Contemplative Bible Reading

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.

Exodus 3:1 (New Living Translation)

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro…

These words begin the (hi)story of God bringing the people out of slavery in Egypt and into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It all started “one day.”

It was just another day for Moses—once a prince in Egypt, but now just a sheep herder in some backwater nowhere—as he was tending livestock. And these weren’t his livestock. Moses didn’t have any livestock. And these weren’t the livestock of his family. These animals belonged to his father-in-law. How mundane can this be? Awful.

But one day… the world changed.

I am typing these words while riding in a car one day on an Interstate highway. Just another “one day” in a life full of them. Perhaps this is the day that God has me do something with someone else that changes the world for that someone else. Perhaps this is one of many days that God has me do something with someone else that changes the world for that someone else.

After all, today is one day. Burning bush? Probably not. Chat with the checkout person at a gas station? Maybe or probably.

John 2:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.

One week ago I attended a wedding. One of my nieces married. It was fun. There was much happiness and celebration. It was like Jesus and his disciples. They were invited to the celebration. They attended. They didn’t beg off to watch a college football game (who schedules a wedding on a Saturday during the college football season?). They celebrated.

If Jesus and his disciples had the time to celebrate with others, so do I. Please, take the opportunity to celebrate. Jesus did.

1 Timothy 4:7 (New Living Translation)

7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.

Paul is providing advice to a younger evangelist named Timothy. A few sentences earlier, Paul mentions how there will be people teaching things that are not from God but are from demons and deceptive spirits.

People will want to discuss these godless ideas. “What about this? What about that? Tell me! Don’t change the subject!”

Well, yes, change the subject. These other ideas, that’s not the point. Jesus is the point. Some of the other discussions can be interesting. Some have a direct, short-term affect on lives. In those ways, some of the ideas are important. They, however, are not the more important. Jesus is the more important.

“But this is a life-and-death issue! We must discuss this!”

Well, maybe. Jesus, however, is greater than life and death. With Jesus, we die to this world and live to Jesus. Yes, that is a bit esoteric or something that doesn’t seem to affect me this morning while sipping coffee and typing words on a keyboard. And sometimes thinking about such ideas is so big and difficult that I get a headache. Yet, that idea is true. That idea is worth the time, effort, and heart to discuss.

Please God, help me train to be Godly.

Ezekiel 18:31 (New Living Translation)

31 Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel?

There is a sermon in every phrase in this sentence.

Let’s consider the second phrase and a new heart. “The heart” are the words we use to describe how we feel about something. I like this. I don’t like that. I really like this thing over here. I really, really don’t like that thing over there. We tend to move towards what we like and away from what we dislike. Nothing new here.

We should find ourselves a new heart. God implores the people to do so. Have a new heart. The new heart loves the things God wants the people to love. The new heart dislikes the things God wants the people to dislike. That is a righteous heart: one that feels about things the way God feels about things.

The new heart:

• Pushes me away from hating people
• Pushes me towards caring and acting from that care towards people
• Pushes me away from believing that things have spiritual power
• Pushes me towards believing that God can do things that make no sense and defy all the laws of observed science

I guess I could go on and on with what a new heart causes me to do. Just run through the ten commandments and I can find 20 things the new heart causes me to do. Walk through the teachings of Jesus and find hundreds of things that a new heart causes me to do.

This is quite simple. This is impossible to do without God. Please God, help me in my unbelief.