Monday, April 30, 2012

April 30th 2012


The people of Nazareth are excited, there is this rabbi in town who does miracles and claims to be the Messiah.  So they ask him to do a miracle like he’s done in Capernaum, and that’s when the story turns.

Read Luke 4:13-30 especially 4:24-27 and journal some of your thoughts

It’s when Jesus is accepted in his hometown that he drops this line about not being accepted in his hometown. Jesus then references two stories, one about Elijah who while there was a drought in Israel went to Zarephath (pagan country) and brought a widows son back from the dead. The second story is about Elisha who doesn’t heal people in Israel but heals Naaman a Syrian. It’s after he says this that the crowd gets angry and tries to kill him. We’ll talk about that tomorrow, but the question for today is what did Jesus say by referencing these verses, that made everyone so angry?

The first reference comes from 1 Kings 17, which begins with Israel experiencing a drought for 3 and a half years because of their faithlessness. During this time God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath which is pagan country and go to this widow who will feed you. As the story unfolds, she is the one who shows faith in God (seriously read 1 Kings 17). The second reference comes from 2 Kings 5 where Elisha heals Naaman (a Syrian – GASP) from his leprosy while he curses his disobedient servant (an Israelite) with the very disease the Syrian had.

If you were part of this Nazarene crowd, who believed so passionately that the Messiah would come from Nazareth, how would you respond to Jesus quoting these two stories about God’s servants healing foreigners while showing the weakness of the Israelites?

Meditate on this for today, what is Jesus telling these people?

Sunday, April 29, 2012

April 29th 2012


It was right after Jesus finished speaking that the people began to yell “How dare he say such things!” and were about to stone them and Jesus slipped past them saying “No prophet is accepted in his hometown”. Well, not exactly.

Now read Luke 4:13-30 especially verse 22

So how did the people respond? So often we skip this next part and go straight to the ending, the people get angry and try to kill him. When we skip this next part we miss the point of his entire message.  It says that they spoke well of him and were amazed at his words, and of course they were! Here is a people who believed that the Messiah would come from their home town, and here is this rabbi with authority and he’s Joseph’s son. Joseph is one of ours! We knew it!

Can you feel the level of excitement building among the crowd? So many of them may have been ridiculed by other Jews for their belief and yet here is this rabbi from Nazareth, performing miracles. After all, they heard about the miracles Jesus performed in Capernaum (verse 23).

Then things turn, when the crowd asks Jesus to do a miracle.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

April 28th 2012


What happens next?

Read Luke 4:13-30, especially verse 21.

Traditionally after the readings the person reading would give a short talk (Derasha) about what this means. In our world this would be like a short testimony time. This would be followed by a series of question and answers. In verse 20, it mentions that Jesus sat down; in their culture they would stand for the reading of God’s word and sit for the reader’s words. Then it says that everyone’s eyes were fixed on Jesus, it’s almost like they were on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what he had to say next. Then Jesus begins to talk in what is considered to be one of the shortest talks (Derashas) in history when he says “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Now imagine you are a Nazarene, knowing this is a special rabbi with authority (S’mikah), who has been performing miracles. Again, remember that the Nazarenes believed the Messiah would come from Nazareth. What would you be thinking here as Jesus utters these words of testimony? 


Friday, April 27, 2012

April 27th 2012


Jesus begins to speak in the synagogue, let’s take a look at what this means.

Read Luke 4:13-30

Before we look at what Jesus said, it’s important to understand why he said it. In the synagogue anyone could read Scripture, from a young teenager to the oldest in the town. In order to read there your name had to be put on a list of reading and they would read some from the Torah (Torah reading) and some from the rest of the Old Testament (Haftarah reading). What is interesting is they had a schedule for the readings, and they were designed to go through the Torah once a year and the rest of the Old Testament every 3 years. This schedule was set up over 200 years before Jesus. This means the passage Jesus reads isn’t one he chose but one he knew for a long time he was going to read. So as we go through the rest of this story, meditate on how God planned everything.

So what did it say? Jesus reads out of Isaiah 61, this is talking about a time when God was going to put everything back together. God is going to free the captives and bring justice on their enslavers. There will be no more shame and they will inherit a double portion of land (Take some time and read all of Isaiah 61). Sort of sounds like the coming of the Messiah, right?

Knowing what you know about the people of Nazareth, what do you think their reaction would be to this rabbi, reading this reading?

Thursday, April 26, 2012

April 26th 2012


This week we are going to try something a little different, we are going to take everything we’ve been learning and put it into practice. We are going to look at the same passage of Scripture all week breaking it down bit by bit to really understand what’s going on.

Read Luke 4:13-30

Today we are going to begin by asking where this story takes place and why that’s important to everything that follows. When some of us read this story we immediately recognize it as Jesus going to his home town, speaking, and being rejected. Usually this story is summed up by the phrase in verse 24 “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” But there is a major problem with that, mainly that it’s wrong (at least at first).

So what do we know about Nazareth? We know that Nazareth was founded by people returning from the Babylonian exile, but these people had at least one belief that was very different from everyone else. The Nazarene’s believed the Messiah would come from Nazareth. Because they believed this the Nazarene’s were viewed as a cult and they were looked down on to others in their society (See Luke 1:46). 

Where did the Nazarene’s get this idea? If you look at Isaiah 11:1 we see this reference to one coming from the branch of Jesse, as we keep reading in Isaiah 11 we discover that it sounds a whole lot like the Messiah. Now the word used here for “branch” is “netzer” which is also the root of the word Nazareth. So obviously the Messiah will come from Nazareth. What’s interesting is that Matthew makes this connection as well in Matthew 2:23 when he refers to the prophecy that says “He shall be called a Nazarene”.  Problem is there is no such prophecy.

So as you think about this verse this week, meditate on how the people listening to Jesus excepted the Messiah to come from their town.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

April 25th 2012


Why are you born sick?

Read John 9:1-7 and journal your thoughts

Yesterday we talked about how today we would consider the people of Jesus time to be very superstitious, and we totally understand why. Today we have the luxury of science to explain why certain things happen to certain people (and there are still some mysteries for us to discover). As a way to explain these mysteries they put some of their logical pieces together into what we would call superstitions. One of these superstitions deal with the question of why someone would be born with a sickness or a defect, like we see in John 9:2.

The disciples, seeing how Jesus has changed many of their traditional views of how the world works decide to ask their rabbi about it. Traditionally they believed if something bad happened to someone it was because of some sin they had committed, but what about someone who was (to quote Lady Gaga) born that way? Obviously it must be their parent’s sin that caused this person to be blind right, or could it be that God knew of some future sin and punished him now?

Jesus takes the whole debate and turns it upside down, by saying it’s no one’s fault but this has happened to that God’s power would be revealed, then Jesus heals the man. This raises the question for us, when we see people going through trying situations what do we do? Sometimes it’s easy for us to say something like “Well, God has a plan” and then leaven them. Or do we become like Jesus and do everything we can to help them through their situation?

Today may you see moments to heal others and may you step into those moments

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

April 24th 2012


What are some of the images in the Scriptures?

Read John 6:35 and journal your thoughts

It seems like most of us when we read this piece of Scripture have a sort of vague understanding of what it means. We say that Jesus is like bread or food and that like food Jesus keeps us alive spiritually. And sure, that’s partially right, but is there something deeper to it.

In their culture, bread wasn’t just food, but a symbol for the deepest sustenance of life. During the time of Jesus the Roman’s occupied Israel, and like a good occupier they limited or rationed the amount of bread Israel could have. Food was scarce, and people were hungry. There must have been times when the idea of being fed must have felt like it was the deepest sustenance of life.

It’s in this environment when Jesus says that he is the bread of life. Jesus is saying that we were made for more than just survival, but there is something inside of us that longs for and was created for more. We were created for this deep, passionate relationship with God. That is what Jesus and his teachings are to us, they show us how to have that deep, passionate relationship with the Father.

In our world, there are so many things trying to be the deepest sustenance of life to us. If we’re honest most of it is stuff that once we have it we begin to look for something else. The problem is these things are not what our souls are really craving. In reality we crave because we are hungry for the bread of life.

Today may you deepen your relationship with the Father if only for an extra minute a day, and may you discover the deepest sustenance of life.

Monday, April 23, 2012

April 23rd 2012


In yesterday’s passage, have you even wondered why they thought Jesus was a ghost?

Read Matthew 14:25-27 and journal your thoughts

So the disciples are on a boat on the water and they see Jesus walking on the water and their first reaction is that it’s a ghost, does this seem a bit strange to you? Why would they instantly assume it’s a ghost?

To help us with this one we have to understand two things about the way the Jews thought, and the first is we have to understand how a Jew would have seen the water. Remember the disciples are on the Sea of Galilee, and this is key because a sea is not running or living water, but it’s stationary, stagnant. They would call it part of the “deep”. Remember from Genesis 1, at first everything was chaos, God’s Spirit was hovering over the “deep”.  For the Jew the “deep” was the left over chaos from creation. In a word, the “deep” was hell. (NOTE: Look at how many times David talks about the “deep” in the Psalms. 42:7, 69:1, 130:1 just to name a few. Also note that some translations use words like “depths” and “waters”, but we miss the imagery.)

The second thing we have to consider is that compared to the way that we think in the church, they were very superstitious, and as part of this they believed in ghosts. They also believed that if a person sat under a certain tree at a certain time of the day they would be demon possessed. There were a lot of things in this ancient society that they simply didn’t know, so of course they had superstitions.

So why do the disciples think Jesus is a ghost? Because they are riding a boat over the deep, what else could it be?

Today may you read the Scriptures with new eyes and discover new truths. 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

April 22nd 2012


The worst sin is teach people to believe in God and not teach people that God believes in you –Ancient Rabbi

Read Matthew 14:22-33 and journal your thoughts

In our culture, when we talk about being a disciple of Jesus, we tend to water it down a bit and define it as someone who believes in Jesus as their savior, but to be a disciple in Jesus culture was something totally different. In Jesus day, to be a disciple of a rabbi meant that you wanted to be exactly like your rabbi. You wanted to walk like them, talk like them, think like them, everything.

In Matthew 14:22-33, the disciples are on a boat and Jesus comes walking out towards them, and at first they think he’s a ghost. Jesus tells them who he is and Peter’s first reaction is to get out of the boat and do what Jesus is doing. Why? Because his rabbi is doing it and if his rabbi did something, then the assumption was that he could do it. And he actually does it!

At least for a little while, because Peter sees the wind and got scared so he begins to sink. Jesus picks him up and asks him why he doubted. Here is where we usually assume that Peter doubts Jesus, but Jesus isn’t sinking. Who does Peter doubt? Himself. Peter doesn’t believe that he can do what Jesus does, he’s not sure that he can be just like his rabbi and so he begins to sink.

What about us? Do we really believe that we can be just like Jesus? We say “well of course not, we’re sinners and he was perfect.” Right, but so were the disciples! So do we believe that we can become just like Jesus? What’s interesting about this story of Peter is that Jesus believed that Peter could do it; otherwise he wouldn’t have called him out. Do you realize that Jesus believes you can become like him, just like he believed in Peter?

Today may you realize that Jesus believes in you even more than you believe in yourself.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

April 21st 2012

During our Easter discussions we looked at how when Mary washed Jesus feet with oil she was actually anointing him as a king. We talked about how a king would have been anointed with oil to have the fragrance of a king then paraded among his people (See Triumphant Entry). We also talked about how the fragrance of the oil would have stayed with Jesus all the way through his death. What does all this mean for us?

Read 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 journal your thoughts

Did you catch it? As followers of Jesus we are called to be the fragrance or aroma of Christ. So what does that mean? Just like Jesus had the fragrance of a king everywhere that he went and in everything that he did during that last week, in the same way we are supposed to represent Jesus is everywhere we go and in everything we do.

So what does this look like lived out? No this doesn’t mean that we need to smell a certain way (sorry literalists), but like an aroma, it’s something you notice right away, it’s something that is so much a part of you that it’s always in the middle of everything you do. This is what it means to be the fragrance of Jesus, we are so much like Jesus that we are like him in everything that we do and everywhere we go.

Today may you be so much like Jesus that your give off the aroma of a King.

Friday, April 20, 2012

April 20th 2012

Does the Old Testament matter?

Read Matthew 5:17-20 and journal your thoughts.

I know most of us read that opening question and say of course it matters, it’s in the Bible it has to matter, but as we seriously take a look at our lives and how we read the Scriptures, does it? The problem is for most of us in our culture we don’t treat the Old Testament like it really matters. In fact look at the phrase “Old Testament”, for most of us the word “old” implies that it doesn’t matter anymore, because there is a new one. (Note: if you are ever discussing the “Old Testament” with a Jew don’t call it the “Old Testament” that’s insulting for this very reason. Call it the “Tanakh”.)

Jesus uses two words here that we need to focus in on “abolish” and “fulfill”. In their culture if a rabbi asked a disciple to interpret a piece of Scripture and this disciple just butchered it, the rabbi would say that they “abolished Torah” (Ouch!). On the other hand, if the disciple correctly interprets the Scripture the rabbi would say that he has “fulfilled Torah”.

So what does Jesus mean here? Notice that Jesus says this just before the he hits the bulk of the Sermon on the Mount. This means the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus interpretation of Torah. Essentially, Jesus is saying that he is making the Old Testament a central part of our lives.

Today may you see the importance of the Tanakh (Old Testament) as well as the New Testament.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

April 19th 2012

Are small groups Biblical?

Read Matthew 18:19-20 and journal your thoughts.

Usually when we read this verse we use it as a way to describe church, right? We say it doesn’t matter how many people we have in church because Jesus promises that if 2 or more are gathered that he’ll be there. This is beautiful and true, but are we missing something?

The first rule for a Disciple (Talmid) was to get a Rabbi, the second rule for a Disciple was to get a “Haver” (Note: Haver is for men, Haverah is for women). The best way to describe a Haver in our culture is a small group. It was a group of at least one other person who would get together and discuss Scripture. Usually when we get together for small groups once a week, we have a set of stuff that we plan about talking about, we have a set of questions and a set of answers, and probably all of this on a work sheet. This is not what a Haver was like, a Haver was a group of people who got together all the time and talked about questions that they had because of what they’d studied on their own that day.

Here’s the key, the goal for them was to disagree with each other. There is a story of an ancient rabbi who had a haver and nobody there dared to question him. The rabbi prompted discussion over and over and still no one would disagree. Finally at the point of frustration the rabbi says how are we supposed to learn anything if no one will disagree with me? In our culture we struggle with the idea that not everyone believes exactly what we believe, but in their culture disagreement was actually a good thing, it lead to growth, it stretched us and pulled us in directions we had never thought of.

Today may you struggle with the Scriptures with someone else so that you may grow in God’s Law

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

April 18th 2012

Sometimes when we think about Jesus and everything that he did, it’s easy for us to assume that he was just kind of knew everything because he’s God.

Read John 15:12-15 and journal your thoughts

When we read the Scriptures, most of us are at a disadvantage because we are almost 2000 years after it is written and we are reading it in a different language. The problem is that so much ends up being lost in translation and we end up missing so much of what is really being said. For example in verse 15, most of our Bibles read “for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” which is an okay translation, but it still misses the point. Let’s focus in on the word “heard” in the original Greek this does not really mean “heard”, but “studied diligently”.

How does this change our view of Jesus? We hear these ideas that Jesus being a rabbi would have memorized the entire Old Testament, but most of the time we say to ourselves ‘but he’s God so of course he knows it’. When we do this, we completely downplay the example Jesus is for us. Jesus probably would have spent thousands of hours not only memorizing the Old Testament (Tanakh) but studying it. These rabbis were consumed with the study of God’s Word; it was the driving passion in their lives.

Today may you discover a passion for studying God’s Word, just like Jesus did.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

April 17th 2012

In English we use words in a variety of ways, so was the same true in Hebrew?

Read Exodus 21:24 and Matthew 5:38 and journal your thoughts

For so many of us, we really struggle with some of the ideas of the Old Testament, and for many this verse out of Exodus 21:24 is one of them. We have a hard time with a God of grace and mercy demanding such a heavy punishment.

What’s interesting is that when you look into the culture this phrase what a Jewish Idiom (something taken figuratively, not literally). Essentially it is simply a way of saying that the punishment must fit the crime. In fact, in the ancient Jewish culture, they were not known for taking out these literal sort of punishments on each other, but they had a standard by which the punishment would fit the crime. This was usually done by something as simple as a fine.

We see this again in Matthew 5:17-18, especially verse 18 when Jesus talks about the smallest letter or stroke of the pen will not disappear from the Law. The Hebrew language is filled with these little pen strokes that held tons of value, so if one was changed then a lot could have been changed. So what Jesus is saying here is that the Law will remain down to the most minute detail.

Today meditate on how God used the language of their culture to speak truth to them.

Monday, April 16, 2012

April 16th 2012

One of the ways the rabbis taught was by using some of the ideas and debates of their own culture.

Read Matthew 19:1-9 and journal your thoughts

When reading this piece of text, the thing that most of us are probably not familiar with ideas of two great and very popular rabbis Shammai and Hillel, which were heavily debated during the time of Jesus. Generally speaking Shammai held a much more strict view of how someone should interpret the Law, where Hillel was not. What’s interesting is that Shammai and Hillel didn’t actually disagree on that much, but as the years went on, their followers were more heavily divided.

In today’s verse the Pharisees ask Jesus whether it’s ok to divorce under any circumstance. This is one of the few areas where Shammai and Hillel disagreed what’s interesting is that here Jesus sides with Shammai, whereas he usually sides with Hillel.

What we have to understand by looking at this is that Jesus taught by using their culture, by talking about the things that were relevant to them in their day. So when we begin to study the Scriptures and we come across one of those things that either seems interesting or we just don’t understand, we may discover that this thing was something that was heavily discussed in their culture.

Today mediate on how God used their culture to speak to them, and how He wants to use our culture to speak to us.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

April 15th 2012

How is our learning style different from the ancient disciples?

Read Matthew 9:14-15 and journal your thoughts

One thing we have to understand about the ancient culture is their way of learning was vastly different from ours. In our culture, we sit back while a teacher pours as much information into us as we can take. Hopefully we remember some of it, but if we are honest, probably not. In ancient Israel, the way they learned was very different. The Rabbis would teach, not by just giving their disciples a bunch of information, but through a process of questions. The disciple would ask a question, and the Rabbi would respond with a question that helps the disciple to discover the answer the Rabbi is looking for.

In Matthew 9:14-15 we see John’s disciples asking Jesus about fasting (because nobody wants to not eat for a long period of time). What we have to understand is in their culture, fasting is a way of connecting with God when one is going through a difficult time, or maybe when they are just desperate to hear from God. Jesus responds to this with a question about guests mourning while the bridegroom is with them. So what is Jesus saying here? Basically Jesus is saying why would they need to fast to hear from God when I’m right here.

Today as you think about the importance of asking questions in their culture, meditate on Luke 2:41-47, especially verse 47?

Saturday, April 14, 2012

April 14th 2012

Earlier this week we talked about some of the other man-made laws of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Today we are going to look a little deeper into what this was like.

Read Mark 7:1-4 and journal your thoughts

Notice in Mark 3, how they refer to the “Tradition of the Elders”, what is that? The Tradition of the Elders is a part of the Oral Law, which is a sort of interpretation of how to live the Law. What had happened is that the Tradition of the Elders became a sort of safe guard to sin, so that it became wrong to do things that weren’t sinful, because they could lead to sin. For example, lust is sinful, use of the internet could lead to lust, therefore you shouldn’t use the internet.

The problem with these Traditions was not only did it make the Law almost impossible to uphold but the religious leaders were able to use it to create loopholes from doing other parts of God’s Law. If you read Mark 7:5-13, you see that Jesus calls them out on just that. Here Jesus talks about how “Corbin” keeps them from honoring their mother and father. So what’s that about?

In their culture, when someone got older they didn’t have a retirement package, or anything like that, instead they worked to provide until they couldn’t anymore. When this happened they became dependent on their children to provide for them. The other part of this piece of Scripture is in their traditions; one could designate their money as “Corbin” which meant it was devoted to God, or that it wouldn’t go towards secular or personal uses. Instead it was consecrated to the service of God in the temple. This of course raises the question; who is in charge of the temple money? They are.

As you think about this today, ask yourself if there are any traditions that we do today that keeps us from the things God wants us to do?

Friday, April 13, 2012

April 13th 2012

When reading the Scriptures, one thing we have to understand is that we are talking about a people who have the Torah (First 5 books of the Old Testament) memorized, and when we’re talking about the Rabbis and the disciples they would have had the entire Old Testament memorized. Because of this they debated, argued, and taught by only quoting a small piece of Scripture, but referring to the entire context of that piece of Scripture. Sometimes they would quote just by using certain words

Read Matthew 25:31-32 and Ezekiel 34:17 and journal your thoughts

Did you catch it? Jesus refers to Ezekiel 34:17 just by talking about judging sheep and goats. In our culture it is like talking about an entire TV show by saying “you know the one where…” and all of a sudden we begin to think about the entire episode.

The problem is for people like us, who do not have the entire Old Testament memorized how in the world are we supposed to recognize that? The key for us when it comes to trying to figure out what’s going on is to look for words that seem a bit out of place. For example a reference to sheep and goats, we key in on those words and do a quick Google search on times that phrase is used in the Old Testament.

With this in mind, what Jesus is saying in this piece of text? According to Ezekiel 34:17 who is the one who judges the sheep and the goats? (Answer: God) So, what is Jesus saying about himself? (Answer: Jesus links himself with God). In their culture this would have been not only a bold claim, but it would have been outrageous, Jesus is essentially referring to himself as God. Remember, this is a group of people who would even say the name of G-d, let alone claim to be him.

Today take some time to read the Scriptures and meditate on words and discover if there is more there than meets the eye.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

April 12th 2012

In order to help us understand what is happening in the Scriptures we have to understand how they used certain words.

Read Matthew 11:28-30 and journal your thoughts on what the word “Yoke” means

Traditionally when we look at the word “yoke” we are reminded that a yoke is a piece of farming equipment that binds two animals together. Since the people of ancient Israel were farmers, this must be what it means, right? Problem is so often when we are reading Scripture it’s easy for us to get lazy with words like that and stop there. The way we use words change depending on their context. For example, 30 years ago the word “cool” meant “cold”, but then it began to evolve to mean “awesome”.

This piece of Scripture is no different, yes “yoke” does refer to a piece of farming equipment, but the Rabbis also used this term to mean something else. For the Rabbi the word “yoke” referred to their teachings. For example how a given Rabbi interpreted Scripture was their yoke, while another Rabbi may have a different interpretation or yoke. Think about it like different denominations today, Baptists have one set of beliefs (yoke) that they are trying to spread, while the Methodists have another.

Now re-read Matthew 11:28-30 with this in mind think about the yoke of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other religious groups of the time. Think about the heavy burden of trying to keep all those commands that went above and beyond Torah (God’s Law). Now think about the words of Jesus saying his heart is humble (compared to the religious leaders – Matthew 6:5). Think about when Jesus talks about his teaching being light, wait there is a way to follow God that is actually possible by someone other than the super religious? Jesus is offering a new way to follow God’s Law that gets rid of all the legalism and the showing off.

Today meditate on the legalism in our denominations today and how the way of Jesus would be different.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

April 11th 2012

Sometimes when uncovering a piece of Scripture the key to understanding is knowing who wrote it.

Read Revelation 21:1-4 and journal some thoughts.

There is a lot about this verse I get. I get the idea of the old heaven and old earth being transformed into this new place. I get the image of the bride and the bridegroom, and I get the image of no more tears or pain, or sorrow. What I don’t get is this little line thrown in verse 1 where John says “there will be no more seas.” Why not?

When most of us think of the seas we think of relaxing on a beach, and warm weather. When we stand at the edge of the world and look out into the seas some of us may be struck by the awe and wonder of the expanse of God’s creation. Maybe some of us look out into the seas and sense that there is something out there beaconing us to a great adventure.

What about John, how would he have viewed the seas? From what we know about John, when he wrote the book of Revelation he is exiled on the island of Patmos. With this in mind, what do you think the seas represent to John? You can imagine that for John the seas represent a great divide, a wall that separates him from everyone he knows and loves. We can understand this today when we have our loved ones scattered all over the country (if not the world). Right now we could probably close our eyes and imagine loved ones hundreds of miles away that we would love to be with right now.

This is what John is saying when he says there will be “no more seas” he’s saying all those things that keep us apart, whether its seas, roads, highways or byways will be gone. We will be with the ones we love and care for the most forever.

Today may you dream of a place where there will be no more tears, no more pain, or sorrow, may you dream of a place where we are no longer separated from those we love the most, and may you discover that dream will someday become a reality.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

April 10th 2012

When we study the Scriptures we have to keep in mind how the time period impacts their story.

Read 1 Samuel 13:19-22 and journal why you think they had this problem

Have you ever read this piece of Scripture and asked yourself why didn’t they have any blacksmith’s? You would think in that culture, under constant threat of invasion, that a blacksmith would be a pretty important piece to your society. This raises the question, why didn’t they have one?

When we take a step back and look at the timeline of events we discover the events in 1 Samuel are happening as the world begins to transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The ability to work and manipulate iron was something totally new to them, and so some people groups had the ability and others didn’t. We see the same sort of thing today with the use of nuclear weapons, so countries have the technology and others don’t. In today’s Scripture, the Philistines had the technology and Israel didn’t.

Ask yourself this question; how does this change the way you view their battle? How does this change the way that they were dependent on God? All of a sudden we see the story in a whole new light, on one side we see this massive army with full armor and swords and on the other side farmers with nothing but their tools to fight with. Now we can see how dramatically the odds were against Israel, and yet God was faithful and fought with them and defeats the Philistines.

Today as you are reading Scripture, take a step back and ask how does the time period help define what’s happening.

Monday, April 9, 2012

April 9th 2012

Have you ever been reading the Gospels and sometimes Jesus will talk about the Kingdom of God and other times he talks about the Kingdom of Heaven?

Read Matthew 5:3 and Luke 6:20 and journal your thoughts

So what’s that about? Are there two different Kingdoms? If there are then, what’s the difference between them? How are we supposed to know?

What we are experiencing here is the importance of understanding who a given book of the Bible was written to. When we begin to discover who the book was written to, we begin to uncover the context in which the book was written. In today’s Scripture Jesus is saying the same thing but uses different words; why?

What we know is that the Gospel of Matthew is written to the Jews. Now, within the Jewish culture they have a very serious reverence for the name of God. So much so, that even today when they type the name of God they type it G-d. In Jesus culture the name “Yahweh” was not allowed to be spoken because of their reverence for God. Because of this, whenever Jesus talks about God’s Kingdom in the book of Matthew we see this phrase “Kingdom of Heaven”. Now, the book of Luke is totally different, it is written for the outcast, so we see Luke using “Kingdom of God” to help his hearer to better understand what he’s trying to say.

This is why it’s so important to understand who the audience is of a given piece of Scripture. When we begin to hear the words of the Bible through the lenses of the original hearers, all of a sudden the Biblical world comes to life and we begin to see the story with clearer eyes.

Today as you study Scripture, begin to ask yourself the question; how would the original audience have heard this?

Sunday, April 8, 2012

April 8th 2012

This morning is a special morning, today begins the Feast of the Firstfruits! Read Deuteronomy 26:1-10. The Feast of the Firstfruits is when the farmers of Israel would take the first fruits of the field and offer them to God as a way of showing their trust in God’s provision.

Read John 12:23-24 and journal your thoughts

This was the context for Resurrection Sunday, imagine once again how Jesus’ followers must have felt yesterday as they attended Sabbath services. How they listened to Ezekiel 37:5, about how God raises the dead, all the while their Messiah is dead. All hope is lost. The next day, they would bring the very first of their crops as an offering to God, which was a way of showing their trust that God provides. Just like when God provided the ram when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, so God was going to provide for his people again.

But little did the people know, this Feast of the Firstfruits was going to be very different from the ones before it. God had provided again, just not in the way they were expecting. Firstfruits represented not just giving their first, but their best. A sheep’s first sheer was its softest or its best, the first crops of the year was considered to be the best. On this Firstfruits, God gives his first, his best, as a way of providing for His people.

Today meditate on the ways that God provides for you, and take some time to thank God for His provisions.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

April 7th 2012

Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah, the one to put everything right, but now he’s dead. What do we have left to hope for?

Read Luke 23:55-56 and journal your thoughts

We can’t imagine the devastation the followers of Jesus must have felt. This was the one who was supposed to be God’s chosen, the Messiah. He was the one who was going to change everything, to bring the Kingdom of God here to earth, but now it’s all over. What hope do we have left?

Not only is Jesus dead, but this is the first Sabbath after the Passover. Traditionally Ezekiel 37:5 was read in the Temple. If the Passover was about God doing a great thing to rescue His people from Egypt, then this verse in Ezekiel was read as they looked forward to their Messiah. It’s interesting how God uses the traditions of their time to point to what He is going to do. God is giving them hope and comfort in their most desperate hour, when all seems hopeless.

Today meditate on how God gives us hope in our darkest hours, if not in the ways we expect

Friday, April 6, 2012

April 6th 2012

It is finished!

Read Matthew 27:45-56 and journal your thoughts

In our culture there seems to be some debate about when Jesus says “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, what is Jesus saying here? I’ve heard dramatic preachers who talk about how in this verse Jesus looks up in to heaven and sees the Father turn his head aside because God is refusing even look at Jesus.

To help us understand what Jesus is saying let’s read Psalm 22:1. Now in their culture, when a Rabbi would quote Scripture, they weren’t just randomly dropping a verse. Instead they would quote a single verse to make reference to the whole thing. In this moment, Jesus refers to a Psalm to make the whole situation make sense.

Today read Psalm 22 and mediate on how what Jesus is doing relates

Thursday, April 5, 2012

April 5th 2012

So far we have done a lot of talking about the Passover meal and what many of the individual things represent. With tonight being the traditional night of the Passover meal, we are going to take a step back from the deals to look at what the whole thing represents

Read Exodus 12:42 and journal some of your thoughts

If we are not careful it is easy for us to take things that happen and turn them into traditions without really honoring what those events really meant. On that first Passover, God did this great act by rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt. Obviously, one of the ways the people remembered this was through the celebration of the Passover meal, but they also guarded themselves from allowing this to simply become a tradition.

Ancient Rabbis use to interpret Exodus 12:42 to mean that we should always be looking to see what big things God is going to do next. In order to teach this idea to their children, after the Passover dinner the children would open the front door to see if Elijah was standing there (Malachi 4:5).

This raises the question for us; what big thing are we expecting God to do next? Are we expecting God to do great things around us in our world, are we expecting him to just work on the details of our lives? As you look out your metaphorical front door, where do you see God moving? Where do you see God wanting to work?

As we begin to wrap up this Easter season meditate on this idea: Where do I expect to see God moving today?

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

April 4th 2012

Why did the crowds go from “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday to “Crucify him” on Friday?

Read Luke 23:27 and journal your thoughts

Did you get it? Were you able to put the pieces together? The crowd who yelled “Hosanna” was not the same as the crowd yelling “Crucify him”. So many times there has been sermon after sermon around Easter time about how this crowd turns on Jesus, but that simply isn’t the case. Let’s go through our timeline and explain why the two crowds couldn’t have been the same.

We know from Matthew 26:3-5 that the religious leaders want to arrest Jesus in secret so because the people loved Jesus so much that they feared a riot. What better time to do something in secret than during all the business of the Passover?

So it begins with Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane which is located outside of town, in the middle of the night, while everyone is in bed exhausted from the night’s feast. If the events of the Sanhedrin happened in the middle of the night after such an exhausting evening, then who would be there; only those who planned on being there.

The same can be said for the crowd before Pilate, after such a late night what Jew is going to get up early to stand before the governor? Once again, it’s only those who either planned on being there or Romans who had to be there.

Yesterday we mentioned that Jesus was crucified at 9 am (Mark 15:25), why is this important? It is crucial to the plan, because that is when the first temple services were for the day. In order for the plan to work, the religious leaders knew that they had to finish their plan before everyone got up and around and into town for worship.

Looking at the timeline, we can see that the religious leaders didn’t just get fed up with Jesus and decided to get him one day, but they planned and schemed to come up with a way to get rid of Jesus in secret without anyone knowing. This is why the crowd changed; this is why in Luke 23:27 they were weeping. The religious leaders were more interested in keeping their own power rather than doing God’s will.

**NOTE: All the journals this week were inspired and heavily influenced by Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. I cannot recommend this book enough!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AKPFT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=engedrescen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002AKPFT4

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

April 3rd 2012

Today is going to be a bit different; we are going to play “CSI: Bible” focus on the timeline of Jesus’ arrest which is going to help us put some things in perspective. There will also be hints for tomorrow’s journal which addresses the question why did the people go from say “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday to “Crucify Him” on Friday?

In yesterday’s journal we mentioned that the Passover meal would have ended sometime around midnight. This means that the events of Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss would have happened about 1 am. (Matthew 26:47-56).

We also know that Peter denied Jesus when the rooster crowed (Matthew 26:69-75) which would have been about 5 am. This means the events of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57-68) would have taken place sometime between 1-5 am. Remember this the night of the Passover, a very major Jewish ceremony.

According to Mark 15:1 Jesus is presented before Pilate at sunrise roughly 6am, once again this is the morning after a very late night since most Passover feasts don’t end until midnight. Mark 15:25 says that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, which for them would have been 9am. This means the events in between Jesus first going before Pilate and Jesus being crucified happened in about a 3 hour span.

All of this leads up to the crucifixion of Jesus, how does this timeline change any of your views of the final hours of Jesus life?

Take some time to mediate on the question for tomorrow: Why did the crowds go from “Hosanna” to “crucify him”?

**NOTE: All the journals this week were inspired and heavily influenced by Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. I cannot recommend this book enough!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AKPFT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=engedrescen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002AKPFT4

Monday, April 2, 2012

April 2nd 2012

Have you ever wondering why the disciples couldn’t stay awake in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Read Matthew 26:36-46 and journal your thoughts

This part of the story has always seemed strange to me; I mean why couldn’t these guys just stay awake? I mean if their Rabbi is stressed out enough to the point where his sweat “was like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44 NASB) you would think something major was going on. You would think they would be at least a bit on edge. So why couldn’t they stay awake?

To help us answer this question, let’s look at it from another point of view. Think about Thanksgiving morning, getting up early preparing everything for this sacred (in the sense that everything has to be perfect) meal. You run around a hot kitchen going from one piece of the meal to another, trying to get everything just right. Finally everything is ready, and you can sit down for a few minutes and enjoy this meal you’ve worked so hard on. But this is short lived, because as soon as the meal is over there is the tedious and overwhelming task of doing the dishes. Finally there comes that moment when everything is done and you can finally sit down. Before long, you are out. It is easy to blame it on the tryptophan but in reality you’ve been so busy your body has just had enough.

Now, put yourself in a first century Jewish setting, think about working not with the modern conveniences we have today, but with ancient cooking tools. Think about cooking a whole lamb (bigger than a turkey) and making matzah bread from scratch. Think about all the other parts of the Passover meal.

Now imagine it’s late, the traditional Passover wouldn’t end until about midnight. It’s dark, late, and you are full from the feast (not to mention 4 large cups of wine). You’ve been on your feet working all day on this massive meal and you finally have a chance to sit down (Side note: they had also been traveling the days just before the last supper). Of course you would fall asleep! Your body is done, and there is nothing on earth that is going to keep you awake!

**NOTE: All the journals this week were inspired and heavily influenced by Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. I cannot recommend this book enough!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AKPFT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=engedrescen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002AKPFT4

Sunday, April 1, 2012

April 1st 2012

Is there anything else we are missing from this scene?

Read Matthew 26:26 and journal your thoughts

In the Passover tradition there is a special piece of bread called “afikomen” which translates into “that which comes after” or the word “dessert.” This piece of bread was taken from the best part of the matzah which we all know is the middle of the bread. This is then set aside (or in some cases hidden and the children look for it later) and is the very last thing eaten. When it is time, it is broken and given to everyone at the table.

Now if pretty much everything in Judaism symbolizes something then what does the afikomen represent? Like we said, the word “afikomen” literally means “that which comes after” another way of translating this is “the coming one”. This was a phrase identified with the coming of the Messiah. Here the whole matzah bread represents the people of Israel, while the afikomen represents the Messiah. The image here is that this Messiah will be the best of the matzah, and he will be broken from his people (and in some cases hidden from his people for a time; see death and resurrection).

When Jesus took the bread, broke it, and said “this is my body” he was referring to the bread, but he was also referring to the specific piece of bread. Jesus was identifying himself as Messiah. Everyone at the table would have understood exactly what he was saying.

Take some time to meditate on this idea and how this changes your image of the Last Supper.

**NOTE: All the journals this week were inspired by Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. I cannot recommend this book enough!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AKPFT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=engedrescen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002AKPFT4