Skip to main content

The commands of Jesus - new series

I have known the Bible well for a very long time now. Recently, I've become convinced that I need to return to it again, but with a new focus:

 What does Jesus tell me to do?

 I'm not throwing away the words of Peter or Paul or Moses. I am turning towards the One who taught them, made them His disciples and prophets, the source of holiness and a radical way of living. How do His words instruct and protect me? How is my life transformed when my behavior matches how He tells me to live? What questions do I have? And, most important, how do I respond to what I hear?

 These posts are not meant to be Inspired Teaching for you. They are the reflections of my heart as it listens to and responds to God. You'll notice along the way that how I approach this time has grown and changed. I started just to record what I heard and knew about a particular command and now each command includes a prayer at the end. I can no longer know without responding and changing.

 I am working my way through the Gospels chronologically, addressing each command in order. I am not including things like the Beatitudes where it is a promise or statement, only where I am called to action or changed thinking.

 It is my heart's desire that - as you see the way God tells me I am amazing, beloved, and precious just as I am and then calls me in love to be better every time I visit with Him - you, in turn, would meet the God who loves you and keeps your picture in His wallet. Come spend some time on His lap and listen as I tell my story.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pain. Defining it and comparing it.

One of the authors I follow on Facebook recently posted a link to one of her friend’s blog posts.  It caught my attention since she introduced it by saying, “ Ever feel like your pain isn't worth mentioning because someone else has it far worse?”  I have experienced that recently far more than I can say so I headed over to read the post (linked here ). The post is about two things - keeping secrets and the damage that does to us (that’s a whole other thing to write about) and feeling unworthy because my pain is less than another’s. Here’s the heart of my instinctive reaction to the idea of comparing pain that I posted in the comments: “I’ve had this really miserable cold for 5 weeks,” they say in a mournful tone. Then hastily backing up, “But it’s nothing compared to what you’re going through!” My response is always that there is no comparison in pain or trauma. My bad is bad to me. Your bad is bad to you. And who’s to say whose bad is worse? Certainly not me! Pai...
1 comment
Read more

The second recurring picture

If my room is the place where I meet Christ in times when I want to be close to Him, then my view of Heaven is where I go to worship. To me, Heaven is something I need to be able to picture. I know that I'm not even close on the details and flat wrong on many, many things. But to me that's less important than what I do when I'm there. And to do that, my limited mind needs a framework. There is, of course, the throne of God. Seated on His right is Jesus. (That's my left - I can't tell you how many years I couldn't figure that one out. Yes, I'm right-left challenged.) On His left is the Holy Spirit. What does God look like? That one changes from moment to moment, sometimes right before my eyes. The one thing that never changes about God: He always has a lap. Jesus is the same as He is in my room. And the Holy Spirit - He's an ever-changing, colorful cloud-ish gaseous being. Maybe that's because I've not put a lot of thought in that ...
1 comment
Read more

Transactional Thinking

A couple years ago now I read a book called Prodigal God by Tim Keller and it changed my thinking profoundly.  The premise of the book is that it is God who is the prodigal (recklessly spendthrift) in the story we called The Prodigal Son.  He wants relationship with each of his sons and they both follow their own agendas instead. He spends much less time on the one we typically focus on - the one who wandered away.  He spends most of his time talking about the elder brother and how he tries to do what the father wants - but only as far as following the rules not having a relationship.  As I read, I realized this is exactly the trap I lived in all my life. In this journey, though, I’ve come to understand a few things about this phenomenon in my life.  While talking to my friend, the social worker attached to the Oncology unit in Salem, I found myself talking in terms of “if I do X, Y must surely follow.”  So, for instance, “If I do what my nurses and ...
Post a Comment
Read more