Contemplative Bible Reading

Hosea 13:6 (New Living Translation)

6 But when you had eaten and were satisfied,
you became proud and forgot me.

God is talking to the people through the prophet Hosea. God delivered the people through the desert—a dry and thirsty land. The people depended on God for daily sustenance. Once settled in a land with good agriculture and good food…

Food is good. Necessary for life. We eat to live. Sometimes we live to eat (not so good). The people described above turned away from God once they had good food to eat. They traded away God for a good meal.

How in the world could these people have been so bad? How could anyone trade away God for something so temporary as a good, tasty meal?

That silly little question is one of the bigger ones we can consider in our relationship with God. God gave us senses to enjoy the creation. And we let these senses pull us away from God. The “desires of the flesh” are described in several places in the Bible. Powerful stuff. Temporary stuff. Enticing stuff. The kind of stuff that has ruined countless lives.

God, thank you for the ability to enjoy all you have created. Let me not trade away You for the pleasures You have provided.

Galatians 1:9 (New Living Translation)

9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

Paul writes to Christians in Galatia a long time ago. If anyone preaches something other than the Good News of Jesus, don’t listen to them. Uh, not quite what he wrote. Let those preachers be cursed. Whoa. A bit harsh? What happened to gently correcting someone with love? Pretty rough.

Perhaps there has been something lost or added in translation. Perhaps not. (The New English Translation uses the phrase, “let him be condemned to hell!”) Pretty rough.

What is the harm in preaching something else? Much. I hear a lot of folks these days saying a lot of things other than the Good News of Jesus. Maybe they aren’t officially “preachers,” but they talk a lot and broadcast to the world and all that stuff. Let them be cursed or condemned to hell? Pretty rough.

Hosea 14:9 (New Living Translation)

9 Let those who are wise understand these things.
Let those with discernment listen carefully.
The paths of the Lord are true and right,
and righteous people live by walking in them.
But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.

When I was a child, someone read to me The Pilgrim’s Progress. This book was written in 1678. Folks understood the Bible even way back when. We aren’t the first to read the Bible and gain some understanding. The life of a Christian was described as walking from here to there. I have always liked that concept.

The above verse from the prophet Hosea amplifies that concept of walking along a path with and towards God. There is a path that the LORD walks. The righteous walk along that path, and it seems good to them. Some try that path, but stumble and fall. Those who stumble are carrying heavy and awkward loads that make walking almost impossible. If they would only drop those loads, they could walk the path.

I have days when I carry too much and carry an unbalanced load. All I have to do (yikes, never as easy as it sounds) is drop that load on the side of the path and walk towards God. Easier said that done? No, not really. I just like to think it is, sometimes. How does God put up with me? Thank God for grace.

Luke 1:8-9 (New Living Translation)

8 One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.

This was a big event. Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel spoke to him. He and his wife were to have a son by a miracle. We would call that son John the Baptist.

Why was Zechariah in the sanctuary? He was chosen by lot. We aren’t told what type of “lot” was used here. Pull the short straw? Cut the cards? Think of a number between 1 and 10? It was, however, a decision by lot. (Gambling? No. It is unfortunate that mankind took the custom of choosing by lot and turned it into a crime-ridden vice that ruins many lives.)

When appropriate, God intervenes in choosing by lot. God manipulated the lot on this day in this place so that Zechariah would be in the sanctuary and meet Gabriel the angel.

God was involved in a simple little thing like pulling straws.

Let us remember that. The simplest little things may be moved by the hand of God. The problems of our world and our nation are big and complicated. Does the hand of God move them? I know it can. I don’t know if God sees my problems as being big or important or whatever it is God uses to choose. I don’t understand all there is to understand about how God acts. I’m just not smart enough (a big understatement).

Still, God can cause a cup of milk to spill so that a parent can help the child with loving, gentle kindness so that the child knows that the parent loves them and will always care for them. So that the child will learn to love and how to show love. Just a little spilled milk. Pretty amazing. Thank you, God.

Hebrews 12:1 (New Living Translation)

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Before cutting the grass I take the gas can to the gas station and fill it. I buy oil for the lawn mower engine. I put the fluids in the lawn mower. I change clothes and make sure to wear the old shoes that are already stained green by freshly cut grass. I…

Simple. Prepare first. Take off the “dress clothes” (does anyone use that phrase any more?) that will slow me down and put on old work clothes. Remove the things that will hinder my efforts.

Living for God everyday. Prepare first and always be prepared. Toss off those things that slow me down. Stop hating. Stop envying. Put on love and patience. Now I am ready to run for God.

Caution: I can spend years and years and years stripping off every weight that slows me down. And I won’t run a step for God during those years. Nope. Strip off what I can today and run as much as I can today. Keep those weights off. Strip off more tomorrow. Strip off more right now and more in five minutes and more this afternoon and…

Please God, help me. I am running as fast as I can right now. Help me to keep stripping off weight every step of the way.

Psalm 19: 12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.

The writer is praying. I am only human and not all knowing. I don’t know what I am doing most of the time. Please God, help me with my faults.

I cannot be God. I cannot be completely free from sin. Thank you for your grace that cleanses me. Help me to live righteously.

Okay, maybe I can contemplate these few lines for another day or year. Then, perhaps, I will understand more. For now, please God, help me in my unbelief.

Luke 5:20 (New Living Translation)

20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

This is part of the (hi)story of the crippled man and his friends. We heard this one many times in Sunday School as kids. The men carried their crippled friend on a stretcher to Jesus to be healed. The crowd was too thick to reach Jesus. In a stroke of genius, the men carried their friend up to the roof where they cut a hole in the roof and lowered their friend to Jesus.

Wow. This is a great (hi)story that has been told a million times.

Jesus saw their faith. Not just the faith of the crippled man, but also the faith of his friends. They believed that if they did whatever was necessary to put their friend in front of Jesus their friend would be healed.

Can you imagine the love these friends had for the crippled man? They should have gone to jail for damaging someone’s house. And, oh by the way, this all happened on the Sabbath day. They were breaking the Sabbath laws by carrying their friend around. They were breaking the Sabbath laws by making a hole in the roof of a house. They were breaking the Sabbath laws on and on and on and on.

The faith of the crippled man and his friends was not just, “Belief in something we cannot see.” Their faith was the acts of carrying a man on a stretcher to wherever Jesus was, trying in vain to penetrate the crowds, climbing on the roof with a stretcher (that’s not easy), digging a hole in the roof, and lowering their friend to Jesus. That is a lot of actions that go along with believing in the power of Jesus.

That is belief plus action. That is active faith.

Sit on the couch and say, “I believe.” Well, maybe and that is a long discussion for another day.

Say, “I believe,” and then do whatever I can. That is what we see in this (hi)story. Keep telling it to kids in Sunday School. Live it as well.

Isaiah 43:10 (New Living Translation)

10 “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord.
“You are my servant.
You have been chosen to know me, believe in me,
and understand that I alone am God.
There is no other God—
there never has been, and there never will be.

This one is pretty simple. The implications are far reaching and significant, but the statement is pretty simple. Jehovah God, the Creator is the only God. There is no other—never has been another and never will be another.

Okay, we got that? Only one God in the past, present, and future. Settled.

So now what? Well, I can’t be God. I need to toss out that idea and stop trying to be God. Rats. No, that is quite a relief. I don’t have that burden or responsibility.

Let’s see, does God tell me what I need to know? Yes. It’s all in front of me in umpty-umpteen different English translations and translations into a few hundred other languages. Just read it. Be right with God. Love God. Love each other. Don’t do things that hurt my body. Well, that’s pretty simple.

It appears that this one God for now and evermore is quite a relief. The guidance isn’t changing. Right is right and wrong is wrong and all the right is meant for my well being. Now, how can I mess this up? Let me count the ways. No, let me focus on the one and only.

Job 33:14-18 (New Living Translation)

14 For God speaks again and again,
though people do not recognize it.
15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they lie in their beds.
16 He whispers in their ears
and terrifies them with warnings.
17 He makes them turn from doing wrong;
he keeps them from pride.
18 He protects them from the grave,
from crossing over the river of death.

This is a wonderful promise from God. God speaks to use again and again. My trouble is that I don’t always recognize the voice of God and heed God’s protective advice.

God speaks in dreams. My dreams are often crazy and mixed up and disturbing. I don’t want to listen.

Still, God whispers to me. God warns me and keeps me from wrong. And sometimes God tells me, “You aren’t so great. Calm down and quietly do what is right.” Sometimes, thankfully, I listen.

I believe God speaks to me in the song of tiny birds in high tree limbs and the low cry of a newborn child. God speaks to me in the smile of the young child sitting across Starbucks. “Things will be okay,” God tells me. “Trust Me,” God reminds me. “Breathe.”

Please God, help me to be still and listen. Let me not forsake your voice and the promise of your voice. Thank you for that and countless other blessings.

Psalm 5:9-10 (Christian Standard Bible)

9 For there is nothing reliable in what they say;
destruction is within them;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongues.
10 Punish them, God;
let them fall by their own schemes.
Drive them out because of their many crimes,
for they rebel against you.

The writer is asking God to help battle those who battle against the people of God. Those foes lie constantly. Please God, the Psalmist writes, punish them.

God did and will continue to punish those who behave this way. My problem—yes, I always seem to have a problem with these things—is that God doesn’t always operate at the time I want. Seems that God almost never operates at the time I want. Seems God knows better then me. I try to pause and think about that one.

I know that God prevails. I know that God works for those who love God. I just wish God would do those things on my timetable. There always seems to be a lag in time in what I want and what God does. I am impatient. I am not wise. God is patient and wise. In those all-too-few moments of clarity, I realize that God’s patience and wisdom are much better than mine and are always appropriate.

Deep sigh. Please God, help me in my unbelief. Give me patience and wisdom, and allow me to see your patience and wisdom.