Radical Love

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

How have you experienced God’s mercy?  How have you shared God’s mercy?

Jesus again taught his students, re-emphasizing basic themes he had previously taught them on the mountain.  But this time, they were in a different place and many different people were in the crowds following Jesus (76).

“These things are essential to gain all of God’s blessings:

• Admit your self-inflicted spiritual poverty. Admit that there is some part of your nature that resists being controlled by God’s Spirit.
• Mourn for your self-inflicted spiritual poverty. Regret your self-inflicted separation from God.
• Desire to live God’s way, as you realize that your way is not working.
• Expect & accept the trouble that living God’s way will bring in this life. God will greatly reward your faithfulness in the next life.

“Living for yourself in this life will never lead to God’s blessings in the next life:

• If your goal in this life is to be rich, in the next life you’ll be poor.
• If your goal in this life is to be full, in the next life you’ll be hungry.
• If your goal in this life is to be happy, in the next life you’ll be sad.
• If your goal in this life is for other people to speak well of you, in the next life no one will speak well of you.

“Living for God in this life means you need to have different goals. For instance, you must love your enemies.

“As children of God in heaven, you must be good to people who hate you, you must bless people who curse you, and you must pray for people who mistreat you.

“If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek, too. If someone wants to take your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Whenever another person asks you for something, give it to him. Whenever another person wants to borrow something, lend it to him. In other words, do for other people what you would like them to do for you.

“Why should God reward you, if you love only the people who love you?  Or if you are good only to the people who are good to you?  Or if you lend only to the people who are likely to repay you?  Even sinners do all that!  Instead, as children of God in heaven, love your enemies & be good to them.  Lend & expect nothing back.

“God offers blessings to bad people, as well as to good people.   Instead of being like everybody else, God wants you to be merciful, even to bad people,  just as God himself is merciful, even to you.”

LORD, please help us to love other people as radically as You love us.

How have you experienced God’s mercy?  How have you shared God’s mercy?

(76) Luke 6:17-36

Family Matters

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

How do you actively maintain family ties with different followers of Jesus?

When he had selected his twelve ambassadors, Jesus began leading them to his home in Capernaum (75). But very large crowds followed them, so that Jesus and his students could not even take time to eat.

Jesus’ family members heard how his ministry was exploding.  People had begun spreading wild rumors about him; some people in the crowds were even saying, “Jesus has gone mad!” His family members were concerned & they wanted to get Jesus under control.

Certain teachers of the law, who had come from Jerusalem, tried discrediting Jesus by saying, “He has Satan in him! It is by Satan’s power that Jesus expels evil spirits from people!” Jesus gave them this reply: “You know that the evil spirits which torment people are sent from Satan. And now you say that I expel those evil spirits by Satan’s power?

“But how can Satan drive out Satan?  If a country divides itself into opposing forces which fight each other, that country will fall apart. In the same way, if a family divides itself into opposing forces which fight each other, that family will fall apart. And it is the same with Satan; if his forces are divided & fight each other, they will fall apart and Satan’s power will not last.”

Then Jesus concluded with this telling statement: “In order for anyone to expel evil spirits which have been sent from Satan, it is first necessary to restrain Satan.”

Still, some of the people in the crowd kept saying, “Jesus has an evil spirit in him.” Jesus replied to them in this way: “People can be forgiven all the evil things they may say or do. But, whoever blasphemes — by repeatedly refusing to recognize & revere the Holy Spirit of God — will not be forgiven & will be condemned by God.”

Then Jesus’ mother & other family members arrived. They sent a message through the crowd, asking for him. Someone in the crowd told Jesus, “Your mother & brothers are here, and they want to see you.”

Jesus responded with a question, “Who are my real family members?” He looked at the people around him and said, “My real family members are right here. Those of you who follow the Holy Spirit & do what God wants are the real members of my family & God’s family.”

LORD, please help us to love all the different members of Your family.

 How do you actively maintain family ties with different followers of Jesus?

(75) Mark 3:20-35, Luke 8:19-21

Twelve Ambassadors

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.)

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What helps you serve as an ambassador for Jesus?

Jesus & his students returned from Judea to the area around Lake Galilee (74).

Word had spread about his miracles & his message, so crowds of people came to Jesus from all over Israel & Judea. Because Jesus had already healed many people, these crowds included many other sick people, who were coming to be healed, too. As the crowds kept growing, Jesus again decided to have his students get a boat ready for him to use in preaching God’s message.

Sometimes, when people who were tormented by evil spirits came to Jesus, the evil spirits would make those people fall down before him & scream, “You are God’s son!” Sternly & consistently, Jesus ordered the evil spirits to stop telling people who he was.

Then, in the midst of all the commotion, Jesus knew that it was time to involve his students in his ministry. So, instead of going down to the boat, Jesus first went up the hill — taking twelve of his students.

“I have chosen you to stay with me,” Jesus told them. “But I also intend to send you out as my ambassadors– to preach God’s message and to expel evil spirits from people!”

These are the twelve he chose:

• Peter (originally named Simon),
• Andrew (Peter’s brother),
• James (a son of Zebedee),
• John (James’ brother & another son of Zebedee),
• Philip,
• Bartholomew (perhaps also called Nathanael),
• Matthew (the tax collector, also called Levi),
• Thomas,
• James (son of Alphaeus),
• Thaddaeus (also known sometimes as Lebbaeus & sometimes as Judas),
• Simon (the Caananite Patriot), and
• Judas Iscariot (who would eventually betray Jesus to the Jewish authorities).

Over the next three years, Jesus would spend the largest portion of his time & energy in training these twelve to serve as his ambassadors.

Then, when Jesus came down the hill with the twelve, they were again surrounded by a large crowd of people, from all over Judea & Israel & the surrounding areas. Some people had come to hear Jesus teach. Other people had come to be healed of their diseases, including more people who were oppressed by evil spirits.

Jesus healed them all! Some were healed as Jesus spoke to them; others were healed simply by touching Jesus.

LORD, please help us to love serving as Your ambassadors.

What helps you serve as an ambassador for Jesus?

(74) Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16

Active Compassion

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What acts of compassion would be easy for you to do today?  

When Jesus left Jerusalem, two blind men started following him, shouting (73), “Have mercy on us, son of David!”

When they were apart from most of the crowds, Jesus asked the two blind men, “Do you believe that I can heal you?” “Yes!” they both answered.  So Jesus touched their eyes, saying, “Let it happen, then, just as you believe.” And immediately their sight was restored!

Jesus said, “Don’t tell this to anyone else.” But the two men left & spread the news about Jesus all over that part of the country.

Later, some people brought to Jesus a man who couldn’t talk, because he was oppressed by an evil spirit.  But as soon as Jesus expelled the evil spirit, the man started talking!

Everyone who saw these things was amazed. “We have never seen anything like this in Israel!” they exclaimed.  But some envious Pharisees claimed: “It is Satan who gives him the power to drive out evil spirits.”

Jesus went around visiting many towns & villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the good news about the kingdom of God, and healed people of every kind of disease and sickness.

As Jesus saw the growing crowds flocking to him, his heart was filled with compassion for them, because they were vulnerable, like sheep without a shepherd.

So Jesus planted this idea in the minds & hearts of his students: “A great harvest of people is ready, but there are few workers to gather it in. Pray that God will send out workers to gather in this harvest.”

LORD, please help us to love vulnerable people with your active compassion.

What acts of compassion would be easy for you to do today?  

(73) Matthew 9:27-10:1, Mark 3:7-12

Choose To Believe

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What helps you choose to believe everything that Jesus says?

Jesus continued trying to persuade the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem that he really had come from God (72):

“I understand that you won’t believe me just because of my personal testimony. But there are other witnesses who have confirmed my testimony.  So please, consider them, not for my benefit but for yours, because believing in me will draw you closer to God.

“First, John the Baptizer has testified about me. John was like a bright lamp, burning & shining, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light.

“But there is another witness for me, even greater than the witness of John the Baptizer. Just consider the miracles that God has given me to do. These deeds testify on my behalf & show that the Father is with me.

“What’s more, God also testifies of me through the words of the inspired scriptures. You have never heard God’s voice or seen his face. But you study God’s scriptures, because you understand that they hold the key to new life that will continue in heaven forever, even after physical death.

“Yet, although God’s word testifies about me, you’re still not willing to trust in me & to experience that new life.

“Listen, I’m not looking for human praise. Besides, I know what kind of people you are, and I know that you haven’t really surrendered your whole hearts to God.

• For example, I have come with God’s authority, but you haven’t received me.  Yet you receive other people speaking on their own authority.
• Here’s another example: You like to receive praise from one another, yet you don’t make it a priority to receive praise from God.

“It’s this fundamental resistance to God that causes you to refuse to believe in me.

“But don’t think I’m the one who will accuse you before God.  Moses is the one who will accuse you, even though you say Moses is someone you actually do trust & believe. If you really believed Moses, you would also believe me, because God inspired Moses to write about me.

“The truth is that you choose not to believe everything that Moses wrote, just as you choose not to believe everything that I say.”

LORD, please help us to love choosing to believe everything that Jesus says.

What helps you choose to believe everything that Jesus says?

(72) John 5:31-47

Spiritual Life

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What helps you receive spiritual life from Jesus, every day?

Because he had healed the lame man on the Sabbath, some of the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem began to challenge Jesus (71). But Jesus simply told them, “I must work on every day, because my father works on every day .”

The religious leaders knew that if God was truly the father of Jesus, then Jesus had authority equal to God & greater than theirs!  Because they definitely didn’t want to go there, the religious leaders refused to receive Jesus as God’s son.

But Jesus insisted that his power & authority really were from God: “I can’t do anything on my own,” he said.  “I can only do what I see my father doing. God loves me & God shows me everything he’s doing.  Whatever God does, I must also do.

“Soon, God will give me even greater things to do than this healing miracle, and you will all be even more amazed.  I can give people new life, just as God does.  I can also judge people, just as God does.

“God wants people to honor me just as they honor him.  Anyone who doesn’t honor me doesn’t honor God who sent me.  But anyone who receives me as God’s son, receives new life that will continue in heaven forever, even after physical death. In the end, that person will not face life-or-death judgment, because that person will have already passed from death to life.

“As spiritually dead people hear me, they begin to experience spiritual life.

“One day even physically dead people will hear my voice & rise from their graves:

• People, who chose to live their natural lives in obedience to God, will have new life that will continue in heaven forever.
• But people, who chose to live their natural lives in disobedience to God, will be condemned to a horrible existence that will continue in hell forever.

“I do nothing apart from God’s authority. I judge rightly because I judge only in accordance with God’s perfect will!”

LORD, please help us to love receiving the spiritual life You give.

What helps you receive spiritual life from Jesus, every day?

(71) John 5:16-30

Jesus Heals Paralysis In Jerusalem

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

How has being healed by Jesus inspired you to stop sinning?

After this, Jesus went from Galilee to Jerusalem for a Jewish religious festival (70).

Near the Sheep Gate that went into the city, there was a pool called Bethesda with five decks around it. Many sick people lay on the decks — people who were blind, lame or paralyzed.  Some people believed that, after an angel had periodically stirred the water, the next person into the pool would be healed!

Among the sick people lying by the pool was a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years!

When Jesus saw him there, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“But I don’t have anyone here to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up,” the sick man complained. “Whenever I try to get in by myself, somebody else always gets there first.”  Jesus ignored the complaint & simply said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

Immediately, the man was healed, picked up his mat and started walking!

Because this miracle happened on a Sabbath day, some Jewish religious leaders told the man who had been healed, “It’s against our religious law for you to carry your mat today!” The healed man answered, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my mat & walk.” The religious leaders asked him, “Who’s the man who told you to do this?” But the healed man didn’t know who Jesus was, and he couldn’t find him because Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.

A short time later, however, Jesus found the healed man in the temple & said, “God healed you for a purpose. God wants you to stop sinning, so that something worse than paralysis won’t happen to you!”

We are not told what impact this had on the healed man’s later life.  But we are told that he went & reported to the Jewish religious leaders — that it was Jesus who had made him well.

LORD, please help us to love being healed by You.

How has being healed by Jesus inspired you to stop sinning?

(70) John 5:1-15

Compassion & Mercy

Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

How do you share God’s mercy?

As Jesus was leaving Capernaum,  he saw a tax collector named Matthew, also called Levi (69).

Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”  And Matthew actually got up, left his tax collection station, and followed Jesus!

Later, while Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, he & his students were joined at the table by some tax collectors & other unpopular folks.

Some Pharisees saw this & asked the students of Jesus, “Why does your teacher eat with such ungodly people?”  Jesus, overhearing them, gave this reply:  “People who think they’re well think they don’t need a doctor, but people who know they’re sick know they need a doctor.”

Jesus added: “Consider what is meant by this verse from the inspired scriptures: ‘It’s mercy that God wants, not religious ritual.’ I have come to invite ungodly people like these into relationship with God; I have not come for people who are sure they’re already godly.”

Later, some students of John the Baptizer came to Jesus & asked: “Why is it that we & the Pharisees fast frequently, but your students don’t fast at all?”  Jesus answered, “Do you expect the guests at a wedding party to fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? Of course not. But the day will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will have reason to fast.”

Jesus came to offer people new life, in which fasting & everything else take on new meaning.  He offered a couple of  illustrations to emphasize that compassionate fasting helps us draw closer to God, but ritual fasting does not.

“No one patches up an old coat with a piece of new cloth,” said Jesus, “for the new patch will shrink and make an even bigger hole in the coat!  And no one pours new wine into old, used wineskins; if they do, those old wineskins will burst & be ruined, and the wine will be lost!  New wine has to be poured into new wineskins; that way, both the wine & the wineskins are preserved.”

Jesus often emphasized this idea: that God offers people new life, in which they  become more merciful and less preoccupied with religious ritual.

LORD, please help us to love mercifully, as You love us.

How do you share God’s mercy?

(69) Matthew 9:9-17, Mark 2:13-22, Luke 5:27-39, Isaiah 58:6-8

Jesus Heals Paralysis In Galilee

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.) 

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What miraculous change in your life do you want from Jesus?

A few days later, Jesus went back to Capernaum; the news spread that he was at his home there.  People came from all over Galilee & Judea to hear Jesus teach; even some teachers of the law of Moses & some Pharisees came to check out Jesus.

On one day, so many people flocked to the house where Jesus was staying, that there was no room left, not even outside the front door (68).  While Jesus was healing the sick, by the power of God, some men came carrying a paralyzed friend on a cot; they wanted to carry him into the house & put him in front of Jesus. But because of the crowd, they could find no way to get their friend inside.

So they improvised: they carried him up on the roof, made an opening in the roof tiles, and let him down, right into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus!

When Jesus saw how much faith he & his friends had, he said to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The teachers of the law & the Pharisees immediately thought to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks such blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

But Jesus knew their thoughts and he said to them, “Why do you think such things? Let me show you that I really have God’s authority to forgive sins on earth.”

Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your bed, and go home.”

At once the man stood up in front of them all! He picked up the bed he had been lying on, and he went home, praising God!

The people there were all completely amazed! Full of respect for the authority & power that Jesus had displayed, they also praised God, saying, “What marvelous things we have seen here today!”

LORD, please help us to love Your miraculous power to change any life.

What miraculous change in your life do you want from Jesus?

(68) Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26

Jesus Heals Leprosy

(Other meditations are accessible from the Welcome page.)

(Audio narration is accessible from the Post, by clicking the Forward button at left.)

What happens when you turn to Jesus for healing? 

As Jesus came down from the mountain where he had been teaching the crowds, many people followed him (67).

At the fringes of these followers was a man suffering from leprosy, a dreaded disease of the skin & nerves.  Leprosy was highly contagious; people with leprosy were considered “untouchable” and were forced to live alone, apart from other people.  When this suffering leper finally found an opening,  he came to Jesus, knelt down, and begged him for help. “If you are willing,” he said, “I know you can make me clean.”

Jesus saw the man’s suffering faith & was filled with compassion. He reached out and did something unheard of: Jesus actually touched the leper!

“I am willing,” Jesus said. After looking to God, Jesus told the man: “Be healed.”  At once the disease left the man, and he was healed!

Then Jesus sent the amazed man away, saying to him, “Listen, don’t start telling other people about this. Go straight to the priest & let him examine you. Then, offer the sacrifice required in the law of Moses.  Let that be the way you show people that you’ve been  healed.”

But, instead of going directly to the priest, the healed man was so excited that he began to tell everyone how Jesus had healed him!

After such encounters, Jesus would often go away to remote places, to spend time in prayer & communion with God.

But as the news of his healing power spread, people would find Jesus & come to him from everywhere.

LORD, please help us to love turning to You for healing.

What happens when you turn to Jesus for healing? 

(67) Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-16