I had a rough week and didn’t have the time nor energy to study as hard as I normally do preparing my lessons. So I thought we could look at some verses and discuss them.
Forgiveness of both ourselves and of others is one of the things the Lord taught us to pray about. In part 4 I left off with this line from The Lord’s Prayer:
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)
and I asked what came before the “and”?
So, what did?
Here is the entire pattern prayer as combined from Matthew and Luke:
Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4
” And Jesus said to them, Pray then like this: “When you pray, say:
hallowed be your name.
Hallowed means greatly revered or respected.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
The next line, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven” is praying for the endgames, for the return of Jesus, for only then will those requests be honored.
And then what is the next line?
Give us this day our daily bread
Followed by:
and forgive us our sins, [debts] as we ourselves also have forgiven our debtors, everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [Or the evil one]
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen
Anyway, before the “and” the prayer went “Give us this day our daily bread.”
And what do you think about when you pray, give us my daily bread?
Let’s consider another passage, combined from Matthew 6 and Luke 12. This is a fairly well known passage and I would say one often taken out of context.
Matthew 6:25-33, Luke 12:22-31
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Consider the ravens: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor gather into barns, and yet God, your heavenly Father feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things; for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But Instead seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
How do you feel about this whole do not worry or be anxious part? Do you always feel certain you will be fed and clothed?
I’ll confess. I get anxious and I get worried. After all, I basically live paycheck to paycheck, although in my case it is Social Security checks. And I always run out of money and then something happens. I had a lot of both over the last couple of weeks, that is, running out of money and having things happen. This is part of what kept me from working on my lesson. I don’t learn easy, yet what I was concerned about have pretty much resolved themselves with very little help from my worry. It has always been that way. You worry and fret and yet everything kind of turns out and life goes on.
Anyway, what do you think of the passage just read?
Few things to consider: what precedes the passage:
In Matthew 6 we have:
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Another of my poems to consider:
FULL BARNS
There is dust across the fields tonight.
The moon shines upon a forgotten plow.
Tomorrow in the dawn nothing changes.
The furrows remain unseeded, unattended.
The crop brought a banner yield at harvest
And the farmer took his rest.
He tore the old ones down and built anew.
Big sturdy silos and heavy wooded stalls
To hold all the grain and produce
Through the year and seasons to come.
He planned a banquet every day
And drank wine the very best.
He worked the summer long in the heat and dry,
Plowing in the spring and weeding through
Until the corn grew tall, the apples sweet,
For the cool crisp autumn harvest where
He took in his bounty of the labor.
And tore the old ones down and built anew.
“I’ll grow fat now”, was his jest.
So he filled the cribs to the breaking point,
He stacked the fruit up to the ceiling
And scattered wheat across the threshing floor.
“I’ll live a life of ease and merriment,”
And with that cry he challenged God.
Now bins wait full for the burrower and thief,
Fine food to feed the pests.
Poetry Vortex
April 2012
Dallas Kirk Gantt, editor
Wilmington, Delaware
Copyright Larry E. Meredith
Sound a little familiar? Look at Luke 12:15-21.
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Do you see where that little parable led? Right to the “do not be anxious” passage.
Say again, think about the daily bread request. God has done that, hasn’t he? Supplied daily bread, but the beneficiaries had to do some work for it, right? (Exodus 16) They had to go out each morning and gather it, twice as much on Friday. You know God could have willed a chicken in every pot, along with carrots and peas and potatoes, but then people would expect God to do it all for them. We have to be satisfied with what God gives us sometimes, even if we think we should get more or something else.
And also before the “Anxious not” passage in Matthew:
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
They will point to that “be not anxious about anything” passage as a promise God will give you all kinds of good stuff. They leave off the last lines of the passage, just as I did when I read it earlier:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:33-34.
You must put God first, and look at the end, “sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Yes, we aren’t to worry, but it doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble. We could have bad trouble, that’s why much of Scripture speaks of enduring, so we must expect we will have things to endure.
Here is another favorite passage used out of context by these prosperity preachers and others to try and convince us we shouldn’t have to endure anything. Jesus promises the abundant life, right? What do you say about this passage?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
Does it help to say what came before this abundant life statement?
So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:7-9)
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.
What yoke is he replacing that was placing a heavy burden on people?
And what yoke must me put on every day?
Matthew 16: 24 -- Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
We begin this journey of life
Down a road we do not yet know.
We see the blossoms of the moment,
Costumed in dancing colors
That entices us like the bees,
To their perfumed petal traps
And we lust to gain their beauty,
To glisten like the rose after a rain.
We watch the sun rise upon the distance city,
Turning the towers of glass to gold,
Shimmering like a river of riches
And our eyes serve us our breakfast of wants
Sprinkled with the sweet sugar of excess.
We glutton for the fat of the land.
Our stressed hearts beat faster
As the grasp of our hands
Fills our veins with the empty
Calories of success.
We ignore the storms of warning
That dare darken our skies and the path
To our ever bigger car and grander house.
We fill our rooms with non-necessities
To gorge our obese egos
And we ignore the dust specks of reality
That swirl about the air to settle
Lightly upon our treasures
As if in echo of some ancient tome.
Not Home Sweet Home,
But ashes to ashes and
Dust to dust.
We do not see the light for the shimmer.
Our eyes are always to the rainbow,
An illusion of sun and water,
A trick of diffusion
And a lure to delusion.
We cannot own the colors,
But can we the Pot of Gold at its end?
But where the rainbow ends
Lies the mire of despair and truth.
When we reach the distance touchdown point
The rainbow fades away
With all we ever gathered
And we are left naked before the eyes of God.
Poetry Vortex
June 2012
Dallas Kirk Gantt, editor
Wilmington, Delaware
Copyright Larry E. Meredith
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