186th Post Jesus Said on Religious Practices Con't. - Matthew 6: 16 - 18

Matthew 6: 16 - 18 Jesus on Religious Practices continued.
Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
This passage comes from Jesus Sermon on the Mount, was spoken by Jesus about 1.1/2 years into His earthly ministry. Fasting, is something we do not hear much about these days. As your prayer life grows deeper, you should incorporate fasting into your prayer life. Why do you fast? Fasting, should be used when you are going through some rough time and you feel like regular prayer is not enough. What is fasting? Fasting traditionally is going without food and drink, and spending the time you are fasting in prayer and worship to God. Jesus taught that when we pray, we need to pray in secret. Fasting is something that if you do it, it is not a regular part of your weekly life. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus fasted twice a week, like when they did charity, they made sure all who knew them knew they were fasting. They thought they were better for how often they fasted. They missed the whole point. Fasting is a tool, you can use to better concentrate on your prayer, and your problem. This is not something to do lightly. Remember God knows your heart, and knows what your agenda is. If you are fasting rightly, God will reward you.

185th Post Jesus Said on Religious Practices- Matthew 6: 1 - 4

Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have the glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
This passage was spoken by Jesus during His Sermon on the Mount, and was about 1.1/2 years into Jesus earthly ministry. As you walk closer with Jesus, you will want to start to do something for others. As you feel blessed by God, you want to show others blessings like you have received from God. This is a normal progression that you go through when you start to take the worlds attributes off and put on Christ's attributes. Jesus was making the distinction between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Old Testament says you are to do charitable deeds also, the Pharisees were doing according to their own understanding, and not God's. Jesus was trying to correct this misunderstanding.

184th Post Jesus Said on Religious Practices - New Topic Comment

Religious practices was where the Jews had gotten off track, when they received God's Word from Moses on Mount Sinai. It was over religious practices that Jesus and the Pharisees quarreled during Jesus earthly ministry. The Jews started to worship God according to their own understanding instead of God's. This is what Proverbs 3: 5-6, teaches against. Unfortunately we can also fall into this trap today. God desires a personal relationship with all of His children. We are called to be salt and light in an unbelieving world. To be effective, we have to go out in the world. Many Christians choose to spend as much time at Church during the week as they can; and they only deal with other Christians. This is a very easy trap to fall into, because it is easy, and we feel good about ourselves. This group I call salt in the shaker, it is very easy to keep your Christian values, only dealing with other Christians. Christians will not purposely push your buttons or make you uncomfortable. However, Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of the world. You can not be effective as salt if you stay in the shaker. It is this whole idea of comfort that keeps us from being effective. Another pitfall is Church itself. The Christian life is a 24 hour 7 day a week commitment. Unfortunately, many Christians are Christians only while they are in Church. Jesus requires us to be His 24 hours 7 days a week. This means we act as Christians at work, at home, and everywhere else. If you were convicted of being a Christian, would they be able to find enough evidence to convict you?? Only you can answer this question, and do something to change it if your answer is no.

183rd Post Jesus Said on Worship Con't. - John 4:21 - 24.

John 4: 21 - 24 Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well.
Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain,nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
This passage was spoken by Jesus very early in His earthly ministry, and takes place in Samaria outside the city of Sychar, at a well Jacob had dug. The woman has just asked Jesus where the proper place to worship God is. On Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans worship or at Jerusalem as the Jews do. Jesus does not answer her question, about place, but notice He tells her she worships what she does not know. Jesus was reminding her that Samaritans do not know the One True God completely, but a facsimile thereof. The Jews know who they worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. We need to remember that the Jews received salvation first, because God chose to give it to them. They are still God's chosen people. Jesus' whole ministry was to show us how to worship God in Spirit and in truth. Baptism was the first step in learning about following God in the Spirit.

182nd Post Jesus Said on Worship Continued - Comment on Samaritans.

Who are the Samaritans, and why did the Jews hate them? You would know the answer to this if you have studied the Old Testament. The Kingdom of Israel, was divided between the Northern 10 tribes, and the Southern two tribes. God divided the Kingdom, because of the Jews unbelief. The Old Testament documents the split starting during the time of King Solomon, God told Solomon, that He would wait for Solomon to die first before dividing the Kingdom out of respect for God's relationship with David, Solomon's father. God's Temple was located in Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom. Jeroboam was the first king of the Northern Kingdom. He was so afraid of losing his power to the King of the South by allowing his subjects to go to the Temple and worship there; that he built two Golden Calves, one in Bethel, and the other in Dan. Jeroboam told his subjects they no longer had to go to Jerusalem to worship, but could stay within the Northern Kingdom's borders to Worship God. The Northern Kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians who not only conquered them, but gathered up as many Jews as they could and took them to the land of Elam, and took the people of Elam and put them in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Jews in the North gave their children in marriage to the pagen people the Assyrians had put there. These pagen people brought their own gods with them and the Jews started worshiping them along with their own God. This is what created the race known as the Samaritans. Jews would look on the Samaritans as half breeds, and outcasts because they have fallen away from worshiping the Most High God! Jews would stay away from Samaritans considering them unclean.

181st Post Jesus Said on Worship - New Topic Comment.

Jesus said on worship.
Worship is something we are to do all the time, not only on Sundays. Worship is something we can do anytime and anywhere. But what is worship? Worship is praising God for Who He Is, instead of what you want Him to do for you! When you start to study the Bible, you begin to learn about God.
Your relationship with God becomes stronger and you begin to see how truly awesome He is. You start to see God, not as an angry God, who wants to extract a pound of your flesh for every wrong you commit. You start to see God as a loving, and personal God, interested in you, and wanting to help you become the best you can be. Worship becomes an interaction between you and God, and you feel good after worshiping. If we can worship on our own, why do we have to go to Church? This is a good question, when we meet as a group, and our worship is combined with others, this is pleasing to God's Ears! God commanded us to worship as a group. Worship is a time for believers to show God through their worship how much they love GOD!! Worship is different than Praise. When you worship, you are worshiping God for Who He Is, not What He Does for you! It seems a lot a praise music you hear on the radio, is aimed at what God did for you. Worship concentrates on God and His Attributes Only!

180th Post Jesus Said on Trust Con't - Matthew 6:25 - 34.

Matthew 6: 25 - 34; Luke 12: 22 - 31 Continued.
This passage can be hard to understand because it deals with the Sovereignty and Providence of God. God created the whole world and everything in it; and continues to act in it everyday. We can get so involved with our everyday tasks that we forget God is there altogether. Or we can stop living our lives and wait for God to provide for our every need. These are not what God intended. When Jesus talked about the birds of the air and that God fed them. The picture you got when you read those words, was that the birds still had to gather what God had provided. They did not just sit in their nests with their beaks open and expect God to feed them. God's animal kingdom, understands this better than we, or maybe they just react and don't think at all. We on the other hand were given a brain, and can use it to think. It is this aspect of our nature that gets us into trouble; we seem to always come up to a different conclusion than God. This is why God gave us His Holy Word (the Bible), through reading it and studying it, we get a better understanding of who God is and what He expects. This is just the beginning, though, you are to start putting His Word into action by living it. Jesus Christ never sinned, unlike us. He is the model we are to try to become, and measure ourselves against Him, not others.

179th Post Jesus Said on Trust Con't. - Matthew 6: 25 - 34

Matthew 6: 25 - 34; Luke 12: 22 - 31.
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow or reap nor gather in barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "what shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For after these the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
This passage comes for Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and was about 1.1/2 years into His earthly ministry. I will comment on this passage in the next posts.

178th Post Jesus Said on Trust - New Topic Comment.

New Topic Comment on Trust.
God and people both use this word, but unfortunately there seems to be two different definitions. When God uses this word it is absolute, all the time, no exceptions. Where human understanding of this is more or less strong. The Bible standard teaching is to Trust and Obey. The stories in the Bible are man's struggle to do just that. You can count on God to hold up his side of the bargain; however, we on the other hand mostly mess up. Jesus had to suffer and die for us because Adam and Eve could not Trust and Obey. The fact that Jesus walked this earth and was going to the cross to pay for our lack of Trust, is proof that God keeps His Promises. Jesus died for all people who are sinners. Since Jesus is the only human that remained perfect and sinless, puts the rest of us into the sinner category. Romans teaches us that while we were still in our sins Jesus died for us. This means that any human can come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness, even today this very minute. We are encouraged to make the decision sooner than later, because this window of opportunity is only open for a while. When Jesus comes again, it will be too late to ask for forgiveness, because it will be the time for Him to judge. Jesus tells us to believe in His Words because He is God and will not fail. If you have not made a commitment yet, now is as good a time as any. Make the decision and change your life!

177th Post Jesus Said on Submission Con't - John 13: 13 - 17

John 13: 13 - 17
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
This passage takes place in the upper room on Maundy Thursday, the night before Jesus was to die on the cross. Jesus knew that His time with the disciples was short, and He knew they still needed a lot more teaching time. Jesus is still fighting with the disciples about who will be the greatest, even after He had already taught them concerning this very thing. The usual practice of manners, dictated that a house should provide a bowl and a towel for the visitors to wash their feet before entering the house. The bowl and towel were provided by this household also, none of the disciples made an effort to use this. When Jesus, picked up the bowl and wrapped the towel around His waist, His disciples must have been surprised. Jesus went around the room washing their feet. The passage we are looking at, takes place after the actual washing of feet. Jesus was still trying to get them to submit with humility. Think of how hard it was for them to understand, it is even worse for us, because we did not see it being modeled. This teaching is just as important for us as it was to the disciples. You too will be blessed if you do this.

176th Post Jesus Said on Submission Con't. - Luke 17: 7 -10

Luke 17: 7 - 10
And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, "Come at once and sit down to eat"? But will he not rather say to him, "Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink"? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you have commanded, say, "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do."
This passage comes about half way through Jesus earthly ministry. This is a hard teaching of Christ, for it can still convict us today. Jesus starts out in His parable about a servant plowing or tending sheep. Both of these jobs were considered by Jews to be unclean, and they would have to clean themselves up outside before entering the house. Look at the way the master treats his servant, before they even take care of their hunger; they must first prepare something for their master and then they have to serve and wait on him and clean up after him before they can think about their own hunger. Then the master eats his fill and leaves without even thanking his servant for his service. This servant is being treated like a slave, and less than he deserves. Jesus is teaching us that if we have servants, we are to treat them with respect, and show their worth as a person created by God. We are not to take them for granted, nor treat them badly. You have to remember that at the time of Jesus, servants or slaves were considered property, and not looked upon with much respect. Jesus was commanding His followers not to be like the rest of the owners. If we are bosses, are we treating our people under us with the respect they deserve? This is what Jesus was teaching His people about submission. We are to submit to Jesus and treat people as He would treat them. Go out and do likewise!

175th Post Jesus Said on Submission Con't. - Luke 14: 8 - 11

Luke 14: 8 - 11; Matthew 23: 12
When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come to you and say to you "Give place to this man," and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he that invited you comes he may say to you, "Friend, go up higher." Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
This passage comes toward the end of Jesus' earthly ministry; Jesus is talking to His disciples. Religious teachers at the time of Jesus were revered for their profession. The Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes enjoyed being treated with celebrity. They liked being treated as someone special. Jesus wanted His disciples, not to in any way look like these religious leaders. Humility, is one of the most basic rules, we as followers of Christ are to maintain. You can not give God the Glory if you are stealing the spotlight. When we have decided to follow Christ and are pointing the way for others, we are not to take any of that light, it should be solely given totally to God. This is what Jesus said and what He wants us to act like.

174th Post Jesus Said on Submission Con't - Matthew 23: 8 - 12

Matthew 23: 8 - 12; Mark 9:35
But you, do not be called "Rabbi", for One is your Teacher, the Christ (Messiah), and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ (Messiah). But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
This is very close to the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. Notice Jesus is still having to remind His disciples not to worry about who will be the greatest. Jesus tells them not to let people call them Rabbi (teacher), they have only one teacher that is Jesus. They are not to call anyone father, except their heavenly Father. Jesus tells them again not to exalt themselves, but to remain humble. Humility is one of the hardest qualities Jesus asks us to have. Think of what these disciples will be able to accomplish in Jesus name. It is very easy to get caught up with what is happening, and to begin to think you are something special. This is true even today. If the Holy Spirit blesses your work, it is very easy to think you had something to do with it. God is using you to accomplish His Will. If you remember this, you will do well in His Service!