“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” – Luke 6:22-23 (ESV – Read the chapter)
In this world there are two opposing forces. They are not even remotely equal, but opposite, as popular literature and several different religions hold them to be, but they are opposing all the same. There is the world and there is God. If we are received by and accept the reception of one, we will reject the other. As Jesus Himself made plain, we cannot have both. More specifically, if we receive God, the world isn’t going to like us anymore.
“How long, exalted ones, will my honor be insulted? How long will you love what is worthless and pursue a lie? Selah” (CSB – Read the chapter)
If David’s first cry was up, his second cry is out. When someone else has hurt us or made us angry or dealt us some injustice, it’s okay for us to go ahead and acknowledge that. Refusing to do so both in our hearts and even out loud isn’t somehow holy or righteous. It’s deceitful and dishonest. If you’ve been hurt, claim it. It won’t get any better until you do. Read the rest…
“Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Jesus was nothing if not a realist when it came to the kind of reception His followers should expect when they set out to advance the kingdom by proclaiming the Gospel to the unbelieving world. He made this abundantly clear: We should expect trouble. In these couple of verses He makes clear we should expect three different kinds of persecution. Read the rest…
In part three of our series, Hard Sayings, we look at Jesus’ hard assurance that if we stick with Him, the world is going to hate us. This isn’t an easy truth to hear, but millions of Jesus followers around the world and in our own backyards can attest to the fact that it is true nonetheless. Keep reading as we talk about why and what we can do about it.
Misplaced Anger
Have you ever held up someone as a hero only to have them fail you? I’ve talked before about my being a Kansas basketball fan. When I was growing up, Roy Williams was KU’s coach. I idolized Roy Williams. When I played basketball in grade school, I was convinced that I was going to play for Coach Roy someday. I wrote him a letter to tell him about it and he sent back an autographed picture of the whole team. I got to go to several KU games and watched with keen interest as Roy led team after team to victory. Read the rest…
In this second part of our series, Hard Sayings, we looked a bit more closely at the hard saying from last week that following Jesus is hard. Here we have reaffirmed for us the difficulty of remaining faithful over the long haul, but we also get a bit of a reprieve: The rewards are pretty good as well. Keep reading to see how this unfolds.
A Difficult Journey
When was the last time you did something that was hard, but which left you feeling like you’d done something worthwhile? That’s a really good feeling, isn’t it? You work hard, make some sacrifices even, and come out on top. Like you, I’ve done this kind of thing a few times, but probably the thing that stands out the most to me was learning to play the drums. I started when I was in seventh grade. I had played the trumpet in sixth grade, but then I got braces. Braces and the trumpet do not play well together. Drums didn’t hurt. I started taking lessons almost immediately from a teacher in my neighborhood. That teacher moved. I found another one. I didn’t like him at all. Found a third teacher who was great and stuck with him all the way through high school and into college. And I practiced. Much to my parents’…and probably the neighbors’ too…chagrin, I practice a lot. Then I got to college. I took more lessons and played with the percussion ensemble. In fact, I played a lot, not only with the various university ensembles, but I also started playing with different bands including getting to tour and cut a cd with a rock band of some friends when their previous drummer quit. Read the rest…
The Nexus 