Contemplative Bible Reading

Galatians 5:16 (New Living Translation)

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

I can live my life guided by the Holy Spirit from God. That is super natural or something that cannot be explained by the laws of nature. That is the super nature.

Then there is the sinful nature. Perhaps that, too, is something that cannot be explained by the laws of nature. The following sentences tell us that the sinful nature is the one that wants to do evil.

What will I choose—peace, joy, love or conflict, hate, and jealousy? Huh? How could I possibly choose a life of conflict, hate, and jealousy? How could I ever be that stupid? Somehow, there are days when I am that stupid. What is wrong with me? How can God still accept such a stupid, pathetic character?

But God does. Thanks be to God in the limitless mercy and grace.

Mark 10:19 (New Living Translation)

19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’

Jesus is talking to a good man about eternal life. Jesus repeats some of the old law to the man. Let’s focus on the next to last item—cheating anyone.

What does it mean to “cheat” someone? I see it all the time on those reality shows where people buy and sell old items. They find a treasure, buy it for $1, and then proclaim how they will be able to sell it for $10. Isn’t that cheating the original owner? Or is that just sales and marketing and value-added business? Where does smart business end and cheating begin?

Or how about pulling in front of someone in traffic so that you “make the light” and they are stuck for five minutes after the light turns red? Is that cheating them of time? You took their place in line, right? Or is that just smart driving?

When is it taking advantage of an opportunity and when is it cheating another person? I don’t like these questions. I have lived a blessed life. Have I reached this point by hard work or cheating others?

Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Luke 11:4 (Christian Standard Bible)

And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves also forgive everyone
in debt to us.
And do not bring us into temptation.

This English translation of the Lord’s Prayer equates sin with debt. Sometimes I struggle with understanding sin. Sure, this is wrong and this is right. Sin, however, is a deep subject that gives me a headache sometimes.

Debt—I understand debt. The lady behind the counter at Starbucks gives me a cup of copy. I have a debt to pay. The magic of the iPhone and credit cards and banks and all that electronic transfer of coffee takes care of the details. At the foundation is a debt that must be paid. There is no free lunch and no free coffee and (this is the part that hurts) no free sin.

Someone has to pay the debt of sin. VISA cards and the iPhone don’t help with that. Jesus takes care of that. Thank you, God. Thank you for paying the debt that I can never pay. Help me to live a live of appreciation.

Mark 9:42-48 (New Living Translation)

42 “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’ NOTE: Verses 44 and 46 “are missing.” That is another topic for another day.

This is one paragraph on one topic (at least it seems that way to me on this day). This is about going to or traveling to sin. Don’t cause someone who trusts in God to travel to sin. God will remove whomever and whatever causes that doomed trip.

If I push someone on the trip to sin, God removes me. If a hand causes the trip to sin, remove it. The same with a foot or an eye. Whatever it is, remove it. Cut it off, gouge it out, rip it apart, hang an anchor around it and toss it into the depth of the sea. Be gone.

A little harsh, huh? Sorry. The path of sin is the wrong path. It is difficult enough to stay off that path. When some person or some thing nudges me towards that path of doom, be gone with it. The end.

Hebrews 5:11 (New Living Translation
11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.

The writer is trying to teach spiritual matters. There is a great struggle here because the audience is “spiritually dull.” I love that phrase.

Why are they “spiritually dull?” Because they don’t seem to listen. The words move through the air and tingle the sense of hearing, but the words “don’t sink in.”

What is “spiritually bright?” That phrase isn’t used here, but if some folks are dull, some folks are bright (maybe?). For the spiritually bright, the words go to their mind and their heart. They live the words and spread the words.

The dull? Well, maybe they are preoccupied. Something else is on their mind. They are worried. They are grieving. There are many real situations that prevent listening. Pray for those who aren’t listening. Ask that they are removed from the things that prevent listening. Ask that they have what they need so they can listen. And I also need to ask that I always listen as well.

Ezekiel 18:30 (New Living Translation)

30 “Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you!

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Ezekiel. Jehovah their God will judge them according to their actions.

Believe in God. Believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sins. And act according to those beliefs.

Some of us are physically unable to do some actions. Our bodies prevent some actions. Our resources prevent some actions. I don’t want to “split hairs” or “nit pick” on some words, but we can act. We can muster a smile. Even if our facial muscles are paralyzed, we can smile on the inside.

We can change the words we use. “I hate to ask you for this, but…” Don’t “hate” to ask. Ask with joy as you are about to bless another person by letting them show Jesus in their actions.

There are many folks around us who urgently need the simplest action to bless their life. Let us all act in the simplest way.

Hebrews 5:14 (New Living Translation)

14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

Some of us can recognize the difference between right and wrong. Let’s consider this. Those folks are (1) mature, (2) have been trained, and (3) have skill.

Note some of the things that are missing:

• comes from the right family
• has been around a long time
• highly education at college
• has lots of money
• dresses well

The list of things that are not mentioned could go on and on. Maturity can come with time, but it can also come quickly given some experiences in life. Training is not formal education. It can be “street smarts” or “country smart” or lots of other things. Skill? I view that as something developed and not taught. Skill could be lots of other things as well.

Some things are right; some things are wrong. Some of us have the maturity, training, and skill to recognize the difference. If you have those qualities, you also probably have the quality of not pushing right and wrong onto others, but working with them so that they too have those qualities.

Ezekiel 18:32 (New Living Translation)

32 I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Ezekiel. The people have a choice of life or death. God doesn’t want his created and cherished people to die. God doesn’t want me to die forever, either.

God encourages the people to turn 180 degrees. Change. Change direction in life and live. This is so simple. Go this way or go that way. Die or live. How can we manage to make this so complex?

“I want to veer a bit now and then and…” and “Things aren’t just black and white (this way or that way). Real life is shades of gray and lots of things and, and, and, and.”

“Why does God have to make it so plain? Why does God have to spell it out so simply? Can’t God see my point of view and understand me better?”

Sorry folks. Sorry to me. God is God and I am not. God sets the choices and God tells me what God wants. God wants me to avoid death and live.

Exodus 3:7 (New Living Translation)

7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.

This is part of the (hi)story of God bringing the people out of oppression in Egypt. God ends this statement with, “I am aware of their suffering.”

Stub your toe? God is aware. Gasping for breath after a heart attack? God is aware. Just watched you spouse die? God is aware.

But why the suffering? That is life in a sinful world. Sin brings suffering. I don’t like that, at all, but that is life in a sinful world.

And as we see with Moses and the people, God addresses the suffering. Uh, but God, 400 years of suffering? Couldn’t God have done something a little sooner, like after one weekend? God’s time is not my time. Okay, I understand that, until I am the one suffering, and then I don’t want to hear this, “a thousand years is like a day” stuff. I hurt now. I suffer now. Come on God, be aware and do something now.

There are parts of this life and my relationship with God that just don’t seem right. Sigh. I am not God—God is God.

Know that God is aware. God is next to me as I suffer.

John 3:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us…”

Let’s take these sentences apart:

1. Nicodemus is an educated Jewish religious leader.
2. Jesus is the son of an ignorant carpenter from a little nothing of a town.
3. Nicodemus calls this Jesus fella’ “Rabbi” or “teacher.”
4. Nicodemus admits that God sent Jesus to teach the religious leaders.

Well, items 3 and 4 don’t make any sense. But there we have it, right in front of us.

I cannot write about all the times in my life that some son or daughter of an uneducated nothing from nowhere taught me universal truths about this life and God. They are with me always.

Please, let’s be like Nicodemus. Let’s find a teacher and allow the teacher to teach. Let us look in the least likely places for these teachers.