Burying a parent was a big deal back then (as it is even now).  But in those times it could be a year-long process, as Jewish tradition required certain rituals.  But Jesus says that the Kingdom takes priority.  He is not saying that right here, right now, we cannot care for our family obligations.  We are commanded to take care of family obligations!  But when we do, it MUST be out of obedience to Jesus, and not instead of obedience.  Jesus must always be our highest priority!  We were not put here to excel at being wife, mom, daughter, etc.  We are here and chosen and called for one reason and one reason only… to glorify God!  Love and respect our husbands?  Yes!  Be a good mom to our kids?  Absolutely!  But do these things out of obedience to your God.  Do them with the intent of letting them see you place God first, so they will do the same.  Our only earthly obligations are to be done IN obedience, not INSTEAD of.

But there’s more to the story.  If you think back to the Old Testament and the Jewish ways, a woman was declared to be unclean when she was bleeding.  She was not allowed to fellowship until her cycle was over.  This wasn’t just a woman who was sick and needed healing.  This was a woman who had been declared unclean by her family and her church.  For twelve years, if the laws and rituals had been kept, she was banished by those closest to her.

We still mess up today.  As Christians, we are far from perfect.  I pray that we never, ever ostracize those who are hurting and in pain.  But I pray for the ones who get left behind… I pray that in our ignorance, they will still seek Jesus!

This parable used to scare me.  Growing up, I used to be afraid.  I remember praying, “God, I love you, and I want to know you, but I don’t know which kind of soil I’m in.”  Was this about salvation?  About election?  Rather than pursuing it and finding out, I just kind of ignored it.  But yesterday I read through it.  And then I read through it again.  And you know what?  I was blessed!  This parable is about our hearts!

The seed that has fallen along the path and then been trampled happens when our hearts hear God’s Word, maybe in a sermon or at a retreat, and we feel touched and moved.  But these people don’t really make room for God or His Word in their lives.  The devil comes along and tramples the little bit of truth that they have heard, and it is devoured.  The seed that has fallen on the rocks is interesting.  A seed cannot build roots among rocks.  So the people hear God’s truth, and they love it.  But without allowing it to root in their lives, the sun scorches any fruit that was able to come from it.  The last seed, the one that has fallen on the thorns, has the opposite problem.  This seed does grow roots.  But because of the thorns there is not fruit that develops.  These thorns can be the busyness of our lives.  We are quite capable of filling our lives with carpools and church functions and taking care of husbands and children, none of which are bad!  But these cannot take away from our number one purpose in life, which is to glorify God.  Another “thorn” that can choke us out is education when it comes to God’s Word.  We can study and study and study, and know all of the right answers.  But if we are too busy learning about God’s Word and not spending enough time living it out, that is a major thorn.

The parable of the sower… who would have thought that I could love that!

But then we come to the widow’s son.  Jesus “happened” upon the funeral procession as He was traveling to Nain.  Scriptures tell us that “…when the Lord saw her (the mother), He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’  Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.  And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’  And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

Why didn’t the mother stop Jesus and ask Him to heal her son?  Everywhere else we see people asking Him for healing, but she did not.  I have a feeling that she thought that there was nothing to ask for!  It’s one thing to ask to be healed of a disease, but quite another to ask to bring someone back from the dead.  Death is the ultimate defeat in the eyes of the world.  But Jesus didn’t wait to be asked… He knew her… He loved her… He had compassion for her.  And then He graciously went to her and answered her unasked prayer.

I’m not saying we don’t need to pray!  But isn’t it sweet to know that we serve a Savior who loves us that much?

Here’s the not-quite-as-cool part, though… the prayer doesn’t stop with that request.  It goes on.  Forgive us our debts… as we forgive our debtors!  What?! Really?!  Here we go with that whole plank in the eye thing again, right?

So!  What’s on my agenda today?  I’m going to sort through the cavities of my heart, and I’m going to pray for the ones who have hurt me.  And the ones that still sting?  I’m going to tell God that it stings… that I don’t want to “feel better” about it… and that I need Him to give me a righteous anger or none at all…

I’m going to ask Him to help me forgive them, because what they have done to me is NOTHING compared to what I have done to Him!

By: Amber Lea

So, what wisdom did He get?  Who did He choose?

Simon (Peter) – the optimist who had a hard time “getting it.”  He denied knowing Christ, yet went on to write two epistles.

Andrew – Andrew was also a fisherman.  We don’t know much about Andrew’s character, other than that he was the one who brought his brother, Simon Peter, to Jesus.

James and John – they were known as “sons of thunder” because they had a fiery nature.  Yet John was considered to be the “one that Jesus loved,” and he was the one who received Christ’s Revelation of the end times.  And James was the first apostle to be martyred.

Philip – Phillip was the apostle who tried to look at the logistics of finance when Jesus was about to perform a miracle in feeding the five thousand.  He didn’t always grasp Jesus’ meaning during His ministry on earth, but he did long to see the Father.

Bartholomew (or Nathanael) – he was the one who wondered if any good could come from Nazareth.  Yet he was one of the six whom Christ visited at the sea after His resurrection.

Matthew – he was a tax collector who offered his services to the Roman government.

Thomas – he was the pessimist whose actions were often based on his fears of losing his Master.  Known as “doubting Thomas,” his expectation of evil made it hard sometimes to see the good that surrounded him.  Yet when he found out Christ was risen, his reaction was tender and compassionate, crying “My Lord and my God!”

James – we do not know much about this apostle, but it is presumed that his was the mother, Mary, who stood beneath the cross as Christ breathed His last.

Simon the zealot – by the title alone we can assume that he was formerly a Zealot, a party that publicly rebelled against the government.

Judas (Thaddaeus) – again, we do not know much about this apostle, but can assume from John 14 that he wanted Jesus to “show himself into the world,” which could be translated as getting him into the limelight.

Judas Iscariot – we all know that this was the apostle who betrayed Jesus.

These twelve men had different backgrounds and temperaments.  Some were unknown, some were leaving rebel groups, and some were leaving despised professions.  But Christ was able to take these men and make an intimate family out of them.  He loved them, was tender and compassionate with them, and the evening before He was betrayed, prayed to His Father:

I am praying for them.  I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.  Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as we are one.  Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.  As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  Ad for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

When you work in ministry long enough (I can, of course, say this after my less than two years experience) you begin to see women who judge other women’s marriages because it doesn’t mirror their own.  One woman has decided to be a stay-at-home mom who has joined the carpool group and is a room mom and puts a homemade meal on the table every night and then hand washes the dishes before she puts the children down for the night and then devotes the next three hours to hanging on her husband’s every word.  That is great!  But what isn’t so great is when she looks at her friend, who goes to work five days a week and sometimes swings through KFC for dinner for the family.  Her family may eat at the table, or they may eat in front of the TV, and then they go off and maybe work a little more from home, or maybe one takes a nap while the other one reads.  That’s a great family, as well!  The thing is, what makes a great family is when it is full of God-loving people who love each other.  It will most assuredly look different in your house than it does in mine.  The problem comes in when Mrs. Suzie Homemaker looks at Mrs. Busy Bee and says that because one marriage doesn’t mirror the other, they must be having problems.  There is NO TRUTH to that!

I was reading in my morning devotions about the four friends who carried their paralytic friend to the house where Jesus was.  Discouraged by the crowds, they then climbed to the roof of the house and lowered him down through the ceiling.  We read in Job about his friends giving him all sorts of advice when his life was falling apart… about how they were so positive that there must be sin in his life since he was so sick.  We don’t know whether these four friends had similar conversations.  Maybe they got it wrong at first, as well.  But here’s what we do know:  they saw a hurting friend.  They carried a hurting friend to the Source they knew he needed.  When trouble got in the way (the crowds), they found another way… nothing was going to keep them from getting their hurting friend to Jesus!  And then they lowered him through the roof, and they let the Master do what He needed to do.

What would I love to see in the Christian family?  A whole lot less telling each other what our lives should look like, and a whole lot more carrying the ones we love to the Savior, and letting Him tell us what our lives should look like!

Amber Lea

I’m not against family days, and I’m not against needing rest.  I am against the arrogance behind the “I can do it myself” attitude.  I’m against skipping church as an excuse to avoid conflict or conviction.  I’m against thinking we have all that we need outside of church, with just a Bible and leading good lives.  Luke 4:16 says “And He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.  And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.”  If Jesus Christ, who led the perfect life with the perfect ministry and the perfect intimacy with God found it necessary to fellowship with brothers and sisters on the Sabbath, then who are we to say we don’t need it.  If Jesus Christ found reading the Scriptures a vital part of His livelihood, then why should we be above it?

Spend time with family… take breaks as your body calls for them… but if you think you can live this life on your own… you’re wrong!  We need fellowship.  We need time alone with God, time in His Word, and time in prayer.  And we need to be part of the body of Christ!

The Gospels are filled with examples of Jesus telling people about His “musts.”  He told His parents He “must” be in His Father’s house.  He told those in the synagogues that He “must” preach the good news.  He told the Pharisees that He must do His Father’s work.  He told Zacchaeus that He “must” stay at his house.  He told the Pharisees that He “must” shepherd His sheep.  He told His disciples that He “must” fulfill His purpose here on earth.

Life gets crazy.  Many of us have husbands and children to care for.  We have jobs to do and houses to keep.  We have friends to love and brothers and sisters in Christ to serve.  We have teachers and leaders to respect and care for.  We have bills to pay in hopes that there will be enough money for that rest that we so desperately need.  Yes, life is full of responsibilities to meet and authorities to submit to.  These are God-given responsibilities and authorities!

We are told by church and society that we have roles to fill.  We are told what kind of wife we should be and exactly what that should look like.  We are told what kind of parent and employee and friend we should be.  We are told if we’re spending too much time here or giving too much dedication there.  Life is full of finding balance between the desires of our heart!  I cannot wait to get to heaven where time is not an issue!  Where we will have an eternity to give to our ministries!  But here and now, we must find balance.  The thing we cannot lose sight of, however, is our purpose in life.  Our one and only purpose in this life is to bring glory to God.  It is not to be super-mom or wonder-wife.  It is not to be employee of the month or the next CEO.  We, of course, bring glory to God by giving our best in whatever situation He has put us in.  That will manifest itself in being a good wife, mom, employee, and friend.  But those can never be our goals.  Our goal must ALWAYS be to glorify God… it is what Christ claimed as His “must”… and it must be our “must” as well!

The angels praised God at creation, and here they are praising Him again at the beginning of a new creation.  We can read the story of the birth of Christ some 200 years later and marvel at the fact that God sent His only Son to die for our sins and pay a price that we never, ever could.  But travel back with me for a minute:

This young woman was pregnant.  She got pregnant out of wedlock.  Yes… she was carrying the Son of God.  Yes, her husband knew the truth and took her to be his wife, anyway.  But what about the rest of the town?  Her family?  Her friends?  I wonder what kind of ridicule she was getting?  I wonder if anyone understood?  I wonder if, in the middle of the day, she felt alone?  Maybe her prayers went something like: God, please… I feel so very alone… I just need them to understand… to believe.  This is all conjecture, of course!  She had Elizabeth, and she had her husband.  But pregnancy is a public thing, and I just wonder if she still somehow felt alone.  And then they had to travel so far!  My friends, this is not just a quick drive down the street to McDonalds!  This is a long, hard trip.

Again, I don’t want to presume anything that we don’t know for fact about Mary’s pregnancy.  But in those days, I have to assume that she was not revered socially.  Have you ever been hit left and right?  Hard time after hard time, question after question, doubt after doubt?  What happened with Mary?  She praised God!  She clung to His promise.  What happened when the baby Jesus was born?  The angels praised God.

If God’s Word and His truth control our lives, then each event, good or bad, will help to fulfill His promises.  Whether we know it or not, whether we ever find out the answers to “Why?”, if we claim His truth and praise Him, we will be within His promises!  And each day can be a new creation!