Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 2:28 (New Living Translation)

So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!

Jesus said this about Himself. Most of those listening weren’t happy to hear it. It was blasphemy! This was not a joke. These people were learned and serious, and they came to the correct conclusion given what they knew.

Let’s back up a few steps and consider this.

The Sabbath was (and I believe still is) God’s gift to man. The Sabbath—a time of rest—granted relief from the toils and suffering of life. It lifted the burden of this world from the shoulders of each of us.

Now let’s consider Jesus the one anointed to take away the sins of the world. Jesus is a gift from God that grants relief from the toils and suffering of this sinful life. Jesus lifts the burdens of this world from the shoulders of each of us.

Now let’s toss in some big words: Jesus is the personification of the Sabbath. Jesus is the embodiment of the Sabbath. Jesus is the gift from God that eases our suffering. Jesus is the foremost gift, the supreme gift, the lord of the gifts. Jesus is lord of the Sabbath.

Thank you God.

Mark 2:27 (New Living Translation)

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a gift from God (note, I didn’t write WAS a gift from God). God granted man rest one-seventh of the time. God made man; God knows man can only function in a healthy manner six-sevenths of the time. God asked that we rest our resources (land, animals, persons in our employ, etc.) one-seventh of the time.

The Sabbath is not a chore from God.

We tend to do this. We take something with an original purpose and one little dotting-of-the-i and crossing-of-the-t at a time we change it the other way around. The Sabbath had become a chore. There was long list of things that could not be done on the Sabbath. Hence, people worked extra hard on the day before the Sabbath to be able to get through the Sabbath. People worked extra hard on the day after the Sabbath for the same reason. Sigh. We turned a gift into a chore. Rest became extra work.

This was all done with the best of intentions by the best people. Sigh.

God, help me to understand the original intent. Help me to understand what you want for me. Help me to accept Your gift and not work on my own to make it MY thing. Help me to accept You as God…and me as me.

Ephesians 5:8-9 (New Living Translation)

8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

One of the gifts of God to us is often called “light.” Some would say this is the Holy Spirit. I won’t argue with that.

Forget the past. Now, we have this gift from God. And—here is one of the good parts—that gift produces ONLY WHAT IS good and right and true. The ability to do what is good and right and true is in me.

What do I have to do? GET OUT OF THE WAY! Let the good and right and true come out. What is that so hard? God, help me with my unbelief.

Ephesians 1:18 (New Living Translation)

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

One of the discussions Christians have is whether Christianity is about what is in the heart, what we feel, versus what is in the mind, what we understand. This is the classic either-or argument.

Versus like the above refute the either-or argument and show that Christianity is a both-and situation—both feel and understanding. The writer wants our hearts to be flooded so that our minds will understand.

“How does that work?” my only answer is, “well.”

The heart and the mind, at least the way we or I understand them, work together all the time. That is the way God made us. That is how God approaches us. Let us stop fighting God’s creation and accept it—a little more each day.

Ephesians 5:15 ) New Living Translation

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.

This is pretty straightforward. How should I live? Like the wise, not like the fools. And the preceding verses tell me that God has given me everything I need to live like the wise.

So why do I… Well, better left unwritten the frequent folly in my life.

God, please help me in my unbelief.

Ephesians 1:8 (New Living Translation)

He (God) has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

God didn’t give me some wisdom or some understanding. Perhaps I am taking this too literally, but it seems to indicate that God has given me, and plenty of other folks, A L L wisdom and understanding.

Whoa! That’s pretty cool (how’s that for understanding the English language? Huh?).

There are several ways to take this little blog post. One is, “I’m okay with God giving ME all this wisdom and understanding. It’s too bad He didn’t give some of it to a few people I know!”

Sorry, He gave it all to them as well. Oh, uh, well, uh, perhaps I should extend some of those showers of kindness (also in the verse above) to others. My receipt of W&U isn’t unique.

Another way to take this is, “Thank you God for giving all these other folks the W&U. I can now turn to all of them for help when I need it.”

Another take is, “God, thank you for the blessings. Help me in my unbelief.”

1 Kings 20:28-30 (New Living Translation)

28 Then the man of God went to the king of Israel and said, “This is what the Lord says: The Arameans have said, ‘The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the plains.’ So I will defeat this vast army for you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

29 The two armies camped opposite each other for seven days, and on the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed 100,000 Aramean foot soldiers in one day. 30 The rest fled into the town of Aphek, but the wall fell on them and killed another 27,000. Ben-hadad fled into the town and hid in a secret room.

The Arameans poked fun at Jehovah God. “He is powerful in the hills, but we can whip Him on the plains.” 127,000 Arameans died in battle in one day. That is one of the worst days in the history of mankind. It is difficult to imagine such today with the horribly powerful weapons we have.

We live in the age of grace. God doesn’t wipe out 127,000 of us in a day for telling stupid jokes about Him or just plain trying to pretend He doesn’t exist. We are blessed beyond belief. I am blessed beyond belief. God, please help me remember that everyday. Every hour. Every breathe I take.

1 Kings 18:27 (New Living Translation)

About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

Not quite.

Note how Elijah describes the false god Baal. Baal perhaps is sitting on the toilet daydreaming or fell asleep and need a wake up call. Hmm. Some god. People talked about gods that way in the day of Elijah. Sometimes people talk about gods in that way today.

The gods are basically human, like us. On top of that, or under that, the gods are pretty crummy humans—in the bathroom or napping on the couch. Not much of a god. Not much to get excited about.

God’s people didn’t talk about Him that way. The nations around God’s people didn’t talk about Him that way, either. How do we consider God today? How do I consider God?

Ephesians 1:3, 8 (New Living Translation)

3 All praise to God…8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

I find these three gifts astonishing. What else do I need to live in Christ Jesus? God didn’t just give me these things, He S H O W E R E D me with them. He poured a 55-gallon drum full of these things on my head just to be sure I caught a little of them.

These are in me. This verse tells me so. Now, if I could manage each day to get out of the way and let them flow from the bottomless well in which they dwell.

I know, I understand, I am kind in my use of these two. Please God, let me each day live with what you have given me and spread Your blessings to everyone and everything.

1 Corinthians 2:12 (New Living Translation)

And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

Here is one of the reasons God gives us His Spirit: so we can know the wonderful things he has given us. In a sense, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a meta-gift, i.e., a gift about a gift. That gift helps us to notice all the other gifts. That sort of goes around in a circle or something like that.

Lesson for me (a believer who sometimes struggles to believe): Not noticing God’s gifts today? Push the world’s spirit out of the way and let God’s Spirit take over.

Please God, help me with my unbelief.