Pride of the Pharisees

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The Pharisees were the religious in-crowd of Jesus’ day. They were the authority figures in the synagogues. Their teachings had been handed down from the time of Moses, but the Pharisees had added knit-picky rules and adapted them to suit themselves over the centuries.

Jesus came with teachings that reflected the original intent of God’s laws. His teachings embarrassed the Pharisees by exposing their hypocrisy. The people flocked to hear Jesus teachings and to see the miracles he performed. Meanwhile the Pharisees became so jealous of Jesus that they began to look for ways to have him put to death.

If the Pharisees had truly been looking for the Messiah, they would have been willing to recognize Jesus for who he was. But in their proud hearts they enjoyed their positions of authority and rebelled against being challenged.

How seriously are we looking for the true Jesus? If someone were to point out an area in our lives where we choose to bend the rules for our own advantage, are we willing to repent and change? Or would we prefer to diminish the naysayer in some way to cause him to lose credibility in others’ eyes because he embarrassed us. How badly do we want to understand Jesus’ teachings? Do we read the Bible with a “yes, but…” attitude whenever we don’t want to take it at face value – are we willing to dig deeper to find the underlying truths?

Jesus is interested in the heart. A heart full of pride will find little room for Jesus.

Father God, help us see our hearts as you see them. Give us hearts that are willing to know you in a way that will enable us to replace our pride with loving obedience.

Let the little children come to me

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Mothers were bringing their children and babies to Jesus hoping he might touch them, but the Disciples were annoyed. In their minds Jesus had more important things to do than to be bothered with children. But Jesus’ response surprised them. “Let the little children come to me… for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:14)

Jesus made it clear to his Disciples that children have great worth. They don’t become important after they mature into adults and make a name for themselves. It is our responsibility to nurture them and bring them up in Jesus’ love.

In another verse, (Matthew 18:2-4), Jesus emphasizes the trusting nature of children. The Disciples were arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus called a child to come to him, and using the child as an example, he explained to the Disciples that to be great they must become humble as this child. While children are still young they are generally more humble, forgiving, and trusting than the adults around them. These are the attributes Jesus wants to see in us as we seek out our Heavenly Father.

Let us take time to reflect on our attitudes toward the children in our lives. Do we brush them aside to take care of more important matters, or do we consider them to be our most important priority of each and every day. Then let us examine our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Are we as willing to trust him as a young child is to trust his mother or father, or are we holding too tightly to the reins in our lives?

Father, help us to better understand the father – child relationship and our roles in it. May we nurture the children in our lives as you would nurture us. And may we also have the trust in you that you rightly deserve as our Heavenly father.

Ash Wednesday – Beginning of Lent

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What is Ash Wednesday? I grew up in the church and had often heard about the 40 days of Lent in which Christians would give up something for Lent, but I had never heard of Ash Wednesday until my last move when I joined my present church.

The Ash Wednesday service serves as a reminder to the congregation that we came from dust and that we will return to dust. This message is personally delivered to each participant as they kneel at the alter while the pastor or priest places a cross of ashes on his or her forehead with his finger.

The Ash Wednesday service also serves to remind us of our need for repentance of our sins to receive God’s forgiveness. An Ash Wednesday service typically includes communion following the imposition of the ashes.

The Ash Wednesday service takes place on the first day of Lent or 40 days Before Easter. The first day of Lent falls on February 22 in 2012.

I have mixed feelings about this service. I love the message that it brings and feel the need to absorb it fully every year. I am not ashamed to be seen wearing the cross on my forehead following the service; however, I have problems with wearing it as a badge to show how holy I might be (or not). I feel that for me, the place I need to be following an Ash Wednesday service is at home in a period of reflection with my Lord. But many see this as an opportunity to share their faith as people ask why they have a cross of ashes on their foreheads.

I post this article about Ash Wednesday to inform, not to instruct. I don’t believe anyone’s salvation is sealed by whether or not they participate in an Ash Wednesday service. But I especially want parents to know what the ashes represent so if they are with their children and they see people with crosses of ashes on their foreheads they can explain what it is about. This is not a sign of a mysterious cult. Churches of many denominations practice this tradition.

Father God, we thank you for your gift of your Son. May we never take it for granted. Prepare our hearts to know you fully. Help us to be aware of the shameful areas in our lives that still demand repentance and help us to turn away from them so we can serve you wholeheartedly.

To learn more about Ash Wednesday services, read Ashes to Ashes as it appeared in the February 9, 2010 issue of Christianity Today.

Christmas Musings (2)

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The question I dread being asked the most every year has always been, “What did you get for Christmas?” As a child I was always embarrassed because my friends would rattle off a long list of things they got and I would try my best to make my single gift sound exciting too. Even as an adult I’ve never been privileged to receive extravagant Christmas gifts. Writing this post is embarrassing. Thankfully, I’m less likely to be asked what I got for Christmas.

This year my husband Dave and I agreed to skip buying gifts if it meant using the credit card. We found other ways to say Merry Christmas.

Dave shared a cartoon with me along this vein. I encourage you to read it by clicking on this link.

How and why have we allowed the commercialism of Christmas to dominate the celebration of Christ’s birth? How can we bring Jesus to his rightful place and make his birth holy again?

I don’t presume to have the answers. I’ll venture to offer a few ideas, but I’m really looking for ideas and hope my readers will share some of the ways they celebrate Christ’s birth in a meaningful way.

  • Read the Christmas story aloud from Matthew and Luke in the Bible a little at a time every night starting on December 1st. If you finish reading it before Christmas, start over with another Bible translation. Bible Gateway has many online translations to choose from if you run out of translations.
  • Act out the different scenes, especially if you have children at home.
  • Make drawings, Christmas tree ornaments, or other crafts that tell the story of the first Christmas.
  • Give meaningful gifts to those who have little.
  • Give a gift of time, not money, and build relationships.
  • Find a way to participate in an old-fashioned Christmas pageant.
  • Go Christmas caroling, even if you go by yourself or with only one or two friends.
  • Help your children make Christmas gifts that are useful (and non-fattening) for relatives and friends.
  • Spend time as a volunteer in a community food bank or soup kitchen. Include children or grandchildren in this activity.

What are some ways you keep your focus on the true meaning of Christmas? Please share them in the comments below.

Christmas Musings

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The rushing and hubbub of Christmas is behind us and we are left with a major clean-up job. For most of the world, Christmas is over until next year. But on the Christian calendar, Christmas isn’t over for another twelve days culminating on January 6 representing the time the wise men brought their gifts to Jesus.

I considered writing a twelve-day devotional book for reading over these twelve days, but I still haven’t written it. I also thought I would write a devotional a day for my blog, but here it is, three days into the twelve… I missed my chance again, but thought I might still try for some Christmas musings anyway.

My church had a Bible study this year called Christmas Is Not Your Birthday. It was very helpful to put our focus on the Christ child instead of on Christmas gifts. Imagine someone giving a birthday party in your honor but everyone brought gifts for each other instead of for you. We were reminded of the scripture that says 40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ ” (Matt 25:40 NIV) Perhaps we need to be honoring Jesus and one another by giving gifts to those who have nothing.

I heard portions of a speech by a man who had thoroughly researched the roots of our cultural traditions on how we celebrate Christmas, and it was very unsettling. Not only do we wear ourselves out to get all these decorations in place, the roots are deeply embedded in paganism. I hope to find a way to put a manger in my living room next year instead of a Christmas tree. To make it more authentic I would have to add straw and some animal poop, but I don’t think I could bring myself to take it that far.

For most, it would be very difficult to trash the family traditions, but by bringing in new and better traditions, perhaps the old traditions could become less important – putting up smaller trees, giving smaller gifts to family and friends and increasing gifts to homeless shelters, prison ministries, and orphanages, or to one or more impoverished family in your own community. My husband has been volunteering in a community food pantry. This year he began a new tradition in our family by taking our granddaughters to help carry boxes of food to the cars of the needy people who came for them.

We have a full year to think about what we will do next Christmas. Don’t let the busy-ness of life crowd out the opportunity to think it through and make a difference.