“Lord, It Is Good That We Are Here”

            Matthew 17:2–5 ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. ³And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁵He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

            Have you ever been asked to go somewhere and you said yes you’ll go, but you forgot to ask why you were going?  While you are on your way to this place you are going to wouldn’t you wonder why you were asked to go?  You would think that at least half way up the mountain you surely would be questioning if this journey was necessary.  You might even be asking at this time what is so important that you would have to endure climbing up to the top of the mountain. 

            I don’t know maybe I might have asked the one who invited me on this journey what the point of this venture was.  But, Peter, James and John didn’t ask, rather they took it on faith that there was something important to be accomplished in this journey following behind Jesus climbing to the top of this mountain.  After all, this was Jesus the Christ, whom they have read about in the Scriptures, the Savior, and if He the Savior says we should do something maybe we should do it and not question God.

            Have you ever wondered why someone asked you to tag along and thought at some point you figured out why?  Then all of a sudden you realized how very wrong you were.  Peter, certainly did.  “Lord, it is good that we are here” as if Peter, James, and John thought they were invited to wait on the esteem guests they saw with Jesus.  What could they possibly do for those who now have everything they need?  Moses and Elijah stand at the brink of heaven from where they exist now, and they are standing beside the light of the world of all the living of which they are now a part of.  I don’t know what Peter could have been thinking.  There is really nothing meaningful that we could give to those who actually have everything.  However there is much the one who has it all will give us.

            2 Peter 1:19–21¹⁹And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

            Peter thought that he had interpreted what was going on correctly, that maybe they were brought along to wait on Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  At least until He saw that bright cloud cover them and then most likely got scared out of his wits when he heard the voice of God emanate from within the cloud.  We would probably do the same as we sometimes think we are called to do something for God.  The truth is what God asks us to do is not for Him but for each other (Matt 25:35-40).  The only thing God wants from us is Faith, Hope and Love of which love is the greatest (1 Cor 13:13).  Love is the greatest because it contains faith and hope.

            Peter says “pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  The dark places are over come through our Lord Jesus Christ who blots out the darkness with His light that He shined from the cross.  It is called forgiveness and when we know we have received genuine forgiveness it shines a light on our heart.  The light is our Lord Jesus, the light is God.  Did you notice the cloud that overshadowed them?  It was not a dark cloud but a “bright cloud” and this brightness is the one who is pure light (1 John 1:5). God is covering us in His glory which is His light, which is Christ Jesus His only begotten Son.  Being covered by Christ’s bright cloud we are no longer considered a dark place but one who belongs to the light because He brought us into His light.

            2 Peter 1:16–18 ¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

            It is not what we make up that saves us but what God has planned from before the very beginning of His creation that keeps us in His light.  Christ is the light of the world and He is the cloud that overshadows and covers every dark place.  Christ brought us out of that dark place of sinful nature and into His light so that we may have everything we truly need along with Moses, Elijah and all who have gone on before us.  The light of God embraces us into eternal life and everlasting relationship with our God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“We Are Now More Precious Than A Pearl.”

            Deuteronomy 30:15–16 ¹⁵“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his just decrees then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

            Have you ever been walking in a place that seemed pretty clean and all of a sudden you got a little stone in your shoe.  You’re trying to get somewhere so you tap the toe of your shoe on the ground in hopes of moving the stone you’re walking on out of the way so it won’t bother you as you continue on your way.  It just doesn’t seem to help though, as much as you do this toe tapping dance the stone is still irritating your foot until walking becomes somewhat painful. 

Now that you are very uncomfortable and the pain is increasing you stop with a sigh of frustration you take off your shoe and try to shake the stone out.  Thinking you have the stone removed you put your shoe on just to find out the stone is still there and you realize it’s actually in your sock.  Another sigh of frustration and you not only take off your shoe but you take off your sock turn it inside out turn it back and put the sock and shoe back on with a “Finally!” sigh of relief.

            Finally you can walk in comfort so you take ten steps forward and you feel something and discover you have another stone now in your other shoe. Frustrated again you think maybe if I just take my shoes and socks off this would not ever happen. And so you remove both shoes and socks, you start to walk on your way, and you step in something that just smells bad.  Bunkie, you’re having a bad day aren’t you?

            We go through life thinking we don’t need church, bible study or even God, so like our shoes we throw them away not realizing the protection they have been giving us.  We step into something that smells and wonder why it happened.  God is our protection from the throws of sin, why would we want to throw Him away?

            Deuteronomy 30:17–19a ¹⁷But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

            Have you ever contemplated the oyster?  It lies in the bottom of the ocean minding its own business trying not to bother anyone.  You might say the oyster is somewhat bashful as it lays there all clamed up not saying anything and trying to keep to himself.  Then the oyster maybe out of need or want opens up and all of a sudden there’s a stone lodged within it and it starts to irritate the oyster. 

            The oyster clams up again, now with this stone lodged within which now the oyster has to deal with.  This irritating stone lies within causing all the discomfort of a stone in your shoe.  No matter how many times the oyster taps his toe on the bottom of the ocean the stone doesn’t go away and continues to irritate the oyster, and the poor oyster can’t even mussel it out.

            Sin is like that it gets in and it irritates and irritates sometimes keeping us from going forward and growing the way God intended us to grow.  It seems no matter how hard we try the stone doesn’t go away and then the irritation starts to pull us away from God.

            Deuteronomy 30:19a–20 Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

            Let’s take a closer look at that oyster, once a stone has entered into the oyster it starts immediately to deal with it as designed by God.  We are the stone within.  The irritation that keeps us from growing is our sin, and God like the oyster immediately deals with us almost in the same way the oyster deals with the irritating stone. 

            It’s like the forgiveness of Christ; the oyster starts to cover over the rough irritating stone that has lodged itself within the oyster and after time the stone becomes smoother and larger than when it first came into the oyster. 

Soon the rough stone that had been covered in dirt is now covered in a white and colorfully smooth blanket of pearl.  The stone is still there but now instead of a rough irritating stone it is a thing of beauty.  The once dirty looking rough stone is covered in beauty making the stone worthy of being with the oyster, no longer an irritation.  So the oyster has prepared a place for the stone in the oyster’s house and they become one.

We are that stone dirtied with sin and Christ is the oyster that has covered our sins by clothing us in white, that is, His righteousness making us a sight of beauty.  Jesus came to deal with our sin by taking our sin upon Himself and suffering the irritation that it brings.  Rather than discarding us Christ has covered our sins and prepared a place for us in His Father’s house.

Christ’s death on the cross through His love for us covers a multitude of sin, 1 Peter 4:8b.  Because Christ died and rose for our sake we now look beautiful in the eyes of our Father in heaven.  Though we have a sinful nature and have spent a lifetime in sin Jesus Christ sending His Holy Spirit to regenerate our hearts into believing He is our Savior has made us even more beautiful than a pearl in the sight of God.  We are now more precious than a pearl.

            1 Peter 2:4  ⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

            God blesses us always, Christ and you are living proof of it.  In His Holy Name, the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen