Jesus Anointed: Lent Challenge

"Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven." Luke 7:41-43

Jesus tells this story in light of a sinful woman anointing him. She brought a jar of perfume, cried on His feet and used her own hair to clean his feet. She was also kissing His feet and pouring perfume on them.

She is anointing Him. Anointing is something that happens to kings to declare their kingship. She just does it out of love.

In this particular account, Jesus is at a Pharisees house when this happens. The Pharisee invited Him over for a meal and this woman shows up and does this stuff. The Pharisee is rather surprised that Jesus doesn't make her go away. In response to his thoughts, Jesus tells the story above and elaborates as such.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - as her great love has show. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."
Then Jesus said to her, "You r sins are forgiven." Luke 7 44-48

Jesus is looking at their actions and their lives here. Jesus knows that Simon has sin in his life but it is not as much as the woman's. Jesus is not looking at the type of sin, instead He sees how forgiven they feel. Simon is relieved whereas the woman is overjoyed. Jesus is saying that sin all weighs the same but some people feel more forgiven. Look back at the first thing I wrote.

"One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both."

That is a very practical picture of what Jesus did on the cross. I did not have the ability or the equity to pay back my debts, just as whoever is reading this does not or did not. Jesus forgave all of our debt Himself. He stepped in on our behalf and paid what we could not pay. He wiped the slate clean. Have peace with that. In fact, to close, I will show you what Jesus said to this woman. I think she got it already but He points it out again to her. I just loved Jesus' compassion for this woman and in all reality, all of us who love Him.

Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Luke 7:50

Lent Challenge: Times of Doubt

It is day three of the Lent Challenge and I had to do some meditating to see something that God wanted me to see. Let me elaborate a little bit on my thoughts. We read Matthew 13-18 today and here is what I got from it.

I have been a Christian for about three years now. I had a traumatic experience in my life that lead me right into the arms of Jesus. As soon as I found Jesus (or rather He found me,) I took a hold of the message and began being equipped to do the work for the Good News. I was and am all too willing to take up my cross daily in order to follow Him, the One who gave me true and lasting life.

After having been in the church a while, I have noticed some peaks and some valleys in my walk with Christ. Sometimes I am all too willing to go off and do the things that I know He has planned for me. There are times though, that I am not really willing to do much more than get through the day. I am very sad to say that sometimes I have doubted. Not doubt that made me fall away per say, but doubt enough to make me wonder, "What are You doing? Where are You? Who are You?"

It is during these times that my faith grows stronger because God always shows up in the most miraculous ways. For every moment of weakness I had, He showed strength. For every question of, "Where are You?" He said, "Here I Am my son."

I have to say that my Dad is awesome but not out of habit or obligation. Because He is. He always will be. I take comfort with these thoughts in what I read today actually.

We all know the story so I won't repeat it in length here. Jesus makes the disciples go ahead of Him in a boat while He was dismissing a crowd. The disciples go to the other side of the lake in the boat and their thoughts aren't recorded. Jesus decides to show off His authority yet again by walking on water! Not only that but He compels Peter to do the same and guess what? He does!

Then He falls into the water... Gets soaked and most likely was a little embarrassed. I know I would be. Jesus has a question for him though. "You of little faith," He said, "why did you doubt?"

They both climb back into the boat and the winds calm down. Then the people that were in the boat witnessing all of this start to worship Jesus. They say," Truly you are the Son of God."

Keep in mind that these were all disciples of Jesus in the boat.

Beginning in Matthew 16:13,  Jesus begins to ask the disciples what people say about the Son of Man. They answer and Jesus asks who they say He is.

I imagine a pause here before Peter says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

I don't know if there was a pause or if Peter was just fast at answering. I could see the possibility of a little bit of doubt showing through here. There are many examples of when the disciples doubted Jesus in one way or another. I am not alone in my doubts. Though I have never lived in the physical presence of Jesus, I have valleys just like the ones who did.

God is good. All the time. Even in my doubts. Even in my storms.

Lent Challenge: Do we need anymore signs?

Jesus is a very powerful man. He has control of illness, life, events and so much more.

I am going through a challenge for Lent where I am going to read the whole New Testament over the time that Lent is going on. This is day two and I found something interesting in my reading. It had me asking a question.

Do we really need any more signs?

In Matthew chapters 8-12, Matthew is establishing Jesus' ministry as one of healing and preaching. There are many things seen in these chapters. Jesus heals many people of sicknesses, raises a girl from the dead, calms a storm, restores men possessed by demons, calls Matthew and so much more. It's insane how much Jesus does in these five chapters. I want to look at one instance in chapter 8 though. This is about the faith of a Centurion solider.

Jesus is entering a town called Capernaum for the first time and as soon as He is there, He is stopped by a centurion. Centurions are quite impressive fellows in my opinion. They're strong, smart, and they have cool armor. If you've never seen one, go look up some pictures of them.

For all that though, this centurion comes to Jesus to ask Him to heal his servant. This guy was most likely had compassion for his servant because he says: "my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly." He went to Jesus so he could end his servants suffering. This is only one thing to notice about this interaction though.

Jesus said to him, "Shall I come and heal him?"
The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

This guy had faith in Jesus' authority. He knew Jesus had power and he knew that Jesus had authority to make things happen. Jesus has not even performed many miracles at this point and none in Capernaum, as He was entering it for the first time. It's never said this guy believes in Jesus, but it can be inferred that he might. It turns out Jesus is just as amazed by this guy's faith.

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Jesus is saying here that this centurion has greater faith than many in Israel, which is comprised of the Jews, who are God's chosen people. When He says, "many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," He is saying that many gentiles will come and take the places of the Jews that would have been there if not for their faith. In chapter 10, Jesus tells His disciples not to go to any towns of the gentiles when they're sent out. He is telling them this so that the Jews will hear of Him first. Jesus was to preach to God's people and then the apostles spoke to the gentiles (by the way I'm grateful that the gentiles got talked to.)  Even though He never sent his apostles to gentiles during His time on earth, they still got sent there later, which fulfills what He said after talking to the centurion. Remember that the centurion had faith so early on.

In chapter 12, which is at the end of the reading for today, some Pharisees are asking a sign from Jesus. At this point, there have been many signs, many healings and many things that would make me want to follow Jesus. The Pharisees; however, still are not convinced. After many signs, they ask for one more and Jesus seems to get a little upset.

Two different requests and two different responses. One out of faith and one out of doubt. One met with joy and the other met with what appears to be frustration.

I for one, don't want to ask Jesus to keep proving Himself when He's already done it, over and over again. I would much rather have faith in what He can do and is doing.

Personally, I would much rather be like the centurion, rather than like a Pharisee that keeps asking for signs.

I would definitely suggest joining in on this, for it has already done me some good.