bsfgroups – Page 7 – The Notes are Good

06.3 BSF Matthew, Week 6, Day 3

My Daily Journal:

1. I didn’t know for sure what the word meant so I looked it up: Raca: vain, empty, worthless, only found in Matt. 5:22. The Jews used it as a word of contempt. It is derived from a root meaning “to spit.”

2. I was moved by the 1 John 2:11 passage, “But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”

The thought it brought to mind was the realization that anger and hatred that I carry in my are like a dark spot in my eye. That spot is blacked out and doesn’t absorb any light. Clearly greed and lust are the same way.

So, I looked up how big of a dark spot would it take to affect my vision. Literally. Here is what I learned: The receptors in our eyes are in an area called the macula. At the center of the macula is the fovea centralis. This is the “point of sharpest, most acute visual acuity.” At the center of the fovea centralis is the foveola. The closer ones cones are clustered to this are, the better your vision. A dark spot in this are, something blocking the cones, would have a significant impact on the ability to see and could cause blindness. The foveola is about 0.35 mm. In other words, a little less than half the size of this period.

So, how much anger and hatred can I allow to reside in my heart and in my eye? This was a good visual for me (no pun intended).

I want to see. I want to be able to see the world with Jesus’ eyes.

3. I had a whole part on trying to explain Matthew 5:25-26 but I moved it to Day 5

My Answers:

5.
a.
Deut 5:17 (Also Exodus 20:13)

b.
They separated the hands from the heart. Hatred and desire to murder someone was fine as long as they didn’t physically do it. They followed the letter of the law but not the intent

6.
Anger and hatred are in me as darkness. It is impossible to be filled with the light if I have darkness in me. Even a little darkness is blinding.

7.
Pray, forgive, reconcile if possible – but regardless, take it out of my heart

8.
What can I do to love and save my brother? vs. What can I do to get what is rightfully mine? Cain’s Protection (Gen 4:15) Lamech’s Arrogance (Gen 4:23-24) Eye for eye (Ex 21:23-25)

04.5 BSF Matthew Week 4, Day 5

Today’ Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

First, I was struck by the calling of the first apostles. Not so much in what they were called to do, but in what they were not called to become.

Jesus didn’t call them to become high priests. He didn’t call them to become the pharisees or Sadducees. He didn’t call them to become government leaders. He called to be who they were, but to be it for Him.

We forget this. We think that to serve God we must become someone else. If I am a fisherman, Jesus calls me to be a fisher for Him. If I am a laborer, I am called to labor for Him. If I am a teacher, to become a teacher for Him. Our “market place skills” are not something to diminish or discard in our following of Christ, they are simply God-given gifts to be redirected to serve Him.

Second, I was struck by the duality of Jesus message and ministry. He came with power and compassion, with retribution and love. He calls us to repentance and joy. But, in our way of looking at things, these can often seem like opposites. When we think about being repentant, we think about being sorrowful and mournful not filled with joy and celebration.

But we forget (or are in denial that) we are caught in a trap. Look at how many times and ways the word “snare” is used throughout the old testament. We have gone off the path and have been caught in the snare of sin. Jesus screams to us to cry out. Not over anguish that we have been snared, but so that He can set us free and carry us back to the path of righteousness. Jesus said repent AND be healed. Not only did He say it – He did it for all to see. The gospel is Good News!

My Answers:

8.
a.
He lived in Capernaum by Zebulun and Naphtali
A shoot came up from the stump of Jesse (the Vine – Jesus)

b.
All old testament prophecy ultimately points to the arrival of Christ. He didn’t do things to “fulfill prophecy”, more what He was doing had been prophecied

9.
a.
At once they left and followed Him

b.
I will send you out to fish for people

c.
Most of my ministry is to children. There is no earthly recognition or gain from this, no earthly profit, but it honors my God.

10.
a.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near – proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, healing

b.
Same message, but he took the batton to the conclusion of the race. He not only washed, but he healed (both physically and spiritually).

c.
That the time of salvation through the Son of God, a descendant of David, the Messiah, had arrived

11.
a.
He came with retribution&power against sin and those who choose the path, AND with compassion and love. Not to destroy, but to save out of the clutch of sin. He came for a time of repentance AND joy (they go together) Judges 2:3 their gods (false idols) will become a snare to you. Ps 18:15 the snares of death confronted me, Ps 25:15 the Lord, only he will release snare (see also Acts 1:22, Ps 147:3)

b.
He is King and Lord and never sets that aside. He has full power to justly punish sin and sinners alike. And, He, through benevolance and grace chooses to lift me up to be considered not just his servant, but also His son.

04.4 BSF Matthew Week 4, Day 4

Today’ Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

Satan has no new tricks. There is no new temptation, just the same old same old that mankind has faced forever.

The first temptation Satan attempts with Jesus is for a prophet. We often think about the “turn these rocks to bread” as a temptation of hunger, but it is deeper. It is a temptation of self reliance, to take matters into your own hands. This was the temptation that snared Moses. Number 20:8-12 tells the tale of the prophet and his yielding to temptation to put reliance on the staff in his hand instead of solely on the glory of God.

The second temptation Satan attempts is one for a king. This is the temptation that snared David. David knew he was chosen by God. He knew he lived in His favor and that he could trust perfectly in God’s love and strength and backing. And, as a result, he ventured into sin. From his high place in the palace he looked down and saw the wife of Uriah. He didn’t deny God or hide from God, he took God for granted.

The third temptation Satan attempts is one for spiritual being, for an angel. This is the temptation that snared Lucifer himself and, to a certain degree, Adam and Eve. This is the temptation to be “like God.” To be the object of worship. In Satan’s case his fall came when he worshiped himself above God. He couldn’t challenge Jesus to worship Himself above God, since Jesus was God, so Satan suggested Jesus worship him.

The beauty of Jesus’ response to each of these temptations is not just that he replied solely with scripture, although that is critically important. He looked past the challenge and looked at what the outcome of the challenge would yield – something we often forget. For example, if Jesus had yielded to the first temptation, when all would be said and done, he would have had a loaf of bread. We forget this. We get so wrapped up in the challenge, the temptation itself, that we fail to look past it to the actual outcome. Jesus did not.

The potential of the first temptation was a loaf of bread. The potential of the second was to return to exactly where He already was at the highest point of the temple. The potential of the third was ridiculous, to sacrifice kingship over all creation for rule over earthly kingdoms (something He already had anyway).

If we had the same eyes in our view of temptations – to look past them – what simple strength we will have to stand up under them through the Word of God.

My Answers:

6.
a.
1. Tell these stones to become bread 2. throw yourself down for scripture says angels will lift you up and not strike your foot 3. Offered all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship Satan. Deut 8:3, Psalm 91:11-12, Deut 6:16, 13

b.
Jesus is not Moses, tempted to take matters into his own hand. Jesus is not David in mortal battle against man and pestilence. He did not come to earth to rule over mortal nations but to save them and in such to be their immortal king

c.
We are self reliant. We trust in ourselves more than God. We are in fear and call on God for protection even while we put ourselves in harms way not for His glory but for ours. We seek power and to rule

d.
The temptations I face are nothing but garden variety temptations, faced by men over and over throughout time. Nothing new, nothing that can’t be handled through the strength of the word.

7.
a.
The angels came and attended to him

b.
He sends someone with a kind word of encouragement that tells me it was noticed.

04.3 BSF Matthew Week 4, Day 3

Today’ Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

What is temptation? What is the difference between temptation and testing? Is temptation a sin? Could Jesus have yielded to temptation? Could Jesus have sinned?

Jesus was fully man. God gave man free will, the ability to make choices. Jesus had this choice as does any other man. There is no way He had less freedom than you or I. But His choice was different. His choice as a man reflected His strength as God. Temptation itself is not sin. Yielding to temptation is sin.

In examining this, it is interesting to look at how Satan tempted Jesus. He didn’t do it with a question, as he did with Eve. He did it with a challenge, an accusation. Basically, he said – “prove it.” “If you are the Son of God…” Every proof (geometry or any other mathematics, logic, science) always starts with a postulate or axiom. An axiom is a premise so evident as to be accepted as true without controversy. These are the givens. They are the things by which every other question is answered or proven. Prima facie. God is truth. God is the creator of everything. God is the axiom. God is the only plumb and square by which anything else can be measured. He is the postulate and He said, “This is My son.”

But Satan requests proof. To attempt to prove an axiom, by definition, means you remove it from being a cornerstone. Using any other measure to determine if an axiom is true means putting faith in that measure over the axiom.

And this is the heart of temptation and sin. Sin is simply the act of putting something else above God. Trusting something else as being more reliable than the Word of God. Adam and Eve did this – Eve trusted her eyes over the word of God (when she saw it was good for food and pleasing to the eye, Gen 3:6). You and I do this when we worry, doubt, rely on self, fail to confess, accept despair or simply drift away.

But Jesus did not yield to temptation. You don’t prove an axiom, it just is. And Jesus just is the I Am.

Please feel free to comment.

My Answers:

5.
a.
If you are the Son of God. v3, 6

b.
Jesus was the son of God. God Himself in voice from heaven had proclaimed it at his baptism. The father of lies sought to have him prove it. You don’t prove a postulate/axiom – it is self-evident.

c.
Matt:Don’t worry about clothing or food, God provides
Acts:Salvation is found in no one else but Jesus
Rom:The Spirit testifies we are God’s children – share in suffering
2 Cor:Hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair
1 John:If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive and purify us
Heb:Pay the most careful attention to what we have heard so not drift away

04.2 BSF Matthew Week 4 Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

I loved the idea of the Holy Spirit as personal trainer. Faith is a muscle. Temptation and testing is nothing but dead weight. Sure, we need to be careful to not drop it on our foot, but facing and overcoming temptation is a tool to building strength when done with the right discipline and trainer.

We were told last week that the Spirit remained with Jesus. The spirit worked with and in Jesus to prepare and strengthen Him for His calling, His mission. His food was to do the will of Him who sent Him. His refuge was in the Spirit. He was training, preparing, growing stronger every hour and minute.

Part of any fighter’s training is time in the ring. A good trainer is a good ring man, with the fighter, in their head, in their corner, coaching, encouraging. The Spirit did this with Jesus. For 40 days and nights They (the Trinity) spent time alone in the wilderness in preparation. As Jesus battled the demands of his human nature and its yearnings to be fed, His spirit grew in strength and fortitude. When Satan saw Jesus at His weakest, He was strong – not in his own human strength but in the power of the word of God. Satan didn’t go in the ring with kid gloves, he went in swinging, but there are no new temptations and nothing as powerful as the Word.

The downside of this analogy is that every time I’ve thought about the Spirit of God this week, I keep picturing Mickey from the Rocky movies.

My Answers:

3.
a.
In the wilderness. Led there by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil

b.
Faith is a muscle, strengthened through proper use. Temptation is not punishment or even that we have done wrong/strayed, it is just dead weight.

4.
a.
Jesus did not add to or take from God’s word. He also trusted it whole-heartedly in full obedience to what it says

b.
D. Satan addressed Eve with a question, Jesus with an accusation
D. Eve relied on her own eyes
D. Eve yielded to temptation and sinned
S. Satan spoke
S. Satan was crafty
S. Satan desired sin

03.3 BSF Matthew: Week 3, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

My son has recently collected my father-in-law’s faceting equipment with the hope and plan of learning how to cut gemstones. The process of cutting gemstones really does not involve any “cutting”. It is much more a process of careful a careful and precise grinding down with finer and finer grits to the point of polishing.

On a microscopic (or at least magnified) view, a rough stone consists entirely of valleys and mountains and rough places. In the grandness of the universe the scale of our actual mountains is not much different.

Through confession we acknowledge the roughness in our own life. Through repentance, we allow the work of our Master to grind that roughness away and wash it out of our life. It is this repeated process of confession and repentance – acknowledgement, submission and work of a changed outlook and structure, through which we are transformed.

The beauty in a perfectly faceted gemstone is not the stone itself. It is the fact that each side and each angle is polished to a perfectly smooth and reflective surface so the light that enters is magnified and reflected back. In the same way, the work of confession and repentance transforms us into a reflection of the master stone cutter.

My Answers:

4.
a.
Parents both of priestly line, Father served in temple, observed all commands and were blameless, prayed, prophesized by Angel that John would be a Nazarite. His parents were also obedient (naming him John). Sent as the prophet to turn hearts

b.
I grew up in a Christian household centered in service. My mom spent countless time in the nursery carrying for the “smallest of these” My dad taught bible study, served on councils and committees and always attended and gave joyfully

5.
a.
He called people to repent and change – to live a just life. He extolled them not to rely on their birthright but to be servants to God. He rebuked any, including Herod, and was locked in prison

b.
Do not rely on history, be fruitful today. Be generous and compassionate. Be fair and honest. Be just and content.

6.
a.
Baptized with water for repentance, confession of sins, salvation from coming wrath

b.
Confess: to acknowledge wrong deeds, not just mistakes, but insults to God because of disobedience

Repent: to commit to change and living a new/different life

7.
a.
Confession and repentance are are equalizers of people, we all sin and rely on God’s saving work. Works glorifying to God (charity and honesty and justice and contentment) remove human hierarchies

b.
At times I see myself as more than I am. At other times my self view is lower than what God sees in me. I’m a rough stone. But as God smooths my rough edges through confession and repentance and His grace, I become polished and reflective.

Photo credit: Richard W. Wise, G.G.
Author: Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones

03.2 BSF Matthew: Week 3, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

Perfect Practice. There is an old saying that practice makes perfect. But as any coach or personal trainer will tell you, this is not true. Practicing the wrong golf swing over and over and over again will not make that a perfect golf swing, it will just make you really comfortable with doing it incorrectly. Practicing playing a piece on the piano with the wrong note over and over makes you really good at playing the wrong note. It takes perfect practice to lead to perfect.

Perfect practice isn’t exciting. It doesn’t have lots of conflict or drama. It is the daily drill and practice of the Armed Forces. It is the miles trekked by a cross-country runner. It is hard work. It is discipline. But it isn’t much to write about.

This is the life Jesus led. Every day he faced temptation; temptations that are faced at every age and stage of life. He was not hidden away, he lived with family, he attended feasts, he interacted with others. But He did it all without sin.

Jesus’ perfect practice was a practice of perfection.

My Answers:

3.
a.
He grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and grace. He knew His Father and did His work. He was obedient, grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man

b.
i. perfected through suffering, made high priest to Abraham’s kids
ii. High priest, tempted in every way, yet did not sin
iii. prayed: cries and tears. Obedient in suffering, perfect, source

c.
He is not a distant, unattached being – He was fully human, a son of Abraham, who was tempted, but did not yield to sin. His death was not the payment of His sin, it was for ours – Fully obedient to pay the price of disobedience

d.
He was a child, a son, a man. He had the wisdom and spirit of God, but he had the body fully of a man, suffering temptation, pain, tears, separation, but always obedient.

02.4 BSF Matthew: Week 2, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

I was convicted by the obedience that Mary and Joseph demonstrated as parents. There is an interested contrast in Adam and Eve and Joseph and Mary. We see disobedience in the first leading to the fall of man, the first sin wasn’t an accident, it was an intentional act of disobedience of the one rule given in the garden. But time and again we see the man and woman entrusted with the responsibility of raising the infant Son of the Living God with act after act of obedience. Joseph gets direction in a dream and he obeys, even getting up in the middle of the night rousting his wife and child and setting off to a distant and foreign land.

We think about demonstrating strength and leadership as parents of our children. We want to provide for them, educate them, lead them, help them. None of these are bad or wrong, but listen to these inspired words in Matthew about the man and woman God chose for His only Son. He doesn’t talk about any of those things – He talks about obedience.

I was also challenged with the question about Nathanael and his views of Nazareth. (In the process of researching this I found this website about why people looked down on Nazareth) Like him, I am filled with preconceived notions about people. These are prejudices, but not in the way we often use the word. I clearly, however, pay more attention to a well dressed and monetarily successful, highly educated leader than I do to someone on the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum. God reminds us it is the heart that counts – not what we can see on the outside, but what He puts on the inside, that really matters.

My Answers:

8.
a.
Angel said – he obeyed. Joseph and Mary both demonstrate amazing obedience. A lack of obedience afflicted Adam and Eve (1st parents), but Mary and Joseph model obedience as parents of the holy One.

b.
Herod’s son, Archelaus, was now ruler. Having been warned in a dream he withdrew to Galilee, Nazareth

9.
a.
Differences between Northerners and Southerners. Race, dialect, prejudices, etc. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/08/17/7-differences-between-galilee-and-judea-in-the-time-of-jesus/

b.
God turned everything upside down. All our prejudices and ideas about how “we would do things” – He did the opposite.

c.
Beings of might and power, in human thought, do not sacrifice that, even unto death, for those without any power and might. There is nothing in it for them. But God loved the world. Love is not human ration – it is divine.

02.3 BSF Matthew: Week 2, Day 3

Today’ Scripture

My Daily Journal:

I’ve often thought about the gifts the Magi presented to the Christ child. I would think about how they presented these very expensive gifts not to receive anything in return – how could they, He was but a child. While all of that is true, it isn’t the main thing.

I realized in this, they could have stayed home and sent gifts if it was about the gifts. It wasn’t. The gifts were nothing but an outward sign. The important thing was showing up with a worshipful mindset.

This is what God did. This is what we should do. God planned this time from the beginning of the world, from the fall of man forward all prophecy pointed to this event. But he didn’t send in a savior, He showed up and did it himself for His own glory.

Where do I need to show up and be fully present? Where am I distracted and thinking about other worries, instead of trusting and obeying the one in control. What am I holding on to instead of being fully present and engaged?

God was all in (fully man/fully God) – why should I think I should do any less than be fully present in serving and worshiping Him?

My Answers:

5.
a.
Boaz redeemed Naomi and Ruth at the threshing floor, Married and bore Obed, grandfather to David who was annointed by Samuel in Bethlehem

b.
Hosea 11:1 – out of Egypt I called my son
Jerimiah 31:15 weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more

6.
a.
Jews and Leaders, Romans, all plotted to kill Jesus and eventually did: Matthew 4:6; Luke 13:34; John 8:59; John 10:31; Matthew 12:14; Matthew 26:4; Mark 3:6; Mark 11:18; Mark 14:1; Luke 13:31; Luke 19:47; John 5:18; John 7:1; John 7:25; John 8:37; John 8:40

b.
Many have been persecuted and killed for their faith and work to lead others to Christ. While in America, we suffer little persecutaion, in other countries people are threatened, persecuted and killed for loving Jesus

c.
My children have experienced more than I have in public school and particularly from teachers (often those in authority). I feel we are all bombarded with temptation and the world. Television is so distracting – Our family removed ours and have turned off cable TV all together. It doesn’t bring glory to God!

7.
a.
To earnestly seek Him, regardless of cost. To trust in God and study and follow His teaching and signs. To listen to Him over any others. When we do this we are rewarded with personal time with our Lord – an amazing gift.

Today’ Scripture

My Daily Journal:

My Answers:

5.
a.
Boaz redeemed Naomi and Ruth at the threshing floor, Married and bore Obed, grandfather to David who was annointed by Samuel in Bethlehem

b.
Hosea 11:1 – out of Egypt I called my son
Jerimiah 31:15 weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more

b.
To be purposeful in prayer and study.

02.2 BSF Matthew: Lesson 2, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

My Daily Journal:

Imagine the shock the Magi must have experienced. They came from afar to worship the newly born King of the Jews. They came to the logical place, the seat of power for the Jewish nation, to the royal palace – this is where you would expect the long awaited King to be, right? But instead they found – disturbed people! Why wasn’t everyone worshiping this King? They knew who the Magi were talking about. Herod himself called together the priests and teachers and asked them “where the Messiah was to be born.” He knew exactly who the Magi sought.

You would think after all these years of anticipation they would be falling over themselves to meet and worship the Messiah. But that would have meant letting go of their anticipation. They were comfortable in anticipation. They understood it. They had built entire structures and positions around it. It was ingrained in their lives, meals, even their calendar. The messiah showing up would mess all that up!

How we do the same! We know the love God has for us and the calling He has on our life, but we are comfortable. We pray for comfort and peace. For the easy and comfortable path. God calls us to be bold, to obey no matter what, and to trust that he not only has our back, but also our front and top and sides, inside and out. But it is hard to let go.

I am praying this year for boldness and obedience. I don’t know what God has in mind, but I know it is bigger and better than anything I can imagine. I know there will be “Herod’s” along the way, but God is bigger.

My Answers:

3.
a.
Jesus (born), Magi (came to Jerusalem, asked, saw star, came to worship), Herod (disturbed), All Jerusalem (with Herod), Chief priest & teachers (knew promise of Messiah), Herod (secretive, found exact time of star, sent Magi to Bethlehem, ordered to report back to him, lied)

b.
Jesus is as He always was. Some who are wise actively seek Him to show honor and praise. Some, particularly those with power, seek only their own preservation of power, some who are followers, blindly follow the leaders. Wise men seek the one true Lord.

c.
I am a wise man because I have heard and seen the calling of my Lord and God. I was lost and blind and I still stumble and fall (way too often). But, I “get up” and seek to be obedient in honoring my God

4.
a.
Origins from old, from ancient times

b.
come from Judah, from Bethlehem

c.
Ruler over Israel