Lent: Monday, March 27, 2006

Old Testament Lesson

Genesis 49:1-28

We see in this blessing that God has a plan for each of the 12 tribes. No blessing is alike, they all reflect their personality and reflect what they have done in their lives. You can notice that the sons that had acted righteously in the past (i.e. Judah) received a "greater" blessing.

It is interesting to note that Jacob said of Judah

You are a lion's cub, O Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs
and the obedience of the nations is his

Of course, as Christians who do we know that comes from the line of Judah? Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Even here, we as Christians can see the working of God at this point in bringing forth salvation through Jesus Christ. God is always at work in powerful ways that we cannot see or understand. He is at work, even right now, in your your life, doing something amazing. The question becomes will we choose to go along with what He is doing, or will we choose to go our own path. We do have choice to make today. Will we choose life or death, will we choose to go along with God, or go our own way?

New Testament Lesson

1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1

Paul reminds us again today that just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should do something. We live not just for ourselves, but for God and for the body of Christ. We each have a witness that we are to uphold, and if we live in a way that while not being sinful, but that does hurt another person, that is not good. On one hand, we as Christians should not care what others think. We live for the praise of God, not for the praise of others. But, conversely, we should care what others think, for if our life does not bring glory to God, and in fact turns folks away from God, we are not living as we should. Today, does your life make folks want to learn more about God, or does your life turn people from God? We do not live merely for ourselves.

Gospel Lesson

Mark 7:24-37

In this text, we see the power of faith. The woman in the text had the courage to ask Jesus for healing even though she was not a Jew. She knew that the Lord would honor faithfulness, regardless. She didn't care what other thought, she knew that only Jesus could provide the healing her child needed. It is funny what you will do to help your child, isn't it. And, if we as human parents will go to the furthest reaches to help our children, how much further will God go to help His. Our love as a parent is only a fraction of what God's love is for us. He loves us more than we can ever know, and all He asks of us that we be faithful; that we give Him all that we are, and He will give us life.