Week 21 Daily Dose of Love

 

#141 (5/21)

Pearl of Great Value

 

Matthew 13:45-46

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

 A pearl is formed when an oyster tries to deal with an irritant that has entered its shell.  The oyster surrounds the irritant with nacre, which forms the pearl.  A larger pearl is formed as the oyster adapts to the irritant over time. 

Love also has to deal with irritation as we discover differences and incompatibilities in the process of getting to know each other better.  When we adapt to these differences and incompatibilities, love grows and deepens.  Greater love results as we deal with irritation over time until we have a pearl of great value that is worth more than everything else we own.               

  

Reflection/Discussion:

What are some irritants that we can turn into pearls of great value?

 

Principles of Love:

Learning; Acceptance; Nature

 

Pray Through the Day:

Open our hearts and minds

To your love and wisdom

   

#142 (5/22)

Parable of the Net

 

Matthew 13:47-50

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.  So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

 

God’s love goes out to everyone and we are challenged to love others as he does.  How people choose to respond to love is God’s concern, not ours.   Jesus tells us it’s the angel’s job to separate evil from righteous, and selfish from loving “at the end of the age.”  Until that time, we all swim in the same sea and our task is to extend God’s love to everyone we meet.

  

Reflection/Discussion:

How can we resist the temptation to judge others?

 

Principles of Love:

Acceptance; Unity

 

Pray Through the Day:

Not my will

But yours be done

   

#143 (5/23)

Treasures New and Old

 

Matthew 13:51-52

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”   And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”  When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

 

Love is always creating new treasure.  Memories of loving times linger like the scent of sweet spring flowers that softens our hearts and thoughts.  Love continually grows and expands in much the same way as flower bed becomes more and more beautiful as the gardener transplants seedlings, divides bulbs, and propagates cuttings so that each spring the garden is even sweeter than the year before.

  

Reflection/Discussion:

How can we bring out what is new and what is old from the treasure of God’s love in our lives?

 

Principles of Love:

Opening; Commitment

 

Pray Through the Day:

Open our hearts

To your love

   

#144 (5/24)

Healing at the Pool

John 5:1-18

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.  In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”  Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”  At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

 

Now that day was a sabbath.  So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”  But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”  They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”  Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 

 

Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well!  Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”  The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.  But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”  For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

 The Jews in this passage perceived Jesus from the narrow perspective of their own self-interest.  They saw themselves as guardians of morality and thought Jesus was violating the Law of Moses.  They sought to kill Jesus in order to stamp out what they saw as evil. Jesus shows us the risks of employing our own narrow interpretation of scripture.  He responded to the man at the pool with  love and compassion that was absent in his critics.  The viewpoint of the Jews was so narrow that it closed their hearts.  They became so good at condemning those they saw as immoral that they condemned the source of all morality, the personification of love, the son of the God whom they claimed to worship.  

Reflection/Discussion:

What leads us to judge and condemn others?

 

Principles of Love:

Vision; Compassion

 

Pray Through the Day:

Open our eyes

To deepen our love

   

#145 (5/25)

The Authority of Jesus

 

John 5:19-29

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.  The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.  Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.  The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.  Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

 “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.  Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

 God is the source of all love.  All of the works that Jesus performed had their roots in his father’s love.  Jesus is the vehicle for restoring God’s love on earth. Jesus’ moralistic critics held tightly to their own image of God.  They believed with their minds but not with their hearts.  They understood God’s power but not his love.  They thought they were speaking with authority but their confidence was hollow because they were not open to God’s love. 

Anyone who truly believes in Jesus believes in love because that’s where he came from.  If we do not honor love, we do not honor God.  Love is the only thing that transcends death and gives us eternal life. 

  

Principles of Love:

Opening; Learning

 

Reflection/Discussion:

How is belief with our hearts different than belief with our thoughts?

 

Pray Through the Day:

Open our hearts

To your love

   

#146 (5/26)

The Will of the Father

 

John 5:31-47

 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.  If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.  There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.  You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.  Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.  He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.  But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.  And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

 

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.  I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you.  I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.  How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? 

 

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.  But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

 The will of God is that we live through his love.  Jesus tells us that reading scripture alone does not bring eternal life.  Those who refuse to love have missed the whole point of scripture.  The Jews whom Jesus confronted saw themselves as having a strong belief in God.  But Jesus reminds them and us that such belief has no value if our hearts are closed. 

Glorifying Jesus is not enough to bring us eternal life.  Jesus says that he does “not accept glory from human beings.”  All the honor and glory we can muster is a waste of time if we “do not have the love of God in (us).” 

  

Reflection/Discussion:

How can we use scripture to deepen our capacity to love?

 

Principles of Love:

Nature; Vision; Opening

 

Pray Through the Day:

We were created

From God’s love

   

#147 (5/27)

Death of John the Baptist

 

Matthew 14:1-12

At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.”  For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”  Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet.  But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask.  Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 

 

The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison.  The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. 

 

His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

 

Mark 6:14-29

 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.”  But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”  But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

 

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.  For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”  And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.

 

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.  When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.”  And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.”  She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.”  Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”  The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.  Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 

When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

 

Luke 9:7-9

Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen.  Herod said, “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see him.

 Every sin has selfish roots.  We turn away from God’s love when our own self-interest distorts our field of vision and clogs our hearts. Herodias saw John as a threat to her position and peace of mind.  Herod was more interested in what others thought of him than in doing what was right.  Neither had any room for love because of their self-centeredness. 

Selfishness is a slippery slope.  Greater self-interest leads to greater sin - sin so great that it possible to not even be aware that a messenger from God is being destroyed.

  

Reflection/Discussion:

How can we recognize when selfishness is beginning to distort our vision?

 

Principles of Love:

Vision; Humility

 

Pray Through the Day:

Open our eyes

To deepen our love