Jody's Devotionals

“Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!”           Luke 1:45 (WEB)

Then he [Jesus] went down to Nazareth with them [Mary and Joseph] and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.         Luke 2:51 (WEB)

But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.           Luke 19:25-27 (WEB)

(If you are a guy reading this, hang with me. You might learn something about the women in your life!)

This is a week for meditating on the extra-ordinary gift of Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord. I am also looking at those around Jesus. Mary has brought me to the place to stop and learn from her.

Moms have to be strong. From childbirth, women need that ‘extra something’ to not just survive but live. Long nights with sick, fretful children, followed by “just another day” of work whether inside the home or outside or – both! Many times I have thought that I could not take another step. It is in that weakness that I learned that Jesus was there and that He would give me the strength for another day.

I remember the first time that I held each child. That ‘snapshot’ moment when it was just me and the child. The heart prayer that went up, just between me, the child, and God. I remember standing and watching my ‘babies’ get married and later see them hold their newborn child in their arms. I remember sitting and watching my son take his last breath and leave with his hand in Jesus’. It is in the moments that a mother must step back and allow her child to step away and become the man or woman that God has called them to be that are the most difficult. It is then I learned how very much more God loves my child than I do.

Some say that men always want to fix things and are frustrated when things are beyond their ability to fix. I believe that a woman’s common failing is a desire to ‘throw themselves in front of the train’. In our desire to protect our child from harm (mistakes) we prevent them from growing and maturing in their own relationship with Jesus. Our children must hear and must learn to obey on their own. We must realize that our child’s relationship with Jesus is just as personal as our own. Their walk of faith may very well not look like our walk with Jesus. Our children need to see us standing as a testimony to the faith that we truly believe. We need to trust God for the eternal life of our children. When our child goes through trials, we must trust Jesus to lead them through. Yes, He may use us to speak directly but more often, He asks us to pray. Mary stood within Jesus’ sight. She did not strike out at the soldiers but stood firm in her faith and watched as her Son fulfilled His call, His mission.

In our weakness, women of God, we are strong in our hearts and in our spirits with Jesus, our ‘all in all’.

[Jesus said,] “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful. Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:35-38 (WEB)

It would be impossible for me to be in Holy Week and not meditate on ‘forgiveness’. Forgiveness is an act of a disciple of Jesus that I have to pay intentional attention every day.  It is so easy for me to justify holding a grudge or holding on to an offense.  Jesus gives me NO ‘wiggle room’ when it comes to forgiveness.  He is very, VERY clear that there is NOTHING that I can hold against someone because when I do – I am judging them.  Judging and condemning is not part of being His disciple.  I am to LOVE and SERVE my enemies, lending to them freely without ‘charging interest’!  My reward “will be great” and I will be a child “of the Most High”.  Doesn’t get better than that!!!  Jesus showed me over and over how He extended kindness, miracles, and blessings to people who were ungrateful and sinful.  Can I possibly do less?

God is so merciful. He extends forgiveness to me certainly “seventy times seven” and more!  God shows me the ‘measure’ of His mercy and EXPECTS me to give in the same measure.  There are consequences if I withhold my hand of fellowship and forgiveness to others.

“Forgiveness is our chance to create divinity—granting it only begets more.” — Eugene “Lucky” Hudson, saxophonist, wise man(1)

It is in forgiving that I experience a portion of what Jesus has done for me.  As I continue to walk in His steps and, yes, stumble and fail and get back up again, I do so with Jesus’ hand to raise me up.  When I humble myself and seek God’s forgiveness, I learn about the unconditional love of God and receive some understanding about how I am to be an open pipe through which God’s forgiveness flows to others.  Every time that I do forgive, I don’t lose something!  I GAIN more of God inside of me!  God’s seeds find fertile ground inside of my open heart and His good fruit will grow and grow, spilling out on to others.

(1) 50 Things That Really Matter 2003. Under license from Rodale Books exclusively for Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Again he [Jesus] asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?”               Luke 13:20 (HN)

– Henry Neufeld

If Jesus had been aware of a nearby republic with a good constitution, universal suffrage, and a bill of rights, would He have used republic instead of kingdom?  I don’t think so for this simple reason: God’s kingdom, God’s rule is not democratic. Only one person gets to vote–God! Even our free will, and I do believe in free will, is limited in exactly the ways that God chooses. Our very freedom is a product of his will, and he doesn’t give anyone the vote on it. And when the one vote that is allowed in God’s kingdom is God’s perfect vote, who would want it to be otherwise? The difference between divine and human government is well expressed in the following quote from the Federalist papers. I attribute it to James Madison, but there is apparently some doubt:

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions”                          (James Madison, Federalist 51).

If we substitute “God” for “angels” we can add not just a pure virtue in government but omniscience, or as I prefer to phrase it, God’s completely adequate knowledge. God knows everything He needs to know.

It’s very easy to try to make God’s kingdom into something we’d like it to be. We like democratic government, civil rights, and a sense of our own power, so we try to make God’s rule sound like something that is familiar and acceptable to us. And in the 21st century, that’s a democracy or republic. But God–thank God!–doesn’t think that way!

In the time of Jesus, when Jesus talked about a kingdom, the most obvious referent was the Roman Empire. For Jews in Palestine, that would not evoke goodness, freedom, liberation, empowerment, or any other nice thought. It did evoke inexorable, unstoppable power and absolute rule. And thus it can evoke God’s kingdom. The part of the metaphor that Jesus was using was not the nature of the government, or of the particular rulers, but the simple fact of power and authority. “God is going to take that absolute power out of the hands of those who have it and are misusing it, and take it into his own hands,” he was saying. The apparently absolute power of Rome would be replaced by the truly absolute power of God.

In thinking about how to express this best in modern terms, I came up with three ideas:

*    Go ahead and use kingdom.  Generally, we have enough knowledge from history and fiction to understand what absolute monarchy is. *    Use dictatorship. That is what God’s rule actually is, after all. Even though He dictates freedom, we get what He dictates that we get.
*    Use “God’s Republic” . . . and then say that God constitutes the legislative, the executive, and the highest court, all in Himself!

When we’re done realizing how absolutely in charge God is, let’s remember the things that God dictates: that we be free to dream, to dance, to live, to hope . . .