Marketplace Monastics

So He told them this parable, saying,  “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?   When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’  I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:3-7, NASB)

As long as we are together in this battle, I will do my best to remind you – and myself – that we are battling! It is easy to forget. That is one of the things that even a little bit of fasting does to help us. The morsels of food one will not eat between meals, the recreational shopping in which we do not indulge, the commonplace entertainments or the commonplace grumblings which we fast, all serve to remind us that we are engaged in something beyond ourselves and our day-to-day comforts.

We need another reminder, and it is just as important.

We need to remember continually, we are out in search of lost sheep, we have found them, and now we are bringing them home on our shoulders … rejoicing!

Sheep are not as real and pertinent to me as they probably were to the men of Israel in Jesus’ day, so I thought about … horses! No, I couldn’t bring one home on my shoulders, not hardly, but if I had a stable full of beautiful racing steeds or a pasture where prize palominos or Morgans or … Clydesdales! … could be turned out to graze, and if one were lost … oh yes, there would be a full-on search!

And when I found the one that got away, oh how greatly I would rejoice! With rope or bridle in hand, I would bring him out and bring him home, and my heart would be pounding with joy.

Sheep do make such a better illustration for us, because those for whom we pray … we can and we do shoulder this burden, and gladly, but the value of a prize gelding, a favorite, the one we might take out for a run every day, oh! how we would rejoice to have it back again!

Now, just to bring everything home, how about the dog, the puppy that got away and could not at first be found … or the child that ran off at the market or the park? Who among us has not known the joy of something precious, found?

The shepherd rejoiced all the way home, and then called his friends to rejoice with him. Rejoice now, my dear friends, warriors, and with all respect, warrior maidens! Rejoice now! You have shouldered the burden, and they are coming home.

Palmomino Quarter Horse

by Rumo, Wikipedia, by permission

SaveSave

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
    reap steadfast love;
    break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.   (Hosea 10:12)

These words are for us. We are sowing righteous prayers, and it is by righteousness that we pray them.

Remember: Abraham believed God, and it was accorded to him as righteousness!

We are before the Lord in faith, looking to the well-being of others, beginning to experience more deeply, more certainly, His compassion for them, forsaking our own soft empathies for the sake of persevering, effectual prayer.

And toward this end, that they will be able to do as we are doing, sowing seeds of righteousness, knowing the Lord as He is, calling upon Him in faith, and reaping a bounty of good reward.

Rain in the Field, Southern Estonia

Aleksander Kaasik

Wikipedia, by permission

For thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.   (Isaiah 49:25, ESV)

When my father served in the Army during the Korean War, he achieved the rank of First Sergeant at the age of 19. Granted, it was wartime, but I asked him about that once, and he said that all he did differently was to spend the evening polishing his boots, reading his manuals, and cleaning his weapons, while the other guys did … other things.

We’re in the Army now.

Use this verse, and all that are coming our way, to sharpen your sword to a razor-like edge, one that will cut both ways … enemies defeated, loved ones set free.

If your children are all doing perfectly well, start keeping an account of others who may need your battle-ready strength and courage.

My list is growing, daily.

U.S. Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit maritime raid force await instruction before firing their rifles aboard USS New Orleans (LPD 18), March 26, 2012, while under way in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The unit is deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, a U.S. Central Command theater reserve force, to provide support for maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (DoD photo by Cpl. Chad Pulliam, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)

Public domain, U.S. DOD current photos

As we saw yesterday, the disciples went out at the Word of the Lord, at His command, before they really knew who He was. Is. We go out in the fullness of His atoning death, His glorious resurrection, and the anticipation of His soon coming, to gather His own to Himself, to be with Him forever.

Today we go out in the further notice that “some have been taken captive,” and that “some have been unable to enter because of unbelief.”

We know that there were whole cities where Jesus Himself performed very few miracles, also “because of their unbelief,” and that those that have hardened their hearts because of the deceitfulness of sin” are in grave danger.

The soon coming of the Lord, whenever it may be, will not be soon enough for those who cannot lift up their heads today, those suffering an agony of tribulation, debauchery, or bondage that they neither understand nor have faith to abandon, and it will be too soon for them if they do not break free with grace enough to put their faith in the Lord who loves them. They do not always foam at the mouth or run screaming, naked, among the tombs.  Sometimes they recline in easy chairs and dwell in the shadows of disappointment and hopelessness.

Today is the day of salvation (Hebrews 3:7-19) for them, and ours are the weapons of warfare, all-powerful to finish the work He left to us …

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

We are going to look at the “strong man” and his influence and how he has been left undisturbed for too long among too many. (Luke 1:21)

As we begin today, we are determining that the Giant Undisturbed does not rule us anymore, forever. Amen.

            Today’s response: Choose any part of what you have read today, say it as a warrior or pray it as the servant of the Lord, and mean it with all your heart.

Scripture references:

2 Timothy 2:26

Hebrews 3:19

Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:5

Disappointed, by Julius LeBlanc Stewart, 1882

by permission, Wikipedia, public domain

DISAPPOINTMENT binds people fast.  Deliver us and our loved ones from every oppression of disappointment, Lord.

Three in One! Tied up for us in about twenty-three verses, Luke has given us help to make our quest and conquest viable and enduring. There are battles to be won, and some of them may require tremendous perseverance and hope.

As the chapter opens, the seventy are being sent out and when they return, they are rejoicing that

“even demons are subject to us in your name!”

I think it is interesting that they were sent out long before they began to get a grip of Jesus as Messiah … which they never did fully comprehend until after His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  We have His Spirit and faith in Him as Savior.  Let us make capitol use of both!

Then comes a lawyer on the scene who is privileged to recite the summation of all the law and prophets … what an honor was bestowed upon him!

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind … and your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus told him he had answered well, and with that momentous revelation came the story of the Good Samaritan, a parable to illustrate the depth of loving and serving for Jesus’ sake.

And then, before the chapter ends, we have Martha and Mary, sometimes used to signify the grace/works dilemma, but more truly, just as Jesus said, the glory of the “better part” in all things . . .

“Mary has chosen the better part (at Jesus’ feet,) and it will not be taken from her.”

Had Jesus asked Mary to bring Him a drink of water or to go out to fetch something or to help Martha, would she not have done it? Mary’s obedience and service, as ours ought, would have come from His leading. This is the point for us. His Word and His Spirit do lead, with results.

Demons cast out. People set free. People healed.

Life! in the very compassion of Christ toward others. Effective compassion.

Stillness and worship, friendship and joy, grace to obey, all at the feet of Jesus Christ.

            These are not mutually exclusive! It isn’t, “Which to choose?” but “How to proceed?”  Above all, dear friends, in your forty days of fasting and prayer, move forward with a listening ear, taking time to hear, to worship, to cry out, and to be comforted.

Here’s what I think. I think the one supports the other. The more time we spend in the Presence of the Lord, the more we are prepared in faith and love to see others saved, healed, and delivered, and the more His compassions become ours.

The more we see the need, the more we desire the very power of God and the anointing that breaks the yoke. The more the Lord accomplishes through our prayers, the more we extol Him and draw near to Him in admiring, grateful love.

Tomorrow, dear friends. We don’t have to be perfect today, we don’t have to know how to do this, we only need to believe that it needs to be done and that, if our compassions are kindled toward those in desperate need, we’ve now begun to catch fire in the fullness of the mercies of God.

One step at a time … but first, into His Presence.

Christ in the Home of Martha and Mary

Johannes (Jan) Vermeer, circa 1654-54

public domain