Episodios

  • August 15th - Matthew 6:10

    August 15th - Matthew 6:10
    Aug 15 2024
    Matthew 6:10 “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The Lord’s Prayer, in common with the whole of Jesus’ ministry, is focused on the kingdom of heaven. So we need to have a very clear idea what this kingdom is. In essence, the kingdom of God comes wherever God is recognised as king. When his rule is accepted, the results will be immediately recognisable because they will be marked by peace, love, joy, truth and justice. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are saying that we have signed up to work for this amazing kingdom and we want to bring it about here and now. We want the kingdom to be established in our family, our community, our workplace and our church. In this life, the kingdom will always be under attack just as it was throughout Jesus’ ministry, but we need to keep our focus on the king as we seek to encourage every evidence of his kingdom. Some years ago, I was sent a wonderful press cutting that gave me an insight into what the kingdom could look like. It was the report of the stone-laying of a church in Plymouth in 1905. It was a wet day but, even so, the event went ahead and the mayor of the city kindly attended. He was clearly a Christian as he declared that, the more widely the good news of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, the less would be the work of the police and the magistrates and the less claim would be made on the poor relief of the town. Speaking generally he said: “the proclamation of the good news made municipal work more easy and the rates more light.” I love that! What he was saying was that the church’s business was to introduce the kingdom of heaven, which would have an impact on the whole community. Too often churches turn in on themselves and forget that God’s desire is that we should work for the coming of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Question In what way are you working to bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you have invited us to work with you to bring your kingdom to our world today. Amen
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  • August 14th - Matthew 6:9

    August 14th - Matthew 6:9
    Aug 14 2024
    Matthew 6:9 “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful model prayer and has been central to Christian worship from the earliest days. In the previous verse Jesus told his disciples that they didn’t need to inform God of anything in their prayers, because he already knows everything. Here he spells out what they should pray about. In the first century there was a guide for Christian living called the Didache, which recommended that the prayer should be said three times a day. Christians will vary in their use of the prayer but, whenever we use it, it is exciting to reflect that it takes us back to the words of Jesus himself and to the heart of the kingdom. It is often helpful to pray the prayer very slowly and to use each sentence to trigger our own personal prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is all about relationship. It begins by looking to God because everything in this prayer flows out of our intimate relationship with our heavenly Father. As an Aramaic speaker the word that would have been in Jesus’ mind was Abba, which literally means daddy. It is a warm and intimate word; Jesus wanted his followers to enjoy that kind of closeness to God. As we pray to our heavenly daddy we are fully aware that he has a unique status. He is holy, and set apart from anything that is imperfect. So, we begin the prayer by affirming that he is to be totally respected, or ‘hallowed’ to use the language that many of us were brought up with. This isn’t merely a recognition of the importance of respecting God’s name but also of honouring him for all that he is and all that he has done. As we pray “our Father” we are also affirming that we are part of a community of people who want to live for God. The Lord’s Prayer is for those who are fully committed to putting their heavenly Father first in their lives. Question How would you describe your personal relationship with God? Prayer Loving heavenly Father, we thank you have invited us, through you Son Jesus, into an intimate relationship with you and one another. Amen
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  • August 13th - Matthew 6:7–8

    August 13th - Matthew 6:7–8
    Aug 13 2024
    Matthew 6:7–8 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Prayer is often described as being like talking to a friend. There is much that is right about that description, apart from the fact that God is totally unlike any friend that you or I have ever had. For a start, he knows everything. One of the key features of a conversation with our friends is that, wonderful as they might be, they don’t know everything. In a conversation we spend plenty of time sharing information with them. So the big question is this: if God knows everything, what is the point of praying? The answer is that prayer is all about relationship. As we pray, we affirm the fact that we are his children and that we are totally dependent on him. That’s why it is so important to spend time alone with God. It gives us the opportunity to be completely honest with him and also to listen to him. The joy of our relationship with God is that we can be completely sure that he knows our situation more intimately than we know it ourselves. So we don’t need to ‘babble on’ for ages! The background to this verse is that some religions taught that the worshipper needed to address the right god by the right name so, in order to ensure that no one was missed out, all the gods and their titles needed to be recited. It was a long and exhausting business, so we can be relieved that we don’t need to do this! The moment we come into God’s presence we can be sure that we are enveloped by his love and totally understood. Isn’t that wonderful? Question In what ways are your quiet times with God important to you? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you know everything about me and yet still love me and want to fill me with your life. Amen
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  • August 12th - Matthew 6:6

    August 12th - Matthew 6:6
    Aug 12 2024
    Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Jesus was reacting against the people who made a great show of their praying. They prayed in the synagogues and at street corners because they were looking for an audience. Jesus obviously wasn’t saying that it was wrong to pray in synagogues and at street corners but that it was wrong to turn prayer into a religious act totally focused on people, and not on God. Jesus drew attention to the importance of private prayer because this reveals where the heart is. Without that personal relationship with God, prayer has no meaning. It’s just an act. Jesus’ continual concern was with what we would call religion. He could see that many of the most religious people in his society lived their lives furthest away from God. The word religion means to ‘bind back’. It ties people down to a particular set of beliefs and practices, but it is easy for religion to become merely a performance. Jesus’ desire was to renew people’s hearts so that, through their relationship with God, they would want to honour and serve him. At the end of the day anyone can pray a long prayer, give money or fast but what matters is where their heart is. In recent years, there have been many Christian leaders who have put on an impressive performance, but who have later been discovered to be abusing people or embezzling funds. We must always be desperately disappointed when these things happen. However, we should never be surprised, because we are all aware of the power and destructiveness of the sin that lurks in all of our lives. Such sad moments should drive us back to Jesus’ teaching here in the Sermon on the Mount, reminding us that we all need to spend time with our heavenly Father in private. Without this we run the risk of going off track. Question Where do you find it best to have quiet time with God? Prayer Lord God, help me to live so close to you that my words and actions flow out of my relationship with you. Amen
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  • August 11th - Matthew 6:3–4

    August 11th - Matthew 6:3–4
    Aug 11 2024
    Matthew 6:3–4 “When you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Is there anything worse than hypocrisy? Jesus certainly hated it and had the harshest things to say about the hypocrites of his day. He wanted everyone to have the joy of a real relationship with their heavenly Father, and he knew that putting on an act to impress other people totally missed the point. In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasted the hypocrite’s play acting with true devotion to God (v2). The giving of donations to the poor and needy is a responsibility that everyone has, but the way in which it is done is what matters most. Jesus pointed to the hypocrites who announced their giving with trumpets. This may simply have been dramatic language to describe the sheer vanity of some people’s giving, but we do know that trumpets were sometimes used in connection with giving in the temple. Either way the point is clear. When you give, you shouldn’t make a show of it, because the audience that really matters is God alone. It clearly wouldn’t be possible for our left hand to keep secrets from our right hand. The brain doesn’t work like that! But it’s not difficult to understand what Jesus meant. He was saying that all of our giving should be done in the most secret way that we can achieve. Anything short of that will miss out on the blessing that God longs to give to us as we make our gifts. That then begs the question, what should we give? The New Testament doesn’t lay down rules for Christian giving. Paul encouraged his readers in Corinth to give cheerfully and generously (2 Corinthians 9:6–11) and to make sure that their giving was regular and in proportion to their income (1 Corinthians 16:2). The actual amount of your giving is between you and God. What matters above anything else is that when we make our gifts it is an expression of our personal love for God, and just between him and us. Question What have you learned about your giving from this passage? Prayer Loving God, thank you for your amazing generosity to me. Help me always to be generous in my giving. Amen
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  • August 10th - Matthew 5:14–16

    August 10th - Matthew 5:14–16
    Aug 10 2024
    Matthew 5:14–16 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” On the face of it, it seems really surprising that Jesus should be describing his followers as the light of the world. Surely that was his role (John 8:12). But Jesus was recognising that the only way in which people would see his light would be if his followers reflected his light into their communities. It is, therefore, our responsibility to find the most prominent place to put our light so that as many people as possible can see Jesus. It is good that Christians spend time together. We need the strength and encouragement of worshipping and sharing fellowship. But, at the same time, it is vital for us to be part of our communities in order to have opportunities to share the light of Christ. When our diaries are so full of church meetings that we have no time for anything or anyone else, something has gone desperately wrong. How then will people see this light shining from our lives? Jesus indicated that it happens as people see our good deeds. We should never be looking for people’s praise and recognition for our actions but, as we simply get on with being Christians in our daily lives, the light should shine. I have seen this happening time and again through Christians getting stuck into the work of food banks, street pastoring, homeless projects and befriending schemes - or simply being a good neighbour to those who live around them. It is important that our actions are complemented by talking about Jesus, but it is so often the actions that show that our message has credibility. We all have very different opportunities to shine the light of Christ. Your unique network of relationships will enable you to bring the light to places that may not be reached by anyone else. So, however minor and insignificant your good deeds might seem to be, keep them up and thank God that his light will shine through you. Question How has God enabled you to help others? Prayer Dear Lord, help me to live in such a way that others will see your light. Amen
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  • August 9th - Matthew 5:13

    August 9th - Matthew 5:13
    Aug 9 2024
    Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” I have often heard people say that they are happy for individuals to have a Christian faith so long as it’s kept as a private matter. Jesus’ words here prove that there is no way in which a Christian can keep their faith private. Those who live close to God will be shaped by their faith from the moment they wake up in the morning. Everything about their life will flow out of their Christian commitment. Like salt, their influence will have an inevitable impact on all those who come into contact with them. One of the distinguishing features of salt is that it is very different from the foods that it accompanies. It is useful and tasty precisely because it is different. So, too, as Christians we are encouraged to be different from the society in which we live. Our morality and standards are not shaped by our society but by God and so it should never be a surprise when we stand out from the people around us. The apostle Paul was very clear about the need for this when he addressed the small group of Christians in Rome. The pressures upon them must have been immense but he urged them not to “copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2). One of the key characteristics of salt is that it is a preservative. With refrigeration we are hardly aware of this function of salt, but until recent history it was of crucial importance for preserving food. Jesus calls on his followers to get deeply involved in the life of society in order to uphold high standards. The worst of all worlds is when salt becomes contaminated and loses its distinctive taste. Churches, similarly, need to beware of fitting in with society so closely that they have nothing distinctive and godly to share. It is high praise when someone is described as “the salt of the earth” and we should all long to live so close to God that we are able to share his distinctive flavour with the people around us. Question In what way are you able to be salt in your community? Prayer Lord God, help me to live so close to you that your loving, gracious influence touches those around me. Amen
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  • August 8th - Matthew 5:10

    August 8th - Matthew 5:10
    Aug 8 2024
    Matthew 5:10 “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” The life to which Jesus calls us is one of blessing. This is life at its very best. But Jesus never tried to disguise the fact that his followers would face rejection and persecution just as he did. Jesus assures his followers in every age that it is inevitable that, if they stand up for the truth, there will be many people who have a vested interest in bringing them down. Persecution is normally subtle. For the majority of Christians in Eastern Europe during the communist era the challenge was not the likelihood of imprisonment or martyrdom. That happened from time to time for a few, but the ever-present challenge was in education and employment. I recall talking this through at the time with parents in Romania who wanted to know how to help their children at school when they had to sit through atheism classes. Christian children would find it very hard to enter university and because they were not card-carrying communists they would find it very difficult to get a good job. If they did find a job then, almost always, it would be completely unrelated to their abilities and opportunities for promotion were almost unthinkable. To work hard in an ill-fitting job would need exceptional grace and that was the daily experience of most Christians. In our society the challenges are very different, but still inevitable. In a society that has long since rejected Christianity, it can be exceptionally hard to speak about personal faith. We will often be accused and even mocked for being out of touch with the way things are these days. To live with a continual barrage of sarcasm is the experience of many Christians and it can be very hard to bear. And if you find yourself in a position where you believe your organisation is acting unethically, it can be incredibly tough to stand up for truth and justice. Jesus does not encourage us to go looking for persecution and suffering, but rather to be totally unsurprised when it happens. Question In what ways have you faced resistance because of your Christian faith? Prayer Loving God, give me your strength day by day so that I will be able to stand strongly for you, whatever the challenges. Amen
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