Year 6, Day 183: Matthew 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

There is something that always impresses me about Jesus’ ministry: He is always open to hanging out with people the rest of the world would reject.  Jesus meets with prostitutes and lepers and tax-collectors and orphans and widows.  He meets with the needy.  He meets with the people that are going to pull from Him, tire Him, and wear Him out.

So often in the world today, we teach people to hang around with people that can improve our status.  If we want to get anywhere in the world, we need to hang around with the people that are going places so that we can run in those circles, or so the world teaches.  But we don’t actually see Jesus doing any of that. 

Jesus doesn’t hang out with the popular kids.  He doesn’t party with the rich and famous.  Jesus hangs out with the lowly, the downtrodden, the forgotten.  And He constantly invites them into His life.

That’s the invitation of God.  As Jesus says here in this chapter, He didn’t come to call the righteous – as if there were any – but rather He came to call the sick!  He came to show everyone that we all have a place with God.

<><

Year 6, Day 174: Ezekiel 48

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Do you catch how this book ends?  If you aren’t careful, you’ll miss it.  If you are just reading the words, you can get lulled into a mode of skimming and become just happy to reach the end.  The book ends with the words, “And the name of the City from that time on shall be: The Lord is There.”

Those are powerful words.  Remember, the name Jerusalem means “City of Peace.”  God is essentially changing the name of His Holy City.  Why is this significant?  Ezekiel ends the book with a look into the future where peace with God is transformed into dwelling with God.  No longer with God’s people be about bringing the fallen word into a status of being at peace with God; they will now be about proclaiming what life with God is truly like.

Doesn’t that concept sound incredibly Christian?  Yes, Christians are still desiring to be at peace with God.  But that’s what Jesus accomplished on the cross.  Peace with God is a status that was earned for us in the past.  

We are now invited to dwell with God – or I should say, to have God dwells with us.  When the world looks at us, it should say, “The Lord is There.”

<><

Year 6, Day 112: Hebrews 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

I love how the author of Hebrews brings this passage all together.  We’ve been building up to Christ as the high priest.  Here in this chapter the author of Hebrews tells us that Christ and the grace that comes through Him is superior to the covenant of the Law that was given through Moses.

Why can we hear this claim?  Christ was raised from the dead.  Christ is no longer here on earth as a model of godly living.  Christ is in heaven at the right hand of the Father proving that He was God’s New Covenant.  He is superior because God brought Him up to Heaven to be with Him as proof of His superiority.

So what does this have to do with Invitation?  God invites us into this New Covenant.  He wants us to know grace.  He wants us to understand our sinfulness through the Law, but He wants us even more to know that His grace is sufficient to overcome the judgment of the Law.  He invites us to be a part of this new thing that He is doing.  Even though we don’t deserve it, He wants us to come anyways.

<><

Year 5, Day 228: Psalm 95

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Psalm 95 is a great psalm of joy.  It is easy to look at God and bask in His sheer and utter awesomeness.  It is easy to see God’s incredible power and lift up praise to Him in worship.  That’s what we are called to do.

The heart of this psalm is the invitation.  God wants relationship with us.  He could judge the hardness of our hearts as He judged that wicked generation in the wilderness.  But He wants so much more from us than that.  He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

This is really an awesome thought, and it drives this psalm.  The creator of the world wants to be in relationship with us.  The one who hands dive into the depths of the earth wants to know you and wants you to know Him.  The one who knows all that happens in the sea wants you to know Him as much as He knows you.  He invites us to be His people.  He invites us to be sheep in His pasture.  We can be His, and that should give us every reason to sing His praise!

<><

Year 5, Day 205: Psalm 60-61

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Both of these psalms are written by the psalmist from the perspective of anticipation of being with God.  In Psalm 60 we hear the psalmist speaking from the perspective of feeling abandoned by God.  He feels as though they are failing in battle because God is not near to them.  However, the psalmist reminds us that when we are invited to the side of the Lord we have His banner to run to for protection.  It is at the Lord’s invitation that we find salvation.  It is the Lord’s invitation that brings us into His fortified city.  It is the Lord’s invitation that allows us to fight valiantly for Him as He provides the means to tread down our foes.

Psalm 61 is far more straightforward with the invitation.  It is the Lord who leads us to the rock that is higher than I.  It is the Lord who invites us to dwell in His tent forever.  It is at His invitation that we realize that He has indeed heard our cries and answered them.

Invitation is always a great place to return in our journey of faith.  It is at the invitation of the Lord that we have anything good.  It is at the invitation of the Lord that we can be saved.  It is at the invitation of the Lord that we can have the promise of eternal life.  It all begins with Him, and without His invitation we find ourselves mired in the ways of this world as the psalmist does in Psalm 60.

<><

Year 5, Day 145: Ephesians 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Ephesians 4 is a great chapter with respect to seeing the cycle of invitation and challenge.  God the Father invites us into relationship with Him through His Son.  We’ve been talking about this for the past couple of days.  We are saved by grace.  We are saved through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as He died upon the cross.  I am in relationship with God at His invitation, not because I am great.

However, look at where this idea naturally leads Paul.  If we are in relationship with God, then we are challenged to rise up out of our sin!  He is pretty blunt when he says to not live as the Gentiles do.  We need to change who we are.  We don’t need to change with respect to physical things such as Kosher laws or circumcision.  What we need to change is our character.

Look at the examples that Paul uses.  Don’t be sensual.  Don’t be greedy.  Don’t be impure.  Put off your old self and let God create something new.  Be angry, but not angry in a way that you sin.  Don’t take what isn’t yours, but instead work hard for what you want.  Don’t corrupt the world around you with your worlds; build it up instead.  Don’t slander God, but embrace His seal upon us.

Invitation and challenge.  We receive grace: God’s invitation.  We are challenged to respond: the good works of God’s character for which we were created.

<><

Year 5, Day 89: 2 Corinthians 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

In this chapter Paul continues to lift up the banners of invitation and challenge.  He gives us a pretty good list of what we can expect when we embrace Christ more than we embrace the world.  He should know.  Paul knew the extremes of the joy in Christ and the rejection of the world.

Yet, look at that list.  Paul is inviting us into some very good things.  Paul reminds us that to know Christ is to know the Holy Spirit.  It is to be filled with the wisdom of God.  It is to be affected by God’s purity while our own filth is discarded.  It is to know patience, to speak in love and to have honor, and to wield the power of God!  We are being invited into a very unique place for a human being to go.  We are invited into an existence that we cannot come into on our own.

But there is challenge, too.  Look at the majority of the list.  To know Christ is to know beatings.  It is to know hardships.  It is to know rejection.  It is to face death at the hands of the world.

But the challenge is more than that.  Look specifically at the end of the list.  To know Christ is to endure all these negative things and have it not affect your outlook.  It is to be treated as imposters but to live as true people.  It is to be treated as unknown, and yet live as thought we are well known.  It is to be treated as though we are dying, yet live!  It is to be treated as punished, and yet live in spite of the abuse.  It is to be treated with sorrowful, yet live in a state of rejoicing.  It is to be treated as having nothing to offer, yet live to making many rich in Christ.  It is to be treated as having nothing, yet live knowing that we are in relationship with the person who owns everything.

To follow Christ is the challenge of living dichotomy.  From a worldly perspective we will give up much.  But we are to live with a smile on our face and joy in our hearts because we have it all.  The challenge is to keep our eye on the prize: eternal dwelling with God the Father!

<>< 

Year 5, Day 84: 1 Corinthians 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

This last chapter of this book ends on both a note of challenge and a note of invitation.  Paul reminds them about their invitation to be godly.  They have a hope of a future life to come!  He reminds them about the love of our Lord!  He reminds them of God’s grace.  He reminds them about the importance of acting in love.  He even invites them into the work that God desires to do among the orphans and widows in Jerusalem.  There are physical and emotional invitations at the close of this letter. 

As followers of God, we are always being invited into greater things.  We should always be mindful of the great things into which we have been invited.  Is there anything greater than the love of God?  Is there anything greater than the grace of God?  Is there anything better than being allowed to work side-by-side with God in how He is moving in the world?

However, Paul also reminds the Corinthians of the challenge.  If we are to work side-by-side with God, we will have to be strong.  We will have to be courageous.  We will need to be faithful.  We will need to plan ahead.  We will have to submit to the authority of the spiritually strong. These are not easy things to do.  Most of them are just not human nature.  These are challenges in our life, challenges to which we must rise.

The life of a follower of God is always remembering our invitation into relationship with God.  Then it is about living out that invitation in challenging ways that cause us to rise above our human nature.

<><

Year 5, Day 32: Romans 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

The path to salvation always begins in invitation.  That’s largely what we spoke about yesterday.  God calls us to be righteous.  God calls us to follow Him.  God calls us to know His Spirit.  All of those things are true, and all of those things fall under the greater umbrella of invitation.

God invites to be in a relationship with Him.  He doesn’t tell us that we are not worthy.  Rather, He accepts that we are not worthy and then brings the invitation.  He recognizes our weakness and our struggle.  And He invites us anyway.  This is why salvation is by God’s grace and not by our works.  That's why both Jew and Gentile can have a place in God!

However, We must also realize that challenge follows invitation.  While God recognizes our depravity and our inability to be in relationship with Him, He doesn’t want us to stay there!  He wants us to be children of the promise, not children of the Law!  God promises that if we turn to Him and if we seek Him that we shall find Him.  He also promises us that the reward is great for those who sacrifice their own agendas in order to follow Him.

<><

Year 4, Day 361: 1 Kings 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

As we read through this chapter, we see that God is incredibly gracious to the people of Israel.  He allows them to be victorious against a superior force of the Syrians.  He is gracious and allows Ahab to truly see that He is God – far more God than Ba’al could ever be.  Even though Ahab doesn’t deserve it, God is still inviting him into His grace.

What does Ahab do with this invitation?  He certainly doesn’t recognize God.  He certainly doesn’t judge the Syrians as God gave them into his hands to be judged.  Neither does he take the opportunity to talk to the Syrians about how God is stronger than the god of the Syrians.  No, Ahab turns it into an opportunity to make money.  Ahab gets a treaty out of it.  Ahab turns God’s invitation into his own personal gain.

What do we do with God’s invitation to know Him more deeply?  Do we turn His blessings upon us into avenues for proclamation of God’s name?  I know I could certainly do much better responding to God’s invitation to relationship.  Far too often I take God’s invitation and merrily go on my way.  I need to do a better job responding to God.

<><

Year 4, Day 326: 2 Samuel 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

This is a great chapter to look at the concept of invitation and challenge.  Clearly this is a chapter where there is an abundance of invitation.  David seeks to remember and honor Jonathon’s name.  So he seeks out and invites Jonathon’s son and literally welcomes him into his family.  By inviting Mephibosheth to eat as his table, David is inviting him into the family permanently.  You don’t get much more invitation than that.

However, the invitation comes with a bit of challenge.  As I explain in the theological commentary from three years ago, Mephibosheth was born into this world under the name Meribaal – which means “Ba’al is the advocate.”  Remember that Ba’al is the chief Canaanite god.  When this son of Jonathon comes to stay with David and becomes a part of David’s family, David changes his name.  Mephibosheth is a name that means “Scatterer of Shame.” 

So while David invites this son of Jonathon into his household, he is also giving him a challenge.  David asks him to give up any part of his life that touches Ba’al.  David asks this son of Jonathon to focus on God and live according to God’s ways.  David gives us a great model here of how challenge and invitation can be calibrated properly.

<><

Year 4, Day 285: Ruth 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

A few days ago I was pretty harsh on Naomi.  That part of the story wasn’t her shining moment.  But here in chapter 3 Naomi gets it right and it is marvelous to behold.  Naomi correctly calibrates challenge and invitation with Ruth.

Let’s take a look at what Naomi does.  Naomi senses that it is time for Ruth to move along, find a new husband, and find God’s provision for her in her life.  This doesn’t mean Naomi is pushing Ruth out of her life; Naomi is just prodding her into God’s calling.  Naomi does this through challenge and invitation.

Look at the huge amount of challenge that Naomi puts in Ruth’s life.  Here’s what Naomi essentially says to Ruth.  First, go find that man you just met.  Then wait for him to fall asleep.  Then uncover his feet and lay there.  When he wakes up, put yourself at his mercy and listen to whatever he has to say.

Talk about challenge!  Imagine putting yourself in Ruth’s position.  Could you do that?  Do you have the obedience within you?  Do you have the trust within you?  Do you have the faithfulness within you?  How would you have responded to that challenge?

But Naomi also gives her invitation.  She comforts Ruth and tells her than Boaz is a kind man and a kinsman redeemer.  Naomi puts Ruth in a place for success, not a place for failure.  Naomi comforts Ruth after the fact saying that Boaz is a man of his word and he will take care of the situation on that very day.

Chapter three is a wonderful chapter where we see challenge and invitation being calibrated quite well.  In this chapter, Naomi is the star mentor.  Naomi does a great job at putting God’s character on display within these words.

<><

Year 4, Day 228: Luke 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

The story of Zacchaeus is a great story through which we can see invitation and challenge.  These two dynamics must always be calibrated with the people we meet.  They need not always be in balance, but they do need to be appropriately calibrated for the people that God brings into our life.

At first Zacchaeus feels the invitation.  Jesus Christ is coming to town.  He runs like a little kid to see this powerful and well-known person.  Now pay attention here.  Zacchaeus, a very wealthy man, runs to Jesus.  The wealthy people don’t usually run to see celebrities; they know that the celebrity will run to come to them. 

Jesus passes by and senses the opportunity.  He looks up to Zacchaeus and seizes the opportunity.  He invites Zacchaeus into relationship.

Then comes the challenge.  You see, Jesus doesn’t invite just to make us feel good.  Jesus invites in order that we should know change.  Jesus invites so that we may become more like Him.  Jesus challenges Zacchaeus with his life so that he can experience change.  And we know that Zacchaeus does experience change.  He commits to making it right with all the people from whom he stole.

<>< 

Year 4, Day 216: Luke 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Luke 7 is a great chapter.  There are four incredible stories involving the compassion of Jesus, which you can read more about by following the link above to the theological commentary.  In this chapter we see the compassion of Jesus heal the servant of a Gentile.  We hear about Jesus raising a young dead man – probably a Jew – to life.  We hear Jesus speak words of compassion into the life of John the Baptizer as he despairs in prison.  We hear Jesus speak compassion into the life of the woman who comes before her and bears her soul in a humble act of service for Jesus.

Where does this compassion lead?  In every case, the compassion is intended to lead into invitation.  Jesus wants the centurion – who had funded the local synagogue – to come into a deeper relationship with God.  Clearly there was some relationship; Jesus wants to invite him to go deeper.  Jesus wants the woman to know the depth of God’s love for her and her dead son.  Jesus wants John the Baptizer to be invited to see the bigger picture of what God is up to in his life – even though John is in prison and going to die.  Jesus wants this woman who comes before Him to know that she is welcome in the kingdom regardless of what she has done.

Compassion is often about invitation to bring us into greater relationship with the Father.  The Father truly loves us.  His compassion is simply a natural display of His greater love and His call.

<>< 

Year 4, Day 209: Joshua 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.

Yesterday I spoke about challenge.  Don’t be fooled.  There is a high amount of challenge in this chapter.  The verses after following the most famous quote in Joshua are almost all challenge.  Joshua knows how tough it will be for the people to stay obedient to God.  The challenge is not being one of those people.

However, there is a tremendous amount of invitation in this chapter as well.  The whole set of opening verses are invitation.  Joshua reminds the people that they have taken possession of a land for which God did most of the fighting.  They are taking possession of trees they did not plant, vineyards they did not tend, cities they did not build, stone they did not quarry, wells they did not dig, etc.  This is a huge amount of invitation given by Joshua.  He reminds the people that they are welcome to come into God’s provision for their life.

Furthermore, Joshua literally invites them to choose.  He reminds them that they do not have to obey.  They are not under an obligation to follow God.  They can choose disobedience if they want.  Admittedly, in choosing disobedience they are likewise choosing death.  But they have that choice.  They are invited to choose.

So what is it for you?  Do you feel the invitation by God to come into a life you did not earn?  What will you choose?

<>< 

Year 4, Day 196: Joshua 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation, Challenge

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I am going to go a little outside of the box today.  Usually when we think about invitation and challenge we talk about people who are already in a positive relationship with one another.  I believe that is actually the proper context.  Invitation and challenge are best calibrated through the lens of relationship.

Certainly this chapter is not about relationship.  The Hebrew people and the northern kings are not in relationship with each other.  In fact, they are at war.

That’s actually my point.

Those northern kings are not in a position to even hear the invitation and challenge of God.  God would welcome relationship with them, but they are not in a place to hear the invitation.  God would teach them how to become His people, but they are not in a place to respond to the challenge.  They are by default closed to relationship with God.  That is why God has brought war to their doorstep.

It is next to impossible to speak invitation and challenge into people unless there is relationship to support the message.  For us, the lesson is indeed rather simple.  Our task is to put ourselves daily into the place where we can hear the invitation and challenge of God our Father.  We do not want to be like those Canaanite kings.

<>< 

Year 4, Day 20: Genesis 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation, Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from God.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.

The story of Isaac and Ishmael is a great lens through which we can look at identity.  If we look at Isaac, his identity is easy to establish.  He is the promised child of Abraham and Sarah.  He is created through God’s power in opening up Sarah’s womb.  His identity is clearly rooted in God’s handiwork.

Ishmael is a more difficult person to look at with respect to identity.  He’s the product of a human plan.  He’s the child of a union between a man and his slave.  From a worldly perspective, he doesn’t have a great hope for identity.  Yet, God gives Ishmael an identity.  God loves Ishmael in spite of his worldly origins.  For me, this is the powerful testimony in these verses.  Isaac’s identity is clearly rooted in God.  But Ishmael has an identity that is just as equally rooted in God’s love.

This happily leads us into the realm of invitation.  God desires us to be in relationship with Him.  He desires that we know Him.  He doesn’t care about our origins; He cares about our relationship with Him.  He invites us to come and know Him deeply.  He invites us to get our identity from Him, our Father.

<>< 

Year 4, Day 17: Genesis 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation, Challenge

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

As I look at these two stories in Genesis 18, the lens of invitation jumps out at me.  After all, in the first story we have God coming to Abraham and sharing with him the vision that within a year he will have a son born to him.  If that doesn’t scream invitation, I don’t know what does!  That story is all about God, His love, and allowing Abraham to experience His love through their relationship.

As we get to the end of that story, we hear God debating whether or not to clue in Abraham as to what He is about to do in Sodom.  I hear the struggle of God calibrating invitation and challenge with Abraham.  God had just piled a huge amount of invitation on Abraham.  God wrestles with whether to allow Abraham to stay in the invitation or to draw him out into the challenge. 

What sticks with me is that God does draw Abraham out into the challenge.  He challenges Abraham with respect to Sodom.  Abraham responds.  Abraham rises to the challenge.  Abraham argues for the righteous people in Sodom.  He accepted God’s challenge and succeeds with high marks when God invited him into a spiritual challenge.  Abraham is God’s representative and even reminds God about the need to balance righteousness and love.

<>< 

Year 3, Day 356: Revelation 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Invitation & Challenge

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him.  He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I think that this passage about the woman is a great passage to see both invitation and challenge.  The woman brings forth God’s Messiah.  What an incredible invitation!  The woman understands her role in God’s kingdom.  She understands how God has come to her to bring God’s own Messiah into the world.  What an incredible opportunity for invitation!

However, there is also challenge.  In entering into relationship with God, the woman is made enemies with the dragon.  Her life is at risk.  She is in danger.  War is brought to her feet.  Here we see challenge in bold and crisp stripes.  This woman does not simply enter into relationship with God.  This woman accepts relationship and rises to the challenge of enduring war with the enemies of God.

<><