100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 49)

Jesus said, “But when you are fasting, anoint your head and wash your face, so that people won’t realize you are fasting, though your Father, who is hidden from sight, will.”

— Matthew 6:17-18a (USC)

Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets was Jesus’ call. The Word of God came into the world so religion would no longer be devoid of the heart that eternally underpins the law. The chief priests and Pharisees would achieve the letter of the law – to diligently fast – but they usurped the blessings of God for themselves and, therefore, the missed the point, and they missed out! Theirs was no worship of God, but a worship of their very selves – what an irony.

The heart of Jesus through the Sermon on the Mount is the heart of all life – to begin with the heart as the only basis for the good works anyone can do.

And the heart of fasting as an act of worship is secrecy for intimacy with God, and the sanctification of our worship is our growth – which is only achieved if we keep our quiet, according to God’s will.

We could go so far as to say that a ‘worship’ that is rewarded in the world is baseless and useless in God’s economy. He may not even hear it, apart from the blasphemy of our doing a worshipful activity with a wicked motive. Worship – in this context, fasting – so we might gain favour of persons is worse than futile. It will invite the judgment of God

***

But there is good news in the doing of the secret things with a heart after God.

Imagine the power that is to be experienced in refusing recognition its way. Contemplate the grace with which God is ushering in and through us through our intimacy with him.

As we are praying with God in the mode of our fasting, our Lord is opening up our hearts and minds. We are saturated in the Spirit and revelation is the agency flowing through the veins of our souls, as his Word flows over us as we immerse ourselves in it.

The greatest blessing of experience is to feel embodied in the Presence of God. This is achieved when we are keeping a virtuous secret with God, which is to reject the temptation of hypocrisy.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     What holy secrets have you been keeping with God lately – remembering that holiness is something we can only experience whilst we are enjoined to the Lord’s Presence?

2.     The claiming of credit from the world – the receipt of recognition for the ego – is not what we seek. What are the practical steps in rejecting the temptation to hypocrisy in your present context?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 48)

Jesus said, “Whenever you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites who put on a gloomy expression, for they neglect their facial appearance so that people will realize they are fasting. For I am telling you for a fact, they have already received their reward.”

— Matthew 6:16 (USC)

Reward! We are all motivated by reward. Sometimes that reward is recognition and at other times it’s something more tangible. But we all operate on reward.

What is rewarded there is more of. So, in the Christian economy of things, the rewards for obedience must come from the Father and nowhere else – otherwise we are duped; we would only be fooling ourselves with a lie. Our church cannot recognise us publically and nor can anyone privately, if we are to experience the recognition of the Lord.

This is not to say we ought to reject recognition when it comes. It would be unloving to do such a thing. We are to be gracious. But neither are we to seek recognition.

If we get away without being recognised, all the better, for God stands the chance of communicating his pleasure to us in the secret way. No recognition is better!

Indeed, we can go so far as to say, we are won, in a solitary moment, to the winsome thrill of knowing him through his recognition.

If we are intent on being beset by the Spirit of God – and no Christian should want to prefer anything else – we will quickly learn the power in keeping secrets: the variety God approves of, not the other kind!

Doing wonderful things for the Lord’s pleasure alone is the profundity of wisdom.

And the smaller the deed done in secret – and the more the deed is suggested by the Spirit – the better the obedience. And to think nothing of it as we go on to the next thing; these are all principles with which Jesus is getting to the heart of.

***

If we are fasting – which would be to obey the Spirit’s leading for the purposes of spiritual challenge, growth, and prayer – we are doing the whole activity as one of worship.

We ought to go out of our way to ensure our secret worship remains sacred, but, where the Lord wills it, we may be required to share. Only the Spirit can confirm it by our placement in a situation where to not share would be unloving.

At the end of the day, we have our existential experience through which God can confirm the blessedness (or otherwise) of an activity. The blessings of God in recognition of the good works we do are unmistakable. And when these are enjoyed, loath are we to embellish them, but, instead, to partake of them as would be obedient, which is to thank the Lord and praise his holy name.

***

There is no reward or recognition better than God’s. Where our hearts are right we are intimate with God, and, his pleasure, our Lord loves to communicate.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     Think of a time when you did something noble. What was the felt experience like having done it (for the right reasons, i.e. not for your own gratification)?

2.     Think of the myriad little things that you could do for God. How might another person be blessed in even the smallest way by you?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 47)

Jesus said, “... but if you don’t forgive other people, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your wrongdoings.”

— Matthew 6:15 (USC)

Justice is huge for God.

Because the heart is so central in the execution and care of our relationships God takes fundamental charge over how we interact with others.

It’s probably about as simple as this: If we struggle to forgive someone, we have struggled to obey God. If we refuse to forgive someone, we have refused to obey God. But if we have surrendered our will in the discharge of our passions, we have obeyed God to the very letter of our heart’s content.

Forgiving other people their ‘wrongs’ is, hence, more about obeying the Lord, whose wisdom eternally and infinitely surpasses our own. God knows why forgiveness is important, interpersonally and personally. Frankly, we don’t. We don’t know all the implications for forcing our will into action. This is precisely why we must trust God, for the Lord is faithful.

God knows forgiving people is hard; that it requires us to wrestle at the level of both mind and heart. But obedience transcends both of these: the mind and the heart. Obedience does! It is thoughtless, and in favour of the will and Word of the Lord.

We only ever have to think of the negative effects – on either ourselves or others – of withholding our forgiveness to be motivated to forgive. But such a motive is actually beside the point. God commands us to forgive. This is why it’s important.

***

The journey to forgive someone who hurt us is the journey of faith. Faith is unquestioned obedience. Such a journey is blessed of the faithfulness of God. Our obedience is never betrayed.

But we can never be motivated to forgive because we will be rewarded by God’s faithfulness. We are to obey because of the simple reason that it’s right. That’s the key.

God can only bless a heart that contents itself in him. Our Lord will not be coerced one iota. This sounds unnecessarily harsh until we discover by life that it’s true, which is to hardly mention the dogma.

God will reward the soul who gives up their own whimsical justice for the Lord’s all-sufficient and righteous justice. And that’s what agreeing to forgive a transgressor is all about: God’s justice.

He who has forgiven us our transgressions so richly desires we follow that call in our own lives.

To live after the grace of God in all our affairs is to be blessed by the Lord.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     Can you see the connection between faith and obedience in establishing the forgiveness we are required to offer?

2.     What price are we prepared to pay for our withholding of forgiveness? Is our grip on our eternal prize to be so loosened? Why would we agree to hold God up to contempt? How is wisdom otherwise to prevail?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 46)

Jesus said, “For if you forgive people their wrongdoings, then your heavenly Father will forgive you [your wrongdoings]...”

— Matthew 6:14 (USC)

Justice is the Lord’s business and nobody else’s, especially with regard to personal justice. No one can avenge a wrong done against us; no one but the Lord.

But we place ourselves in the position of influence over ourselves when we submit before God and forgive those who have wronged us no matter what it was.

When I think of the worst things to forgive, I think of abuses incurred, so horrible as to hardly want to imagine them. Humanity – the evil of it – can be a despicable lot! And to retrieve such memories may even cause re-traumatisation! There is peace in only one outcome; taking the issue to God and partaking of the Lord’s love to anesthetise and heal.

The way we do that is by going to God – surrendered and submitted – because God alone is trustworthy and faithful and would never harm us – and seeking his help to forgive them.

As we surrender, we account for our sin; to withhold forgiveness.

As we submit, we open the doorway of the Spirit into our own hearts and lives.

As we trust him alone who is entirely trustworthy and faithful we are granted the peace of surrender and submission – and what precious states of being these are!

To surrender our will and to submit to God – who can never let us down – we find ourselves strangely situated. For the first time, perhaps ever, we are at peace. It is a bizarre feeling. This peace is an openness of unencumbered delight. It is not bliss, nor is it numbness, nor is it inebriation. It is the fullness of the moment. It is the seconds where the blinkers are off and all distractions wither into nothingness. This is the place where God anoints us with his healing. One moment of this is great enough to last all eternity!

And once we have experienced this salubrious spaciousness of unadorned serenity we know there is no point in moving back: the issue, the person, the group... all is forgiven. We remain surrendered and submitted. We have come to be convinced. No further correspondence is entered into, for it would all be superfluity.

When we have forgiven, having consumed that grace – for only through God’s agency can we forgive – we become benefactors of that very same grace regarding our sin.

Our being forgiven begins with our forgiving; when we have forgiven, we are forgiven.

We cannot enjoy the grace that is ours until we have enjoyed giving them their grace.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     What forgiveness challenges are still before you?

2.     If you have experienced something of the experience of God gifting you with surrender and submission – unencumbered trust – what must be done to ‘replicate’ that experience? In other words, what must we bring to God so we may employ his power for peace?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 45)

Jesus said, “This, then, is how you are to pray:

Our Father, who is in the heavens,

may your Name be held in reverence;

may your kingdom come;

may your wishes come about on earth,

just as they do in heaven.

Give us this day the food we need to live on.

And forgive us the debts we owe,

just as we also forgive the debts others owe us.

And don’t bring us into testing,

but rather rescue us from the Evil One.”

— Matthew 6:9-13 (USC)

Prayer will become our lives or the Word of God hasn’t yet become our operating system for life. If God is to dwell in us continually according to his Word, that same Word will overthrow our default inclination to ourselves and the primacy of natural self-willed thinking.

Our consciences piqued, we begin to live as if God were on our hammer, but there is no condemnation of the Lord in this; our prayerful life has made it so we sit on our own judgment seat.

The conscience is a powerful instrument in the Holy Spirit’s possession. With it, the Spirit directs and redirects the moral way, even as the Spirit builds and adorns this moral warehouse with ethical stock of all kinds.

The moral way is a prayerful way, and nothing of the prayers of the ‘said’ variety.

Prayer in the context of the above prayer that Jesus himself has given us is a lived prayer, not simply a spoken prayer. We live it.

If we live our prayers rather than simply speaking them we bring them into creation according to the will and Word of God.

And our prayers are to be lived. Not simply does the conscience commend and correct and condemn – as necessary – it steers us, if we allow it, and it brings our prayers into congruence with the will and the Word of God.

***

It is much better to live prayerfully than simply speak prayerfully.

One is about conforming to the will of God by the renewing of our minds – the spiritual gift of revelation with the obedience of a follower of Jesus.

Living prayerfully is our solemn worship of trust and obedience. It’s not what we say that counts. What we do is what echoes in eternity.

To live the life of prayer begins as a being thing and ends as a doing thing – our lives come to be lived in accord with what we pray for.

This is a case of embracing the underpinning being of a child of God in order that what might spring from that is a life of doing fruitful works for the Kingdom.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.              When prayer ‘becomes’ us, it then becomes no effort at all. Have you experienced this continuity of prayer? If not, how may you ask God to give it to you?

2.              Can you see how Jesus’ model prayer for his disciples models not just what we should say when praying, but that it consists of moral actions on the part of God and ourselves?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 44)

Jesus said, “This, then, is how you are to pray:

Our Father, who is in the heavens,

may your Name be held in reverence;

may your kingdom come;

may your wishes come about on earth,

just as they do in heaven.

Give us this day the food we need to live on.

And forgive us the debts we owe,

just as we also forgive the debts others owe us.

And don’t bring us into testing,

but rather rescue us from the Evil One.”

— Matthew 6:9-13 (USC)

What do we make of this; our Lord’s prayer?

Of this prayer is our personal relationship with God, the world, and all things. It’s a prayer we can pray privately and publically. It’s so readily recognised everywhere, even with those who were never taught to pray it.

Not only is it our privilege to pray this prayer, it’s also our safety, comfort, and assurance. No other prayer quite has the same endorsement as this one; the Lord’s endorsement.

If we will commit to not only praying this prayer, but meditating over it, as God’s living Word that may penetrate us viscerally – dividing our spiritual bone from marrow – the Lord, himself, will speak through it to us.

When we take this prayer into our inner selves, contemplatively, God changes us from the inside out. Our hearts are challenged almost, as it were, unconsciously. Our minds are infiltrated by the same mechanism as the subliminal messages of the world. By this prayer, it’s not the world that attacks – it’s the Lord’s counter attack on the world’s influence that might otherwise distract us from the Kingdom agenda in our lives.

As we focus on what God wants for us and from us, through prayer, we are made new without any legalistic effort on our parts.

The more we muse on the earth becoming a place for the manifestation of heaven the more we are ready to do the little we can to make it so.

When we are oriented toward God’s nutritional provision – among all other types of ‘bread’ – we become more attuned to the needs of others in our world. We are also more likely to appreciate the food we have access to and to waste less of it.

Our relationships ought to bear fruit, but they can only do this when we are giving as much, if not more, than we are in receiving from them. The obligation of forgiveness is prime.

The more time we spend with God focused on spiritual warfare – God’s protection from testing – the more awakened are we as to its potential presence and the more equipped we are in calling it down.

***

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us much about Jesus’ priorities for prayer: Hallow the Father’s name. Seek God’s will. Build God’s Kingdom. Entreat God’s provision. Enjoy and employ God’s forgiveness. Shelter in God’s protection.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     What is your Lord teaching you about prayer in this current season?

2.     Have you ever thought of meditating prayerfully on the Lord’s Prayer? (To meditate is simply to reflect on.)

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 43)

Jesus said, “This, then, is how you are to pray:

Our Father, who is in the heavens,

may your Name be held in reverence;

may your kingdom come;

may your wishes come about on earth,

just as they do in heaven.

Give us this day the food we need to live on.

And forgive us the debts we owe,

just as we also forgive the debts others owe us.

And don’t bring us into testing,

but rather rescue us from the Evil One.”

— Matthew 6:9-13 (USC)

Just how are we to approach prayer?

Jesus answers this question in an elemental way. He gives the disciples a model for what and how they are to pray. The ‘how’ has already been handled. Now we are directed to the ‘what’.

These are the components of the disciple’s prayer:

1.     Reverence: we are privileged to be able to speak to God who is so like us on the one hand (we’re made in the image of God) and so unlike us (God is holy) on the other. As we revere God we approach appropriately.

2.     Kingdom: we are people of the Kingdom; subjects of the King. Our life and our existence only has hope from a Kingdom perspective. If the Kingdom never came our hope would vanish. But, as it is, no matter what happens to us, our best is still so wonderfully yet to come.

3.     God’s Will: when we pray that things would be on earth as they are on heaven we pray that we, of ourselves, would both discern and desire God’s will in our own lives; as far as it depends on us.

4.     Our Needs: several times in this chapter of Matthew the matters of prayer and God’s care of our needs are joined. God is patently aware of our needs. He knows we need food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. But he also knows we need other things. We can trust his provision, but we are blessed not to take it for granted by praying for it.

5.     Forgiveness: here, as it’s reinforced elsewhere, our forgiveness is conditional on us forgiving others – “just as.” Forgiving others is an imperative as much as it’s obvious that we are forgiven. As much as we struggle to forgive will we struggle to accept having been forgiven. But as we forgive with copious grace, we experience the implicit grace of God that forgives totally in an instant.

6.     Temptation (testing): it’s a wise Christian who knows and accepts the strength of temptation as being occasionally beyond him or her. Not all temptations and testing can we endure without failing and falling. That’s the difference between us and the incarnate Jesus.

7.     Salvation: having been rescued once when we accepted Christ at our salvation we go on being rescued if we’re in right relationship with him. Once a Saviour, he’s always a Saviour.

***

The disciple’s prayer communicates love with reverence and seeks God’s Kingdom and his will. It requests our needs be met and for forgiveness for sin, as well as protection and deliverance from evil.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     The disciple’s prayer (a.k.a. the Lord’s Prayer) is so famous, yet we probably don’t use it enough as a model through which to pray. Why is that?

2.     What elements of the disciple’s prayer do you think are missing?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 42)

Jesus said, “So don’t [pray for attention] like them, for your Father is well aware of the things you need, even before you ask him.”

— Matthew 6:8 (USC)

Wants and needs God knows. And though we may severely doubt at times even whether God cares, he listens and he does seek faithfully after our best. He who brought us into being by that miraculous conception, foetal formation, and final delivery into this wondrous, inescapable, and sometimes dark existence, wills us toward the best.

He knows our needs, cares for our needs that we may embrace them, and secures our needs for us when we are ready to take hold of them.

Knowing and caring for and securing our needs done, and our enjoining faith, there are the holy transactions which would be nothing without the Lord. Everyone, whether a believer or not, is provided for by the Creator God.

Our ‘needs’ don’t always equate with what God knows to be our needs, however. Of this we are to be mindful. It can at times be a mystery as to what our needs are from what our wants are; God knows very well and the difference is not so discrete to him.

***

So we ought not to make a show of prayer because prayer in such ways is simply a matter of unadorned petition. It would prove offensive if we were to embellish our prayers for some sort of showy reason because our relationship with God is first and foremost, relationship.

Praying even as if we were unconscious of what we are saying; that’s a good prayer.

Trusting the integrity of our words with our heart, as the mind forms the words, and that in itself is trusted, we communicate with God with the right intent.

The Lord will adore as worship the prayer of the earnest servant much surrendered.

Prayer, therefore, is our worshipful communication, which is the desire to give to God whatever we have. In this case, it’s our prayer cleansed of any barrier of communion with him.

***

Prayer is active and communicative worship. It is to come as we are before him who knows all. It is to hide nothing and to surrender everything. Even in lament, prayer is praise and thankfulness before the Lord who alone is worthy.

***

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     Do you ever get in your own way when you pray to God? Do you ever find yourself so self-conscious of what you’re praying that you judge your performance? Don’t. Just give your prayer to God and he will look after the rest.

2.     How have you experienced grace through honest communion with God in prayer? When has authentic prayer proven to turn your faith life onto a new plane of spiritual transformation?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.