Tag Archives: rituals

How’s your heart? (Matthew 15:13-20) April 8, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Jeremiah 12-16

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 15:13-20
Jesus: Every plant planted by someone other than My heavenly Father will be plucked up by the roots. So let them be. They are blind guides. What happens when one blind person leads another? Both of them fall into a ditch.
Peter: Explain that riddle to us.
Jesus: Do you still not see? Don’t you understand that whatever you take in through your mouth makes its way to your stomach and eventually out of the bowels of your body? But the things that come out of your mouth—your curses, your fears, your denunciations—these come from your heart, and it is the stirrings of your heart that can make you unclean. For your heart harbors evil thoughts—fantasies of murder, adultery, and whoring; fantasies of stealing, lying, and slandering. These make you unclean—not eating with a hand you’ve not ritually purified with a splash of water and a prayer.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Don’t you just want to shake the disciples sometimes? They seem so dense when we look back and listen to the questions they have for Jesus. Explain your riddle. Tell us what your parable means. Why do you make your sermons so hard to understand. And Jesus spends time slowly going over what He’s just told the crowd. He puts things in terms kindergarteners can understand. Still they ask their questions and we sit back and shake our heads at them.

But…should we be so quick to chastise them for their ignorance? We live on this side of the cross. We have heard Jesus’ explanation of all those parables. We know the answers to the questions the disciples raised. We have centuries of writings from the apostles, early disciples, and theologians that tell us the meaning of Jesus’ words. These guys heard these words for the first time with no other background except His words.

So we have all this knowledge about this information Jesus shares with the people who listened to Him talk about those rituals and the difference between what went into a person and what came out of a person. Which one makes you clean? The rituals didn’t do it Jesus says. He made it pretty clear to the folks who listened to Him. We know that on this side of the cross. We know that what you eat or drink doesn’t make you righteous. Neither does the physical act of washing a certain way, sitting in certain places, following certain practices. None of these outward acts makes one righteous.

We know these things from the lessons Jesus gives the crowds on the hillsides of Judea and the interpretations He gives to His disciples as they ask for deeper explanations of His stories. So, if we know all these things, why do we continue to do the very things Jesus preaches against? Why do we keep acting like going to church makes us okay? Why do we act like putting a few dollars in an offering plate buys our ticket into heaven? When every other day except Sunday we look like, talk like, and act like every other person around us?

Why can’t we understand on this side of the cross that Jesus expects us to live the way He lived? Why can’t we see that just walking through religious activities isn’t good enough to make you right with God? Why can’t we read His word and see that He wants more from us?

I’ve mentioned before the survey the Barna Group did several years ago that compared those who call themselves Christian with those who are unchurched. The difference between the two groups in his study – those who call themselves Christian didn’t curse as much. Every other marker was statistically the same – lying, cheating, adultery, pornography, petty theft, embezzlement, you name the vice and those who call themselves Christian are involved in it. We just don’t curse as often. Hmmm!!

Is that how God wants us to live? Is that why He died on the cross, for us to live the same way everyone else does? I don’t think so. Jesus calls us to a higher standard. He calls us to a higher plane of life. He calls us to live a righteous, holy life. And He gave us His holy Spirit to live in us with His resurrection power to help us do just that. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness, John tells us, so that we can choose not to fall prey to the wiles of Satan, our adversary.

We are not strong enough to stand against him, but Jesus in us is. He has resurrection power and has already defeated sin and death. And His resurrection power in us can keep us if we focus on His Spirit in us, God’s indwelling presence that He sent to live in us. That’s the message He had for the disciples. What lives inside us determines whether we are clean or unclean, good or evil, obedient or disobedient. The one who has control of our mind determines which we focus on. Do we give control to God or do we keep it for ourselves?

Jesus said, it’s what’s inside that counts. How’s your heart?

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.

Is your worship ordinary? (Matthew 15:3-11) April 7, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 27-28

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 15:3-11
Jesus: Why do you violate God’s command because of your tradition? God said, “Honor your father and mother. Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.” But you say that one need no longer honor his parents so long as he says to them, “What you might have gained from me, I now give to the glory of God.” Haven’t you let your tradition trump the word of God? You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied,
People honor Me with their lips,
but their hearts are nowhere near Me.
Because they elevate mere human ritual to the status of law,
their worship of Me is a meaningless sham.
(to the multitude) Hear and understand this: What you put into your mouth cannot make you clean or unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that can make you unclean.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

How do Jesus’ words sound to you today? You might look at the Pharisees and wag your finger and say, “He really put you in your place, didn’t He?” But be careful. When you point your finger at someone, remember three are pointing back at you. Look at His last words to the Pharisees. “You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied, People honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are nowhere near Me. Because they elevate mere human ritual to the status of law, their worship of me is a meaningless sham.”

I think about what we do in our services sometimes and wonder if we have reduced our worship routine to just a ritual. We used to talk about the service being three hymns and a sermon with an offering thrown in there somewhere. We’ve gotten rid of the hymns, but most churches have a pretty set routine for that hour and a half people spend inside their walls. You can probably recite your routine for me without much trouble.

And so it goes. We come to church, spend our time in mindless rote without even thinking about the words we sing or the scripture we read. We listen to the pastor pray a few words and give a nice sermon. Then we walk out the doors and do the same thing we did last week. We don’t let God intervene in our lives. We just go on day after day assuming we are okay with the Creator.

Did you listen to Jesus’ words? He called the Pharisees hypocrites for doing just that. God isn’t interested in our routines in worship. He wants our real worship. He wants to touch our spirit with His Spirit. He wants to lead us to a life of righteousness, holiness. We have become callous in our familiarity with God. He tells us we are His children, but we have lost sight of the command Jesus quotes when we don’t honor Him as our heavenly Father. Jesus says to honor our Father.

How is just going through the motions of worship honoring Him? See, He wants a relationship with us. He wants to talk to us. He wants to listen to our prayers. He wants to hear our praise. He wants us to set aside anything we have between each other and anything we have between us and Him so we have open communication. He doesn’t want anything to block the transparency between us so His Spirit in us can work as He wants to work.

Have you ever noticed in the books of the Law, especially as laid out in Leviticus that God gives no remedy for those who intentially disobey Him? He talks about punishments and sacrifices for those who do things accidentally. Those who injury or kill by misfortune, not by plotting to do so. For those who intentionally commit sin, God gives one punishment. Death. Because the wages of sin. Is death, eternal separation from the Creator of Life, God.

So what do we do about it? Do we change the order of our services? Unless you’re the pastor or worship leader, probably not. Do we refuse to go to worship services? That won’t help, we need to worship in community with others. So, what’s the answer? The answer lies in examining Jesus’ worship. He went to the synagogue or temple every Sabbath. He participated in all those rituals He just condemned those Pharisees about performing.

So, what’s the difference? The difference rests in why and how He participated. First, He always stayed connected to His Father. He didn’t wait until He got to the synagogue to pray or meditate on God’s word. He spent time in prayer, fasting, study. He communed with His Father regularly and frequently.

Second, He recognized the significance of each ritual and symbol within the worship service and each time He participated in any of the rituals, I imagine He let them envelop Him. He let them sink into His heart and mind. He didn’t allow Himself to just go through the motions, but instead focused on each action, each word, each symbol and let them become a part of His individual worship of His Father.

Finally, He let those rituals enrich His life throughout the days ahead until He could come back and renew them again the next time He came into the synagogue or temple. He made them a part of His thought process and used those symbols and actions as teaching points, sermon prompts, exits from temptations, means and methods to draw closer to the Father.

How can you use the services you attend help you draw closer to God? How can you use the routine to take you to the extraordinary? Remember, when we worship, it’s never about routine, it’s about God, and He can never be described as ordinary.

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.

What are your hangups? (Matthew 12:3-6) March 12, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Mark 1-2

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:3-6
Jesus: Haven’t you read what David did? When he and his friends were hungry, they went into God’s house and they ate the holy bread, even though neither David nor his friends, but only priests, were allowed that bread. Indeed, have you not read that on the Sabbath priests themselves do work in the temple, breaking the Sabbath law yet remaining blameless? Listen, One who is greater than the temple is here.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

What is your religious hangup? Maybe you have several. I remember growing up we had a lot of “don’ts to contend with.” They weren’t bad rules. They kept us out of trouble. They helped discipline us. But some of them really didn’t make a lot of sense and were carryovers from a generations past and didn’t really apply anymore.

As I’ve grown older, I realize the importance of some of those taboos and the frivolity of others. I’ve also come to see these words of Jesus as they apply not just to the disciples picking grain on the Sabbath, but to a lot of our rituals and rules that sometimes help us remember different aspects of our faith, but are in truth just rituals to jump start our memories. They mean little in themselves apart from the memory and meaning they bring to us in regard to our relationship with God. The Sabbath is really just another day on the calendar unless you spend it in a vibrant, meaningful relationship with God.

Baptism is a wonderful ritual, but if you go under an unrepentant sinner, you come up a wet unrepentant sinner. It’s only a ritual to help us recall an important event in our lives, that of giving ourselves fully to God. Dying to self and living in Christ. There is no other purpose for baptism. It’s a great thing. It’s an important thing. It’s something we follow Christ in doing. But if we’re not careful, it can be just another ritual. And you know what, God doesn’t really care about rituals. He cares about relationships.

Maybe your hangup is clothes. We used to talk about going to church in our Sunday best. I don’t see that much anymore. We have made Sunday dress pretty casual. I kind of like Sunday best. I like to think God likes me to dress up for Him at least as much as I’d dress up to go to an important job interview or a meeting with an important dignitary. But I don’t get hung up on clothes. Jesus met with people in rags and He met with people in regal attire. It made no difference to Him because He looks at the inside, not the outside. I do believe we should dress with modesty in mind as scripture tells us. But then again, whose definition of modesty are we using?

Maybe your hangup is jewelry. I have to tell you, I’m not much on body piercing of any kind. Maybe it’s partly because I really don’t like pain and all that stuff in ears and eyes and noses and tongues and elsewhere looks terribly painful. Can I tell anyone else it’s wrong? Nope. It’s my hangup, not necessarily yours. Don’t expect to see me with earrings anytime soon, but I won’t ask you to take out your nose ring either. It’s one of those things that really doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.

Maybe your hangup is music. What happened to the great hymns of the church? Why do we only hear choruses with the same five words sung twenty times? I like the old hymns. But then if I think back fifty years, the songs we introduced were heresy to the older crowd then, so maybe I just need to get over my likes and dislikes of music styles and be happy that people are singing the praises of Jesus no matter what beat or how few or how many words are used. It’s about worship and relationship, not about the music, anyway, right?

So what’s your hangup? What is it that you just can’t get over someone else doing that you think must be wrong? Take a look at it again from Jesus’ perspective. Is it one of those that He would same the same thing He did to the Pharisees about their comments to Him about the Sabbath? It’s not that observing the Sabbath is wrong. It’s not that your particular hangup is wrong. (sorry, I probably shouldn’t call it that). But sometimes the things that we think are just so important, are not. God wants more out of us. He wants a relationship with us and that doesn’t come through those rituals and rules and habits we think are so important. Relationship comes through listening and talking and doing things together. And since He’s God and we are not, doing the things He wants us to do. It means reciprical love. You know God loves you, He wants you to love Him back.

Can it be that simple? Can our spiritual life be summed up as simply as that? Yes! His word says it is so simple that even a fool doesn’t need to miss it. So unless you want to call yourself dumber than a fool, it’s not that hard to figure out. Let Him be Lord!

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.