Philippians 2:5-11

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

This passage is one of my favorites in the Bible. I have included a link to a song by Michael Card, Carmen Christi, that puts the words to music.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

What is there to know really, other than "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"? All of the world's philosphies and self help--Stephen Covey, Dale Carnegie, Dr. Phil, Oprah-- while they can provide genuinely helpful band-aids sometimes, and may even include some of the true elemnts of Christianity, they all eventually fail us by themselves because they lack the foundational element-- "Jesus Christ and Him crucified".

Jesus is a person, who still lives today, who has paid for any and every sin we can ever dream of, no matter how heinous. Not only that, he is our God, whom we can worship and entrust our lives to. He will never go even an inch away from us, because He lives in us. He loves us and uses His infinite power to veto anything that could happen to us that does not contribute to our best interest. He knows us a lot better than we know ourselves. He knows our spouses, kids, friends and even our enemies a lot better than we know them. He has called us, given us a purpose and many different ways that we can creatively serve Him. If we can understand all of these things (and much more) that make up "Jesus Christ and Him crucified", there is really nothing else that we need to know.

Isaiah 9:6-7

6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, [b] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.


If you have time, listen to this 3 minute audio file. I have pasted the words below it, but they do not do it justice. The passion of this guy is intense... and contagious!



The Bible says my King is a seven-way King:
He's the King of the Jews - that's a racial King.
He's the King of Israel - that's a national King.
He's the King of Righteousness.
He's the King of the Ages.
He's the King of Heaven.
He's the King of Glory.
He's the King of kings and He's the Lord of lords.
That's my King.

Well, I wonder do you know Him.

No means of measure can define His limitless love.
He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere.
He's eternally steadfast.
He's immortally graceful.
He's imperially powerful.
He's impartially merciful.

Do you know Him?

He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He's God's Son.
He's the sinner's Savior.
He's the centrepiece of civilization.
He stands in the solitude of himself.
He's august and He's unique.
He's unparalleled, He's unprecedented.
He's the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him.
He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient Savior.

I wonder if you know him today?

He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathizes and He saves.
He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and He guides.
He heals the sick.
He cleansed the lepers.
He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors.
He delivers the captive.
He defends the feeble.
He blesses the young.
He serves the unfortunate.
He regards the aged.
He rewards the diligent.
And He beautifies the meager.

I wonder if you know Him?

Well, my King---
He's the key to knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom.
He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace.
He's the roadway of righteousness.
He's the highway of holiness.
He's the gateway of glory.

Do you know Him?

Well, His office is manifold.
His promise is sure.
His life is matchless.
His goodness is limitless.
His mercy is everlasting.
His love never changes.
His Word is enough.
His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous and
His yoke is easy and
His burden is light.

I wish I could describe Him to you.
But He's indescribable - yes He is !
He's God.
He's indescribable.
He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible.
He's irresistible.

Well, you can't get Him out of your mind,
You can't outlive Him,
you can't live without Him.
Well, the Pharisees couldn't stand Him,
but they found out they couldn't stop Him.
Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him.
Herod couldn't kill Him.
Death couldn't handle Him
andthe grave couldn't hold Him.

Dr. S. M.. Lockridge, from Southern California

Proverbs 19:13

13 A foolish son is his father's ruin,
and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

This verse may seem humurous or even offensive to some people, but I don't think it was meant to be either. I believe this verse is directed exclusively to the men. I take the advice to be that we should not let our lack of love, poor character, lack of interest, bad leadership, failure to participate or any other bad habit cause these situations to be brought on in our families-- and they can easily do it. These kind of problems in our relationships, are unbearable, so we must prevent them before they happen, at all costs. Trying to "lay down the law" after we have brought these problems upon ourselves is like trying to put out fire with gasoline. This kind of response is a futile attempt to solve the problem without correcting the habits within ourselves that likely were the cause of the problem to begin with.

Luke 18:22-25; Luke 14:25-27, 33

Luke 18
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 14
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

On first thought the concept stated above seems unrealistic, that only one person in a million would ever follow this advice to "forsake all" for Jesus and that those are the Billy Grahams and Mother Teresas of the world.

First let me say I think that this means we are to "forsake all" that stands in the way of our relationship with God, not "forsake all" for the sake of doing so to prove we are Christians. For the rich ruler, that happened to be his possessions (Luke 18). For someone else it might be a family relationship that is somehow competing against God for our loyalties (Luke 14). Even the desire to preserve our own earthly lives might be something that could supersede our allegiance to Him. The point of these kinds of passages is not to let anything do that, and I believe that if we as Christians do let that happen, God will allow whatever it is to fail us until we put Him first. But I believe anyone who reads the rich ruler passage in Luke 18 and says it commands all Christians to sell all of their possessions and give to the poor is not reading it correctly. As an extra note to further prove this point-- just one chapter later in Luke 19, in the well known story of Zacchaeous the tax collector, Jesus says "salvation has come to this house" after Zaccheous said he would give half of his possessions to the poor. I am not thinking that half should be the standard rather than all, just that Jesus' direction to the rich ruler was not meant to be a one size fits all command to everyone.

But aside from all that, the concept of "forsaking all" is not really as unnatural to us as you might think. Men and woman all the time give up their houses, their families, their kids, for the false promise of happiness in some other relationship. People will forsake all to continue an alcoholic lifestyle or a workaholic lifestyle or to stay in an abusive relationship. We are able to do it, maybe we are even built to do it, but it just gets misplaced in cases like these. And if we can do it (and some might claim can't avoid not doing it) for something that we innately know leads to a dead end, how much more can we do it for something we innately know is real?

Proverbs 10:18

18 He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,
and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

So if I hate someone, I am not supposed to hold in it, according to this verse. But then the verse also says that I am not supposed to let it out by slandering the person that I hate behind his back. That leaves one option right? I must tell that person how much I hate him to his face. Of course not! There is only one other option and that would be the correct one-- don't hate him at all! I think the point is, there is no way we can act appropriately on our hate-- so don't do it.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Take a look at some of these song lyrics:

Up with the sun, gone with the wind,
She always said I was lazy.
Leavin my home, leavin my friends,
Runnin when things get too crazy.
Out on thr road, out neath the stars,
Feelin the breeze, passin the cars.

-Bob Segar, Travelin' Man

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that dont know where its flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

-Bruce Springsteen, Hungry Heart

The days go by and you wish you were a different guy
Different friends and a new set of clothes
You make alterations and [ a fact in you knows ]
A new house a new car a new job a new nose

-The Kinks, Do It Again

Leaves are fallin' all around, time I was on my way
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay
but now it's time for me to go, the autumn moon lights my way
for now I smell the rain, and with it, pain
and it's headed my way

-Led Zeppelin, Ramble On

There is something in us that craves a new start when things get difficult. The longer we stay in one place, the more mistakes we make, the more baggage we obtain, and the more complicated things get. Songs like these tell us that it is possible and preferable to solve these inevitable problems by basically just deciding we are not going to be subject to them. New jobs, new houses, new relationships and new friends can represent a clean slate, one that hasn't been marred by complications yet. The world tells us that if we just start over in these areas every time things get difficult, we can go through life and be happy.

Jesus understands the pressure we face and he knows we need relief from it too, which is why He offers us that relief in this passage. Rather than run from it, He says to stay with it, and let Him take the stress out of it. Once the stress is gone, the need to run no longer has its appeal. We are then free to stick it out and work to make things better than any "new start" could have provided.

Luke 17:7-10

7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.[c] 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

How much happier we would be if we could view ourselves and our work the way that Jesus tells us to in this passage. Unfortunately, we probably all know the feeling of resentment that results when we allow ourselves to have the opposite attitude. If we have been blessed with exceptional skills in certain areas, and we are called upon to actually use those skills, the temptation is to compare ourselves to others and grumble about how we are carrying too much of the load. To combat that way of thinking, we should assume that we have been given those abilities for this very situation, for God to use us, and that next time we might just as easily be on the other end as the recipient of someone else's calling.

If a player on a sports team has been given a star role, the team is dependant upon them and that person must live up to their role if the team is to win. It would be ridiculous for the running back on a football team to compare his touchdowns to that of his offensive linemen and complain about how it's always up to him to carry the ball. But when we allow ourselves to become self-centered, this kind of backwards thinking can happen almost automatically. We can fall into the trap of commending ourselves for doing routine things that if we weren't doing, we would be letting others down. We think that just because we are uniquely positioned to do a task that nobody else can do at that time, we deserve something in return, or that we have a right to look down on others who aren't doing our particular task. This attitude can also cause us to ignore the contributions of others or assume that we would do better than them if we were given their opportunity.

This passage encourages us to "keep it real" concerning our contribution in whatever group we are part of . Even if we are an essential part of the group and are providing something no one else can, if we are to remain positive and productive, we must always see our contribution as our duty and not as something someone else owes us for.

Romans 7:15-25

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

When we became Christians, we decided that we wanted to follow Jesus all the time. This meant that we wanted to act like He did when He was on the earth. In our minds, there were no exceptions-- we did not think that we wanted to be like Jesus except in this or that situation. We may have understood that after we made that commitment, it was just a matter of carrying-out what we were now committed to doing. We may have thought that just because we wanted to, we were now going to always be nice to people, always give when needed, volunteer when needed, love everyone, forgive those who insulted us, etc. Not long after, we found that we were wrong about that. In fact, the more we were determined we could pull something like that off, the more frustrating it became. This passage explains why that is-- even though our hearts and minds genuinely desire one thing, we are still trapped in our old selves, which apart from our desires to be good, draw us in the complete opposite direction. It is kind of like the wide receiver who catches a pass near the sideline-- even though he wants to turn up field and score a touchdown, his momentum takes him right out of bounds.

Some day we will be shed of our old selves (the body of death) completely and we will have new bodies that don't have that problem. At that time, every molecule of our being will be able to serve Jesus Christ without exception, just like we thought it should be when we first decided to follow Him, and everyone we know will also be able to do the same thing. I can only imagine the things that will be possible for us then.

Matthew 13:44-46

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Ten years ago, I took a new job in the city where I grew up, after having lived away for the four years since I had graduated from college. It was a much better job than I had and we were excited to move back home. Our only problem was that we had to move half way across the country, we got no money from the company to do it, and we also had no savings to do it, or any money to live on once we arrived. I applied for a credit card and thank goodness was approved for a $4400 limit. Before it was over we had pretty much maxed out the card and I also remember at one point having to deposit $6 in my bank account so that I had the minimum $20 needed to get cash out of the ATM. Fun times!

But I knew this job was a break for my career. I also knew it would pay well enough to allow us to live better than we ever had before, though that did not help us with the immediate needs. This opportunity was for me a little like the "pearl of great price". I am not a risk taker by nature, but I knew this was a good deal, so much so that I was willing to get into some debt to have it, and even when it got tough I still had no doubt about the decision. Doctors and other professions that require a lot of financial and other sacrifices up front know this concept to a much greater degree. The point is, when we know we have found a deal that has long term net benefit in it for us, we will often give up what we have today to obtain it. I think Jesus is saying that heaven is the ultimate example of this concept. Based on this passage and others like it, I think that if we could completely understand what awaits us there, there would not be any non-believers left, everyone would take the deal.

John 12:1-8

1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied." It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

Just prior to this event, Jesus had performed a miracle for Mary in bringing back her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. After such a gift from Jesus, her gift of washing His feet with the expensive perfume probably seemed to her like a small gesture. But to put the monetary value of the gift in some perspective, a year’s wages at today’s minimum wage is about $13,000. Surely it would have been appreciated by Jesus and well regarded among the guests if she had used less than the entire pint of perfume. In the book of Mark it says that she even broke the bottle before pouring it on Jesus. John describes how Mary let her hair down, against the Jewish custom for a “proper” lady, and wiped Jesus’ feet with it, an act of humiliation by any standards. So Mary did not plan ahead of time to wait until everyone got there and perform an act of showmanship. In that moment Mary did not care what anyone thought of her. The Spirit prompted her and she responded immediately with absolute abandonment of herself to embrace her Savior.

The story also shows how a gift like the one Mary offered can bring out the worst in some people, like Judas. This act might have even seemed immoral to him. “What a waste!” he said. “What kind of an idiot just throws away $13,000 like that?” The details about Lazarus being returned from the dead and Mary’s resulting gratitude to Jesus were lost on Judas, and he probably wrote her off as a fool or a show-off or a hypocrite or worse. If we are honest, witnessing such an act might have elicited a similar response from us. It might have made us feel guilty about the level of our own devotion to Jesus, and like Judas, as a response we might have tried to find some fault in it. And like Judas, we also might not have understood Mary’s motive. The thing we can miss sometimes is that we never know exactly what calling has been put on a person, and we don’t know what purpose God is working in an individual at a given time. Without knowing the whole story, if we had seen Abraham in the moment before he was going to kill his son Isaac, the Israelites as they marched around Jericho blowing trumpets instead of preparing for battle, the starving widow who gave Elijah her last meal, or Jesus on the cross, we might have responded like Judas did, and think, “What good could that possibly do?” But Jesus cleared up all doubt on this occasion when He said, “Mary is being obedient and faithful, her gift is a good thing. Even though you don’t see a purpose for it Judas, God has a purpose for it.” So many times we never find out so specifically what God thinks about something like that.

Many of us have probably also heard the voice of Judas while putting money in the offering plate. “You idiot, that money could have been used for your kids college or for a rainy day or for some other good purpose. Are you sure you can still pay for those things now?” Those kinds of thoughts can take the joy out of the giving experience, and I would think they also ruin the experience for God. A child would not like to overhear his father or mother saying on Christmas morning, “I am worried we can’t afford all this”, or “We spent way too much on them”, or “We might could have spent that money better elsewhere.” It would obviously take most of the enjoyment away from the child as the recipient of the gifts. But Mary apparently did not hear the voice of Judas. She was so sure of her calling to do what she did, she didn’t consider whether it was her calling or not. She understood the magnitude of what Jesus had done for her and in light of that did not consider this gesture to be too much. She did not second–guess and think, “Maybe Judas is right, maybe I’ll just pour half of it on Jesus and save the rest for the poor, or maybe to use in case Lazarus dies again along with our only source of income.” This uncertainty would have transformed this same action into a bad experience for Mary and also for Jesus.

I find myself envious of Mary’s generous and devoted attitude. Without the reservations that can plague me, Mary’s generosity allowed her the joy of fully carrying out God’s purpose through her. I doubt I have ever felt the way Mary must have after she did this for Jesus. Dear Jesus, teach us to give the way Mary did, with the Spirit that Mary had. Mary was thankful that you brought back Lazarus for her and she acted on that gratitude without reservation. Bringing back Lazarus was something special You did for her. How much more have You done for us and for anyone else who has believed in You. You have brought back not only our brothers and sisters but us from the dead, from a spiritual death as lifeless as Lazarus’s body was in the tomb. Jesus, help us to feel the way Mary did about what You have done for us. And may we act on our gratitude to You in the same Spirit that Mary did. Amen.

Proverbs 26:13

13 The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road!
A fierce lion is in the streets!”

How often is anxiety a result of plain, simple, laziness? When we are called to perform a task that we would rather not do, out of conveninence we can be tempted to magnify the obstacles in our minds, in an attempt to legitimize our lack of action. Before we know it, we begin to accept these exaggerations as true. And if we make a habit of this, we look around and find ourselves feeling bored, anxious, and inept. We may think we feel this way because of our circumstances, but often it is really because at some point we have paralyzed ourselves with an attitude of laziness.

Matthew 18:9

9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

When someone wants to refute a person who says they believe in the literal authority of the Bible, I have heard this verse used to try to expose the person as a hypocrite. The reasoning is that if a person really followed the Bible literally, they would follow Jesus' advice and pluck out their eye. The responses I have heard to this are usually along the lines that it is an exaggeration to prove a point and not an actual command. But this response kind of supports the accusers argument that the Bible can't be taken literally. If that be the case, how do I know when Jesus is exaggerating and when I have to do exactly what He says, says the doubter.

Of course, I don't believe that Jesus is advocating anyone to pluck out their eye under any circumstance, but I don't think we have to give up on a "literal" interpretation of the Bible to say that. First, the kind of sin he is talking about has to be non-belief because that is the only thing that can cause us to be "cast into hell fire". Nobody's eye ever caused them to reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Second, even so, as Christians, our eyes do not cause us to sin either, any more than a knife would cause us to murder someone. The eyes, like the knife, are just an instrument to be used for what the user decides to use it for, whether good or bad. Third, if Jesus believed that the eye was responsible for the sin of lust, He would not have miraculously restored sight to blind people the way that He did in the Bible. And last, the passage indicates that the person who needs to "pluck out their eye" is able to enter into heaven with his other eye still intact, so Jesus did not mean to imply that loss of sight eliminates sin, as this person could still see.

I believe that Jesus says this to illustrate His point that no matter how otherwise useful and necessary something may be to us, if it is keeping us from being right with God, it has to go. The "eyes" that might stand between people and their salvation could include a lifestyle that they don't think they can stop, a relationship that does not honor Christ but is keeping them afloat, a job that is paying bills but requires some sort of immoral practice, or anything else that they feel they must continue doing but could not do so if they became a Christian. The physical eye is not capable of being that for anyone, but if it was, it would be appropriate to to lose it, as Jesus does call us to lose even more than that for Him.

Luke 8:38-39; 1 Peter 4:12

Luke 8
38 Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

We can feel sorry for this man that Jesus cleansed, even after Jesus had delivered him from torment and given him his life back. After that, the only thing he desired, to the point of begging, was that he did not want to leave Jesus's presence. But Jesus said, "No, not now, there is work I want you to do first." So he would now have to go back and face all the people who were previously terrified of him, try to reassemble some kind of life, while spreading the Gospel about Jesus. Everyone would have remembered who he was, as he must have been a monster. You can only imagine what atrocities he would have committed while being posessed by all of those demons. At some point the society decided that they didn't even want him in their prison. Now he comes back to this town to talk to them about religion?

We as Christians have an idea of how this man must have felt. When we are delivered from the sin that toments us, we feel like we just want to stay in His presence and live happily ever after. He tells us that we too must go back to our lives and spread the word about the Gospel. We also face our former lives, those that we may have treated harshly or those who witnessed us practicing things or acting in ways that are no longer who we are. Like Legion's townfolk, these people who are the most hardened against us (and maybe rightfully so) are the ones we are told to witness to.

I think the tendency is to read this story from the Bible and think that there were only happy times from then on for the formerly demon-posessed man and to think the same thing for other people who come to know Jesus. But I think it helps us to remember that while "being saved" represents the end of a lot of undesirable and negative things, it is also beginning of something else, which often involves much difficulty. We should not be surprised to find that we are not living happily ever after after we know Jesus or think something is wrong with us if we are not.

1 Peter 4
12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;