Jul 19 2013
“I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!” said the anguished father whose son was held captive by an evil spirit. His son had been having fits for years and the spirit refused to go. As the father pleaded with Jesus he had faith, but wished he had more. Do you sometimes feel like that? How do you think Jesus would respond to that? Would he be angry or compassionate? What follows is an imaginative but possible rendering of this story in Mark 9:14-29. More
Nov 3 2012
“Yes! A piano; at last!” gasped James staring at the black and white keys in front of him. His dream had come true; he would now be the pianist he had always wanted to be. His father had been true to his word when he said that if James did well in his exams he would buy a piano for his 13th birthday. Now James sat at the piano imagining the melodies that would be played, the songs that would be written, even the fame that could be his. As he sat there, he glanced momentarily at his dad as if to say “Watch this” and then went for it. His fingers plunged into the keys, and ran up and down with increasing volume as his confidence grew and grew. Finally he stopped, looked up at his dad, and said, “So what do you think?” His dad was staring in disbelief, “James! Sorry, but that was terrible! You need lessons son; you need to know how. That was not music!”
Freedom of a piano does not give us the ability to produce music. We are only free to produce music when we have mastered the piano. This is true of much of life; we often think we are free when we are first given the car-keys, or first allowed to date, or first allowed to drink, or first given a pay cheque. But having the freedom to a car, or to date, or to drink, or to money, can be dangerous if we have not been taught how to handle those things in a healthy way, and a way that brings music to our Heavenly Father’s ears. Today we are discussing the balance between license and legalism; freedom and restraint. More
Nov 28 2013
‘The borrower is slave to the lender’
Proverbs 22:7 and Matthew 18:21-35
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” asked Peter. “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” answered Jesus (Mt 18:21-22)
Peter thought seven times was generous and godly. The number seven was sacred in his culture, and it was usually used to symbolize completion. Surely anyone who forgave seven times had done what God required? But Jesus chose another number – seventy seven. By compounding the sevens Jesus was saying that God’s people should never stop forgiving. His reasoning was simple: If God has forgiven us; we should always forgive each other. He then illustrated his point by telling a story about a servant who owed his master money. The master took pity on him and released him from his debt. But the servant refused to do the same for a fellow servant down the road. When the master heard about it he reinstated the first servant’s debt and threw him in prison. So Jesus concludes that if we do not forgive each other our heavenly master won’t forgive us. We must always keep on forgiving.
Now, this makes a lot of sense with spiritual debt, but what about financial debt? Does it make sense to lend money seventy seven times to someone who promises to repay but never does? More