Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

Here is one of those list of bad things that some people do. Let’s jump to the end of the “list of bad” and note the exhortation for me.

Stay away from people like that!

People who are constantly doing those things are not good for me. I guess we call this “desensitizing.” I become so accustomed to the bad around me that I do it without noticing that I am doing bad all the time.

Now comes the BUT. But, if I stay away from these people, how can I show them Jesus?

Now comes the age-old question: Are these sinners pushing me (a fellow sinner) away from God or am I (a fellow sinner) pulling these sinners towards God? The short version is, “Who is influencing whom?”

There are times and situations when I (a sinner) can pull the other sinners towards God. I believe that today in America is one of those times. Things are “bad,” but things aren’t that bad. The news media paints an ugly picture, but the news media needs viewers so they can sell ads so they can get a paycheck. They exaggerate.

Let’s go out there and pull others towrds God.

How? What do I do? Turn around all the bad things in the list above. It’s simple: love others, love people more than money, be humble, praise God, obey parents, be grateful, hold sacred things sacred, and so on. Let’s not make this more complicated than necessary.

Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Hebrews 2:16 (New Living Translation)

16 We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham.

Angels need help? They are angels. Yes, but they are not perfect, I guess. It seems from this sentence that angels could use some help.

Now comes the BUT. But Jesus did not come to earth the help those angels. Jesus came to help us folks—the descendants of Abraham.

(1) I read that to mean that us folks—especially me—need help. Not good news for me.

(2) I read that to mean, and here is the good part, that Jesus came to help me.

Let’s consider point (2). The Son of God came here to help me. I don’t have to “go it alone” or I am “not all by myself in this” or any other old saying that says I am on my own with no one to give me a hand. The Son of God is here to give me a hand.

Whoa. Let that settle in my mind and in my heart. Tough day? The Son of God is helping me. Bad circumstances? The Son of God is helping me. Everyone in the room against me? The Son of God is helping me. Those folks are wasting their time as they can’t overcome the help of the Son of God.

Please God, help me to realize this simple yet astounding statement.

Deuteronomy 2:25 (New Living Translation)

25 Beginning today I will make people throughout the earth terrified because of you. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble with dread and fear.

God is speaking to the people through Moses. God made the peoples who were in the way of God’s people terrified. Those poor folks will tremble with dread and fear.

Note, God can put thoughts in the minds of people.

“These aren’t the droids you are looking for,” is a famous line from a famous movie. A person put that thought into the minds of other persons. Viola’. A miracle.

That was just a movie. Moses is relaying real life that seems like a fairy tale, but it isn’t. In the ensuing years, people had the numbers and the defensive positions and all the physical advantages. Yet, they trembled with dread and fear and ran like they were full of dread and fear.

God put those thoughts in the minds of people.

Please God, help that other person to see a better way. Put thoughts of a righteous life in their minds. And please God, put those thoughts in my mind everyday as well.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New Living Translation)

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

Here is one of those lists we find in the Bible. These are bad things that people who are consumed with bad-ness do. Can’t argue with the list.

Wait, how did “ungrateful” get in there? I mean, the other things in the list are really bad. We have slander, cruelty, hate, betrayal, rejection of God, and so on. But ungrateful?

Consider that God’s relationship with us (with ME) is a gift. When someone gives me a gift, it is polite to say, “Thank you.”

No, it is not just polite, it is righteous. It is right in the sight of God. That fella’ behind the counter at Starbucks gives me a coffee after I gave him money. Thank you. Okay.

God sacrificed Jesus in humiliation so that I can be clean in the sight of God. Uh. Thank you. Okay simple, but let’s get serious and be grateful. Let us live in gratitude. Let us show gratitude all the time in all we do and with all the people we meet.

That sounds like a pretty good way to live.

Leviticus 16:17 (New Living Translation)

17 No one else is allowed inside the Tabernacle when Aaron enters it for the purification ceremony in the Most Holy Place. No one may enter until he comes out again after purifying himself, his family, and all the congregation of Israel, making them right with the Lord.

The words “purify” and “made right with God” appear half a dozen times in various forms in this chapter. The words describe animal sacrifices conducted by Priests at the Tabernacle.

These things can become complicated with lengthy descriptions of “do this exactly this way and do that exactly that way.” Things were messy—they brought in animals and slaughtered them. There was blood everywhere. It was something that we just don’t do and can’t really imagine.

And these horrible messy things purified people and made them right with God (for a while at least).

God sent the Son to earth to live with us sinners and be executed by sinners. There was blood everywhere. That was horrible and messy and worse than I can imagine. That happened one time and settled everything for all times. That purified us and made us right with God.

Me? I only need to accept it. Then I can live without all the filth that we have when we are not pure and right with God. No fun? That depends on the perspective. Is impurity fun? That depends on the perspective. Is being wrong with God no fun? I think it is. Let’s be right with God.

Titus 3:2 (English Standard Version)

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Yuck. What life. Hated by others and hating one another.

I sometimes ask young adults to experiment with something: For the next week, hate everyone you see. Look at them and hate them as hard as you can hate. Come back and report how your life was.

No one has yet to perform the experiment. Yet, many of us have lived this experiment for a day or a minute or a second. Yuck. What a life. This is a horrible, terrible, tragic life.

Nevertheless, Paul tells Titus that Paul once lived this way. It was foolish and he was a slave to passions passing his days in malice and envy. Remember, Paul used to hunt for people who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. Paul tracked them down and killed them. He was passionate about this pursuit of deadly execution. Gosh, that must have been a horrible life.

Paul goes on here with one of the biggest “BUTs” in the history of writing:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…

Oh my. How can we ever thank God for that? We don’t have to live like that anymore. We don’t have to hate and be hated. We are freed from that slavery. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Joshua 2:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 Then the two spies came down from the hill country, crossed the Jordan River, and reported to Joshua all that had happened to them. 24 “The Lord has given us the whole land,” they said, “for all the people in the land are terrified of us.”

The spies return. They report, “We have the logistics, the technology, and the manpower, the land is ours.”

Uh, er, well, no, that’s not what they said. Instead, “all the people in the land are terrified of us.”

Consider the events prior to that statement. Twelve men wandered around the land gathering fruit. Well, not so terrifying. Why were the people terrified? Because God caused them to be.

Whoa. God put terror in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people. That’s pretty powerful, huh?

I write this post today on the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Do you have some time to pray today? How about this one, “God, please put peace and tranquility in the minds of the soldiers on both sides. Fill them with compassion.”

And I guess we can pray that everyday about just about everyone in the world. That includes anyone we can think of who goes into tense and harmful situations. That means the fella’ who has a brick in his hand and sees an unbroken window owned the “them” as well as the policeman called to grab that fella’ who just broke a window and stole a pair of expensive Nike shoes. And that includes me as I walk into the office to learn that someone disapproved of my request to do something or other and I’m trying to find a way to get back and …

Pray for peace, love, compassion, and the many things we should all have everyday. God terrified the people of the land. God can put thoughts and feelings into everyone everyday. Let’s ask.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

What a list. It describes what people will do in the last days that will be very difficult times.

And who can argue with the acts in the list? My goodness.

Wait. In one of the early sentences is “disobedient to their parents.” Perhaps a mistake in translation or something. How does that rank down there with lovers of self, unloving, unforgiving, slander, cruel, hate, betrayal and all the other really bad things?

I mean, okay so we didn’t always obey our parents and we snuck around and fooled them (at least we thought we fooled them, ha!).

God wants us to respect those who have come before us. Not just love them—we are to love all, but respect and obey them. I often hear talk of, “When I was a kid, I was taught the wrong things at church and those older folks at church said one thing and did another and those older folks this and that and something else I didn’t like.”

Sorry. Wrong. Stop it. God puts that on this list. Go back in time and live the lives of those older folks and then judge them. Oh wait, I don’t have a time machine and a person transporting system or whatever it would take for me to go back and live their lives. And judging others is not my job. Hmmm.

Perhaps I should simply love, respect, and obey my predecessors in the faith. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Leviticus 18 (New Living Translation)

This post is a bit different as I am considering an entire chapter instead of one sentence.

There are many criticisms of the Bible by some women. Women are not worth as much as men in transactions. Women obey their father, then obey their husband. They don’t have a “mind of their own.” Women are to “be silent” in some circumstances where men are allowed to talk.

This chapter teaches an unprecedented respect for women. Something that sets God’s people apart from the world. In the world, men did as they wished with women if for no other reason than men were physically stronger than women and could simply “push them around.”

Note how so many of the verses in this chapter tell men NOT to do things to women. The subject here is sexual relations. All the DO NOTs are about men towards women (your mother, your father’s wives, your sister, your half sister, granddaughter, stepsister, father’s sister, mother’s sister, uncle’s wife, et al.). A man having sexual relations with these women was physically possible.

God says, “NO! Respect women. I created you able to act in a detestable manner. Many peoples on earth do these things. You will not. THIS ALL CHANGES NOW.”

Many people criticize Christianity as a “Thou shalt not” practice where we “can’t have any fun.” Well, this chapter is a lot of “Thou shalt not” with a message of “Thou shalt respect women, no matter what everyone else on earth is doing.”

Romans 5:17 (New Living Translation)

17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

As a kid, did you ever stay in bed on Christmas day because you were too tired to go to the Christmas tree and receive gifts? Probably not. I never did.

God tells us, “Here is the gift of righteousness. Here is the gift that allows you to be in God’s presence for eternity. Get out of bed and come receive it.”

“No, not today, God. I’m busy and tired and just can’t make it,” said many persons over the centuries.

Why do people respond like this? Here is one answer that I don’t like and is probably true far more often than I want to admit.

It is my fault. I misrepresent God in my life. I attach a lot of things to God’s gift that make it unappealing. I make people uncomfortable. I cloud the situation with a lot of stuff. I turn the gift into a contract. I… I… I… I… I could go on for quite a while.

I make a simple situation complicated. I cause other people to think and consider and weigh the alternatives and conform to my lifestyle and all sorts of things.

Please God, help me to keep the simplicity of your gift of grace simply your gift of grace and nothing else. Please help me to invite others into receiving the gift of righteousness.