Haritha

A Miracle And A Meal

Some biblical miracles almost seem like they were created to light up the screens in movie theaters. Cecil B. DeMille’s

The Ten Commandments won an Academy Award for the special effects it employed to show the parting of the Red Sea and the writing of the Ten Commandments.

Other biblical epics portray some of the more dramatic moments from Jesus’ life: the time he came to his disciples walking on the water; the day he fed five thousand people with a few fish and a few loaves of bread; and his forty days of temptation in the desert.

Here, Matthew gives us a passage that is so tiny and quiet that we almost overlook it.

In these two verses, the miraculous and the mundane happen simultaneously. That’s why you won’t see this passage acted out in any major motion pictures. It’s just too ordinary.

In the preceding chapters, Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, one of the most important sermons ever delivered.

Then in chapter eight and the following chapters, Jesus demonstrated what his new kingdom would look like by performing a variety of miracles.

Then, after healing a leper and the servant of a Roman official, Jesus did something we can all relate to. He went to Peter’s house for a time of rest and relaxation.

Perhaps Jesus needed to sit down and rest his tired and weary feet. Maybe it was a cup of water he needed most. Or perhaps he merely wanted a few moments away from the crowds that continued to throng around him and press in on him.

Peter was one of the first men to agree to follow Jesus, but he still had a family.

This brief passage doesn’t give us many details about the family life of the disciples, but I suspect that Peter’s house was a lot like mine and yours: messy, active, and noisy.

But even in the midst of this private domestic scene, Jesus has an opportunity to demonstrate his divine power. Peter’s mother-in-law is laid up with a fever, so Jesus touched her hand and healed her.

If this had been a movie, we would have expected a few angels to hover overhead flapping their wings while the soundtrack’s violins played a crescendo of sound.

Instead, the woman got up and began waiting on Jesus. Perhaps she even cooked him a batch of her favorite cookies.

These two verses are little more than a brief break in the action. Soon, the crowds will be gathering again, and Jesus will be performing more fantastic miracles such as healing the sick and casting out demons.

Movies will always focus on these dramatic scenes, but Jesus’ visit to Peter’s house reveals another side of the Savior.

And this humble domestic episode shows us that God doesn’t love us only in our most “religious” moments, but also when we’re just hanging out in the family room with our family.

Jesus isn’t some otherworldly deity who is insensitive to the daily reality of our lives.

Instead, he comes into our daily lives and trans¬forms the mundane existence into something miraculous.

Jesus, I thank you for coming to earth in human form, and I ask you to transform my daily life into an occasion for the miraculous

Adopted Into God’s Family

The Jews were God’s chosen people. In Old Testament times only the children of Israel enjoyed the benefits of a covenant relationship with the one true God.

Gentiles were outside of the promises of God and without hope.

Then, through the redemptive blood of Jesus, the uncircumcised became part of God’s family.

This verse holds particular meaning for me, because I was adopted into my own family. I don’t know who my biological parents were, but I know that my adoptive parents loved me with all their hearts.

They loved me not because I was born of them but because I became a part of their family.

I enjoyed all the rights and privileges that their own biological children would have. They never discriminated against me because I was adopted.

The same is true for us. God loves us Gentiles as much as the children of Israel and he folded us into his family at the time of Christ.

It is difficult for us to fully appreciate what that adoption means since most of us have little experience with being foreigners and aliens.

I have tried, in the past, to imagine what it would have been like to be in an orphanage with no family who wanted me.

That was the fate of many children when I was growing up, but I can’t even fathom how painful that kind of estrangement would have been.

The closest that I’ve come to feeling outside the norm has been when traveling in countries where English is not the national language. I remember my first trip to Germany.

I was with several other people and we had rented a car to drive from Frankfurt to a small town near Dusseldorf.

Even with road maps, we had a challenging time following directions. We often took the wrong exit off the major highways when driving through a town.

Some people tried to be helpful but many just waved us away, unable to understand English. We certainly felt like the foreigners we were.

Much more consequential is the fact that we Gentiles were aliens to the family of God prior to the work of Jesus on the cross.

It’s one thing to be lost on a road in a foreign country and quite another to be a lost soul, without access to the Father.

How amazing that he chose to graft us into his family tree and bestow on us all the blessings of his children.

The power of the cross was for the forgiveness of sins for the Jew and Greek, male and female, all who believe in his name.

Father, we are so grateful that you chose to include all who believe in Jesus as part of your family.

Aglow With God’s Glory

He put a veil over his face and took it off again only when he was in the presence of the Lord.

Moses and God had met together many times before Moses’ face took on such radiance. But this time something was different.

For example, Moses went up to Mount Sinai to meet with God, and “the LORD called to him from the mountain” (v. 3).

Then God told Moses to go back and consecrate the people, for God would show himself to them in the form of a cloud over the mountain.

When God appeared, he displayed his power with a dense cloud, thunder and lightning, and the blast of a trumpet.

The mountain shook, and the people trembled at the overwhelming force before them.

Then he went up the mountain and spoke with God.

When he came back down, he told the people not to approach Mount Sinai, for they could not see God and live.

God once again appeared in the midst of a cloud, with thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet. Moses reentered the darkness of the cloud to meet with God.

Moses had more divine encounters, getting closer to God than anyone else and receiving instructions to take back to the people.

God himself inscribes the tablets of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 31:18).

Then in Exodus 33:18, the relationship changed.

The word glory here refers to something that is heavy, impressive, and honored. Moses must have been asking to see God more fully than he already had.

And God agreed in part. God put Moses in the cleft of a rock, covered Moses with his hand, and passed by.

As God moved away, he allowed Moses to see his back … in all God’s glory.

Moses spent forty days and forty nights up on the mountain in the presence of God. It was at the conclusion of these forty days that Moses descended from the mountain and his face was radiant.

The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what changed between God and Moses that transformed man’s appearance.

But it seems reasonable to assume that the radiance came from Moses’ being in the presence of God’s glory.

And in our own way, we can be transformed by the glory of God, too.

Father, we cannot imagine what it will be like to see you in all your glory, but we thank you that one day we will. We thank you that we will be fully in your presence.

From Religion To God

Saint Paul would have been fascinated by San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, or Sedona, Arizona.

Some celebrate these cities and others like them as New Age meccas where spiritually hungry people can constantly compare notes on the latest techniques designed for experiencing the transcendent or the true.

Paul traveled endlessly in his tireless effort to spread the message of Christ. And when he went to a new city, he didn’t hide out in a Christian ghetto where things would be safe.

He felt a burning passion for investigating people’s diverse spiritual interests.

In Athens, which was a thriving spiritual mecca of the ancient world, he spent part of a day examining the city’s rituals and religious relics.

Paul was particularly intrigued with an altar that was inscribed with these haunting words: “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.”

The next day, Paul spoke to the Areopagus, a group of spiritual seekers.

He wanted to tell these people about Jesus, but he thought it would be better if he warmed up the crowd by first talking about some of their homegrown gods.

He talked about the inscription he had seen on the altar.

Then, unlike some preachers, Paul didn’t say that the Athenians were nasty, evil people for having so many gods.

Instead, he began by trying to build a bridge of mutual understanding: “I see that in every way you are very religious.”

God made us with a God-shaped vacuum deep in our souls, but people fill that hole in a variety of ways.

Paul paid due respect to the Athenians’ deep religiosity, but then he turned the tables on them, declaring that their desperate search for God had gotten them only a few miles down a very long road.

“Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you,” he said, and he proceeded to tell them about Jesus.

Those of us today who are trying to talk to others about Jesus should follow Paul’s example. Paul quoted poets of his day, but we could adapt his approach to the realities of our own world.

Most of our city streets don’t have altars to unknown gods, but our cities are home to a diverse mix of religious and spiritual groups.

Perhaps we could learn more about what some of these groups believe in order to talk to their members about how their doctrines agree or conflict with the Christian message.

As for poets, many cities offer regular poetry readings. But we might also want to consider studying pop music and movies for signs of spiritual life.

These media didn’t exist in Paul’s time, but in our time they are some of the most important conveyors of spiritual messages.

Paul spoke from the heart about his Savior, but he also used his head to try to connect with his listeners in a way that would make sense to them.

Father, help me build bridges to the people you want to reach instead of erecting barriers.

Words Hurt

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Many of us learned this little ditty as children and tried to believe it when someone said hurtful things to us.

But as this verse in James proclaims, words are powerfully dangerous.

I grew up in a household with an angry father. He could be very loving and giving and then lash out with rhetoric that sent me cringing into my room.

In his later years, I learned of his abusive childhood that, no doubt, contributed greatly to his angry words all through his life.

Even knowing and understanding why my father was so mad so much of the time didn’t lessen the sting of his words. I think I’ve cried more tears over the things he’s said to me than over anything else.

As a result of bearing the brunt of repeated verbal anger, I am very sensitive to how people talk to one another.

My daughters can testify to the strict upbringing they endured as far as how they talked to anyone.

They were not allowed to say “Shut up,” “You’re so stupid,” or a menagerie of other phrases that were related to words that had hurt me as a child.

I heard Maya Angelou, the poet and author, speak at a conference a few years ago. She draws in her audience with her soft-spoken, gracious words of wisdom. Her very manner was poetic and lyrical.

One of her examples about the use of words has stayed with me. She told the audience that she doesn’t allow people who are speaking unkindly about someone else to stay in her home.

If she hears someone speak that way, she asks him or her to leave!

She went on to explain that words, once spoken, can’t be taken back. They are out, living, and stick to the walls of the room like germs.

As I listened to her metaphor I felt as if so many of my father’s words had stuck to the walls of my soul.

They have lost much of their power, but the hurt from them has left scars.

God created us with the ability to speak. Scripture even refers to Jesus as “the Word” (John 1:1) and says (Heb. 4:12).

We have the power to be life-destroyers or life-givers with just the words we speak. It is a tremendous responsibility to take these words from James 3:6 and determine to tame our tongues.

Father, thank you for the gift of language and the healing that our words can give to others. Help us always to speak with concern for the impact our words have on others.

A Divine Blessing

It had been a long and difficult journey. For forty years, the Israelites had wandered in the scorching deserts of the Middle East as they searched for the new homeland God had promised them.

Moses, their divinely ordained leader, claimed he was following God’s orders. But over the past four decades, there had been many times when he looked more lost than everyone else.

By the time the Israelites got to Mount Sinai, the holy mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, they numbered more than one million souls (Num. 1:46).

To commemorate their efforts thus far, God gave them a special blessing.

God communicated these verses recorded in Numbers to Moses, who passed them on to his brother, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons, who served as the Hebrews’ first priests.

Aaron and his brothers then communicated God’s blessing to the people.

After years spent in captivity in Egypt and years more spent wandering in the desert, the people received this divine blessing as a welcome relief.

The Bible is a book of many blessings. Some of them come directly from the mouth of God. Many others are human blessings.

But the one thing they all have in common is that they are designed to confer a sense of grace and inspiration to the person receiving the blessing.

Many of us have lost touch with the ancient practice of blessing others, even though we certainly need to be blessed as much as earlier people did.

If someone sneezes, you might hear another person say, “Bless you,” but many of us go through much of our lives without receiving blessings from or giving them to the people around us.

If you want to change that, try blessing loved ones or family members whenever you meet. This can take the form of an unspoken prayer for them, or it can be a brief but sincere comment: “God bless you.”

Just about anyone or anything can be blessed, and the blessings can be offered in either informal or formal ways. Many people seek the prayers and blessings of friends before starting a new venture, such as a new job or a move to a distant city.

In such cases, blessings can be a powerful source of comfort and reassurance. Some churches have more formal services for blessing a new house or new office space.

In such cases, a priest visits the site and leads the occupants through a prescribed ritual.

Once a year, many Anglican and Episcopal churches host a blessing of the animal’s services to honor the legacy of St. Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint who had a deep love for creation.

In your own life, you may even want to try blessing the co-worker or boss who annoys you or the driver who cuts in front of you on the highway.

This may seem like a lot of work at first, but once you get in the swing of things, blessing others—and being blessed yourself—will become a bigger part of your life.

And like the Israelites, you will find the kind words a healing salve during a tough journey.

Thank you, God, for blessing us, and helping me to be a blessing to others.

A Prowling Predator

The image in this verse of a roaring lion was particularly meaningful to friends of mine years ago in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

One sunny, south Florida day, Tom and Nancy’s (not their real names) little boy, David, was playing on the sidewalk in front of their home.

They lived in a beautiful neighborhood with only one problem: the people across the street from them harbored a lion behind tall, stucco walls.

He was caged and supposedly unable to harm anyone. The legal system was moving slowly to force the removal of this wild creature from a residential neighborhood, but those efforts were too late for David.

Somehow the lion escaped from his cage, scaled the wall, and ambled across the street toward David and his older brother, Bobby.

The lion circled David and let out a roar. Bobby ran into the house, screaming for his parents.

Tom and Nancy ran outside and faced the horror of seeing David’s head and shoulders trapped inside the lion’s mouth.

Without thinking about either danger or impossibility, Tom gripped the lion’s jaws and pried them open.

David’s limp body fell out of the lion’s mouth and amazingly, the beast lost interest and walked back home.

David was rushed to the hospital and while being wheeled into the operating room, he asked his mom to sing “Jesus Loves Me” to him.

David survived, and everyone who heard about the event marveled at Tom’s ability to open the jaws of a lion.

Tom knew he didn’t do that on his own and fully acknowledged the power of God to intervene in a miraculous way to save David’s life.

That day Tom accepted Christ into his heart with unspeakable thankfulness.

Few of us will have as graphic an example of the devil stalking about the streets of our hometowns, but we can all acknowledge the presence and power of evil in our world.

Certainly, we who are Americans tasted evil on that fateful day when we watched so many thousands of people lose their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

But Satan doesn’t always come with such a definition. Subtle devices are his specialty.

He uses discouragement, distraction, busyness, greed, selfishness, and a host of other means to wield his power.

The good news is that his power is limited. While Scripture reveals the power of the evil one, it also testifies that God’s power is greater.

This verse tells us to be “self-controlled and alert.” With protection against temptation and awareness of Satan’s wiles, we do not need to fear the power of the roaring lion.

Like Tom, we can experience supernatural strength in overcoming evil with good.

Father, we are so aware of evil when it comes in graphic ways, but we are sometimes unaware of the more subtle moves of the evil one. Help us to discern good from evil and protect us always.

Called And Equipped

It was a tough assignment God gave Moses, a shy, quiet man who was having a tough time imagining himself as a public speaker, military commander, or charismatic political leader.

Pharoah had kept the nation of Israel—the people of God’s own heart—prisoners in Egypt for years.

They were enslaved and oppressed. But God had seen the sorrows of their lives and the backbreaking labor they endured. He had heard their cries and heartfelt prayers for help.

Now, finally, God planned to deliver them from Egypt and take them to “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3:8).

The only thing needed was a willing human collaborator. For some unknown reason, God chose Moses.

Moses listened as God explained his assignment. Moses would go to Pharaoh, the world’s most powerful leader, and command him to set the Israelites free.

Then Moses would lead thousands upon thousands of people across the barren desert to the place God had chosen for them.

Growing tired of Moses’ objections and lack of faith, God responded, “Who gave man his mouth?” He then comforted Moses with the following assurance: “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Have you ever sensed God calling you to do something that you felt was beyond your strength or abilities?

Maybe your divine assignment wasn’t as daunting as Moses’. Perhaps it was something as simple as a tug at your heart telling you to help a street person instead of going out of your way to avoid him.

Or perhaps your assignment came during a coffee break at the office when a co-worker talked about the grief a recent loss caused and you felt moved to offer words of comfort and spiritual insight.

Our divine assignments don’t always have to be big and complicated. It’s easy to place a phone call to a friend the evening before she has a doctor’s appointment, but the comfort you can provide may help her sleep soundly that night.

In other cases, we can best serve others by listening to what they have to say. The gift of listening is something we all possess, but most of us are too busy talking most of the time instead of really trying to hear what others have to say.

Divine assignments can also arise from our life experiences. Once you have gone through a particular trial and emerged safe and sound on the other side, you have a unique ability to provide inspiration and guidance to those who face similar challenges.

But there are some assignments that nobody but you can carry out. They won’t always be easy, but as God reminded Moses, he will give us the help we need in order to carry out what he has called us to do.

Father, here I am. Use me to do your will, and give me the strength I need to do it.

Children Of Faith

My daughter Lara and I recently enjoyed a full day of shopping while I was visiting her in California.

Her three toddlers, Lisa and twins Nathan and Cole, alternated taking turns in the double stroller and walking next to us.

We stopped in a jewelry store so Lara could show me a beautiful necklace in the shape of a cross that she was hoping would be a birthday present from her husband, Craig.

Lisa was sitting in the front of the stroller, peering into the jewelry case and listening to Lara’s conversation with the saleslady.

Lara gently draped the gold chain of the necklace over her fingers and let the cross dangle.

“That’s a cross!” four-year-old Lisa exclaimed. “Mommy, that’s a cross!”

“I know, honey,” Lara said.

“That’s what Jesus came to do, he came to do that, Mom,” Lisa said, now standing on the footrest of the stroller as if in a pulpit all her own.

I smiled at Lara and felt tears rise up in my eyes as I witnessed the fruit of parents teaching their children the truth.

We now have seven grandchildren and relish so many wonderful times with them and their obvious Christian upbringing.

It is difficult to think of anything more joyful than watching the truth spill out of them.

They are fully normal kids with their fair share of mischievousness, but they also soak up God’s truth.

In this verse, John was writing to Gaius, a Christian in one of the churches of the province of Asia.

John was apparently referring to converts or believers in his care. He had had word that Gaius was walking in truth and delighted in that good news.

God, in his providence, imparts truth in many ways: through his Word, through his presence in the Holy Spirit, and through the words of pastors and teachers.

And he uses all of us as his vehicles to impart truth to those close to us.

How wonderful it is that the Word of God has the power to change lives, even when delivered in the routine of parenting. I used very little formality when teaching my children biblical truth.

I just tried to live in front of them what I talked to them about. As is usually the case in parenting, I didn’t know just how much of what I said stuck.

It seems that a good deal of it did. Of course, they had many other godly influences in their lives, but I know that some of the truth they now live came from our time together as a family.

Whether we have children or not, we all have the means to impart truth. And then sometimes we are blessed to enjoy the fruit of our labor.

Father, it is such a joy to see others walk in truth. We thank you for using us to help impact others with your Word.

The Choice Is Yours

Life is full of choices, as anyone can see by taking a brief trip to a fast-food restaurant.

Would you like your burger well done or rare? Sesame seed or sourdough bun? Hot sauce or mild sauce? As for the fries, would you like regular fries or curly cheese fries?

Similar choices confront you at the grocery store. Simply trying to choose a breakfast cereal can turn into a complex decision-making process that requires a selection from among hundreds of varied choices.

Even watching television involves making choices. Decades ago, there were three major broadcast channels.

Today, most cable services offer dozens of choices, and some satellite dish systems offer hundreds.

Sociologists have a term that describes our current abundance of options for everything from food to TV to spiritual paths and “lifestyle options.”

They say twenty-first-century people suffer from an affliction called “overchoice.”

Some choices aren’t very important. There may be two or more different routes you can take when you’re traveling to the store or the kids’ school, but you’ll reach your destination sooner or later, whichever way you go.

In other cases, the decisions we make have important and possibly even life-changing consequences.

Some TV shows are entertaining and possibly even thoughtful. Others are mind-numbing, soul-stunting ex¬ercises in crassness and exploitation.

Perhaps the most important choices we will ever face are those recurring issues where we must choose between life and death, blessings and curses.

Will the way you punish your child teach him to honor and obey authority, or will it cause resentment and rebellion?

Will the way you run your business be a testimony to your depen¬dence on God, or will it be a declaration of your complete dedication to looking out for yourself?

Will your decisions about everything from the fate of unborn children to the health of the environment reflect your concern with life, or will you unconsciously be using your God-given free will to support a culture of death?

The options are clear and the consequences—unlike those at fast-food restaurants—are significant. Now it’s up to us.

God, thank you for the gift of free will. Help me use it wisely by making the right choices.