Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

As many people have remarked, the Christian belief system is full of paradox. Paradoxes are apparent contradictions that turn out to be true. Some examples in the bible are: "dying to live", "poor but rich", "slaves but free", and into today's reading "foolishness is wisdom", and "the weak are the strong"! Why is Christ crucified a paradox? First, how can God die? It seems counter-intuitive but only Jesus, who is God, could die for our sins because he was sinless. If he was sinful,he wouldn't be God and he would have to die for himself. But if He is God he didn't deserve to die. Yet, the sinless one died for the sinful ones, so that they might forgiven of their sins. For us to realize the power of God, we need to die to our wisdom. Our wisdom would say that if we only were wise enough, we could be like God. It would seem like a contradiction to say that true wisdom would be to be as foolish as to believe that only true wi...

As we enter Holy Week, the holiest week of the year, we walk through the last events of Jesus' life here on earth. We will remember his Supper with his disciples and gut wrentching prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Maundy Thursday). In the garden, he asked his disciples to watch and pray, and he went to His Father to discuss what was going to happen on the cross on Good Friday. As an aside, it is a little ironic to call it Good Friday, when what happened to Jesus was really quite "bad". Yet, it accomplished for us the forgiveness of our sins. As the reading from Hebrews says today, "If you have received forgiveness from the blood of innocent goats and calves sacrificed, how much more will the Son of God's innocent blood cleanse you from your sin. Although Good Friday was quite bad for Jesus, it accomplished for us the salvation we could never transact on our own. I hope you can find a place this Holy Week to meditate on what the Son of God did for you. As I ta...

Any builder knows that the most important way to start any building is to select the right cornerstone. The cornerstone will be the piece that the building will rest upon or fall upon. Psalm 118 is a festal hymn the Israelites sung as they went up for festivals at appointed times of the year to being their offerings and sacrifices to God. And they sang, "Give thanks to The Lord for He is good, His love endures forever", reminding themselves that it was only God who could open the gate for the righteous to enter. Here is some good background information on the cornerstone, "The image comes from the ancient quarries where highly-trained stonemasons carefully chose the stones used in construction. No stone was more important than the cornerstone because the integrity of the whole structure depended on the cornerstone containing exactly the right lines. If the cornerstone was not exactly right, the entire building would be out of line. For that reason, builders inspected m...

When kids grow up they spend a lot of time imitating their teen idols. Whether it is a movie star, rock star, or athletic star. Of course there is nothing wrong with having someone to look up to, ultimately they are all human beings who are fallible and fragile. But Paul has someone else he is trying to imitate, The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is teaching this young Christian community to treat each other as a reflection of Jesus. At the heart of it is considering others as better than ourselves, and looking to serve their interests before ours. Well how can we possibly do that? Paul tells us to not only imitate Jesus, but have the same mindset as Jesus as we look at Jesus attitude we can see three things. 1. He did not consider equality as God as something to be grasped. If anyone had a right to think something was beneath them it was the Son of God. But Jesus did not use his position for his own personal gratification. 2. He emptied himself and became a servant. Yes the Son of God...

One of the phrases most used to describe how the Holy Spirit is activated is seen twice in today's readings. In both Isaiah 44 and the fulfillment of that prophesy in Acts 2, these passages say, "I will pour out my Spirit". In the quotation from Joel, we see that the Spirit will be poured out on all people young and old, men and women. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus' disciples, just as Jesus had promised. And in both cases the pouring out of the Spirit causes great growth to occur. In the Isaiah passage the pouring out of the Spirit is likened to streams of water being poured out on dry ground. And grass will grow in the meadows and poplar trees by the flowing streams. In Acts, after the Spirit is poured out, the people will see dreams and visions and prophesy in the name of The Lord. And wonders will happen in the heavens above and signs on the earth below. The bottom line is the Spirit is the means by which the power of God comes...

Psalm 119 is an acrostic, with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet having a paragraph that gives instruction concerning God's word. Today's section is titled,"Beth" pronounced "bet" in Hebrew. It was the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The order from the beginning is, "aleph, Beth, gimel, daleth ..." Students in Hebrew school would memorize large chunks of the Torah, the first five books of the bible, also called the "Pentateuch". Today, the psalm writer gives us insight to the centrality of the Word to Jewish piety and how rabbi's taught people to, "hide your word in my heart". And, of course, the writer gives several benefits to living according to God's Word. He says, in effect, the only way you can lead a life that is pleasing to God, a life of purity, is by the power of God's word being applied in your life. And as one learns to understand God's word it becomes pleasing to us as well, like delicious m...

Six days before Jesus' death, his friend Mary and Martha and their brother, Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead, threw a dinner party. Part of the occasion was giving thanks for Jesus' miracle for their brother, and the unintended purpose was to anoint Jesus for the cross. While Mary was serving as usual, Mary anointed Jesus with pure nard an expensive perfume, whose fragrance filled the house. This is called spikenard, and was made up of oil derived from varying kinds of flowering plants, like lavender. It was also used as an incense in the temple of worship back in the Old Testament. It was very expensive as well. When translating into today's worth, it is estimated to be about $10,000. The fact that Mary anointed Jesus with the oil by using her hair was also an act of extreme devotion. In some ways it might have been considered scandalous, as women were not allowed to let their hair down in public. Meanwhile, all Judas can do is complain that it wasn't used for...

Usually when we think of a priest, we think of a priest in the Catholic Church who wears a cleric collar and can't get married. In the Old Testament, the Great High Priest was chosen by God, and once a year would go into the Most Holy Place and offer sacrifices to God. This included offering the innocent lamb, who was slain for the sins of the people. So the author of Hebrews, who is writing mainly to Jewish Christians, wants to use this analogy to explain why Jesus was and is the great high priest. Here is how Jesus is a different kind of Great High Priest. 1. Jesus was born a man and went through all the temptations we did. We sometimes miss that He was tempted in every way. You can imagine what that means for you? 2. Though He was tempted in every way, he did not sin like the Most High Priest did. Therefore, the high priest had to make sacrifices for his own sins, not just the people. 3. Jesus was both the high priest and the innocent lamb of God, who took away the sins ...

When we say the church is a hospital for sinners, not a mausoleum for saints, this is one of the passages that confirms this saying. David, who God says was a man after God's heart, and the greatest king of Israel, still had to battle his sinful nature. And when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, another man's wife, he definitely had lost the battle. But today we see the depth of his confession before God. Importantly he says, "against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in my heart". Though David's sin had far reaching consequences, fundamentally he has sinned against his Father in heaven. And in the beginning of the psalm he pleas for God's mercy and asks God to "blot out all his transgressions." Sin leaves a stain on us, and it is God who cleans us. David says "wash away my inquity and cleanse me from my sin." My favorite part of the psalm is when David prays, "Create in me a pure heart in me, and take not ...

As we get older we begin to realize who we are, and who are not. Sometimes we long to be like someone else only to realize that is really not who we are meant to be. Part of our maturation is really understanding who God made us to be, and then living and working in that "sweet spot". As Jesus begins to reveal his true identity as the Son of God, he does so carefully knowing this will lead to his rejection. And with his rejection will come his crucifixion. Jesus starts by saying, "I am the light of the world". This is clearly a statement of His divinity, for the Jewish people assocatiated this only with their God, "Yahweh". And then he says, "whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life". An even clearer testimony of him being the Messiah. They were waiting for the Messiah, and yet were far from realizing that Jesus was Him. So the Pharisees start questioning him on his testimony of these facts. They state it is...

First of we have to ask the question, "Why would the writer of Hebrews address the point of Jesus being greater than Moses? Isn't that obvious? It might be today. But as we look at the purpose of Hebrews, it is to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises made to the Jewish people. We see in chapter 1 of Hebrews, all of the psalms quoted which point to Jesus. In chapter 2, the writer shares that Jesus was fully human so he could undergo suffering, yet this made him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He was fully human so he could be a merciful high priest, as he made atonement for the sins of the people. So Jesus was greater than Moses mainly because he was in a whole different category. Though fully God, He was fully human, one of the great mysteries of the faith. Moses served his purposes in his time, but it was in looking to Jesus. Moses helped build God's house by his faithfulness to His calling, despite not being perfect and making some mistakes. Mose...

When someone speaks about being "born again" we usually think of someone who has had a strong, often mystical religious experience, that they can they can testify to. Sometimes others who haven't had such an experience wonder if they are "really" born again? Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, presumably for fear of being seen with him. Jesus was not the most popular guy with the Jews at the time. Nicodemus addresses him as teacher/rabbi, and asks how he can perform the signs/miracles he does. Then Jesus tells him in order to participate in God's kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven, he must be born again. Nicodemus really doesn't know what Jesus is talking about, and asks how a person can be physically born a second time. Jesus lets him know this is a spiritual rebirth, not a natural one. Nicodemus still doesn't get it. At this point Jesus wonders if Nicodemus is a teacher why he doesn't know about the coming of the Holy Spirit. You see ...

Being chosen is something we long for all of our lives. As a young kid we want to be chosen to be friends with the people we like. We want to be picked to play on the baseball team, or the lead in the school play. We want to sense we have been chosen by our parents, and we are the apple of their eyes. I think this sense of being chosen is something God has wired into us as human beings. It is similar to our need to belong and be part of something bigger than ourselves. As Paul starts the letter to the church of Ephesus, one of the really important early churches, he starts off with how we have been chosen by God to receive every spiritual blessing in Christ. Before the beginning of the world, God chose us. In love he predestined us! He adopted us as his kids. God chose us before we chose Him. He chose us even before we were a glint in our parent's eyes. And it was for God's pleasure that He chose us. God didn't choose us begrudgingly, he wanted us to be His own. And He ha...

Sometimes I hear people say, "I didn't get anything out of worship today!" Granted some worship services are more inspiring than others. But I think it also reveals a "consumer mindset" that says worship is all about me getting my needs meet. As we read Psalm 84, we see the psalmist's desire to be in the courts of the living God. In fact, his soul yearns and faints to be in God's presence. Finally, he says something that is captured in one of the most popular contemporary praise songs in the last 10 years, "Better is one day in Your courts, than a thousand elsewhere!" The idea is not so much that we come to get something out of worship, but we come to meet God in worship. And guess what? He shows up every time when we worship in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And some of it i think is our attitude toward worship. Do we prepare ourselves to meet the holy and living God? Jesus promised that wherever two or three are gathere...

All of us grow up wanting to hear the words, "You are my Son with whom I am well pleased!" This is especially for young boys as they grow up. These boys need to hear their father's approval as they help them to develop into men. The first time Jesus heard this was at His baptism when God the Father said to God the Son, "This is my Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." Notice the slight difference from the first instance when the Father adds, "Listen to Him." As a result of the connection of the Father and the Son it was imperative for the disciples to listen to him, especially as His death drew near. In this momentous occasion, Jesus literally undergoes a "metamorphosis". Meaning He is changed into a heavenly being before their eyes. The disciples had plenty of time living with Jesus, where they saw the many miracles he had performed for others and for them. But in this instance a miracle is done to him. This is a foreshadowing ...

Yesterday we talked about the different ways God has revealed Himself. The first was in the creation of the world. Then, God revealed himself to Abraham in a couple of different ways. In Genesis 12, he called him and his family to go from Ur where they were born (probably in modern day Turkey, to a land he would show him. He told him he would bless him and make his name great and He would be a father of many nations. Then he came to him in a vision in Genesis 15, and told him he and Sarai would have a child. He was 99 and it says "he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." In Genesis 17, The Lord appears to him and tells him he will be the Father of many nations. And God establishes his covenant with him and his family through circumcision. Finally, God appears to him in Genesis 18 through three men, who visit by the trees of Mamre. They tell him he and Sarah are going to have a child, despite the fact that Sarah is well beyond childbearing years. Sarah la...

This psalm shows two ways in which God reveals Himself. First, he says the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hands. Day after day and night after night they preach how great is our God. If you are looking for a sermon, all you have to look at is the sun, moon and stars. Romans 1, says that we are all without excuse, because God reveals Himself in His Creation. What can be known about him has been made clear. How else can you explain the beauty of Creation if there is not a Creator? Then, the psalmist turns toward the Law of The Lord. This would be the first five books of the Old Testament, which is called the Torah. It was the bible for the Jews, where God revealed himself to Moses through the Ten Commandments, which is a summary of the Law. Then the writer speaks of all the benefits of knowing God's Law, and how they are more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey. As they listen to the Laws and obey His statutes, there is great joy. Bu...

One of the hardest things we deal with as humans is when we let someone down, or someone else fails to keep the promise they have made to us. The reality is we have all been on both sides of this equation. Often what happens is we over promise and under deliver. Sometimes our motivation is to get the praise of others, or earn recognition. But what happens when we don't deliver is that people are less likely to trust us the next time we make a promise. Today's psalm is one that is praise song that uplifts God's greatness, and how we are to make Him known among the nations. Remember "nations" always stands for those who are not part of God's people. Meaning God has made Himself known to the Israelites so that all people might know Him. This is the ultimate reason why God is faithful so people will know He is the One true God! The other huge reason why the psalm praises God, is that God keeps His promises. God kept His covenant with Abraham through giving hi...