(Pondering this text, the following was my journal response to God in prayer)
March 2025
Father, your invitation couldn’t be any clearer. You call us to find in you what our souls most deeply long for and need. And we need not say, “I can’t afford what you offer,” because you give it freely.
You ask an important question: “Why spend your money on junk food when I supply the finest fare at no cost?” The only possible answer is that we’ve been deceived.
You remind us of your faithfulness to David—a faithfulness rooted in your covenant, well known and accepted. And now, you offer covenant faithfulness to us. This isn’t the one-time meal you’re serving; your dining invitation is ongoing.
You say: “Don’t be shy. Yes, you’ve failed in your faithfulness to me. You’ve even allowed evil and wickedness to take root in you. I’m certainly not pleased, but I am forgiving. Turn from your hardened heart. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from you. Come to me.
Come and discover what may seem strange at first—but is true. You’ve seen how easily you can be deceived, how the world has shaped your thinking and led you to believe that evil is good. But let me show you my ways. Though your worldly-shaped values may cause you to feel resistance; by trusting me you will come to see that my ways lead to fruitfulness. Goodness is the outcome we all desire. How foolish it is to do evil and expect good!
You will see. With me as your God—leading you, supplying you, empowering you—you will bear fruit, full of life and overflowing with joy.
This joy-filled life will mark you, preparing you for that great day when I will make all things right.”
By Dave Sims
Luke 6:12-49
A large crowd gathered to see Jesus, drawn by reports of His remarkable abilities. On this occasion, He healed many among them and, as was His custom, taught them (vv. 17-20). Jesus’s teachings were set against the backdrop of His compassion for suffering, demonstrated through healing.
A common theme in all of Jesus’s teachings was the present availability of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15; Matthew 4:17; Luke 10:9). Jesus’s declaration stirred hope among the Jews because the ancient prophets had spoken of God’s rule, which would one day bring restoration, wholeness, justice, reconciliation, harmony, and peace. They also spoke of a Messiah who would usher in these realities (Isaiah 11:1-9). Jesus’s healings and teachings reminded His listeners of Israel’s great prophets and His words were captivating, though sometimes difficult to understand. Everything about Jesus aroused this hope (Matthew 4:23-25; 7:28-29).
This sermon consisted of the counterintuitive message: the blessedness of loss—poverty, hunger, and sadness, likely due to death or injustice (vv. 20-21). Jesus was not glorifying these painful conditions but showing that they can cultivate a posture of dependence and receptivity to God’s rule. Loss can cause us to recognize our need for God and motivate us to seek him. Jesus pronounced this posture as blessed, emphasizing that God’s presence can satiate hunger in ways that even the greatest riches cannot and that God’s rule offers a hope that, if Tolkien is right, will one day make all hurt become untrue.
The hope Jesus spoke of was not focused on improved circumstances but on an inner transformation now and a reformed society in the future—a better hope (Hebrews 7:19). These challenges we strive to avoid, Jesus was saying, can provide conditions for inner reformation.
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as if it were untouchable by thieves, tyrants, or loss. From our post- resurrection perspective, we understand that God’s Kingdom first takes residence within us (Colossians 1:27), making His abundance continually accessible (Galatians 2:20). The presence of the triune God within us can empower the poor to experience joy and love, and His presence can grant resilient endurance in the face of persecution and slander, resulting in a glorious reward in the coming Kingdom (Luke 6:22-23).
God’s Kingdom provides the abundance needed for a person to flourish internally—with joy, peace, andhope—leading to a transformed outlook, motivation, and lifestyle, regardless of circumstances. His rulewithin enables us to live and love as we were designed.
Next in His sermon (v.24ff), Jesus switched to talk about the woeful condition the rich are in—not due to their wealth, but because their riches insulate them from God’s Kingdom. Their wealth dulls their awareness of their need for God’s rule; their full bellies silence their hunger for God, and their good fortune shields them from longing for the world to come. This might have reminded some listeners of Ecclesiastes, where the author speaks of the vanity of having everything yet being unsatisfied.
In summary, Jesus wanted His listeners to recognize how their inverted value systems were truly upside down compared to the right-side-up values of God’s Kingdom—losses leading to God’s abundance, hunger to satisfaction, and inevitable losses that cannot diminish a person’s hope. Jesus further emphasized that while riches provide many things, they do not provide the ultimate things. The good things of creation bring comfort and pleasure, but only the Creator can fill the deeper void within. No one is immune to loss, and a life anchored in the avoidance of loss will eventually lose hope. The critical question not being, “Can I avoid loss?” but, “Am I equipped to deal with loss?”
In the remainder of the sermon, Jesus taught how God’s rule would shape His followers’ lives. He called them to love the unlovely—those who offend and even those who are enemies. He warned against assuming moral superiority that leads to unjust judgment and exhorted them to examine their own faults before criticizing others. He encouraged living generously and hospitably from God’s abundance. By embracing humility, generosity, and hospitality as a lifestyle, our lives can be rich with meaning, anchored in hope, motivated by love, empowered by joy, and filled with peace.
Jesus concluded his teaching by declaring that those who live according to His teachings are wise. Their lives will withstand the inevitable storms of life.
By: Dave Sims
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18 NIV
The letter we call 1 Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to address concerns within the church at Corinth. One of the primary issues he addressed in Chapter 1 was a petty disagreement over which Christian leader was the greatest, leading to disunity and unholiness. These disagreements likely started innocently enough, with one person claiming allegiance to Apollos, another to Peter, and still another to Paul. However, as the arguments continued, each claimant became more convinced of their stance, resulting in an irreconcilable division.
In response, Paul appealed to them (v.10) to protect their unity, implying that their supreme loyalty belonged to Jesus. By invoking Jesus’s name, Paul reminded them of Jesus's teachings and actions, characterized by humility and self-sacrifice.
Paul reminded them that they had stepped out of a culture where the biggest, brightest, most beautiful, most resourceful, and most privileged were most admired, while the least were consigned to pitiable misfortune or contempt. They had entered a new culture where greatness was measured in humility and sacrifice for the benefit of others. He used the phrase “the foolishness of the cross” (v.18) to describe this transition. Following Jesus included the shameful stigma associated with crucifixion, but Paul knew that this stigma was not merely a social misfortune. It was the means by which the church could experience transformation, resulting in the glory of God expressing itself from within them.
Paul reminded them that it was through this “foolish” preaching that they found freedom and hope in Christ. When Christ found them, none of them were influential or of nobility. Despite their low standing, Jesus humbled himself to the point of a shameful crucifixion to afford them the privilege of knowing him and being birthed into his royal family. The challenge then became whether they would be satisfied with the great privilege of being part of God’s nobility or seek Jesus merely for his benefits.
Paul described the “foolishness of the cross” as God’s wisdom. Of course, God possesses no foolishness, but Paul used this play on words to communicate that if the way he chose to save us is regarded as foolishness (a shameful crucifixion), then his foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of the world (v.25). Additionally, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the worldly wise (v.27), and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (v.28). Through the crucifixion, God demonstrated both wisdom and power by triumphing over the powers of darkness and setting us free. Paul said that God did this so that no one could claim the blessings of God were the result of their wisdom or power (v.29). In fact, he said that because of the incredible blessings we possess in Christ—righteousness, holiness, and redemption—the only thing any of us could boast in would be Jesus (v.30).
Embracing the foolishness of the cross has been my greatest life challenge but, ironically, the more I embrace it, the freer I find myself becoming. God has met me in my most challenging life experiences, exchanging beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of heaviness (Is. 61.3). I began to learn this backward way of viewing life after complaining to God about how he was not answering my prayers. He responded by showing me my heart and how I wanted God’s blessings more than I wanted him. This conviction enabled me to see my self-centeredness, leading to frequent repentance.
Since then, when life has been challenging and beyond my control, God seems to use these times to expose something else that’s out of my view. Once I see it and can repent of it, my freedom increases, along with my faith, hope, and love.
One caveat worth mentioning: when God speaks in personal and sin-exposing ways, his grace accompanies it. When God delivers bad news, I have found that it’s still good news because the transcendent one is interacting with us—the one my soul longs for most.
When What You’re Called Won’t Matter
By: Dave Sims
…the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter... John 4:22 MSG
These are Jesus’s words to the disreputable Samaritan woman he met at the well at Sychar. John tells us that the time was noon. Given her multiple failed marriages, this suggests the woman had come to get water at a time she could avoid the other women of the village, who customarily fetched their water in the morning hours. Jesus’s disciples had left him behind so that they might acquire food in the local village. Jesus struck up the conversation by asking the woman for a drink. She was surprised by Jesus’s request because he broke at least two social taboos. Men, and especially rabbis, did not speak to women, and Jews detested Samaritans. The verbal banter that ensued indicated the woman was not intimidated by Jesus’s maleness or his Jewish identity.
When she expressed curiosity about how he was going to draw water from the well, Jesus told her that he possessed living water, which when consumed would permanently quench one’s thirst. The woman asked for the water.
Jesus then changed the subject, or so it seemed. Seeing that the woman was intrigued, he asked her to go get her husband. Unaware that Jesus knew her story, she said she had no husband. Jesus then revealed his knowledge of her life, acknowledging that she had had five husbands and that the man she was currently with was not her husband.
Yikes! Busted! How did this man know her story? And, if he knew her story, why would he treat her as an equal?
Despite being exposed, the woman did not emotionally cave in. She maintained her composure and showcased her own conversational skills, attempting to “one-up” Jesus by changing the subject herself. She did this by speculating that Jesus must be a prophet, then adding a controversial theological question sure to divert the conversation away from her marital history: Where can we legitimately worship God?
Jesus responded very directly, saying that salvation is of the Jews and the Jerusalem temple is the place for worship. However, he included a caveat. He spoke of a time when those who worship God will not do so in a temple but in spirit and truth.
Then Jesus spoke these words, “…the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.”
She must have wondered: Where and when could there ever be a time when what you’re called does not matter? In what place or among what people would her past not define her? She didn’t know that acceptance from God is the work of God, that He must make us acceptable to Himself. She had not heard John’s previous story in which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about God’s Spirit brooding over us to birth us by His Spirit. However, she did hear Jesus’s claim about the living water. Could this somehow be connected to how worship will break free from a geographical locale?
Not fully comprehending Jesus’s words and not completely buying his viewpoint about salvation coming exclusively through the Jews, the woman expressed her hope in the long-awaited Messiah, saying that when he arrives, he would set the record straight.
Jesus calmly and gently responded, “I AM he.”
What? Are you kidding me? She couldn’t believe her ears. And yet, it made sense. How else would he know her story? But he doesn’t fit the profile. And yet, he’s better than what I expected.
They were interrupted at that point by his disciples returning with the food. Likely sensing their disfavor, the woman dismissed herself and returned to her village, full of enthusiasm, telling the other villagers that she believed she had encountered the Messiah.
John then records a short conversation between Jesus and his disciples and concludes the woman’s story with an epilogue. Her experience had provoked enough interest in the other villagers that they sought out Jesus for themselves and consequently committed themselves to him. In a demonstration of faithful love, Jesus stayed with them two days longer.
John’s inclusion of the interaction between Jesus and his disciples after they returned with the food seems to have been so Jesus could address the disciples’ racial prejudice.
He began the conversation by responding to their desire that he should eat. He said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about”, referring to his “doing the will of his Father” as this food. The Father’s will was the redemptive work that was taking place through Jesus’s every action and interaction. Included in his redeeming action was his intent to include the Samaritans in his kingdom. He described them as fruit, ripe and ready for harvest Their readiness was evident by their response to Jesus’s invitation to know him and follow him.
The disciples then watched as Jesus interacted with the Samaritan converts for those two days. They saw these people they despised being filled with delight and awe at Jesus’s teaching. Though outsiders their entire lives, this hated race of people had become insiders, holding onto the same hope the disciples were holding onto. They had been given the water that quenched their thirst.
When the villagers said their goodbyes to Jesus and the disciples, in spite of their many unanswered questions, their souls were pervaded with a sense of well-being and hopefulness. And even though they were still Samaritans, what they were called didn’t matter anymore.