The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Powered by BibleGateway.com.
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Maria Tatham is a Christian author who writes fantasy. Her works include a published novel, The Queen and the Handyman. She is a story blogger who posts free serial fairytales, flash fiction, poems for your enjoyment.
Posted in Prayer and Devotions
38 He is not God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to[e] Him.” (Today’s full scripture text: Luke 20:27-47)
Jesus takes on both the major “parties” of ancient Judea when the Sadducees come to test him with a disingenuous gotcha question about the Resurrection. Keeping in mind the status of women in that culture, they are asking him a legal question about a woman who was widowed seven times in her lifetime: when she and all seven husbands are resurrected, which husband will own her?
The answer the Lord gives, at minimum, states that in Heaven, sons and daughters will not be chattel their parents marry off and that men will not purchase wives for themselves the way they purchase horses. Most likely, it means that there are no weddings taking place at all, but the reason for this cites Angels, which to me suggests he’s subtly pointing out they are asking a legal question about a Heavenly country those of us on Earth know little about other than the character of its King.
Knowing the real reason they are asking this question is because they don’t believe in the Resurrection, Jesus quickly moves the conversation to that to topic, getting to the heart of the matter: God doesn’t see the way man sees. We see a dead body buried in the ground and turning to dust, but God lives outside of time. He sees the living, eternal soul, unclothed of its broken, corrupt body so he can robe it again in a new restored, incorruptible sinless body. To him, the “dead” person is not only alive, if they are His, they are completely well, have received blessing and mercy and been delivered, not abandoned.
More over, the Lord not only asserts the reality of the Resurrection, he makes his case from the five books of Moses, which is all that was in the Sadducees’ accepted scriptural cannon. They claimed the books of Moses did not support the doctrine of the Resurrection, but he is showing where it does support it from God’s vantage point. It was their own blindness and presumption that had caused them to misunderstand (or miss) what God means by, “I am the God of Abraham.” To see the text clearly, God had to reveal His word to them Himself.
Lord, when we approach your word, remove from us the blinders of presumption from our pre-existing beliefs and experiences. Open our eyes to the truth. Let us see the text clearly, meaning what you intended it to say. We thank you for this ministry of the Holy Spirit and we rejoice that you are with us always and have conquered the grave. Take our fear away and comfort our hearts if we are missing loved ones who are alive in you, but not longer with us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Father, amen.
Posted in Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions
Tagged bible interpretation, Heaven, questioning, resurrection
26 They were not able to catch Him in what He said in public, and being amazed at His answer, they became silent. (HCSB)Today’s full text: Luke 20:1-26
How did Jesus respond when the religious leaders of his day questioned his authority to do the work His father had sent him to do? For context, one of the reasons they doubted his credentials as a Rabbi is because he had never been a disciple for anyone, so he’d rebelled against the status quo, no human had taught him to be just like them and commissioned him as a rabbi to teach others to be just like his own rabbi. So he didn’t meet the education requirements to preach the gospel and had no human certifications saying he was a licensed minister commissioned and under the authority of a particular rabbinical school of thought.
First, he didn’t become offended. He didn’t doubt himself and his ability and qualifications because the experts of the day doubted in him. He remembered what his Father had said about him, that he was the Son of God, and called not to teach disciples to be like a human rabbi, but to be like his Father. He also knew if he pulled out his credentials for the religious leaders, they would refuse to believe, accuse him of blasphemy, and kill him.
Since it wasn’t time yet, he refused not only to doubt in himself, but to prove himself to men, turning the tables on them, asking whether John was commissioned to baptize people by men or by God. The religious leaders were trapped–answering from God would be a winning point to the Lord in the debate, but the crowd would riot if they denied John’s authority, too. The leaders refused to answer, so they got no answer, but the crowd got one right there. Jesus addresses the issue in a parable about tenant farmers who kill the heir to the land hoping to keep what belongs to him for themselves, thus warning them without saying an arrestable word that the religious leaders of the day would be destroyed if they continued on the road to crucifying the Lord.
The leaders were smart enough to get the message and were furious, but he’d made his point to the huge crowd, making the leaders also afraid to oppose him directly–so they turned to spies pretending to be on the Lord’s side and tried to trap him with their famous question about paying taxes and the Lord again saw through their deception and refused to be trapped into either speaking against paying taxes to Caesar and committing treason, or speaking in favor of Caesar and offending the crowd. So he gave his famous answer, that affirmed giving Caesar his coins per the letter of the law directly while stating indirectly that mankind should give ourselves, our whole lives and bodies, to God, as we bare the image of God and everything we have comes from him and is truly His.
If we disciples want to be more like our Rabbi, we should be more confident of our calling, not swayed by the voices and opinions of man, but aware of them and savvy in our responses, testifying to the truth, but being aware of the climate and what the people accept and reject and what is around us and using that in our Lord’s favor while seeking to avoid needless offenses that would get us arrested and harmed before it is His time. This passage also indicates there is a season to follow the legal/certification processes of the day and a time to reject them and confidently go out and do what our Father has told us to.
Lord, give us your wisdom and discernment! Help us to use what is available in the culture today to your glory and to advance your Kingdom in ways that uphold the truth. Give us confidence of your calling and open our ears to hear what the season is regarding following laws and the ignoring the “normal” established processes traditionally followed in our calling.
Posted in God's Character, Prayer and Devotions
Tagged authority, confidence, discernment, savvy, wisdom
“Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:5-6)
Psalm 118 falls right before Psalm 119′s sometimes unappreciated, lengthy serenade to the law’s beauty and virtues. In 118, the psalmist urges his audience to give thanks to the Lord because he is good and his love is steadfast. To these reasons, the psalmist adds his personal testimony: he was either troubled internally by mental or physical pain or suffering or he was in an external state of danger or desperate need, per the meaning of distress. He prayed to God for help, God answered him by freeing him from whatever was causing his distress.
Here he turns from past tense to present tense: the Lord is on his side. He will not fear now what men can do to him, he knows God is in control. This switch is implying that the psalmist is one again in difficult times; he is confident because he has past experience with God. He remembers what God has done for him in the past and trusts God to do what he has always done before.
Faith and trust in God grow over time, with each blind leap and each instance of God doing what he promised in His word. If you are young in the Lord and have not many personal experiences, you can still make that leap with confidence based upon His peoples testimonies, if you trust in the accuracy of the bible (there are ministries who can feed your intellect with proofs of this) and also through the testimonies of your living brothers and sisters in Christ today.
God is not a respecter of persons, beloved. He does not play favorites with his children. If you are His, and you know for a fact what God has done for His people in your situation, he will do it for you, too. Maybe not the exact same way, or with the exact same timing, but if you draw near to him and place your life and your situation wholly into his hands, daring to trust him completely, taking refuge in Him and His work in your life, he will deliver you and bring you through this, if not out of it. Even if we do face the pain of death, if we continue on with God, even in death, he will set us free forever.
Lord, forgive us for the times we have forgotten what you have done. Strengthen us today, remind us of what you have done in our lives and in our brothers and sisters’ lives in similar situations. Increase our faith. May we trust in you and your declarations over us, not the threats of men. Give us thankful hearts that praise you for who you are and what you do. Deliver us from fear and all emotional distress this day. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Posted in Bible and Theology, Faith, Fear and Anxiety, God's Character, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering
Tagged affliction, distress, steadfastness, stress, trouble, trust
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Troubled? Christ tells us we can turn to his speech in John 14-16 any time and receive comfort and peace from knowing the Father himself loves us and that someday he will bring us out of our present sorrow and deliver us to joy. He promises us hardship and trouble and travail in this life and that the unbelieving world will hate us if we are truly walking with Him, and has indeed often killed the saints, and many do so thinking they do God service as Jesus said.
But we are to take heart: he has overcome the world. Victory is secured for us. Keep holding the line, keep walking the walk. Stay the course. The battle rages on, but no matter what its outcome, the war is already won. Let us abide in Christ and rest in Him. Let him fight the battle. Trust and obey him. He’s the conquering king and his enemies are defeated and routed, including the sin or the fallen condition you are struggling with, and even the great enemy, death itself, has been mortally wounded and will be only a distant memory sooner than it seems as we struggle in this life.
Turn your eyes to Christ’s cross and His empty grave and be encouraged, brothers and sisters. It is finished. God has prevailed and He will prevail in your life if you do not lose heart and desert him for his already defeated foe. So put away doubting, put away your own understanding, and trust in Him today. Give to him any weight that hinders you from trusting him, be it sorrow, be it hurt, be it anger, be it the trust others have broken, and any nay-saying voice, be it real or imagined. Confess it, express it, but release it into His victorious hands.
Posted in Bible and Theology, Faith, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering
Tagged affliction, comfort, discouraged, hope, peace, strength, trust, victory
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
This is my favorite verse to turn to in times of trial and distress of any sort. Here the Lord reassures us that though he has returned to the Father and we cannot see him face to face and feel his physical touch of comfort, he is preparing a place for us, his bride, to dwell in, and he will return again and receive us as his own forever. No matter how hard and dark and cold and lonely the night is here on Earth, in Heaven, we have a warm place called home and we can always call home and talk to our Father and our Brother and be loved and welcomed and encouraged and strengthened and made whole where it matters most.
Older translations of this text render “rooms” as “mansions” while we can dispute which is more accurate and which is more desirable, the epistles suggest God is preparing not merely a literal dwelling place for us in Heaven, but a brand new body as well. God’s standards are strict, and we cannot hope to obtain to them on our own, but he is making preparations to transfer us from our old broken bodies of sin (spiritual corruption) and physical corruption to pure, spotless, incorruptible bodies, to transform us from sinners into saints.
Let us not lose heart then as we battle against sin within ourselves and to resist the external pressures of the corrupt world around us. No matter how many times we stumble and fall, so long as we continue to choose Jesus and trust him as both our Savior and our Lord, we stand secure, because He will never change His unfailing love for us. He will never abandon us nor forsake us, nor will he ask from us more than we are capable of or more than he is willing to equip us to do.
So many of us when our hearts are troubled turn to our friends and family. Some of us are fortunate enough to have strong loved ones who are full to overflowing and have plenty to give us and meet our needs. Others among us are surrounded by friends and family as every bit as troubled as we are and often are also running on empty. For those in this situation, leaning upon one another spreads the pain around like a game of hot potato being played with toxic waste.
Christ urges us this day to stop a cycle that tends to compound and multiply our troubles and bring our broken hearts to Him. The Lord is the ultimate source of the spiritual and emotional fuel we require to live and thrive, and He is the only true source of healing, and only He can take the toxic waste, nail it to His cross, and truly remove it from us and those around us once and for all.
Lord, open our eyes. Draw our attention to the times when our hearts are troubled. When we are tempted to unload the toxic waste building up in our fallen hearts on our loved ones, remind us to stop and pray and surrender it to you instead. Show us also when our loved ones are seeking from us what comes from you and handing to us burdens that only you can carry. Give us the strength to refuse to participate in what amounts to idolatry and the courage to gently, respectfully, and lovingly, yet firmly point them to you and offer to pray with them instead. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Posted in Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, God's love, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering
Tagged affliction, comfort, steadfastness, trials
If someone was selling a body upgrade, would you be interested?
Psst. I know a guy who’s offering them, he happens to be the guy who programmed the actual reality that we live in, including us natural intelligences he has designed to be sentient and have personalities and feelings and creative abilities and, well, to be alive like he is. He made the original pair of natural intelligences as administrators who report to him. An ex-employee fired for being uppity abused the way he designed us, convincing our ancestors to download a bunch of junk that corrupted both of our parent programs, causing their bodies to break down and them to not function as originally designed, and we inherit this corruption from them. We’re so important in actual reality, because of this, our whole actual reality is slowly descending into a serious meltdown. So the programmer has started work on an upgrade, which he promises to release as soon as he’s satisfied everyone has had a chance to hear the news and agree to take part in the upgrade and be transferred over.
Actual Reality’s programmer has not told us much about what exactly our new bodies will look like, but he provided a sneak preview, having already upgraded his only son, and no one tries anything on their own beloved kid that isn’t safe. Plus this guy has made full disclosure about himself, so a few things we can know about his new product, based on who he is and what we know about his current product (and what he has identified as being the junk):
• Your new body will be absolutely flawless, perfectly fashioned in every way.
• It will never break down. It will never grow old, it will never waste away, it will never cease working and turn to dust.
• Your new body will probably have the same basic DNA as your current DNA, which partially defines you who you are. Your new body will probably come loaded with the data you’ve saved to your current body, including the nervous system and muscular-skeletal systems, but likely your customizations to your actual reality outward appearance will be nontransferable.
• All of the junk code and junk data that is corrupting you, causing you to break down and die, and preventing you from being who the programmer intended you to be will be deleted in the upgrade. The more junk you have, the less in sync you are with You 2.0.
The junk files scheduled for deletion are all in the contract. The programmer advises you to carefully read the contract and be sure you understand it before you give your consent. While you will be charged nothing for your upgrade to You 2.0 and no assembly is required, contrary to popular rumor, he does have some terms and conditions that you should be aware of:
• You will still be a natural intelligence and merely made to be like our Programmer, not an actual Programmer yourself or even the equal of our Programmer. You will not get to be your own Programmer and write your own code. Sorry. In our programmer’s reality, the ex-employee who started that rumor is a con artist running his racket from a prison cell.
• You must accept no substitutions for our Programmer, including yourself, other natural intelligences, and the programmer deniers’ illogical claims actual reality programmed and built itself using some of the junk destroying actual reality. If you die while in violation of this term of your contract with the Programmer, or dispute what constitutes junk and demand the right to hang onto yours, you will be deleted with your junk. This will result in you remaining consciously aware in our Programmer’s recycle bin, forever cut off from him and everyone else.
• You 2.0 will not be prone to develop any programming errors.
• You 2.0 will love and trust your programmer fully and do what he says gladly, out of a grateful heart devoted to him.
• Your new body will be heterosexual (possibly asexual, depending on how you read his contract’s terms and conditions) and the same gender as your current genetic code, your body will properly develop as your actual gender, and your new brain will be on the same page as your new body and your upgraded genetic code on what gender you are.
• Your new body won’t have mental disorders, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, ADHD, autism, depression, emotional disturbances, or addictive tendencies.
• In your new body, you will hate lying and would never steal, kill, or destroy anything. You won’t be selfish or proud or rude or easily angered. You will be truthful, loving, joyful, hopeful, peaceful, good, humble, generous, respectful, self-controlled, you won’t be prone to think evil of others, you won’t dwell on past wrongs, and you will be the sort of person who naturally places the interests of others first, and so will everyone else. You will also be loyal, dependable, responsible, stable, unafraid, single-minded, and keep all of your promises and commitments to others.
• In your new body, you will have a face to face relationship with your programmer, know him intimately, and be with him always.
• Your old body must die in this actual reality and return to dust before you will be loaded in your new body in the upgraded reality.
• The programmer gets to decide when it’s time for you to die.
• In the meantime, if you accept his contract, terms and conditions and all, as a guarantee of his promised upgrade to this new body, he connects your current one directly to him, so he can speak into your heart and breath the essence of who you will be in upgraded reality into you now. You will slowly become more like You 2.0 in this life and will hate the junk in your corrupt body and seek to be rid of it, long to be at minimum.
• If you do not experience any change in you, double check to ensure you have accepted a genuine copy of the contract. A genuine contract with the programmer includes a line on which you must declare you are acknowledging the programmer’s authority over you. Please do not bother to sign up unless you sincerely do respect the programmer’s authority over you and are willing to be upgraded however he sees fit.
• The programmer has put his son in charge of running both actual reality and upgraded reality. To be upgraded and have a relationship with the Programmer, we must have a relationship with his son, a legit natural intelligence like us, only uncorrupted and is also an actual reality exact representation of his Father. The son was instrumental in the original programming of actual reality and only the son is holding it together. Oh yeah, in order to pay the costs for this upgrade and make it all possible, the programmer’s son, who is known as Jesus Christ in English, also gave his actual reality life on a Roman cross, roughly 2,000 years ago in actual reality time, and rose again the third day.
Posted in Gospel, Prayer and Devotions
Tagged modern parable
