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3 Maccabees 3:3-5 LXX

The Jews, though, maintained their goodwill and unswerving faith toward the throne. But because they worshiped God and lived by His precepts, they kept themselves separate from others with regard to food, and therefore appeared hateful to some. But they adorned their way of life with the good deeds of righteous people, and thus established themselves as honorable to all men.

Personal Challenge

Living a Christian life is challenging. However, it is not really any more challenging today than it has been throughout the entire history of the church, or for God’s early followers the nation of Israel. If we try to live our lives the way that God would have us live them, then we start becoming separate from the world and therefore looked upon as if we think we are better than everyone else. This will lead to isolation and sometimes even persecution. But, if we still try to live our lives the way God would like us to, then we will continue to strive to be His witnesses in our communities. We will exhibit goodwill and unswerving faith toward the governing bodies that we live under. We will adorn our way of life with the good deeds of righteous people. We will be God’s ambassadors here on earth, exhibiting His love for His creation. Our job is never over, no matter what the consequences are. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy?

Luke 10:19-20

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

Encouraging Words
Our loving and merciful God does not just call us to be His followers, His warriors, and to take up His cross, without also giving us the power to do so. He promised His disciples, and us, that He will give us the authority, and the power, to stand up to the enemy in the spiritual realm who will do whatever they can to thwart the building of His kingdom. No matter what is thrown at us, we can resist it. No matter how difficult it might become to stand firm for our God, He will give us what we need to continue to be steadfast for Him. But as Jesus told His disciples, this is not what we should be rejoicing about. We should be rejoicing that we are His children, that we have been grafted into His divine and royal family as adoptees of God, that we will be spending eternity with our brothers and sisters in Christ and the heavenly host, worsh­iping and glorifying our God. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Psalms 86:15 (85:15 LXX)

But You, O Lord, are compassionate and merciful,
Longsuffering and very merciful and truthful.

Encouraging Words

It still amazes me that the western version of Christianity bases their entire view of God on the belief that He is an angry and judgmental God who is ready to squish us like ants. This has created a way of thinking and acting that makes people judgmental of others and expectant that the only way to appease God’s anger is to have someone greater than mankind substituted for the expected punishment. This is not what the early fathers of the church taught. They taught that God is love, that He loves His creation deeply and desires that we love Him and our neighbor. They did not teach that Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, had to be born of a virgin to stand between God’s wrath and us, the designated recipients of that wrath. They taught that since by man (Adam), sin entered into God’s creation, that through this sin man would die, and that Jesus became man so that through His incarnation, His living a sinless life as a man, His willingness to die on the cross an innocent man, His going into Hell and breaking the bonds of death, and His resurrection and ascension onto Heaven, that all of mankind can enter into His family. What a difference! To God be the glory

2 Maccabees 8:18

“For they trust in arms and bold acts,” he said, “but we trust in Almighty God, who with only one nod is able to overthrow both those who come against us and the entire world.”

Personal Challenge

Why is it that the only time that we call out to God to help us is when we are in the midst of a crisis? Basically, it is our personal, or collective, pride that keeps telling us that we can manage this on our own. Oh, how much we miss out on in our lives by leaving God out of our everyday activities. Oh, how many crises we could avoid by calling out to Him for every decision and every action. Here in the Maccabees passage, they make sure that everyone knows that their entire hope and trust is in their Almighty God. They know that He can be their helper and their protector, as those who are attaching them put their hope in their weapons, their past experiences, and their own pride. May I learn from this group of people how to always involve my Almighty God in my every decision and action.

Luke 10:2

Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Personal Challenge

I do not believe that God only wants us to pray that He will send someone else to do His harvesting in the world. He wants us to be willing to go as one of His laborers if He calls us. Our prayers should be for those who are being harvested, the harvesters, and ourselves so that we know what role He would have us fill in the building of His kingdom. Glory be to God?

Psalms 86:12 (85:12 LXX)

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
And I shall glorify Your name forever;

Encouraging Words

My God is so good to me. He is so good to His Church. He is so good to all of man­kind, He deserves our thanks and our worship and yet He leaves it up to us to exercise our free will and to worship Him. I choose to give my thanks to Him as the psalmist did. I choose to glorify His name as the psalmist also did. Thank You, O Lord, my God!

2 Maccabees 6:24-28

“For to pretend such things,” he said, “is not worthy of our time of life, lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to a foreign religion, and because of my pretense for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray through me, while I earn only pollution and defilement in my old age. For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die, I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age, and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and bravely for the venerable and holy laws.”

Personal Challenge

Eleazar was a 90-year-old Jewish leader. He was well known and well respected in his community by both Jews and Gentiles. In this part of Maccabees, the king that has conquered the Jews is forcing people like Eleazar to do things that are clearly against their beliefs and their practices. Just prior to this passage, the Gentile leaders that know and respect Eleazar are telling him to just to pretend to do what the king is demanding of him and then he will survive. He makes it clear that doing the right thing for God, before the people around him, is more important than life itself. As a follower of Christ, a leader of the youth in my parish, and most importantly a husband, a father, and a grandfather, would I be this strong in a time of persecution? Only my God knows. Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Luke 9:23-24

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

Personal Challenge

If the cost of following Christ is denying myself and taking up my cross daily, then what does that really mean that I need to be doing? This is not an easy question to answer. God has created each one of us to be in His image and yet unique. As unique individuals, this means that we each have our own unique cross that we must bear. For some, the cross may be dealing with a lifelong or terminal illness. For some, it may be a passion or desire that we must struggle with on an ongoing basis. In all cases, what we need to take up this cross, willingly and with God’s help and pursue Him as our only source of power to follow Him and become more like Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!