Day 5: Matthew 11-12

Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

I find great comfort from this passage. This is a calming passage if you let it calm your weary soul. He has fought the fight for your soul and He alone has won the victory over death. Then why do I still at times feel as if the yoke of Christ is not easy and the burden is heavy? I know that I can't make God love me more. How could He love me more? The Father sent the Son to die for me while I was a sinful enemy of God. How much more now that I am a child of His!? His yoke IS easy and His burden IS light. It is when I once again pick up the yoke of self-righteousness I feel the heavy load of my past sins. God has cast them into the abyss. The penalty of my sins has been removed from me as far as the east is from the west. My sin is removed and in its place is the righteousness of Christ.

Now I am to produce good fruit. Not to earn a place at the table of the Father, but to take my place in my Father's fields.

Praise be to God who is Mighty to Save!!

Day 4: Matthew 9-10

As I read over these two chapters with you my dear brothers and sisters I am amazed as Matthew speaks of the wonder of following our Savior. There are so many precious moments in these two chapters we could reflect on. I love what He says in chapter 10 about our calling. That if we confess Him before men He confesses us before the Father. I am challenged by His statement that He did not come to bring peace but a sword. I want to focus in on Matthew 9:35-38 for a few moments however. In Chapter 9 we have just been to the Decapolis region with Jesus in chapter 8 and observed the deliverance of the demon possessed in the tombs, a dramatic moment. Now upon His return Jesus heals a paralytic, raises a rulers daughter from the dead, a woman with an issue of blood for 12 years has been healed, two blind men receive their sight, and a man mute and demon possessed is delivered. That's pretty dramatic. Now in verse 35 Jesus goes about preaching and healing every disease and sickness in the cities.

In verse 36 Jesus sees the multitudes. Jesus looks out at humanity and scripture says He is moved with compassion. Jesus sees our situation. He is touched by our need and hurt. He is aware of our every thing. What a Savior. So what does He see? The next verses outline for us what He sees.

Jesus view of reality: The multitudes are weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus sees great need in our world. Jesus sees that life is making people weary. If we could look around us today we would see that multitudes are weary with the struggle of managing work and life and relationships. How do I balance family, work, responsibilities, and my own wishes for life. At the same time we are mooring less we have no authoritative direction apart from our God.

Jesus view of opportunities: According to Jesus the harvest is plentiful. Jesus looks at my world and He sees tremendous opportunities at every turn. I look and see a people that are closed to the gospel and don't want to hear what I have to say, but Jesus sees a field white and ready to harvest. I need to see people with the eyes of Jesus and realize that today I am going to be surrounded by opportunities and people that are ready.

Jesus view of our service: Jesus said the laborers are few. Jesus sees many people ready to do and follow on their own terms, but does He find in my heart a willingness to do whatever He desires and an ability to join Him in His great work? May I see my world through the eyes of Jesus today and may He see in my heart a willingness to serve that He can trust. If so He will lead me in fruit bearing today. LETS GO!

Day 3: Matthew 7-8

I pray these blogs that have been posted and those that are to be posted will be fruitful and really bless my brothers and sisters. It is a joy to serve in this manner to you. God is good.



These chapters are here seperated as in the NIV



7:1-6 Judging Others

It is good that we judge soberly to be as iron to iron and sharpen one another in the body of Christ that we be more like He is. In the same type of judgment when it is seen beneficial to encourage it is this same type of judgment that is beneficial to rebuke. Many love to use this verse in their defense when it comes to sin they love. I like what Paul Washer said concerning these "Twist not scripture lest ye be like Satan." -1 Cor. 5:12 -

Just as it is absurd for me (or probably any of us) to sit down with the Royals and try to give them advice about being a professional baseball player when I myself am no professional, it is the same when I see someone who has sin that I am not in victory over and begin to try to minister to their need as a blind man leading another blind man. Also, Oily rags aren't very good for cleaning a bug covered windshield.



7:7-12 Ask, Seek, Knock

God wants to give His children good gifts. James wrote of the reasons one may not receive. - James 4:2-3 - Whatever is received in the Lord it is to further glorify Him and not to lead us away from Him. Praise Him for those things He does give, and offer them up to Him as Abraham offered to God what was given him. - Gen. 22 - All that is, is the Lord's.



7:13 The Narrow and Wide Gates

We reap what we sow, for the believer in Christ if we are to enter into life as God desires we must continue in our repentance and turning away from sin. Only then can we have life as He desires us to have. As we further our life in Him we should be more and more 'narrow minded' and discover the fulfillment that is in Christ.



7:15-23 A Tree and Its Fruit

For seeing fruit in others' lives it takes patience. One thing is that we ought not to expect a recent convert to be a well established tree. We need to look through the eyes of the Spirit to see whether someone's 'fruit' is real or fake. Some bad fruit is easier to see than others but in general, if it exalts Christ and the truth of the gospel, it is good fruit.



7:24-29 The Wise and Foolish Builders

Jesus ends the sermon on the mount with a statement to do and not to just hear.

- James 1:22-25 -



8:1-17 The Man with Leprosy, The Faith of the Centurion, Jesus Heals Many

We are healed by His touch - v. 3,15

We are healed by His word - v. 3,13,16



8:18-22 The Cost of Following Jesus

The man here is not asking to attend a funeral, but to wait until his father dies and afterward he will follow Jesus. In many ways it still happens today, after I get a good job, after I get married, when I'm done with school . . . . . But this buildup of self sufficiency leaves no room for submission to the authority of Christ as Lord over one's life.



8:23-27 Jesus Calms the Storm

When our faith is weak God will often meet us where we are to reaffirm that He is in control thus strengthening us in Him.



8:28-34 The Healing of Two Demon-possessed Men

Demons are under the authority of Jesus. Demons counterfeit that which God does, instead of truth they give lies, instead of offering life they bring death, as the Spirit of God comes into man, demons copy this by possession.

Day 2: Matthew 5-6

Ah yes! The Sermon on the Mount! Considered the greatest sermon ever preached, by Christians and by secular teachers, philosophers, and historians. But what does it teach us? Many will take this teaching and make it one of the greatest works passages in all of scripture. A way to earn your right in heaven. Or as a way to please God in some way and He'll stamp on you His approval.

I think the key to understanding the Sermon on the Mount and where grace fits in is found in these two verses:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:3

" For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:20

First, what does it mean to be "poor in spirit"? Here are some scriptures to help us get a better understanding of what Jesus is saying.

Isaiah 57:12 "I will declare your righteousness and your works, For they will NOT profit you. "

Isaiah 64:6-7 "But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities."

Romans 3:10-11 "As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.'"


The great C.H. Spurgeon has said,

"The fact which he has ascertained is an old truth, for the man always was spiritually poor. From his birth he was a pauper, and at his best estate he is only a mendicant. "Naked, and poor, and miserable" is a fair summary of man's condition by nature. He lies covered with sores at the gate of mercy, having nothing of his own but sin, unable to dig and unwilling to beg, and therefore perishing in a penury of the direst kind.
This truth is also universal, for all men are by nature thus poor. In a clan or family, there will usually be at least one person of substance, and in the poorest nation there will be some few possessors of wealth; but, alas for our humanity! its whole store of excellence is spent, and its riches are utterly gone. Among us all, there remains no remnant of good; the oil is spent from the curse, the meal is exhausted from the barrel, and a famine is upon us, direr than that which desolated Samaria of old. We owe ten thousand talents, and have nothing wherewith to pay; even so much as a single penny of goodness we cannot find in all the treasuries of the nations."

Mankind is spiritually bankrupt, dead, depraved and perishing. We have nothing to offer. The very best we have, according to Isaiah, is nothing but filthy rags after a woman's monthly cycle. Sorry for the visual, but it's an awesome picuture of who we are compared to God's holiness.

Now we have a problem. Jesus said that there is no way we can enter the kingdom of heaven unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees. I can't imagine what went the minds of those hearing this from Jesus. To many, the Pharisees were the prime example of righteousness. But here comes Jesus telling us we need to 1 up them - or more! Is there hope?

We naturally have to answer the question, "If my own righteousness is NOTHING how in the world am I to have a righteousness good enough to see the kingdom of heaven?"

Good question. Let's look at some more scripture:

Romans 3:22-26 "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

1Cor 1:30: "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption"

2Cor 5:21: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."


The answer to the question is Jesus. The righteousness we need to possess to see the kingdom of heaven is found in Jesus and in Him only - by faith. The rigtheousness God demands cannot be performed, worked for or even sought after. It is impossible! The righteousness we need was perfected by Jesus and only received by faith in Him.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:9, "and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith"

I think once we grasp these truths we begin to see that the Sermon on the Mount can only be lived by Christ in us. Philippians 1:11 says "being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory of and praise of God."

It is impossible to do so apart from Jesus!

Day 1: Matthew 1-4

While there are several things in the first four chapters of Matthew's gospel that have challenged me over the years, this morning I was particularly struck by Matthew 4:4. This verse is one of Jesus' responses to the tempter, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Simply put, there's nothing else that satisfies my soul like the Word of God. That's why I'm so encouraged to be embarking on this blogging journey with all of you. While I have had great success in sprinting through God's Word, I often finding myself struggling with the marathon. There is this continuing irony that I wrestle with in that I love digging into God's Word, but far too often I allow other things to squeeze that time out of my life. So instead of having time to dig, I simply grab some crumbs off the surface.

This morning the challenge for myself is to see this thing through, 90 days of consistency. Bread is food for the natural man, but the Word of God is food for the spiritual man. When I neglect spending time with the Lord in His Word, I end up embodying the very thing Paul said of some first century believers in 1 Corinthians 3:3, "Are you not acting like mere men?" I don't want to live like mere men do. I don't want to lead, to serve, to parent, or even play softball like mere men do. And the only way for that to happen is to daily surrender to the Lord, spending time with Him, and allowing His truth to renew my mind and form my character in His image.

What has God spoken to your heart through His Word today?

Introduction

Welcome to the BSU's New Testament in 90 days blog! The reason we're doing this is very simple: during the summer most of us have changed routines and may not have the same people around us to encourage and challenge us in our walk with the Lord. Therefore, we thought it would be great to commit together to reading through the New Testament this summer!

Each day one of our seven contributing writers* will share some of their thoughts on the passage for the day. Afterward, everyone is encouraged to add their own comments - either concerning the original post, their own experience with the day's reading, or even interaction with another commenter.

* Our seven writers are myself and Tyler Walker from the BSU, pastors Paul McKim and Tate Walker from Laura Street, pastors Jim Pearce and Wes Mayfield from First Baptist Maryville and pastor Brent Baxley from Grant City Baptist.

Given the nature of squeezing the entire New Testament into 90 days, there will be several chapters to cover each day. It would be beyond the scope of a blog to try and comment on everything said in that many verses, so we encourage you to just focus in on one or two things God has spoken to you as you've encountered Him in His word.

Congratulations on joining us on this journey, I'm excited to have a plan and have others along with me! I pray it will be a blessing to each one of us and that God will use this blog to change our lives and conform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

Reading Plan