march 7 : Matthew 27

The crucifixion and death of Jesus.
Its ironic that I read this passage today. I just got back from Joe Lee's play titled, "The last days of Judas Iscariot." The play is set in a court room with Judas on trial. Should he be given a chance to go to heaven? Or or his punishment for the unforgiveable sin hell? We can't say for sure where Judas is right now. We do know however that Judas probably is at the latter according to the Scriptures. Its scary. Whats going on through my mind right now is that people are always trying to figure out who God really is. There are plays written on the Bible interpreted by the author - a human. There are many questions we have remaining. The Gospels leave a lot out that we can only imagine. There are a lot of haters who dislike what is written in the Gospels. But I am now more relient on the Spirit to give me answers. I think a lot of people these days look at movies or books written about Jesus' life to give them the answers to their questions. However, the best interpretation comes from the Spirit. Instead of looking at the entertainment industry to give us answers, although entertaining, we should look to the one who can answer our questions. I know this is irrelevant to what I have read today, but for some odd reason this is what I started thinking about while reading this passage. I hope that we can find an interpretation sent from God and not from mere people.

march 6 : matthew 26

"The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
I can relate to this a lot. I think this passage is one of the more memorable ones to me. Not necessarily that it is full of power or whatnot, but that I am a man in love with sleep. I don't know if I am in love with sleep or am a servant of sleep. When I get tired nothing can stop me from thinking of the next time I get to lie down. I want to sleep. Even now. Its so hard when you have to stay awake for even 10 minutes when you're really really tired right? During class especially. Sometimes I think that its almost impossible to stay awake at times. But what do we see here. Jesus asks his disciples to stay awake at Gethsemane while he goes off to pray. He wanted his disciples to pray also. But of course it being late, and possibly the disciples feeling the effects from an early morning, they get tired. They cannot stay awake, and naturally fall asleep. Jesus comes back upset at them for not being able to pray for even an hour. Then it happens a couple more times. Jesus then says, "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." How true is that? Whens the last time your tiredness got the best of you when you needed to do your quiet time? Prayer? Scripture reading? Studying? But not eating or playing. Jesus wants us to fight these things that seem so natural. Discipline is difficult to grasp, but when you do I believe Jesus will be proud of you. =]

march 5 : matthew 25

The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Will you be ready? I always thought this was a weird parable. I didn't quite understand the analogy as well as Jesus probably wanted me to. Why are they virgins? Why are there 5 smart ones and 5 dumb ones? But ah... Jesus wants us to be like the wise ones! Ok, so what does Jesus want us to learn from the wise virgins? First, they were prepared for a long wait. The 5 virgins took extra oil along with them while they waited for the bridegroom to come. They knew that they might have to wait for an hour up to a couple days. In parallel to this parable the next parable has a similar message. The wise servants in the parable were the ones who invested the master's money - looking to the future. So this means for me: store up what is good, do what is good, and steer away from the evil pleasures in this world. Second, be ready for Jesus' coming at any moment. The dumb virgins who left to buy, quickly, extra oil lost their spot in the kingdom of Heaven during their transit to and from the store. Jesus will come when you least expect it, but once he does come and you're not on his list, you're eternally not on his list. So lets be like the smart virgins and not the dumb.

march 4 : matthew 24

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
Man. This is nuts. If you think about what is being said here and you believe it to be truth you can't but marvel at God's glory. Think about it. One random day at a random time you will see as clear as lightning Jesus coming back. Everybody - Caucasian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, young, and old - will fall to their knees in response to the second coming of Christ. All will tremble. The source however of this trembling will be different between believers and all others. We will tremble with joy. A feeling when the the timing is just right, like when your bus comes right when you need it to. But others will tremble out of the uttermost fear. A question of why they hadn't believed will inevitably arise; why they had hated Jesus without reason. Guys, the day is coming. No one knows when this will happen except the one who planned it all from the very beginning - God. Lets be faithful in our walks as we use the Bible and prayer as our crutches.

march 3 : matthew 23

This is such a strong chapter in which Jesus basically calls everyone out on their sins. The more I read this book the more alive it becomes to me. It becomes alive to me in a many ways. First, Jesus speaks with such intelligence that it not only pertains to the lives lived in the past but also the lives lived now and forever. Second, he points out the very sins in my own life. Its as if Jesus is speaking to me about my problems. Throughout this passage Jesus says what the Pharisees are doing wrong, and most often than not he speaks directly to me. The cup that is dirty on the inside but sparkling clean on the outside is a description of me. How easy it is to fall into the same trap the Pharisees fell victim to. Let me show you a clip from this chapter:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
That's some tough stuff right? I almost have to bite my own tongue as I read this. This passage really points out the legalism in our lives. Legalism will kill you as it will also kill me. People of the church are prone to following the laws of legalism, but as Jesus was trying to point out, we need to break free from this in order to break free from the chains of hell.

March 2 : Matthew 22

"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come."
God invites all of us to come to his wedding banquet. All of us are given a chance, an invitation, to attend God's banquet. The kingdom of heaven according to this passage is available to all who are willing to come. The parable says that those who were invited were not interested in coming. But God invited you. He invited me. We are given a chance to spend eternity with him, but some of us are too blind to see the outstretched arm waiting for us to attend. God sees that people were not interested so he sent out an invitation to those on the streets. He extends his guest list to those who we would not even consider. I think this is a clear message that we should all go and welcome everyone who is willing to listen. When we lead our small groups and be examples on campus we need to welcome those who are interested. Instead of pushing pushing pushing, all we need to do is ask. It is good to push from time to time for those you know who need it. But when we see Jesus in his ministry he never begs for people to come and listen. He sits there and lets them come. The ones who come will be blessed, the ones who do not will not. Lets make an effort to be inviting.

March 1 : matthew 21 again

My Qt was on the latter part of this chapter. We see here Jesus rebuking the Pharisees. I think this rebuking is one of the toughest towards them. Jesus clearly points out how bad they really are. He basically tells them that others, second class citizens, will enter the kingdom of Heaven before them. He gives them two parables in particular that point out the direction the Pharisees are headed. In this passage Jesus says to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him." Thats tough. I am afraid that Jesus will hold us to these same standards as well. We are given so many opportunities, so many chances, so many in-your-face experiences. Yet we fail so many times to see the clear picture - the beauty of Jesus. First as Christians, then as leaders, we need to be able to read this passage and understand the importance of what is taught here. We need to be able to see past the lines and understand the Scriptures for what they were meant to be.