James 1:7-8  For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Doubt betrays us. It leaves us with only one message: You are on your own. And when it inflicts hardship on our lives, it makes us "double-minded and unstable" people. To be double-minded means we say we trust, but we go on worrying in fear. It means that we may say one thing but do another. That makes us worrisome hypocrites, leaving us ensnared in the isolation of our own lives. You are on your own.

Peter was double-minded in his struggle between faith and fear. He boldly thought that he could walk on water as hie Lord did and even started out doing so. But when his eyes caught the wind and waves, he was filled with only doubts and began to sink. So, in the midst of his fear, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30). And the Lord saved him.

Do we trust that the Lord will save us? Our doubts tells us that we can't expect to receive anything from the Lord? But our doubts have surely betrayed us. In truth we know just how far the Lord will go. He will go into the depth of the sea for us, even into the depths of hell itself. That is where his cross is planted. That is where our eyes look, once again, in faith.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

James 1:6  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Our relationship with God is founded on our trust in Christ's promise that God will be there for us. But when we are filled with doubt, we lack faith. And when we lack faith, or trust, we are "like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by wind." We are out of control! And so, we fear and panic in our doubts, in the midst of the storms of life.

Jesus instructed his disciples to go on ahead in the boat through the sea to the other side while he stayed behind to pray. But their boat got hit by the wind and waves of a storm, and they were far from land. Even when Jesus came for them in the midst of the storm, they could not see him for who he was. They thought he was a ghost, adding to their existing fear of death and doom. But Jesus did not leave them in fear. "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid," he said (Matthew 14:27).

"Taking heart" means casting aside our doubts and fear, however much they are present with us in the storms of life. We look to Jesus in every scary scenario. Jesus risked everything for our well-being, even death on the cross. He is with us. Do not be afraid!

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

1 Peter 1:20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.

You are not an afterthought. From your birth to your death, God is looking out for you. God's plan in Christ is "destined before the foundation of the world" to save us. Through the grace of God, there is the trust that Christ's death and resurrection are for your sake. Christ is the fulfillment of that destiny of promise and hope.

Our world is absorbed with other plans. And that is worse, it inflicts those plans upon us. Our life seems defined and controlled - even destined- toward its own goal of mere survival. Greed inflicts that solitary goal of making money until you die but gives you no freedom and no life. And greed does not sleep, nor does its evil master, Satan: "...like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

But through Christ, we have another destiny - indeed, a life-giving destiny! Christ is the Child of that new destiny. And through Christ we are children of a new destiny. For he sees us through the evils of this world, even death and all its judgment, taking that to the cross and giving us instead his gifts of life and freedom. Because of Christ, you have the destiny as your own through faith!

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

1 Peter 1:14  Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.

We are children of God through Christ and his blood shed for us on the cross. Our new birth in Christ is ours through baptism and our trust in his promise of grace.

Our status as children means that our former dependence on the law no longer applies to us. We are free. And as children of God through Christ, we live in that freedom and the new obedience of faith.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we remind one another of the cross and the great price Christ paid for us there. By the power of the cross, we daily die to our old Adam (and old Eve) that clings so tightly to our mortal bodies, pressing us to turn back to old desires such as greed and its false illusion of power and success. Our power and success are not measured by such things, nor are we bound by them. We let go of that past ignorance, grasping instead the promising truth of the Gospel even as Christ has grasped us from death into life.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

1 Peter 1:13  Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.

While our salvation rests in Jesus Christ, the day of our final liberation is not yet at hand. As we walk through the wilderness of our world, we face many struggles and obstacles - even sufferings. Greed is one of those great barriers that can turn our eyes away from Christ and toward the temporary and fading wealth of this world.

"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" is an African American spiritual that empowered people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who, in the face of many of his own struggles and sufferings, would surely not have been able to carry on otherwise. But even in times of great despair, the hope of Christ picks us up, sustains us and moves us on in freedom toward his future of mercy, forgiveness and righteousness.

"Preparing our minds for action" means keeping our focus on Christ. It calls forth the discipline of faith and trust that, in spite of all our failings in life, God is there to uphold us and raise us up as he did with Christ. The crucified and risen Christ gives us hope!

-- 

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Luke 12:16  Then Jesus told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly."

A grievance sets the context of Jesus' parable. A person in the crowd asks Jesus to make a decision about a dispute with a brother over the family inheritance. But Jesus does not accept the mantle of being a legal judge. Instead, he responds, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15).

Grievances and litigations abound in our society and in our world. It is a hideous illness that goes to the sinful core of beings. Even when we have an abundance of worldly goods, there is a temptation to hoard what we have. This is what happened to the rich man who had more than enough for himself. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God" (Luke 12:20-21).

When we seek righteous judgment in our grievances, we may not like the final judgment we deserve. But Jesus comes to render a different judgment on the cross, and abundant supply of his mercy, forgiveness and grace. This is the seed of richness we need. Out of his generosity toward us, we spread around his grace, even our very possessions, for one and all.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Philippians 2:9-11  Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ does not come home empty-handed. Through the depths of suffering, trial and death on the cross, he brings humanity into reconciliation with God. When the victorious Lord sits upon the throne of glory, he has brought home with him all those strays whom he now prizes as his own kin and kind - the lost and alienated, the forgotten and abandoned, "the least of thee" that could not find their way home if their life depended on it (Matthew 25:40). And all these are welcomed home in the Father's grace.

In fact, it is those who thumb their noses at the weak and lowly who seem to disregard Christ's promise of glory the most. Such neglect makes its appearance in our prejudice and pride, setting aside the presence of God's glory. But Jesus comes for one and all. God alone is to be praised for the coming glory, but God's glory never comes alone. With Jesus, there comes a whole holy host of the world's most vulnerable. And God the Father, who so oved the world that he sent his only Son, accepts them all.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,