Send For the Doctor

“On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
Matthew 9:12-13

I suppose it was inevitable, after the stressful months that had led to a cross country move and a great new job that I would get sick. Oh it was nothing major, just the nuisance that a common cold is and like a good wife I shared it with my husband so he could experience the joy of a stuffy nose with me. Common colds don’t really need a doctor, but as I sniffled and coughed and reflected on the Cross of Christ during the days leading to the church’s celebration of His resurrection a passage of Scripture our pastor used recently kept running through my mind. 

This week’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel finds Jesus responding to the Pharisees. You got love the Pharisees - I know they were well educated and most likely very dignified men but sometimes when I read about how they interacted with Jesus and his disciples, I can’t help but imagine the “Keystone Cops” of silent movie fame. In the lead up to Jesus’ words the Pharisees had been offended by the company Jesus was keeping and asked His disciples about it. Can you imagine Jesus saying, “I’m sitting right here” and then giving them a polite what for statement, that they would have understood without any additional explanation needed.

The point that Jesus was making is that He can actually help those folks who fully understand that they have fallen short of all that God desires of them and for them. These folks - the tax collector and sinners had changeable hearts, the Pharisees and their self-righteous attitudes did not.

The modern world hasn’t changed a lot since then. There are people in the church and out of the church whose own self-righteous attitudes get in the way of what Jesus wants to do in their lives. Jesus will always seek those with changeable hearts, those who know they are sin sick and need a doctor. 

You don’t have to be a “tax collector” or “prostitute” to need Jesus. Sometimes it is the less obvious sins of the heart that are in the greatest need of the healing only Jesus can bring. 

As we spend these days before Easter reflecting on the Cross of Christ, and looking at our own hearts in light of His great sacrifice, may we realize our need and send for the doctor so He can heal our hearts and restore our souls.

A Prayer
Father - Thank you that Your Son prefers the company of tax collectors and sinners, may we acknowledge our place among them so that our hearts and lives can be healed by His presence in them. Once we have experienced the power of a restored life help us to live with joy filled humbleness so that the tax collectors and sinners around us might see Your mercy and grace in us and be healed too. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Turn Around

“On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.’ The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. ‘…By the decree of the king and his nobles: …Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’”
Jonah 3:4-5, 7-9

The sacred and solemn season of Lent was starting. Traditionally Lent is a time of introspection, prayer, and fasting. It is a time when we Christians reflect on our own shortcomings and try within our limited understanding to participate in Jesus’40 day wilderness experience and His later suffering. Contemplating on the season brought to mind the people of Nineveh and God’s call for them to turn around. 

Jonah didn’t want to go so he ended up having his own turn around encounter with God - but that is story for another week perhaps. The Ninevites were a wicked, wicked people and God it would seem was tired of hearing about all the bad stuff that was happening in the city and in the country surrounding it. Eventually Jonah shows up and basically tells them to get ready for the end of life as they know it because his God was mad and was going to take drastic action against them. 

The Lord, however, I believe really wanted the Nivevites to turn around, to change the way they were living - which is what He still wants from people today. As the people of Nineveh and their king had hoped God saw them turn around, saw their change of heart and showed His amazing compassion on them. 

Fast forward and Jesus is on the scene - His mission to show divine compassion on humanity; a compassion that is powered by grace and mercy. A compassion that when felt at the very core of a human heart, our human hearts, that it turns us around and sets us properly on the divine path our lives are meant to follow - a path that leads directly to the heart of an amazing God so filled with compassion, mercy, grace and love that He laid down His life so we could turn ours around.

Turn around, compassion is pursuing you - let Him catch you.

A Prayer
Father - Thank you for the compassion you show us each day. For those things in our lives that threaten to take us away from you, help us to turn around and then help us to show that same grace and mercy powered compassion to those around us. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Bunnies and Squirrels

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

When we lived in California, my husband could take the dogs out for a run and there were few distractions to take the dogs off course. However, living in Kansas has proved to be a bit different. You see, there are bunnies and squirrels everywhere. These cute furry creatures are proving to be great distractions for the dogs and “squirrel!” - oh, sorry got distracted there for a second - ends up making their routine outings much longer than they need to be sometimes. Life is like that - full of distractions that can send us chasing after bunnies and squirrels or other stuff. 

Life’s distraction whether they are large or small can often cause us frustration, waste our time and cause us to lose heart and question God about what is going on. Why do we struggle so to get back on track when a storm has pushed us off course or we’ve chosen to chase a bunny? 

Paul is a great encourager as we see in this week’s passage. He is acknowledging that life can be difficult; that we regularly allow stuff to distract us from what is really real, especially, for those who follow after Jesus. Paul calls them “light and momentary troubles” a subtle reminder that God’s time table and ours do not match. Paul lets us in on the secret for staying strong even in the midst of the chase or the storm or the detour or the desert we are facing “fix your eyes on what is unseen” is Paul’s encouragement for the Corinthians and for us. 

When we are tempted to chase after life’s bunnies and squirrels or to let the difficult things of life overwhelm us - if we fix our eyes on Jesus, we will find that His mercy is indeed new every day, that our hearts will be strengthened because everything we may face on this planet fades in light of the eternal glory that is waiting for us, that is here for us now. 

A Prayer
Father - Thank you for the words of encouragement we find in Your Word. Thank you that when life distracts us from what is really real, all we need to do is fix our eyes on You and allow Your Spirit to right the course for us. Thank You that Jesus, understands all that we face and that His mercy and grace never fails us. Help us this week to overcome life’s distractions by seeking you and encouraging others. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Let it Snow

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:9-11

“Oh the weather outside is….” No wait, stop - that Christmas song is not the inspiration for this week’s devotion. For the first 51 years of my life I lived in a place where snow was possible but was a very rare occurrence. Now, I live in a place where dealing with snow will be common place in the winter and so it is this change of climate that drove me to see if the word snow appears in the Bible and it does! Sometimes it has a negative connotation and sometimes like in this week’s passage with a positive one. 

This amazing God we serve created a place where everything has a purpose. Rain and snow bring the moisture needed to fill streams and rivers, to water the earth so that things will grow. In some parts of our world, rain and snow can turn a barren desert into a vibrant and flourishing oasis. In this week’s passage Isaiah speaking the words God had given him, is trying to convey God’s hard to comprehend, purposeful nature by using the nature He created to make the point. The people understood the purpose of rain and snow - in plenty the crops would be plentiful, livestock would have grass and water and the people would have food. Without it crops would fail, livestock would die and the people would starve. 

Isaiah then explains that God’s very words were like rain and snow, they have power and purpose. His words can bring destruction or life. His words can restore our souls to better than new condition. His words can satisfy our every hunger and our greatest thirst. His words regularly draw men and women back into a right relationship with this amazing, purposeful God. But only rarely - like snow where I used to live - does God speak directly and audibly to us, instead part of his purpose for us is to share His words with the world around us, to bring living water to a thirsty world and sacred bread to those who are starving. 

So, let the words Jesus has given you fall like snow on the hearts of those around you, and watch new life emerge and grow.  

A Prayer
Father - Thank you for finding ways to speak to us that allow us to get a glimpse of how amazing you are and how purposeful Your nature is. Help us to boldly share the life giving words You have shared with us. May we feel the salve of Your words on our wounds and may we rejoice with You every day. Let Your words fall like snow on hearts so they can flourish with Your love. In the name of Jesus, Amen.