Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Personal Challenge

People have challenged me before that they do not want to be a Christian or go to a church because it is all based on rules of what I can do or not do, what I can believe or not believe, or that is so judgmental. My only answer to that is, “Hogwash!” Jesus clearly states to the young, rich man here that there are only two rules that we must follow if we are to claim to be Christians. They are to love God…completely, and to love our neighbor…unconditionally. If we live our lives this way then everything that we do in our journey of faith is not rules or commandments to follow but joyful sacrifices that we choose to offer up to our Lord and for our fellow man. We tithe and give offerings because we are so blessed. We fast and do almsgiving because it helps us to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus on God and our neighbor. We attend liturgy and vespers so that we can be in the presence of our Father and in a relationship with the people in our community of believers. This is what being a Christian is all about.

Psalms 34:7-11 (33:8-12 LXX)

The Angel of the Lord shall encamp around those who fear Him,
And He will deliver them.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who hopes in Him.
Fear the Lord, you His saints,
For there is no want for those who fear Him.
Rich men turned poor and went hungry;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Encouraging Words

Our loving and merciful God does not just lay down a whole bunch of laws for us to follow and then withdraw from us knowing that we will never be able to measure up to His expectations. God created mankind in Adam and Eve so that He could walk with them and commune with them in the garden. He only had one rule to follow and when that was broken so was the opportunity to have this intimate communion with God. Jesus, the Son of God, one third of the Trinity, restored the ability to commune with God once again. This passage of the Old Testament points forward to the time that Jesus would come and reestablish our relationship with God. So, why would we not, as children, run to Him, listen to Him, and learn as He teaches us how to fear our Lord and be in relationship and communion with Him once again? Glory be to God!

1 Samuel 16:7 (1 Kingdoms 16:7 LXX)

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Have no regard for his outward appearance, nor for the maturity of his stature, because I have refused him. For man does not see as God sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord sees into the heart.”

Encouraging Words

God’s way of doing things is so different than how we do things. We always look at the outward appearances of people to make judgments of who they are. God always looks at the heart of people for He knows that is what represents our true nature. In this situation, Samuel has been told to go to Jesse and crown one of his sons as the next king. Jesse had eight sons. Seven of them were stout, strapping men who surely met the qualifications of being a king. And Samuel even kept trying to choose one man after the other with God telling him each time that the selected man was not the one chosen by God. When Samuel and Jesse ended with these seven men and none of them were chosen they were extremely frustated. As Samuel was getting ready to give up he asked if there were any other sons. Reluctantly David was brought forth. He was the youngest son, a shepherd, and definitely not someone that looked like kingly material. But God knew Davids’ heart and chose him as the king and the rest is history. The moral, look for people’s hearts and not the external appearances.

Matthew 22:31-32

But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Encouraging Words

Recently I wrote about hope and how I choose to put my hope in a loving and merciful God. I love how this passage ends with Jesus telling us that our God is a God of the living and not a God of the dead. All life is very precious to Him. My life is precious to Him. Your life is precious to Him. We must remember that when Jesus was saying this He was on His way to what He knew was going to be His certain death, He knew that those very same people that He had healed, fed, and brought back to life would soon be calling out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him?” And yet He is telling us that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He knew that God would be raising His physical body from the grave. He know that He had to voluntarily give up His life so that He could destroy death by His own death. How awesome is that? So, if we keep this in mind while we strive to put our flesh to death, we can know that our God will breath His life into us for our sacrifice. Glory be to God!

Psalms 34:1 (33:1 LXX)

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Personal Challenge

Now this is the ultimate New Years’ resolution. If I could live my life this year following this one practice of the psalmist, then there would be no need for any other resolutions. Why is that so? In order to truly bless the Lord at all times and to have His praise continually in my mouth then I must have Him on my heart and on my mind, not just occasionally, not just on Sundays, but every moment of every day whether awake or asleep. If this is how I lived my life then all other things that I would like to improve on throughout the year would either come very easily to me or be determined as not really that important. This is probably the reason why so many resolutions go unfulfilled, because the Lord is not in the middle of them. Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and show me how to bless You at all times, keeping praise for you continually in my mouth.

1 Kingdoms 15:22 (1 Samuel 15:22 LXX)

Then Samuel said, “If only the desired whole burnt offerings and desired sacrifices were equal to the Lord, as compared to one who heeds the voice of the Lord! Behold! Hearing is better than a good sacrifice and obedience than the fat of rams.”

Personal Challenge

One of the things that we must always watch out for as we live our lives as Christians is becoming legalistic and works based. Samuel reminds us here, as does other writers in the Old Testament, that God is not nearly as interested in what we do externally, such as burnt offerings in his day as He is in our hearts and our willingness to serve Him. In Eastern Orthodoxy, we have many opportunities to participate in activities that from the outside look like works. One of these is fasting. It is so easy to start acting legalistic and judgemental of others on whether or not they fast, or how well they fast. This is not how this is supposed to work. We do not fast to earn favor with God. We do not fast to look good in front of everyone else. We quietly fast to learn how to discipline our minds and bodies. The church fathers consistently taught that we are not to look at our brother’s plate and only consider how we are doing on our journey toward being like Christ. They also taught that loving our neighbor was more important than any rule that we follow so if they offer us something to eat that might cause us to break our fast, then we take it out of love for our neighbor. Love is above all. This way of thinking applies to all of our attempts to be disciplined whether it be fasting, tithing, attending liturgy, praying, or a myriad of other things we do in our Christian life. What is in our heart is much more important than what we say or do. When we live this way what we do will clearly show our love for our God and for our neighbor. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Matthew 21:21-22

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Encouraging Words

As presented by the psalmist, we put our hope in God looking to be recipients of His mercy. Here, Jesus is telling His disciples, and us, that if we have faith in Him and do not let doubt creep in, then that faith will produce miraculous results. Now there is a bit of a caveat here. If I am living a life that is truly focused on Christ, striving to be like Him, communing with Him, and seeking to be submissive to Him and humble before Him, then I will only be exercising this kind of faith to glorify Him and to extend His Kingdom. This kind of faith will never be self-serving. It will always seek to magnify God. This kind of faith not only produces mountain moving miracles but it also changes those who have it. They will no longer see many of the things that bother so many of us as hindrances and therefore not use this faith to deal with them. As I spend more time reading the writings of the first and second-century church fathers and about the lives that they lived, the more I see the truth of this promise. Glory be to God!

Psalms 33:22 (32:22 LXX)

Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
As we hope in You.

Encouraging Words

Hope and mercy, what two powerful aspects of living a Christian life. We put our hope in the loving God. We put our hope in 2,000 years of evidence that God loves us and cares for us and that the Son, Jesus Christ, altered the course of eternity by His incarnation and the life He led leading up to His death, burial, and resurrection. we put our hope in the additional thousands of years that God worked in the lives of His people, continually providing images of the forthcoming Christ. We do not believe that our hope is ever in vain because of Who we put our hope in. And the wonderful and precious result of that hope is the mercy that our Lord pours out upon us. As the psalmist reminds us elsewhere in his writings, “His Mercy end ours forever.” God’s mercy is complete. God’s mercy is all-encompassing, neglecting no one. God’s money is undeserved, yet poured out lavishly. God’s mercy is sourced from His love, which is the source of all love within us. So, as the psalmist says here, Lord God Almighty we put our hope in You and seek Your mercy.

1 Samuel 2:1-2 (1 Kings 2:1-2)

Now the days of David drew near to death, and he charged Solomon his son, saying, “I am going the way of all the earth, but you must be strong and become a man.”

Personal Challenge

We all reach that point in our lives where we must cross that chasm into adulthood and begin to live responsible and accountable lives. For some, this starts when they move away from the nest and go to college. For some, it comes when they leave their home to get married and start their family. There are many other events in our lives that start this process of becoming an adult. It also can happen at many different ages dependent on the circumstances of one’s life. But for all, there is a critical time in life when one decides to lay down the former ways of being a child and living a childish life and choosing to live life as a man or a woman. In Solomon’s case, this transition came to fruition as his father David approached his own death. David challenged his son to take up where he would be leaving off and step up to the task of becoming a man. David encouraged Solomon to be strong in this process. Unfortunately, in today’s society, we have far too many people that are unwilling to adopt their role as an adult and try to continue to live childish lives. We can each use this time of year to review our lives and see where we can step up to being the man or woman that God intends us to live. Glory be to God!