Listening to the Word

Jeremiah 45-47; Psalms 105; John 21   “He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’” Psalm 105:7-11 We serve and know a covenant-keeping God. If he can break his first covenant with Israel, then he can also break his new covenant with us. However, that is not God’s nature; while we are unfaithful, he is faithful. God’s covenants stand. He also disciplines us for our good. Just as Israel was disciplined, so also the Church is disciplined and we, too, experience God’s judgments. Our response must be to humble ourselves before the Lord and acknowledge our sin, seek his face, and give him glory by telling of his gospel and mercy to us in Christ. We trust in who God is because his...

Jeremiah 26, 35, 36; John 20 “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’. She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’…” John 20:16-18 John recounted how he was the first to witness the empty tomb of Jesus. However, it was Mary Magdalene who was the first to see the resurrected Christ, to hear him, and to receive the command to ‘Go’. Why did Jesus choose to give Mary this honor, and not John or Peter? Why did Paul, overlook this important fact when he listed those who saw Jesus in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:5-8)? Paul claimed it was Cephas who first saw Jesus; however, Paul wasn’t present during those first hours and days following the resurrection. Could it be that Mary’s status as a...

Jeremiah 23, 25; John 19   “’But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?’...’Therefore,’ declares the Lord, ‘I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.’” Jeremiah 23:18, 30 Disciples of Jesus, filled with his Spirit, have the opportunity to discern the ‘mind of Christ’ in each situation. We have been given the “Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:12).” Yet rather than spending time in the presence of the Lord, we would rather listen to podcasts of each other’s sermons and ‘steal from one another words’ which we can then use. This must grieve the Lord.   Will we receive our inheritance as sons and daughters of the King and seek his face? Will we choose to listen and obey, value purity and holiness, and honor the Word of the Lord? There is no shortcut to being genuine men and women of God. We must spend time i...

2 Kings 24; Jeremiah 22; Psalms 112; John 18   “Jesus commanded Peter, ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?’…Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’” John 18:11, 36 During the arrest of Jesus, Peter’s violent act of defense against Malchus, the high priest’s servant, sparked an immediate response from Jesus. Peter’s sword was interfering with the cup of deliverance and redemption Jesus was about to drink as he fulfilled the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Jesus had just offered that Passover cup to Peter at the last supper they had together as disciples, but now Jesus would fulfill that Feast’s purpose for all time. Peter didn’t understand why Jesus would allow himself to be arrested because he didn’t understand yet that Christ’s kingdom was not of this world. Many disciples still don’t understand this reality and like Peter, def...

Jeremiah 18-20; Psalms 93; John 17   “…’Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you…I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’” John 17:1, 22, 23 Do we know the time in which we are living in God’s salvation history? Jesus knew that the time had come for him to give his life for the sin of the world. His obedience to the will of the Father released the glory of God (i.e. God’s presence), into the lives of his disciples. It is God’s presence which brings us into unity with one another, not in negotiating our confessional and doctrinal statements down to the least common denominator. Jesus and the Father, indwelling his disciples through the Holy Spirit, fill us with the Father’s love, so that unity becomes our reality. This is the time for the Church to open wide to G...

Jeremiah 16-17; Psalms 96; John 16   “’I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.’” John 16:20, 21 There are different kinds of pain in our lives as disciples of Christ. Often pain is caused by sin in this world and in our lives. We reap what we sow and it hurts However, there is another pain: the pain of birthing a work of God in and through our lives. This pain, like a woman in labour, leads to a new beginning. We might not understand why God is releasing us from a ministry, an assignment, or a location, but the pain of letting go, surrendering, and dying leads to new life. When the new life that God is birthing is being formed, we must cover it in prayer and wait on the Lord’s timing. We cannot rush a birth no matter how painful. ...