Elliott's Muses

I'm reading through the New Testament in a Year and would love to have you come along. This week read Matthew 18 - 21.   On Tuesday I read Matthew 19, and here's what I wrote: It’s Tuesday and today in our reading through the New Testament we come to Matthew 19:16-30. Read the passage first and then come back and let’s think through what is happening and how it relates to us. Does it strike you that Jesus is not seeking popularity or approval from people? Whether talking to his disciples, the down and out, or the rich and popular, Jesus keeps the focus on the one key thing - Life in the Kingdom of God. We need to realize that this story is descriptive, not prescriptive. What I mean is that it describes Jesus’ interaction with this young rich man. It is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus tells someone to sell all they have and follow him. It is not a prescriptive conversation in which Jesus outlines a mandate for all who want to follow him. He is not saying that i...

We are on Thursday, and as we read thru the New Testament in a year come to Matthew 16 - a pivotal reading in the story of the Gospel. Please read the chapter first and then if you have time come back and think a bit with me about what you read. The chapter opens as a footnote to the ending of chapter 15. Two groups of religious leaders - the Pharisees and Sadducees - traditionally enemies, but now together in their testing of Jesus. The Pharisees were legalists, using the Law to impose strict religious duties on people; and the Sadducees were liberals, who dismissed many aspects of the law to gain power and favor with the unbelieving Romans. Jesus makes one thing perfectly clear - “I won’t play either your religious or political games”. The “sign of Jonah” is not the 3 days in the fish, but the preaching Jonah was sent to do that took him to Nineveh and therefore to Gentiles. This Jesus just did (chapter 15) and the idea of the Gentiles receiving the Gospel is the only sign Jesus...

As we read through the New Testament in a year we come to Matthew 15:1-20. Read the passage first and then take a look at some of my musings: I cannot read the first part of Matt. 15 without hearing my mother's voice, "Make sure you wash your hands". At the time I didn't have any knowledge of Jesus' words, but they would have been handy. What is going on is the continuing rising tension between the Religious rulers and Jesus. He confronts them with what I call their selectivity of what to obey. In selecting what to obey and what not to, they "void the word of God." WHY? An important principle for our understanding of God's word is that if God's word is not authority enough in our lives we'll always be able to make things work the way we selfishly want and justify it as ok with God. The quote from Isaiah 29 in vss 8-9 are especially condemning. It is also challenging as I look at them. I don't want to...

This is certainly late for those of you who might have been interested, but I was urged by someone to post this to the Blog page.    Reading through the New Testament is not a difficult task as long as you keep at it on a daily basis.  This reading plan begins in Matthew and has daily readings Monday thru Friday, with weekends free. I don't want you to miss the early sections of Matthew but if you can catch up later on. This week, we're reading Matthew 14 (today), and then the rest of the week is this: Tuesday, Matthew 15:1-20 Wednesday, Matthew 15:21-39 Thursday,  Matthew 16 Friday,  Matthew 17 Weekend,  Matthew 18 If you want more, I am posting some thoughts also on Facebook.  If you don't have Facebook and you'd like those daily "musings", send me a note and I'll email them to you.  epollasch@gmail.com Today's posting is below, and it's an example - Reading through the New Testament in a year brings us to Matthew 14. Read it t...

When someone loses a family member or friend through death, when they become jobless or fail an examination; when they live through a separation or a divorce; or the fear of a war breaking out; or when a natural disaster hits and destroys or touches us, the question “Why?” spontaneously emerges.  “Why me?” “Why now?” “Why here?”  It is so difficult to live without an answer to this “Why?” that we are easily seduced into connecting the events over which we have no control with our perceptions of truth in our evaluation.  Worse yet, when we have cursed ourselves or allowed others to curse us, it is very tempting to explain all the brokenness we experience as an expression or confirmation of this curse.  Before we fully realize it, we have already said to ourselves, “You see, I can't do anything right, and I can't believe that God cares.  The facts of life prove it.” The great spiritual call for the lives of people living by faith in Jesus is ...

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord,  make His paths straight."  Luke 3:4 The voice crying in the wilderness demanded  a way for the Lord, a way prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness.  I would be attentive to the Master's proclamation and give Him a road into my heart, cast up by gracious operations, through the desert of my nature. The four directions in the text 1  must have my serious attention. Every valley must be exalted . Low and groveling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these deep valleys a glorious causeway of grace must be raised. Every mountain and hill shall be laid low . Proud creature-sufficiency, and boastful self-righteousness, must be leveled, to make a highway for the King of kings. Divine fellowship is never promised to haughty, high-minded sinners. The Lord has respect to the lowly ...