Matthew 21:20-46, 22:1-46, 23:1-39, Mark 11:20-33, 12:1-44, Luke 20:17-47, 21:11-4
Matthew 21:20-22, Mark 11:20-26 - Where is my faith in God? Am I so confident that I could give orders to nature and believe they would be carried out? I find that I tend to see God on the sidelines for me. Always there, but rarely active. I'm afraid I run a little too close to deism in my practical faith. I intellectually acknowledge an active God, but am skeptical of any evidence that He actually does anything. I long for God to be real and living for me. I too rarely feel His presence in a way that is tangible. I'm not exactly certain how that would play out, but I think that I am missing an aspect of God that is personal, present and able to be felt.
Matthew 21:43 - I am so conditioned to think of evangelism and converting people when I think of 'fruit'. To bring someone to Christ is an amazing thing, yet I believe that fruit can be so much more. I'm tired of feeling guilty for not sharing enough or baptizing in years. Yet I also fear that I've had an overreaction to years of evangelistic emphasis and I am now dismissing the spirit when I'm called to share my faith. Lord, help me hear your voice and find the proper balance.
Matthew 22:15-33 - All this energy spent trying to trap Jesus. They are so convinced of their own knowledge that they don't bother to listen to Him. I've seen this in so many people, and even in myself. Pride is such a powerful and evil thing. It blocks understanding and learning, it prevents us from hearing and acknowledging God. It keeps people divided, so they are prevented from learning from each other's wisdom. I hate my pride, yet it is ever with me. I think I know enough, I don't need to read much. I think things are OK, I don't need to pray much. I think I understand a situation, I can tell you what you need to know. I think I could lead better, manage better, preach better, organize better. It's sickening how often it is intermingled in my existence.
Matthew 23:23-24 - I see so much of this scripture in the religion of our nation today, including my own church. We religious folk do a good job at playing church, showing up on Sunday and living by the 'rules'. But how good are we at mercy or justice? When there's sin in the camp, do we seek justice or a scapegoat? Do we speak up for the voiceless? Jesus did that and he condemned those who's religion was all ceremony. Isn't our religion in the US just ceremony sometimes? Personally, what does my religion lead me to do? I too am guilty. I sit here at my wireless laptop in my comfy house and I wonder, is my religion worth anything to God? Or does he weep at my deception?
Matthew 23:25-36 - This section is hard to read and not feel inadequate. I can see my self in these passages and it's painful. I fall so short of God's will, it's scary. Praise God for Jesus and His grace. Yet it feels like a cop out to say that. Yet I must remember that God loves me, not for what I do or how I measure up, nor even for who I am. He loves me because of who he is, perfect, loving. He loves me because he cannot do anything else. Even in my worst sin, he despises my behavior (because of the hurt is causes me and those around me) but loves me. What I do has no bearing on that. As a dad, I can understand that a little, for that's how I treat my girls, or how I want to anyway.
Where is my faith in God? Am I so confident that I could give orders to nature and believe they would be carried out?
I think to do so would be not a sign of confidence but of confusion or delusion. This is clearly a passage intended in a nonliteral sense. Because if we are to take it literally, it is clearly false, which means Christ himself was a liar or deluded. We have all prayed for numerous things and not received them, so I am forced to conclude that a literal reading of this passage is inappropriate. Another possible interpretation is that this was true only for those in his immediate presence when he made the statement...
(Love the formatting buttons and the preview pane, btw. Can I have the code?)
Erik,
There's a part of me that wonders if perhaps we aren't a little poisoned by our modern knowledge of the natural world so that we can no longer imagine such a faith. Mostly, however, I think that you're right about not taking it literally.
Mostly I was commenting on my confidence that God is with me. Jesus was so confident that he commanded trees to die and winds to cease. Now, He was also God in the flesh, which gave him a certain advantage.
My point was, why shouldn't I have that same kind of confidence. Sure, I won't be able to kill trees at will, but why not kill my pride or my laziness or impatience? If God is with me, shouldn't I be empowered to make reak, substantive change? Not just change, actually, but transformation. I just feel like I'm trudging along, in the right direction mind you, but only at the pace that my strength and knowledge can carry me. If I was truly confident of God's presence with me, I imagine I could do so much more.
As far as the code, sure you can have it. The live preview is all within the individual archive template, so you could grab it from the source of this page. The quick tags are a little more challenging. There are two JavaScript files you'll need and a few lines to add to your archive templates. All my comment forms are here in the individual archive and the error template, since I eliminated the pop up comment box and don't need a preview form anymore, so that makes it easier to implement. Only two places to add it instead of four.
It's all not that clean right now, I intend to tidy up the code so I can share it more easily. That's a bit hard since I only know enough JavaScript to be dangerous. Give me a few days and I'll have something for you.
I know what you mean about being "poisoned" by our knowledge. There is a part of me that feels like my mind is alive and full of knowledge, but my heart and soul are dead and incapable of creative faith. But I don't know how else to function.
Good stuff. I think every new testament scripture dealing with fruit talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Growing, changing, repenting, dieing to yourself, being different for God.
When we bear fruit in ourselves we can spread the seed John 12:24. And, we can plant and water but only God can make it grow, 1 Corinthians 3:6. And, we can help but only that person can bear fruit/change for God.
Maybe it's only mnemonics, whether fruit is helping someone else become a Christian or not it's still important to share our faith. I do think it does make a difference in how the scriptures impact us though.