Seventy Times Seven

 

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven….” 

 

Matthew 18:21-22

Seventy times seven is a lot of forgiveness.  And, that is what we need to do to have peace in our lives – forgive.  When we carry grudges around, we are the ones who suffer mental anguish and stomach aches, not the ones who have offended us.  They go blissfully on their way unaware or uncaring that we are suffering. 

We may try to discuss the problem with our offender, but that may not bring the apology we want.  They may laugh it off or not care.  If that's the case, we don’t even need to tell them that we forgive them, but we need to tell ourselves that we forgive them.  Once we do this, it puts the matter to rest and we can move on unencumbered. 

Forgive and feel the peace.

The Kingdom of God Belongs To Children

And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. 

But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”

And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Mark 10:13-16 

One of the signs that a church is alive is the presence of children.  And, sadly many churches have few, if any, children.  It is not because there are no children, it is because their parents never went to church as children and still do not go to church.  This stems from parents in the 1970's not taking their children to church because they wanted them to have the freedom to decide what spiritual course they would take when they grew up without undue influence.  

Then parents were surprised when the children decided to be nothing.  This sounds far fetched, but I witnessed this phenomenon as an adult student in college where I and the instructor were the only ones in the class that had ever been to church. 

All this flies in the face of what Jesus said about children.  

So, what is the answer?  Well, I think we can take time to pickup our kids friends and take them to church with us, so that they can have the opportunity to learn about the church and it's ministries.   Then when they grow up, they will have something to base their decisions on and hopefully it will be to accept Jesus.

Remember, Jesus said the Kingdom of God belongs to children.   

Never Shaken

Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; 

He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

Psalm 55:22

The promises of God are many, and this is one of my favorites.

How often do we face the unknown with fear in our hearts?  Left to our own devices we cannot see our way clear to a reasonable solution, but when we call on God for help, He sends it.

We may be able to think through a solution or God may send someone to advise us as to what we should do.  

In all things, God promises we will not be shaken but will triumph.  

And, for this we are grateful.  

 

Prepare For Your Journey

And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits; and He instructed them that they were to take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—  but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not wear two tunics.”  

And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.”  

And they went out and preached that people are to repent. And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

Mark 6:7-13

When Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs to preach, He instructed them not to load themselves up with things they did not need, because God would provide for their daily needs.  

We know that this was a simpler time and many people only possessed one change of clothing or even only the clothes they were wearing.  

When the disciples came to minister, they were like those who they ministered to in that they did not show any possessions more than a few necessities.  

As we minister to others we can take this into consideration that we should not appear flashy with expensive clothing or eating expensive meals, but rather live humbly so that people will not be distracted by our worldly possessions, but will hear the message of the Gospel.

And, we can also heed Jesus' words that if we are not received to move on, knowing that perhaps another will come after us preaching the Word and it will be received.

Prepare for your journey. 

An Anchor Of The Soul

 

In this same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:17-20

The hope set before us is that we too shall not sleep, but shall rise to meet God in heaven.  God fulfilled His promise to make a way for all people when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die once and for all sinful men and women.  This being done, all that is left to us is to receive this great gift of salvation and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord, Master and Savior. 

And, this hope is an anchor of the soul.

A Strong Foundation

 “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?  Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when there was a flood, the river burst against that house and yet it could not shake it, because it had been well built.  But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; and the river burst against it and it immediately collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” 

Luke 6:46-49 

Jesus tells us that we not only need to know what the Bible says about how we should live but that we should also live it.  That means we need to consider the long term consequences of our actions.

If we say we are Christians, and act in a less than Christian manner, then we are in danger because we cannot continue in sin without being found out and that will destroy our witness as Christians.

Remember, weigh you motives and your actions, and see that they reflect the teachings of Jesus, so that your faith foundation will be strong.   

You Are Doing Well

My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.  For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?  

 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?  Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called?

If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

James 2:1-8 

I have seen this happen at church.  New people show up driving an expensive car and wearing fancy clothes and the pastor goes out of his way to befriend them.  I could almost see the dollar signs in his eyes because he was thinking they would bring a cash windfall to the church.  Which maybe they did give a substantial gift once, but then they being irregular church goers became, irregular givers.  The same pastor payed little or no attention to a couple who had two small children and volunteered at the church.  Little did he know that they were very generous givers and it was only when they departed for another church did he want to engage with them, but it was too late.  

James' point is that we should not favor wealthy people over poor people.  We should love them all the same and respect their gifts.  Where a wealthy person may bring big cash offerings to the church, the poor person may bring their willingness to volunteer to do the work of the church.  And, God loves the rich and the poor.

We then are to remember Jesus' commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  And, if so, you are doing well.