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Matthew 18:15-17

Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Personal Challenge

Once again, the way that we are expected to live as Christians is so much different than the way that the world wants us to live. If we are offended by someone the world expects us to lash back at them, call them names and make them regret what they did. And if that doesn’t work, and even sometimes if it does, then the world expects us to tell everyone that we know, and that they know, how much they offended us. The world even gives us permission to embellish the story if it helps to enhance the offense. In our desire to live in the spiritual realm and not the temporal one, we are expected to behave so much differently as Christians. If someone offends us then it is expected that in the spirit of love for that person we go to them privately and lovingly let them know of their offense. We are also expected to assess the situation first and if our brother or sister is not able to accept this correction then we consider waiting until they are able or depending on the magnitude of the offense consider forgiveness without confrontation. All of this takes humility on our part and love for both our Lord and our neighbor. Glory be to God.

Psalms 31:23-24 (30:24-25 LXX)

Love the Lord, all you His saints,
For the Lord seeks out truth,
And He repays those who act with great arrogance.
Be courageous, and let your heart be strengthened,
All who hope in the Lord.

Command with a Promise

We are told here to love our Lord and to be courageous and He will strengthen our heart. We are also told to let our heart be strengthened, which implies that the reception of the blessings bestowed on us by our Lord are interactive and not just forced upon us. We are also told in this passage that we cannot expect to receive these blessings from our Lord if we live and act with arrogance. Our Lord desires that we live our lives in humility with Him and with those whom He has placed in our lives. If we choose to continue to live arrogant self-centered lives then our Lord, who knows and seeks out the truth will give us our just rewards. In this case, those rewards often force us into a state of humility. Forgive me, O Lord, for claiming to be Your child and yet living my life arrogantly for myself.

Judges 6:12

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty one of the armies!”

Encouraging Words

In the story leading up to this proclamation by the Angel of the Lord, we find Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress. This doesn’t make any sense until you read the rest of the story. Gideon is an Israelite and his people have been under the oppression of the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites have been destroying their crops and decimating their livestock in order to break them down. Gideon had found some stalks of wheat and had found a place where he could hide from the Midianites and thresh the wheat for some food. He was actually being kind of cowardly in what he was doing. I can just imagine what he thought when he was told that he was a mighty one of the armies. What armies? Who, me? Why do you think that I am hiding out here? I am sure it was quite amusing. As the story continues we see that the Lord is indeed with Gideon and that he does indeed become a mighty warrior for his people, We too have our Lord with us. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us, even if we are hiding out someplace from the challenges in our lives that are closing in on us. He will lead us into the battles of this world as mighty ones of His army if we will just let Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Matthew 18:12-14

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

Encouraging Words

Once again we see that God’s way of doing things is so much different than ours as we succumb to the ways of our fallen world, In our way of thinking we would look at this situation and choose to cut our loses. We would think it better to lose the one and not risk the other ninety-nine. In God’s mind, the lost one is just as important as all of the others and He will pursue that one in order to bring him home to the fold. Now that is true, unconditional love. Many of the early church fathers felt that the ninety-nine represented the angels in heaven and that the one lost sheep was fallen mankind. Jesus left His faithful flock and came to earth, giving His all so that we would be redeemed. This is such a great love that none of us can fully understand it. What we can know, though, is that God loves us so very much that He sent His son to redeem us and has waited patiently for over 2,000 years so that more will be redeemed before He returns. To God be the glory!

Psalms 31:1-5 (30:1-6 LXX)
In You, O Lord, I hope; may I not be ashamed forever;
In Your righteousness deliver and rescue me.
Incline Your ear to me;
Rescue me speedily;
Be to me a God who protects me,
And a house of refuge to save me.
For You are my strength and my refuge,
And for Your name’s sake You will guide and sustain me;
For You will bring me out from the snare they hid for me;
For You are my protector.
Into Your hands I shall entrust my spirit;
You redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

Encouraging Words

We often forget that King David, the man who slew the giant Goliath as a young shepherd boy with a sling and a stone, was also a prophet. As a prophet, he was blessed to have the Holy Spirit speak through him regarding future events. This passage, as well as the rest of this chapter in Psalms, points to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ as he approaches and ultimate hangs on the cross. Read this passage as if it were Jesus speaking these words and you will see the prophecy, even to the line, “Into Your hands I shall entrust my spirit;” which Jesus spoke as His final words from the cross. We too, as children of the loving God, can speak these words in our lives as we strive to become like Christ and take up His cross daily. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Joshua 1:6-9

“Be strong and courageous, for you will divide this land which I swore to your fathers to give them. Be strong, therefore, and courageous to guard yourself and to do as Moses My servant commanded you; then you will not turn away from them, to the right nor to the left. In this way, you will have understanding in whatever you do. The book of this law shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may have the understanding to do all the things written therein. Then you will both prosper, make your ways prosperous, and have understanding. Behold, I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be cowardly or fearful, for the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you go.”

Encouraging Words

The early church fathers taught that the person of God that was speaking to Joshua here was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Jesus is telling Joshua to be strong and courageous in the face of pending wars and battles because God was with him. Several thousand years later, Jesus, as a human being, would stand before Pilate and His own death sentence and would Himself demonstrate strength and courage, Jesus never asks of us something that He has not already faced when He walked on this earth in a human body like ours. He will give us the strength and courage that we will need to face any challenge. Glory be to God?

Matthew 18:1-6

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Personal Challenge

Greatness! Let’s face it, Whether we want to admit it or not we all desire to be great. Sometimes it is at work as we jockey for that next promotion. Sometimes it is in our home as we try to be the one who is always right or who gets to make all the decisions. Sometimes it is in our church or other community of people where we compete with others to show how much we know or to get the position at the head of the table. Here Jesus tells His disciples, and us, that none of these things will give us greatness. Actually, He tells us that greatness is the last thing that we should desire if we want to be like Him. What should we desire then? To be like a child sitting at the feet of his Father. We should desire humility and the ability to put others before ourselves. We should desire God above all else. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Psalms 30:11-12 (29:12-13 LXX)

You turned my lamentation into dancing for me;
You tore up my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
That my glory may sing praise to You,
And not be pierced with sadness;
O Lord my God, I shall give thanks to You forever.

Encouraging Words

We so often confuse consequences with punishment in our relationship with our Lord. We still live in a physical world, even though the hearts and minds of those who follow Christ have been transformed to try to live in the spiritual world, And since we are still living in a fallen state and a fallen world we still choose to sin. It is the sin that we commit that brings consequences into our lives. Every action taken, or not taken, still has its results. It is these consequences that wake us up to the fact that we have transgressed against our Lord and if we are striving to be close to Him that drive us to a state of lamenting over our sin and mourning for the rift that we have created between God and ourselves. However, as the psalmist proclaims, our loving and merciful Father is there to turn our lamenting into dancing, our sackcloth of mourning into gladness, and our piercing sadness into songs of praise. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have Mercy on me, the sinner?