Enemies

(freefoto.com)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:43-45a)

The deepest question about anyone is this: what do you love? Every lie of Satan, in one way or another, is really an attempt to deflect our love away from its proper objects: God and our neighbors. The Scriptures rightly teach that if we would simply love God and love others, there would be no need for any other laws.

Our normal practice, however, is to love ourselves. Even our love for our friends and family is often self-serving: we love them for what we get from them. It is when we face enemies that the poverty of our love is really brought to the surface.

In Jesus' day, many people decided that He was the enemy and so they put Him to death on a cross. But at that very moment Jesus demonstrated what His Father is like more clearly than it had ever been seen before. He died on a cross because He loved the very people who were killing Him, the people whose sins made the cross necessary. Jesus, on the cross, prayed for the very people who were killing Him. That was yet another proof that He truly is the Son of God, for He was acting just as His Father in heaven does, with perfect love.

Starter Prayer:

Father, we thank you that you love your enemies, that you are gracious. We thank you that you sent Jesus, your only Son, to save us. We celebrate His amazing love for His enemies. We celebrate the cross, where the most wicked act in human history became the source of our salvation.

Amen.

Those Liars

But let your word 'yes' be 'yes,' and your 'no' be 'no.' Anything more than this is from the evil one. Matthew 5:37

Who comes to mind when you hear the word "liar?" Almost surely you think of someone other than yourself--liars are the people who tell really big lies, really hurtful lies, lies that are worse than what we tell. In this passage Jesus points us to the heart attitude that lying comes from. We have all kinds of different ways of manipulating people that, in our minds, are totally different from lying. We choose our words very carefully so as to say nothing literally false, while leaving impressions that are both false and self-serving.

In fact, as we consider the evils we have learned about in the past six weeks, we will see that lies, the lies of Satan, are at the root of many of the temptations we face. Satan promises that we would be happier if we had someone else's house, and so we covet. Satan tells us we have the right to be angry at someone who has wronged us, and so we give in to a vengeful anger.

We are both tempted by lies and tempted to lie in order to serve the deceitful desires of our hearts.

Starter Prayer:

Father, forgive us for the way we try to hide ourselves with words the way Adam and Eve hid themselves with fig leaves. Forgive us for the way we use our words to manipulate others. Your words are always true. Put a spirit of truth in our hearts.

Amen.

The Damning Look

“You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell!" (Matthew 5:27-30)

Hell. What an awful word. It puts knots in your stomach. It makes you flinch.

It is supposed to.

Jesus tells us that when we entertain lust, it is the first step onto a damning path. We're flirting with adultery. We're on a slippery slope with a really bad ending.

Jesus came to rescue us from that path. He came to show us a better way. We celebrate his divine rescue operation this week, often called "holy week." We praise Jesus for intervening in our lives that were heading toward destruction.

Knowing this, why would we flirt with sin, the sin that caused Christ's death? We shouldn't, and we don't have to. He daily gives us the power to say "no" to sin and "yes" to righteousness (Romans 6:12-14). Praise be to God! He is risen! Woohoo!

Starter Prayer

Jesus, You found me on a reckless path. You saved me from destruction. I'm thankful and so I daily offer You my eyes, my heart, and my life!

Amen

Really? Anger is a sin?

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, 'Do not murder,and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool!’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You moron!’ will be subject to hellfire." (Matthew 5:21-22)

Boy, it is easy to see the sins of others. We're good at spotting those. But when we look in the mirror (not the mirror above our sink, I'm referring to the mirror of God's Word as in James 1:22-25), we find that sin is pretty easy to spot much closer to home.

Do you get angry? I'm not speaking of "righteous indignation;" I mean the kind of anger that causes you to speak harshly or cruelly to someone. Have you ever torn someone apart with words that are fueled by anger? Sometimes we regret the damage we inflict. Sometimes we feel smug and justified.

Jesus pulls no punches. That kind of anger is cause for judgment ... the punishment of hell.

But thanks be to God! This Friday we celebrate the ultimate Day of Atonement, the Day that Jesus died on the cross to absorb the punishment that we deserve for all our sins, including the sin of anger.

Starter prayer:

Jesus, how desperately I need You. How grateful I am that when you died on the cross, it was for ALL my sin - even the sin of my anger. Forgive me for my anger. Forgive me for inflicting pain on others because I was unable to contain my anger. I've been wrong - terribly wrong.

Thank you for the cross and for full forgiveness. Change me by Your grace, Lord!

Amen

We were to be salt

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men. (Matthew 5:13)

Over the last several weeks in this blog, we have looked at the reality of sin in the world. We have seen how human life is devalued and how the church is persecuted. We have looked at the hurt caused by poverty and crime and by our violations of the Ten Commandments. In all of these things, we see the evidence of decay caused by sin.

Jesus called us to be the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative. It is supposed to hold back the decay. As we look back at all of the pain sin causes, and we look forward to the cross of Christ on Friday, we should be moved to confessing our own sin. We were called to be salt, but many times we have failed to be salt. Jesus says that salt that doesn't preserve is useless. If we as individuals and the church collectively had been salt as we were commanded, we would see a much more God- honoring world than the one we live in.

Starter prayer:

Father, You have called us to be salt in the world, to work against the evil of sin through Your power. We confess to You how often we are so concerned about ourselves and our immediate friends and family that we don't even take time to pray against the destructive power of sin. We confess how often we do not act as those who are salt should. We ask for Your forgiveness and we remember that our sin is why Jesus had to die.

Amen.

Envy

Do not covet your neighbor's house. Do not covet your neighbor's wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17)

The 10th commandment leads us deeper still into the heart from which we sin against each other. People lie to each other because there is something they want that they think they can't get by legitimate means. People steal because they want the property of others. They have affairs because they want another person's spouse. Murders normally happen either because of anger caused by one of the above or by some other desire we have that is unfulfilled (James 4:1-2).

Some people think that Jesus was saying something radically new in the Sermon on the Mount (which we will look at next week) when he said that it is not enough to obey the commandments in your actions, you must obey them in your hearts. In fact, He was not saying something new, He was just restating what the 10th commandment already said: that God wants changed hearts, not just changed behavior.

Starter Prayer:

Father, you are all that we need, yet our lives are so easily consumed by the desire for what we do not have. Forgive us. Help us to be content with what we have because we have You and that is enough. Help us to rejoice in your goodness to others.

Lying

Do not give false testimony against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)

From some perspectives, the sins get smaller as we go through the Ten Commandments. Most people would say murder is worse than adultery, and that adultery is a bigger deal than theft, and theft is a bigger deal than telling a lie. We rank them this way because in our minds the sins become more frequent as you go down the list. Sins that we think we are more likely to commit are not as bad as sins we think other people will commit.

But from another perspective as we move down the list, we get closer and closer to the heart issue. Imagine a world without lying, and you will imagine a world where murders, adulterers, and thieves would almost certainly get caught, and know they will get caught. Deception is the tool that allows murder, adultery, and theft to do their damage, and it also reveals an underlying attitude they have in common. Other people are not to be respected; they are to be used. That self serving attitude is at the root of much sin. Jesus came to testify to the truth, in fact Jesus himself is the truth. In his life and death he comes to bring in a new age where every word is true because all of us have finally embraced grace.

Starter Prayer:

Father, you are true and your word is true. We pray that across our nation we would become known as people who speak the truth. Help your children to be salt and light by what we say, and rid us of the heart attitude that leads us to manipulate others.

Theft

Do not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Most people, at some point in their lives, experience theft of some type, be it loss of a car, a bicycle, a wallet or purse, or all of one's household possessions. There is often a feeling of anger and insecurity that follows this experience.

If the eighth commandment were actually observed, the world we live in would be a radically different place. Not only would the hurt that the sin of theft inflicts be gone, but we would notice how much of our lives is spent trying to prevent it. In Zambia one sees that the houses of the wealthy have large walls with broken glass and barbed wire on the top to keep people from breaking in. Were our police as ineffective as theirs, Americans would do the same very quickly.

In the Old Testament, a recurring promise of what God's blessing will be like is that the crops will be eaten by the people who planted them, not by robbers or foreign armies (Psalm 144). We look forward to the day when Jesus will establish a kingdom where theft and the fear and anxiety it produces are no more.

Starter Prayer:

Father, everything we have really belongs to you. Help us not to be possessive of our possessions, to hold loosely the things you give us. We also ask that you would foil the plans of those who enrich themselves by stealing from others, that you would help them to do something useful with their labor so that they might have something to share with those in need.

Adultery

(photo credit capl@washjeff.edu)

Do not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)

When God created man and woman, He created the family. Adultery, sexual activity with someone other than your spouse, tears apart the trust and commitment upon which the family depends. Rationalizations do nothing to heal the terrible brokenness that unfaithfulness brings about. Amidst recent culture wars, perhaps we have been distracted by the debates over gay rights and misled into thinking that it is the greatest threat to the institution of marriage. Ir is not. The biggest threat remains the unfaithfulness of married people to each other. The reason many young people forgo marriage has more to do with their experiences of their parents' infidelity than with the messages of our media. Let us pray today that marriages around our nation would be characterized by simple, God-honoring, faithfulness.

Starter Prayer:

Father, You created marriage as the first building block of society. You intended the faithful love of a husband and wife to be a picture of the faithful love between Christ and the church. We pray that you would lead people away from the temptation to be unfaithful, and we pray that your grace would bring healing to those who are already living with the effects of adultery.

Murder

(photo copyright Richard Croft)

Do not murder. (Exodus 20:13)

This week we will use the second half of the Ten Commandments to pray about the realities of sin in our world. The sixth commandment is only three words long: "Do not murder." As we have seen over the last few years, this commandment is broken not just in big cities, but in Central Iowa as well. Murder leaves an enormous amount of hurt and pain behind, not only for the friends and family of the victim, but also for the one who killed.

In Genesis 4, when Cain killed his brother, God said, "Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground!" God is the ultimate avenger, but remarkably He is also the one who offers grace even to those who murder. The apostle Paul himself was an accessory to murder, yet he was used powerfully by God to build the church. As we pray today, let us pray that God would turn murderers away from their course of action, and that where murders have already happened, God's grace would invade the lives of everyone affected.

Starter prayer:

Father, we ask You to restrain the evil all around us that leads to murder. We pray for the families of both victims and murderers, and for the murderers themselves, that they would see that there is no sin too great for your grace to forgive.

Generous Poverty

Do you want a shocker? It is often those in poverty who are the most generous toward God.

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God granted to the churches of Macedonia: during a severe testing by affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed into the wealth of their generosity. (2 Cor. 8).

Remember the poor widow in Luke 21? "For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus," Jesus said, "but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on."

Let's follow that pattern! Let's ask God to give us hearts and hands of gratitude. Let's not wait until we can give from our abundant surplus. If we wait, we likely never will - no matter what level we attain. Let's give generously because God is honored and praised when we follow His example.

Starter prayer...
Jesus, You gave us Your all. You held nothing back. Now teach us to give as You gave.

Amen

Poverty in America?

The number of people in the U.S. in poverty in 2009 (43.6 million) is the largest number in the 51 years for which poverty estimates have been published (U.S. Census Bureau).

Though Americans have more access to aid, there are many (especially children) who are vulnerable and who remain at great risk.

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? Jesus concluded that poignant story with a question: "'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?' 'The one who showed mercy to him,' he said." And if the point had not already been clear, Jesus zeros in... "Then Jesus told him, 'Go and do the same.'" (Luke 10).

Starter prayer...
Jesus, we look forward to celebrating all that You did for us on the cross. And as we celebrate Your death and resurrection, give us grace to also celebrate Your LIFE. You showed us what righteousness and mercy look like. Help us, Jesus, to follow You!

Amen

Using Your Gifts

They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I made every effort to do. (Galatians 2:10)

Every Christ-follower must ask the question, "How has God gifted me to make an impact in His name?"

Cornerstone has been blessed to send many workers to the nations. At the Hope Center God has used builders, craftsmen, painters, farmers, teachers, children's workers, engineers, electricians, and others to "remember the poor."

When you see a need, ask God if He has uniquely gifted you with the ability to meet that need. Maybe those needed dollars are in your wallet. Perhaps the needed skills are in your hands. Are the needed words in your mouth? Is the compassion welling in your heart?

When Jesus came on His rescue mission for us, He gave His life for us. He rose again for us. And He has poured out His Spirit on us so that we might carry on His work in His name.

Starter prayer...
Father, once I have seen the poor, give me the strength to intervene according to Your will and with the strength that You provide. You served the least of these - including me! Now may I follow Your path and serve others ... especially those in greatest need.

Amen

Why Does Poverty Exist?

More than 50 percent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhea. (source: World Health Org.)

These diseases and their accompanying casualties seem unimaginable to us. They are preventable. They shouldn't exist in our modern world.

But they do.

The Hope Center that Cornerstone has established in Serenje, Zambia seeks to bring the basic necessities of clean food and water to the most vulnerable orphans in that region.

And the Zambian team that works among these children offers them the hope and peace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that lives will be saved and souls will be saved. Simple and accessible solutions to their hunger and thirst ... physically and spiritually. Hope.

Starter prayer...
Lord, bless Navice, Nyawa, Joshua and all those who work among the children of the Hope Center. May You use our gifts to reclaim lives that might otherwise be lost to poverty and disease. And may heaven ring with the voices of those who meet Jesus there!

Amen

Poverty - But I don't see it!

Isaiah 25 offers this beautiful description of God...

For You have been a stronghold for the poor,
a stronghold for the humble person in his distress,
a refuge from the rain, a shade from the heat.

We know that God is merciful and has compassion on the poor. And we know that He wants His people to mimic Him.

But where are the poor? I don't face them in our streets. They don't live around the corner.

Or do they?

Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — lives on less than $2.50 a day.

1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world).

In this time of prayer and fasting, let's remember those who - though they may not live next door - are as visible and accessible to us as we want them to be. Let's ask God to open our eyes, and begin to see the poor as He sees them ... and then respond as He would have us to.

Starter prayer...
Father, sometimes we don't see what we don't want to see. Give us the courage to see the poor. Give us the mercy to respond. And give us the grace to be transformed into Your image. Jesus, you came to bring peace through the cross and to free us to bear Your image. Help us.

Amen

Christians in Action

"Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we didn't know about this,' won't He who weighs hearts consider it? Won't He who protects your life know? Won't He repay a person according to his work?" Proverbs 24:11-12

There are Christians who are working to fight against the forms of oppression we have looked at this week. One group is International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org). They go into countries where child prostitution, forced prostitution, slavery, and land seizures are happening and where such activities are illegal according to that country's own laws. They do investigations and then find honest law enforcement officials who will take the evidence and act on it. In doing so they are calling these countries to live up to their own standards as well as God's standards. We can pray for those who work for them as well as the people that they are trying to help.

Starter Prayer: Father, we pray that you would help the efforts of International Justice Mission to rescue and help those who are being oppressed. We pray that those they help would be not only rescued, but would come to know Jesus as Savior. We pray that Christians would be known as people who love both justice and mercy, since we know that you are a God of justice and mercy.