30 Jan 07

Proverbs 30
I love the imagery in vs. 4-5:

4 Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down? Who holds the wind in his fists? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name—and his son’s name? Tell me if you know!
5 Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.

Whew! That's good! And, by the way, I do know His name and the name of His Son; Jehovah and JESUS!

Luke 18
This chapter records several provocative discussions of Jesus about various topics. First, He talks about a nagging widow that convinces an ungodly judge to give her justice, and then he assures us that our Father responds in love and quickly. However, in v. 7, Jesus emphasizes perstistency in prayer. Then, in v. 8, He wonders how many He will find with Faith. So my question is, why do we have to be persistent with God in prayer? Why isn't one mention enough? Or maybe prayer isn't for God in the first place. Maybe God uses prayer to change us from the inside and grow our Faith.

Second, Jesus talks about the prayers of two men and about a humble tax collector being justified where a self-righteous religious person was not.

Third, Jesus welcomes the little children to Himself and encourages us to have Faith like a child.

Fourth, Jesus says "It's hard out here for a RICH." OK, that's a modernized rendition. But it is interesting, as Jesus is quoting several of the Ten Commandments, he only quotes 5 of the 6 Commandments that govern people-people behavior (remember that the first 4 commandments govern people-God behavior). Interestingly enough, Jesus omits the "Do not covet" Commandment. How peculiar? The very thing this poor RICH is struggling with is financial vanity, whereby my natural response would be to point him to that last Commandment about coveting. However, Jesus's address is so much more engaging; it wasn't just, "Hey, don't covet." but rather pushing RICH to the limit of changing his identity to POOR by selling all he has and giving the proceeds to the poor. Remember Christ's words in Matthew 5:

3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.

Oh, I pray that I will focus on Christ's identity, pray persistently, have humility, embrace the children and have Faith like a child, and be poor in spirit.