Tag: Zechariah

Devotional 190: Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

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Matthew 5:1-10

The Beatitudes

5 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The result of earthly devotion to Christ is tagged on each end of His sermon by the same one: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

As servants, we are given gifts and talents by the Master to use to His benefit while He is away from us. In the parable Jesus tells, some are gifted more than others, but all are gifted. The proper use of them brings increase, but not using them, indeed, hiding them, not only results in decrease, but in the Master’s wrath and the loss of position in His service.

Let’s be clear: G-d does not need our money (Haggai 2:8), nor our gifts, for He is the one who imparts them, and we call him Almighty for a reason.

He desires our gifts be put into service to help and bless, coming alongside fellow believers in ministry who are gifted in ways we are not, but all working toward the kingdom’s goals. As we use them, G-d will give the increase, and we will bear fruit for our faith as well as our labor and sacrifice.

The cost comes in trying to live by the spirit in a world of flesh and sin. Paul reminds us this will be a lifelong battle, dividing us within and affecting those around us (2 Cor: 3-11) as we are persecuted for speaking truth to the devil’s power, such as we give him over our lives. The pressure to be silence, and the spirits that work evil around us, can be such that like Paul, we also despair of life.

David, in a show of great strength, even prays for mercy toward his enemies who mock his faith in that they not be slain, just brought down and scattered. (Psalm 59:11)

fIs this a strength, an integrity of spirit, a fast holding to a teaching to love our enemies, that we can honestly say we possess? If struck for the Gospel, or worse, will we count ourselves worthy like Peter and the Apostles? (Acts 5)

Would we have it in us to rejoice for being persecuted in ways that hurt us, interrupted us, incapacitated us, for preaching the Gospel? Or would we renounce Him for comfort, hoping that He will forgive and know our hearts, knowing that He says if we don’t confess and proclaim Him before men, He will not do so before the Father?

As the tides of immorality and turning away from Christ’s teachings unfold around us, under the guises of tolerance and politics, masking sin as rights, freedoms, and patriotism, let more sober minds and holy tempers pray our officials take heed of the words of Zechariah (7:9 -10)

9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Execute true justice,
Show mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’

He will turn a deaf ear to our cry of “God bless America” if we do not in turn bless Him as one nation truly under one G-d, while we yet have freedom to worship Him in spirit and truth.

Therefore I pray:

Lord Jesus,

We are living in an empire unraveling, borne of sin, yet prospered and protected by Your hand, for the Father allowed it to flourish in spite of its evils, according to the His will and plan.

We honor You now with cold lips, hard hearts, and unrepentant prideful spirits that You are giving us license to act upon because we say Your Name to sanction that which we do of our own will, and not from a desire to live according to Your teaching, and to the Father’s glory.

Devotional 134: His Blood Be On Us

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Matthew 27: 21-26

 21 The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”

They said, “Barabbas!”

22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”

They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”

23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?”

But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”

24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”

25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

26 Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.

What a powerful curse the people called down on themselves! If not for Jesus interceding, even as He was dying, the Father’s wrath may have well been visited on Israel’s misguided religious leaders and the Roman empire. (Luke 23:34)

Yet our loving Lord, forsaken by the very source of His glory who darkened the heavens because He could not look on the worldly sins gathering like vultures at the cross, asked forgiveness, his holy blood already spilling to cover the most heinous sinners in the crowd.

This world, which thrives on quid pro quo and being one-up on each other, can’t conceive of that kind of love.

The sons of Abraham and Moses would have doomed themselves for generations to defy the Son of G-d with such an oath. It is because of this that when we return to our sin, backsliding in moments of temptation, doubt, and anger that our Father says if we return to Him, He will return to us. (Zechariah 1:3)

It’s only through this intercession that our names remain in the Book of Life, and the only means through which He’ll not remember our sins. (Hebrews 10:16-17)

His blood is on us, and hopefully on our children, not as a curse, but a blessing, and through our faith, the only path through which our souls are redeemed. We have these words from our Savior to sustain us:

Matthew 26:27-28

27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Our sins are not covered over now, they are removed, as if they’d never happened, and forgotten, as if we never did them. If that isn’t cause to give thanks and praise, nothing else comes close. If that doesn’t merit worship in spirit and truth, nothing does.

John 1:29

The Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Judas, when filled with remorse and confronting the men who paid him, did not say he betrayed an innocent man, but innocent blood. (Matthew 27:3-4)

Pilate would not pass the death sentence on Christ, heeding the warning of his wife (Matthew 27:19) and washed his own hands to symbolically claim his unwillingness to be part of the bloodthirsty mob, echoing the words of the religious leaders to Judas, “You see to it.”  (Matthew 27:24) Make no mistake, Pilate was a worldly man, fully a part of a hedonistic empire, but the words of Jesus disturbed him. (John 19:10-11)

10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

11 Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

Today, let us be thankful His blood is upon us, over us, around us, and hopefully, over our progeny not as a curse, but a blessing, shed for the remission of sin, so that we might be together, now and forever.

Therefore I pray:

Lord Jesus,

The cleansing is daily, as brief as the days are, and as fleeting as life is.

We fail over and over, and like the good shepherd You are, You wait, and help, and heal us, and bless us again with fresh anointing from the Spirit, with renewed hearts, and yet our most iron resolve to repent crumbles almost as soon as we’re granted forgiveness. 

We are weak and lost without You, condemned to eternal punishment, and yet You interceded even for those who lurked and plotted in the night to see You die. Barrabas was the first to benefit from Your sacrifice, the thief on the cross was the second, and down through the ages, here we are from every nation praying for another day that we not be cut off, our names blotted from the Book of Life, our works worthy to withstand the judgment fires.

Today, on this Father’s Day, let us return once more to our Father in Heaven, who we can only give the scraps of our worship, the uncertainty of our thanks, the ravages of our righteousness, the lukewarm love of our hardened hearts, and our wavering faith.

Thank You for letting us know that You will never cast out those who seek You in earnest longing to be reconciled to the One who sent You.

Thank You for letting us know that You and the Father are One, though He is greater than You. (John 14:8)

Let us, today, turn to our Father and speak these words directly to Him, as no man other than the Son of God is worthy to intercede for us:

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”

May it be done to us as You have said.

Amen.