Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

We are continuing with this image of the Alien Facehugger on the face of the astronaut from Ridley Scott's ALIEN mo vie of 1979.  Bound.  Stuck.  Can't get the darn thing off.   Daughter of Abraham.  Probably faithful.  Jewish.  Female.  18 years of a body scoliosis and kyphosis.  18 years of a DISABLED SPIRIT.  Broken world.  Broken Creation.  Broken body.  Broken mind.  Satan allowed p...

ALIEN, Ridley Scott's terrifying thriller came out in 1979.  It depicts the fight for life of a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial xenomorph species.  There is an unforgettable scene where in its 2nd stage of life, we find this crab like thing affixed to one of the astronaut's face. They are all standing around wondering how exactly to get this thing off this poor guy's face....

We are SUPPOSED to be fruitful as people of God. The Lord seeks fruit.  The passage, IMHO is even stronger than that.  I think it says the Lord EXPECTS fruit.  Here the tree has some agency in the production of fruit.  You remember Paul's teaching, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth" in 1 Cor 3:6. Work hard with your gift in the church and watch God expand and util...

Repentance should be a part of you life . In today's passage there is not much wiggle room .  There is no where else to go. It is repentance or perishment.  Yes I made that up. Think about this: If you are a believer, then you should have a repentance story.  In fact it is so strong here that you could say you MUST have a repentance story.   Kind of a first origins idea: first repentance. But...

We will be taking advice today from the mother of a 3 year old, and from God.  We are the three year old.  Sorry. The Lord has given us skills to see and hear Him.  That is all well and good.  However, today, He appears to emphasize our ACCOUNTABILITY.  There is a movement from the theoretical "you could to better" to the accountable, "you should do better."  He appears to be s...

Jesus isn't very nice.  Sometimes He just plain says things that are difficult to hear.  I know I know, better to hear the unvarnished truth than some platitude.  But, today kind of got me.   Jesus says He comes not to bring PEACE ON EARTH, but DIVISION. Ironically, this 'contradicts' all that is previously said about Him bringing peace on earth.  He brings peace from man to man.  H...

We have got a pretty well-known verse coming our way today, so that always means we should take EXTRA care in hearing it again for the "first time".    You can even fill in the blank: "...to whom much was given, of him _ _ _ _ will be required". Well done. Now we will consider and wonder a bit about what it means. We are in a passage about being READY because we are servants of...

There is a major emphasis in todays' passage:  Be ready.  Be prepared.  Be continuing to serve the Lord.  Be dressed for it.  Act like you mean it. Be ready to run with your skirty thing pulled up and tucked in.  Have an immediacy.  Be managing your given responsibility.  Be distributing His resources and gifts.  Be responsive.  Be LIT-UP because and until Jesus comes back. And then half-way...

We please God by treasuring His Kingdo m.  We Treasure His Kingdom by seeking His Kingdom Selling and supplying His Kingdom Setting our hearts in His Kingdom now and later receiving His Kingdom and cooperating with it First big question:  Can God be pleased ?  Yes.  He tells us how specifically today. Second big question:  What is God up to ?  Today, giving us a KINGDOM .  Wow. Third big question:...

Can God be pleased?  If so, what is it that gives Him pleasure?  Lots and lots in the Bible tells us  about the DISpleasure of God.  Today...Just wait for it! You have journeyed with me in my raging against the Man over the last two days.  I appreciate your patience.  I suppose it is a 'teaching point' here about that kind of pathway:  God can take it.  He walks these pathways with every...

Continuing the theme of yesterday, I still am shaking my fist at God like Snoopy saying, " Curse you Red Baron !" after not getting the best of him.  This podcast is real.  It is daily.  It is not very polished.  Sometimes it is beautiful and celebrates the joy of discovery.  Not so much today.  More on the ugly side , the frustrated, perhaps the misunderstanding side.  I'm going to...

Even though this Podcast is titled: Be With Me, I am afraid that I am not very good spiritual company this morning.  Today, I mostly have complaints.  I'm doing a little raging against God.   If you want a cartoon picture, it would be Snoopy with his fist up in the air, "Curse you Red Baron!".  Now you know that Snoopy and the Red Baron will engage again.  But for today I am feeling...

We have been throwing the rich fool under the bus over the last few episodes.  And rightfully so.  But there is one thing that continues to nag me in my considerations of him and I thought I might share it with you. We all have an "interior life".  We have an ongoing conversation with ourselves inside our head and inside our heart and inside our SOUL.  In fact, helpfully, this fool disti...

You can r etire RICH! Ironically, the "rich man" in the RICH FOOL parable is the poorest of the poor when it came down to the brass-tacks of judgment day. Think with me then, what it might look like to be "RICH TOWARD GOD" .  Specifically, this is what the man was assessed to be lacking.  So what does it mean to be "rich toward God?"  What " things can I prepare...

A man does some "Soul-talking" in the parable today.  In fact, he even addresses his soul as, "Soul".  There is nothing wrong with having a conversation with your own soul.  It is the content of the conversation and what it reveals that is the tragedy of this wondering.  His little conversation with Mr. Soul reveals not that he values his soul too MUCH, but that he values it TO...

Jesus tells a tragic story of a man POSSESSED by his POSSESSIONS .  The man in the story does a lot wrong.  He is know forever as the rich FOOL . So let this not be me and us.  This is one area in life that everybody gets a chance to do this wrong .  And, everybody gets a chance to do this right .  Let us use the wisdom of this story to help us to understand money and stuff and possessions and res...

My ESV bible notes describe this passage as one of the most enigmatic, debated, and misunderstood passages in the Bible.  Enjoy this Knucklehead as he answers all the questions and solves the debate in just 7 minutes.  Just Kidding. Jesus is in the forgiveness business.  Thank you Lord.  Without it, he'd be out of customers.   He's also in the justice business.  Those who persistently ma...

The title over this little section in my Bible says "Have No Fear".  It is, IMHO exactly what the passage does NOT say.  It is a warning to get your fear/respect/care/attention correctly placed.   It ends with sparrows and makes the same emphasis as we talked of in Sparrow Lives Matter (Episode #102), one of my favorites of all time. Could my concerns be misplaced?  YES Is there somethin...

Jesus drops little bombs that on first glance seem like little fire crackers.  But then, after some consideration, they appear more like nuclear warheads in their devastating power. The Covered will be REVEALED .  The inside will become outside.  The Hidden will become known.  Whispers will be proclaimed.  The secret anonymity that we think we live our lives in will become very public.  Like, proc...

You have two big problems. What will you do about your sin ?  We aren't going to talk about that today. What will you do about death? We will celebrate the answer.  It is SO GOOD, that if this is all you knew about God, you would sign up to follow Him this instant.  Up to this moment in human history, all we had was shadows and hints.  Jesus is heading to His crucifixion, and He is accelerati...

Martha, you have done a poor job.  You missed the main thing.  You have mischaracterized the character of God Himself.  Your sister got it right in choosing Me and time with Me and listening to Me.  She chose the GOOD PORTION .  You did not.  You are officially rebuked. If the story of Martha ended here no mother would ever name her child MARTHA . Fortunately for us, we get another chapter.  It is...

1 pair of Sisters 1 who distractedly, anxiously serves 1 who sits at Jesus' feet and listens to His teaching 1 accusation as to the character and activity of God 1 bossypants command TO Jesus 1 name repeated 1 NECESSARY THING 1 rebuke 1 CHOICE For  us, one listen, one necessary thing and one choice.

The man in this story lives forever.  Even not-yet Christians are familiar with the concept of being a "Good Samaritan".  It means to render aid to someone who you do not have a relationship of obligation.  In my country, we even have LAWS to protect and encourage such acts of compassion. So, where did we get such notions?  Luke chapter ten.  We have two who certainly leaned toward havin...

A bible-expert comes to test Jesus.  Obviously this is a dangerous thing. He demonstrates a great knowledge of the Old Testament and in a sense is able to summarize and cut to the heart of it.  Jesus turns his question about ETERNAL LIFE back to him.  The most startling thing is that this guy GETS THE ANSWER RIGHT.  Think about this: he knows the Old Testament he out of the 1000 pages, finds 2 ver...

Half way thru this little section, Jesus stops in a meta-moment and basically says to the disciples, " This is the GOOD STUFF.  I am giving you GOLD right now .  This is a treasure .  What you see and what you hear has been longed for for centuries, and you are getting it at this very moment". I hope they took a deep breath in appreciation that, "their butts were in the buttertub &q...