I've been meaning to sit down and write this for days but it still feels like a lot of little bunny trails that may not connect very well. I'll try not to lose you in the bushes.
Several weeks ago, Chris and I took a little weekend excursion. Thought I'd throw in a couple pictures of the beauty we took in....
This year our whole church has been reading through the chronological Bible. Every Sunday, the sermon and our Sunday school discussion comes from something in the past week's reading. It has been a really good experience; I'd recommend it to anyone! There's nothing quite like the whole lot of you reading exactly the same thing at the same time and having it crop up in day to day conversations.
Last week we finally made it to the New Testament. What a flip of a light switch! It hit me like never before that the people Jesus came to in the gospels were those same people we had just laboriously read about in the prophets -- well, not literally the same people. But people with that same mindset; that same world view. No wonder it was so hard for them to get it!
Reading the New Testament after nine months in the Old is like chugging down clear, cold water on a blistering hot day. There's so much goodness there you can hardly taste it all properly but you keep gulping greedily and every so often some little nugget reaches out and snatches your attention, like this one in Luke 3 --
When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.” The crowds asked, “What should we do?” John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”
Luke 3:7-11 NLT
For some reason John's response captivated me. I wonder if the crowds were caught off guard by it? I wonder if they expected something bigger, more eloquent -- share our food and clothes -- really, John?
Sometimes I make the Gospel so much more complicated than it is.
All of this reminded me of a couple years ago when I spent a January writing about Treasure In Heaven. I took the time to go back and read those posts again, and my goodness. It's quite a feeling to be so convicted by your own words!
And then Matthew 7 came along...
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5 NLT
Jesus fleshed it out a good bit more than John did, but it seems to me the bottom line is really -- Go get busy caring about other people. Stop nitpicking and judging and trying to prove how good you are. Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. And how do I do that? Start laying up some treasure in heaven!
This past week I determined to intentionally do just that. I chose to do at least one thing especially for my household, at least one thing especially to the household of faith, and at least one thing for someone or something outside of my little circle. It was so good for me. I want to take up the challenge to refocus once again and do it some more... and keep doing it... until it becomes a permanent part of my life.
Those are my bunny trails. I hope if you got lost, you find an exit soon.
Once I started with the chronological Bible the over-all narrative of the Scriptures made much more sense to me. And I don't mind being in the Old Testament till October. One year I tried to read the Old and New Testament through at the same time, and I got so far behind in the N.T. It didn't work very well for me.
ReplyDeleteI like the schedule that Lamp and Light used to publish. They don't any more but I still have a copy. Except I use a Jeremiah chronological schedule that I found somewhere else.
How nice that your church is doing this together. LRM