Matthew 5:1-26 - The Beatitudes and more....

Today we are in the first half of the fifth chapter of Matthew.  It's the chapter that is commonly referred to as "The Sermon on the Mount" and which begins with the Beatitudes...or as many have come to refer to them as the BE-attitudes, for Jesus sits down on the top of the mountain, and begins to teach His disciples what they are to BE like to receive the blessings of God.

If there had been any doubt in anyone's mind up to this point that Jesus was a different kind of teacher, a different kind of leader, a different kind of man, than all those doubts should have been dispelled with this lecture series that we call the Sermon on the Mount.  For everything that Jesus describes as "blessed" are things that the world does not hold up in value.  Let's see...

• Poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• Gentleness
• Those who hunger and thirst after what is right in God's sight
• Merciful
• Pure in heart
• Peacemakers
• Persecuted for righteousness
• Those who receive insults, persecution, and false accusations because of Jesus

 Do these things sound like attributes of people that the world admires?   Let's look at these attributes individually:

Poor in spirit - who do you think Jesus is referring to as those that are "poor in spirit"?  We need to know for they will partake in the kingdom of heaven.  If I haven't wanted to be poor in spirit before, I should want to when I read that reward.  The word Jesus uses for "poor" is not just poor, it is "destitute, reduced to beggary, helpless, powerless to accomplish an end"...do you get the picture?  Totally void of anything...and these people, who are "poor in spirit" are the first group that Jesus says are blessed!  WHY?  I believe that that is the spot we have to recognize ourselves in so that when Jesus reaches out to us we will take His hand and we are open to His further teaching.  We have to be humbled to the position of realizing that we have NOTHING within us to help ourselves, that we are absolutely destitute of personal ability and power to bring about our salvation.  That without HIM, we are hopeless.  Until we are broken, until we come to an understanding of how absolutely poor we are, we will not allow Jesus to rule in our lives...and THAT is the Kingdom of Heaven: Jesus as our Supreme King and eternal Authority.

Those who mourn - oh we all want to join that group, don't we?  Jesus is not using worldly marketing skills in this presentation!  For anyone who has gone through a season of intense mourning, you know that it is not a place that you would choose or want to revisit.  But in reality, we will all mourn on this earth.  We will all mourn the loss of something, of someone.  What is Jesus' promise to this group?  They will be comforted.  But the word Jesus uses for comfort isn't exactly what we would think of.  When I think of comfort, I think of someone "making it better" by telling me nice things, holding my hand, and letting me know I am loved.  The word Jesus uses here, parakaleo, includes that thought, but more.  It is a calling to, a beseeching, of someone.  That in the midst of mourning, Jesus is telling them that He will be calling us to come to Him.  Isn't that a beautiful thought?  I have often felt that God uses our saddest times to speak the loudest to us...this seems to be what Jesus is saying.  So even though Jesus is turning eyes toward eternity, where we will never mourn, I believe He is also saying that He is our comfort right now, if we will hear and respond to His voice as He summons us out of our dark nights.

The gentle - we might as well look right now at the meaning of the word, praus, before going any further, because we probably all have different ideas in our minds as to the attribute of gentleness. Praus (the Greek word used here that is translated as gentle, or meek in some translations) is defined as "mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness."  But in Strong's Bible Dictionary, it amplifies that definition by adding, "Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice." If we are to blessed for being gentle, then we are to be people who rely on God to defend us.  We will not be rabble-rousers (I love that descriptive name!) or people looking for a fight.  We will allow God to use what we sometimes do not understand in this world to accomplish His good and eternal plan.  And what is the reward?  These people will "inherit the earth" ---- do you think this means that those who do not fight for the right to rule will eventually be given that very responsibility?

I do believe that when God tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, that He will return the earth to it's perfect state and there will be things to be done on this new earth.  Could it be that the gentle, the meek, they will be the kind of people who will be leaders in this new earth...doesn't that make sense?  When everything is perfect, isn't that really the kind of leader you would want?  Or could it be that all who are given new, eternal life, have learned, in this life, to accept God as supreme, without any dispute or resistance in our hearts?  To have become truly "gentle" in our disposition of spirit?

What are your thoughts?  One thing I know, everything that Jesus describes in these verses that we are studying, He is asking us to look at with totally different eyes than we were given at birth...He asks us to look through reborn eyes...eyes that see His Kingdom!

I'm stopping for now....this is a lot to review in one sitting!  I would love to hear your comments, your thoughts!  For these are just my contemplations on God's Holy Word.  Let His Spirit dwell in your hearts as you read His Word, and then talk about it with someone!

Matthew Chapter Four and Intro to Chapter Five

I've gotten a little off schedule due to traveling and fighting a sinus infection.  The traveling part is wonderful...going to see children and grandchildren...special times!  The sinus infection, not so much!  But when I wake up, even with a thick head and puffy eyes, and see a beautiful morning of light rain, green grass, flowers blooming, I am reminded that God is a good, good Father who has provided so many gifts for us to enjoy.  Each day we are given let us give thanks to Him...He has blessed us enormously with the visible, and even more so with the invisible gifts...our Savior Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, forgiveness, and eternal life.  Thank You Lord Jesus for coming for me!

Chapter 4 of Matthew is an incredible message and one that we should think about often as we are no strangers to temptation and the schemes of Satan.  If Satan was brazen enough to tempt Jesus, knowing who He was, are we to think that he will not attempt to pull us away from God's path for our life?  I'm sure he realizes that we will most likely be much easier to sway than Jesus was...Jesus held firm, and we can too through the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we think we can forego Satan and his devices on our own, we will fail, if not immediately, eventually.  But when we rely on God's Spirit living within us, and ask Him to make us strong, and speak Scripture back to Satan just as Jesus did, then we can start being victorious over our enemy, no matter what tricks he may use against us.

Satan knows our vulnerabilities.  He knew that Jesus had just gone 40 days without food and that to tempt Him to turn stones into bread would be...well, tempting!  Satan knows my vulnerabilities as well.  He knows them from looking at my past and where I have previously failed.  He knows them from the small missteps I may make that show my hand...where I am not following God as closely as I should be.  And then he makes his move.  We must be aware, we must be alert, and we must pray for deliverance from temptation and his plans of evil.  Jesus is our example...look to how he handled Satan's attack.  The same attack, by the way, that he had used in the Garden of Eden 4,000 years before---questioning the relationship and the identity of those he was working on.  To Adam and Eve he made them doubt the goodness of God as their Father; to Jesus he boldly confronts with the question, "If you are the Son of God..."  He does the same thing with us..."Are you really a child of God?"  "Is God really looking out for your good?"  "Did God really say this is wrong?  After all, you want it so badly and it seems so right? Surely God would not withhold this from you if He loves you?"  If we are not grounded in God's Word, we will fall to the questions that Satan plants in our minds.  We cannot recall Scripture at the time of need if we have not securely hidden it in our hearts prior to that time.  Jesus KNEW the Word of God---He would not be a victim to Satan's lies.

Verses 12-17 of Chapter 4 launch Christ's preaching ministry to the world.  He hears that John the Baptist has been imprisoned and what does He do?  Does He go to see John? Does He free him...the faithful forerunner?  No - "He withdrew into Galilee.  He left Nazareth behind and went to live in Capernaum by the sea..."  Is this what we would expect Jesus, the Son of God, the bearer of all justice to do?  For He had to know the reasons for John's imprisonment, and they were far from just.  We ask the same question today when good, faithful Christians are imprisoned, mistreated, and executed.  Why doesn't God come to their rescue?  Why didn't Jesus?  Jesus allowed John to be beheaded at the hands of a tyrant....why??

Could it be that this was one of the first "sermons" Jesus preached?  Just as He would tell Nicodemus, "You must be born again", Jesus came to preach to us that we must look at life entirely differently than we ever have. We must shift our focus from temporal to eternal.  Jesus DID come to John's rescue...He did that on the cross.  He rescued John, and all of us, from an eternal imprisonment, an eternal death.  He had started that rescue mission, and He wouldn't be deterred.  Whatever our fate on this earth, we must remember...we have been rescued!

Verses 18-22 convey to us Christ's selection of His first disciples...Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James and his brother John.  The things that jump out at me in this section are that they were all fishermen, and that when they heard Jesus say, "Follow Me", they immediately left their livelihood and family and followed Him.  Jesus calls the same words to us...what is our response?  And when we hear Jesus say, "Follow"...do we end up trying to lead?  Instead of waiting for Jesus to show us what/where He wants us to do/go, do we head down the road and ask Him to come with us?  FOLLOW...He is the leader.  We try to assume a role that we were never intended for and we end up in a place we should have never been!

The chapter closes by telling us that Jesus went all over Galille, teaching and preaching the "good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people."  Jesus was showing the people of the world what God looks like....He cares.  Just as the prophet Isaiah had said and who Matthew had quoted in v.15-16, Light had come into a dark world, and people were drawn to that Light.

Christ's Mission revealed in Chapter 4?  This is what I see:
1. To show His superiority and victory over Satan
2. To be the Light to a dark world
3. To bring the truth of God to the world
4. To bring people to repentance
5. To establish disciples who would continue bringing light into the world
6. To show God as a God of compassion and tenderness

Chapter 5 will cover the Sermon on the Mount - it is a long chapter and we'll divide into two sections - Verses 1-26, and Verses 27-48.  Out of the first section, the verse I'm choosing to remember is verse 16:  "In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

It's all about bringing glory to God...to HIM be the glory!!

Matthew Chapter Three and Intro to Chapter Four

From the close of Chapter Two to the beginning of Chapter Three we skip several years.  We go from the return of Jesus' family from Egypt to Nazareth to the beginning of Jesus' ministry as marked by His baptism by John the Baptist.  We're never told much about Jesus' boyhood, other than the story in Luke 2 about His journey to Jerusalem with His parents for Passover when He was 12.  There are things we can surmise (that most likely Joseph passed away before Jesus began His ministry as He was never mentioned in that time frame), but otherwise we are left to know that He grew up as many other Jewish boys of his time in the small village of Nazareth.  Did He perform miracles along the way?  We are never told that.  Could He have?  If God had directed Him to.  But it seems to me that Jesus' ministry was ordained to start here... in this chapter.

John the Baptist was the herald of our Lord and Savior...he came as a prophet, much like the Old Testament prophets, I think for the Jewish people to recognize him as such.  Someone as of old, like Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah and Isaiah.  He told the people to repent, and as they did they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordan River.  It's interesting in the prophecy by Isaiah, "Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight", on first reading you would think this would mean to physically prepare for Jesus, as a King, to show Him honor, and prepare the roadways for Him to come through as royalty.  But reading in the context of John's cry to the people to repent in their preparation for the coming One, it is a call to get rid of all of the obstacles in our hearts, all of the sin and double-mindedness that will keep us from recognizing and accepting the truth of Jesus.  We should hear the same call:  REPENT!  Clear our hearts and prepare the path for Jesus to come to us unhindered.

John the Baptist had no patience with those who were coming for any other motive than for that preparation.  He called out the Pharisees and the Saducees who came to see what was going on with these masses of people coming out to the River for baptism by this desert monger.  He called them out for what they were, a brood of vipers.  Those are strong words---they indicate wickedness and maliciousness.  John knew that these "highest of the high" in the Jewish religious world claimed their righteousness due to their lineage from Abraham.  But in one of the first proclamations of Jesus' role as an international Savior, John tells them that God can raise up children from Abraham even from the stones.  The proof of truly being in the family of God comes from "producing fruit consistent with repentance" (v.8)  If we are proclaimed believers in Christ's redemptive work on our behalf, understanding the love that drove God's plan of salvation, and if we have repented of our sins, are we now living lives consistent with that repentance?  Are we producing fruit that is consistent with the thankfulness that we should constantly show for what has been done for us?  Let us be good fruit bearers for the Kingdom!

John goes on to pronounce that the One coming is more powerful than he and will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire...and that He will sift the righteous (wheat) from the unrighteous (chaff).  What do you believe the baptism that John referred to as coming from Jesus is?  
Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator from the 1800s, states this:
"They who are baptized with the Holy Ghost are baptized as with fire; the seven spirits of God appear as seven lamps of fire, Rev. 4:5 . Is fire enlightening? So the Spirit is a Spirit of illumination. Is it warming? And do not their hearts burn within them? Is it consuming? And does not the Spirit of judgment, as a Spirit of burning, consume the dross of their corruptions? Does fire make all it seizes like itself? And does it move upwards? So does the Spirit make the soul holy like itself, and its tendency is heaven-ward. Christ says I am come to send fire, Lu. 12:49"

So Matthew Henry would say that Christ's baptism with fire would illuminate us, would make our hearts burn for Him, would become our all-consuming passion. The Spirit of fire would burn up our sinfulness and make us like itself, holy and with a heaven-mindedness.  I want that fire in me...please Holy Spirit, burn strong within my heart and make me more and more like You!

And then we have the glorious picture of Christ's baptism, the act He submitted to in order to "fulfill all righteousness."  What was Jesus saying?  Righteousness is the state of being acceptable to God...was Jesus saying, "We're doing this because God wants us to"?  Jesus says in John 14 that everything He does, He does at the direction of His Father.  His baptism was no exception.  God directed Him to John, John baptized Jesus in obedience.  Also, I think it shows us the first picture of Jesus taking on the sins of the world, for while He was sinless, He repented of the world's sins that would be placed upon Him.  One last thought on Jesus coming for baptism, it is in direct contrast to the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees and Saducees.  Jesus comes in humble submission, with no pretense of being anyone greater than those surrounding Him in the Jordan.

But greater He is!  For when Jesus came up out of the water (a very strong indicator of baptism by submersion), the heavens broke open for Him, and out of the heavens the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove  and came down on Him, and voice broke out of the heavens declaring, "This is My beloved Son, I take delight in Him!"

What do you think prompted the Father's words of pleasure in His Son?  We are not told, but they are spoken at Christ's initial act of bringing His ministry to the earth.  They are spoken at Christ's initial act of submission and obedience on a path of which both He and the Father knew the end...not the end that we think of in Christ's painful death on the cross, the end that they both see---Christ's victorious reign over eternity, with all those who have followed His example of humble submission to the Father's will.  Here was the beginning of the revelation of God to man...His Son was about to embark on three years of ministry of which the earth had never seen, and which would change the world forever.  Here was the beginning of what Father and Son had discussed in the heavens---the time that would forever crush Satan and bring the Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of men.

Hallelujah!  Father, Son and Holy Spirit celebrating in the commencement of Jesus' ministry!

Jesus' mission in Chapter 3?  Here's what I saw:
1.  Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth (v. 2)
2.  Bringing a baptism of the Holy Spirit (v. 11)
3.  Separating righteous (wheat) from unrighteous (chaff) (v. 12)
4.  Fulfilling all terms of righteousness (v. 15)
5.  Testifying to the Trinity (vs. 16-17)

And directly following celebration?  Temptation.  Chapter 4 will lead off with the account of Jesus' temptation in the desert and follow with the selection of the first disciples.  My verse from Chapter 4 to memorize? Verse 16:  "The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the shadowland of death, light has dawned."  Isn't that a beautiful picture of all of living on this earth without the light of Jesus?  But Light has dawned...Jesus has come.  We no longer are destined to live in darkness.  And those of us who have seen the Light are compelled to share that Light with others, driven out of the great kindness that has been shown to us.  

Matthew Chapter Two and Intro to Chapter Three

The second chapter of Matthew covers two important events:  the visit of the wise men from the east and the escape into Egypt by Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

When we think of the visit of the Magi, we often think back to some of our earliest lessons of the birth of Christ.  How many of us played with the three wise men figurines in nativity sets when we were young, positioning them approaching the stable with their camels?  We are very familiar with these men...but have we looked at their story closely?

We read that they arrived in Jerusalem "unexpectedly" as my HCSB version states.  In other versions, the word "behold" may be included.  And they came asking a very unexpected question, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?"  Why was this unexpected and disturbing?  Because the Jews already had a King on their throne, King Herod.  And Herod was very disturbed.  Herod was never secure in his position, after all he was not a true Jew and much more loyal to Rome than to the Jewish people.  Herod would stop at nothing to protect his throne, including killing his own family members...his father-in-law, several of his ten wives, and two of his sons.  Brutal and ruthless are adjectives describing the King that the Magi approached with their question.

We find that the Magi had studied the star extensively and were able to tell Herod the exact time that the star had first appeared.  This gave Herod his timeline for when this child had been born that he would use in his subsequent killing rampage.  Herod told them that the child would be found in   Bethlehem, according to the words of the prophets.  And the Magi went on their way, happily, thinking that Herod was just as anxious as they were to find this child of promise!

They again saw the star in the east and it led them each step of the way until it stopped above the place where Jesus, sweet baby Jesus, was.  And then we come to the verse that I selected, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees they worshiped Him."  True worship!  Finding the goal of their journey, knowing they had arrived at their destination, and being convinced that this child, this small child, was someone so very special that they could not stand in His presence.  They fell to their knees because of who Jesus is.

We are told that they were warned, supernaturally, in a dream to not return to Herod, but they returned a different way to go back to their own country.  Have you ever thought...the wise men were the first missionaries!  These men who had seen something so extraordinary, so very holy went back to their country and you can't tell me that they didn't tell everyone what they had seen and experienced!  They had been overjoyed beyond measure and they had fallen on their knees...these are words that describe an event unlike any other in their lives.  God's eternal plan is at work.  People of all nations are already starting to hear of His Son's arrival to this earth.  I think that's amazing.

Speaking of dreams, Matthew conveys in just the first two chapters of his gospel five instances of God-sent dreams.  This was an important thing for Matthew to let his Jewish audience be aware of, for they knew that in the Old Testament, God had often used dreams to convey His direction, and now He was using dreams again to direct the people surrounding the birth of Jesus.  This again confirmed the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus.

In reading of Herod's massacre of the babies of Bethlehem and the flight of Jesus and his family to Egypt, it occurred to me that this is the first instance of Christian persecution.  Hatred fueled the murder of these children and forced Mary, Joseph and Jesus to become refugees to a foreign land. The arrival of Jesus brought with it the division of those who will honor Him (the wise men) and those who will despise Him (Herod).  This division has never left the earth...we see it 2,000 years later in just as horrific ways.  And we see it 2,000 years later in much more subtle ways as well.

But the encouraging thing that we also see is that God's plans will never be diverted by Satan's promptings of evil.  God protects Jesus and His family, and allows them to return to Judea at just the right time to just the right place.  Jesus will grow up in Nazareth in relative obscurity, allowing Him to thrive and grow and "become strong, filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on Him." (Luke 2:40)  "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people." (Luke 2:52.

So what did I discover about Jesus' mission in this chapter of Matthew's gospel:
1.  Through the prophecy quoted in v. 6, Jesus came to be the shepherd of the people of Israel.  He truly is the King of the Jews, and is the promised Messiah spoken of to Abraham and David and by the prophets.  Matthew was presenting Jesus to his Jewish brothers and sisters, and many of them came to faith.
2.  Again, we see that fulfillment of prophecy was part of Jesus' mission.  (Verses 6, 18, and 23)
3.  That Jesus brings with Him a choice to everyone...will we honor Him, or will we reject Him?  Will He bring joy to our life as we fall on our knees before Him, or will He be a stumbling block to our own personal agenda?

Are Matthew's words coming alive to you?  They are full of life to us who believe.  Every word of Scripture is.  Now we move to Chapter 3.  Which verse(s) are you selecting to store in your heart? I am choosing v. 16-17, "After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water.  The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him.  And there came a voice from heaven:  'This is My beloved Son, I take delight in Him.' "

These verses are foundational to the evidence of the Holy Trinity---Father, Son and Holy Spirit all present at the same moment.  And because of what Jesus has done on my behalf, I can hear the Father's words spoken over me as well.  Not because of who I am, but because of what He's done; not because of what I've done, but because of who He is.  Thank You Jesus for coming for me!

Matthew Chapter One Recap and Intro to Chapter Two

Have you let Matthew 1 sink into your heart this week?

We start off with the genealogy...not the most exciting reading, BUT it is included in God's Holy Word for purpose.  What do you think God's purpose was for Matthew to include this listing?  Remember what I put in the comment I added to last week's post, that Matthew was writing to a primarily Jewish audience that had converted to Christianity, or were considering that conversion.  Why would it have been important for them to read this detailed genealogy?  Because they needed to see, in detail, the fact that Jesus came from the line of promise, going back to their father Abraham.  Abraham had received the promise long ago that his offspring would bring blessing to all people  (Genesis 12:3 and 22:18).  And they also knew the promise given to King David, that his descendent would establish a forever kingdom (2 Samuel 7:11-13).  So while this reading may seem unimportant to us, for a first century Jew to even consider that Jesus was the promised Messiah, it was absolutely necessary to see His lineage.  I also think it's important for us to see that the promises God makes are being worked out over periods of time---they may not happen in our lifetime, just as they did not for Abraham or David.  But God was working through every conception, every life, throughout all these generations to fulfill His divine promise.  And then at just the right time, it happened!

Now my question about the "fourteen generations" --- I read several commentaries regarding this notation of Matthew, and the one that I settled on was this:  the three fourteen generation segments represent six "sevens", thus making the arrival of the Messiah the seventh seven.  A Jewish religious scholar understood the significance of the number seven --- it represented completion and perfection.  A seventh seven would be the epitome of that representation.  That answer satisfies me, although it may not be all that Matthew intended.  What do you think?


And then Jesus' birth...what beautiful characters we are introduced to! Mary, the young mother who suddenly finds herself pregnant.  And Joseph, who had thought he had been engaged to a sweet, innocent, Jewish girl now suddenly faced with a situation he was caught totally off guard with, but still showing such sweetness of heart that he did not want to put Mary in a place of disgrace.  How many men would probably have drug her into the public square for a, then deserved by Jewish law, stoning!

Another note of importance for Matthew's readers would be the explanation of how Mary became pregnant, by the Holy Spirit.  They knew the prophecy contained in Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bring Immanuel, "God is with us."  Matthew quotes the prophecy to reinforce to his audience that Jesus is the One Isaiah spoke of.

So, I had stated that one of my goals in studying Matthew was to focus on the "Mission of Jesus", statements that tell us why Jesus came to earth for us.  This is what I saw in the first chapter of Matthew---
1. To save us from our sins (v. 21)
2. To fulfill what was spoken of by God through Old Testament prophets (vs. 22)
3. To bring God to us so we could truly know Him (v. 23)
4. To prove that God's Word is trustworthy - what He says He will do, He will do - even if it takes 42 generations! (v. 2-16)

Now on to Chapter 2...I'm picking two verses to memorize, vs. 10-11.  I'm picking these verses because they exhibit the emotion that I think we should have when we worship our Lord,
"When they saw the star they were overjoyed beyond measure.  Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him."

Overjoyed beyond measure...falling to their knees...they worshiped Him!  They had found their sought-after treasure and they were exuberant and humble at the same time.  Let that be me!

Starting something new!

Years ago I did Bible studies on the Gospels.  I'm finding myself drawn again to studying these books of Jesus' life on earth, so I'm starting with, can you guess?  The book of Matthew.  I plan on taking a chapter a week, studying and pondering on what is conveyed to me through the words as penned through this disciple.  Since there are 28 chapters in this very first Gospel, it will take until almost the end of 2016 to cover going at the rate of a chapter a week.

Specifically, I am focusing on the "Mission of Jesus"...what each chapter tells us about why Jesus came.  I think that's very important for us, as Christians, to understand because we are more and more being challenged as to the uniqueness of Jesus in His role in history.  We need to know why Jesus was sent to fully understand the difference between Him and every other earthly religious figure.

Also, each week, I'm going to pick my verse in that chapter to commit to memory.  You can pick your own or use mine.  But I want a verse to tuck back in my head to bring that chapter to life for me.  The verse from Chapter 1 that I've selected is vs. 21 - "She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from theirs sins."

So - for the next 28 weeks, I will post once a week with what I have seen in God's Word in the chapter covered that week.  I earnestly invite you to join with me...read God's Word...and please offer your comments as to what God has shown you as well.

So let's read Matthew 1 every day this week...when you have time dig a little deeper and really study the verses that you have questions about.  I have a question right now that I need to look deeper into, "What is the signficance of the 14 generations mentioned in v.17?"  That intrigues me.

Feel free to post comments through the week, and then next week I'll summarize what I have seen in this first chapter of the first of the four Gospels of our Lord and Savior, JESUS!

It's Wednesday evening...

...and normally last night I would have met with a wonderful group of ladies for our Tuesday night Bible study.  We have been meeting for several years and it is a very special time of study, fellowship and prayer.  We most recently completed the study, "The Magnificent Obsession," a study on the life of Abraham by Anne Graham Lotz. It was a very insightful study into the life of this grand patriarch who became God's friend through a life of faith.  We are now in between studies, but will soon be back together in the fall for another time of pursuing God through His Word.

As I think back through the 7 weeks of this study, I am reminded that Abraham:

1. Obeyed God's call to leave his homeland, got to the place where God led him, built an altar and worshipped God
2. Left that place to go to Egypt to find food (no evidence of God's direction in this move, and probably an act of lack of trust in God's provision)
3. Lied to Pharoah about Sarai being his sister, not his wife 
4. Returned to where God wanted him and worshipped God
5. Received God's promise of an heir and numerous offspring, "Abram believed the LORD and he credited it to him as righteousness."
6. Lost trust in God to bring him the promised son and entered into a sexual relationship with Hagar, a slave girl brought back from Egypt (where he probably never should have been), from which Ishmael was born (all this was at the prompting of Sarai).
7. Received God's new name of Abraham and obeyed God's directive to be circumcised as a sign of God's covenant with him.
8. Received the promise that Sarah would bear a son within a year and believed, pleaded with God for the deliverance of Sodom on behalf of Lot.
9. Saw the destruction of Sodom from a distance and left the land to which God had led him.
10. Lied to Abimelech about Sarah being his sister, not his wife (deja vu all over again!)
11. Prayed to God following his lying.
12. Celebrated the birth of Isaac, the promised son, with Sarah, his mother.
13. Obeyed God and showed his absolute submission to His direction by offering Isaac as a sacrifice - an offering for which God provided a substitute.
14. Received complete blessing from God.

Just recapping to make it very obvious that Abraham, that great man of faith, a man called the friend of God, had a lot of missteps along the way.  We all do.  But what made Abraham "faithful" was that he always came back...he came back to the place where God wanted him, built an altar, and worshipped sincerely, with a heart of repentance I believe, for getting off track...again!  And he ended with a strong showing of faithfulness and trust in God.

Have you, like me, gotten off track at times in your life?  In reflection, it is those times that I regret the most, and Satan can use those times to accuse and condemn.  But then I reflect on Abraham's life of ups and downs and understand that I serve a merciful God who knows not only my missteps and mistakes, but my heart that wants to be His more than any thing else.  And I see Jesus on a cross saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." At times, I haven't realized the impact of my actions...I haven't known how much I was hurting God by my rebellion.  But He still provided mercy and grace for me when my eyes were opened and I returned to Him...every time.  And I worship Him with a heart that is SO incredibly thankful!

Does this mean, paraphrasing Paul, that I can continually repeat my mistakes without regard, counting on God's grace to cover me?  Heaven forbid!  When you truly become God's friend, the last thing you want to do is offend Him.  He is the One who has given so much for me, why would I ever want to do anything that shows anything other than love for Him?  Whatever He asks, I can know that He is asking because it is the best for me, and I can comply with absolute trust.  That's the point Abraham had reached when he could willingly go to Mount Moriah and offer his one and only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God.  I have to ask myself, "what is my Isaac"?

What God wants is my heart...my heart given to Him, fully and completely.  Does He have it?  What am I holding onto, unwilling to lay on the altar?

I pray that I show the same progress that Abraham did...and finish the race with the same strong showing of faithfulness and trust in God as he did.  For I truly want to be called a friend of God.

Day 4 - Verse100 - I think this is it...I think we're finished...but then again.....

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His."  2 Chronicles 16:9

There it is...our 100th verse on our last day.  And it is such a good, good verse to close out on, for it shows the faithfulness of God to people who give themselves to Him...completely.

How do we do that while we live on this earth, in this world, that we find ourselves?  How do we do that as we raise families, go to jobs, do all the things that we find necessary to "survive"?  How do we live in this world and not become of this world, still releasing our hearts completely to God?  It is a daily struggle, isn't it?  It is a continuous tension, I believe.  I think it is why we have to start every day with a prayer of submission and surrender.  Who are you and I going to serve on this day?  To whom will our hearts be given?

Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."  Matthew 6:24  We have to claim allegiance to one or the other...we are either spending our lives serving God, or spending them in the accumulation of wealth to serve our selves.  

But don't we have to provide for ourselves and our families?  Yes (1 Timothy 5:8).  Don't we have to prepare for our futures?  Yes (Proverbs 6:6-8).  But we are told over and above providing and preparing, to TRUST!  Listen again to Jesus' words, "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?' or "What will we drink?' or "What will we wear?'  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."

If we find ourselves continually stressing over our provisions, either for the present or for the future, and feeling that it is all up to us to ensure that we are well taken care of; if we find ourselves amassing more and more and never feeling that we have "enough"; if we find ourselves unable to enjoy this day that God has given us because we are so consumed with worry for what tomorrow will bring....what do these things reveal about our heart's residence?  It has surely not been given completely to God.

A heart given to God resides in His peace, knowing that He is our good, good Father, ready to give His children exactly what they need.  Does that always look like what we think we need?  No --- just as we, as earthly parents, do not always give our children what they think they need, because we know better than they what is best for them.  "As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"  Matthew 7:11

A heart given completely to God is one that trusts in Him...no matter what.  Remembering that He has promised us good things.  Better things than we would give our children.  Things that we don't even comprehend!  But they will come...and we will see...our hearts were in a good, good place in His hands!

Well - we're finished.  100 verses!  But we are never finished with God's Word, are we?  Starting in June, we will begin to study Proverbs.  I invite you all to join in that.  In the meantime, I will be adding notes  on what I am reading in the Word and what God is showing me.  I always invite your comments and I love knowing we are being united in His Spirit through the Word of God living in each of us.  

God bless you on this lovely May morning...and give Him your heart today...and then tomorrow...and then each and every day between now and eternity!

Day 3 - Verse 100 - "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His." 2 Chronicles 16:9

I say my heart is "completely yours, O God"...but does my life truly reflect that profession?

When I review my day, how is it spent?  Do I truly have no other gods before my God?  Out of my 16+ waking hours, how many do I spend seeking/praying to/worshipping God?  Can I even get an hour in?  Do I count it a "good day" when I spend 15-20 minutes in prayer and another 10-15 reading His Word?

If my heart is to be completely turned over to God, I must dedicate time to Him.  I must seek Him wholeheartedly and get rid of a lot of other "gods" in my life.  Today, I am asking God to help me clean house...to push out the things that are keeping me from living what I say that I truly want...HIM FIRST!

God says, "Love Me the most"...more than anything else.  What is it in my life, and in yours, that steps in front of Him and demands our attention, our loyalty and our time?  Whatever those things are, let's get our lives in line and demote their position.  Let's be able to review our days and see that where we are wanting to spend our time is with our Father, our God, our Savior.  And let's begin to make those times our most coveted of the day.

Here is my intended plan going forward....

• Rise and greet the new day before my feet hit the ground with a prayer of thanksgiving to my God...thanking Him for giving me one more day on this earth to discover more of Him and to share Him with every opportunity, to cleanse me of all my unrighteousness, and to make me strong for Him...for today.
• Sit down with His Word in my lap and read, slowly and intentionally, praying through each passage for understanding and insight...asking Him for His application to my life today. Thanking Him for His unbelievably miraculous Holy Scripture that He has given us, and asking the Holy Spirit to move in my life so that I become just a little more like Him today.
• Enter my day with deliberate purpose of living for my Father.  With each decision, say a prayer of asking for His wisdom whether to turn to the right or to the left, and pausing to wait to feel His hand.
• End my day with His Word again, and then asking Him to bring to my mind those who need my intercessory prayer, praying for my family, praying for our country and for the worldwide body of believers...asking Him "to show Himself strong" for all who are faithful.

This is my plan...I pray to God to help me live by it.  I do not ever want to proclaim something that I am not ready to try to live by.  He is faithful and He is strong, and I am asking for His strength to overpower my weakness.  For my flesh is so very, very weak.  Mornings are not easy for me...my bed is hard to crawl out of at times.  I have an addiction to stupid TV programs!  I get sidetracked easily by other "not so bad" habits.

But who do I love the most?  Let my life be a testimony to that love!

Day 2 - Verse 100 - "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His." 2 Chronicles 16:9

Do you ever have one of those days, or weeks, that you feel like you have to pray, "Lord, show yourself strong for me right now, because I am not feeling strong."  I believe God hears those prayers of ours, prayers of desperation and earnest need.  And I believe, just as this verse tells us, that when we put our trust completely in Him, and give our hearts over to Him, He does show Himself strong for us.

So what does that mean?  What difference does it make in our lives when God "shows Himself strong"?  Does it mean that everything automatically falls into place and whatever was causing us to drop to our knees in desperate prayer is taken care of?  I think we can all say, "obviously not" to that. Because our needs remain the same, the problems don't go away, and circumstances aren't changed in the moments we utter our pleas.

But you know what is changed?  WE are changed.  We are given His strength as we ask for Him to show Himself strong.  We become empowered through His Spirit living in us to face the problems, to get through the tough circumstances, and to do so without fear.  For we are reminded, in every core of our being, that if HE is for us, then who can be against us?

God shows Himself strong as we become strong in Him.  We look back and say,"How did I get through that?"  And we know the answer is:  GOD.  God Himself became the strength that we needed, when we needed it.

When we face times of uncertainty...and there are so many areas of uncertainty in our lives right now...if we have given our hearts to God, placing in His hands our lives and our futures, all we need do is ask Him to show Himself strong in our lives.  To know that, no matter what, He is with us and will never forsake us.

When we face times of doubt...and our enemy loves to throw the darts of doubt at us so that we will not be testifiers to the power of our God...we just ask our Father to show Himself strong, to take those fiery darts and to extinguish each of them before they take hold and cause us to question His plan, His very existence.

When we face times of personal crisis, death of loved ones, our own sicknesses...and those times are bound to come to each of us as we live on this broken planet...we ask God to show Himself strong, to take hold of our emotions and to remind us of His great love for us, a love that we cannot be separated from, no matter what we are going through.  For He is our Good Shepherd, and He will walk with us through the valley of death and sorrow, into a place where He will  anoint our heads with oil and our cup will overflow with His blessings, and we will live in the house of the Lord forever.

The only condition on all of these promises is that we are a people who have given our hearts completely to Him...have we?  Are we?  Every day, that is our choice.  Who has my heart?  This temporary world that I'm living in now, or my God, the Creator of the universe, my Lord and my Savior, my Good, Good Shepherd who opens the gate for me and asks me to follow Him?

Lord, let me make the right decision every morning as to where my heart resides...let it always be placed in Your good and gracious hands.  I give my heart to You.