For God, not men: What matters is motive.
Two ways of living, as an orphan or as a son/daughter. Orphans are parent-less. Alone they live in search of praise and affirmation from others. Sons live differently however.
Simon Holley:
story about the Father's love:
On one occasions I was visiting a church and noticed as I walked into the meeting an older gentleman and a boy of about 13. The boy had very severe cerebral palsy. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a head restraint and clearly had no real ability to control his limbs or even to hold his head up. I smiled at the gentleman as I sat down. I later found out tha he was the boy’s grandfather. We stood to sing and I forgot about those around me as I began to worship God. About halfway through I sat down and as I did so I noticed that the man had lifted the boy onto his lap and was cradling him in his arms, with the boy’s head on his shoulder. He was looking right into the boy’s eyes, his face only inches away. As he held him, rocking backwards and forwards, I could clearly hear what he was saying. Over and over he was telling the boy. ‘God loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy. god loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy.’ The boy could do nothing, not even stop the dribble running down his chin. As I watched this scene I was overcome with emotion and began to weep. I saw in an instant a picture of the unconditional love of God. I really could do nothing for him or anything of any account for myself. Yet he loved me.
Raniero Cantalamessa: The love of God is the answer to all the whs in the Bible: the why of Creation, the why of the Incarnation, the why of Redemption… If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and become one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea, would cry out: The Father loves you!"
Nicky Gumbel:
Story of a successful sailor being lost at sea due to the weight on his keel coming off and the weight distribution being ‘wrong’ and the boat being unable to right itself after being capsized. ‘In this section of the SM Jesus examines the part of our Christian life that is below the waterline. The same principle is true. There must be more weight below the waterline than there is above it. The ‘below the waterline’ bit is the parts of our C life that no one else can see.
Don’t be like: the actors or the orphans/hypocrites and pagans
When you give…
Jews would give in two ways 1) tithe (law commands) 2) alms which was beyond the law.
Martin Luther: three conversions take place ‘the mind, the heart and the wallet.’
C.S. Lewis: there are appropriate and inappropriate rewards. Money is an inappropriate reward for love. It is wrong to marry for money but it is not wrong to desire marriage as the reward for love. a general who fights for fame fights for the wrong motive, but one who fights for victory fights for the right one. Being rewarded by God then is the appropriate reward to be desired in our giving/praying and fasting.
Steven Covey: author of 7 habits of highly effective people said ‘the key is not to prioritise our schedule but to schedule our priorities.
C.S. Lewis: the moment your wake up each morning all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come rushing in.
The rewards of prayer include: experiencing the joy of God’s presence & receiving God’s peace.
Jesus on prayer:
- keep it real.
- keep it quiet
- keep it simple
Tom Wright:
At its lowest prayer is shouting into the void on the off chance there may be someone out there listening. At its highest, prayer merges into love, as the presence of God becomes so real that we pass beyond words and into a sense of his reality, generosity, delight and grace.
Leon Morris:
v14: it is not that the act of forgiving merits eternal reward, but rather it is evidence that the grace of God is at work in the forgiving person and that that same grace will bring him forgiveness in due course.
Mounce:
v14: this is not a quid pro quo arrangement where God assess our relations and withholds forgiveness until we have forgiven everyone who wronged us but rather… that forgiving others follows on naturally having been forgiven by God.
