Daily Liturgy and Scripture

The easiest way to keep from being judgmental? Leave the judgement to God. Certainly, that's far easier said than done, but the judgement of God is far better than our own. It's kind of appropriate that we have this verse from Job today, paired with the section from 2 Peter. God has been setting things in motion since the beginning, it's certainly not asking him too much to set things right in our...

2 Peter is written with a slightly different message in mind. Persecution from without isn’t so much the them as false teaching from within. It must have been a crazy time in the history of the church: spreading the Gospel of this man who rose from the dead, who was apparently God? It’s no wonder that others tried to capitalize on that wild story and expand on it in their own ways. Peter leads int...

As Peter's epistle concludes, the focus turns to leadership. Being humble and alert are his dominant themes, and we must wonder which of the two was more prominent. If this letter was written to persecuted Christians, being humble may have been easier. Being alert would probably be critical, especially if believers may have been tempted to walk away from their faith in the face of trials. At all t...

Is it even possible to rejoice in the midst of suffering? It's certainly not easy, and it's not our natural first reaction. That kind of thinking takes a pretty major overhaul of our worldview. But we have that resource available, and it travels with us. The Spirit is always near, and we can be part of the work God is already doing if we're listening.

Yesterday was about replacing power with submission, and today is about replacing our attitude toward suffering. Remembering that this letter was probably written to people who were directly experiencing persecution, and Peter reminded them that they need not be frightened when their hope was in Christ. Carrying this truth is difficult in the face of pain, but it is always an option available to u...

Peter gives us a very different kind of power dynamic than what we have come to expect. No longer are we struggling against one another, trying to seize power, but we are submitting to one another. Even wicked slavemasters are not resisted, although that would take an immense amount of dependence on a delivering God. Certainly none of these models are different than what Jesus showed us, and his e...

Only God can purify us, and he has made us new. Our side of the bargain is obedience, walking in step with the path set by Christ. Of course, this still doesn't make us able to save ourselves. It is God's choice to set us right with him, and we are made all the better when we put ourselves in God's hands.

As the apostle Peter addresses believers around the region who were probably suffering persecution under the horrible emperor Nero. In these times, it was critical to remind the body of Christ that their best future still lay in the future, and would be with Christ. In the meantime, even while under persecution, the Church is still supposed to be a different kind of community, a reflection of our...

James concludes his letter with encouragement, because he point of holy living isn’t just being a better person. It should create a community of people who reflect out Savior. We are not the first to experience suffering, nor will we be the last. The life that we lead together, the life of the Church, is a shared experience that should give a glimpse of what is to come.

Today the Church remembers James (from whom we have been reading this week) and Phillip. James, thought to be a brother of Jesus, has been outlining some pretty specific rules for Christian living. Today is no exception, as he challenges us to lay aside the pursuit of thing right in front of us for the eternal. Phillip is an apostle that not much is written about. In this section of scripture toda...

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" is probably something we can all carry with us. Remembering that the person we're addressing is a creation made in God's image is certainly a good reminder when we're thinking of how we want to approach someone else. Of course, this becomes difficult when we try to put it into practice. People cause us pain and wrong us. Difficult...

Faith should play out in our actions, just as James says the soul gives life to the body. Certainly, this does not mean that if we're good enough, we will earn God's love. It does not mean that we can save ourselves. If our faith is alive, though, the evidence should be found in the way we live. 

James reminds us that we should treat the rich and poor equally as our brothers in the church. This is very difficult to do, since we are naturally drawn to those who can do something for us. The rich have the resources to do so, but the poor not so much. Under Christ, we all draw from his riches, and hopefully share some of the bounty of our earthly possessions with those who have less. 

James is believed to have been written by a brother of Jesus, a son of Mary and Joseph. It seems a bit heavy on legalism, but don't be tempted to go too far with that approach. Certainly a holy life is possible only because of the life and sacrifice of Jesus, and a holy life should also model him.

The end of Hebrews is directly about Jesus. He is the high priest and the sacrifice, which fulfills the law. Our sacrifice is no longer blood offerings, but praise. Not only the praise of worship, but of holy living. Jesus made this change in his coming, but it remains our task in the rhythm of the Kingdom.

We've come a long way in Hebrews, this book that puts Christianity in the Jewish context. Now we are at one of their most important places: the Holy City. Jerusalem has been rocked before, even destroyed. It has been torn down and rebuilt. Not so with the Kingdom Jesus brings. It will never be destroyed, and our citizenship there is assured.

It’s very popular to think only of God handing out blessings like candy, or to think of him as horrible when bad things happen to us. If we belong to God, then we must be willing to submit to his discipline. Just as our parents discipline us for our best (and we hate it at the time!), so also does God, but his wisdom is infallible.

Faith has always been a critical part of the life of God’s people, even those early in our history. Showing faith is our part of the deal, because the rest is truly up to God. Abraham, Jacob, David, and all the rest of the list in today’s passage had to show faith the same as we do today, and none of them are more privileged than we are. The story is truly God’s, and we are part of it.

Since we know that Jesus is our high priest and seated at the right hand of the father, we can see what he does with that power: he redeems us. We are purified him to do his good work, even though sometimes it is very difficult to be faithful. This is a very different way of living than what comes easy, but God’s way is always for his Kingdom and for our good.

The sacrificial system before Jesus, the pattern of the Old Testament, was never meant to be permanent. It was a preview of what was to come, it helped God's chosen people understand how things worked in God's world. But then God came in the flesh to complete that picture, and the whole picture became more complete. God knew that timing better than we did, and now we have Jesus in the seat of auth...

The Hebrew temple was the heart of worship, the place where Heaven and earth intersected. With Jesus, those two things have come together. He is the high priest and the sacrifice, but he entered into Heaven itself, and took away the stain of sin for all time.

The Old Testament is still part of our story, and this verse from Hebrews lays out some of that. What was part of Jewish worship before Jesus was a preview of coming attractions, but was made whole in Jesus. The plan God completed with Christ started long before him, but it was still God's plan. We have a high priest in Jesus who was part of all of it.

Having just celebrated Easter, we are primed for this verse from Hebrews. The coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection, have created a new covenant between God and man. No longer does a priest need to offer the blood of animals, because Jesus is our high priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father, who himself became the sacrifice. The space between God and man has been bridged by the initi...

Christ is risen indeed! May the glory of the resurrection shine on us all today, as we have our eyes opened to who Christ truly is. Just as his fellow travelers to Emmaus, may we each discover him in our own way today, and may the reality of his life, death, and resurrection become central to who we are as citizens of his Kingdom.

The full day in which Jesus is dead occurs on the Sabbath, which is on a Saturday in Jewish tradition. It was a day of rest for the devout, and it follows the finished work of our Savior as well. The day is important, because it means Jesus really, truly, did die. His death and what comes next are what make the Christian faith unique.