Tag Archives: Jesus
the 40 day journey [a recap]
Some of you know we took a 40 day journey during Lent this year, and instead of asking, “What can we give up?” we asked, “What can we give?”. This led us into a very intense 40 day journey with a new challenge each and every day. I still have a few challenges I need to complete myself, but it was a joy to read through the story of Jesus across 40 days and try and accomplish a new challenge each day. Right now we have a post up for everyone to recap their time on the journey so if you took it, please drop a few notes about your experience, and if you didn’t then feel free to stop by and check out what everyone wrote.
reverse.
A little over a year ago I was in the middle of some of the biggest struggles and doubts of my life. I was searching and desiring to know what God really wanted from my life and what my life as a Christian was supposed to be about. I had spent so much time in Church, and Christian School, and Seminary and more Church that I think I was starting to forget what it was all about in the first place.
So I dove into the one place that made the most sense for me - Jesus’ Prayer. The one in Matthew 6 where he is telling his disciples what to pray for. I thought, “If this is what Jesus wanted his disciples to pray for, isn’t this what I should be about?” I spent a long time just turning the prayer over in my mind, thinking it, praying it, even living it. (As a side note, it is amazing how fast the prayer for daily bread becomes a real prayer and not a spiritual one when you actually need daily bread and are not sure where resources will come from day to day.) Anyways, back to our story… it all changed one night as I was meditating on the prayer.
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what a november!
November brought a lot of craziness… from a computer crash to getting sick to The Feast to Thanksgiving. Life has been crazy for everyone, including you I am sure with all the Thanksgiving food and fun. But I wanted to share some of our stories from The Feast last week.
The Feast was our massive (pre)Thanksgiving meal of around 70 people who gave $1000 worth of Kroger gift cards to feed 40 families for Thanksgiving! It was a great night of live music, good smoked turkey, and meeting new friends. But the real fun started the next day when we went out to buy all the meals…
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Jesus and Money
What does Jesus have to say about money? This is a collection of most of the teachings Jesus had on money. Several of these stories are repeated in various forms throughout the Gospels and the repeats are not included here. Take time to ponder these and think through what this means to us today.
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8.1-9.34
Matthew 8:1-9.34 | Matthew has this huge chunk of miracle stories, large enough to choke a mule, all grouped together in chapters 8 and 9. You have to understand that it is well worth the time to take these stories as individual nuggets, sitting on them for a few hours, or even a few days; but there are times when it is incredibly clarifying (not to mention satisfying…mmmm…mmmmm) to step back from our “bible microscope” and look at the big picture Matthew is painting.
These miracle stories are loaded with the healings of people who are in agony: some have leprosy, another guy is paralyzed, another one is naked and possessed by a demon (not good on either account!), still others are blind or mute, and one girl is just stone-cold dead. Jesus heals them all. He even has a moment where he tells, no, commands, the winds and the waves to stop. This is earth-shattering stuff. But why does he do it?
What’s the point of all the miracles?
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8.1-4
Matthew 8:1-4 | The moment when Jesus healed the man with leprosy is shocking when you begin to think about it. It’s shocking because Jesus touched him. He didn’t have to. He could have said, “be healed” or something cooler like, “leprosy be gone”, who knows…. But he didn’t. He touched him. He touched an unclean outcast who had probably not been touched in a long, long time.
Sometimes I think we all forget that part. We are so eager for a person to “get saved” that we forget how important touch is. We tell them how Jesus can heal their brokenness but forget to touch the pain. Jesus did not have to touch him to heal him - he chose to. He identified with the hurt and pain of the leper in a way only touching could. We have to remember that in proclaiming the salvation of God we are also the hands of God. We are his body.
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5.1-5.12
[youversion]Matthew 5:1-5:12[/youversion] | Known as “The Sermon on the Mount”, this is the longest teaching of Jesus we have and is for lack of a better description… a kingdom manifesto for living out heaven on earth. The start of this is often known as the Beatitudes, or as I was taught in Sunday School, The Be Attitudes. Yes, the “Be-tudes” as us cool kids called them for short, were basically a giant list of things we should be if we want to get into heaven when we die.
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4.23-4.25
[youversion]Matthew 4:23-4:25[/youversion] | After calling his first disciples Jesus begins to travel around a small area called Galilee, teaching in the Synagogues with the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. What does that mean? After all when I grew up hearing the word “Gospel” I honestly thought it was a type of music I didn’t like… But then I was told it was something like, “You’re a vile sinner doomed to hell, but Jesus died for your sins, so if you pray this prayer Jesus will save you and then you can go live with him in heaven for forever when you die.” Uummmmm…hhhmmmmm…not sure this is really the Good News…
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4.18-4.22
[youversion]Matthew 4:18-4:22[/youversion] | So we pick back up with Jesus selecting his first disciples. We cannot miss how crucial this is to the “good news” story Matthew is telling us. Jesus calls two sets of brothers to leave everything they are pouring their lives into and come follow him. So maybe leaving behind a life of bad sunburns and only dating girls who have lost their sense of smell isn’t that hard, but maybe leaving behind everything you have worked for up to this point in your so-so (c’mon you know being a fisherman is only so-so) life would be a challenge. But these four guys lose their fish-sticks over a chance to follow the Messiah. Somehow they have gotten word that this man is worth more than what they are currently giving their lives to. They don’t understand the amazingness that following this man will get them into or what it will cost them… but they follow.
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DISCUSS