Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

My first thought today was, "Man, I'm glad I'm not like the Pharisees!"  Ironically, this of course makes me just like the ....wait for it...Pharisees.  Oooops. 

Jesus goes off on the Pharisees for the entire chapter 23 in Matthew.  Every verse.  So, my second thought for today is, "I wonder what is in there for ME." It must be in the Bible for a reason. Join me in this consideration. In no particular order:

• our insides are WAY more important than our outsides
• we are GREEDY for something, what is it?
• quit giving yourself a pass, for this is a practical definition of SELF-indulgent
• if we all turned ourselves INSIDE-OUT, what would we find in our fellow planetary travelers? Who'd be your most attractive INSIDE-OUT PERSON?
• wait, doesn't the LORD ALWAYS see us as basically INSIDE-OUT?  Doesn't He always see the inside, and our true character
• RESPECT:  anybody who is doing the hard work of this podcast and of the spiritual walk has my respect. Super respect.  Sometimes, this is very difficult.  Being occasionally UNDONE is not much fun.

Thank you for listening and considering your INSIDES today.  Let's make our insides a MASTERPIECE today.  The only way to do that though, is to let Him, the MASTER, get a hold of us. Listen and fill in the blank, "But within you are....."

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The entire chapter of Matthew 23 is a rant about what God does NOT LIKE about the Pharisees.  So we get a real treasure.  By contrast, we find out what He DOES LIKE.  The Lord values some things that the Pharisees are doing a terrible job of.  He is letting them know their failures, and we can glean the Lord's priorities.  We find out what the Lord GIVES WEIGHT to.

The Lord loves His Kingdom
The Lord loves His people
The Lord loves people entering His Kingdom
The Lord loves truth and plainspeaking
The Lord loves good spiritual leadership
The Lord loves Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness

May the good Lord open our eyes to see these things.  May we keep our priorities straight so as to 'major on the majors.' Listen and see if you are burdened by the same things that the Lord gives weight to.  

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The Gospel writer Matthew has something to say.  He's gonna GO OFF on the Scribes and Pharisees for an entire chapter.  But first...you'll never believe this...he says to OBEY THEM.  Yup, PRACTICE AND OBSERVE the good stuff:  their OFFICE, their fidelity to the OT and the scriptures.  

But wait, there's more:  Watch their LIVES.  We don't want comic book characters of what spiritual leadership looks like.  We want those who walk the talk.  We want those with a big hat and lots of cattle, that is fruit.  Paul says multiple times:  do as I do.  do as I say.  

I ended up today in gratefulness for the pastors and spiritual leaders that I have had in the "sweet tenderloin" of my life.  They helped with the born again part, and since then have borne burdens and lived faithful, though human lives.  It is a high call and I am grateful.  You have shown me that the spiritual walk is possible. Go be a JOY to your pastor today.  If you don't have one, consider getting one.  Your listening is a delight to me.  Thank you.

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What are the CREDENTIALS of a Messiah?  How do you answer this?  What AUTHORITY to you use as paramount?

You can see the Pharisees in today's passage all eagerly raising their hands to answer Jesus' question.  They all 'KNEW' the pat answer.  Whose son is the Messiah?  Easy answer:  DAVID's son.

So far so good.  But who is greater?  Who is more important? David or his son?  Tradition holds that David's son will be LESS THAN David himself.  

So Jesus uses DAVID'S OWN WORDS in Psalm 110.  There David calls the coming Messiah "MY LORD".  That is as in, "this coming Messiah is my God, my King, and my LORD."  Even David, whom you hold as authoritative, points to the coming Messiah as his LORD.  That is, Jesus is greater than David.  Even David says so.

It is a drop the mic moment for the Pharisees.  Even David YIELDS to a King who will come in 1000 years.  Listen and see if we should too.

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Today a spiritual concept is physically related to DISTANCE.  Jesus tells an inquirer that he is NOT FAR from the Kingdom.  This is a big deal.  For Jesus, the Kingdom is everything.  The Kingdom is what He came to bring.  So, being CLOSE to it is very exciting.

For those of you who want CLOSURE today you are not going to get it.  We end the story with this scribe being NOT FAR.  We DON'T find out whether he does the necessary steps to get INTO the Kingdom.  Stay tuned, perhaps we will meet this guy in heaven.

In the meantime, there is much to admire and much to learn from him.  He demonstrates what it means to be NEAR:

• He listens to Jesus
• He assesses what he hears
• He approves what he hears
• He asks sincere follow up questions
• He integrates and connects other things he knows
• He answers Jesus wisely

So this is what it means to be near to the Kingdom.  Perhaps it is you.  Perhaps this brings a particular individual to mind.  One thing is surely left:  Yield, repent, bow, and believe.
Perhaps you are the one to help this person go from being NOT FAR to being IN.  Listen and close the distance.

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You shall LOVE.
Most important command in the OT gives the object:  God Himself.  TaDa!  You get to be in relationship with HIM.  Wowser.
2nd most important command in the OT gives the same command YOU SHALL LOVE but a different object:  PEOPLE. neighbors. the least. the greatest. the foreigners. the poor. the rich. the handicapped externally. the handicapped internally. those who you are even fighting with.

WHY?  All this sounds pretty hard unless we keep something in mind.  What is that?  Commandment #1.  We Love the LORD best when we love His CHILDREN best.  

In fact, if we go back to the original in Leviticus, it says this right after Love your neighbor as yourself: I AM THE LORD.  ie: Don't forget command and relationship #1 while you are considering and dealing with the messy command and relationship #2.

Funny, In James 2, the NEIGHBOR command is called the ROYAL LAW, not the GOD command.  James must have really gotten the concept.  

Listen and let's all do this right today. Find out what The Martian has to do with all of this. www.Bewithme.us.

The Old Testament is full of treasures.  There are diamonds there.  Some are on the surface. Some you gotta dig a little.  (Salute to David Mathis' Habits Of Grace) There is one commandment that is #1.  It is the Hope Diamond of the Old Testament.  Wouldn't you like to know what it is?  So did an Old-Testament-lover during the last week of Jesus' life.  So, HE ASKED. 

So what if we turned our bibles to that page...Would there be underlines?  Would there be stars and highlights?  Would there be coffee cup stains?  Would there be tears from our eyes from the message?  Today we will turn there and see what happens.

Something surprised me today in looking at the passage in my Old Testament.  It wasn't that Blazing Unity and eternal existence and infinite transcendency were in the passage.  They were.  But so were WE.  The knuckleheads.  WE get a piece of God. 

He reveals His relation-ality.  His Be-With-Me-ness.  He tells us what is to be our basis for a relationship with Him.  Today is mind-blowing and heart-blowing.  It is the most important thing in the Old Testament.  If you have never starred and underlined a passage in your Bible, then this is the one.  Listen and see why.

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It is Tuesday of the Great Week and Jesus does not suffer the foolishness of the Sadducees.  They come to Him to trap Him with a trick question about the resurrection. His response?

YOU ARE WRONG(about the resurrection, about marriage, about angels)....Yikes, could this be more clear?
and then Jesus tells them WHY.
BECAUSE YOU KNOW NEITHER THE SCRIPTURES
now this is interesting because two seconds later he refers to a Bible passage that they 'know'
NOR THE POWER OF GOD
apparently, God is published, perceivable, personal, knowable and they are accountable.

There's a lot for us to learn here.  For starters Jesus quotes the Old Testament and clarifies that this was SAID TO YOU BY GOD.

Reading the Bible does NOT EQUAL KNOWING the Bible.
Reading the Bible does NOT EQUAL KNOWING the Character and Qualities of God.
You mean I can read without purpose?  Without seeing?  YUP. 
Let's read the Bible as if it was said to us by God.  Why?  Because it IS said to us by God! Listen.

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Do you know exactly what's on a U.S. Quarter?  I tried this exercise this morning and failed miserably.  So, I suggest you reach into your pocket and try the same thing.  You will also fail miserably. 

Jesus asks His listeners to look at coins in a new way.  He asks us to look at our obligation to the government in a new way.  He asks us to look at our obligation to the LORD in a new way. 

It is a story about allegiance and lordship and eventually about LORDSHIP.  And one big big big memorable statement about
Rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and
Rendering to God what is God's.

So what do I owe Caesar?  It is a fine question. 
What do I owe God?  That, dear listeners is the Killer.  Listen and consider with me, but first, pull out a quarter...

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We want a just God.  However, we don't like what justice means.  We don't like that God, because of our rebellion, must sometimes go to DEFCON 4 in just punishment.

Jesus looks 'em in the eye today and reminds everybody that this is not new news.  Psalm 118 and Isaiah 8 talk about it.  It is not a surprise.  Don't pretend that you did not know this.  One of the great and wonderful and awesome and holy characteristics of Jesus is wrath.

But wait! There is more!  The news does not end there.  Welcome to one of my most referred to passages.  10 Stars in my bible.  "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."  The way I read this verse is there is a choice here to fall on the stone volitionally, vs. be defiant to the end and be crushed.  When one does fall on the stone, it still is not that pretty.  Just ask anybody who has become a believer.  There is an undoing; a coming to the end of oneself; a "being broken into pieces." 

Fall on Him.  Yield to Him.  You will be broken into pieces.  It will be worth it!  Where else can you go?  Listen and fall.  

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