JESUS SPEAKING

            Mary came to the tomb on the third day to find it empty; she was weeping and peering in to the tomb when she turned around to see a man standing before her, but she didn’t know that it was Jesus.  The scripture is what follows,

            Jesus spoke to her and said, “Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you seeking?”  She, supposing him to be the Gardner, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary!”  She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (Which is to say, Teacher).  Jesus said to her, teacher, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”  Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her (John 20: 15-18.) 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

              Jesus Christ had been spit on, whipped, kicked, beaten, punched, yelled at, stabbed, and pierced with nails and a spear, and Mary Magdalene had been there to witness it all.  She had most likely held his Mother Mary who was also there to witness her Son being disrespected.  When she arrived to find an empty tomb her heart and mind were overwhelmed with grief, supposing that someone had desecrated his body even after his death.  She did not yell at the person she thought was the Gardner, but asked in humility where the body was.  The man she supposed was a stranger called her by name, saying “Mary” and her despair turned to elation.  She had desired to find the missing lifeless body of her master, but instead she discovered the living Son of God standing before her.  She was so overjoyed she wanted to embrace him, but Jesus would not allow it; instead he told her to take a message to his brothers who were mourning as well.  He wanted her to tell the disciples that he had been resurrected and was going to ascend.  What began with a search for a dead body, resulted in the discovery of the risen Christ.

             Many people have gone to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus, but when they get there, they find that he has been raised.  One man that comes to mind is Frank Morrison.  He was famous for writing his book, “Who moved the stone.”  Frank had grown up in a family where he was taught to think in a rationalistic way.  During his life, he decided to take three years off from work to disprove the resurrection of Jesus.  After examining the evidence, he came to conclude that the resurrection did in fact take place.  He wrote the book ‘who moved the stone,’ and the first chapter was entitled ‘the book that refused to be written,’ in honor of the book he didn’t write that would have disproven the resurrection.  Frank Morrison went to the tomb, just like Mary Magdalene, and just like Mary Magdalene he found a risen Lord.

             Today, the majority of the world, Christian and non-Christian alike, would concede that a man named Jesus Christ lived; they will even concede that he was crucified on the cross, and perhaps that he taught many good things.  I have met many atheists who would not debate these facts.  The great majority of them would even say, Mary did find the tomb empty.  (They may give a rationalistic explanation for why it was empty; many non-believers will say his followers came and broke in and stole the body to make it look like he had risen from the dead.)  Where do the believer and the non-believer part ways.  Might I suggest it occurs right when Mary says ‘Rabboni.’  The moment she sees Jesus Christ alive and well is where the believer believes, and the doubters scoff.  Today, the question remains.  Do you believe that Jesus Christ stood before Mary?  Do you believe he is ascended in to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God?  If you believe, then your sadness will turn to joy, your doubt will be transformed in to hope, and your life will be sustained by a future with the Lord in His kingdom.  Christ has risen indeed, and because he has risen, we will rise with Him.

             “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You now, knowing that Your Son is beside You, and Your Holy Spirit is within us.  We thank You that You raised Your Son from the dead and we believe; we trust that You will raise us up just like You raised Him up, and we look forward to our future with You and with Him, in Your Kingdom?  Lord, help us to bring the report of the resurrection to others that their tears may turn to joy.  We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”      

 

JESUS SPEAKING

             “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast in to hell” (Mathew 5: 27-30)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                In the Old Testament God told the Israelites that they weren’t to commit adultery.  The focus was on the outward action.  But Jesus does something unheard of; with the authority of God he adds to what was commanded by God in the Old Testament.  Jesus makes the motivation in the heart equal to the action itself.  A person no longer needed to murder his neighbor physically; instead, a strong hatred for another person was the same as murder in the eyes of God.  A person no longer needed to sleep with his neighbor’s wife; a man needed only to look at his neighbor’s wife strongly with a deep desire for her sexually, and God counted that desire to be the same as the physical act of sex.  So what is the heart?  The heart is a place deep down inside of every human being that motivates them; a place that is secret; a place where a person hides their fears, worries, and intentions, but not from God.  God wanted originally to dwell within the hearts of his people.  Instead, they built a temple, and asked him to dwell there.  He wanted their hearts, but they only wanted to give him their actions.  Jesus again redirects everything back to the heart.  He identifies the eyes as a tool that can be used to lust, and tells them to pluck out their eyes if they are causing a person to sin.  He draws a parallel between the eternal and the temporal.  Those things which last forever are far more important than any pleasures a person may indulge in on this earth.  If one places an emphasis on the things in this world, they lose sight of the things that are important in the world to come.  For example, a person can desire money, and so they put their careers before love for their families.  They spend more time at the office than they do at home.  They grow distant from taking care of and nurturing the gift God has given them in their wives.

                When a man receives a wife from God, he is supposed to take care of her, and to love her, and to not commit adultery.  Pornography is adultery.  Pornography is not just a passing glance; it’s not a momentary unconscious glance at a woman that can’t be controlled.  If you are out in the community, and you are a man, although you should try to not look at any women, it is sometimes impractical.  The Pharisees during the time of Jesus would walk around with their heads down everywhere they went to make sure they never looked at a woman.  They would run in to objects and people.  If you live in a monastery, you might be able to avoid looking at a woman, but then you would be useless in reaching other people in the world around you; how could you minister to those who were lost.  Lusting is looking at a woman to desire after her; this is a sustained, repeated, or prolonged focus.  It’s not a thought, or imaginary idea, it’s filling your head and heart with a strong desire for something, which Jesus makes clear here pertains to the eyes (Note:  if you have a wife, lusting after her is not only good, it’s Godly.  You should desire to look at your wife naked, and she should want to do the same with you.)  Pornography destroys marriages, not to mention lives.  Ted Bundy, the day before he died was interviewed.  When asked where it all started, he said that he began to look at the pornography he would find in trash cans.  He saw violent pornography, and from then on he continued to progress down a road that led him to his violent rape and murder of many women.  Pornography is a pathway away from God, away from a wife, and toward something that is not God’s will for a man’s life.

                Today there are many who are addicted to pornography; they can’t seem to stop lusting after women they don’t even know.  Many don’t understand the damage that it is doing in their relationship with God, and with others.  Giving it up can be difficult, but with God’s help, with prayer, and with earnest effort and accountability to others, and to God, what seems impossible, can become possible.  God can take away this desire to lust, if, and only if, a person is willing to let Him.

                “Lord Heavenly Father, we ask and pray that You make us pure in heart, and convict our hearts of any lusting that might be going on in us.  We pray that You will help us to make the changes that need to be made.  If any of us are struggling with addiction to pornography, or any other kind of lusting, remove it from our lives, and give us victory in this area, that we can better serve You, in all that we do.  We love you Lord, we praise you, and we thank you, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

JESUS SPEAKING

                “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  ‘I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18: 10-14.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                The Pharisees were the rigid religious leaders of the day.  They loathed sinners, and they loathed the impure.  They became angry when they heard that Jesus was eating with sinners (those who didn’t behave in Godly ways.)  The tax-collectors earned a living by cheating the people.  A tax-collector survived off of whatever amount of money they charged above the normal taxes.  So they were seen as traitors and thieves.  This was an illustration about humility.  The Pharisee believed that because he had done so many good things, he was righteous.  The tax collector however, feared God, and held God in high esteem; he couldn’t even lift his eyes up toward God, and was angry with himself for not having measured up to God’s standards.  In his reverence he asked God to show him mercy.  The one who was a screw-up was more acceptable to God than was the person who had been doing all of the right things, because the screw-up honored God and not himself.  One man exalted God, the other man exalted himself.  Jesus said the one who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

                In high school, I never liked to run in track; I pole-vaulted, but I never liked to run.  I avoided it like the plague.  I knew I wasn’t that fast of a sprinter, and I didn’t want anyone to see my weakness.  One time my coach told me I had to run or I would get kicked off of the team.  Everyone had to run, and it became common knowledge that I was disobeying the coach.  When I eventually ran, I lost horribly; someone later told me, “I heard Triganowen beat you,” some sophomore kid who wasn’t a starter on the football team.  Man did I feel less than low.  I was prideful, just like the Pharisee in this scripture.  Interestingly enough, on that same track team there was a boy named ‘Billy.’  He was mentally disabled.  He could run, but he couldn’t run fast.  His parents would drop him off for practice.  He wore coke-bottle glasses and had buck teeth.  He couldn’t carry on a conversation very well either.  He was an oddity to most people, because he showed up every day, and he worked hard to run faster.  He practiced to improve his speed even though it was at a snail’s pace; we knew he would never place in any race, but he would run for a different reason.  One day, the word went out, Billy was running in an event.  He ran, and as he did, people began to gather, and run beside him, and cheer him on.  The other teams were looking over at all of the excitement, but they didn’t understand what was happening.  This one little kid had an effect on my heart and on everyone on our team in a way that none of us had had on each other.  I now know that it was the humility in Billy that we were honoring.  Because he was weak but tried his best, we honored him.

                We as well as Christians should show similar humility.  We should never be focused on our own righteousness or on how good we are compared with others because in the end we are all nothing next to the righteousness of God.  We can’t honor God and honor ourselves at the same time.  God honors those who are humble, and he humbles those who are full of pride and self-righteousness.  Be the humble person.  Remember how merciful God has been to you, a ‘lowly sinner.’  Think of how Great God’s love for you is, in that, while you were still a sinner he died for you, and you will know the love and the joy of an all powerful God living within your heart.

                “Father, if there are areas of self-righteousness in us, we ask that You please reveal them and remove them from us.  Help us to lift you up, and to honor You and put You in the place of honor in our lives.  Help us also Lord, to not look down on the others, but to reach out to them in love.  We thank You Father, we love You, and we praise You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.