Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 1:19-20 (New Living Translation)

19 A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. 20 He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

There were times when it seemed that Jesus just didn’t know how to act. Jesus would break social norms and go off and do something folks just didn’t do.

This was one such occasion. In just a few words, Jesus caused James and John to leave their father and the family business with a bunch of hired men. What? That was disrespectful to the father and the family. Still, that is what happened.

How did Zebedee feel? His sons walked off with a wandering carpenter’s son. Where were the sons going? What would they do? Would they ever return? (No)

The questions go on and on. I sit here today and know that it all turned out great, sort of. No one at the time knew that it would. And what about all the sons that left all the fathers and families in the thousands of years since. What were they doing? What were they thinking?

I don’t like this—not one bit. Still, I know the result. I can’t reconcile the two. I guess that is part of faith. I guess I need more faith and more belief.

Ezekiel 33:30-31 (New Living Translation)

30 “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ 31 So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money.

God is talking to the prophet Ezekiel about the behavior of many of the people. The people pretend that they desperately want to know what God has to say to them. The people pretend to be sincere, but they only seek money.

And guess what? They don’t pretend very well. Everyone knows that everyone is pretending. Everyone knows that no one will do what God tells them. It is a game.

God isn’t playing the game. God isn’t impressed with the pretending. And how stupid are the people to think that they are fooling God? Fools fooling around foolishly or something like that.

What is wrong with us? Why do we think we can fool God? Oh, we don’t do this today, do we? Yes, too often. I sincerely want to hear what God has to say. I will, however, only take that under consideration and balance it against my own brainpower and logic and all that. Fools fooling around foolishly or something like that. We are an odd lot.

God, please help me in my unbelief.

Mark 2:8 (New Living Translation)

8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts?

This is part of the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. “But some of the teachers of religious law” (verse 6) were questioning all of this. Whoa, wait a minute here. This Jesus fellow is about to do something that they cannot do and cannot explain. In fear and confusion, the teachers of the religious law were about to cause a ruckus (does anyone still say “ruckus”).

Jesus knew what they were thinking. Jesus knew what was in their hearts.

Stop a moment. Jesus knew these things. Jesus “saw right through them.”

Stop another moment. Despite what I think of myself on my sharpest days, I’ve never known what someone else was thinking. I’ve never known what was in another person’s heart. I have kind of, sort of, thought I did know these things, but that was just silly of me.

“But it’s obvious what they are thinking.” Nope, it’s not.

“But I’ve been through this before and I know what they are feeling.” Nope, again.

I’m not Jesus. I don’t know what people are thinking and feeling. And, by the way, I don’t need to know what others are thinking and feeling. All I need to know and do is love people and pray for them and pray for myself that I do these things in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ. That’s a big enough challenge for me.

Isaiah 1:8 (New Living Translation)

8 Beautiful Jerusalem stands abandoned
like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest,
like a helpless city under siege.

God is talking to the people through the prophet Isaiah. This is bad news—this is very bad news. Because of generations of rebellion, the people will be punished. Did I mention this is bad news?

The large, modern, built-up city of Jerusalem will look like a “lean-to in a cucumber field.” I love that horrible description of what will become of a glorious city. I have been in cucumber fields; nothing special there as when I was in high school we could grow cucumbers in the heat and rain of Louisiana. Lots and lots of cucumbers.

I know what a lean-to is in a field of crops. Literally several pieces of wood and corrugated tin leaned onto one another in a sloppy manner so they stand and provide shade, except when there is a little wind or something that knocks them down only to be leaned on one another again.

A lean-to serves its purpose. Nothing special, just a quick way to do something halfway. It shows a lack of honor, purpose, or anything that is worthwhile. Just do something, anything. Who cares? No one.

That is what God is telling the people. The people don’t care. Fine. You don’t care? You will live in a place that screams, “We don’t care!”

Is that what we want? A “I don’t care” life in a “I don’t care” world? God has blessed us. Let’s care. Let’s honor and worship and obey God. I can do better than a lean-to in a cucumber field.

1 Chronicles 26:13 (New Living Translation)

13 They were assigned by families for guard duty at the various gates, without regard to age or training, for it was all decided by means of sacred lots.

This writing is about how people were assigned guard duty at the various gates of the city. Without regard to age or training, people were given their assignments.

Whoa. Without regard to age or training? Guard duty? Do you sleep well at night knowing the guard may be 13 or 73 years old and not know how to hold a spear let alone us it? Huh? Of course not. This is foolhardy.

But wait—these were chosen by lot. Casting a die, drawing straws, pulling a name out of a hat. Whoa. That is even worse. Really? Just by some chance or something.

But wait—let’s include the adjective and have sacred lot. “Sacred” meant that this was from God and dedicated to God. It wasn’t a normal casting of lots; it was dedicated to God and approved by God. This was holy in all the most serious sense.

The sacred lot was used in several places in the Bible and the history of the people and even later in the history of the church. Pull a name out of a hat? Yes, after prayer and great contemplation about which names went into the hat. God chose David over all his older more handsome and bigger older brothers. God chose Moses, a guy cast off from society, his family, and was stuck watching someone else’s sheep. We go on and on.

God showed people what God wanted via godly lots. But I’m smarter than that, huh? Nope. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New Living Translation)

9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

Nowadays, I read of “the end of history” and “being on the right side of history.” The Old Testament old book of Ecclesiastes, however, provides a different history of history. Under the sun, here on earth when people forget about God who is above, history repeats itself. We don’t learn from history; we just go around and around.

But wait, that must no longer be true. We, us folks on earth, are so much smarter than those folks who preceded us. We understand all this. We can stop the repeatedly repeating of repeatable mistakes. Huh?

Naw. Just us folks here. Just something we do. We have to make our own mistakes or something like that. Avoid the mistakes or others? You see, those others didn’t know how to skirt the edges of things and play with fire without being burned. I can do those risky things without consequences. I am just smart enough to do that.

Naw. Just us folks here. Just something we do. Please God, help me in m unbelief.

Galatians 2:21 (New Living Translation)

21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Paul is writing to a group of Christians gathered in Galatia. A long time ago in a place far, far away kind of thing. These are simple words; this topic bends the mind and at times goes far beyond my ability to understand or even question.

Paul emphasizes the importance of grace as it relates to God, Jesus, and mankind. Grace is what saves me. It is a gift from God. That gift was sealed or wrapped up like a present with a ribbon and bow by the sacrifice of Jesus. Grace is superior to following any detailed set of instructions, and I mean DETAILED instructions.

If keeping a set of detailed instructions would make me right with God, why did Jesus die on the cross? This is a question with an obvious answer. The “if” part of the question is false. False proves nothing. Jesus needed to die on the cross because I am unable to appear before God in my natural pathetic state.

There are times when I don’t like any of the above. I’m a pretty good guy. God would accept me, right? I pay my taxes, keep my lawn cut, drive the speed limit, and all those things that society expects of pretty good guys. Unrighteous? Well, that’s a judgement call, huh? Yes, it is a judgement call with God being the judge and oh, uh, er, I am pretty pathetic.

Grace has meaning—a lot of meaning for me. Grace is what saves me from myself. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Proverbs 29:25 (New Living Translation)

25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap,
but trusting the Lord means safety.

This is a wise saying written a few thousand years ago. Lots of “wise sayings” were written a few thousand years ago. This one is from God and concerns mankind and God. Let’s pay more attention to this one.

Am I afraid of other people? Yes, there are some frightful people out there. Am I really afraid of people in general? Am I afraid that what I have can be taken by these other people?

We are in an election year in America. I think this will be published online a few days after the national election. Lots of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in America this autumn.

Do we fear them? Do we fear those other people who voted for those other people? I’m not sure who “we” and “them” are, but them are not we, or something like that.

Fear is a dangerous trap. It leads to all sorts of un-God-like behavior. Such behavior is bad for me. See how this works. Fear, ungodly behavior, sin, destruction of myself. Not good. The first step—fear—is a trap.

How do I escape this downward spiral? Trust the LORD. Pretty simple idea which can become all complicated and icky and such if I let it. Trust the LORD, Dwayne. Avoid fear of others. Please God, help my in my unbelief.

Galatians 2:9 (New Living Translation)

9 In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.

Paul is writing here to the Christians in Galatia. He describes a meeting with Peter, James, and John—pillars of the church in Jerusalem and part of the group who walked with Jesus (literally). Up comes this fellow Paul, who had destroyed churches in his past, who ministers with Gentiles all the time.

Attitude? Do the pillars of the church take an attitude of superiority to this newcomer and his, uh, er, sort of disdained group to whom he ministers? No. Acceptance as co-workers is the attitude.

Folks, good Christians reading this, the attitude of Peter, James, and John should be our attitude. There is much to do as Christians. There are many folks who need to hear the good news that we have to share. Accept others as co-workers. Yes, but they didn’t go to the right school or read the Bible correctly or, or, or…

Accept others as co-workers. I have been fortunate in my life that others have accepted me as a co-worker. I have known people who were not accepted, and that hurt. That hurt deeply and for a long time. Let’s not do that. Let’s be like Peter, James, and John.

Psalm 103:14 (New Living Translation)

14 For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.

Whoa. This isn’t a very flattery description of us folks. The writer is describing the LORD God. God knows us since he created us. We are weak and only dust.

Well, I sweep dust and dirt out of my house. Get rid of dust.

The lines of text that surround this verse describe a much different situation with God. God doesn’t punish us for all our sins as we deserve. God cherishes us. God forgives us. God loves us.

God loves us dust? Yes. That doesn’t make any sense to me, but here it is right in front of me in black and white or whatever colors I have my computer screen set to at the time.

Thanks be to God for the unfailing and unending love God has for me and all of us. Please God, help me in my unbelief.