19 January 2014
Genesis 32; 33
Psalms 36
Matthew 21
"BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD"
Today's chapter in Matthew [Matthew 21] is full of exciting incidents. The opposition to Jesus caused by his popularity had reached fever pitch. The religious leaders were afraid to do anything because his popularity had become so intense. We read of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, "the crowds that went before him and that followed after were shouting 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'" [Matthew 21:9,10]
Then we are told, he enters the temple (where the religious leaders normally reign supreme) "and drives out all who bought and sold in the temple … you make it a den of robbers." [Matthew 21:12-13] Jesus tells them.
Next, "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them." Drama upon drama, "but when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did they were indignant" [Matthew 21:15] Their spiritual blindness was absolute, they were so sure of themselves that they knew all the answers, their mindset had created total spiritual darkness.
Two particular thoughts occurred to us from this incident. One, there are mindsets today: there is the total conviction that there is no God, that everything that exists sort of created itself. Ever more remarkable things have been uncovered in research by the men of science, making it impossible, it seems to us, for the rational thinking mind to even start to think there was no creative Master Mind - yet when we affirm there must be because of the vast array of evidence of most marvellous design - the atheist is indignant just as the High Priests were.
The second thought is, as we shall read in the next day or two; how fickle human attitudes are that have no depth to their understanding or belief. Many of those who joined in the shouts of 'Hosanna' were soon to be persuaded to cry 'Crucify Him'!
So we must most earnestly ask ourselves, how deep is our own conviction? Do we have, or are we earnest - in creating within ourselves the full assurance of hope and faith? Read Hebrews 6:11; 10:22.
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- DC
Thought for the Day
19 January 2014
"Jesus lifted his eyes not just to see the world, but to look beyond it. We should seek to look at the world with his eyes, but also to look further. God has given us life not to be lived with lowered eyes, but to search for Him through all that is in this world, through things, events, people. All should reveal God to us. If we do this properly then our eyes will be blessed like those of the disciples (Luke 10:23-24), for they will then see what "prophets and kings have desired to see". Our eyes will then carry God to others, for then will our eye be single and our whole body full of light."
- Derek Hayward
Present Your Bodies (1990)
Genesis 32; 33
Psalms 36
Matthew 21
"BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD"
Today's chapter in Matthew [Matthew 21] is full of exciting incidents. The opposition to Jesus caused by his popularity had reached fever pitch. The religious leaders were afraid to do anything because his popularity had become so intense. We read of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, "the crowds that went before him and that followed after were shouting 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'" [Matthew 21:9,10]
Then we are told, he enters the temple (where the religious leaders normally reign supreme) "and drives out all who bought and sold in the temple … you make it a den of robbers." [Matthew 21:12-13] Jesus tells them.
Next, "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them." Drama upon drama, "but when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did they were indignant" [Matthew 21:15] Their spiritual blindness was absolute, they were so sure of themselves that they knew all the answers, their mindset had created total spiritual darkness.
Two particular thoughts occurred to us from this incident. One, there are mindsets today: there is the total conviction that there is no God, that everything that exists sort of created itself. Ever more remarkable things have been uncovered in research by the men of science, making it impossible, it seems to us, for the rational thinking mind to even start to think there was no creative Master Mind - yet when we affirm there must be because of the vast array of evidence of most marvellous design - the atheist is indignant just as the High Priests were.
The second thought is, as we shall read in the next day or two; how fickle human attitudes are that have no depth to their understanding or belief. Many of those who joined in the shouts of 'Hosanna' were soon to be persuaded to cry 'Crucify Him'!
So we must most earnestly ask ourselves, how deep is our own conviction? Do we have, or are we earnest - in creating within ourselves the full assurance of hope and faith? Read Hebrews 6:11; 10:22.
-------
- DC
Thought for the Day
19 January 2014
"Jesus lifted his eyes not just to see the world, but to look beyond it. We should seek to look at the world with his eyes, but also to look further. God has given us life not to be lived with lowered eyes, but to search for Him through all that is in this world, through things, events, people. All should reveal God to us. If we do this properly then our eyes will be blessed like those of the disciples (Luke 10:23-24), for they will then see what "prophets and kings have desired to see". Our eyes will then carry God to others, for then will our eye be single and our whole body full of light."
- Derek Hayward
Present Your Bodies (1990)
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