Contemplative Bible Reading

Genesis 41:16 (New Living Translation)

16 “It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

Joseph was talking to Pharaoh. We read earlier that Pharaoh was “very disturbed by the dreams.” He was so disturbed that on the advice of a household servant he demanded that some foreigner who had been in prison 13 years be brought to him immediately. After a shower and shave, here is Joseph.

This is Joseph’s big chance to get out of jail and live the fine life. What does Joseph say? “Me? Can’t do a thing, but God can set you at ease.”

Come on Joseph. You don’t need to be so candid. Seize the moment. Take the credit. Gosh.

God can:

1. Interpret dreams
2. Set you at ease

Let’s focus on the second miracle (I believe they are both miraculous). Many times we learn from the Bible that God grants peace of mind and peace of heart and relief from the worry and angst we suffer. Telling this one man what his dreams meant would set his mind at ease. The problems would not go away (the famine came), but the worry would. The problem became known; the problem solvers and project managers went to work. All was not well, but all was settled.

Pharaoh’s mind was at ease.

Heaven. No worry. Peace of mind. They are all part of the same thing.

Yes, we have terrible days here on earth. Sickness, death, debt, and worse. Promise of better. Peace of mind and heart. Thank you God.

Romans 10:3 (New Living Translation)

For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

God has a way of making people right with God. Some of us have our way of making us right with God.

Ego? Maybe. We just have to be smart enough to create something of our own instead of using something provided to us.

Rebellious? Maybe. I don’t like your way. I have my own way.

Self-centered? Maybe. I have this under control. I have my way. I keep saying “I” and “me” and “my” instead of “God.”

I like to be God. I like to “call the shots” or say “what’s what” or some silly expression like those. Poor pathetic me. When will I realize once and for all that God is God and I am not? At least I am not alone as this seems to have been happening for a few thousand years. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Hebrews 3:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

Hebrews 3:12-13 (English Standard Version)

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

I am posting two translations today. I focus on the first verb in verse 13. One translation says “warn each other every day” while the other says “exhort one another every day.”

I like the word “exhort.” When I was a child, an acquaintance published a newsletter call “The Exhorter.” That was a good news about those who preached the good news newsletter. I’ve had a fondness for that word ever since.

These sentences above tell us that each day each of us is confronted with sin and temptation in one form or another. These temptations are different for each of us. Some of us laugh at how “easy” and “little” the temptations given to other folks are when compared to what is pushed in my face. I have it tougher, you know (probably not).

Regardless of the size of the temptation, each is confronted daily. And as fellow followers of Christ, each of us should warn each of us about these temptations. Each of us should encourage and exhort each of us to stay closer to Christ and move farther from the sin that entices.

Good grief. Does this following Christ ever get easy or at least easier? Why can’t we just coast a little for a while? Sorry. The deceitfulness of sin is there all the time. It is in our faces every day.

So, we had exhorting or warning to our list of daily duties as a loving follower of Christ. Please God, help me to meet this challenge.

Acts 5:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them.

Miracles everyday. Inspiration from the good news of salvation everyday. People meeting everyday, well believers meeting everyday. Those meeting were held in high regard by all the community because of the righteous nature of their lives.

Yet, no on else—no non-believers—dared to join them.

I can speculate all day about why no one else came by and stayed for a while to listen. Later sentences tell us that people were added to the believers every day. Someone was listening or joining or visiting or something. Still, we are told here that no one dared to join them.

Fear is powerful. The unknown brings a strong form of fear. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps it was that simple. Here was something new and something that no one could explain. The ill were healed if the shadow of Peter fell on them. That is crazy. No one could explain that.

What is keeping non-believers from stopping by and spending a little time with believers? I should learn. I should remove the barriers. We should not have a church where no one else dared to join.

Mark 8:1-2 (New Living Translation)

Jesus called his disciples and told them, 2 “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.

Jesus had been speaking to the lost. He spoke, they listened, and many changed their lives. And what does Jesus say to his closest followers?

They have nothing left to eat.

Here we go again. This is another occasion when Jesus doesn’t seem to know how to act. He is delivering a discourse on the grand scheme of salvation and he concludes with … well, let’s eat lunch or something like that. He notices that these folks don’t have any lunch and it is lunch time. How can you have a dinner on the grounds without any food?

Food is necessary for life. God created food and us that way. We burn energy, we need food to replace that. Still, when compared to a lesson on salvation from the Son of God, who can think about food? The Son of God does.

We are physical beings. If we are to love one another as Jesus encouraged us to do, we are to love one another as physical beings. We are to provide food, clothing, and shelter to one another. Basic needs. Basic response. Basic love.

Please God, help me to always pay attention to what Jesus did. Help me to provide basic human needs as a show of Godly love to one another.

2 Corinthians 8:5 (New Living Translation)

5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

This is from a letter that Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth. He is relaying what some Christians in Macedonia had done. This chapter is often used to exhort Christians today to give money to further the work of Christians in the world.

Their first gift, however, was not money. They first gave themselves to God. Next, they gave themselves to Paul and his fellow missionaries.

The first gift a follower of Christ gives is themselves. We give our lives to God. Then we do all that other stuff. Too bad we seem to focus on all that other stuff. We forget what the first and greatest gift the person gave. We lose the appreciation of that gift. Someone walks into a church building Sunday after Sunday as evidence of that first gift, and we don’t see that for what it is.

Sure, I want other Christians to “do a lot more.” There is a time and place to discuss “a lot more.” First, however, recognize that first gift. Then we move to other stuff.

John 7:25-26 (New Living Translation)

25 Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him.

Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Festival of Shelters. At first, Jesus was quiet and remaining “secret.” Later, Jesus stood in the temple and taught people. The people were amazed.

Some of the people knew that the religious leaders in Jerusalem didn’t like Jesus (putting it mildly). These leaders basically created an arrest warrant with a death sentence for Jesus—serious stuff. In these verses, the people are surprised because here is Jesus right in plain sight in front of everyone doing exactly what He was told NOT to do. Where were the leaders? Where was the arrest? Come on, let’s have some action here!

Nothing.

Why not? Fear? Fear of what? The political situation in Palestine and Jerusalem was complicated. No kidding. The Romans ruled—absolutely. The Romans could burn the city to the ground and kill everyone. The Romans were playing a complex set of circumstances to maximize profit. They allowed the Jews this and that so that the Jews would cooperate enough in just the right ways. The Jewish leaders understood all this. They pushed the Romans as hard as they could to obtain as much as they could without pushing too much and being squashed. This ebbed and flowed daily.

Here was this Jesus from up north. People followed Jesus and listened to Jesus much more than they listened to the official religious leaders. Killing Jesus would upset the crowds which would cause trouble with the Romans which might lead to … all sorts of bad stuff.

And the religious leaders were smart fellas’. They could see something in Jesus. Maybe Jesus was from God. They liked that idea and at the same time hated the idea.

These leaders feared the situation. These leaders felt inadequate in the face of Jesus. They plotted politics.

The answer was right in front of them. Turn to God. Trust in God. Let God take care of their fears.

Oh, wait, that is exactly what I should be doing today. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Luke 7:2 (New Living Translation)

2 At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death.

Jesus healed the slave of a Roman officer. Jesus then praised the faith of this non-Jew and contrasted it to the lack of faith of so many Jews.

Uh, wait, this was a slave. Maybe there is something in the translation that is lost here. A slave? Surely Jesus would not in the slightest manner endorse slavery by not demanding that the Roman officer be condemned for having a slave or demanding the slave be freed or demanding this or that or whatever Jesus would demand to ensure we know that slavery was wrong.

Again, maybe something has been lost in the translation. Maybe we are not told the entire story of what the Roman officer did later. Maybe this and maybe that and maybe something else.

We are told that Jesus healed the slave of a Roman officer. This is one of those (hi)stories about Jesus where He just didn’t seem to know how to act. A good Jew wouldn’t have anything to do with a an officer of an occupying army. A good Jew wouldn’t have anything to do with slavery. A good Jew wouldn’t (surely we can find some other things a person who knew how to act would or would not do here).

But here we have Jesus relieving suffering first. Other things would come later. Hmmm. Pretty good example for me. Relieve suffering first, now, here. Creating systems to solve the world’s systemic problems can come later.

Mark 6:30 (New Living Translation)

The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.

At one point, Jesus sent out pairs of people to tell everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God (verse 12). Later, these people returned to Jesus and told him what they had done and taught. This translation of this sentence called it a “ministry tour.”

I guess we call these “mission trips” in some circles today. I guess. And what do we tell the folks we meet on these “mission trips?”

There was a simple message in the time of Jesus: don’t do the same old sins; turn to God instead.

Well, uh, see, we don’t like to talk about “the same old sins.” Put down that alcohol. Don’t clench that fist. Stop cheating those who don’t realize what you are doing. The list is long. The list can be too specific for my liking. Sooner or later the list will include my sins.

Still, this is what these people did on this ministry tour. It is my guess that the folks they met liked being healed of illness. I am not so sure about the “repent of your sins” part. I am not sure about the “turn to God” part, either.

The message remains the same many centuries later. Turn to God. Toss aside the old sins. We don’t need those sins. They don’t do us any good. Just move towards God everyday.

Simple. Somehow we make these things complicated.

Matthew 6:1 (New Living Translation)

“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

I have been writing this blog for 13 years. (13x2x52 = 1,352 posts) There, have I just done a good deed publicly and lost my reward from my Father in heaven?

My father was a minister of the Gospel all his adult life. He stood in pulpits and proclaimed the good news publicly. Did he do his good deeds in public and lose his reward from his Father in heaven?

The Shriners build hospitals for children. Those deeds are in public. Same question for them.

Or is there something else here?

It is easy to read too much or too little into this and the following verses. Where is the line? Is there a line? What other questions can I write for which I have no answers?

Answers? Try this: love God; love the folks around me, and do what I can.