Days of Praise

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Don Merritt

I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

Psalm 145:1-2

Have you ever just sat back and considered everything God has done in your life? For most of us, we don’t take the time to do this often enough; I know I don’t.  It may be hard to get started, as thoughts about the here and now rush though our minds, as the distractions and demands of everyday life make so much noise that it’s hard to think. Yet as we continue to ponder, as we begin to relax, God’s doings begin to enter our thoughts, and before too long, they push the distractions away.

We might even move on to ponder and reflect upon what God has done in His Creation; the wonder of all it, its grandeur so magnificent.

When we invest a little time and attention in this way, it isn’t easy to remain silent, is it?

Our God is so amazing, so awesome, so powerful, so loving; how can we think on such things and not enthusiastically give Him praise?

Funny thing about exaltation; once you get started, it’s hard to stop. Imagine what it would be like if we did this every day; don’t you suppose that every day would be as amazing as the things God does in our lives? Oh yes, I bet they would be; can you guess why?

If we began each day reflecting upon all that God is and does in our lives, we would be seeing all that He does each day as we go along, and each day we would be giving him enthusiastic praise, and when you do that, it’s hard to stop… and each day would then become a day of praise.

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Random Ramblings: January 7, 2017

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Don Merritt

images

Earlier this week I wrote a wonderful piece for this feature, it was a “Random Ramble” that was so good, so well-written, so brilliant, so artfully done that they would have made a Pulitzer Prize for blogging after reading it. Much to my dismay however, I now see that my blog has been hacked, no doubt by the Russians, probably by Mr. Putin himself, and has been stolen.

Great.

Now I have to come up with something else, and it will never be as good as the one the Russians got.

I’m guessing you aren’t buying my story…

This past Christmas, I received and Amazon “Echo” as a gift from my wife; it was the first I ever heard of an “Echo” and to be completely honest, for a few days I felt like the kid who got an electric train set from his Dad for Christmas. If you’re my age you might recall the famous picture of Dad with a big smile on his face playing with the electric train set with the boy sitting next to him with his arms folded looking really mad because Dad wouldn’t let the kid play with his trains?

That’s what it was like for me with the Echo; my wife loves things like that.

If you aren’t familiar with the Echo, it’s a device that ties into your wireless network and is entirely voice-activated. You can ask questions, have it play music or radio stations, give you the weather or read books to you from your Amazon library. It can even run your heating and air conditioning, start your car or turn on your smart TV… at least theoretically. I read somewhere it can operate kitchen appliances, if they are enabled.

I hope to get a turn soon.

There is one thing about the Echo that strikes me as a little creepy, though. You see, it’s tied into your network, and it’s always listening. Any time you want to talk to it you say “Alexa” because that’s “her” name. So it just sits there and waits for you to say “Alexa…” and then it does its thing. Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to a program on WMAL radio in Washington, Dc, a great news station. They were talking about Alexa, and the guest, who was on the show via telephone, was asking questions, beginning with “Alexa…” as a demonstration of the cool things it can do, and my Alexa heard him and answered his questions: That’s freaky!

So, if I work for Mr. Putin, do I send Mr. Trump an Amazon Echo for the Oval Office, you know, just in case he wants a report of the weather or something? (After all, she’s always listening… and connected to the internet…)

My guess is that the Secret Service wouldn’t allow Alexa anywhere near the property, but who knows for sure?

I don’t feel comfortable saying much around Alexa, how about you?

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Calling Disciples

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 5:1-11

Luke’s account of the calling of Peter, James and John as disciples differs in many ways from the accounts of Matthew and Mark; I’ll let others speculate on the reasons for this and try to focus on what I see as the really instructive part of Luke’s account. Please read these verses, if you haven’t already, and let’s talk…

OK, now that you have refreshed your recollection of this account, did you notice Peter’s reaction when Jesus caused his nets to be so overloaded with fish?

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (5:8)

Doesn’t that remind you of Isaiah the prophet?

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 6:1-5

This is from the passage that describes the call of Isaiah to prophesy to the people; do you see the similarity in his response to that of Peter when he saw how amazing and holy Jesus was, that He knew just where to cast their nets for a record catch? Isaiah was accepted for service and went without hesitation:

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:6-8)

Like Isaiah, Peter was horrified at his unworthiness to be in the presence of the Son of God, yet in Luke 5:10 Jesus reassured him, and they dropped everything and followed Him without hesitation. You might also take a look at the call of Moses in Exodus 3 and Gideon in Judges 6.

It would be quite normal for any of us to realize that we are neither qualified nor worthy to serve our Lord; we are all sinners after all. Yet none of the “greats” of Scripture were any more perfect than you or I, and when reassured, they followed God’s call. Each of us knows that our sin has been taken away by the blood of Christ, and each of us has every right to seek His loving arms… and each of us has received His call to follow Him. Will we follow the example of Peter, James and John?

 

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Healing

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 4:38-44

In these verses we see Jesus healing people of sickness and driving out more demons. The demons it seems all knew who He was, yet Jesus really wasn’t going to rely on the testimony of the agents of Hell to spread the good news; He ordered them to keep quiet. Even when He retreated to a solitary place, the people found Him and tried to persuade Him to remain with them, but Jesus couldn’t do that, for He had come to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God all over

Let’s just keep this short and sweet: When Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom of God, what happened?

First, people were amazed at the authority with which He spoke about it. Second, people were healed both of their illnesses and their spiritual oppression, both of which are things that came about as a result of Man’s falling away from fellowship with God. Third, Jesus gave practical confirmation of His authority; that it had indeed come from God. Yet there is another element in all of this, an apocalyptic element. Jesus demonstrated in physical terms what would soon happen in eternal terms after He had dealt with the sin of humanity and restored fellowship between Man and God, and if memory serves me, Luke also wrote a volume in which he told that story.

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Driving out Demons

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 4:31-37

After the incident in Nazareth, Jesus moved on to Capernaum where once again people were amazed by His teaching. Luke gives us the reason for their amazement; it was the authority with which He taught. Of course many teachers teach authoritatively, but Jesus seems to have had an extra ingredient in His teaching, for all four gospel writers tell us that it was His authority that so amazed people. Apparently, being the Son of God is something that has a way of coming out without ever being mentioned, for it brings forth the authority of God, for who is a greater authority on the Word of God than the Living Word Himself?

On one occasion there was a man who was possessed by demons. The demons knew at once who Jesus was, and we know that from what they shouted through the stricken man:

“Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (4:34)

Jesus simply commanded that they come out of the man, and they immediately complied with His command, amazing the people even more than before. More importantly, the man was once again made spiritually whole through the words that came from His mouth; the Living Word in action. As His followers, we must come to recognize that it is the Living Word in us, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives us our strength, not our cleverness and not our human strength, but God’s alone.

As one might expect, the news of this incident spread quickly throughout the region: What else could this Jesus do?

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Home to Nazareth

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 4:14-30

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19

Jesus headed toward home, and on the way He began to teach and news began to spread about His amazing teaching, for the Spirit was upon Him. When He reached His home town of Nazareth, the people wanted to hear what He had to say on the Sabbath. When the day came, He was handed the scroll of Isaiah and He read the verses quoted above. The scene was electric, tension and expectation were in the air…

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He spoke some more and the people were amazed. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Jesus went on to tell them that no prophet is “accepted” in his home town, and reminded them of several instances from Scripture in which prophets did their work elsewhere for this reason.

At this, the people were angered and they tried to throw Jesus off of a cliff; so much for a hometown crowd. Yet Jesus simply strolled through the crowd and went on His way.

You might well think I’m making a stretch here, but I told you we’d see Satan again!

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Jesus in the Wilderness

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 4:1-13

The ministry of Jesus has begun… or has it? He has been baptized by John, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended upon Him in “bodily form” and the Father has spoken; now He has one more hurdle before He begins, He must be tempted.

The Spirit leads Him out into the desert (Wilderness) where He is to fast for 40 days, just as Moses and Elijah have done before. This is the first of several parallels to Israel’s past in this section. After 40 days, Jesus is terribly hungry, and in this we see His humanity in full force, after He was proclaimed by His Father to be the Son of God. Taking advantage of the situation, the devil comes onto the stage…

Knowing Jesus’ hunger, the devil points to a stone and tells Jesus to turn it into bread to ease His suffering. Of course you’ll recall the ruckus among the Israelites in the Wilderness about their lack of food which demonstrated their lack of faith in the God who had so recently rescued them from Egypt in spectacular fashion. Unlike the Israelites, Jesus’ faith does not bend at this point, and He replies to the devil with Scripture (4:3-4).

Next in 4:5-8, the devil shows Jesus all of the world’s kingdoms and offers them to Jesus, if He will only worship Satan. Is the entire world Satan’s to offer? People have debated that for a long time, and it probably doesn’t really matter here, for Jesus again quotes Scripture in rejection of the offer. The really interesting aspect of the offer is that it would have brought Jesus to His destiny in a sense, while bypassing the cross, for in being the king of all nations, every knee would bow to Him. Yet in  His denial, Jesus has passed another test that the Israelites had failed in the Wilderness, for He refused to bow to another god, while they had not only bowed to other gods, they had actually manufactured gods to bow to.

Then, the devil took Jesus to the highest point of the Temple and invited Him to jump so that the angels of God would have to save Him, and actually quoted Scripture to justify his gambit.

Jesus quoted Scripture in His refusal (4:9-12).

Had Jesus performed this stunt, presumably there would have been many witnesses and He could have jump-started His ministry with a big following; something like you might see on TV today, followed by the toll free number to donate money. Yet Jesus was not about to use His power and position toward His personal ends, for His was a mission as a servant leader, of humility and self-denial, not show business.

Jesus was the real deal, and stands in stark contrast to the Israelites who wanted God to prove Himself over and over in the Wilderness.

In the final verse, Luke tells us that Satan withdrew in favor of a more opportune time, and indeed, we will encounter him again and again in the story. When all of this was completed, Jesus returned to His home town to kick off His public ministry, no doubt to cheers from His friends and family.

Or not.

See you next time!

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Photo of the Week: January 4, 2017

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Don Merritt

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Jesus Comes into View

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 3:21-38

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  

Luke 3:31-22

In contrast to Matthew’s much larger description of Jesus’ baptism, Luke moves right to the result of the baptism. Jesus was baptized and prayed, and when He did the heavens opened, the Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form the Father spoke, and everyone knew about it: Jesus was the Messiah.

Well, I guess that just about cinches it, don’t you agree?

It might be useful for us to be reminded that Luke was writing to a much different audience than Matthew, who was writing to a predominantly Jewish audience. As a result, Matthew gets into the history of Israel, the prophecies concerning the Messiah and so forth, while Luke, writing to a largely Greek audience skips much of the Israel part, and gets right to the result that has affected his readers: Jesus really is the Messiah, God incarnate… Period.

Interestingly, as a first century historian, Luke then gives the genealogy of Jesus, and so we can see that this is the “official” beginning of His story. Again there is a great contrast to Matthew’s genealogy, for although Matthew shows us every way possible that Jesus = son of David, Luke simply demonstrates that Jesus inherited the royal kingship of David through adoption by his heir Joseph.

So, the ministry of Jesus has finally begun at the end of chapter 3; what will He do first? See you next time!

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Preparing the Way

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Don Merritt

Luke 3:1-20

In the first two verses, Luke goes to great pains to let us know that the Word of God came to John in the wilderness in the year 28, but of course the coming of the Word is the most important thing John’s time had come.

Notice in the text that Luke is careful to point out that John was on the scene in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, for this was no fluke; John’s mission was one that everyone would recognize. It’s sometimes hard for us to remember that in the first century the Jewish people were expecting the Messiah to appear, based upon the prophecies of Daniel who had given them the timeframe for His arrival. John’s appearance would have made quite an impact. So there he was, out in the desert, preaching of all things repentance… but the people would flock to Him to hear his preaching, and to receive his baptism of repentance, for they knew that the Messiah would shortly appear, and they wanted to be ready.

Isn’t this an interesting contrast to our attitude about repentance today?

Notice the interesting exchanges recorded in 3:7-14: The people were receptive to his message for the most part, asking what they should do. As we see in the next verse, some were even wondering if John himself was the Messiah, but he quickly set them straight:

John answered them all, “I baptize you wit] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. (3:16-18)

John’s ministry would end at God’s appointed time as we see in the last two verses of this section, but not before he has an encounter with Jesus Himself that we’ll look at next time. What we need to review is that the early church also would preach a message of repentance that resonated with many people who remembered John’s teaching, for John was very popular with the Jewish people, if not the Jewish authorities, for they were not particularly feeling empowered by John’s and later Jesus’ appearance on the scene; they were much to honest to play the games of the rich and powerful as John demonstrates in the last two verses of this section…

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done,  Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison. (3:19-20)

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