Saturday after Ash Wednesday -- February 25, 2012
Luke 5:31 - 32
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Before seeking a cure, you have to acknowledge sickness.
Before you can be whole, you have to confess your brokenness.
Before you can be rescued, you have to know that you're in peril.
For people who are self-sufficient, self-nourished and self-reliant, the offers of Jesus are hollow. Jesus comes to make life whole, to put broken life together, to give coherence to what is fractured, and to bring union where there is division.
If you think you already are whole ("I have it all!"), then Jesus has nothing for you, and you likely don't see any need of Jesus. This is why Jesus said it's hard for people with a lot of possessions and status to enter the kingdom of God . . . at a basic level, persons who possess a lot don't feel like there is anything they could have with God that they don't already have by their own ingenuity.
In fact, my personal hunch is that a fair number of folks who have an abundance of "stuff" are quite afraid that if they opened their lives to God, they might be asked to give up what they have. (Who knows . . . they may be right about that!)
On the other hand, if you are in touch with your brokenness, if you recognize your limitations, if you own the holes in your living, then you are ready for God. We are all impoverished somehow, in some way. When we can see our own poverty for what it is, when we can admit to our human need, we are ready for God.
People who are in this place, are ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Spend some prayer or meditation time today considering your unique poverty. Most often we think of poverty in terms of money or possessions, but today think of poverty as, "Any state in which I experience my lack." I've said before, my poverty is my "not-enoughness," the place in my life where I feel I'm not enough. So I might have a lack of joy or love, or be impoverished in my ability to meet new people. I might be in emotional poverty or in spiritual poverty. Consider what your own unique poverty is, then bring that poverty to God in your prayer. In your particular place of poverty is where Jesus meets you and offers to bring wholeness.
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Before seeking a cure, you have to acknowledge sickness.
Before you can be whole, you have to confess your brokenness.
Before you can be rescued, you have to know that you're in peril.
For people who are self-sufficient, self-nourished and self-reliant, the offers of Jesus are hollow. Jesus comes to make life whole, to put broken life together, to give coherence to what is fractured, and to bring union where there is division.
If you think you already are whole ("I have it all!"), then Jesus has nothing for you, and you likely don't see any need of Jesus. This is why Jesus said it's hard for people with a lot of possessions and status to enter the kingdom of God . . . at a basic level, persons who possess a lot don't feel like there is anything they could have with God that they don't already have by their own ingenuity.
In fact, my personal hunch is that a fair number of folks who have an abundance of "stuff" are quite afraid that if they opened their lives to God, they might be asked to give up what they have. (Who knows . . . they may be right about that!)
On the other hand, if you are in touch with your brokenness, if you recognize your limitations, if you own the holes in your living, then you are ready for God. We are all impoverished somehow, in some way. When we can see our own poverty for what it is, when we can admit to our human need, we are ready for God.
People who are in this place, are ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Spend some prayer or meditation time today considering your unique poverty. Most often we think of poverty in terms of money or possessions, but today think of poverty as, "Any state in which I experience my lack." I've said before, my poverty is my "not-enoughness," the place in my life where I feel I'm not enough. So I might have a lack of joy or love, or be impoverished in my ability to meet new people. I might be in emotional poverty or in spiritual poverty. Consider what your own unique poverty is, then bring that poverty to God in your prayer. In your particular place of poverty is where Jesus meets you and offers to bring wholeness.
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