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About Me
- LCC
- Lighthouse Community Church is a mulit-generational community of Christians committed to being a safe, inviting, and engaging place where people can connect and discover the true meaning of life within a community of Jesus-followers.
Matthew 3:8,9
ReplyDeleteI always say to my daughter, "Don't just say you're sorry, prove it, I want to see change."
The Pharisees and Saducees were the same way. They were very confident in the fact that they were born Jews, God' s chosen people.
Just as my daughter is confident with her place in our family, the Pharisees and Saducees knew the proper requirements of the law but were no longer thinking with their heart, Their lives were about themselves and how they had arrived, not about others around them.
We can become so confident in who we are...Children of God/descendants of Abraham/ part of the family(in my daughter's case) that we become complacent. We no longer listen to what is being asked of us. We know the proper responses (sorry) but we no longer think with our hearts. We no longer feel the need for action.
Lerryn
This morning I was amazed by the fact that Joseph, Mary's husband, was repeatedly directed in dreams. He recognized God in it and he obeyed immediately upon waking up. His response kept his family save and it had to have come from experience. Mary was provided with a very spiritually sensitive husband. Wow - it had never struck me this way before. Matt. 1:20-24 and Matt 2:13-14 & 19-22.
ReplyDeleteJoseph's experience made me wonder - would I take a dream this seriously? would I rationalize it away and miss some very important, in fact life & death important, direction? do people have God-dreams like this still today? This much I know that if God should choose to speak to me this manner I sure would want to be able to hear, recognize and respond with obedience too! Trudy
still on week 1 there's so much in these chapters...
ReplyDeletetoday I'm pondering on the temptation of Jesus portion, Matt 4:1-11
40 days of fasting, Jesus is famished, and here come the tests. Personally - the first one would probably have proved too tempting for me, judging from my dieting patters...:) but seriously -he had the presence of mind to answer each test with wisdom from scripture, things to know and obey without hesitation or sidetracking. It impressed me that throughout it he recognized the enemy clearly and at the end the spiritual world he came from broke in and attended to him (angels). One of the few times of his earthly life they were permitted to do that. Then I'm wondering - who did Matthew hear all these details from - after all Jesus went to the desert alone - and so it had to be Jesus telling the story at some point to his disciples. Boy I would have loved to be there hanging on every word, hearing by his tone of voice and seeing by his facial expressions just how he really felt about it all. Anyone else in our reading group wonder about all that? I'm encouraged today knowing afresh that when temptations seeks to derail me I can trust him to be there with me - that it matters to him and he's able to see me through because he's been there. Trudy
so i'm a little behind, but i was reading Matthew 4, and in verse 4 I noticed "man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God". In the Message it says something like, "It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth." And I was thinking that being alive, full of reason, freedom, and worth, is not only because of anything physical like food or sleeping, but because of the Word of God and how he speaks and moves in my life.
ReplyDeleteMaybe having a good job, good friends, a good education, and money isn't what matters. Maybe I don't have to juggle and keep control of my family and friend relationships or worry about college or focus on looking good or try to make my life smooth and whole. Maybe when I focus on God instead and listen to what he says to me than hecan be part of these areas of my life and I can let go of the burden. Maybe then, when I'm not living on "bread" alone, I can really come alive.
Trish