Notes to the Lord: Need meets Intention

Scripture Reflections: Matthew 15

³²Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way."

³³His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?"

Lord Jesus--As I write this it is the middle of the night and I am awake again...reading, and writing and talking with you while music plays in the background. Insomnia is something that you knew a little about...you stayed up all night to pray.

As I think of these people who were all around you...they were surrounding you with need. You could sense their need. You had healed their sick and now the hunger of the crowd was so thick in the air that it could almost be tasted. You could not see those eyes that were newly opened and so full of hope come to harm for lack of food at this moment.

You did not send them away without meeting their need...there had been celebration in the air, but now there was immediate need...hunger. Lord Jesus--you knew thier need that day in that deserted region between the Sea and the mountains not too far from Magadan. You remind me tonight that you did not turn these people away in their need nor will you turn me away in my need. Lord Jesus speak to me tonight.

Lord Jesus--You fed these needy people even though these two incidents of mass feedings became the 1st century equivalent of a sound bite repented endlessly out of context and twisted in a knot and stood on it head. Thank you that you still met their need even knowing what it would ultimately cost you. The road to the cross runs right straight through the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand.

³⁴"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked."Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."³⁵He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. ³⁶Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people.

Lord Jesus--You were thankful for the far too little bread and fish for too large a group. I see the little and you see the possible...forgive me Lord for allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the little in the middle of the very place where faith has enough room to work.

³⁷They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ³⁸The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. ³⁹After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

Lord Jesus--There are those who believe that the real miracle was the you helped people to share what they all already had...if that was what happened that would have been a pretty big miracle. But that leaves the miracle in the hands of the people. I have no idea how you met the need that day on the lake, it overwhelms me that you care about the needs that confront me. I know with out a doubt that you are able to meet whatever need is waiting for me in tomorrow light.

Lord Jesus continue your work inside me.

Notes to the Lord:Praise That Can Not Be Contained

Scripture Reflections: Matthew 15

²⁹Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.³⁰Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.

Lord Jesus--The sea in the background and the mountainside rising behind you, there might have been a slight breeze in the air that day as the people came to you. You sat down and the people came. They were drawn by the reality of the power and miracles that were done at your touch and at your command.

They brought their loved ones to you, those who might have been kept at home in the background up to this point. After all they were not perfect and there was the implication that physical limitation was the judgment of God. Blind people saw for the first time with the lake and the mountain surrounding them. They felt the sea breeze as it played on the lake. The lame walked for the first time on the side of the mountain. I wonder if they wandered with free feet along the sea shore wading in the water...running along the beach.

Lord Jesus--You still care just as much for the people that surround me, and there are just as many people who keep in the background because of less than perfect lives, some with hurts and limitations in body and mind. Your willingness to heal has not changed, nor has you ability to touch lives.

³¹The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

The reaction of the people was to praise the God of Israel...to praise the Father. It must have been music to your ears to hear the people...ordinary people changed by grace not being able to contain their praise. People who had not had the use of language, using their new found abilities to praise the God who was moving with power in their bodies. It was worship and water and praise rising up to the halls of heaven.

Notes to the Lord:Crumbs are Enough

Scripture Reflections: Matthew 15
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

Lord Jesus even in an area where you had not been engaged in ministry people followed you because of the miracles that were happening all around you. This women was reaching out to you even through you were not of her race and even though she may not have known all that she was asking...still she asked. She saw the impact of evil on her daughter, she could identify the demonic.

23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Lord Jesus--You were sent to the lost of Israel and yet because of the rejection that was already forming in the religious elite of your day salvation to people like this women and people like me was made possible. Thank you.

25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Lord Jesus--Faith that moves mountains also can heal little ones that have been given up as lost. Faith in the power of your grace to transform the situations of my life is the center of what it means to know that you are at work.

Lord Jesus today I believe that you can make changes in the world that surrounds me. The crumbs from your table were more than enough to heal this little one. What can crumbs do today? Work Lord Jesus

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.