JESUS SPEAKING

             “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” (Luke 13: 20-21.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

             What is leaven?  Leaven is microscopic organisms, sometimes known as yeast.   The yeast produces small bubbles of carbon dioxide, which are kneaded throughout bread dough.  When the bread is cooked the micro-organisms are killed, and the gas bubbles expand and give the bread it’s size and soft feel (unleavened bread is very flat and hard.)  Cooking bread without a leavening agent was common in the first century, especially among the Jews who were forbidden to eat leavened bread during the Passover week.  Jesus compared leaven to the Kingdom of God.  What do they have in common?  The kingdom of God is something that is hidden away inside of a person’s heart, just as leaven is hidden away (and cannot be seen) in an unheated loaf of bread.  A tiny bit of leaven will eventually move through the loaf until it is completely saturated.  Similarly, the kingdom of God often has a small beginning in the heart of the believer, but just a little bit of God’s kingdom is enough to eventually saturate the entire heart and life of the person who receives it.  (Also, here, I believe Jesus is referring to the spread of the gospel outward from Jerusalem through the world; and indeed, the message has spread throughout the entire world.)

             Today many people own an I-phones or an Apple Computer; they seem to be a part of the lives of millions, if not billions of people on the planet.  It would be easy to think that this company had its beginning in a huge office building, backed by some of the most powerful investors on the planet.  It would be easy to envision a national advertising campaign and literary buzz announcing the start of Apple Computers.  This would be easy to imagine, but it would be incorrect.  Apple Computers was started by two teenagers in a garage (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.)  Steve’s dad had to clear out the garage so the boys had enough room to begin manufacturing their first personal computers.  Something that two children began in a garage today spans the globe and affects the lives of billions of people.

             Often times our understanding of faith is skewed.  We believe that strong faith in the Lord is something that a person just has, and there is no way to get it.  This is an unfortunate belief; faith is not necessarily something that explodes immediately in a person’s life (it can, but not always.)  Faith in Christ, can have meager beginnings from which it may grow to affect every area of the believers life.  Someone may start by professing a faith in Christ during a bible study, and before they know it, prayer has become a part of their daily life.  Another person may be an avid fiction reader, but after accepting Christ, they may begin to make the bible their book of choice.  Eventually, the love life, the business life, the personal life, the recreational life, and every area of their life may be taken over by the Spirit of God.  God wants every area of our lives to be lived for Him.  This can be a scary prospect for a lot of people, and this is why many often harden their hearts and refuse to allow God’s kingdom to even have a beginning in them.  Those who do allow the kingdom of God in to their hearts are transformed from the inside out.  Allow God to change you; allow Him to fill up every area of your life, and you will know peace, and you will know God.  The areas we hold back from God, are the areas which cause us the most pain; so let him make your areas of struggle his areas of peace.

             “Lord, we lift You up as an awesome and mighty God.  We come before You today and we ask and pray that You would continue to grow within us; fill up our hearts and lives completely Lord.  We ask You now to grow, and to enter in to the areas that we are holding back from You.  Lord give us more of Your Spirit, more of Your Truth, and increase our faith.  Consume our hearts, our minds, and our lives by the power of Your Holy Spirit.  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

                “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as it’s own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember that the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept my word, they will keep yours also” (John 15: 18-20.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                This is a warning and an encouragement for true believers.  He is telling the disciples what the future will be like for them, if they choose to follow him.  The Lord explains that there are two distinct and opposing sides; the world and the believer; there is no in between; no grey area; no peaceful place where a person can safely practice the faith without being persecuted.  God’s people are despised by those who seek worldly ends.  Worldly motivation and Godly motivation are at war, and the believer is on one side or the other.  This scripture is meant to encourage us as we walk through life being taken advantage of, stepped on, beaten down, excluded, gossiped about, and persecuted; knowing that these things are proofs that we are traveling down the right path, and that we are following Jesus Christ.  Jesus wants us to be encouraged and overjoyed when we are persecuted for being his followers, knowing that this prophecy has come to pass in our lives.  [Warning:  Persecution that arises because you are rude is not rewarded by the Lord.  Do all things in love; others can tell if you care about them when you are reaching out.]

                Previously I worked in sales, and I did receive a great deal of persecution in many different forms.  One incident occurred with a truck-driver who did the majority of the deliveries for us.  He was going around handing things out.  They were calendars; but, these calendars had naked women on them.  He came in to my office and threw one on my desk, and I told him, “I don’t want this.”  He was offended, and angry, but he took the calendar back.  He had been convicted of the darkness in him, and his anger turned toward me.  [Persecution is not just physical or social.  The persecution is also spiritual.  A person who begins to stand up for Christ is often bombarded with images, thoughts, and emotions that come from being attacked by evil spirits that seek to destroy the chosen of God.  This is often the toughest persecution there is.]  These persecutions become too much for many to handle and they walk away from God.  You and I as believers will certainly undergo persecution of one form or another, but need to take heart.

                Jesus wants us to be encouraged, to not give up, and to know that when we are being persecuted, he is with us, and his words are coming to pass in our lives.  We can know that we are on his side, and that we are heading in the right direction on the path that leads to an eternity with him.  We endure because we are filled with that hope.  As we grow closer to God, and as we become more like him, we will often be persecuted with more regularity and severity.  The world today and the world in the days of the Lord are exactly the same; nothing has changed (Sex, money, power, lust, covetousness, self-fulfillment, entertainment, recreation, career, house, violence, status, strength, freedom; all prideful things; they still make the world go round.)  When you make a stand for God, you are going in the opposite direction, and those who are seeking selfish things see in you, their own evil and ugliness.  Be lowly in a world where everyone is trying to be exalted, and be a messenger of the Lord in this place.  If you are not being persecuted, might I suggest you apply the teachings of Christ to your life?  Your faith is an action.  [For the unsaved:  If you have never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, please contact me and we can pray that he would come in to your heart, and in to your life.]

                “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You Lord, and we ask and pray that You would make us more like Your Son.  Help us Father to endure persecution with love and patience and joy.  If we haven’t truly been applying Your words in our lives, we ask now they would manifest in us, and that by Your power, we would be bold for You.  Give us Your word to speak, and give us more of Your spirit.  We love You Lord, we thank 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.

JESUS SPEAKING

             “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.  For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.  They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’  But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ” (Mathew 23: 1-10.)

 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

             There are too many topics in this scripture to tackle in one sitting.  Let’s look at just one; ‘the binding of heavy burdens.’  Jesus says, “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”  In the old testament, God commanded that anyone who passed by a donkey that was overloaded and straining under the weight was held accountable to God if he or she did not take some of that burden off of the donkey’s shoulders and place it on to their own.  They were required to stop everything, take some of the load from the donkey, and carry it themselves to where ever the donkey and its master were heading.  Imagine then what God would think of a person who walked by a struggling donkey, and instead of easing the burden, stacked what they were carrying on the donkey as well.  This is exactly what the religious leaders were doing to God’s people.  God gave simple rules and regulations by which to live; not all that many; still, man had been so corrupted that they had failed to keep them.  Yet, this didn’t stop the religious leaders from adding more rules to the ones they were already struggling under.  The Pharisees’ added laws numbered in the hundreds; many of which were completely ridiculous.  To illustrate how ridiculous they were, they outlawed the carrying of anything on the Sabbath (a day of rest commanded by God.)  On the Sabbath, Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed and laying on a mat; after the healing, he told the man to ‘pick up his mat and go.’  The religious leaders saw the man carrying his rolled up mat and attacked him for breaking the Sabbath laws.  God had commanded in the bible that no one was to carry a burden, but he never specified what that meant; the Pharisees were unsatisfied with leaving it as God had written; instead they felt the obligation to interpret what it meant and add new laws in to the existing ones.  For instance, God commanded them to refrain from work, but Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, and they blamed him for working.  God had never defined healing as being work, but they, so anxious to condemn Jesus thought they would make new laws where none existed.  They considered themselves then, to be the moral authority on what God had meant by something.  There rules were causing people to be resentful toward God; they were pushing God’s people even further away from Him.  The people, from the time of Adam, to the time of Jesus, had failed to accomplish what God was asking from them.  Sin is what happens when a person acts contrary to what God desires.  Acting in adherence to the law was to be without sin.  However, everyone fell short, everyone caved under the weight of the burden; no one was without sin.  The messiah came to relieve that burden.  Jesus carried the sins of the world on his shoulders when he carried the cross.  God used His Son to clear a path through sin, and in to eternal fellowship with him.  Jesus did for us, what we couldn’t do for ourselves.  He came to help those who were struggling and without hope.    

             Jesus came to help, so has anyone attempted to hinder others from receiving that help?  I very rarely bring up other religions, but I feel compelled too here.  Islam is a faith that offers no solution to the problem of man’s incurable nature to do, think, and behave in immoral ways.  Mohamed professed to believe in Jesus, but he denied his place in forgiving the sins of the lost; he certainly never read this scripture.  Instead of pointing others to Jesus he put himself up as an equal with Jesus.  Mohammed was not a messiah, but a Pharisee.  [He came hundreds of years after the crucifixion, and sidestepped all of Christ’s teachings, and all of God’s work for mankind.  He reinstituted most of the laws of the Old Testament.  He put the burden back on the people, and not only that, but he added to their burdens.  Outward adherence to the laws became the norm, once again.  Mohamed waged a Holy War (converting people with the sword), in which anyone who fought against him and refused to hail him as the prophet of God, was tortured, beheaded, or ordered to give up all of their wealth and possessions, and compelled to leave the country.  This Holy War is still happening today, which is why Muslim countries are born out of war and violence.]  In the Muslim Faith, there is no certainty in making it to heaven, with one exception; anyone who is killed in a ‘Jihad,’ or a ‘Holy War’ automatically goes straight to heaven.  In the Gulf war, they were sending people over in waves, across the lines with guns, fully knowing they would all be shot down.  Why?  Because they believe in creating martyrs (those who have been killed in a ‘Holy War.’)  They celebrate knowing that these men went straight to heaven.  In many Muslim countries, the side streets, and billboards are filled with images of suicide bombers, who have killed themselves along with innocent civilians.  They are seen as examples for the rest of the Muslims who want a guaranteed place in heaven (where there are 70 virgins, who perpetually receive their virginity over and over again.)  Why do they need this guarantee?  Because the alternative, according to the Koran, is to attempt to do far more good deeds than evil, and when you get to heaven, if you have been good enough, you will enter heaven; if you weren’t good enough you will go to hell.  Let’s look at Mohamed’s rules.  He believed that God had ruled on every area of life, leaving nothing open for debate.  In eating for example, Mohamed wrote, one should ‘only eat with the right hand, with three fingers.  In sleep a person was told to wipe off the bed three times before getting in, and to sleep on the right side with the right hand under the right cheek, and the knees slightly bent.’  All this from a man who set a rule for having only 4 wives while taking for himself, at least 18 (he was the prophet, so he was different.  This number could be even closer to 22.)  Most true Muslims will not read the bible, because the teachings of Jesus Christ run completely contradictory to what Mohammed had taught.  (Warning, we are not to feel hatred for Muslims, but compassion and love.  However, love means telling them the truth.  Jesus Christ next to Mohamed reveals the evil of a man under the control of Satan, and the truth of a God.  So, it is our act of love to bring them to the foot of the cross; to let them know that the burden of a Pharisee has been lifted from their shoulders, and that the grace of God has been granted to them.)

             Today there are many Muslims who are straining under the burdens of Mohamed and under the burdens of their clerics who have become even worse Pharisees than those Jesus had been dealing with.  These men live respectful lives, while their followers focus in on all of the rules they need to follow to be pleasing to God.  Their hearts are empty; their actions are done out of constraint and not a genuine love for others, or a genuine love for God.  They may fear him, but they don’t know His love.  When a person realizes the role of Jesus Christ, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are filled with love, and they begin to obey God with a genuine heart.  Real love cannot be forced, it cannot be shaped by actions, it comes from the presence of God within a person; the only way to have God enter a person is if they accept the free gift of God; reconciliation through the work of Christ upon the cross.  God is concerned with heart.  The Muslims need to receive the truth; they need to know that God loves them, and he desires to set them free.

             “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You today, and we lift You up; You are just an awesome and mighty God; full of truth, and love and mercy.  Lord, we ask and pray that You would help the Muslims, and help anyone else who is struggling under the burdens of others.  We pray that You would set them free, and bring them to the knowledge of your redemption through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Father, we ask that if there are areas of our lives where we are trying to carry a burden that You are desiring to carry for us, we ask You to take it now; we give it to You Father.  We love You Lord, we thank You, and we praise You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”