Timothy wasn’t walking the last time we were at the beach so when we arrived at the ocean yesterday and removed his little shoes and set him on the soft sand, he sensed the shifting and immediately reached up to his momma to be held. Thinking the water would draw him in, she dangled his little toes into the tide pool and set him down again on the edge where his feet immediately began to sink into the wet sand. It took several more tries for him to realize the ground wasn’t actually moving but finally he plopped down and began scooping up wet sand, watching as it sifted through his chubby little fingers. Before long he was up and waddling away from the water’s edge chasing a runaway bocce ball.
Sand is shifty, especially when the rising tide floods the shore. Even dry sand is easily tossed by the wind, forming drifts and dunes wherever it finds an immovable object. The beach landscape is ever changing. I picture a southeastern Atlantic coast beach, the coast I’ve visited all my life. I have seen pictures of rocky cliffs and pebble beaches but I’ve never felt them under my bare feet. I can Google images of the Sea of Galilee and other shores where Jesus walked but the locale matters less than actually making time to sit at Jesus’s feet.
“One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down.
His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.”
Matthew 5:1-2 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.5.1-2.NLT
Jesus’s lessons and stories are layered with meaning like an onion, some thinly veiled like the skin but others requiring the work, often with tears, of cutting away the outer shell to reveal the flesh, dicing and seasoning with salt and heating over a flame until something aromatic and delicious emerges. Sure you can enjoy the onion raw. Its crisp sweetness pairs well with many things. So God’s Word offers nourishment for our souls in many ways. We will never exhaust it and it will never cease to produce fruit. By it we are led and we are warned. We must carefully guard against selective hearing. If the encouragement is always for me and the judgement for someone else, I am misreading the Bible. God’s judgment is on all mankind for all have sinned. Against this backdrop Jesus came, died, and rose again. This is the good news of the gospel.
““You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate.
The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.
But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.7.13-14.NLT
““Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.””
Matthew 7:21-27 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.7.21-22.NLT
Jesus used the most commonplace examples to teach profound spiritual truth. When reading scripture, you may be tempted to listen as from a pew in a church, or maybe, like me, you picture a lake in the mountains where, for the first time against a backdrop of cypress trees, I experienced Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount enacted from memory by a young man aptly named Peter. We must remember that Jesus taught out among the people, on the seashore, from a fishing boat, on a hillside, on a road in a town, on the temple steps or in a synagogue, in an olive grove and even from the cross. Jesus spoke to whoever was listening in the language of the people about whatever was at hand. His every interaction was purposeful, steeped in holy opportunity. If only we could shift our focus entirely away from ourselves and our own agendas, if we could seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, we would see Him by His Word interacting with the world through our lives as well.
““You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.
Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Matthew 5:14-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.5.14-16.NLT
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.
He will not rebuke you for asking.
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.
Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
James 1:5-8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.5-8.NLT
I choose by faith to accept God’s Word as truth and to allow His Spirit to translate for me what I cannot otherwise comprehend. Jesus promised the Spirit of Truth who would testify about Him and would teach and remind His followers of everything He taught. We have the scriptures because God kept that promise.
“Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/2ti.3.16-17.AMPC
“Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative.
No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.”
2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.1.20-21.NLT
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.
You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.
Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.
A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
Matthew 7:12, 15-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.7.12-20.NLT
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.”
Psalms 143:10 NLT
A Fitting Reply 