Tag Archives: Death of Self

What Will You Give Me?

Posted on by

Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver Him over to you?”  Matthew 26:14-15 ESV1

Read Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-50 & 27:3-9; Mark 14:10-11, 17-21, 43-46; Luke 22:3-6, 47-48; John 13:18-30 & 18:1-6

I fear many of us who consider ourselves Christians have chosen Jesus but with false information and inaccurate expectations. We haven’t been given the full Gospel nor considered the whole cost. We may have said a special prayer, tried to sneak into the Kingdom as we raised our hands when every head was bowed and eye closed, or even boldly responded to an altar call. But that doesn’t mean much if we did it to please others or solely for personal gain. Some well-meaning people might have assured us we have free tickets to Heaven or eternal safety with our spiritual fire insurance. But if we chose Jesus for the wrong reasons, our commitment to Him is fraudulent. If our Christianity is self-focused, our following of Jesus is much like Judas Iscariot’s.

Continue reading →

An Occasion for Germination

Posted on by

“For they all contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:4 ESV1

Read Mark 12:41-44 & Luke 21:1-4

During my life, I have never lived more than twenty miles North or South of the Western half of the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. It is a land of bright, green grass and dark, rich soil. In the warmer months, this area looks like God spread a monochromatic, patchwork quilt, stitched in forest green and tied in barn red, over the rolling hills. It is a land meant for growing things. I live in the country and if I look out any of the windows in my house, I can see flourishing fields.

Last Fall, my husband purchased a roto-tiller to pull behind his tractor. I watched him work up four separate areas in our lawn to prepare them for planting grass. It was beautiful, the way that roto-tiller worked up the ground. It broke up the soil into pea-sized or smaller chunks, evened out the dirt, and made these little tracks to collect the seeds and the water. My husband sowed grass seed in each of those areas. And every day, I watered those sections, dreaming about how beautiful our lawn was going to look when Spring came.

When Spring arrived, three of those sections had green, grass shoots appearing. But the fourth area produced only weeds. Even though that fourth section was given the same treatment as the other three, the seed in that place, for whatever reason, didn’t germinate.

Continue reading →

Faithful Rendering

Posted on by

Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17 & Luke 20:20-26

To faithfully render something is to accurately represent it. But one can faithfully render something without rendering faithfully at all. To explain this phenomenon, let’s turn to an account recorded in the synoptic Gospels.

Continue reading →

Life After Death

Posted on by

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Luke 24:5b-6a ESV1

Life after death is usually in reference to where one will spend eternity. But in the context of Easter, it takes on a little different meaning. Easter is the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection–His return to life after His death–to a restored human body that walked again on Earth for a short time and then ascended into Heaven in bodily form.2

As we approach the Easter season, we are reminded of Jesus’ death. The horror of crucifixion becomes more vivid in our imaginations. And the enormity of our sin and the greatness of God’s gift is refreshed in our memories. Taking time to remember Jesus, His sacrifice, and His conquering of sin for our sake is a significant part of this season. Likewise, rejoicing over the fact that death could not keep Jesus’ body in the grave and that Satan has lost his power over humanity is of utmost importance. But we will miss the full extent of this celebration if we never consider our own personal Easter stories. But I must ask: Do you have an Easter story?

Continue reading →