🦁 Lent 1-2
Readings: Psalm 25:1-10; Daniel 9:15-25a; 2 Timothy 4:1-5.
Reflection
Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 25, verses 1 to 10, Daniel Chapter nine, verses 15 to 25 A and second Timothy four. Chapter four, verses 1 to 5.
The psalm is titled Teach Me Your Powers. And this is a Psalm of David. And this is a real poignant whole Psalm. The time that we're in here during Lent, that this is asking God to show. David's asking God to show him the way. Show him what God wants him to do in his life and to forgive his transgressions. Remember, not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. And good upright is the word. The phrase struck the centers in this way. So they'll he's asking God to to teach him that to lead him and to continue and not being in his sinful ways.
And then in the Book of Daniel, we have the continuing saga. So this is, again, Daniel, the lion's den. And he starts off in verse 15 reminding us this is God. You know, you brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and made a name for yourself. We have sinned. We have done wickedly. So they went out. This was the way have they wandered out in the desert and they in the golden calf. They were complaining about water, complain about food. This they didn't trust God and they did all these things that they weren't supposed to do. So God punish them. And so this is Gabriel, the story of Gabriel. So the man, the man Gabriel, he had a vision of came to him. And this is where he finds out it will be 72 weeks are decreed by your people to your Holy See to finish the transgression. He's giving them 70 weeks to get themselves straight. And then they're going to anoint the most holy place. And this is the temple in Jerusalem.
And second, Timothy, this is the charge of preaching the word. And this is Paul's first excuse me, second letter to Timothy, who was a follower. Paul, He's one of the other apostles that Paul kind of recruited and is training. And this is where he's telling Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God in Christ. Jesus, who's judge is living the dead, and by appearing can going to preach the word be ready in season and out of season. Reprove rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. And this is where this is what we're called to do. This is what we do. We spread the word and it's a matter of hitting the message, getting people to listen, but not putting them down.
Growing up in the sixties and seventies was when there was the height of the fundamental evangelical movement and they just started really catching on. And there was this thing that these call match book evangelism. Match book evangelism is where you take a matchbook, the old kind that flipped up and had the little matches. And so you take a match where you take one match out and have the guy hold it, hold the match book. You take the match and light it and light the match book confirm to hold the whole. And then when burn despair, he drops it. Tell him that's what hell's like. You're not the word a lot of people that way. But this was the thing we need to go out and preach the word. The word is God loves us. God is there for us. God forgives us. God supports us. There is love and forgiveness. No, no ends. Everything is forgiven. God loves everyone. We just have to ask him. So as we go out in our lives and do our daily interactions with people, act in the spirit of love, it's really difficult. It's not easy. I choke on that quite a few times. Every time you want to yell, the guy cuts you off in line. Somebody is rude to you, whatever. You know, you get the urge.
We got to remember God is love. God loves us. God loves them, too. And it's it's really difficult at times we refer to as meeting people where they are. I think this is a very poignant thing when we go out and we're we're we're spreading the love of God, the word of God in his salvation, meaning people where they are, meeting them, where they're at, and not trying to be holier than them or better than them, because we're not everyone's a sinner. Everyone is equal in sin in God's eyes. And all we have to do is ask for forgiveness and work on listening and following God's Word.
So go out and love your neighbor. Love those around you, Treat people in a loving manner. Amen.
