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I just finished reading Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It’s a fantastic book about writing a good story with your life.  And how God always has the best story planned for us.  Miller talks about characters and settings and scenes in our lives and intentionally using them to write a good life story.

This Bible story of Jesus feeding 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple fish makes me think of the props in our lives.  Sometimes in a story, a seemingly insignificant object can turn a whole story.  Like a pair of ruby slippers or a wardrobe in an unused room, or a single penny found on a sidewalk that’s being turned into a million dollars of food for the hungry.  Or a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.

Pay attention!  God may use one of the props in your life to write a good story.

Bible Reference: Matthew 14:15-21, Mark 6:35-44, Luke 9: 12-17, John 6:4-13

photo credit: hoyasmeg

It would be so easy to read through this story and pass it off as spiritual – meaning didn’t really happen, doesn’t happen, story-in-a-book.  Jesus is walking through a crowd and knows someone touches him.  He knows healing power has gone out from him.  Then he raises a dead girl back to life.

Easy to read past it and not catch the human part of the story.  The parts that show us it’s all real.  But slow down and take it all in for a minute.  These other-worldly events really did happen.

A crowd pressed in on Jesus as he was walking.  Not unusual at all.  It is unusual that he stopped and refused to go further until he found out who touched him.  I think his disciples thought he was a bit crazy for this, until a woman confesses that she was the one who touched his robe.

Don’t miss the scene at Jairus’ house.  His daughter is dead.  The people at the house are weeping.  Jairus’ wife is overcome with grief.  The girl’s body lay on the bed.  A very human scene.  All too real.  But Jesus touching the girl and telling her to get up is just as real.  The girl’s response of rising up from the dead, getting up from the bed is just as human.

A human response to a divine touch.  Real, tangible, true.

Bible reference: Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56

photo credit: josef.stuefer

The scene is so rich in this story.  A deranged, naked man falls at the feet of Jesus.

A herd of pigs runs off a cliff and drowns in the sea, driven by demons.

Jesus sets the man free of the mob of demons that has tormented him.  He gives him back a clear mind.

But the miracle isn’t complete until it’s cloaked in the ordinary.  Someone found clothes for the man and removed the fragments of chain hanging from his ankles and wrists.  If the townspeople had come back to see him naked and in his right mind I don’t know that it would have made as big an impression on them.

But the man was “dressed and in his right mind”.  The miracle was cloaked in the ordinary.

Bible reference: Matthew 8:24-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39

photo credit: Jsome1

So the disciples are in boat, tossed about on the waves during a storm.  Jesus is sleeping through it all.

I don’t know what they thought Jesus was going to do when they woke him up.  I suspect they just wanted him to help them keep the boat from sinking.  Or maybe they just wanted to wake him up so he would be aware of the fact they were all about to drown.

I don’t think they ever thought he would speak directly to the wind and waves.  Who does that?  Have you ever heard anyone speak to the weather and tell it what to do?  I haven’t.

And the wind and waves obeyed him.  And Jesus acted like it was all normal.  He doesn’t understand why the disciples don’t trust him yet.

It’s more than their minds could absorb.  Even after everything they’ve seen Jesus do, they can’t wrap their minds around Who He really is.

Bible reference:  Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25

photo credit: Irargerich

More often than I would like, I find that my heart is just as black and tainted as the hearts of the Pharisees.  Jesus cast a demon from a man, giving him both sight and hearing.  The response from the Pharisees?  He only casts out demons by the prince of demons.

Have you ever questioned the motives of another person’s or organization’s good work, just because you didn’t like that person or group?  I know I have and it’s shameful.  Just because I’m upset with them or don’t like the direction they’re taking things or I feel threatened in some way, I decide that they have no pure motives and their good deed is only meant to manipulate.

Lord Jesus, forgive me and guard me from this attitude.

Bible reference: Matthew 12:22-37

photo credit: Meredith

It wasn’t long ago that John tweeted out these two messages:

“The Son only does what he sees the Father doing. You haven’t seen the half of it yet…”

“The same way the Father raises the dead & creates life, so does the Son.”

I don’t know what went through John’s mind when Jesus said this, but I bet he didn’t think that Jesus was really going to raise a boy from the dead!

What a socially unacceptable thing for Jesus to do – to stop a funeral procession and touch the casket.  It was much more taboo in that society than today, but even so people would be shocked if someone did that now.

But Jesus didn’t just touch the coffin.  He touched the boy and told him to get up.  And the boy did sit up!  Can you even imagine the commotion that swept through the crowd at that moment?  Every heart would have been beating hard and strong after seeing that.

Jesus has power over death.  Not just to prevent it, but to reverse it.  There is no earthly context to put this event in.  It’s completely of God.

I don’t know about you, but Jesus sure has my attention now!

Bible reference: Luke 7:11-17

photo credit: kopfjager

The Roman Centurion in the story today has some awesome character qualities that I want to nurture in myself and my kids.

He recognizes Truth immediately.

He understands that Jesus has authority.

He’s humble.  He doesn’t feel he deserves for Jesus to come to his house.

He brings his request directly to Jesus.

He cares about his servant.

I often tell my kids to remember who they are and make good choices.  This man knows who he is and he knows who Jesus is.  Everything else flows out of that truth.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers. – Psalm 1:1-3

Bible reference: Matthew 8:5-13

photo credit: Richard0

Find a quiet place to pray & focus on God. You will begin to sense God’s grace. – Matthew 6:6, The Message

I wish I could say that every morning I spend time praying and reading my Bible.  Too often I let other things creep in and crowd out my time with God.

To be promised the grace of God, but let mundane tasks blot it out is like being offered the Hope Diamond but filling my hands with so many plastic beads.

Why do I let that happen?

If you can carve out some time with God this week, consider reading the Sermon on the Mount.  John only tweeted out a small bit of it yesterday and today.  But it is rich with teaching from Jesus.  You can find it in Matthew, chapters 5, 6 and 7.

photo credit: Katie Tegtmeyer

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You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what’s most dear to you. Then you will be embraced by God. – Matthew 5:4, The Message

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. – Matthew 5:4, NIV

Today John tweeted the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes.  The tweets are quoted from The Message, because I really like how Eugene Peterson translated these verses.

Matthew 5:4 is a difficult verse, especially when you are in the midst of deep grief.  It is true that if we place ourselves in the arms of God, He will bring comfort.  But sometimes it takes a while for that comfort to really sink in to our hurting hearts.

At first, we just ache.  We certainly don’t feel blessed.  The blessing comes from staying in the arms of God long enough for His comfort to penetrate the pain.

Bible reference: Matthew 5:1-12

photo credit: jurvetson

In all the times I’ve read through the Gospels, I somehow missed this scene.  It’s a short passage in Mark, but it really shows how things were for Jesus.

He asked the disciples to get a boat for him.  The crowd was so thick and pressing they were afraid he would be trampled.  Those kinds of crowds are scary, but being the object of the crowd’s attention would up the intensity level.

To add to the confusion of the people, demons were falling down before Jesus.  They were screaming out and calling him “Son of God”.

Can you imagine what the disciples were feeling?

Bible reference: Mark 3:7-13

photo credit: Stevie-B