How Are You At Keeping Your Promises?
Good Morning Friends,
After healing a man of leprosy Jesus instructed the man to go to the priest, as was required by Jewish law, but with a warning not to say anything about the miracle to anyone on the way. To our way of thinking, Jesus would want everyone to know about the miracle for it was evidence of the Messiah. But Jesus knew that publicity over such miracles would hinder His mission and divert public attention from His primary message. And in addition, a lot of extraneous interventions would detract from the authenticity of the miracle, which was a stake in the ground saying the Messiah had arrived and the promise of God was about to unfold before their very eyes. Of course, the man told everyone and perhaps that is why Jesus was greeted the way he was on his return to Jerusalem with palm branches…the sign of a conquering king. The same issue is relevant today. God desires us to be focused on the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ more than the miracle of physical blessings. It is this Covenant of love…this surprising promise of purpose that we are to desire in our heart. How Are You At Keeping Your Promises?
Scripture: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22 (NRSV)
When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Matthew 8:1-4 (NRSV)
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14 (NRSV)
Message: Normally it is a good thing to spread the Word of Jesus but when this goes against Jesus’ specific directions it becomes a little bit of a problem, for opinions about who God is, what God is like, how God deals with humans and what God expects of us differ widely. Telling people that God was incarnate on the earth before the time had come set the wrong expectations. You see not everyone that begs Jesus to be healed is healed physically…spiritually yes for God forgives sins and that was why Jesus came. But it is not easy to have an accurate perspective on Jesus and Christianity. The wrong emotions get in the way of the message. You see it is not easy to be blameless as Abraham in today’s text. We must be all in the game…fully committed to the cause. Let me give you an example of what I mean about the commitment to love and the promise it brings. There is a legend about Saint Francis of Assisi who had a natural horror of lepers. One day as he was riding his horse near Assisi he met a leper on the road. He felt frightened and repelled, but not wanting to disobey God’s command and break the law of love, he dismounted from his horse and ran to kiss him. As the leper stretched out his hand, expecting something, he received both money and a kiss. Francis immediately mounted his horse and although the field was wide open, without any obstructions, when he looked around he could not see the leper anywhere. Friends the earthly life we lead is such as this. We are to be challenge to be perfect in our love, obedience, benevolence and good works. So, even though this life is a puff of smoke we need to get out of your comfort zone and into the end zone. Here we might just meet Jesus.
Pray we realize that everyone needs to be touched by Jesus. Pray we are obedient Christians. Pray we have the right perspective on the promises of God. Pray we have faith in God keeping promises. Pray we are servants of Jesus and stewards of the mysteries of God worthy of the name Christian. Pray we trust God to lead us in our life to learn to love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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