Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 11:53-54 (New Living Translation)

53 As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. 54 They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him.

As Jesus continues the earthly ministry, teachers of the religious law and Pharisees didn’t like Jesus. Jesus spoke too candidly and pointed to their failings as religious leaders.

Here’s an idea: ask questions. Ask leading questions. Ask trick questions. We can trick Jesus into saying one thing, then double back on his words to show that Jesus wasn’t so smart and so right all the time. That will do it!

This is pretty easy to do. Use carefully chosen words. Toss in a few specific dates and events. Catch the person when they are not concentrating. Then…BANG! Got ’em. Tricked ’em. Trapped ’em. This is pretty easy to do.

And as a result? Well, I’ve showed that I can be more clever than another person. I have won an intellectual argument. And as a result? I have a new enemy. Another person despises me.

And as a result? That isn’t what I am supposed to be doing here and now. That isn’t showing love, compassion, concern, good will, or anything good. It is just bad intentions followed by bad actions that somehow prove that I am superior in some twisted way. Nope. All wrong.

Instead, use the brains God gave me to find ways to love and build up others into the love of God. Much better that way. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Romans 6:12 (New Living Translation)

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.

What controls the way I live? One simple thing is the fatigue that this body experiences. I sleep about a third of the day. Another simple thing is this body requires energy. I eat and drink. Basic controls.

Many other things and other persons control the way I live. How about rebelling against God? That is called “sin.” As a frail human, I have sin. As a follower of Jesus Christ, my sins are washed away. Still, sin is all around me. Do I allow that to control me? In some good ways, yes. I see abundant sin and I take a sharp turn to go around it and avoid it. In other ways…well, not so good. Still, God has provided a cleansing from sin via grace and forgiveness.

Thanks be to God for unwavering mercy. Please God, continue to help me in my unbelief.

Malachi 2:3 (New Living Translation)

3 I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Malachi. In particular, God is addressing the priests who have not been conducting the Temple worship in any way, shape, or form according to instructions. In one of the more forgotten or most not-quoted verses of the Bible—yikes—God promises to splatter the faces of the priests with the manure of the sacrificed animals.

Something lost in translation? Nope. I looked in several other translations, even the good old King James Version, and they all contain pretty much the same thing. The King James says “dung” instead of “manure,” but the same thing.

This is not a pretty picture. This is not a pretty odor. Toss in the rest of the physical senses as well and it doesn’t come up pretty in any of them. Why?

Sometimes God uses plain language to describe what is happening and what God will do as a response. Sometimes it is gross and ugly. Sometimes that is necessary to make a point. There are ways God wants us to live. There are reactions when we just don’t follow God’s guidance. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Acts 8:1 (New Living Translation)

1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

This is one of those transition verses in the New Testament. Stephen had just been stoned to death for teaching that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to take away the sins of the world. The religious leaders of the Jews had Jesus crucified by the Romans for what Jesus said and did. The religious leaders had Stephen executed in the Jewish manner of stoning.

The next event was a great wave of persecution that caused Christians in Jerusalem to scatter or head for the hills. Just leave behind everything and run with what you could carry. That was a major and horrible upheaval in the lives of these Christians.

I would think someone would have told Stephen to tone it down a bit. Preach the good news of Jesus, but don’t slam the religious leaders so hard. I mean, surely someone asked Stephen to … well, not enrage the religious leaders. It could lead to bad things.

Stephen didn’t tone it down. A great wave of persecution did happen. That was terrible, right? Well, in the short term of course it was terrible. The scattering, however, had the result of all these Christians going all over the place and explaining their changed lives to everyone they met.

Stephen’s hard line and loud teaching created missionaries. God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes the ways hurt many Christians for a time. Please God, help me to accept your ways and help me in my unbelief.

Daniel 5:23 (New Living Translation)

23 For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!

Daniel is talking to King Belshazzar of Babylon. This is part of the (hi)story of the writing on the wall in which a mysterious hand writes a message on the wall that no one can read. Daniel is called and he reads the message. Before reading the message of doom for King Belshazzar, Daniel says the above.

King Belshazzar was having a feast. That is a nice way of saying that the King and guests were becoming falling down drunk and engaging in all sorts of accompanying debauchery. As part of the lewd acts, King Belshazzar brings in the sacred cups stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem. The King used these cups to worship “gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone”—a bunch of junk.

Daniel chastises the King (a death-inducing practice). You King, you worship junk. You King, you do not honor the true God who gives you the breath of life. Do golden statues give the breath of life? Do rocks give the breath of life? Of course not. How could anyone so powerful have so little brain power? What is wrong with the King and those with him?

Idolatry leads to stupidity. I guess.

The fate of King Belshazzar was written on the wall. He was assassinated that night.

Romans 1:32 (New Living Translation)

32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

There is a system of justice from God. Certain acts require the punishment of death. Some are listed prior to the above verse and include: wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip, backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. We still use some of this justice system today (murder merits capital punishment). Some of the justice system we have abandoned (capital punishment for gossiping?).

Paul writes to the Christians in Rome that breaking this system is bad. Worse yet is encouraging others to break the system as well. That was happening. It wasn’t enough to be lawless, the law breakers wanted others to join them.

They do we do these things? We do we invite others to mess up with us? Surely we would know better. How does God tolerate us. Thank you God for your grace. Help me in my unbelief.

Ezekiel 33:32 (New Living Translation)

32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it!

God is speaking to the prophet Ezekiel. God had spoken to the people through Ezekiel, but the people treated Ezekiel not as a prophet of God, but as some kind of entertainer. Old ‘Zeke was a good song and dance man with poetic phrases and all that good stuff.

Listen to the words of Ezekiel? Nope. Act on the words of Ezekiel? Nope. That would be like believing the Roadrunner and Coyote were real (shows my age). God concludes in the next verse with, “But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.”

Time will tell, and the story won’t be good. Let’s listen to God. Let’s listen to the messengers God sends. Let’s read the Bible. I can do much better. I can enjoy the blessings of God so much more than I do. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

John 14:27 (New Living Translation)

27 I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Jesus is speaking. Jesus leaves a gift for me: peace of mind and heart.

Goodness, we have lots of folks in America today who don’t have peace of mind. Rich folks, athletes, musicians, actors, business persons, etc. They make the Olympic team, but just can’t get out of bed once they are at the Olympics because their mind isn’t right. Tennis stars lose the ability to play because of mental health issues. Peace of mind? They are out of their minds.

Then there is a troubled heart. I have known people who were troubled in heart for many years. Someone in their life died. A part of their emotional heart died with them. The heart didn’t grow back to its normal size. One of my grandmothers died of heartache within a year of the death of an adult son. Others I have known were “pushed over the edge” and died shortly after another person died.

There are many troubled hearts around us. Jesus gives peace of heart. Let’s accept that. Be with people who remind us of the peace Jesus gives. That’s a simple and sometimes too simple bit of encouragement. If you suffer from a troubled heart, you may find my words without meaning or power. I apologize. I fail. Jesus doesn’t.

Jeremiah 9:24 (New Living Translation)

24 But those who wish to boast
should boast in this alone:
that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord
who demonstrates unfailing love
and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth,
and that I delight in these things.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

I just quoted this verse yesterday. This deserves another comment. God tells the people through the prophet Jeremiah that God delights in three things:

• unfailing love
• justice
• righteousness

Surely there must be something else, huh? This reminds me of Naaman, a commander in the world-conquering Aramean army. How would God rid Naaman of a terrible skin disease? Go wash in the muddy Jordan River. That’s all. Just do that simple thing. Surely, protested Naaman, there were other things, huh? Nope.

Surely there must be more I should do to delight God, huh? Nope. Love others. Be just in dealing with others. Be right before God. But what about…? Well, I can make a long list of other stuff I can do to be right before God. That list would include many good things that would be very good to do with my life. The 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians lists things I could do.

Still, God delights in these three things. Perhaps I should focus on the basics. Perhaps other things will come about because of this focus. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 This is what the Lord says:
“Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,
or the powerful boast in their power,
or the rich boast in their riches.
24 But those who wish to boast
should boast in this alone:
that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord
who demonstrates unfailing love
and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth,
and that I delight in these things.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Jeremiah. Many folks are proud of something or other in their lives. Nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn’t rule a life. God reminds us that some of us boast in things like wisdom (good stuff), power (could be good stuff), and riches (can be used for good stuff).

If, however, we really want to boast, boast that we know God and hold God as the lord of our lives.

Well, yeah, that covers religion and such, but what about the other six days of the week? Nope. That covers all seven days of the week all year long and all life long. I know God. God is the lord of my life. ‘Nuff said. Pretty simple. Pretty difficult, especially today when we have so much stuff and do so much stuff and on and on. Please God. Help me in my unbelief.