Reunions are generally a time to reconnect with people and places of our past. There are people we are elated to see, and there are people we may dread seeing. Let that truth stir in your heart as you reflect on your last family reunion. Perhaps there are those we need to forgive. Our Father beckons us to dissolve any bitterness with the oil of His Spirit of reconciliation. The enemy seeks to destroy us with a spirit of envy, hatred, shame, revenge, criticism, and bitter unforgivenss. Each new day we are gifted by God’s grace to choose His Resurrection Power. By His grace, and our obedience, we are reconciled with Him and others. Jesus returned to His childhood town and was greeted well until He told them the truth of who He is. Watch “The Chosen” Season 3, episode 3 and imagine God watching as people drag His Son up a hill with a spirit of condemnation. The brother of Jesus later wrote: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 In this episode, James was not present as his angry neighbors intended to kill Jesus.
Jesus, the Son of Joseph and Mary entered into His creation, subjecting Himself to all sorts of brokeness and pain — in order to save us from it. God in the flesh, our Savior Jesus was familiar with every way of grief. This description fits the Son of God. “He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief; and like One from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.” Isaiah 53:2-4 What does brokenhearted mean? The heart that breaks is not the muscle inside your chest. A broken heart happens when we are hurt by the imbittered rejection of others. “He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppresssed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19 Have you ever been deeply wounded? Have you ever been held captive to anger? Has Jesus opened your eyes to see in the way He sees. With a recovery of sight, perhaps we will choose to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Our Father sees everything, all the time and He was grieved to witness the rebellion of His people when Jesus spoke the truth. Nothing escapes His notice. Every terrible, twisted motive is known by the Father. The people of Nazareth were so enraged when Jesus said that salvation included the Gentiles. In His hometown He was considered a false prophet, a person who spreads false teachings. When He said “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” the crowd accused Him of blasphemy; which is profane talk against God and punishable by death. “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. They rose up and drove Him out of town and brought Him to the brow of a hill to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went away.” Luke 4:28-30
True to His Word, our Savior moves toward us in our suffering to rescue and comfort us as He offers hope for the great Day when sadness and sorrow will be no more. Every word, every promise is truth. “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 Our Father of mercies comforts all who come to Him during our affliction. In the end God will wipe away every tear, and death will be no more. While on planet earth we certainly suffer the consequences of living in a fallen world. Our Father’s grief over human sin is expressed in Psalm 78:40 “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the wasteland.” and Isaiah 63:10 “Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them.” We choose to delight ourselves in the Lord and be encouraged, that Jesus is near the brokenhearted and He saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 – When life is hard we praise God for His plan, and when life is good we praise God for His faithfulness. We are challenged to “Pray without ceasing” just as Jesus did. The battle to obey God is real. The Duality of Self
In “The Chosen” season 3, episode 3, Jesus returns home to visit His mother. He notes the suffering dog was missing from the city gate, the dog everyone ignored. Then Jesus asks about His missing brothers “no Jude or James?” Mary’s joy turns to sorrow as she delicately explains their absence. All this to point out that Jesus was aware of a mistreated dog, the division among His neighbors, and the estrangement of His family. Jesus intimately relates to our personal grief and He challenges us to forgive. John 7:2-6 “When the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His own brothers did not believe in Him. Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.” What are some of the things that grieves the heart of Jesus?
The Man of sorrows, Jesus is always at work and while on earth, He slipped away frequently to be alone with His Father. Jesus went through all the villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harrassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-36 Inside the synagogue Jesus inquired what was lawful “to do good or to do evil?” They remained silent and Jesus looked at them in anger. “Deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts” Jesus commanded the shriveled hand to be completely restored and it was. The Pharisees went out and began to plot the murder of Jesus. Mark 3
QUESTION: Do you recognize bitterness as the strong man who wants to occupy the house of God,? The year of favor depends on our willingness to forgive ourselves and others. Are you ready to forgive someone who has hurt you? Why or why not? NOTE: If we allow unforgiveness to gain a foothold, resentment steps in, then our sinful nature plots to retaliate. One day we will stand before the Judge of all and be held accountable for our words. Our Father tells us how to respond as we Dwell in Grace
Living Abroad 
July 12, 2023 we watched Season 3 Episode 1 entitled “Homecoming” Our Lord preached the Sermon on the Mount which caused a stir in the hearts of over 5,000 people. Jesus asked Judas Iscariot “Are you ready to do hard things?” Joanna, the wife of Herod heard the teaching and brought her offering of fabulous fabric. With a bribe she got Andrew into see John the Baptizer in prison where she told John what Jesus said. “It was all backwards, love your enemies?” “For IF you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but IF you do not forgive others their sins, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15 God’s Holy Word says “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.; whoever insults his brother will be liable to council; and whoever says “you fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.” So if you are offering your gift at the alter and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the alter and go. Fist be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your fit.” Matthew 5:21-24 — Matthew was convicted to obey. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
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July 19, 2023 we watched Season 3, Episode 2 entitled “Two by Two”. The scene opens with a huge tent city that was built just outside the city of Capernaum as a result of the Sermon on the Mount. Simon speaks to his wife about starting a family and spending more time at home as Jesus has lots of work to to in Capernaum. This episode highlights that the disciples of Christ then and now are real people. We marvel at the imagined confusion of these ordinary followers. Our black and white Gospel turns into HD color as it aptly portrays the twelve stymied with fear and questions about their lack of training. Jesus admits His ministry is unsustainable by Himself. He tells them to go out and perform miracles by His authority. Andrew says “did I miss the ceremony?” By God’s Word we were all given authority to do that which He calls us to do. The power follows each step of faith we take to open our mouth, to feed the hungry, to comfort the broken. We are His team sent out to rescue the lost. The disciples abandoned their plans, their families, their possessions to follow Jesus. Without cell phones, they were paired up by Jesus to do His will. This further challenged them to trust Him that on this trip they would not depend on themselves, or their ability. Little James has a conversation with Jesus about why he is not healed? “Imagine the impact of someone sharing the gospel by faith, even though they did not receive a miracle or a healing.” “And He called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff —no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—but to wear sandals not not put on two tunics.” Mark 6:7-9 They were challenged to TRUST GOD for all their needs, just as we are today.
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“God will call you to do what you cannot do, but will provide everything you need to do it.” Noah did not have the power to get all the animals in the ark, but the Lord provided. Joseph did not have the ability to preserve his life and put himself in a position of power in Egypt, but the Lord made it happen. David had no personal power to overcome Goliath, but the Lord gave him courage and strength. The disciples had no means of feeding the hungry crowd that had gathered to hear Jesus, but He fed them well from a boy’s two fish and five loaves. You and I have no natural abilities to rise and do what God calls us to do, but He refuses to leave us to our own resources. He is not so unwise, so unkind, or unfaithful as to ever call us to a task without enabling us to do it. We are not able to love each other the way that Jesus loves the church, but we are not left alone by God to figure out how to love our enemies, share His way of salvation, or complete any task He assigned. We were all given specific talents to do His will, to fultill His purpose. We are not able to keep our hearts pure, so God filled us with His all empowering Spirit.” Taken from the Devotional Book “New Morning Mercies” by Paul Tripp
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July 26, 2023 Episode 3 Season 3 – “Physician heal, Yourself” The opening scene is of Jesus playing as a child. Later He has flashback memories of being taught by Joseph. “One of our acestors that followed Moses through the Red Sea used this bridle to lead his mule that was heavy laden with supplies out of Egypt. This bridle is old, it is not beautiful, but my father handed it to me as I am handing it to You. For 40 generations, the men in our family have kept it to hand down as a rembrance of our bondage, but more importantly in remembrance of being led to freedom.” Titus 2:11-14 “He gave Himself up, to redeem us.” Our relationship of trust begins when we choose to follow Jesus. He shed His blood to cover our sins, He took possession of our souls, He purified us and gave us His robe of righteousness, and by His grace we were freed from the slavery to sin. We came to Jesus as dirty prisoners, under the weight of many worldly ways. He washed us clean and empowered us to live with His authority. He justified us, transformsed us and infused us with eternal hope as His chosen people. The most precious possession we have is our relationship with God. By His grace He justified us. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Ephesians 1:3-4 It is impossible to please God without faith and there is no other way to gain our Father’s acceptance than to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God, who laid down His life that we may gain eternal life through His sacrifice. When Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy and declared the year of the Lord’s favor, His childhood friends rejected Him and took Him to throw the Savior off the cliff. Each day we have the choice to throw Jesus off the cliff, or to humble ourselves and follow Him.
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Yes it is our choice. I pray for righteous choices.
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Me too
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