December 10, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks will find. The one who knocks will find the door will be opened to them.” (Matthew 7.7-8)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

What is it that we are to ask for, seek and stand at the door inquiring to receive? It is nothing more and less than, as in a favored hymn “Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Yes, our hearts should be set on nothing less than that. And the simplicity of this teaching is all about availability. He has already taught the gathered crowd, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” The stage is set now in light of the teachings on judgments. Imagine the value of such righteousness freely given and freely received all by the reason of being a citizen of the Kingdom of God. On earth this kingdom will be that of the Messiah come down from Heaven. The people of Israel had been looking for it nearly 500 years since the rebuilding of the Temple under Ezra and Nehemiah. Isaiah had prophesied about it 700 years before. Of course, God knew that it was always His plan for humanity to dwell in such a place on earth as it was and will always be in Heaven. And the truth remains for us today that the same is available to all who will believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Is it that easy? The hardest thing in life is not believing. The consequences of unbelief are eternal as well but with far greater negative and dark liabilities. It is an eternal darkness that eminates no light, warmth, joy and love. It consumes all hope, reason and truth. It locks the door, turns away the sojourner and refuses all requests. This is the way that those who opposed Jesus had transformed the Temple and synagogues. They were no longer houses of prayer but dens of thieves and robbers. Their sacrifices and rituals had become self-serving and unproductive. They were the expressions of “the love of money which was and continues to be the root of all evil.” Mighty ones of God, I pray you see the danger of covering up and muting the gospel. We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain this eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.