Matthew 8:14-15
The path of discipleship in Jesus includes iitating his ministry of healing by bringing love's touch to people and situations needing to be set right.
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Matthew 8:1-4
Christians share Jesus' work of redeeming by human touch and restoring by cleansing word. Matthew 7:13-14
The difficult way to the narrow gate into eternal life is not obvious. A person must search for it. Jesus himself provides the model of what we are looking for. It is the way of love--imitating the cross of Jesus--that leads home to heaven. This requires great patience and perseverance. Matthew 7:12
Religious people mean well when creating many expectations--even rules--to govern how to be truly religious. In this passage, Jesus provides a form of the one rule commanded for his followers to follow in their lives. Matthew 7:7-11
Ask. Seek. Knock. God knows what each of us needs at every moment. He already moves to meet our needs. (Remember Matt 6:24-34.) Like any good father--and infinitely more than the best human fathers--God wants us to ask him for whatever is on our heart. Not that he will grant everything we wish for. But so that he can teach us and relate to us like fathers relate to their children. Matthew 7:6
Though disciples are not to be judgmental of others (Matt 7:1-5), Jesus does teach us to know who we are dealing with. The Kingdom of God is precious, and its resources are not to be treated casually or carelessly. Some situations might only be a waste of time, or, worse, putting Kingdom things at risk of being abused and mistreated. Disciples are to have some "street smarts" as we go about our mission for the Lord. Matthew 7:1-5
Disciples of Jesus are as prone as anyone to make judgments about others. In this passage Jesus teaches us to pay attention to our judgmentalism. It might be a sign that we have much bigger issues in ourselves than those we call attention to in others. Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus said, "Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth...Store up treasures in heaven...," (Matthew 6:19-20). In today's text, Jesus doubles down on this radical attitude toward the power and riches of this world. As though he anticipates common-sense objections from his disciples, Jesus teaches that there is no justification for making the "necessities" of life our highest priority. Instead, our first thought and devotion must be to how we can serve the Kingdom of God with what God has given us today. Matthew 6:19-21
Jesus's resurrection proves the reality of the Christian hope for eternal life beyond death. It also demonstrates the divine power available to help Christians live Jesus' way now. Jesus calls Christians to store up treasures in heaven, because that is where our hearts will be. We also hear him saying that our hearts will have immense resources to serve God faithfully and to love others well. We need to be sure that we are investing out devotion, our time, and our money in that eternal hope. |
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