Tough One To Obey

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44-45a

Reading our scripture passage this morning, you likely do not need me to tell you how tough this one will be for us to obey. It goes against our nature to do any of those things for those particular people. If someone curses me, my first reaction is not a blessing. As for praying for the spiteful persecutors, I'll send up a prayer about them; Jesus might need to add me to the list of those sons of thunder! It was no different for those gathered there on the mount as our Lord spoke those words for the first time to them. I'll bet there was an odd sound of many jaws dropping as the people heard what they weren't sure they heard right. Jesus was not speaking these words simply to stun the crowd or gain their undivided attention. They were then and we are now called by our Lord Jesus to something completely different from the world. Yes, this one will be tough for us to obey. But, we have good help by faith in Jesus our Lord to do what is right by Him.

He has called, and it seems we will need to call on Him for constant help in that calling,

Bucky

Hard To Imagine

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  Luke 4:1,2

Some find it easier to believe in Jesus as God than to believe in Him as a man. They may read the story of the temptation of the Christ and sort pass over it as God not being really inconvenienced by the struggle. However the testimony Luke gathered has what I consider one of the great biblical understatements ever written down, 'He was hungry.' After forty days of eating nothing that just seems a bit bland for us in our day. 'Starved almost to death' might seem closer to the state of Jesus after that long fast. When we see that, then we see the man who lived and died for us on the cross. 

And yet, we also see the authority of God in the man who walked across the waves and then told the storm to knock it off. So, yes, He is God and human. 

Love in Christ Jesus,

Bucky

P.S. For more on the divine Word of God, see my sister's message today at: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CdLLc87fT/

A New Month

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12 NLT

We made it! It's October at last. Hmm, trying to inject cheerfulness with just another day on the calendar that arrives each year as the only reason doesn't seem to do it for me. Each day that comes is one day closer to the great promises of the Bible. Okay, now we're talking! Some days it seems such a long slog to the end, which we cannot see on our personal calendar anyway. Yet, each day does not come back again, and the world is one day closer to the end. So, what does this promise of fruit trees in our verse for today do for us? I want to see you there. Yes, you, me, and Jesus with a picnic spread under the trees of that life-giving river.

Bucky