Day 4
Matthew 4
- So this is right after Jesus is baptized.
- Man doesn’t live on bread alone, but on EVERY WORD that comes from the mouth of God.
· I need to be nourished by the word of God. I am not right now. I need to gain actual spiritual sustenance from God’s word. I don’t think I do a good job of that now. I read scripture sometimes because I need to. I don’t do it because I am desperate for it. I enjoy it when I do. But I don’t do a good job of chewing my spiritual cud. Instead I come by for a quick snack instead of sitting down and really relishing what I read. Even when I try to go deeper…I don’t think I do a great job of it.
· I think that this will help, it will help me to slow down and absorb it. I also think that it will help that I am starting to memorize scripture.
- Jesus called the men and said that he would make them fishers of men. He contextualized their message to the people he was talking to.
· How can I do that better? I can learn about teenage culture? First, who am I preaching to? Teenagers. So I need to learn their culture. But how do I learn it without being infected by it? Is it ok to quote Simpsons to show I know their culture? Is it ok to watch bad movies? It seems the answer is no. So how do I do it? Probably by just hanging out with them more.
- Prayer
· God help me to know more about the culture I am preaching to. Help me to be in it but not of it. Help me to understand and to relate without being infected by it. Help me to stay pure. Teach me to be a light in a dark place. Teach me to share you and bring light to dark places.
1 comment:
I agree. Too often I read God's Word because I know that I ought to, not because I'm starving for it.
On the other hand, Pete Hatton did a really great sermon series on being in the world but not of it (I wish I'd taken notes), and he had a lot of good things to say about "what do I do when I don't want to read scripture?" I'll have to see if he can send me some notes...
One of the things he said seems kind of obvious, but we ALWAYS do it. Run TO God, not away from Him. Too often we feel like we've failed and the we have to hide from God until we're better, but the truth is that the only way we can get better is in His arms.
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