Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Oops, sorry I forgot

Now, if you and I hung out with Jesus I am sure we would be hanging on every word he said. We would probably write them down in our journal. I mean really, these conversations would not be like listening to politicians endlessly discuss health care. No, these would all be powerful words you would not forget.

Right. Except that is exactly what these women did. I mean if someone said they would be killed but you would see him later and have dinner, you think you would remember that one. These women were no different than you and I. It is easy to read the words of Jesus and just pass them by not really believing what he said. Take John 4:14 where Jesus says if we live by his life and words we will never be thirsty for anything else that really doesn't matter. How many times have we read this? Yet we long for things that do not matter at all. We have forgotten his word.

Jesus told these people in Luke 9:22 exactly what was going to happen to him. They forgot but when these two angels reminded them, they remembered.

What does it take for you to remember Jesus' words? The discipline of scripture memory which is usually the one that we stop doing, or the process of consistent Bible study which no one really has time for, or daily time with Jesus in a quiet time that is squeezed out by busy routines all contribute to our forgetting what Jesus told us about how to live life.

To forget what Jesus said is really to forget Jesus.

Monday, October 19, 2009

What's going on here?

Luke 23:34   Familiar? Yes, but are we thinking far enough? This statement was definitely focused on the event of the cross and how those not following Jesus were viewing the event. They did not know what they were doing in killing Jesus. Instead of anger on Jesus' part, he asked the Father to forgive them. He asked the Father to not hold it against them.
But I believe there are more things God wants us to understand as we and others try to "figure out life and faith." Those who do not know Jesus and many who do are doing their best to understand what Monday, Tuesday and the other 5 days are about. What the spank are they supposed to be doing to make sense out of the life they are living? They may or may not know there is more than the 20-30 minute commute to work, work, watch a little TV, tell the kids goodnight and crash into bed.
Those perhaps without a spouse or kids desperately search for some fulfillment on Facebook, Twitter or any other .com sight that might offer some relief from the almost pointless track that they run on daily.
In our attemps to find meaning, we consistently miss why Jesus lived, died and left to be with the Father. And he says again "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."
How can you minimize these words of Jesus in your life? I mean how can you live so you don't have to hear it so often? He is always there to forgive but let's give him something else to say when he thinks about us.