “The sea looked and fled … Jordan turned back … mountains skipped … the hills like lamb.” The Psalm comes to a climax with verse seven, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”
We are sinners and our response to God should be that of trembling. But our world doesn’t tremble at the Lord any more. They don’t acknowledge His presence. And yet we do see the Lord in the world and in our lives. We got some bad news yesterday in my family. News that affects our personal lives a great deal. And I find it amazing that the very same day we get this bad news, my wife gets a phone call and has a job interview scheduled for Friday. One door may have closed, but the Lord opened another one. We had been wondering why we haven’t heard from this employer. She put in an application weeks ago. Well, the Lord is all about timing. He is a great God.
Because the Lord is a great God, Moses is trying to get a very specific message across to the Israelites in our reading for today. Two things actually: only worship in the one place God will choose for the temple AND “you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.” It’s the Lord who works the wonders in our lives. I didn’t deliver that great sermon, God did that through me (I’m just responsible for the bad ones). I didn’t make that great meal, the Lord did it through me. I can’t take credit that we were able to pay all our bills this month, the Lord gave me that job. He works all the blessings in our lives and we need to take a moment and rejoice in the Lord for all He does.
Jesus’ encounter with the scribes and Pharisees continues. He tries to put the situation in perspective. When Jonah preached that the people of Nineveh needed to repent, they did. But the scribes and Pharisee have had John the Baptist AND Jesus preach a word of repentance to them and they have not repented. So they will be judged more harshly because their message of repentance came from someone even greater than Jonah and/or Solomon.
We don’t give evil spirits a second thought these days. I think we should. When we have a pet sin that we just can’t give up, I personally feel it’s due to a evil spirit’s influence on us. Remember the cartoons with the cartoon character who had an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder? That’s the struggle we have every day. We ask God to get that evil spirit away from us and to fill us with His Holy Spirit and keep praying so that bad, little, pet sin will go away. But we need to stay in the Word and we need to be constantly connected to God in prayer or that little, pet sin will come back with even more gusto and seven other bigger sins. Life as a Christian is an every day struggle.
Well, the Lord has given us a brand new day to use for Him. What are you going to do? How are you going to use it?
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
PSALM 119:33-40
DEUTERONOMY 13:1-18
MATTHEW 13:1-23
I’m writing ahead again. We are traveling to Detroit this weekend to celebrate my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. It’s really not until November 7th, but this weekend was almost the only one I could fit into my schedule. So, it should be a great weekend, but just need to do a few extra blogs before we leave.
So, I just printed out this Psalm portion and I’m going to tape it to my bathroom wall. It’s a perfect reminder to have the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to teach us the statutes of the Lord, to give us the understanding we need, to lead us in the right path, and incline our hearts to Him. We need to read and hear these words every single day so that we don’t go down our own path. I love verse 37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” How much stuff on television and the internet is “worthless?” There is so much worthlessness in the world that really doesn’t matter and will be destroyed when this world is destroyed. Our Lord will keep our hearts and minds focused on Him.
If the people of Israel would have just followed the Word of the Lord from Deut. 13, then they would never have been lead astray. Just kill anyone who worships false gods and the rest of the nation would continue to follow the one true God. But that’s easier said than done. We, ourselves, get led down wrong paths and “worship” things we shouldn’t. Be it sex, drugs or rock n roll, we get diverted for a while and try to take others with us. That’s why we just need to follow Psalm 119 and let the Lord turn our eyes from those worthless things.
I can just see Jesus and the disciples and the crowds of people following Him, sitting on a hill side just being quiet and watching nature. Then, in the distance, Jesus sees a man sowing his field and Jesus uses that opportunity to teach the people about the Kingdom of God. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. Jesus usually uses them to teach the people about some aspect of the kingdom of God. In the parable of the sower, we learn that God shares the message of the Gospel with everyone. Some people listen. Some people don’t listen. Some people listen for a little while and then die. But, God gives everyone the opportunity. God uses the best seed, good seed, and He does all that He can to make sure the seed takes root. But we let the cares of this world, problems, stress, ignorance, get in the way of letting that seed grow and take root and bear fruit. It’s not God’s fault. It’s our fault. So once again, Psalm 119 needs to be our constant prayer. It is our fortress. It is our salvation.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
PSALM 37:3-11
DEUTERONOMY 14:1-2, 22-23, 14:28-15:15
MATTHEW 13:24-43
Okay, just a reminder, the lessons are for Friday, but I’m writing on Thursday so that I can get the lessons for this weekend done before we head to Detroit for the weekend. You know the worst part about celebrating my parent’s 50th anniversary? It reminds me that in about 9 months, I’m going to turn 50 myself.
I know there isn’t a bad Psalm in the Bible (if there was a bad Psalm, it wouldn’t be in the Bible), but the Psalms we’ve been reading the last few days have been awesome. Or maybe my frame of mind is just in a better place and I’m understanding better.
Verses 7 & 8 are sticking out in my mind today. When we think of not worrying, we immediately thing of the passages in Matthew after the Lord’s Prayer, at the end of Matthew 6. But here we are told to, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” I think I’ve mentioned on here before, I’m not very patient. If I have a problem I want it solved now. If something goes wrong in my life I want it fixed now. When Jan was pregnant I wanted the children to be born healthy now (I know, how silly). But, when we are patient and give up our control, we let the Lord handle the stuff and we are fine. Just give it over to God and let Him deal with it. He knows better than we do anyway. He knows the outcome. I’ve always said, “98% of what we worry about never happens.”
It would have been very interesting to live in Israel during her heyday. Just look at the Lord’s concept of the Sabbatical Year. There was no such thing as a 15, 20 or 30 year mortgage in Israel. Every seven years, debts were forgiven. Every seven years, slaves were set free. And then in the year of Jubilee, every 50th year, it’s a Sabbatical Year on steroids: debts were forgiven, slaves set free, they weren’t even to plant, sow or reap that year. It was a year dedicated to the Lord. The Lord acknowledged that they would always have poor people, but He wanted to give the poor every opportunity to survive.
The parable of the weeds, if it is anything is an evangelism parable. To be sure, it shows us that the Lord sows good seed and the enemy (Satan) sows bad seed. But the wheat and the weeds grow together. That’s where we come in. As we grow with the weeds, we need to share the love of Jesus with them. We need to share the Word with them. If we share the love of Jesus and the Word, maybe there will be fewer weeds in the world. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the nasty condition in the world. If we were out there, sharing the Gospel, broadcasting the love of God, life would be so much better.
We can’t change the world, but we can have a great effect on our little corner of it.
Have a wonderful Friday. Serve the Lord with gladness…
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
PSALM 39:4-7, 12-13
DEUTERONOMY 15:15-16:22
MATTHEW 13:44-58
Good morning! Hope everyone is doing well today. Our Lord has blessed us so good.
On a nice day like today, it’s easy to think that life is going to be fine forever. But as the Psalm says, “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths.” Yeah, 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years seems long at first, but as you get closer and closer to those years, it doesn’t seem that long after all. What does it say in the New Testament? “A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.” Our Lord is eternal and time was His creation. The case is, we are like nothing compared to God. He is everything. We are nothing. See, the world doesn’t revolve around us. And yet, the Lord created it all for us. He is wonderful.
In Deuteronomy, we have Moses laying out all the guidelines for the Sabbatical year, Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths. If you look on page 200 and 201 in the Lutheran Study Bible, you will see a page explaining these holidays. I would have loved to be a worker in a union back then and be able to get all these days off. But while these were days off, they were taken off to focus on the Lord. What it comes down to is that three times a year, every male was to appear in Jerusalem to worship and offer offerings and sacrifices to the Lord. They would worship regularly in the local synagogue, but three times a year they had to travel to Jerusalem and worship God there. That must have been an awesome experience.
So, we have a list of feasts in Deuteronomy and we have a list of parables in Matthew. Our Lord was a Master at education. I wish I could teach the way He could. I enjoy teaching, but that doesn’t mean I’m good at it. But our Lord was good at it. Knowing what the others are thinking helps. But knowing their needs and knowing what they need to know helps even more.
How could the people of Nazareth reject Jesus? That’s simple, they knew Him too well. Maybe they didn’t have any dirt on Jesus, but they probably knew too well the dirt on His brothers and sisters. And yes, Jesus did have brothers and sisters: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, plus sisters. But, when you hear of the miracles He’s performed and hear what He has to say, how can you reject Him?
Well, have a blessed day. Keep your eye on the Lord.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2009
PSALM 23
DEUTERONOMY 9:23-10:22
MATTHEW 11:20-30
Sunday mornings are tough to get on here and write much unless I do it ahead of time (which I didn’t today), so this will be short.
It was 56 in our house this morning. No, I still have not turned the heat on, but will probably turn it on this afternoon.
We start today with the 23rd Psalm. I think most of us have it memorized. It is so comforting and so much has been said about it. Our Lord is a great shepherd. He takes care of us in so many ways, even getting me up and out of bed and to church on a day like today. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” but we know and are confident that we “shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Heaven is our home.
Moses continues to remind the Israelites of their past sins in his pre-entering the Promise Land speech. I’m sure they were standing there wishing he would finish so they could go. And I’m sure the last thing they wanted to be reminded of was their past mistakes. But, his speech goes on.
Jesus seems to have caught a little of Moses’ fire and brimstone. He denounces a few cities who were less than enthusiastic, but then He goes on to promise, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He knows our woes and He knows our grief. He comes to us to comfort us.
Well, I have to get ready for church. Thanks for listening. Have a blessed Sunday.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009
PSALM 119:97-104
DEUTERONOMY 11:1-25
MATTHEW 12:1-21
Happy Monday! Hey, at least it’s not 20 degrees out. We are up, breathing, taking in nourishment. Life is fine.
The Psalm hit is right on the head, we are wiser, have more understanding, and in better shape when we listen to and obey God’s Law. If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves, we are smarter than the average bear. If we were to meditate on God’s Law all day long, we wouldn’t have time to sin. Life would be grand. To be sure, we would still have trouble. Jesus followed God’s will perfectly and look what happened to Him. But even with trouble coming our way, if we were keeping God’s will, we would be in good standing with God and that’s all that matters.
The fact of the matter is that through faith in Jesus, we are perfect and in good standing with God. And it is with that knowledge in mind, that we strive to keep the Commandments, not because we have to, but because we want to out of thanksgiving.
Moses keeps on preaching to the people. My guess is that he knew that this was his last sermon and that he was going to die once he was finished and so he’s in no hurry to wrap it up. But I do have to say, I love verses 18 to 21. It reminds us to constantly be in the Word. Our every waking moment should be focused on the Word of God so that we live long upon the earth.
The our Lord Jesus puts things in perspective concerning the commands of the Old Testament. To be sure, we should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But in Jesus day, their prohibition to refrain from working, went much too far. To be sure, one should not harvest the fields on the Sabbath. But that’s not what the disciples were doing. They were just picking some drain heads, rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. THEY WERE HUNGRY!!! There wasn’t a McDonald’s to visit and it was free. They probably didn’t even break a sweat.
That’s similar to Jesus healing the man with the withered hand. Here we have the almighty God, Jesus Christ, co-creator of the universe. I don’t think heal a guys hand was too difficult for Him. It wasn’t brain surgery. It was a simple act of love on His part. But the Pharisees get all bent out of shape and begin to “conspire against him, how to destroy him.” They weren’t nice people.
Well, it’s going to be busy week. I think I have meetings every night this week. I love meetings. And then, then next weekend I get to travel to Detroit to celebrate my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. So much fun. Have a blessed day.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13
PSALM 111
DEUTERONOMY 11:26-12:12
MATTHEW 12:22-37
So, what does this tell you? I got an email last night that confirmed that my copy of the Lutheran Study Bible would be delivered on Wednesday. So all night last night I’m dreaming that I’m highlighting my new Lutheran Study Bible. Do you think I have a slight fixation or obsession with this?
Pastor Heinert is big on narrowing all the religions in the world down to two: man’s religion and God’s religion. Man’s religion is that we (human’s) have to do something to earn salvation. God’s religion is that God through Christ Jesus has done everything for us to be saved. God’s religion is supported so clearly in the Psalm for today. Psalm 111 is all about what God does for us. “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in Him.” The Pharisees in our Gospel lesson should have read this verse and studied Jesus works. Can you imagine these people? They saw Jesus doing these great miracles. They saw Jesus heal this guy who was blind and mute and yet they accuse Jesus of doing the miracle via Satan. It doesn’t even make any sense. How could they see Jesus do those miracles, time and time again, and not acknowledge that He was the Son of God? I just can’t imagine.
Verse nine of the Psalm even says, “He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever.” Salvation and redemption is from God. It’s not what we do it is what God does for us.
To be sure, our Old Testament lesson can confuse us. Moses again is telling the people what they need to do. You need to worship the Lord and not follow false gods. You need to present your offerings to the Lord. But that is not going to save them. It will allow them to live long in the land that God was giving them, but it was not going to get them into heaven, because as hard as they tried, they wouldn’t get it perfect and God requires perfection. But they trusted in God just as we trust in God. They trusted that God was going to send a Messiah and they were saved through that trust just as we are. It’s all about faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, enjoy the day and the sunshine. We are going to London in a few weeks and from what I hear, they enjoy 1.75 hours of sunlight per day. In other words, it’s going to be cloudy and rainy the whole time. But it’s going to be fun.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14
PSALM 114
DEUTERONOMY 12:13-32
MATTHEW 12:38-50
My Bible is coming today. It left Cudahy at 4:15 this morning and is on its way to Racine. I have my old Bible out on my desk, with 50 colored pencils and a straight edge so I can start transferring the underlines and notes from my old Bible to the new one. My secretary thinks I’m obsessed. Is it a bad thing to be excited about a new Bible?
Do you see God working in the world? When you look at events going on in the world and in your life, do you see God? Our Psalm points to the world to nature reacting to the world. “The sea looked and fled … Jordan turned back … mountains skipped … the hills like lamb.” The Psalm comes to a climax with verse seven, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”
We are sinners and our response to God should be that of trembling. But our world doesn’t tremble at the Lord any more. They don’t acknowledge His presence. And yet we do see the Lord in the world and in our lives. We got some bad news yesterday in my family. News that affects our personal lives a great deal. And I find it amazing that the very same day we get this bad news, my wife gets a phone call and has a job interview scheduled for Friday. One door may have closed, but the Lord opened another one. We had been wondering why we haven’t heard from this employer. She put in an application weeks ago. Well, the Lord is all about timing. He is a great God.
Because the Lord is a great God, Moses is trying to get a very specific message across to the Israelites in our reading for today. Two things actually: only worship in the one place God will choose for the temple AND “you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.” It’s the Lord who works the wonders in our lives. I didn’t deliver that great sermon, God did that through me (I’m just responsible for the bad ones). I didn’t make that great meal, the Lord did it through me. I can’t take credit that we were able to pay all our bills this month, the Lord gave me that job. He works all the blessings in our lives and we need to take a moment and rejoice in the Lord for all He does.
Jesus’ encounter with the scribes and Pharisees continues. He tries to put the situation in perspective. When Jonah preached that the people of Nineveh needed to repent, they did. But the scribes and Pharisee have had John the Baptist AND Jesus preach a word of repentance to them and they have not repented. So they will be judged more harshly because their message of repentance came from someone even greater than Jonah and/or Solomon.
We don’t give evil spirits a second thought these days. I think we should. When we have a pet sin that we just can’t give up, I personally feel it’s due to a evil spirit’s influence on us. Remember the cartoons with the cartoon character who had an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder? That’s the struggle we have every day. We ask God to get that evil spirit away from us and to fill us with His Holy Spirit and keep praying so that bad, little, pet sin will go away. But we need to stay in the Word and we need to be constantly connected to God in prayer or that little, pet sin will come back with even more gusto and seven other bigger sins. Life as a Christian is an every day struggle.
Well, the Lord has given us a brand new day to use for Him. What are you going to do? How are you going to use it?
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
PSALM 119:33-40
DEUTERONOMY 13:1-18
MATTHEW 13:1-23
I’m writing ahead again. We are traveling to Detroit this weekend to celebrate my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. It’s really not until November 7th, but this weekend was almost the only one I could fit into my schedule. So, it should be a great weekend, but just need to do a few extra blogs before we leave.
So, I just printed out this Psalm portion and I’m going to tape it to my bathroom wall. It’s a perfect reminder to have the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to teach us the statutes of the Lord, to give us the understanding we need, to lead us in the right path, and incline our hearts to Him. We need to read and hear these words every single day so that we don’t go down our own path. I love verse 37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” How much stuff on television and the internet is “worthless?” There is so much worthlessness in the world that really doesn’t matter and will be destroyed when this world is destroyed. Our Lord will keep our hearts and minds focused on Him.
If the people of Israel would have just followed the Word of the Lord from Deut. 13, then they would never have been lead astray. Just kill anyone who worships false gods and the rest of the nation would continue to follow the one true God. But that’s easier said than done. We, ourselves, get led down wrong paths and “worship” things we shouldn’t. Be it sex, drugs or rock n roll, we get diverted for a while and try to take others with us. That’s why we just need to follow Psalm 119 and let the Lord turn our eyes from those worthless things.
I can just see Jesus and the disciples and the crowds of people following Him, sitting on a hill side just being quiet and watching nature. Then, in the distance, Jesus sees a man sowing his field and Jesus uses that opportunity to teach the people about the Kingdom of God. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. Jesus usually uses them to teach the people about some aspect of the kingdom of God. In the parable of the sower, we learn that God shares the message of the Gospel with everyone. Some people listen. Some people don’t listen. Some people listen for a little while and then die. But, God gives everyone the opportunity. God uses the best seed, good seed, and He does all that He can to make sure the seed takes root. But we let the cares of this world, problems, stress, ignorance, get in the way of letting that seed grow and take root and bear fruit. It’s not God’s fault. It’s our fault. So once again, Psalm 119 needs to be our constant prayer. It is our fortress. It is our salvation.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
PSALM 37:3-11
DEUTERONOMY 14:1-2, 22-23, 14:28-15:15
MATTHEW 13:24-43
Okay, just a reminder, the lessons are for Friday, but I’m writing on Thursday so that I can get the lessons for this weekend done before we head to Detroit for the weekend. You know the worst part about celebrating my parent’s 50th anniversary? It reminds me that in about 9 months, I’m going to turn 50 myself.
I know there isn’t a bad Psalm in the Bible (if there was a bad Psalm, it wouldn’t be in the Bible), but the Psalms we’ve been reading the last few days have been awesome. Or maybe my frame of mind is just in a better place and I’m understanding better.
Verses 7 & 8 are sticking out in my mind today. When we think of not worrying, we immediately thing of the passages in Matthew after the Lord’s Prayer, at the end of Matthew 6. But here we are told to, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” I think I’ve mentioned on here before, I’m not very patient. If I have a problem I want it solved now. If something goes wrong in my life I want it fixed now. When Jan was pregnant I wanted the children to be born healthy now (I know, how silly). But, when we are patient and give up our control, we let the Lord handle the stuff and we are fine. Just give it over to God and let Him deal with it. He knows better than we do anyway. He knows the outcome. I’ve always said, “98% of what we worry about never happens.”
It would have been very interesting to live in Israel during her heyday. Just look at the Lord’s concept of the Sabbatical Year. There was no such thing as a 15, 20 or 30 year mortgage in Israel. Every seven years, debts were forgiven. Every seven years, slaves were set free. And then in the year of Jubilee, every 50th year, it’s a Sabbatical Year on steroids: debts were forgiven, slaves set free, they weren’t even to plant, sow or reap that year. It was a year dedicated to the Lord. The Lord acknowledged that they would always have poor people, but He wanted to give the poor every opportunity to survive.
The parable of the weeds, if it is anything is an evangelism parable. To be sure, it shows us that the Lord sows good seed and the enemy (Satan) sows bad seed. But the wheat and the weeds grow together. That’s where we come in. As we grow with the weeds, we need to share the love of Jesus with them. We need to share the Word with them. If we share the love of Jesus and the Word, maybe there will be fewer weeds in the world. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the nasty condition in the world. If we were out there, sharing the Gospel, broadcasting the love of God, life would be so much better.
We can’t change the world, but we can have a great effect on our little corner of it.
Have a wonderful Friday. Serve the Lord with gladness…
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
PSALM 39:4-7, 12-13
DEUTERONOMY 15:15-16:22
MATTHEW 13:44-58
Good morning! Hope everyone is doing well today. Our Lord has blessed us so good.
On a nice day like today, it’s easy to think that life is going to be fine forever. But as the Psalm says, “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths.” Yeah, 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years seems long at first, but as you get closer and closer to those years, it doesn’t seem that long after all. What does it say in the New Testament? “A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.” Our Lord is eternal and time was His creation. The case is, we are like nothing compared to God. He is everything. We are nothing. See, the world doesn’t revolve around us. And yet, the Lord created it all for us. He is wonderful.
In Deuteronomy, we have Moses laying out all the guidelines for the Sabbatical year, Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths. If you look on page 200 and 201 in the Lutheran Study Bible, you will see a page explaining these holidays. I would have loved to be a worker in a union back then and be able to get all these days off. But while these were days off, they were taken off to focus on the Lord. What it comes down to is that three times a year, every male was to appear in Jerusalem to worship and offer offerings and sacrifices to the Lord. They would worship regularly in the local synagogue, but three times a year they had to travel to Jerusalem and worship God there. That must have been an awesome experience.
So, we have a list of feasts in Deuteronomy and we have a list of parables in Matthew. Our Lord was a Master at education. I wish I could teach the way He could. I enjoy teaching, but that doesn’t mean I’m good at it. But our Lord was good at it. Knowing what the others are thinking helps. But knowing their needs and knowing what they need to know helps even more.
How could the people of Nazareth reject Jesus? That’s simple, they knew Him too well. Maybe they didn’t have any dirt on Jesus, but they probably knew too well the dirt on His brothers and sisters. And yes, Jesus did have brothers and sisters: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, plus sisters. But, when you hear of the miracles He’s performed and hear what He has to say, how can you reject Him?
Well, have a blessed day. Keep your eye on the Lord.