Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Corinthians 7:2-4 (New International Version)

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. ³I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. ⁴I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

What a wonderful way of saying, “please love us.” What a wonderful sentiment and request.

When was the last time you asked someone to love you as a Christian? I guess we just don’t do that any longer. It sounds sort of needy or something wrong here. But here is Paul asking for it.

Perhaps we should start a habit of asking people to “make room for us in you hearts.”

Acts 16:16-18 (New International Version)

¹⁶Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Notice a few things about Paul’s encounter here with a girl.

1. This girl had a spirit in her
2. The spirit allowed here to predict the future (well enough to make lots of money)
3. The spirit knew the truth about Paul and God
4. Some people cannot resist spirits and become hosts for them
5. The spirit could be expelled

I haven’t had a conversation about such spirits with anyone lately. I guess we don’t like to talk about such things as we might appear to be some kind of fringe lunatic or something. But, here it is in black and white in the Bible. Maybe there are ways to explain this away or explain how these things don’t happen in our time as they passed…

I haven’t found anything in the Bible that explains how the time of spirits has passed. I am open to someone showing me such.

Point #4 above is the most troublesome for me. Perhaps this explains the behavior of some people.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (New International Version)

¹¹Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, ¹²so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Dependence brings with it many and diverse troubles. These troubles usually lead to spiritual trials.

I know a lot of consultants in my field. Most of these people have one reason for leaving “a job” and becoming a consultant (“I’m my own boss”) – they want to be independent. Their choices, however, as a consultant often cause them to be dependent on one client. Hence, they are back where they started, i.e. they have a “boss.” They depend on that one client; they will do almost anything the client asks of them because the client is their only source of income. If they lose the client, they will have no pay checks for months until they can find another client.

Note the phrase,

they will do almost anything

That is the killer phrase from someone who is dependent.

This is one of the cautions from Paul in these verses. Avoid dependence on anybody. Work hard to avoid dependence on anybody. Too many of us work hard at earning money, but don’t apply much effort to saving money. We need our paycheck month after month after month; we depend on the person paying us.

God, help me to control my spending. Help me to work hard to keep my earnings. Help me to be as independent as I can in my life and not depend on any person. Let Your Son be the only point of dependence in my life.

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (New International Version)

¹²What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Few thoughts in the Bible strike to my heart as much as the one in the first part of verse 12. I could be misunderstanding this terribly, but it sounds like Paul is saying that Christians have no business judging those outside the church. I find that it is our business to love those outside the church, to serve those outside the church, to reach to those outside the church, and many more things.

Judging them? Not our business.

If a person is outside the church, they are without Jesus. They are lost. We can write a long list of “bad” things they may be doing and judge them harshly for everything on the list (beat their wife, beat their husband, beat their dog, hate their neighbor, cheat on taxes, bully smaller people). What, however, is the use of judging them on these things? They are lost, and there is no punishment we can deliver with our scowling and hateful looks of judgment that can compare with what awaits the lost.

A side thought. Often our judgments are expressions of jealousy. “That guy cheats on his taxes and kicks his dog and gets away with it.” Do people inside the church want to live that way? Do we see that as enjoyable?

Acts 17:30 (New International Version)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Paul said this while speaking to the general public in Athens. This is a masterful way to speak with people who don’t know what Paul knows. He tells them,

You didn’t know any better. Now you do. Now is the time to change.

We can have long discussions about how God treated those who never heard the news of Jesus the Christ. Perhaps this verse is the cornerstone of such discussions, perhaps not. I take it as a simple statement in a sermon. A simple yet powerful statement.

Now is the time to change.

Acts 14 (New International Version)

¹¹When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” ¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. ¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

…

¹⁹Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

This history shows a really big change of mind. This occurs while Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra. In the first verses, the people are so impressed with Paul and Barnabas that they call them gods and want to offer sacrifices to them. In the next verse, some Jews from other places arrive and sway the crowd. Now they stone Paul and drag his supposedly dead body out of the city.

Wow, that is a B I G change of mind. From “this guy is a god” to “let’s kill him.” Those Jews from Antioch and Iconium must have been persuasive. Or perhaps the people in Lystra weren’t quite stabl1e.

Mark 10:27 (New International Version)

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

This was Jesus’ answer after his followers had asked Him who could be saved. Oh course, this is it, all things are possible with God.

We believe this – or do we?

Do we really believe

• that mean person at work can be a nice person?
• that we could drive all the way to work one day without pounding on the steering wheel and cursing the car in front of us?
• that my boss would have one day where he didn’t act like a moron?
• that the temperature in the church building would be not-too-cold and not-too-hot at the same time?
• that the guy at the coffee shop would give me a free cup of coffee just once?
• that I could smile some of the time?
• that any of a thousand little irksome things in my life wouldn’t irk me any more?

Well, do we really believe that all things are possible with God?

God, there are a thousand little irksome things in my life. Help me to understand that when all things are possible with you, “all things” includes all those little irksome things. Help me to understand that there is nothing too big AND nothing too little for you. Help me to understand and truly believe that you are in all my life, not just the things I consider to be big enough for you.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

irksome adjective

/???k.s?m//???k-/ adj slightly formal

annoying

The vibration can become irksome after a while.

(Definition of irksome adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

Luke 24:32 (New International Version)

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

This verse comes after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Two of His followers had walked and talked with him for a while. Once they realized it was the risen Jesus, He disappeared from among them. Then they ask one another,

were not our hearts burning within us

When are we filled with excitement? Filled with a burning sensation? Watching a football game? Watching smoke come from under the hood of the car or out of the oven at dinner time?

When was the last time reading the Bible caused our hearts to burn within us? When was the last time the thought of serving others caused our hearts to burn within us?

Oh, well, but those guys had spent the afternoon with the risen Saviour. If I had been there I would have felt the same. They don’t live my grind-it-out-day-by-day life. That is completely different… Nice excuses, but just excuses.

God, help me to have a heart burning within me when it comes to things that are really important.

This post is out of the ordinary in several ways:

• I am posting it the day I write it
• It is neither a Saturday nor a Sunday
• It is not based on a single passage

Yesterday, my 12-month-old grandson James fell ten or twelve feet from the loft in the apartment where he lives with my son and daughter-in-law. James walks away with a hairline fracture in his skull and a couple of barely visible bruises on his back. I hate to speculate about my condition had I suffered the same fall (broken collarbone, broken wrist, broken…). Hence, the title of this post:

angels catch babies

My daughter-in-law took James up to their loft to fetch something. She turned her back for a nanosecond, and James went through the bars. James is too big to fit between the bars, but he doesn’t know that.

Now to the subject of angels and babies and other people, too.

There is much disagreement on the topic of guardian angels. Wikipedia has an informative page on the topic. The disagreement does not surprise me as (1) angels are largely invisible to us and (2) they work against Satan, he doesn’t like their work, so he sows seeds of discord on this topic.

Let’s look at the Bible (all passages from the New International Version):

Matthew 18:10

“See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

This is Jesus speaking, and it reads to me like children have their angels.

Acts 12:12-15

¹²When this had dawned on him (PETER), he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. ¹³Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

¹⁵“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

Note the last phrase of verse 15, it must be his angel. This alludes to a belief at the time that each person has an angel.

Hebrews 1:14

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

I interpret those who will inherit salvation as people. Hence, angels are spirits sent to serve people.

I understand how people can interpret each of these (and many other) passages in a manner different from what I offer here. I know there are many who do interpret these differently.

Yet, still I sit here the day after my grandson falls ten or twelve feet and receives a hairline fracture and a few bruises. I didn’t see an angel catch James. No one saw an angel catch James. I merely take it on faith.

—

I recommend reading the Wikipedia article. It discusses these passages and others in both the Old and New Testaments.

Jeremiah 32:36-41 (New International Version)

³⁶ “You are saying about this city, ‘By the sword, famine and plague it will be handed over to the king of Babylon’; but this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ³⁷ I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. ³⁸ They will be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. ⁴¹ I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

I am not sure if I have ever been in a group of people who had singleness of heart and action. Everyone would have the same goal and would work towards that same goal. I guess if I made the goal big, broad, and vague enough (keep America free), then I have seen such singleness. But if I reduce the goal to something smaller and more specific, things fall apart. People just don’t seem to want to work towards the same thing.

Perhaps that isn’t a bad thing. People differ in many ways; people have differing talents and desires. If we use our different talents and go out and work in different areas, much good can be accomplished.

If, however, we argue about differing goals and all sit around waiting for everyone else to come around to my way of thinking. Well, nothing much happens, at least nothing with much good happens.

Perhaps having a large, vague goal and gathering singleness of heart around that is a good thing. It certainly seems better than bickering.

God, help us to seek singleness of heart and action about you. Help us to always fear and respect you for the good of ourselves and our children.