Volleyball Court: Bring It ON!

Calling volleyball players, gardeners, caretakers, team players! We're having a volleyball court clean up party!

 When: Saturday, Aug 8, 2015 Time: 10 am

Bring: Gardening gloves, rakes, spades

 Last summer we were given a wonderful gift of a beach volley ball court. It has a border, sand and permanent fixtures to hold the net and to tie down the boundaries that mark the whole court. With a little friendly elbow grease we'll get it whipped into shape in no time!

April 5        EASTER                       Luke 24.13-35

¹³ That same day, two other disciples (not of the eleven) are traveling the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. ¹⁴ As they walk along, they talk back and forth about all that has transpired during recent days. ¹⁵ While they’re talking, discussing, and conversing, Jesus catches up to them and begins walking with them, ¹⁶ but for some reason they don’t recognize Him.

Jesus: ¹⁷ You two seem deeply engrossed in conversation. What are you talking about as you walk along this road? They stop walking and just stand there, looking sad. ¹⁸ One of them—Cleopas is his name—speaks up.Cleopas: You must be the only visitor in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about what’s been going on over the last few days. Jesus: ¹⁹ What are you talking about?

Two Disciples: It’s all about the man named Jesus of Nazareth. He was a mighty prophet who did amazing miracles and preached powerful messages in the sight of God and everyone around. ²⁰ Our chief priests and authorities handed Him over to be executed—crucified, in fact.

²¹ We had been hoping that He was the One—you know, the One who would liberate all Israel and bring God’s promises. Anyway, on top of all this, just this morning—the third day after the execution— ²² some women in our group really shocked us. They went to the tomb early this morning, ²³ but they didn’t see His body anywhere. Then they came back and told us they did see something—a vision of heavenly messengers—and these messengers said that Jesus was alive. ²⁴ Some people in our group went to the tomb to check it out, and just as the women had said, it was empty. But they didn’t see Jesus.

Jesus: ²⁵ come on, men! Why are you being so foolish? Why are your hearts so sluggish when it comes to believing what the prophets have been saying all along? ²⁶ Didn’t it have to be this way? Didn’t the Anointed One have to experience these sufferings in order to come into His glory?

Luke has told his story. It ends with joy and praise. The crucified Jesus has been resurrected and has ascended to heaven to take His place at God’s right hand just as the ancient prophets predicted. For the band of disciples, Easter joy has eclipsed Good Friday sorrow. This ending point becomes the starting point for Luke’s sequel, known as the Acts of the Apostles. The story isn’t really over; it’s just begun. The life and ministry of Jesus that Luke has just recounted is the mustard-seed stage of the kingdom of God that continues to grow and grow and grow. Now it’s time for this Kingdom to fill the world. If Luke’s Gospel is about what Jesus began to do and teach, then Luke’s sequel is about what the risen Jesus continues to do and teach through His followers for millennia. Luke writes in hope that future believers will be taken up into this beautiful story that will never, ever end.

²⁷ Then He begins with Moses and continues, prophet by prophet, explaining the meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures, showing how they were talking about the very things that had happened to Jesus.

²⁸ About this time, they are nearing their destination. Jesus keeps walking ahead as if He has no plans to stop there, ²⁹ but they convince Him to join them.

Two Disciples: Please, be our guest. It’s getting late, and soon it will be too dark to walk.So He accompanies them to their home. ³⁰ When they sit down at the table for dinner, He takes the bread in His hands, He gives thanks for it, and then He breaks it and hands it to them. ³¹ At that instant, two things happen simultaneously: their eyes are suddenly opened so they recognize Him, and He instantly vanishes—just disappears before their eyes.

Two Disciples (to each other): ³² Amazing! Weren’t our hearts on fire within us while He was talking to us on the road? Didn’t you feel it all coming clear as He explained the meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures?

³³ So they get up immediately and rush back to Jerusalem—all seven miles—where they find the eleven gathered together—the eleven plus a number of others. ³⁴ Before Cleopas and his companion can tell their story, the others have their own story to tell.

Other Disciples: The Lord has risen indeed! It’s true! He appeared to Simon!

³⁵ Then the two men report their own experience—their conversation along the road, their moment of realization and recognition as He broke the bread.

April 4  Holy Saturday                   Hebrews 4.1-16

4 That’s why, as long as that promise of entering God’s rest remains open to us, we should be careful that none of us seem to fall short ourselves. ² Those people in the wilderness heard God’s good news, just as we have heard it, but the message they heard didn’t do them any good since it wasn’t combined with faith. ³ We who believe are entering into salvation’s rest, as He said,That is why I swore in anger they would never enter salvation’s rest, even though God’s works were finished from the very creation of the world. ⁴ (For didn’t God say that on the seventh day of creation He rested from all His works?  ⁵ And doesn’t God say in the psalm that they would never enter into salvation’s rest?

⁶ So if God prepared a place of rest, and those who were given the good news didn’t enter because they chose disobedience over faith, then it remains open for us to enter. ⁷ Once again, God has fixed a day; and that day is “today,” as David said so much later when he wrote in the psalm quoted earlier:

Today, if you listen to His voice, Don’t harden your hearts.

⁸ Now if Joshua had been able to lead those who followed him into God’s rest, would God then have spoken this way? ⁹ There still remains a place of rest, a true Sabbath, for the people of God ¹⁰ because those who enter into salvation’s rest lay down their labors in the same way that God entered into a Sabbath rest from His.

¹¹ So let us move forward to enter this rest, so that none of us fall into the kind of faithless disobedience that prevented them from entering. ¹² The word of God, you see, is alive and moving; sharper than a double-edged sword; piercing the divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow; able to judge the thoughts and will of the heart. ¹³ No creature can hide from God: God sees all. Everyone and everything is exposed, opened for His inspection; and He’s the One we will have to explain ourselves to.

¹⁴ Since we have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God who has passed through the heavens from death into new life with God, let us hold tightly to our faith. ¹⁵ For Jesus is not some high priest who has no sympathy for our weaknesses and flaws. He has already been tested in every way that we are tested; but He emerged victorious, without failing God. ¹⁶ So let us step boldly to the throne of grace, where we can find mercy and grace to help when we need it most.

   April  3         Good Friday           1 Peter 1.10-20

¹⁰ The prophets who spoke of this outpouring of grace upon you diligently searched and inquired of the Lord about this salvation: ¹¹ to whom and to what time was the indwelling Spirit of the Anointed referring when He told them about the suffering of the Anointed and the honor that would follow it? ¹² The Spirit revealed to them they were not serving themselves but you. And you have learned from those who told you the good news by the Spirit that was sent down from heaven. Even the heavenly messengers would like to explore this news.

¹³ So get yourselves ready, prepare your minds to act, control yourselves, and look forward in hope as you focus on the grace that comes when Jesus the Anointed returns and is completely revealed to you. ¹⁴ Be like obedient children as you put aside the desires you used to pursue when you didn’t know better. ¹⁵ Since the One who called you is holy, be holy in all you do. ¹⁶ For the Scripture say, “You are to be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷ If you call on the Father who judges everyone without partiality according to their actions, then you should live in reverence and awe while you live out the days of your exile.

¹⁸ You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of the Anointed, who was like a perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb. ²⁰ God determined to send Him before the world began, but He came into the world in these last days for your sake. 

April 2  Maundy Thursday  1 Corinthians 10.14-17, 11.27-42

¹⁴ So then, my beloved friends, run from idolatry in any form. ¹⁵ As wise as I know you are, understand clearly what I am saying and determine the right course of action. ¹⁶ When we give thanks and share the cup of blessing, are we not sharing in the blood of the Anointed One? When we give thanks and break bread, are we not sharing in His body? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we, though many, are also one body since we all share one bread.

²⁷ So if someone takes of this bread and drinks from the Lord’s cup improperly—as you are doing—he is guilty of violating the body and blood of our Lord. ²⁸ Examine yourselves first. Then you can properly approach the table to eat the bread and drink from the cup; ²⁹ because otherwise, if you eat and drink without properly discerning the significance of the Lord’s body, then you eat and drink a mouthful of judgment upon yourself. ³⁰ Because of this violation, many in your community are now sick and weak; some have even died. ³¹ But if we took care to judge ourselves, then we wouldn’t have to worry about being judged by another. ³² In fact, the Lord’s hand of judgment is correcting us so that we don’t suffer the same fate as the rest of the rebellious world: condemnation.

³³ From now on, brothers and sisters, this is what I want you to do: when you come together to eat at the Lord’s table, wait for each other. If someone is hungry and can’t wait, he should go home and eat. In that way, your gatherings won’t result in God’s judgment. The rest of the instructions I have for you will have to wait until I come.

April 1  Wednesday                              Philippians 4.1-13

4 For this reason, brothers and sisters, my joy and crown whom I dearly love, I cannot wait to see you again. Continue to stand firm in the Lord, and follow my instructions in this letter, beloved. ² Euodia and Syntyche, I urge you to put aside your differences, agree, and work together in the Lord. ³ Yes, Syzygus, loyal friend, I enlist you to please help these women. They, along with brother Clement and many others, have worked by my side to spread the good news of the gospel. They have their names recorded in the book of life.

⁴ Most of all, friends, always rejoice in the Lord! I never tire of saying it: Rejoice! ⁵ Keep your gentle nature so that all people will know what it looks like to walk in His footsteps. The Lord is ever present with us. ⁶ Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come. ⁷ And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. ⁹ Keep to the script: whatever you learned and received and heard and saw in me—do it—and the God of peace will walk with you.

¹⁰ I could hardly contain my joy in the Lord when I realized you have started to show your care for me once again. Since you have not had the opportunity to show how much you cared until now, I want you to know how it touched me. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need. I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances. ¹² I know how to survive in tight situations, and I know how to enjoy having plenty. In fact, I have learned how to face any circumstances: fed or hungry, with or without. ¹³ I can be content in any and every situation through the Anointed One who is my power and strength. 

  March  31    Tuesday            Philippians 3.15-21

⁵ All of us who are mature ought to think the same way about these matters. If you have a different attitude, then God will reveal this to you as well. ¹⁶ For now, let’s hold on to what we have been shown and keep in step with these teachings.

¹⁷ Imitate me, brothers and sisters, and look around to those already following the example we have set. ¹⁸ I have warned you before (and now say again through my tears) that we have many enemies—people who reject the cross of the Anointed. ¹⁹ They are ruled by their bellies, their glory comes by shame, and their minds are fixed on the things of this world. They are doomed. ²⁰ But we are citizens of heaven, exiles on earth waiting eagerly for a Liberator, our Lord Jesus the Anointed, to come and ²¹ transform these humble, earthly bodies into the form of His glorious body by the same power that brings all things under His control.

March 30           Monday              Philippians 3.1-14

3 It is time that I wrap up these thoughts to you, my brothers and sisters. Rejoice in the Lord! (I don’t mind writing these things over and over to you, as I know it keeps you safe.)

² Watch out for the dogs—wicked workers who run in packs looking for someone to maul with their false circumcision.

³ We are the true circumcision—those who worship God in Spirit and make our boast in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King—so we do not rely on what we have accomplished in the flesh.

⁴ If any try to throw around their pedigrees to you, remember my résumé—which is more impressive than theirs. ⁵ I was circumcised on the eighth day—as the law prescribes—born of the nation of Israel, descended from the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew born of Hebrews; I have observed the law according to the strict piety of the Pharisees, separate from those embracing a less rigorous kind of Judaism. ⁶ Zealous? Yes. I ruthlessly pursued and persecuted the church. And when it comes to the righteousness required by the law, my record is spotless.

⁷ But whatever I used to count as my greatest accomplishments, I’ve written them off as a loss because of the Anointed One. ⁸ And more so, I now realize that all I gained and thought was important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing the Anointed Jesus my Lord. For Him I have thrown everything aside—it’s nothing but a pile of waste—so that I may gain Him. ⁹ When it counts, I want to be found belonging to Him, not clinging to my own righteousness based on law, but actively relying on the faithfulness of the Anointed One. This is true righteousness, supplied by God, acquired by faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Him inside and out. I want to experience the power of His resurrection and join in His suffering, shaped by His death, ¹¹ so that I may arrive safely at the resurrection from the dead.

¹² I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything and everything the Anointed One, Jesus, has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. ¹⁴ I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed. 

March 29       Palm Sunday       1 Timothy 6.12-16

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith! Cling to the eternal life you were called to when you confessed the good confession before witnesses. ¹³ Before God—the life-giving Creator of all things—and Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, who made the good confession to Pontius Pilate, I urge you: ¹⁴ keep His commandment. Have a spotless, indisputable record until our Lord Jesus the Anointed appears to set this world straight. ¹⁵ In His own perfect time, He will come—blessed is the only sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. ¹⁶ He alone possesses immortality; He makes His home in matchless, blinding, brilliant light that no one can approach—no mortal has ever even seen Him, and no human can. So let it be that all honor and eternal power are His. Amen.

March  28       Saturday            Romans 11.25-36

²⁵ My brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be in the dark about this mystery—I am going to let you in on the plan so that you will not think too highly of yourselves. A part of Israel has been hardened to the good news until the full number of those outside the Jewish family have entered in. ²⁶ This is the way that all of Israel will be saved. As it was written, so it also stands: The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will drive away wickedness from Jacob. ²⁷ And this is My covenant promise to them, on the day when I take away their sins.

²⁸ It may seem strange. When it comes to the work of the gospel, the fact that they oppose it is actually for your benefit. But when you factor in God’s election, they are truly loved because they descended from faithful forefathers. ²⁹ You see, when God gives a grace gift and issues a call to a people, He does not change His mind and take it back. ³⁰ There was a time when you outsiders were disobedient to God and at odds with His purpose, but now you have experienced mercy as a result of their disobedience. ³¹ In the same way, their disobedience now will make a way for them to receive mercy as a result of the mercy shown to you. ³² For God has assigned all of us together—Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders—to disobedience so He can show His mercy to all.

³³ We cannot wrap our minds around God’s wisdom and knowledge! Its depths can never be measured! We cannot understand His judgments or explain the mysterious ways that He works! For,

³⁴ Who can fathom the mind of the Lord? Or who can claim to be His advisor?

³⁵ Or, Who can give to God in advance so that God must pay him back?

³⁶ For all that exists originates in Him, comes through Him, and is moving toward Him; so give Him the glory forever. Amen.

March 27           Friday                Romans 11.13-24

¹³ But I have this to say to all of you who are not ethnic Jews: I am God’s emissary to you, and I honor this call by focusing on what God is doing with and through you. ¹⁴ I do this so that somehow my own blood brothers and sisters will be made jealous; and that, I trust, will bring some to salvation. ¹⁵ If the fact that they are currently set aside resolves the hostility between God and the rest of the world, what will their acceptance bring if not life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the first and best of the dough you offer is sacred, the entire loaf will be as well. If the root of the tree is sacred, the branches will be also.

¹⁷ Imagine some branches are cut off of the cultivated olive tree and other branches of a wild olive (which represents all of you outsiders) are grafted in their place. You are nourished by the root of the cultivated olive tree. ¹⁸ It doesn’t give you license to become proud and self-righteous about the fact that you’ve been grafted in. If you do boast, remember that the branches do not sustain the root—it is the system of roots that nourishes and supports you.

¹⁹ I can almost hear some of you saying, “Branches had to be pruned to make room for me.” ²⁰ Yes, they were. They were removed because they did not believe; and you will stay attached, be strong, and be productive only through faith. So don’t think too highly of yourselves; instead, stand in awe of God’s mercy. ²¹ Besides we know that God did not spare the natural branches, so there is no reason to think He will spare you. ²² Witness the simultaneous balance of the kindness and severity of our God. Severity is directed at the fallen branches withering without faith. Yet kindness is directed at you. So live in the kindness of God or else prepare to be cut off yourselves. ²³ If those branches that have been cut from the tree do not stay in unbelief, then God will carefully graft them back onto the tree because He has the power to do that. ²⁴ So if it is possible for you to be taken from a wild olive tree and become part of a cultivated olive tree, imagine how much easier it would be to reconnect branches that originally grew on that olive tree.March 

March 26           Thursday               Romans 11.1-12

11 Now I ask you, has God rejected His people? Absolutely not! I’m living proof that God is faithful. I am an Israelite, Abraham’s my father, and Benjamin’s my tribe. ² God has not, and will not, abandon His covenant people; He always knew they would belong to Him. Don’t you remember the story of what happens when Elijah pleads with God to deal with Israel? The Scripture tells us his protest: ³ “Lord, they have murdered Your prophets, they have demolished Your altars, and I alone am left faithful to You; now they are seeking to kill me.”^{[a] 4} How does God answer his pleas for help? He says, “I have held back 7,000 men who are faithful to Me; none have bowed a knee to worship Baal.”^{[ 5} The same thing is happening now. God has preserved a remnant, elected by grace. ⁶ Grace is central in God’s action here, and it has nothing to do with deeds prescribed by the law. If it did, grace would not be grace.

⁷ Now what does all this mean? Israel has chased an end it has never reached. Yet those chosen by God through grace have reached it while all others were made hard as stones. ⁸ The Scriptures continue to say it best:

God has confounded them so they are not able to think, given them eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear, Down to this very day.

⁹ David says it this way: Let their table be turned into a snare and a trap, an obstacle to peace and payback for their hostility. ¹⁰ Let their bright eyes become cloudy, darkened so they cannot see, and bend their proud backs through it all.

¹¹ So I ask: did God’s people stumble and fall off the deep end? Absolutely not! They are not lost forever; but through their misconduct, the door has been opened for salvation to extend even to the outsiders. This has been part of God’s plan all along, and so is the jealousy that comes when they realize the outsiders have been welcomed into God’s new covenant. ¹² So if their misconduct leads ultimately to God’s riches coming to the world and if their failure turns into the blessing of salvation to all people, then how much greater will be the riches and blessing when they are included fully?

 March  25       Wednesday          Romans 10.14-21

¹⁴ How can people invoke His name when they do not believe? How can they believe in Him when they have not heard? How can they hear if there is no one proclaiming Him? ¹⁵ How can some give voice to the truth if they are not sent by God? As Isaiah said, “Ah, how beautiful the feet of those who declare the good news of victory, of peace and liberation.”  ¹⁶ But some will hear the good news and refuse to submit to the truth they hear. Isaiah the prophet also says, “Lord, who would ever believe it? Who would possibly accept what we’ve been told?” ¹⁷ So faith proceeds from hearing, as we listen to the message about God’s Anointed.

¹⁸ But let me ask this: have my people ever heard? Indeed, they have:

Yet from here to the ends of the earth, their voice has gone out; the whole world has heard what they have to say.¹⁹ But again let me ask: did Israel perhaps hear and not understand all of this? Well, Moses was the first to say,

I will make you jealous with a people who are not a nation. With a senseless people I will anger you.

²⁰ Then Isaiah the fearless prophet says it this way:

I was found by people who did not seek Me; I showed My face to those who never asked for Me.

²¹ And as to the fate of Israel, God says,All day long I opened My hands to a rebellious people, who constantly work against Me.^[

   March 24       Tuesday                 Romans 10.1-13

10 My brothers and sisters, I pray constantly to God for the salvation of my people; it is the deep desire of my heart. ² What I can say about them is that they are enthusiastic about God, but that won’t lead them to Him because their zeal is not based on true knowledge. ³ In their ignorance about how God is working to make things right, they have been trying to establish their own right standing with God through the law. But they are not operating under God’s saving, restorative justice. ⁴ You see, God’s purpose for the law reaches its climax when the Anointed One arrives; now all who trust in Him can have their lives made right with God. God’s plan to restore the world disfigured by sin and death reaches its climax with the resurrection of Jesus. When the King enters, all the prophecies, all the hopes, all the longings find in Him their true fulfillment. There may have been earlier fulfillments; but these are only partial fulfillments, signposts along the way to God’s true goal. The goal has been the restoration of people to a holy God. With Jesus, we find the only perfect man with right standing before God. He comes to blaze a path defined by God’s justice, not by our own sense of right and wrong. All men, women, and children who commit their lives to Him will be made right with God and will begin new lives defined by faith and God’s new covenant.

⁵ Moses made this clear long ago when he wrote about what it takes to have a right relationship with God based on the law: “The person devoted to the law’s commands will live by them.” ⁶ But a right relationship based on faith sounds like this: “Do not say to yourselves, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” (that is, to bring down the Anointed One), ⁷ “or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring the Anointed One up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it actually say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”^[ (that is, the good news we have been called to preach to you). ⁹ So if you believe deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the pit of death and if you voice your allegiance by confessing the truth that “Jesus is Lord,” then you will be saved! ¹⁰ Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation. ¹¹ Because what Isaiah said was true: “The one who trusts in Him will not be disgraced.”  ¹² Remember that the Lord draws no distinction between Jew and non-Jew—He is Lord over all things, and He pours out His treasures on all who invoke His name ¹³ because as Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

March 23           Monday               Romans 9.19-33

¹⁹ I can hear one of you asking, “Then how can He blame us if He is the one in complete control? How can we do anything He has not chosen for us?” ²⁰ Here’s my answer: Who are you, a mere human, to argue with God? If God takes the time to shape us from the dust, is it right to point a finger at Him and ask, “Why have You made me this way?” ²¹ Doesn’t the potter have the right to shape the clay in any way he chooses? Can’t he make one lump into an elegant vase, and another into a common jug? Absolutely. ²² Even though God desires to demonstrate His anger and to reveal His power, He has shown tremendous restraint toward those vessels of wrath that are doomed to be cracked and shattered. ²³ And why is that? To make the wealth of His glory known to vessels of mercy that are prepared for great beauty. ²⁴ These vessels of mercy include all of us. God has invited Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders; it makes no difference. 

²⁵ The prophet Hosea says: I will give a new name to those who are not my people; I’ll call them “My people, ”and to the one who has not been loved, I’ll rename her “beloved.”  ²⁶ And it shall turn out that in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people, ”they will be called “children of the living God.”

²⁷ And this is what Isaiah cries out when he speaks of Israel, “Even though the number of the children of Israel had once been like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of My people will be rescued and remain. ²⁸ For the Lord will waste no time in carrying out every detail of His sentence upon the earth.” 

²⁹ It is as Isaiah predicts Except for the fraction of us who hang on by the grace of the Lord, Commander of heavenly armies, we’d be destroyed and deserted like Sodom and Gomorrah, utterly done in.

³⁰ So what does all of this mean? Did the non-Jews stumble into a right standing with God without chasing after it? Yes, they found it through faith. ³¹ And has Israel, who pursued the law to secure a right standing with God, failed to keep the law? Yes again. ³² And why is that? Because Israel did not follow the path of faith. They thought that whatever they needed to be right with God could be accomplished by doing the works of the law; they tripped over the stumbling stone. ³³ As the Scriptures say, Look what I am going to do in Zion. I’ll put in place a stone that makes them stumble, a rock that trips them up, and those who trust in it will not be disgraced.

March 22       5^th Sunday in Lent 1 Corinthians 9.19-27

¹⁹ that also means that I am free of obligations to all people. And, even though no one (except Jesus) owns me, I have become a slave by my own free will to everyone in hopes that I would gather more believers. ²⁰ When around Jews, I emphasize my Jewishness in order to win them over. When around those who live strictly under the law, I live by its regulations—even though I have a different perspective on the law now—in order to win them over. ²¹ In the same way, I’ve made a life outside the law to gather those who live outside the law (although I personally abide by and live under the Anointed One’s law). ²² I’ve been broken, lost, depressed, oppressed, and weak that I might find favor and gain the weak. I’m flexible, adaptable, and able to do and be whatever is needed for all kinds of people so that in the end I can use every means at my disposal to offer them salvation. ²³ I do it all for the gospel and for the hope that I may participate with everyone who is blessed by the proclamation of the good news.

²⁴ We all know that when there’s a race, all the runners bolt for the finish line, but only one will take the prize. When you run, run for the prize! ²⁵ Athletes in training are very strict with themselves, exercising self-control over desires, and for what? For a wreath that soon withers or is crushed or simply forgotten. That is not our race. We run for the crown that we will wear for eternity. ²⁶ So I don’t run aimlessly. I don’t let my eyes drift off the finish line. When I box, I don’t throw punches in the air. ²⁷ I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after all this, after I have brought the gospel to others, I will still be qualified to win the prize.

  March   21       Saturday                Romans 9.1-18

9 Now let me speak the truth as plainly as I know it in the Anointed One. I am not lying when I say that my conscience and the Holy Spirit are witnesses ² to my state of constant grief. ³ It may sound extreme; but I wish that I were lost, cursed, and totally separated from the Anointed—if that would change the eternal destination of my brothers and sisters, my flesh and countrymen. ⁴ They are, after all, Israelites who have been adopted into God’s family; the glory, the covenants, the gift of the law, the temple service, and God’s promises are their rightful heritage. ⁵ The patriarchs are theirs, too; and from their bloodline comes the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who reigns supreme over all things, God blessed forever. Amen.

⁶ Clearly it is not that God’s word has failed. The truth is that not everyone descended from Israel is truly Israel. ⁷ Just because people can claim Abraham as their father does not make them his true children. But in the Scriptures, it says, “Through Isaac your covenant children will be named.” ⁸ The proper interpretation is this: Abraham’s children by natural descent are not necessarily God’s covenant people; what matters is that His children receive and live the promise. ⁹ For this is the word God promised: “In due time, I will come, and Sarah will give birth to a son.”¹⁰ But the story didn’t stop there. Remember when Rebecca conceived her twin boys by our father Isaac? ^11-12 The twins were in Rebecca’s womb when God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” This was not based on merit or actions; the twins had not done anything to please or displease God. This was God’s call on each son and His desired purposes. ¹³ Just as the Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

¹⁴ So how do we talk about that? Are God’s dealings unjust? Absolutely not! ¹⁵ Because He said to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I choose to show mercy, and I will demonstrate compassion on whomever I choose to have compassion.” ¹⁶ The point is that God’s mercy has nothing to do with our will or the things we pursue. It is completely up to God. ¹⁷ The Scriptures even speak to the Pharaoh himself: “I have given you a position of power so that I might show My greater power through you and so that My name might be declared throughout every land upon the earth.” ¹⁸ So when and where God decides to show mercy is completely up to Him. Likewise, when He chooses to harden one’s heart, how can we argue?

March 20           Friday               Romans 8.29-39

^29-30 From the distant past, His eternal love reached into the future. You see, He knew those who would be His one day, and He chose them beforehand to be conformed to the image of His Son so that Jesus would be the firstborn of a new family of believers, all brothers and sisters. As for those He chose beforehand, He called them to a different destiny so that they would experience what it means to be made right with God and share in His glory.

³¹ So what should we say about all of this? If God is on our side, then tell me: whom should we fear? ³² If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him? ³³ Can anyone be so bold as to level a charge against God’s chosen? Especially since God’s “not guilty” verdict is already declared. ³⁴ Who has the authority to condemn? Jesus the Anointed who died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God where He pleads on our behalf. ³⁵ So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing. 

³⁶ As the psalm says, On Your behalf, our lives are endangered constantly; we are like sheep awaiting slaughter.

³⁷ But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, ³⁹ height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.

March 19           Thursday           Romans 8.12-27

¹² So, my brothers and sisters, you owe the flesh nothing! You do not need to live according to its ways, so abandon its oppressive regime. ¹³ For if your life is just about satisfying the impulses of your sinful nature, then prepare to die. But if you have invited the Spirit to destroy these selfish desires, you will experience life. ¹⁴ If the Spirit of God is leading you, then take comfort in knowing you are His children. ¹⁵ You see, you have not received a spirit that returns you to slavery, so you have nothing to fear. The Spirit you have received adopts you and welcomes you into God’s own family. That’s why we call out to Him, “Abba! Father!” as we would address a loving daddy. ¹⁶ Through that prayer, God’s Spirit confirms in our spirits that we are His children. ¹⁷ If we are God’s children, that means we are His heirs along with the Anointed, set to inherit everything that is His. If we share His sufferings, we know that we will ultimately share in His glory.

¹⁸ Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed. ²⁰ You see, all of creation has collapsed into emptiness, not by its own choosing, but by God’s. Still He placed within it a deep and abiding hope ²¹ that creation would one day be liberated from its slavery to corruption and experience the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²² For we know that all creation groans in unison with birthing pains up until now. ²³ And there is more; it’s not just creation—all of us are groaning together too. Though we have already tasted the first fruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete— ²⁴ for we have been saved in this hope and for this future. But hope does not involve what we already have or see. For who goes around hoping for what he already has? ²⁵ But if we wait expectantly for things we have never seen, then we hope with true perseverance and eager anticipation.

²⁶ A similar thing happens when we pray. We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words. ²⁷ Don’t you know that He who pursues and explores the human heart intimately knows the Spirit’s mind because He pleads to God for His saints to align their lives with the will of God? 

    March 18       Wednesday            Romans 8.1-11

8 Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, ² because when you live in the Anointed One, Jesus, a new law takes effect. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and liberates you from the law of sin and death. ³ God did something the law could never do. You see, human flesh took its toll on God’s law. In and of itself, the law is not weak; but the flesh weakens it. So to condemn the sin that was ruling in the flesh, God sent His own Son, bearing the likeness of sinful flesh, as a sin offering. ⁴ Now we are able to live up to the justice demanded by the law. But that ability has not come from living by our fallen human nature; it has come because we walk according to the movement of the Spirit in our lives.

⁵ If you live your life animated by the flesh—namely, your fallen, corrupt nature—then your mind is focused on the matters of the flesh. But if you live your life animated by the Spirit—namely, God’s indwelling presence—then your focus is on the work of the Spirit. ⁶ A mind focused on the flesh is doomed to death, but a mind focused on the Spirit will find full life and complete peace. ⁷ You see, a mind focused on the flesh is declaring war against God; it defies the authority of God’s law and is incapable of following His path. ⁸ So it is clear that God takes no pleasure in those who live oriented to the flesh.

⁹ But you do not live in the flesh. You live in the Spirit, assuming, of course, that the Spirit of God lives inside of you. The truth is that anyone who does not have the Spirit of the Anointed living within does not belong to God. ¹⁰ If the Anointed One lives within you, even though the body is as good as dead because of the effects of sin, the Spirit is infusing you with life now that you are right with God. ¹¹ If the Spirit of the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead lives inside of you, then you can be sure that He who raised Him will cast the light of life into your mortal bodies through the life-giving power of the Spirit residing in you.

March 17       Tuesday                 Romans 7.13-25

¹³ So did the good law bring about my death? Absolutely not! It was sin that killed me, not the law. It’s the nature of sin to produce death through what is good and exploit the commandments to multiply sin’s vile effects. ¹⁴ This is what we know: the law comes from the spiritual realm. My problem is that I am of the fallen human realm, owned by sin, which tries to keep me in its service.

¹⁵ Listen, I can’t explain my actions. Here’s why: I am not able to do the things I want; and at the same time, I do the things I despise. ¹⁶ If I am doing the things I have already decided not to do, I am agreeing with the law regarding what is good. ¹⁷ But now I am no longer the one acting—I’ve lost control—sin has taken up residence in me and is wreaking havoc. ¹⁸ I know that in me, that is, in my fallen human nature, there is nothing good. I can will myself to do something good, but that does not help me carry it out. ¹⁹ I can determine that I am going to do good, but I don’t do it; instead, I end up living out the evil that I decided not to do. ²⁰ If I end up doing the exact thing I pledged not to do, I am no longer doing it because sin has taken up residence in me.

²¹ Here’s an important principle I’ve discovered: regardless of my desire to do the right thing, it is clear that evil is never far away. ²² For deep down I am in happy agreement with God’s law; ²³ but the rest of me does not concur. I see a very different principle at work in my bodily members, and it is at war with my mind; I have become a prisoner in this war to the rule of sin in my body. ²⁴ I am absolutely miserable! Is there anyone who can free me from this body where sin and death reign so supremely? ²⁵ I am thankful to God for the freedom that comes through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! So on the one hand, I devotedly serve God’s law with my mind; but on the other hand, with my flesh, I serve the principle of sin.

    Marh 16       Monday                  Romans 7.1-12

7 My brothers and sisters who are well versed in the law, don’t you realize that a person is subject to the law only as long as he is alive? ² So, for example, a wife is obligated by the law to her husband until his death; if the husband dies, she is freed from the parts of the law that relate to her marriage. ³ If she is sleeping with another man while her husband is alive, she is rightly labeled an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law and can marry another man. In such a case, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ My brothers and sisters, in the same way, you have died when it comes to the law because of your connection with the body of the Anointed One. His death—and your death with Him—frees you to belong to the One who was raised from the dead so we can bear fruit for God. ⁵ As we were living in the flesh, the law could not solve the problem of sin; it only awakened our lust for more and cultivated the fruit of death in our bodily members. ⁶ But now that we have died to those chains that imprisoned us, we have been released from the law to serve in a new Spirit-empowered life, not the old written code.

⁷ So what is the story? Is the law itself sin? Absolutely not! It is the exact opposite. I would never have known what sin is if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known that desiring something that belongs to my neighbor is sin if the law had not said, “You are not to covet.”^{[a] 8} Sin took advantage of the commandment to create a constant stream of greed and desire within me; I began to want everything. You see, apart from the law, sin lies dormant. ⁹ There was a time when I was living without the law, but the commandment came and changed everything: sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰ This commandment was supposed to bring life; but in my experience, it brought death. ¹¹ Sin took advantage of the commandment, tricked me, and exploited it in order to kill me. ¹² So hear me out: the law is holy; and its commandments are holy, right, and good.