Today's Daily Bread Mt 22 w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Matthew 22:1-46
The Story of the Wedding Banquet
1Jesus responded by telling still more stories. 2"God's kingdom," he said, "is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn't come!
4"He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, "Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!'
5"They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. 6The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. 7The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.
8"Then he told his servants, "We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren't up to it. 9Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.' 10The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on--every place filled.
11"When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn't properly dressed. 12He said to him, "Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!' The man was speechless. 13Then the king told his servants, "Get him out of here--fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn't get back in.'
14"That's what I mean when I say, "Many get invited; only a few make it.'"
Paying Taxes
15That's when the Pharisees plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging. 16They sent their disciples, with a few of Herod's followers mixed in, to ask, "Teacher, we know you have integrity, teach the way of God accurately, are indifferent to popular opinion, and don't pander to your students. 17So tell us honestly: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
18Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, "Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? 19Do you have a coin? Let me see it." They handed him a silver piece.
20"This engraving--who does it look like? And whose name is on it?"
21They said, "Caesar.""Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his."
22The Pharisees were speechless. They went off shaking their heads.
Marriage and Resurrection
23That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection. 24They asked, "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is obligated to marry his widow and get her with child. 25Here's a case where there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no child, and his wife passed to his brother. 26The second brother also left her childless, then the third--and on and on, all seven. 27Eventually the wife died. 28Now here's our question: At the resurrection, whose wife is she? She was a wife to each of them."
29Jesus answered, "You're off base on two counts: You don't know your Bibles, and you don't know how God works. 30At the resurrection we're beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. 31And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don't you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, 32"I am--not was--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.' The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living." 33Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.
The Most Important Command
34When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. 35One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: 36"Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?"
37Jesus said, ""Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' 38This is the most important, the first on any list. 39But there is a second to set alongside it: "Love others as well as you love yourself.' 40These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."
David's Son and Master
41As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: 42"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said, "David's son."
43Jesus replied, "Well, if the Christ is David's son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his "Master'?
44God said to my Master,"Sit here at my right handuntil I make your enemies your footstool."
45"Now if David calls him "Master,' how can he at the same time be his son?"
46That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.

Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
In the KJV vs 14 says, “…many are called but few are chosen”. That always sounded odd to me, but it was explained to me, that God puts out a call to many people, but few accept the call personally. In this Message version it really puts that in the context of being invited to a wedding feast. Invitations go out, yet not everyone has time, or desires to get there. They may intend to, but if they really wanted to they would make a way, since they don’t really want to, they only send their well wishes to others who go.
I’ve heard, “You are living what you believe”,” you have what you (really) want in life”.
Those are hard things to look at, because we live in a wishful thinking world. We’ve thought if we at least think of it and wish it true, it is true, at lest to us in our minds. That’s deception. The next step we take is, to tell others we’d like for it to be true, in fact we believe it to be true. Talk is cheap in our society, because of our life force which does not follow our words.
In God’s kingdom, if you say you are coming, that’s nice, but the proof of your desire to come will be in your arrival, not in your wishes to be there. Wishes will not put your body in a seat at the guest’s table.
Who would you say “the servants” He sent are? Angels? Jesus? Prophets? The Bible? Preachers? Friends of faith? Churches? Neighbors who love God? I’d say ALL of the above. People have other things to do, that (by deception) they believe are more important. Oh that we’d get a glimpse of eternity! If we saw that clearly, we’d have time. We’d lay down agendas, gardens that need weeding, and every other earth call, except the one to tell everyone alive about His Son.
The thief/robber/imposter who is lying to people is at work in the earth with his own “kingdom” invitations going out, and it is amazing how everyone who does not have time for God’s kingdom has all the time in the world for his. He will pay for this with an eternal consummation.
So what about our culture and the rules of our land, rules we have to fulfill, because our cities, state, country have set them as so? Pay them and in the meantime serve them a message they may not have asked for. God is love and love obeys those who have the rule over us. Love is the demonstration of God. Pay only what owed and give the rest to God, by way of a life set apart for His kingdom work. One can work for an employer and yet be there as an ambassador of God’s kingdom, mostly by action and in principle. A life’s actions speak much louder than any words.
Who’s representative are you when at work? Who’s reputation do you uphold? If God’s then you are God’s ambassador. Who sent you there by giving you that particular job?
Whose wife are we? No matter if we are male or female, or married or single? Who do we belong to? Who do we ultimately serve and to whom does all other service honor or dishonor? It’s time to be made whole in the Divine covenantal marriage relationship. In the resurrection it will be made evident who we were in covenant with. The bride of Christ will arise and be evidenced in the resurrection when she unites with her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The invitations for the Marriage feats of the Lamb of God have gone out, a table is set for you in the presence of your enemies, in the presence of God’s enemies! Will your body fill a seat at the table? Are you taking your place now in action, or only in thought. Stop thinking about it and do it, it is so the time, so the time!

Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.