Notes to the Lord:From a Heart that Continies to Look For You

Scripture Reflections: Matthew 15

¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand.¹¹What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

¹²Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

¹³He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Leave them; they are blind guides.^[e] If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

Lord Jesus--The original question was about hand washing which had become a ritual that needed to be done exactly for anyone who really wanted to be religious. There had grown around the Jewish insights about God a legalism that had made the whole quest after God into something that was list of behaviors.

There have been those times in my life when I thought that the quest after after you was found in so many silly things...none of which were really bad, just not ultimately effective. Seeking after You is not so much about education as application, not so much about "don'ts" as it is about "do's." Following You is about discovering I can grow anywhere as long as I follow where your lead.

I grew up in a culture that thought of itself as christian but thought that chrisitianity was about behavior. Many times we missed the point that the real issue was the heart. Are behaviors important? Sure, but you see the heart of me, before I do. You separate intent from action...continue the work of Your Holy Spirit in my heart Lord.

Lord Jesus--Seeking after you has more to do with what comes out of my mouth than what goes in...words that heal or words that hurt...intentions given voice that push myself and those around me closer to you or further away from you.

¹⁶"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. ¹⁷"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

Lord Jesus--The things that really matter come from the heart, and as they come to the surface they also form my heart. That is the tricky part...that is the part that continues to be a moving target in my life, how do I continue to let you work with freedom. I need to allow you the room and the freedom to continue to change my heart and mind. I have noticed that you speak sometimes at the most surprising times to my heart...and through people that I would never expect.

The promise is that spiritual formation will happen as I give you the room you need to make that happen.

Romans 12

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritua act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Help me in this day that will begin in just a short time, to focus on the things that really matter.

Notes to the Lord:The Steps Lead On

Scripture Reflection:Matthew 15

³Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' ⁵But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' ⁶he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

^{Lord Jesus--You are not content with those who follow you to stay on the edges. You do not allow me to remain in control...it is a required course to confront my control issues.}

^{You will not allow me to avoid the truth. You call me again and again to the heart of the matter...obedience to your call. To obey the command, but not to in the obedience loose sight of the very roots of the intention of the command in the first place...you call me to heart obedience, not just tradition.}

⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
⁸" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
⁹They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men."

Lord Jesus--So where are those places where I give lip service to obedience and yet fall flat on my face in real heart of the matter? It isn't about washing hands before a meal that is the most important issues to be concerned about. Hand-washing was the issue that started this teaching triggered by the Pharisees. Nor is it about giving instead of honoring parents...the issue is control.

It is amazing how a simple question can trigger so much...this was the harding of opposition to Your ministry Lord Jesus. These men questioning sensed the radical call to obedience that Your ministry implied and they were not ready to follow.

The central question since the garden of Eden has been who is in control. Or put more personally...will my wandering, wayward heart follow your call? Your call which not so much a state of being, but instead an ongoing call to follow the soft sandal clad footfall of your steps through the days of my life.

Lord Jesus keep my feet moving with Yours.

Notes to the Lord:Looking for the Edges But Avoiding Going the Dotted Line

Matthew 14

³⁴When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. ³⁵And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him ³⁶and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Lord Jesus--There is this reoccurring theme in your word of almost a kind of a stigmatism of the soul...being able to see the edges but missing the most important parts.

It happened with the healing ministry that you had with the people. They wanted to touch and be touched at the point of their need, but somehow not let that touch impact they rest of their lives. They focused on the edge of your cloak instead of the person who was in the cloak. They wanted to be healed and changed in one touch and yet not have to do the work of change in those areas in their lives where healing took work, attention and an approach that went right down the center of the road head on.

Matthew 15

Clean and Unclean

¹Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ²"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

Lord Jesus--This is really the same theme. The teachers of the law wanted to know why the externals of the law were not being taught in the middle of missing the essence of duty, honor and care to those who need it the most. It is wanting the edges and not the very point of what a relationship with You is all about.

So where are the places where the center needs to seep and sweep into my heart and life? Where is it that Living Springs is focusing on the edges and missing the whole picture of your grace?

Whenever I am more concerned with style then substance I am stuck in the edges and not looking at things head on. Whenever I would prefer to look at the effects of your grace and not into Your face Lord Jesus I am on the edges looking in. Whenever I am worshiping the gift and not the giver of the gift I am focusing on the edges.

Lord Jesus help these hard to focus eyes to see you coming at me head on down the dotted line.

Notes to the Lord: A Walk with Jesus

Matthew 14

22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Lord Jesus--You were awake in the night...alone with your thoughts, the Father and the Holy Spirit. You spent time on the mountain, the people were gone and the disciples sent away. It was time to reflect on the death of John, on the press of the crowd and their expectations, and the need for new connection for shifting the ministry in a different direction. Thank you for the example of time spent in prayer...time to reflect on all that was happening and would happen.

When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. ²⁵During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

The fourth watch of the night was just before dawn, it was some time between 3 to 6 in the morning that You can to these struggling men in a small boat in the middle of a deep lake. You had spent most of the night in prayer and now it was on the water that you started across the lake. They had worked the oars all night in a fight against the wind and the waves. Somehow ironic, it sounds like the life I live sometimes.

Lord Jesus--In this incident You demonstrated that the normal rules of the way things work in everyday life can change as you direct and dictate. Faith is not bounded by the normal rules of solids and liquids...can the Master of the universe make water a solid? Sure...it is called ice. You can do it no matterwhat the temperature. Can you do what is not possible in the situations that I find myself involved in? Absolutely...work Lord Jesus.

As I write this I am preparing to leave for Jason's graduation from graduate school a time of transition and celebration. In very real ways this was a time of transition in your ministry and in the lives of the disciples.

You were asking them to see you and allow you to challenge them to new places in their experience of you. You were calling them to trust even when it is not comfortable and even when the wind is blowing all around them. You ask the same from me. A walk with you Lord is not always a stroll through the pines in the cool of the evening. Sometimes it is a walk that is surround by fear and wind, when it looks as if you are

a ghost to these eyes of mine. The real question is: am I willing to allow You to stretch the limits my soul?

26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were

terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. ²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."28"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29"Come," he said.

Peter could have just as easily kept his mouth shut...but instead he was willing to do what he had never done before. He asked for the wind and the water. I can stay in the boat. You allow for that in your plans for my life. I am sure that it would have been less messy if Peter had just stay in that little fishing boat as the wind played with their lives. But he did not stay seated...he got up and listened to your call.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

³¹Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

Lord Jesus--That is always the question isn't? Why did he doubt? Peter, I know how it feels. Why do I doubt? Maybe it is the wind and maybe it is the water playing games just under my feet...maybe it is the nightmares that plays at the edge of my mind and heart. Maybe it is the fear that you will let me fall for no reason. Lack of faith expresses it self in so many ways in my experience...denial doesn't help when I am all wet.

³²And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

Lord Jesus--In the middle of the moisture of my lack of faith I have real appreciation for the spirit of this fisherman Peter...he and I could have had some fun together. There is also the certain knowledge that even when I get my feet wet, it is always better to move than to stay in the safe boat. You can use my wet feet in your kingdom in a way and place that reaches me when I am in over my head.

As the wind dies down, there is worship even with wet feet and face, I worship the One who calls, sustains and blesses.

Notes to the Lord: A DInner With Jesus

Scripture Reflections:Matthew 14
¹⁵As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

¹⁶Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."

Lord Jesus--I wonder what the thoughts were that went through the minds of the disciples when they thought about this impossible request. Did you see the looks on their faces? Sometimes I think that I know how they felt...overwhelmed with no clue how to meet the need. Yet ignoring the need does not make it go away, nor does looking the other way when I know that it is there.

¹⁷"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.

Lord Jesus--Each time when I turn around and look at the need it calls to me and my first reaction is much like that of the disciples. Here is what I have Lord, do with it what you will...and somehow that releases your grace in I way that I don't understand. It is almost as if somehow just beyond the reach of my fingertips your grace is able to operate. So why then is it so hard to let go of the too little resources to meet the need? Ok, so Lord the control issues are not as far away as I thought.

¹⁸"Bring them here to me," he said. ¹⁹And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ²⁰They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Lord Jesus--You took what was available and met the need. Where are the places that you want me to allow you the room to work? Work with the dead fish that I have available to you in this day, make of them what could never be without your grace.

Notes to the Lord: One Step At A Time

Matthew 14
¹³When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Lord Jesus--There was an impact on the way that you approached ministry because of the death of John. It was a transition. John was someone who you had a connection with, a cousin, a person who at some level had insight into who you were. I am sure that there was a level at which you grieved his loss.

You withdrew to work through the implications of that loss and the needs of the people followed you. You met their need even when you longed for time to just be alone. You healed the sick and you taught these seekers. The needs did not stop because you were impacted by the death of John. You found the strength to work through the loss.

Your source of experience, strength and hope is available to me today Lord Jesus in the middle of the life that surrounds me. What would you say if you looked out over my little world? "Reach out to the seekers you will only have this chance once." "One step in front of the other, Kurt" "Strength will rise, as you wait upon me, Kurt."

You remind me that You go with me in every situation that comes my way. I am not left alone to integrate the death of friend or for that matter the successes that come during the journey. You are the One the makes sense of all of it for me.

Lord Jesus--I live in a world that wants to make a hero or a zero out of me. You know me better than that...I am sometimes both and neither. Keep my eyes focused on you and the way you see me. In this day Lord Jesus I depend on you to lead, guide and focus me as I continue the journey a step at a time.

Note to the Lord:Light in Dark Places

Matthew 14
1At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2and he said to his attendants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him."

Lord Jesus--Even Herod the case-hardened political infighter was rattled by the witness of John and the words of this prophet. The first thing that he could think of was when he heard of You was that John had risen from the dead and was back being a pest. There could be only one reason for the power that was at work in Your ministry, John was back. Herod wanted to explain away the reality of the power that was at work in Your ministry in a way that he was the center of.

3Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, 4for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her." 5Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.

Lord Jesus--John the prophet could not be quiet in the face of power that was doing what was out of the plan of God. I am sure that John knew the risks when he spoke out. And yet he spoke more than once and with enough force to bring Herodias to the point of wanting him dead.

I can just imagine the conversations that must have burned up the palace hallways after one of John's visits. I am sure that there must have been broken dinnerware on the floor and angry words spoken. Herod must have heard his fill of John and this angry women who was now his roommate confidant and lover.I wonder if Herod ever had to duck to avoid the flying dinner plate. I hope so.

6On Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much 7that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist." 9The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10and had John beheaded in the prison. 11His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

Lord Jesus--John was killed for the telling the truth to someone who did not want to hear it. He was killed to appease an angry women by a man who had little internal sense of right and wrong. Herod knew political control but not internal personal control.

Ultimately Herod was left alone with his thoughts and his musings. I wonder if it was late at night in the palace that Herod thought of John and this last time he saw him, and then the reports of people being raised from the dead and demons running the other way...and your name Lord Jesus. Herod was left to his guilt.

Lord Jesus in this coming day, help me to shine like a candle. John knew about shining in the darkness that surrounded him. Give me that kind of courage when needed.