Category Archives: Bible

Bible

It’s all a question of motives

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It’s all a question of motives

In Matthew 6:1-6, Jesus shows that it is possible to do the right thing even with the wrong motives.

The point is that we do not act and believe because of expectations or threats, but because we are fascinated by God’s love and mercy (cf. 1 John 4:18-19).

There is extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The question is: Do I want to do something, or do I HAVE to do something?

With an intrinsic desire, I am fascinated by something, I want to deepen something, have new experiences, create something. I do things without somebody needs to motivate me to do them. I also do them without being seen. For example: I talk to God because I want to spend time with him.

Jesus says: ‘Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.’

Therefore, we don’t act in order to be loved, but we act because we have experienced God’s love. That is why the right does not need to know what the left is doing (6:3). We don’t have to count up.

More of sermon on the mount

 

Bible, Jesus

Love of enemies – God’s trademark

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Jesus describes love for those who are hostile towards me as the hallmark of the heavenly Father (Matthew 5:43-48). We should allow ourselves to be motivated by this love of God.

Someone is an enemy to me, not because I have something against them, but because they are against me for some reason.

Treat all people equally and give even those who are hostile to you a chance to repent.

The heavenly Father, who lets the sun shine on all people and also gives everyone the rain, is a role model.

God wants to reconcile all people with Himself. That is why no hatred should emanate from people who live with God. We wish all people peace with God. And that is why we treat all people equally.

Loving our enemies means treating them with respect and not closing the door to reconciliation. David exemplified this very impressively in his relationship with Saul.

Bible

It’s worth investing in gratitude

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‘We harvested a 38 kg pumpkin. Do you have any idea how we could share the 30 kg we don’t need with others?’ someone asked us by email. We had already distributed 20 kg of grapes from a single vine. Autumn is the time for harvesting and giving thanks. We can enjoy and share what has been produced in the months before.

In giving thanks, we open our eyes to the wonders of everyday life. In giving thanks, we share the fascination of life with each other.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in July 1940 in reference to Psalm 50:23: ‘God shows the way to the thankful’. He had previously said: ‘Ingratitude begins with forgetfulness, forgetfulness leads to indifference, indifference leads to discontent, discontent leads to despair, despair leads to curse’. ‘Ingratitude stifles faith, blocks access to God’ (Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. III).

Zwingli from Toggenburg translated Psalm 50:23 as follows: ‘He who offers thanks honours me and chooses the way in which I let him see God’s help.’

Giving thanks is not always easy for us. But when we get involved, we discover more and more fascinating things. Giving thanks frees us to rediscover God’s help and presence.

In the parable of the merciful father in Luke 15, Jesus has painted a new picture for us of how God waits for us to come to him like the younger son. He encourages the ungrateful older son to become like him.

The more we consciously practise gratitude, the more we will realise it. What we nurture grows and we reap what we sow.

Professor Robert A. Emmons has been researching the topic of gratitude for 20 years. He summarises: People who regularly cultivate gratitude experience a range of measurable and lasting benefits of a psychological, physical, interpersonal and spiritual nature: health, a sense of wholeness and well-being and greater satisfaction in relationships. This confirms that it is worth investing in gratitude.

Hanspeter Obrist, Sunday Thought, Toggenburger Tagblatt, 5 October 2024

Bible

A yes is a yes

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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows how he deals with the law. Now Jesus continues and shows with the swearing that our words are a sticking point.

Matthew 5:37: Let your word Yes be Yes, and No be No!

Jesus opposes coded speech.

How can you trust and believe someone if the truth does not always come out of the same mouth?

A wise man knows what he says, an another says what he knows.

Silence in the right place and speaking at the right time is real gold.

The ‘yes is a yes’ is a cornerstone that reminds us to treat each other with love and not let others go nowhere.

Bible

Jesus grants healing

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Peter is allowed to say to Aeneas: ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.’ It says nothing about Aeneas asking him to do this. It is also not Peter who heals and not Peter who asks Jesus, but Jesus who grants healing through Peter. So it is not Peter who takes centre stage, but Jesus who heals. Jesus gives the impulse. That is why it is important to know from God what has to happen.

People are turning to Jesus – not just in Lydda, but in the entire Sharon Plain. This is the coastal strip north of the river Jarkon (Tel Aviv) as far as Haifa. The man with the Roman name must therefore have been very well known. In Roman mythology, Aeneas (Aineias) is the progenitor of the Romans. The Jewish family must have been very cosmopolitan.

How long must Aeneas have prayed before God answered his prayer? It is clear that he was paralysed for eight years and that his healing served the glory of God and Jesus.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

A saint according to the Bible

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Peter visits the saints in Lydda (today Lod). The city lies on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. It has been an important transport hub since ancient times.

In Acts 9:32, the believers in Jesus are referred to as saints for the second time.

Hananias had previously referred to the believers in Jerusalem as such in the same chapter (Acts 9:13).

Whoever invites Jesus into their life, the Father and the Son come to them through the Holy Spirit (John 14:23). The person is thereby sanctified and, according to biblical usage, is a saint.

In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul writes: ‘To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.’

According to Paul, anyone who prays to Jesus is a saint. Holy means destined for God or belonging to him.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

From persecutor to persecuted

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Saul was let over the city wall of Damascus in a basket. This allowed him to escape (Acts 9:25).

Verse 23 says ‘after many days’ they decided to kill Saul. Galatians 1:17 says that Saul was in Arabia and returned to Damascus.

Paul probably spent some time in Petra. For in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33, Paul writes that King Aretas had the city gates in Damascus guarded. King Aretas IV ruled over Nabataea from 9 BC to 40 AD.

It is most likely that Paul had spread the gospel in Arabia-Petrea, outside the Jewish-Roman power. The king wanted to arrest him, but Saul went back to Damascus, where he was known and recognised.

Jesus’ message causes offence. Saul now faces this himself.

He was not trusted in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). Barnabas, the ‘son of consolation’, stands up for Saul. In Damascus, Saul argued with the Jews on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. He behaved differently with the Greek Jews in Jerusalem. They were used to philosophical thinking. Everything had to sound ‘logical’ to them. So it is said that Saul ‘argued’ with the Greek Jews. Philosophy has open back doors in the way of thinking and speaking and philosophising leads to no end.

But Greek and Hebrew Jews agree on one thing: this man could become a global danger. He must die. Saul has to flee again. He goes to Tarsus, his home town.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

Jesus acts through us

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Turning to Jesus is not the happy ending of a story, but the start of a new life as a learner of Jesus.

Saul is immediately ready to do what Jesus tells him. Hananias, on the other hand, someone who already knows Jesus as Lord, initially has a big ‘but’ (Acts 9:13).

Firstly, Saul needs the ministry to himself. The unknown Hananias allows to be sent and goes in the name of Jesus to the man everyone is afraid of.

Then Saul begins to witness that Jesus was not a failed prophet, but the Son of God (Acts 9:20 / a title for the Jewish Messiah cf. John 11:27) and the promised Saviour (Acts 9:22).

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

Temptation

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After a 40-day period of fasting, the devil challenges Jesus to make bread for himself out of stones (Matthew 4:1-11). It is the temptation to help himself. Jesus refuses.

The devil then tries to persuade him to force God to act by throwing himself off the roof of the temple. Jesus also rejects this with the words: ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to test’.

Last but not least, the devil wants to offer Jesus a shortcut and spare him all suffering. ‘I will give you all these things’. But Jesus orders the devil to go away (verse 10). Then the angels serve Jesus.

We are also challenged in these three things: to wait for God’s time, not to put God under pressure, but to endure unchanging situations and not to take shortcuts. We have a God who carries us through. God brings his angels into play at his own time.

The important thing is how Jesus reacts. He says again and again: ‘It is written.’ The confuser even quotes the Bible. But Jesus points out that a passage must not be removed from the overall context of the Bible.

Bible

Lead us not into temptation

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Jesus teaches us to pray: ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’?

The original temptation to mistrust God and to impute negative motives to him comes from the tempter. ‘Did God really say …’.

The real break between man and God lies in the fact that man questions whether God means well with his instructions.

You often have to look behind a story in order not to impute negative motives to God.

God wants to save us from our self-imposed downfall and prevent abuse.

‘Lead us not into temptation’. This means: ‘God help us to trust you in all situations’.

With the prayer ‘Lead us not into temptation’, we acknowledge our weakness (need for help) and distance ourselves from false self-confidence. We are aware that we need the Holy Spirit because he helps us to trust in God.