Posted on by Renee Meyer

Insiders and Outsiders, in need of Grace {A Devotional on Jesus and the Pharisees in Luke 11}

I wandered into the Church when I was 19, an outsider in every sense and found grace and love and Jesus. I was one of the sinners Jesus welcomed, not at all like the Pharisees He condemned.

But it wasn’t long before I became an insider. And I like being an insider. I like clear lines between who’s in and who’s out, between who’s wrong and who’s right.

Somewhere along the way, I became less like the sinners Jesus welcomed, and more like the Pharisees He rebuked.

I am helping lead a Bible study this Fall for a precious community of women who are studying the table scenes in the book of Luke, looking at the way Jesus treated and interacted with people. I love how this study is allowing us to focus on passages and conversations that don’t always make the Sunday School Top 10. For example: That time a Pharisee invited Jesus to lunch, and He spent the meal rebuking his host and his host’s friends. #awkward

I learned a LOT from my study of the Pharisees, and the drift toward phariseeism in my own life. I think this is the natural drift of humanity, the pull toward being a religious insider. And I want to take this seriously, learn from this passage and respond the Jesus’ rebuke.

What does Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for in this awkward lunch?

Cleaning up the outside while letting the inside grow rot.

Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. (Luke 11:39-41)

This metaphor is such a compelling image. Imagine coming over to my house and admiring my beautiful dishes, shiny and sparkling, and then finding maggoty food inside them.

When I was first making notes on this passage, one of my take aways was “inside > outside”. And if you stick with the metaphor, it is more important for the inside of the cup to be clean. But the point here is that God made the WHOLE CUP! My outward actions AND my inward heart are God’s, and I want to care for both. I need the blood of Christ for BOTH.

The outside is what people see, so the outside is what the world cares about, and it’s easy for the outside (my appearance and actions) to become my focus. But the whole cup is God’s.

My questions for myself, for us in response to this idea of making sure we’re not valuing outsides over insides:

  • On a very basic, surface level: How much time do I spend on my appearance v. my character? How much time do I spend on Jesus-oriented or Christian activities that people see compared to invisible things, caring for my heart, character, soul?
  •  Do I talk ABOUT God more than I talk TO God?
  •  As a parent (UGH.): To what extent am I driven in my parenting by what people think of ME? Do I have success as a Christian parent wrapped up in my children’s behavior?

Jesus also rebukes the Pharisees for

Pride.

“You love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places…” (Luke 11:43)

 Pride tends to make us into nonlisteners. We can speak, but we cannot hear. We think no one has anything to tell us. If so, we are slipping into a legalistic, prideful mind-set, which is death to genuine spirituality.  (NIVAC)

 This one is the most convicting to me. Pride is such a danger to our souls, particularly in matters of faith and religion.

Pride puts me at the center of the universe. Pride can twist even the most spiritual, holy behavior, and make it about me.

I look like I’m serving others, I’m serving God. But if it’s rooted in pride – in being important, in getting titles or positions, or even just the lovely important feeling of being needed and necessary – then it’s for me, not for you or for God. GROSS. Lord Jesus, save us from the temptation to “preen ourselves in the radiance of public flattery.”

So I ask myself, and I ask you:

  • With every action, choice, habit, especially those others see: Who is this FOR? What is my WHY? And I try to answer honestly…
  • When I’m not thanked or appreciated or noticed, how do I respond? And what does that tell me about my motivations?
  •  My God, whom I love and follow, had no place to lay His head. He was a homeless itinerant. He had no material possessions, and walked the road to the cross, laying down His life. Am I using Him to advance my own fame, my own reputation?

 

The Pharisees in Luke 11 do not respond well to Jesus’ rebuke. I believe He spoke in love for them, as He speaks in love for me.

Am I humble enough to hear Jesus, even if He’s revealing things I don’t want to see?

 

Photo in my image by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 1 Comment

A Story of India: Finding Jesus at the Home of Hope

We spent our first week in India with a team from an amazing organization called The Hope Venture. After praying for and supporting The Hope Venture’s humanitarian work for years, it was amazing to be able to see several projects up close and personal.

We got to meet kids who are able to go to school because of the supplies they receive through the Back Pack Program: It is AMAZING to see what a difference this program makes, especially knowing it is entirely funded by $10 dollar donations!

We visited a vocational training center, where precious women come daily for courses teaching them to sew. This allows them to sew for their children (fabric is much more affordable than finished clothing), as well as eventually sewing for others and helping to provide for and support their families.

Rock Quarry outside of Bangalore, India. People live and work here for next to nothing.

A highlight of our time was visiting a feeding center at a rock quarry. This was one of the bleakest places I have ever been, I can not imagine having a quarry be my workplace and home.

When the Hope Venture partners who run the feeding center arrived, we saw children, faces lit with joy, streaming in from every direction. We participated in the program for the evening (character-based stories and singing), helped to feed the children, and every one of us left a large chunk of our hearts.

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But the memory I’ll carry with me from my time in India until I die was at the Home of Hope. Here’s how The Hope Venture describes this beautiful, heart wrenching place:

Imagine walking or driving through the streets of your neighborhood and seeing hundreds of destitute people abandoned on the streets left to die. Raja, a rickshaw driver, decided that he could no longer sit by and watch these people suffer. He had to do something to help them. He began bringing them into his home. He started to mend their wounds, clean their forsaken bodies, and give them their dignity and hope back.

But he needed a place for those he was rescuing and so he began the Home of Hope in Bangaluru, India. The Hope Venture is proud to partner with this trusted man in any way we can. We want to help those that are suffering reclaim dignity and honor. (www.thehopeventure.org/project/home-of-hope)

Of all the things we expected to do and see in India, the Home of Hope made me the most nervous. I am not afraid of much, I can talk to anyone, and I have seen darkness and poverty, but y’all? There is a reason I am not a doctor or nurse. Just being a mom comes with more physical wounds and body fluids than I can handle sometimes. And I have a front row seat to lots of mental health issues, but I have no experience at all with the kind of mental illness that lands people vulnerable and alone on the streets. I’d been asking God to really let me see people, to not turn away, to break my heart for what breaks His. But I was SCARED. Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 2 Comments

6 Things I Learned from India

Last month I had the privilege and blessing to spend 3 weeks in India with Matt and 8 college students. We visited 3 cities, met hundreds of beautiful people, ate some of the best (and spiciest) food I have ever tasted, and experienced more life in 3 weeks than I could have dreamed. I loved the portions of India I got to see and experience (there is SO MUCH MORE.)

I love India’s beautiful people, especially their smiles, eyes full of joy.

I love the unity in diversity: everything is recognizably Indian, yet each person you meet has vastly different beliefs, thoughts, and stories.

I love that everything in India is turned up a notch: You like people? 1000s of people! You like bright colors? Everyone you meet is swathed in colorful array! You like spicy food? Here it is so hot you will breath fire!

I loved the hospitality we experienced: Welcomed and warmly greeted everywhere we went. We had tea in the home of the director of a company we toured, and when we were finished we tried to take our cups into the kitchen. This CEO literally RAN at us to gather up all the cups he could carry, insisting we sit down and make ourselves comfortable.

I loved meeting people of many different faiths. And I loved seeing my own faith beautifully lived out so far from where I have experienced it, in such a different context but the SAME Jesus.

Often when people travel, they say they were changed, and India for sure changed each of us. But what does that really mean? HOW did India change me? Read more