Burunche’s Blog

Matthew 7:9 “ Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

When Jesus begins to talk about accidentally giving your child a stone instead of bread or a snake instead of fish, it sounds weird! How could anybody make such foolish mistakes? But please remember that in those days, houses had only small oil lamps for light. In the dim light of such lamps, it might be easy to pick up a rock instead of a piece of bread. There were lots of snakes in those days and they made their way into houses very easily. In semi – darkness, a coiled up snake might resemble a fish…until it uncoiled and either slithered away or bit someone! Still, Jesus is certain that caring parents would do everything they could to make sure they were giving the right thing to their child.

Many times things happen and we want to blame God! “Why would God let my mother suffer with cancer?” “Why did I have to have a car accident?” “Why did my friend die at an early age with a heart attack?” We neglect the fact that we are in a fallen sinful world and that bad things are bound to happen. And sometimes the bad things that happen actually occur because we have failed to do something or have made wrong decisions.

Whether or not we believe it, God is the ultimate Father. The very idea of Fatherhood comes from God, who is the original Father. And good fathers give good things to their children. Now Jesus takes things a step further; he reminds us that if we want God to do good things for us, or if we want others to be good to us, we must first be good to them. Once more, we are reminded that the measure we give out is the measure that we will receive, or as one of my friends puts it, “What goes around, comes around.”

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for your watch care! Thank you for your goodness! Thank you for your loving kindness! Thank you that you do care for us and that you are still working even in times when we see only tragedy. Help us to always give out the love and encouragement that we want from others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Matthew 7:7  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus has cautioned his listeners regarding the things of the kingdom. Now he moves his teaching onto a higher plane. In Jesus’ day there were beggars. If you went to the market place, there were beggars. If you went to the temple, there were beggars. If you were invited to dine at a rich man’s home, you could expect several beggars would be outside the door, hoping that rich guests would feel generous. It’s quite possible that somewhere in the crowd that was listening to Jesus , there were beggars hoping that people’s hearts would be touched. In many parts of the world, there are still beggars. One of the most difficult decisions we face when we travel to our regional capital of Tamale is the beggar question: to give or not to give? And the decision is never an easy one. Do you give to a fellow who can walk but who has one crippled arm? Do you give to a blind old lady, and is she really blind? What about mothers with twins sitting outside the central mosque?

Many beggars are very persistent! If you are parked at a traffic light, beggars will tap on your windows or wave at you, trying to get your attention. Does begging pay? For some people, the answer is yes. Years ago in Accra there was a crippled man who was begging close to the center of town. A charitable organization decided to help him, so they sent him for vocational training and got him a wheel chair. But when he realized that he had been making more money begging on the street corner than he could make working a regular job, he returned to begging!

As the crowd was listening to Jesus, the ultra religious people were probably looking down their noses at the poorer people and most particularly at the beggars. But wait! What’s this? Jesus is COMMENDING BEGGING! And Jesus is even suggesting that in matters of relating to God, we should be as persistent as the beggars on the street.

Many people claim to want the will of God, but when it comes right down to it, they are lazy. It’s as if they hope that God is going to drop a scroll in their laps, indicating His will. Jesus encourages us that we should be serious about seeking God, that we should even pester God until God answers. And Jesus promises that if we are stubborn and persistent, we will be blessed.

How can we know the will of God? We must study His Word. God is not going to do anything that contradicts what He has already given us in the Bible. We should pray, simply asking God and then waiting for answers. And we should always remember that the mark of the Holy Spirit is the peace that passes understanding. No peace means that we need to keep seeking, asking, and knocking.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you are a good Father and that you long for your children to seek you! Please help us to be persistent in matters of the Kingdom and to keep seeking, asking, and knocking on your doors until you answer us. But help us to recognize that your answers may be different than our requests and to accept your perfect will. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Matthew 7:6 “You must not give holy things to dogs, nor must you throw your pearls before pigs—or they may trample them underfoot and turn and attack you.”

How weird is this? Jesus has been giving wonderful teachings about the kingdom and telling pointed stories on local characters at the same time. Then all of a sudden, he starts talking about dogs and pigs and pearls. What’s going on here?

According to the Talmud, dogs were considered unclean. Since dogs generally ran in packs and were very dangerous, they were not only unclean but also feared. Pigs were considered even more unclean than dogs. There are no positive references to pigs in the Old Testament and the Gadarenes who owned the herd of 2000 swine into which the demons went when they left the demon- possessed man were probably being grown for sale to Gentiles who had no religious scruples against pork.

In the last part of Matthew 6, Jesus urged his followers to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. After that, Jesus warned against criticizing, judging or condemning. It would seem that it is impossible to seek the kingdom of God and judge one’s brother at the same time. Now Jesus begins to advise as to how we are to seek the kingdom of God, and it is in this context that he warns us to be careful of people who might behave like either dogs or pigs.

“You must not give holy things to dogs.” Here dogs might represent those who have no interest in anything having to do with the kingdom of God. There are things you can share with friends who do not serve God, but there are many times when you will find yourself on one side of an impossible gulf with your friend on the other side. Unless and until your friend gives up his right to himself and begins to serve God, sharing holy things will be useless.

What about pearls before swine? Pearls in the ancient world were considered rare and valuable. In other places, Jesus refers to the Gospel as a pearl of great price. One commentator mentioned that to pigs, pearls might look like kernels of corn, in other words, like food. If you were to throw a handful of pearls into a pig pen, the pigs would try to chew on them and then would just trample on them. If you were stupid enough to stand inside the pig pen when you threw the pearls, the pigs would then turn on you and tear you into pieces with their teeth. How easily can a pig shred something? VERY EASILY! When I was growing up on the farm in Illinois, I once watched my grandfather working with a mother pig who had just had babies. When Grandpa did something the mother pig didn’t like, she just jerked her head along his leg and shredded his pant leg into fringe from his knee downwards! Fortunately, she missed Grandpa’s leg, but he vaulted over the gate to the pen in a big hurry! So some people might respond even more vehemently to the Gospel than those who merely fail to understand.

With this teaching about pearls before swine and not giving holy things to dogs, Jesus is preparing his listeners for his further teachings. It is as if what Jesus has already said was preliminary and now he is going to go even deeper into the mysteries of the Kingdom.

What does this teaching mean for us? We should seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, but we should also be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when it comes to sharing about the Kingdom. If we make a mistake, our listeners may react like a pack of dogs or a herd of pigs. At the same time, we need to be sure that we have ears to hear and hearts to receive.

PRAYER: Father God, help us to seek Your Kingdom and Your Righteousness. But help us to know when to share and when to remain silent. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 7: ^1-2 “Don’t criticise people, and you will not be criticised. For you will be judged by the way you criticise others, and the measure you give will be the measure you receive.” ^3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and fail to notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me get the speck out of your eye’, when there is a plank in your own? You fraud! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you can see clearly enough to remove your brother’s speck of dust.” (J.B. Phillips Translation)

Jesus grew up in the small town of Nazareth, and he probably drew his stories from real life. Here we have three different stories Let’s look at them and see what Jesus’ listeners were thinking as he told them.

SHEBA THE CRITIC Everybody in Nazareth knew Sheba! Sheba was the biggest gossip in town and was always visiting the neighbors, seeing what she could overhear! All the women knew that if Sheba came to the village well when they did, they had best keep quiet; otherwise, anything they said might be blown out of proportion and spread all over the village. And criticize! Sheba was a self – appointed expert on housekeeping, child rearing, you name it! So when Jesus mentioned those who judged, there were lots of sly looks at Sheba.

TWO MEASURES Ephraim sold rice in the market. For Ephraim’s friends, there was an accurate measure. But heaven help the stranger who bought from Ephraim! Somehow the measure for strangers was a lot smaller than the measure for friends. And then came the day that Ephraim used the wrong measure to sell rice to the servant of the richest man in town. Well! Everyone hoped that Ephraim learned his lesson!

THE SPECK OF SAWDUST AND THE PLANK Saul was the brightest scholar in the temple as well as being a handsome young man. Saul could always be found obnoxiously correcting someone on the proper religious laws, no matter how minute their infraction might have been. Then came the day that Saul was striding down the street while a local carpenter headed the opposite direction carrying a plank on his shoulder. The plank struck Saul in the eye, and it took weeks for his vision to recover.

Three different stories but the lesson is the same from each: If you judge, if you criticize, if you cheat – the law of the Kingdom of God is simple: the measure you give out is the measure you will receive.

PRAYER: Father, forgive us! So many times we have been quick to criticize or judge or to condemn. Help us to turn away from judging and criticizing. Please help us to give the same grace and mercy to others that we wish to receive ourselves. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 6: ²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Imagine for a moment that you are sitting on that hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee and listening to Jesus. Not far from you is a group of the local village beauties with carefully braided hair, tasteful veils, lovely outfits obviously designed to catch the eyes of any elegible young men. Now, what would those young ladies’ reactions be when Jesus asked “Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field.” About that time, there might be muttering and mumbling and perhaps even some pouting!

And then while some members of the audience were quietly laughing at the discomfort of the local beauty queens, Jesus suddenly begins talking about food and drink. “Well! The NERVE of that man! Who doesn’t worry about their next meal? Maybe the rich Pharisees aren’t concerned, but for the rest of us, those are our most basic concerns! Do you have any idea how much five growing teen – agers can eat?”

But Jesus wasn’t concerned about soothing people’s feelings. For now Jesus was deliberately making his sales pitch for the Kingdom of God. “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” To those in the audience, Jesus was saying, “Relax Jacob and Nathan and David. Relax Miriam, and Ruth, and Esther. I am not insulting you. You believe in the one true living God, and you do well. Now I am inviting you to come up higher in your belief and to recognize God as your heavenly Father, a Father who cares for all of His children’s needs. What you need now is to trust God and to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. Stop worrying about tomorrow and fully live today!”

PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you ARE a good Father and that you DO care for your children! Help us to fully trust you and to accept your watch care for our lives. Help us to realize that all of our times are in Your Hands. And help us to truly seek Your Kingdom and Your Righteousness! In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 6: 27 “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ( or a single cubit to your height?)

I am SHORT! Really, I prefer the desgnation of being “vertically challenged,” but let’s face it! Given the choice to take after the really short people in my family, including a great grandmother who was 4 ft 10inches tall, or the really tall people, like my 6 ft. 7 inch great grandfather, somehow I went for the short genes! This means that for years I have had to stand on stools in the OR (Theatre) when an operating table wouldn’t adjust well so that tall assistants wouldn’t suffer too much. I comfort myself with the thought that at least I fit into small spaces in crowded vehicles and airplanes. (Try the KLM cheap seats right next to the bulkhead and you’ll see what I mean!) So, if I could do it, I would probably try for a few more inches. But I can’t! And none of us can.

There are so many things in our lives over which we have absolutely no control. We can hold our breath for a few seconds, but pretty soon we will have to breathe or we will pass out and start breathing automatically. Even people who have gained control over their heart rates and blood pressures still have limited control at best.

When Jesus was saying these words, he must have been chuckling as he did so. And those of his hearers with a good sense of humor must have been chuckling along with him. Everybody knew that there were so many uncertainties of life; it was a time when those who lived to their forties or fifties were considered ancient because so many people died at a young age. So Jesus was making a point with which everyone could agree. But there was more; with Jesus, there is always more.

Jesus didn’t want people to just become depressed at how little control they had over their lives. Jesus wanted people to realize that they had a loving heavenly Father who cared about them. Jesus passionately desired people to seek and find their heavenly Father so that they could trust Him and delight in His love.

What’s eating you today? What fears kept you awake last night? Can you really do anything about any of that stuff? Why not leave those problems with your heavenly Father, whose Love is so deep that you can’t understand it and whose Peace is so complete that it drives away all fears and doubts?

PRAYER: Father God, we thank you that we really are helpless! Honestly, we have no control over the biggest things in our lives. We lay all of our fears and doubts at Your feet. Help us to rest in Your Love and to receive Your Peace in our hearts. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 6: 25 – 26 “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or your body, about what you will wear.Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?“

WORRY!!! We all do it! In fact, some of us are such professional worry warts that we can’t understand why everybody else isn’t as worried as we are! Obviously, if these people just understood their situations better, they would really worry! We worry about money, we worry about our families, we worry about our jobs, we worry about our possessions. We worry about all the mistakes we have already made and then we worry because we are afraid we will make the same mistakes or worse ones tomorrow!

Here in Ghana we have a major problem with drivers of vehicles of all kinds. When any vehicle has a rear view mirror on it, be it a motorcycle, a car, a pickup, or a large lorry, it is more than likely that the driver will NOT aim the mirror so that he/she can see what lies behind but instead will aim the mirrror so that he/she can admire himself/herself! No wonder we have so many road traffic accidents!

You might chuckle at the idea of a driver not using a rear view mirror properly, but most of us are just as foolish. We just keep focusing on ourselves and our problems, no matter what else there is to consider. Jesus knew this; after all, human nature doesn’t change. Now Jesus was NOT advising his hearers to stop working or stop caring for their families. But Jesus did want his hearers to look at things from an eternal point of view and to realize how little control they actually had over their situations. First, foremost, and always, Jesus was trying to point people to their heavenly Father, Who had given them life. Jesus wanted his hearers to look to God first and to give God their problems, trusting that He had a perfect solution. Only after they had given God their problems, were they to go to work, care for their families, and carry out their other daily activities.

What does worry actually accomplish? Well, when you worry, all your blood vessels tighten up, particularly the blood vessels to your heart, your brain, and your kidneys. Your stomach produces excess acid. You feel exhausted, even when you are only part – way through your day. And you lose hope as you realize how little control you actually have over your situation. So worry does lots of damage to your body without solving a single problem.

Today, why don’t you talk to your heavenly Father and tell Him all the things that bother you. He can solve your problems far better than you can; after all, He’s been doing it for thousands of years.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you love us and care for us far more than we can ever care for ourselves! Today we lift up our problems to you. (Give time here to list your problems, even if you feel silly doing so.) Please take full control of these problems and help me to remember that I have given them over to you so that I don’t try to take them back. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

MATTHEW 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”James 1:8 “Such a person is double – minded and unstable in all they do.”

Back when there were still circuses, there was a bareback act that was thrilling and frightening at the same time. A lovely young lady in a ballerina costume would come out standing up on one horse. Soon a second horse would gallop into the ring and the young lady would rush around the ring at top speed with one foot on the back of each of the two horses. Of course, the horses had to stay as close together at possible while also galloping rapidly. And sometimes the young lady would even do acrobatics, landing squarely with one foot on each horse’s back.

While this kind of balancing act might thrill a circus crowd, it’s daunting to do it in real life….and yet, many of us are attempting something far more frightening! We are trying to serve both God and money at the same time, and there’s NO WAY we can do so! Jesus already told his followers in Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Jesus made it clear: there’s no room for compromise! You can only be devoted to one master. You must make a choice. And in the song by Bizzle, it’s clear that you can’t eat money. It is a spiritual law that you come to resemble what you worship. If you worship the one true living God in all His majesty and splendor, and purity and authority and love, you will come to resemble Him. If you worship money and the things money can buy, your soul will continue to shrink and shrink until there will be practically nothing left.

Money is a tool, an means to an end. But if we are truly worshiping God, everything we have must come under His authority, including our money…especially and particularly our money! In Joshua 24:15 Joshua confronted the Children of Israel and asked them point – blank whom they planned to serve. And then Joshua boldly and firmly stated, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Each of us has a choice to make each moment. Whom are you going to serve?

PRAYER: Father God, forgive us! So many times we say we are serving you, but we don’t really mean it. Help us to truly serve you and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 6:²²  “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

When I was a kid, we always looked forward to visits from my mother’s Aunt Dale. Aunt Dale was an encourager! When you were around Aunt Dale, you just felt better about yourself and your situation. Aunt Dale spent her life teaching grade school to fortunate little kids, and she knew exactly how to bring out the best in everyone. Our only complaint with Aunt Dale was that her visits were always too short. She was so afraid of being a bother that we had to drop everything and quickly concentrate on her visit, or she would leave. Dad would even come in from field work to visit with Aunt Dale, and for an Illinois farmer, that was an enormous compliment!

Some people are delightful! Whenever you are around them, you feel like smiling. Your whole day brightens when you are with these people; their goodness shines from their eyes because they are full of love and grace and mercy. Jesus was advising his listeners that if God filled their hearts with His love, this was how they would appear to others.

 A lady recently being baptized was asked by a co-worker what it was like to be a Christian. She replied, “It’s like being a pumpkin: 
God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off you may have gotten from the other pumpkins.
Then he cuts the top off and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.
Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.”
(Borrowed from http://www.dltk-bible.com/how_a_christian_is_like_a_pumpki.htm)

What is inside you is going to come out. One Christian comedian was fond of saying that he always hated it when someone would say, “I want to tell you this in love.” Invariably, the next thing out of their mouths would NOT be loving. He said, “If what you are about to say is loving, I will know it. If what you say is NOT loving, I will know that also!” God wants us to become so close to Him that when we talk or even look at people, they will see love and grace and mercy and not judgement.

PRAYER: God, forgive us for the times when people have seen hatred or judgement coming from our eyes! So fill us with your Holy Spirit that people will see you and not us when we look at them. We thank you and bless your Name, now and forever. Amen.

And my favorite Aunt Dale story: Aunt Dale was a lady who never left the house without being properly dressed. She lived to be 102. One night the nurse at her assisted living home came in to find Aunt Dale sitting on her couch fully dressed and properly groomed as if she were about to go to church. When asked why Aunt Dale had dressed up at 7:30 in the evening, she replied, “Well, they’re coming for me tonight and I must be ready.” The nurse was perplexed but encouraged Aunt Dale to remove her shoes and lie down on the sofa for a small nap until “they” should come. At 9:30 when the nurse looked in on Aunt Dale, Aunt Dale was dead. Indeed, the angels had come for Aunt Dale, and she had gone home to be with Jesus. Lord, please let me be like Aunt Dale! Please let me be ready to come with you when you call!

Matthew 6: 19 – 21 “Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treaures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break thorugh and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

We were horrified this morning to see photos on Facebook of a friend’s home in India. Last night while our friends were out, thieves broke in and ransacked the house, smashing locks and doors and tearing open everything they could, stealing anything they thought they could sell for money. Are our friends rich? Far from it! Our friends run orphanages, job training centers, and Bible schools in India and live very simply. They are supported totally by donations and have a very plain life style. It is likely that the thieves may have attacked the house because our friends are Christians. It is also possible that when someone from the U.S. visited our friends recently, the thieves were watching and thought that the visitors must have gifted our friends with large amounts of money. This morning our friends reacted by praising God that they were not at home when the robbers hit, stating that the things can be replaced but their lives are irreplaceable. A few years ago, friends in Accra were followed home by armed robbers, who then proceeded to take everything they could. Another friend’s family was attacked two weeks after he returned from a trip to the U.S. But when the robbers threatened to rape our friend’s daughter, she called on the Name of Jesus. The robbers became terrified and scooped up everything they could and left in a hurry.

In Jesus’ day, rich people had store houses and strong boxes and worried a great deal about being robbed. Nothing has changed. One Asian billionaire who claimed to be a Christian was interviewed and stated that he intended to do a great deal for the Kingdom of God….just as soon as he had a little more wealth! That man will never do anything because he will never be satisfied.

 A few years ago, investors in the U.S. trusted their life savings to Bernie Madoff, an investment adviser who was advertising incredible profits. Unfortunately, the profits were truly incredible! Mr. Madoff was literally robbing Peter to pay Paul in a massive Ponzi scheme. When the whole thing collapsed, investors lost a total of between 18 – 65 BILLION DOLLARS! Many workers approaching retirement whose retirement funds were tied up in the Madoff fiasco found themselves scrambling for jobs with which to support themselves.

Years ago, one writer wrote a book entitled “Money Talks; It Says ‘Good – bye!” No truer words were ever spoken. And Jesus would agree! Jesus is saying that earthly treasures will disappear, but heavenly treaures will be there forever. How do we store up treasure in heaven? The law of the Kingdom of God is that the meaure you give out is the measure you will receive. If you help people, if you encourage people, if you demonstrate love in practical ways, you are storing up treasures in heaven. In Jesus’ day the Jews understood “treasures in heaven” to consist of deeds of mercy and deeds of kindness to people in distress.

Geroge Mueller, 1805 – 1898, was a German – born minister who ministered in Bristol, England. Relying totally on unsolicited donations, Mueller cared for 10,024 orphans duriong his lifetime, and provided educational opportunities for those orphans. He established 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000. Mueller himself lived quite simply and anonymously contributed to the work, generally attributing his donations to “a brother who wishes to store up treasures in heaven.” 

Today, the question Jesus is asking is this: Where is your treasure? Are you so consumed with accumulating things or enjoying nice vacations or eating in fancy restaurants, that you have lost sight of heavenly goals? Answer carefully, for your decision will be an eternal one.

PRAYER: Father God, forgive us for being so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good! Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that we might perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.