Reb Rev's Blog

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” – Luke 7:41-43

What does it take to be overdrawn on your account?

If I have $10 in my account and write a check for $11, will it clear? Nope, I’m a dollar short. What if I have $999,999 and write a check for a million? I’m a lot richer, but I’m in the same boat as the other situation. Same as if I had $10 and wrote that $1,000,000 check.

You see in all three scenarios, whether I had a lot or little – whether I was a little short or way short – in all three cases, I didn’t have enough.

When we think about Jesus’ teaching in the verse above, we find the same lesson. Some people behave better than others. Some folks are nicer than I am. Some are worse; however, on our own, none of us are good enough.

None of us, by ourselves, are good enough to reach the standard set by Christ. We need His forgiveness, we need His goodness, and His righteousness.

My prayer is you have experienced that forgiveness and righteousness. If not, please don’t trust your own goodness, because we all come up short.

“And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” – Mark 14:34

I’d like for us to pick back up where we were last week. We looked at how some of our painful experiences can be used to help others.

Recently, a friend lost her young son to cancer. She has shared about the unimaginable hurt and some of the things people said which added to that pain.

I was reminded of Job’s friends. They showed up when they heard of his sufferings. And for days, they just sat with him. They hurt with him. But, then they started trying to give him advice. It was ALL bad advice.

It was based on their interpretation of conventional “wisdom” and none of it applied to Job’s situation.

Even if it were true, not everything needs to be said, especially to someone who is in an emotional pit.

This quote helps illustrate.  “Another came and sat beside me. He did not talk. He did not ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left. I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go.”

In the verse above, Jesus asks Peter, James, and John to just be there with Him, to be there for Him.

My prayer this week is for each of us would demonstrate the love and presence of God in such a way others will hate to see us go.