Contemplative Bible Reading

Genesis 24:12 (New Living Translation)

“O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham…”

The person praying is a nameless servant of Abraham sent to find a wife for Isaac. (Consider that task for a while.)

It is not arrogant or selfish to ask God for success today. Why not?

And, the servant asks God to show unfailing love to his master. Have I ever prayed that God would show unfailing love to my boss? Ooops. Why not? How about unfailing love to my spouse? My children? My next door neighbor? I guess the list can grow longer.

I find it odd how these two items are next to one another in a prayer. That, however, shows once again the failings of my faith. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Philippians 1:17-18 (New Living Translation)

17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.

Motives matter. What is in the heart is often more important to God than what our limited physical bodies are able to accomplish. Here, however, we have a case where the motives don’t matter—at least don’t appear to matter as much.

Just tell people about Christ.

That is all. Imperfectly, with bad grammar, with slurred speech, walking one walk while talk a different talk. There are many ways to say the wrong thing about saying the right thing.

Some persons preach Christ from all the wrong reasons and all the wrong ways. “Doesn’t matter,” writes Paul. Rejoice as Christ is preached.

John 3:21 (New Living Translation)

But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

There are days when I want everyone to see what I am doing.

Arrogant? Boastful? Prideful?

Please pause a moment. I want people to see the actions, not the actor (pathetic me). I want people to see the actions that God leads me to do. Then they can consider me and ask, “How is it that T H A T fellow can do such a praiseworthy action?”

The answer is God living in and working through me. The answer is all about God.

The greatest compliment to receive?

WOW! God is amazing to be able to do that through you!

John 3:20 (New Living Translation)

All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

Question to ask (especially to ask myself):

• What are you (what am I) doing?

• Will that lead to something?

• Will that lead to something you (I) want?

• Do I want my actions exposed in the light of day? Really? Do I?

I usually do things with a goal in mind—something out there in the future that I want to hold in my hand or experience or someplace to be. What is that thing, experience, or place? What am I doing to reach it?

Enough question marks in the text. From time to time, I need to ask myself searching questions to expose in the light of God my life and actions. God knows them, but maybe I don’t. And maybe I don’t want anyone else to know that even though I try and even though I am covered by God’s grace, I fail much of the time.

I don’t consider myself to be “evil,” but I am human. There are days when I avoid the light or at least rooms lit where other people can see me. God? Well, he is the light and He sees me all the time. The grace is amazing.

Romans 8:15 (New Living Translation)

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

God gives spirit, and spirit lives in us all. What kind of spirit do I want living in me?

I can have a fearful-slave spirit. I don’t like the sound of that one. Even if I use the word “servant” instead of  “slave” … well, I still don’t like that one.

An alternative is the spirit of a member of the family. I can have the spirit that God gives to His children. Hmmm, child of God or fearful slave?

Why do I struggle so much with this decision? The choice seems obvious. Earlier Paul wrote something like “what a miserable wretch I am” to struggle with this choice. Yes, I guess that describes me on my lesser days. It doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t have to be that way.

John 3:19 (New Living Translation)

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

Funny thing about being in a well-lit place: I can see everything I am doing. And…everyone else can see everything I am doing.

Dark? That is different. In a dark room I struggle to see. I wouldn’t want to be using a sharp knife in the dark as I could hurt myself and anyone who happens to be standing near me.

Hmmm, dark and hurt seem to go together.

Still, there are those of us (and all of us some of the time) who like (love) the dark. Hurt? Yeah, maybe (probably), but there is so much fun to be had there. Of course that depends on what we consider “fun” and it is all subjective depending on me and the time and the mood and…gosh, this gets tricky quickly.

Need we use that word “evil” in this discussion. I mean, “evil” is just so…uh, evil. I mentioned that this gets tricky quickly. Perhaps I should spend more time in the well-lit room where I don’t hurt myself and everyone else so much. Yeah, that is the place to be. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

John 3:18 (New Living Translation)

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

Some translations use the word “condemnation” instead of “judgement.” That is because if God judges me alone, well, I’m condemned because me alone, well, enough said.

There is, however, me with Jesus Christ (the “him” in the above verse). That is a completely different me. Believing that this Jesus from Nazareth is the Son of God, the one anointed to take away the sins of the world—take away my sins—makes all the difference.

Pretty simple stuff. Amazing grace.

Romans 7:24 (New Living Translation)

…Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

The above words are preceded by “Oh, what a miserable person I am!” Such is life as a human being in this world. What did I do? How did I get here? And…

Who will free me from this life?

The answer comes next. The answer is pretty simple. Almost all of us know the answer whether we want to admit it or not. We struggle to accept the answer.

The answer is Jesus Christ.

Oh God, please help me in my unbelief.

Psalm 100:4-5 (New Living Translation)

… Give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Thank you God.

Perhaps I haven’t prayed that yet today. Perhaps I haven’t realized that yet today. I am, after all, human with all my human failings.

God’s love is unfailing and continues forever. My ancestors enjoyed it. My progeny will, too.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Romans 6:18 (New Living Translation)

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

I don’t like the use of “slavery” in Romans. In America, we often hear “slavery” and immediately stop thinking about what God is telling us and start thinking of American history, the Civil War, and all sorts of other things.

The Message paraphrase states this about like so…

All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

Let’s take this apart. Slave to sin means that sin is my master. There is, however, more. I CHOSE sin to be my master. Sin didn’t sneak up on me in the woods, konk me in the head, and take me captive. Hence, “slavery” doesn’t work in our culture.

I like The Message, “I’ve let sin tell me what to do.” I CHOSE to listen to sin. I CHOSE it as my master.

I have CHOSEN to follow God and have God be my master. That CHOICE lets me live openly (not sneaking about) and freely (I am not suffering horrible for my choices).