Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: The Lord of the Sabbath saves life through the law!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 6:9,

 

"I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

 

Jesus spoke these words when the Pharisees and teachers of the law were looking for a way to condemn Jesus. As their position in society of the day was threatened due to the conflicting teaching of Jesus with that of theirs, they attempted to discredit and dispose of him.

 

In the larger passage of Luke 6:1-11 we learn two things Jesus tells us about himself relative to the law. The first is, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath", Luke 6:5, which is to say, Jesus is God and the law the Pharisees and teachers of the law were appealing to came from him. The second is, "... which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?", Luke 6:9. Jesus then healed a man with a shriveled hand in their midst. This speaks to me of a second truth about Jesus and the law: it is through the law he will do good for mankind, to save life. As far as the law goes, it is his law and he will use it to save life.

 

John tells us, "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." 1 John 3:4. Since we know that sin is what brings us judgment from God, "... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23, how is it that Jesus will use the law to save us? The answer Paul provides in Romans 3 is that it is the law that makes us conscious of sin. "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." Romans 3:20. It is through the law we become aware of our lost condition before God and of our need for salvation. It is when we recognize we need to be saved, that we cannot save ourselves from eternal death, we reach out in faith for the wonderful salvation God offers us.

 

The Pharisees used the law to condemn people. But that is all they could do with the law the Lord had given them. The Son of God, having provided the law through Moses 1,400 years earlier, uses the law to point us to him and our great need of him.

 

I am a bit too big for my britches. I think I can do whatever needs to be done all by myself. The law cuts through all that and exposes me for what I am: helpless before a righteous and holy God, lost in my own sinfulness. I need a savior.

 

How wonderful Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath and will use the law to save life! He saved mine! How about you?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: The mission of Jesus Christ.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 4:43,

 

"I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 

 

When the folks of Capernaum looked for Jesus and found him in a "solitary place" they attempted to persuade him from leaving. He had healed many who had "various kinds of sicknesses" and relieved many from the spiritual oppression of demons and so they wanted him to stay. His response to them was he needed to be about the mission he was sent to accomplish.

 

The mission Jesus was sent to accomplish was to announce the coming kingdom of God. On the mount of transfiguration the Father speaks: "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." Luke 9:35. While here Jesus would procure our admission to the kingdom of God and offer it to Israel, and through Israel to the world. In John 14:6 Jesus claimed, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In sacrificing himself on a cross, he provided atonement for all our sins, making our entrance into God's kingdom possible. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." This is why he came. This was his mission when he arrived on Christmas two millenia ago. As he prepared to leave planet earth to take his place at the right hand of God, he passed on the responsibility to continue the mission to his followers, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20. 

 

Having achieved his part of the mission, as Luke's gospel will tell, Jesus left in place a movement that would change forever the course of human history. Mankind now has the option of embracing God in faith and entering into his kingdom, or rejecting God, going their own way and eventually falling under the consequences of sin, an eternity in a fiery lake of burning sulfur.

 

Here in Luke's gospel I am struck by the many things I see in Jesus Christ. His kindness and compassion, his transcendent wisdom and power, his perfection and impeccable character. In this verse I see him as mission focused. He was sent with a specific purpose and he pursued that purpose with a passion.

 

How wonderful he did!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: The matchless heart of our Lord!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 5:13,

 

"'I am willing,' he [Jesus] said. 'Be clean!'"

 

In this account, a leper approached Jesus and asked to be healed. His request to the Lord was couched in an observation he made, an observation born of faith, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Verse 12.

 

In this observation the leper emulated the faith of Abraham, of whom Paul says, "... he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:20-21. This leper had no doubt that Jesus Christ could heal him from a horrible condition he had certainly lived with for years, rendering his life a miserable existence.

 

For the leper's part, he believed. He knew that Jesus Christ could relieve him of his fate, of his suffering. What he was greeted with was the Lord's part: Jesus Christ was willing! As Jesus looked at the suffering man in compassion he said, "I am willing... be clean!"

 

I see in this a metaphor for my own condition. As a person who justly deserves God's anger and wrath, I am in a horrible position. All I have to look forward to, following this life, is an eternity caught in a lake of fire, Revelation 20:15. I read in Revelation 21:8, "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." As the leper, I suffer a horrible condition.

 

And also, like the experience of the leper with Jesus Christ, I find in my Lord a willingness to relieve my plight. All I need do is approach him in faith. As the leper found relief, I find relief!

 

What I find so compelling about this account is the disposition of Jesus Christ: "I am willing!" How wonderful this disposition of his! Love, mercy, kindness! All these are expressed in his wonderful grace toward us all! All he asks is that we embrace him in faith. And, in his faithfulness he swings wide the door for us to enter into his family, to receive an inheritance of eternal life shared by all who have embraced him in faith!

 

What a wonderful heart of love our Lord has!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: Jesus rubbed their noses in it!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 6:8,

 

"Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, 'Get up and stand in front of everyone.'" 

 

In this account Jesus did something he wanted all to see clearly and plainly. He didn't do it behind closed doors or in the dark. He decided to heal this man with a shriveled hand and did it such that all could see.

 

In the context we are told the Pharisees and teachers of the law were looking for something they could accuse Jesus of. Apparently they felt their exalted position in the community was threatened and determined to eliminate the threat. There had already been differences between Jesus with the Pharisees and teachers of the law and they considered Jesus Christ to be an opponent. Imagine that! Those who claim to be spokespeople for God considered the Son of God their opponent! Such is the nature of conflict in the spiritual arena.

 

On this occasion the Pharisees and teachers of the law were watching Jesus "closely", verse 7. As if they might catch him at an off moment to gain the advantage. Any mistake, any conflict with what the Scriptures taught, any wrinkle of consistency by Jesus Christ would be all they needed and so they watched closely and carefully.

 

I love the way the Lord responded to this. He had the man he was going to heal stand right up in front of them all. "Get up and stand in front of everyone." Perfection never feels threatened and our Lord of perfection not only had no qualms of doing anything right in front of everyone, it is as if he intended to reflect the absurd position the sinfulness of these Pharisees and teachers of the law had placed themselves in by rubbing their noses in it.

 

Even worse for these Pharisees and teachers of the law is the challenge Jesus threw at them. If keeping the Sabbath was so important to them, even though the Lord of the Sabbath was in their midst, Jesus asked them the question, was it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath? "To save life or to destroy it?" Verse 9. The account tells us the Lord of the Sabbath healed the man on the holy day while those who were all hot-to-trot for the Sabbath ploted and schemed as to how they might kill him. Here in Luke we are told "they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus." Verse 11. In the parallel account in Mark we are told, "the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus." Mark 3:6.

 

What a fascinating read! What a fascinating Lord! How can you not be gripped by such an account of the things Jesus Christ did while living among us?!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God:

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 5:36-39,

 

"No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"

 

If anything, to me this speaks of a whole new paradigm coming to planet earth. It won't do to cobble together some of the old with some of the new. What is coming is a change in the order of all things. A change "we can all believe in."

 

Later, in the next chapter, Jesus teaches something about this new order of things. The have-nots will have and those who have in this life very well may find they have not in the new order, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." Luke 6:20-26.

 

Here the Lord teaches his followers about the impact the kingdom of God will have both in this life and the next. Jesus' followers will be hated in this life, but the Millennial forecast is for great reward, blessings, laughter, satisfaction, rejoicing and leaping for joy!

 

The current pitiful desires of those who demand a redistribution of wealth in this life, "economic justice" and the like are woefully too small and too myopic to envision all the Lord has for us in the kingdom of heaven that is headed our way!

 

"Eternal pleasures" at the right hand of the Lord is how David characterizes it in Psalm 16:11. This life, the order of things we see today in the world has a shelf life that is not far from expiring. A new paradigm, a new life, free from the curse this fallen world struggles under, free from the collective sin nature so prevalent in our lives, is all coming to an end. What is headed our way, for those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, is simply breath-taking to contemplate!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: Interaction within the Trinity.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 6:12,

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God."

 

Here we see the Son of God in prayer (all night!) with God the Father. Jesus' next move, in the morning, was to chose the twelve as his designated apostles. As is often pointed out, prior to making an important decision, Jesus spent time with the Father in prayer.

 

Why? Isn't Jesus Christ God? Doesn't he have within himself the ability to make wise choices? Where we often need the wise counsel and direction that comes from prayer, the kind that comes from spending time with God, I suspect other things were afoot in the time Jesus spent with the Father in his time of prayer. It is this kind of interaction Jesus Christ had with the Father that helps me understand a bit about the nature of the Trinity.

 

One time Jesus told the Pharisees "I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me." John 8:16. Jesus identified himself unequivocally and unmistakably with God the Father. He was not reticent or bashful about proclaiming his allegiance and identity with his Father. Although the Pharisees claimed to speak for God, Jesus told them, "You do not know me or my Father... If you knew me, you would know my Father also." John 8:19.

 

Jesus also told them he did nothing on his own. All he did was in concert with the Father, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me." John 8:28. He went on to say, "The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." Verse 29. Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, always did what pleased the Father. Jesus also told the Pharisees that he didn't come on his own, but was sent by the Father, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me." John 8:42.

 

In Jesus' own prayer to the Father, he acknowledged that all he had, had come from God the Father, "Now they [believers] know that everything you have given me comes from you." John 17:7. He also acknowledged that all he had to say, all he taught had come from the Father, "For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them." John 17:8. In his prayer to the Father, Jesus confessed his identity with the Father and the great love they share for one another, "All I have is yours, and all you have is mine." John 17:10. Also, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." John 17:20-21. In his prayer for the saints, Jesus revealed the divine love shared between the Father and the Son, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:23.

 

This is not simply dusty theology! This is real life, the nature of how things really are. The dynamic of the relationship within the Trinity is one of passion and one of power. God has his own designs and his own agenda. That agenda is driven by his own desires and we find they are carried out through the agencies of each member of the Trinity.

 

Heady stuff!!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: Jesus is Lord... or is he???

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 6:46,

 

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"

 

What a question! For me, it is fraught with opportunity for much reflection. Either Jesus Christ is my Lord or he isn't. What I chose to think, do and say reveals the truth of the matter for me. Here, within his question, Jesus points to the reality that I can call him my Lord but that doesn't necessarily make it so. What I do establishes his lordship in my life.

 

There will come a day when the Lordship of Jesus Christ will be recognized by all, a time when there will be no choice in the matter. "Therefore God exalted him [Christ Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11.

 

Until that time, in this life, we are given the freedom to chose whether to make him Lord in our lives. His question requires that premise. So, I need ask myself, do the choices I make reflect his lordship in my life? Another companion question can certainly be, do I love Jesus Christ?

 

I'd like to think I can look ahead and focus on the future but the reality of my love of the Lord and my recognition of his lordship within my life is not found in the future, it exists in the present and is confirmed by what I did yesterday, last week and last month.

 

There are a lot of religious people. They abound with all the things that attend adherence to the denominations and churches they participate in. The question I have for myself is, Do I embrace Jesus Christ as my Lord? Do I love him? In what ways has that been manifested in the things I think, do and say?

 

Frankly, I care little for the trappings of what many churches have to offer, together with the judgmental do-gooders. My concern is how I am reflecting my subordination to the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life and the ways I manifest my love for him.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com