Contemplative Bible Reading

2 John verse 4 (New Living Translation)

How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.

John addresses his letter to “the chosen lady and her children.” I don’t know who “the chosen lady” is. Did this lady have a big bunch of children—biologically? Maybe, but I believe this is addressing the descendants in the truth, in Jesus.

I have biological parents and grandparents who lived in the truth. They taught me much and I owe much “religious capital” to them (I think I just invented a term that may be silly). I have also experienced the benefit of many ancestors in the truth. They also taught and showed me much.

I find this to be some of the great blessings in God: the ability to inherit the truth from some and pass it along to others. In some sense, that is arrogant. My earthly father didn’t give me the grace of God; God gave it to me. In another sense, that is humble. The grace of God is right there in front of me; it always has been. Sometimes, however, I failed to see it.

God’s grace included a few persons who pointed me to God’s grace. Thank you, God.

2 John verses 1-2 (New Living Translation)

I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth— 2 because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever.

I struggle with the concept at the heart of these verses. I believe “the truth” here is Jesus. Followers of Jesus love one another in Jesus. We do so because Jesus lives in us and will be with us forever.

What is truth? Will someone please put that on paper for me so I can always point to it? Truth is the Word. The Word is a person. Let’s see…truth = word = Jesus. Again, that doesn’t make sense to me. How can a person be … ?

Maybe one day it will come together for me. At this time, I believe I am best served to let God be God and understand these things while I am satisfied to not be God and not understand everything about God. Still, I want… Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Numbers 1:50-51 (New Living Translation)

50 Put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant, along with all its furnishings and equipment. They must carry the Tabernacle and all its furnishings as you travel, and they must take care of it and camp around it. 51 Whenever it is time for the Tabernacle to move, the Levites will take it down. And when it is time to stop, they will set it up again. But any unauthorized person who goes too near the Tabernacle must be put to death.

In the preceding verses, God has the people list all the men 20 years and older who can go to war. God does not put the tribe of Levi in that list of soldiers in the Lord’s army. Instead, the Levites are to care for the Tabernacle and all that goes with it. They must “take care of it.”

Note that last part of verse 50: if unauthorized persons approach the Tabernacle, the Levites will execute them.

Whoa! Execute them? Really? Really. This is serious. There is a message here.

Treat God in a manner which you don’t treat anything else.

This is not a game. This is not folly. This emphasizes the life-and-death nature of man’s relationship to God.

This also emphasizes the grace of Jesus Christ given to me. I can approach buildings and structures without fear of death from God. The physical is important—let us always appreciate the physical needs of our fellow man. The spiritual, however, is paramount. Let me never take it lightly.

Deuteronomy 12:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 There you will bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your herds and flocks. 7 There you and your families will feast in the presence of the Lord your God, and you will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the Lord your God has blessed you.

The theme of verse 6: offering, i.e., give.

The theme of verse 7: rejoice.

Hmmm, there must be some mistake here by putting these two next to one another. Right? Wrong. Let us rejoice in what we offer to the Lord and to our fellow man. Somehow, we seem to do this wrong—repeatedly. God, help me in my unbelief.

Colossians 3:5 (English Standard Version)

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Watch out for the last phrase of this verse: covetousness which is idolatry.

I sure like that fellas’ car. I sure like that fellas’ vacation plans. Innocent enough, right? Perhaps. Perhaps I like that fellas’ stuff a bit too much. Perhaps I covet it a bit too much. Perhaps I start to live for what that other fella has and it becomes the aim of my life.

Now that fellas’ stuff has become an idol that I worship.

Easy enough, huh? Lord, help me in my unbelief.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (New Living Translation)

Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

God had given his people manna for 40 years. That was the food that sustained them in a desert where there was no food, let alone enough to feed a million mouths.

How did God describe this food? “every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

We live by God’s revelation to us. Food, shelter, health—they are all mere adornments to the words of God. What God speaks, that is what holds us and everything together.

Simple idea. Almost impossible to fully understand. Even more difficult to accept enough to make it the center of my life. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Colossians 2:6 (English Standard Version)

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him

Walk in Him. Wade in Him. Live in Him.

There is an all-too-popular phrase bouncing about “make room for God.” I strongly disagree. I believe this verse strongly disagrees. We walk in Jesus. We live in him all the time, and He lives in us all the time.

There is no “little room” we create in our lives to put God when we want him and keep Him there at all other times.

Walk in Him. There is not substitute.

Deuteronomy 1:20-23 (New Living Translation)

20 I said to you, ‘You have now reached the hill country of the Amorites that the Lord our God is giving us. 21 Look! He has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be discouraged!’

22 “But you all came to me and said, ‘First, let’s send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.’

23 “This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes.

God’s people reach the land He has promised. It is time to enter. But wait…(why does it seem that something bad is about to happen whenever we pause God’s time?), the people think it is best to send scouts ahead to explore God’s land. As if God would promise them a land that was a bit defective or something like a used car that had a fresh paint job.

Verse 23 is the clincher: the people’s idea seemed like a good one. Boy, if ever that was foreshadowing something bad. The result was 40 years of wasting time until everyone of age had died in the desert.

Why is it that we use the wonderful minds that God has given us to come up with our own bad ideas that seem like good ideas? Can we simply move forward when God puts a promise right in front of us?

Deuteronomy 28:28 (English Standard Version)

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind

In this section of the second giving of the law, God’s people are warned of the curses that will come from disobedience. This one strikes home–confusion of mind. My mother, following in the footsteps of her father and two older sisters and leading the way for her younger sister, suffered horribly with confusion of mind.

Read this section of Deuteronomy. The curses are horrible for the nation and all the persons around them. This curse, however, is personal. A person, once vibrant and capable, will be reduced to wondering where they are and who is standing next to them—often a spouse, child, or lifelong friend.

Confusion of mind is a horrible curse. My mother and her relatives didn’t suffer it from disobedience to God under the Old Law. Still, they lived as examples of the horrible curses God’s people suffered from disobedience.

Hell on earth? Maybe. Something to be avoided. And something that brings to mind what should be daily thankfulness from me for the grace of God and the sacrifice of His Son.

Genesis 37:26-27 (English Standard Version)

26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,…

Joseph’s brothers had him! They muscled him into a pit and were trying to decide how to murder him. Evil? What were they thinking?

Judah gets a brilliant idea. If we are to commit unbelievable immorality, why not make some money? Sure. This is great. Let’s profit from …

What were they thinking? Note how evil takes over and leads a group of otherwise good men into … I don’t even know what to call it. They let evil leap from one thing to the next.

It is horrible how our minds—a great gift from God—can take us down a path of refuse. Me? Today? No, I don’t try to sell my brother for pocket change. Where, however, does my mind take me on those days? God, please keep me from those days. Please keep my mind in the right place and heading in the right direction.