Tag Archives: brothers

We are brothers and sisters (Mark 3:33-35) July 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Colossians 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 3:33-35
Jesus looked around.
Jesus (answering them): Who are My mother and brothers?
He called into the silence. No one spoke.
At last His gaze swept across those gathered close, and Jesus smiled.
Jesus: You, here, are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My true family.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever thought about why we call each other brothers and sisters in the Christian community? Perhaps Jesus started it with His announcement this day when His siblings tried to drag Him back home from His ministry. From all appearances, it seems His earthly father died sometime during Jesus’ teen years and Jesus became the bread-winner for the family. Now at age 30, He sets out to begin His ministry sharing the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In this day and time, 30 was the magic age to be counted as an adult, wise enough to share your opinion and be heard. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t wait until now to share His thoughts with His family and friends. I’m sure He shaped His ministry and what He was going to do well before His 30th birthday. But to be heard by the masses, He needed to follow the rules of the temple and He did. He needed to follow most of the civil laws and He did. He needed to obey most of the temple laws and He broke only a few and only when a greater good was at stake.

I think He leaned on His mother and brothers and sisters to listen to His sermons and hone His speaking skills, shape His messages, help Him navigate some of the questions people would have for Him. I think He took all of that time in His formative years and studied, learned all He could of the scriptures and how His real Father wanted Him to share them with the world. And I’m sure He shared those thoughts with his brothers and sisters. The probably thought of Him like Joseph’s brothers did. Ready to throw Him in the loony bin or in the cistern to die at times.

But Jesus was their brother and they came to rescue Him from the stories they heard from their friends about the ridicule He received from the Pharisees. They wanted to make sure the priests didn’t carry out the rumors they heard about arresting Him, stopping His message any way possible, even imprisoning or killing Him if necessary. His brothers and sisters tried to protect Him from the mob forming on the opposite side of the crowds that followed Him.

But when Jesus heard they came to take Him home to protect Him, He looked into the eyes of those gathered around Him and said, “You are My mother and brothers and sisters.”

I think when He began to teach about the kingdom of heaven and helped those around Him understand God adopts us into His family, we become brothers and sisters, God’s children, in a very real sense. God wants us to understand how close a relationship we should have with each other as we join this communion of saints, those whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for us.

When I hear about another denomination growing out of a church because of some doctrinal issue or something that caused the congregation to split, I grieve. I don’t think God intended for us to grow apart with all our petty differences that make up all our denominations. Today a quick search on Google will tell you there are almost 40,000 different denominations, each thinking their individual practices are “The Way” to salvation.

I think the Apostles would be appalled if they saw the state of the church today. Instead of brothers and sisters, we have become at best distant cousins that don’t recognize each other and don’t acknowledge the other exists because we have so little contact and so little in common. We certainly don’t feel like those other folks are brothers and sisters if they are so far afield in their doctrinal thinking, right?

Jesus wants us to think differently. He wants us to recognize that if we carry His name, we are brothers and sisters. We should love each other, not like cousins, but like brothers and sisters. We should care for all those people who have come to Him in repentance and been adopted into His family the same way we would our flesh and blood brothers and sisters.

Jesus wants all of us to remember the few words Christendom agrees on found in the Apostles’ Creed that has come down to us from the very early days of “The Way” as it was called then. I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.
When we share those words together, we are brothers and sisters. Members of God’s great family.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Go to your brother in private (Matthew 18:15-17) April 26, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Samuel 1-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 18:15-17
Jesus: This is what you do if one of your brothers or sisters sins against you: go to him, in private, and tell him just what you perceive the wrong to be. If he listens to you, you’ve won a brother. But sometimes he will not listen. And if he does not listen, go back, taking a friend or two friends with you (for, as we have learned in Deuteronomy, every matter of communal import should be testified to by two or three witnesses).Then, if your brother or sister still refuses to heed, you are to share what you know with the entire church; and if your brother or sister still refuses to listen to the entire church, you are to cast out your unrepentant sibling and consider him no different from outsiders and tax collectors.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Man, if we would just put these words into practice in our churches, what a difference it would make in the love people felt for each other. What a difference the outside world would see in the sense of community with our churches and in our mission to the greater community around the facilities that hold our worship services. If your church is like every church I’ve attended in the last 62 years (by the way, that’s nine months before my birth for those that are wondering). People gossip, backbite, tell tales, exaggerate, talk about each other behind their backs, and all sorts of things that run contrary to these biblical principles.

And the world outside our doors know it goes on, because they hear the stuff around the water fountain at work, over the fence in the neighborhood, and now plastered all over facebook, instagram and twitter. We don’t even pretend to hide our failures to do the right thing in confronting the sins of one of our brothers and sisters. We’re afraid we might hurt their feelings, I guess.

But there’s a reason Jesus says to first go to the brother or sister who sins against us in private. Let me enlighten you after years of attending a lot of different churches in a lot of cities, states, and countries. Several years ago, good friend put this verse in great perspective. When you’re thinking about a brother or sister in Christ saying or doing something that hurts you, sins against you as Jesus starts his example, what do you have to think about that brother or sister to think they would purposely, intentionally, viciously do what ever it is they did against you a fellow brother of sister in Christ? Then ask yourself, knowing what you know of that person, do you really think they would do that? Usually, normally, most of the time if you’ll take the time to ask yourself those two questions, your answer to the second will be an emphatic no.

So what happened? The answer can usually be found in an illustration I used with soldiers about communication. If I gave the order to secure the building. It might seem clear at first. But what outcome would you expect? If you’re a Marine, you’d storm the building and nothing would be left of it. Not even a cockroach would survive. If you’re an Army soldier, you’d put up fighting positions around it, concertina wire, perhaps a few landmines, so nothing within 300 meters could come close without you knowing about it first. If you’re an Air Force pilot, you’d lock the door and turn out the lights. If you’re a Navy submariner, you’d pull out your checkbook and buy it. So what did I mean when I said secure the building?

That’s what happens in most of the events brothers and sisters in the church get most riled up about. What they heard is not what was said. I wanted the doors locked and the receiver of the information blew it up. Same words, but the outcome, the interpretation of those words were so totally different because of our different experiences, backgrounds, the lens through which we understand information, that what I wanted was completely missed.

That’s what happens usually, normally, most of the time between brothers and sisters in Christ. So Jesus says, go to that person in private. Find out what was really done. Maybe she said, “Secure the building” (lock the door) and what you heard was, “Secure the building” (blow it up). Getting together in private suddenly defuses the situation. You find out the words were meant to help, not hurt because you left the door unlocked and she was trying to save your stuff! You’ve won a friend.

If you still can’t communicate, if there is still tension between you, Jesus says take two or three people with you. The broader experience in the group helps sort that stuff out. Remember, the first two questions my friend asks, what do I have to believe about my Christian brother or sister to think they would really do what you think they did? Then, knowing what you really know about them, do you believe them to be that person? Three or four heads together can straighten things out and get everyone on the same sheet of music. If not, Jesus says, bring the sin to the whole congregation. If there is no repentance, no contrite heart, no brokenness, throw them out of the congregation before the infection of brothers and sisters failing to try to find unity in the body of Christ spreads to others. That’s what Jesus is telling us.

It’s a shame we don’t go to Jesus’ formula first. It really does work. There’d be a lot fewer squabbles in the church if we did. We see a lot fewer churches split over silly issues. Visitors would find and feel more love when they walked in the door. We would get along a lot better month after month and year after year if we would just do what Jesus told us to do. Try it. It works. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 12:48-50) March 21, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 44-47

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:48-50
Jesus: Who is My mother? And who are My brothers? (pointing to His disciples) These are My mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of My Father in heaven is My mother and brother and sister.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Psychologists tell us that when you go through traumatic events with someone you become closer to that person or group of people. We see that exemplified in the number of gatherings life Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) groups and within those, you’ll find small groups of men and women who gather to talk about their experiences in particular units and battles. The comradery they find in the telling and reliving those events helps bond them and ease the trauma that comes in the loss of friends in some of those horrifying times.

Some of my own closest friends come from times when I was deployed into combat zones and defending our country from enemies that wished nothing less than the destruction of our way of life and liberty. Some other friends that have drawn close come from assignments in which family was no where near. Back then cell phones didn’t exist and overseas phone calls were just too expensive to use them with any frequency to call home. We had to rely on each other and so those that were once strangers became fast life-time friends.

In the course of life, my travels and assignments and those of my brothers and sisters have carried us to different states and nations so few of us live close to each other. We don’t get to see each other very often. But when we get together, we know each other because we’re family. There is an instant bond. I know their temperments, their likes and dislikes. I know what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. I know my brothers and sisters even though I don’t see them very often. Why? Because we are part of each other. We are family. There is something in us that is the same even though we are all very different from one another.

I read these words of Jesus and I get the same feeling and understanding when I think about my brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of my military career and my corporate travels after my military retirement, I’ve attended a lot of churches. Where a lot of people could count a dozen or so, I could easily count more than a hundred churches I’ve attended through the years. But there is an interesting thing I’ve found in all those churches.

It really didn’t matter what denomination I attended. It didn’t matter what color the majority of the members were. It didn’t matter what language the people spoke as their native tongue. It didn’t matter whether people dressed to the nines on Sunday morning or came in rags. It didn’t matter what kind of music they sang or even if the music was really good or way off key. When I was among a group of believers, I felt at home. There was a connection between us that you knew you were accepted just because you were there among believers.

How does that happen? How is it that we can feel so comfortable in another church and another worship service regardless of the denomination or worship style or country in which we worship? It’s really pretty simple. They are family. Just like my physical brothers and sisters share DNA with me, they are different and similar to me at the same time. So it is with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We share something in common.

We may be different in many ways, but in the most important things we are alike. We share Christ’s Spirit in us. We share His love. We share His grace and mercy. We share His forgiveness in our lives. We have each been adopted into His family and have become children of the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are a part of His kingdom. So we stand on common ground. We believe together in a common understanding of our faith.

If you are part of a Christian faith, there are a few fundamental beliefs that you hold dear, summed up in the words of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic and apostolic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

On those few statements rest the tenets of the Christian faith. When we join together as brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of our denominational background and baggage, we share this common bond. We have this spiritual DNA that binds us together, His Spirit alive in us that makes us more alike than different. So we can worship together. We can praise together. We can live in harmony together. We can ignore the color of our skin, the style of our music, the order of our service. We can just glory in the presence of God’s Spirit among us and know we are brothers and sisters in the great family of God Almighty.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.