perfect

2011 Kingdomtide Reader

You have heard that it was said,

‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you,

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and

sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you

love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are

not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet

only your own people, what are you doing more than

others? Do not even pagans do that?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly

Father is perfect.Matthew 5:43-48 TNIV

managing editorJohn David (J.D.) Walt

associate editor Jill Sims

production manager Amanda Stamper

graphic designer Stephanie Wright

asbury theological seminary Asbury Theological Seminary

is a community called to prepare theologically educated,

sanctified, Spirit-filled men and women to evangelize and to spread scriptural holiness

throughout the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the

power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father.

asburyseminary.edu 800.2ASBURY

a s b u ry t h e o lo g i c a l s e m i n a ry

SP12 Reader Specs:

Inside pages: 6.25x8.5, XXX numbered pages; 1/1; no bleed; perfect boundArt pages: 6.25x8.5; 18 numbered pages/9 final pages, inserted every 16 pages starting at pg. 16; 4/4, full bleedCover: 13.125x8.5; 4/1, full bleed ??aprox. size based on my guess on spine

2011 fall reader

2 Asbury Theological Seminary

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Prefacepreparing for the reading journey

Grace comes to us when Word and Spirit come together. Word without Spirit breeds legalism. Spirit without Word leads to license. Legalism and license push grace to the margins.

Grace, however, will not be marginalized. Perhaps this is why Jesus tended to do his work on the margins, among marginalized people. He spent his days with people broken by legalism and lost in licentious living. In Jesus we see Word and Spirit dwell in perfect union. John put it this way, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Legalism and license and the false communities they form often originate from broken ways of reading Scripture. A controlling conservatism fosters legalism. A liberal looseness breeds license.

Only Jesus can teach us how to read this holy book. He doesn’t navigate a “middle way” between these two ditches. By the power of Word and Spirit and in the fullness of Grace and Truth, Jesus creates a whole new world.

His authority derives from his divinity, but it convinces through his humanity. In him proclamation and demonstration unite. He wants the same for us. “Be perfect,” he says, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” On another occasion he said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shares with us the secret of perfect. It is himself.

Six words frame the introduction to this, the greatest sermon of all time. “And he began to teach them.”

We are “them.”

Day by day we are learning to give him our undivided attention to behold him that we might become like him. He’s teaching us how to read along the way. Here’s a bit of what we’re learning:

1. invoke the holy Spirit. The ancient liturgy simplifies and clarifies: “When the Lord Jesus ascended he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.”1

John Wesley, in the preface to his notes on the Old Testament offers some “best practices,” as relates to reading Scripture.

Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used before we consult the oracles of God; seeing ‘Scripture can only be understood through the same Spirit whereby it was given.’ Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written on our hearts.2

2. read for relationship, not results. Dr. Robert Mulholland, in his celebrated book, Shaped by the Word, makes a contrast between “informational” and “formational” approaches to Scripture.

Human cultures are increasingly shaped by an informational mode of being and doing. This informational mode is an integral part of what I call the ‘functional’ orientation of human cultures. Our cultures seek more information (new facts, new bodies of knowledge, new techniques, new methods, new systems, new programs) in order to improve their functional control of their world.


Instead of the text being an object we control and manipulate according to our own insight and purposes, the text becomes the subject of the reading relationship; we are the objects that are being shaped by the text. 3

3. immersion not extraction. Our functional approach to Scripture is pervasive. We constantly search for a genius insight, a spiritual nugget, a pearl for the next sermon, some fresh new application point. All the while, right there on the surface, the wisdom of God shines like the sun. In a recent conversation about Scripture a student remarked that the Bible was a gold mine, implying the necessity of mining it for treasure. An epiphany struck me in that instant, and I retorted, “The Word of God doesn’t have to be mined for gold. It is the gold.” In fact, the Psalmist says, “It is more precious than gold, than much pure gold. It is sweeter than honey; than honey from the comb,” (Psalm 19:10). While I champion inductive Bible study (IBS), I here champion a way prerequisite to IBS. Immersive reading must precede inductive study. When the reader becomes abandoned to the world of the text, the text becomes organically applicable to the world of the reader.

4. Less is more. Slow down. Thomas Merton once said something to this effect concerning his approach to reading Scripture: “Cover less ground, more slowly.” Psalm 1 brilliantly reminds us that “[o]ur delight is in the law of the Lord and on his Law [we] meditate day and night.” The Spirit longs to awaken our delight in the Word of God. I have read the Bible in a daily fashion (but hardly every day!) since I was 14. Over the years I’ve developed an unfortunate familiarity with much of the book. It’s not the familiarity that fosters deeper love, but one that breeds contempt.

The Sermon on the Mount serves as a good example. I got the gist of it. I knew what it was about. Truth be told, I spent more time reading The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Williard’s acclaimed book on Matthew 5-7, than I did the Sermon itself. The most significant discourse in human history, spoken by the second person of the Trinity somehow rated as fly-over” country for me. I repent.

For the past 40 days, my morning practice looks like this. I sit down in my front porch cathedral, coffee in hand, cue up Matthew 5-7 on my cell phone, invoke the Spirit, read the Sermon aloud and focus my attention on hearing every word. 4

Following this, I see what bubbles up in my spirit to meditate on and pray through. My mind takes on the shape of a record being grooved by the Word of God in the power of the Spirit. This little practice is changing me—slowly transforming the chaos of my distractedness into the creative order of love.

5. eat this book! From Ezekiel (3:1) to Jeremiah (15:16) to John (Rev. 10:10), those caught up in the intensity of inspiration understand that mere reading and thinking will never get it done. Eugene Peterson, in his text, Eat This Book: A Conversation on the Art of Spiritual Reading, likens the best reading practices to a dog chewing on a bone. He points out the Hebrew word hagah usually translates as meditate, as in Psalm 1 and 63. However, he references Isaiah’s use of the term at 31:4, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey…” noting,

“‘Meditate’ seems more suited to what I do in a quiet chapel on my knees with a candle burning on the altar… But when Isaiah’s lion and my dog meditated they chewed and swallowed, using teeth and tongue, stomach and intestines: Isaiah’s lion meditating his goat (if that’s what it was); my dog meditating his bone. There is a certain kind of writing that invites this kind of reading, soft purrs and low growls as we taste and savor, anticipate and

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take in the sweet and spicy, mouth-watering and soul-energizing morsel of words—‘O taste and see that the Lord is good!’” (Ps. 34:8) 5

6. read together. Why not everyone just be a law unto themselves as relates to reading Scripture? (i.e. wherever the Spirit leads). The richest reading happens on the way as called “together.” So let us write these words on flash cards and hide them in our hearts together. Let’s twitter about this word when we get up and when we lie down, and let’s talk about it when we walk along the road together. Let’s bind this word to our wrists and text it to one another in the library. Let us fix it on our laptops as screen savers, sketch it on the walls like graffiti and sing pray and preach about it in Chapel. In this fashion the Word day by day shapes our community and by the power of the Spirit becomes enfleshed in the streets.

That’s what this Common Text Reader is all about. It’s an experiment to see if a disconnected, dislocated federation of people who happen to take classes at the same school can practice their way into holy love together. It’s what we call ALICE, short for “A Life in Common Experiment.” (Learn more about ALICE in the appendix.)

7. practice the Word in the World. The great enlightenment project sold us a bill of goods in promising that right thinking leads to right practice. The Hebrews had it right all along. Right practice leads to right thinking. According to the Great Preacher, there are two kinds of people. Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice… and Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice… The only difference? Practice. Only following Jesus leads us into the narrow, winding way of the Word in the World, blurring the boundaries between Samaria and synagogue, seminaries and slums and suburbs.

As the old adage goes, “practice makes perfect.” For a thousand uncommon days at the launch of the Common Era we beheld the perfection of practice. By the grace and power of the Word and Holy Spirit working together, practice will make Perfect in us.

Prayer and Faith,

John David Walt, Jr. Vice President for Community Formation

1 “A Service of Word and Table I, United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1989) 10.

2 John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3rd ed. (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1979), XIV, 252f.

3 M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Shaped by the Word (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1985, 2000) 50-51, 57.

4 Why read aloud? I am increasingly convinced that the Word of God was meant to be heard even more than read. Think about it. The Hebrew religion is an aural religion. Prior to being written down, the revelation was carefully preserved and passed down orally. When it was written down, who could possibly have their own copy, much less read it? Our Father exhorts us to “Listen to him.” Listening requires hearing. Hearing requires speaking. To see the text with one’s eyes, to speak with one’s mouth, to hear with one’s ears, to engage with one’s mind and to embrace in one’s heart—this approach is a fully embodied handling of Scripture.

5 Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006) 2.


An excerpt from the preface to

John Wesley’s notes on the old Testament

18. If you desire to read the scripture in such a manner as may most effectually answer this end, would it not be advisable,

1. To set apart a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose?

2. At each time if you have leisure, to read a chapter out of the Old, and one out of the New Testament: if you cannot do this, to take a single chapter, or a part of one?

3. To read this with a single eye, to know the whole will of God, and a fixed resolution to do it? In order to know his will, you should,

4. Have a constant eye to the analogy of faith; the connexion and harmony there is between those grand, fundamental doctrines, Original Sin, Justification by Faith, the New Birth, Inward and Outward Holiness.

5. Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used, before we consult the oracles of God, seeing “scripture can only be understood through the same Spirit whereby it was given.” Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written on our hearts.

6. It might also be of use, if while we read, we were frequently to pause, and examine ourselves by what we read, both with regard to our hearts, and lives. This would furnish us with matter of praise, where we found God had enabled us to conform to his blessed will, and matter of humiliation and prayer, where we were conscious of having fallen short. And whatever light you then receive, should be used to the uttermost, and that immediately. Let there be no delay. Whatever you resolve, begin to execute the first moment you can. So shall you find this word to be indeed the power of God unto present and eternal salvation.

EDINBURGH,

April 25, 1765

John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3rd ed. (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1979), XIV, 252f.

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The CollectBlessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.Book of Common Prayer (1662).

Declare your intentions here:

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons and daughters of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

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Tuesday, September 6, 2o11

ListenAsbury Seminary faculty comment on the Sermon on the Mount at asburyreader.com.

BeholdMatthew 5:48 NIV

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Be Perfect“Perfect!” what a winsome word. We love to say it. “That’s perfect!” The word exudes excitement, satisfaction, fulfillment and an overall joyful sense of goodness. Not so with the word “perfection.” Perfection implies an unattainable standard and an endless quest to measure up. Semantics you say? Humor the distinction. In making the contrast, we intend to separate the tortured-ness of perfectionism and travail from the “givenness” of grace and truth.

perfection demands striving and achieving.

perfect invites beholding and becoming.

perfection sets a standard that must be achieved. It breeds performance and perfectionism.

perfect reveals a quality of heart that can only be received. It beckons humility and attention.


Wednesday, September 7

Behold Matthew 5:48 NIV

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 MSG

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

BecomeWriting in the 18th century, John Wesley got into a lot of trouble with a small tract he published entitled, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.” The tract itself made attempt to clarify what he meant by perfection. Church leaders thought he meant a person can be completely and utterly without sin, fault or flaw, and they utterly rejected the teaching. What he meant was the perfection of love.

Wesley responded that to “be perfect” is nothing more than “plain scriptural Christianity.” He preached far and wide of its possibility, that we are not held in oppression by the gravity of sin. Scripture does not present us with high and lofty ideals whose attainment is impossible. The Bible paints a portrait of the beautiful possibility of holiness. To be “perfect” in the biblical sense boils down to two words, “Holy Love.” It is to be filled continually with the Holy Love of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Wesley knew only the poetic could hope to grasp such a vision.

Be PerfectThis is the rest, the life, the peace, Which all thy people prove; Love is the bond of perfectness, And all their soul is love.

O joyful sound of gospel grace! Christ shall in me appear; I, even I, shall see his face, I shall be holy here!

He visits now the house of clay, He shakes his future home; — O would’st thou, Lord, on this glad day, Into thy temple come!

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Come, O my God, thyself reveal, Fill all this mighty void; Thou only canst my spirit fill: Come, O my God, my God!

Fulfill, fulfill my large desires, Large as infinity! Give, give me all my soul requires, All, all that is in thee! John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.

Your Handwriting Here:


Thursday, September 8

Behold Isaiah 58:1-14 MSG

“Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!

Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins!

They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me.

To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people— law-abiding, God-honoring.

They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ and love having me on their side.

But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?

Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

“Well, here’s why:

“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.

You drive your employees much too hard.

You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.

You fast, but you swing a mean fist.

The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground.

Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility?

To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?

Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, GOD, would like?

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes,

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putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.

Your righteousness will pave your way.

The GOD of glory will secure your passage.

Then when you pray, GOD will answer.

You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.

I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

“If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,

If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, GOD’s holy day as a celebration,

If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there—

Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD!

Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.

I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”

Yes! GOD says so!


Be PerfectTo get change you must establish contrast. Prophets are change-agents. They powerfully challenge people to move from an old and broken way into a new and living way. Soon we will hear Jesus draw a series of contrasts along these lines when he says, “You have heard it said…but I say…” Isaiah employs a similar strategy here. He contrasts a “religious” form of fasting with a “real” form of it. In doing so he exposes the most dangerous phenomenon to the people of God. We call it hypocrisy. Their fasting is a charade. On the outside they look quite “holy.” But behind the scenes they exploit their employees. They make it about the appearance of perfection. The prophet casts a vision of what is perfect.


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Friday, September 9

Behold Matthew 3:1-17 NASB

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

‘Make ready the way of the Lord,

Make his paths straight!’”

Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”

But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Become “This great gift of God, the salvation of our souls, is no other than the image of God fresh stamped on our hearts. It is a ‘renewal of believers in the spirit of their minds, after the likeness of Him that created them.’ God hath now laid ‘the axe unto the root of the tree, purifying their hearts by faith,’ and ‘cleansing all the thoughts of their hearts by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit.’ Having this hope, that they shall see God as he is, they `purify themselves even as he is pure,’ and are ‘holy, as he that hath

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“You are the

salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by others.

“You are the

light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”


called them is holy, in all manner of conversation.’ Not that they have already attained all that they shall attain, either are already in this sense perfect. But they daily ‘go on from strength to strength; beholding’ now, ‘as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.’” John Wesley, Christian Perfection.

Be Perfect We see a lot of religious perfection throughout the Bible yet it stands in stark contrast with the way God goes about perfect. Matthew opens his Jesus story with a genealogical record, tracing his lineage all the way back through David to Abraham. Matthew establishes genealogical perfection to develop proof for his readers. Look closer. In these days no one included women in an official genealogy. Matthew names no less than five. First there’s Tamar, who posed as a prostitute to deceive Judah into sleeping with her. Rahab, a bonafide prostitute, comes next. Then comes Ruth, the Moabite? Gentiles in the genealogy of the King of the Jews! You bet. Following comes a name so unmentionable in the annals of Israel she isn’t even named. Matthew refers to her as Solomon’s mother, noting she had been Uriah’s wife. Remember Uriah, the Hittite, whom David essentially murdered after practically raping his wife? Finally, we see the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who as a teenager became pregnant out of wedlock by the Holy Spirit. Perfection? Far from it. Perfect? Absolutely!


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Saturday, September 10

Behold Matthew 4:1-11 TNIV

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Become This Word is not a spelled-out Word; it is a lived-out Word. He is indeed the speech of eternity translated into the language of time, but the language is a Life. God’s method is a Man. Jesus is God speaking to the man in the street. He is God meeting me in my environment, a human environment. He is God showing his character in the place where our characters are formed. He is the human life of God. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount,.

Be Perfect perfection tries to turn stones into bread.

perfect lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God.


Sunday, September 11

Behold Matthew 4:12-17 NLT

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. But instead of going to Nazareth, he went to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy:

“In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali,

beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River—

in Galilee where so many Gentiles live—

the people who sat in darkness

have seen a great light.

And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow,

a light has shined.”

From then on, Jesus began to preach, “Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Become The Kingdom: You enter it personally. You live in it corporately. E. Stanley Jones, --Song of Ascents.

Be Perfect perfection excludes enemies with prejudice.

perfect embraces them with blessing.

perfection requires change before people are accepted. perfect accepts people as they are.

perfection is a curse. perfect is a blessing.

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Monday, September 12


Behold Isaiah 35:1-10 NASB

The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus it will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there,



Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Be Perfectperfect frees us to become.

perfection enslaves us with never quite getting there.

perfect smells of Heaven. perfection reeks of Hell.


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Tuesday, September 13

Behold Matthew 4:18-25 NRSV

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Become “Blessed,” or happy, “are the poor in spirit.” Happy are the mourners; the meek; those that hunger after righteousness; the merciful; the pure in heart: Happy in the end, and in the way; happy in this life, and in life everlasting! As if he had said, “Who is he that lusteth to live, and would fain see good days? Behold, I show you the thing which your soul longeth for! See the way you have so long sought in vain; the way of pleasantness; the path to calm, joyous peace, to heaven below and heaven above!”John Wesley, Sermon 21, Prol. 8.

Be Perfectperfect offers a gift to be received.

perfection requires a standard that must be achieved.

perfect revels in joy. perfection resigns its victims in despair.

perfect orients around the love of others. perfection revolves around the protection of self.




One day as the crowds were gathering, Jesus went up the mountainside with his disciples and sat down to teach them. This is what he taught them:

“God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them.

God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full.

God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too.”

Be Perfect“Blessed,” or happy, “are the poor in spirit.” Happy are the mourners; the meek; those that hunger after righteousness; the merciful; the pure in heart: Happy in the end, and in the way; happy in this life, and in life everlasting! As if he had said, “Who is he that lusteth to live, and would fain see good days? Behold, I show you the thing which your soul longeth for! See the way you have so long sought in vain; the way of pleasantness; the path to calm, joyous peace, to heaven below and heaven above!”John Wesley, Sermon 21, Prol. 8.

2011 Fall Reader 23


Behold Matthew 5:13-20 MSG

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

“Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.

“Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.”

Be PerfectOur present-day Christianity, anemic and weak from the parasites that have fastened themselves on its life through the centuries, needs a blood-transfusion from the Sermon on the Mount in order to renew radiant health within it and that it may throw off these parasites and arise to serve and save the world.E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that it was saidto the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,

and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”


Friday, September 16


“You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the high council. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

“So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Come to terms quickly with your enemy before it is too late and you are dragged into court, handed over to an officer, and thrown in jail. I assure you that you won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.”

Be PerfectThe greatest need of modern Christianity is the rediscovery of the Sermon on the Mount as the only practical way to live. Now we have an undertone of doubt and fear that it is not workable. We feel that it is trying to give human nature a bent that it will not take; it is trying to force something on us for which human nature is not made…Chesterton says that on the first reading you feel that it turns everything upside down, but the second time you read it you discover that it turns everything right side up. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.


2011 Fall Reader 25



“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes,’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

Be PerfectThere is a beyond-ness in the sermon on the Mount that startles and appalls the legalistic mind. It sees no limit to duty—the first mile does not suffice, he will go two; the coat is not enough, he will give the cloak also; to love friends is not enough, he will love enemies as well. Come to that with the legalistic mind and it is impossible and absurd; come to it with the mind of the lover and nothing else is possible. The lover’s attitude is not one of duty, but one of privilege. Here is the key to the Sermon on the Mount. We mistake it entirely if we look on it as the chart of the Christian’s duty, rather it is the charter of the Christian’s liberty—his liberty to go beyond, to do the thing that love impels and not merely the thing that duty compels. The fact is that this is not a law at all, but a lyre which we strike with the fingers of love in glad devotion.

E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.




“Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Be PerfectThe perfect life consists in being poor in spirit, in mourning, in being meek, in hungering and thirsting after righteousness, in being merciful, pure in heart, in being a peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness sake and yet rejoicing and being exceeding glad, in being the salt of the earth, the light of the world, having a righteousness that exceeds, in being devoid of anger with the brother, using no contemptuous words, allowing no one to hold anything against one, having the spirit of quick agreement, no inward lustful thinking, relentless against anything that offends against the highest, right relations in the home life, truth in speech and attitude, turning the other cheek, giving the cloak also, going the second mile, giving to those who ask and from those who would borrow turning not away, loving even one’s enemies, praying for those who persecute—thus you will be sons of your Father and you will be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 27




“Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give a gift to someone in need, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone, don’t tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

“And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.

May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

Give us our food for today, and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.”



Be PerfectNo matter how much we may point to our creeds she insists on pointing us to the pattern shown her in the Mount. The fact is that the Sermon on the Mount is not in our creeds. As the Apostles’ Creed now stands you can accept every word of it and leave the essential self untouched. Suppose we had written in it our creeds and had repeated each time with conviction: I believe in the Sermon on the Mount and in its way of life, and I intend, God helping me, to embody it”? What would have happened? I feel sure that if this had been our main emphasis, the history of Christendom would have been different. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.


2011 Fall Reader 29



“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot faithfully serve both God and Money.“

Be PerfectHe was not presenting a new set of laws, but demanding a new loyalty to his person. The loyalty to his person was to be expressed in carrying out the things he embodied. He was the embodiment of the Sermon on the Mount, and to be loyal to him meant to be loyal to his way of life. “For righteousness sake” was the word of the past; “for my sake” was the new word. “For righteousness sake” was the fulfillment of a law; “for my sake” was the fulfillment of a Life… the new law was a Life. This lifted goodness out of legalism and based it on love. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.





“So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.

“And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!

“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Be PerfectIn forty-five living verses (Matthew 5:3-47) he poured into the goal of perfection such a warm, human and this-worldly content that the goal, when stated, though not bounded by this life, was yet firmly grounded in this life and was one that must be wrought in human relationships. The key to the verse, “Be ye therefore perfect,” is the word “therefore.” It points back, not merely to the preceding verses as some have thought, but to the whole of what he had been saying. It gathers up and pours into verse forty-eight the whole of the forty-five preceding verses and makes these the content of the perfection. From these verses we find that there are twenty-seven marks of the perfect life, and these marks show how deeply social and yet how deeply individual the ideal is. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 31



“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Be PerfectMost of us look on the Sermon on the Mount as a series of disconnected, or at the best very loosely connected, ethical exhortations. This, it seems to me, misses its point and its purpose. It has a center, and the entire Sermon revolves about that center, so that it is a coordinated whole. The center is the astonishing statement, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Around this as the central ideal the Sermon revolves as on a pivot. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother or sister;

then come and offer your gift.

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”




“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.

“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.

“Knowing the correct password—saying “Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ’You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’”

Be PerfectThe final goal of each of the systems might be stated as follows:

Hebrews: Ye therefore shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, even as Jehovah your God will reward you.

Hinduism: Ye therefore shall be merged into the Impersonal, even into Brahma, the Impersonal.

Buddhism: Ye therefore shall dwell on the borderland of being and not-being, even as Nirvana is being and not being.

Islam: Ye therefore shall have a paradise of pleasure, even as Allah, the Almighty wills.

The Greeks: Ye therefore shall dwell with the gods and be happy, even as the gods are brightly and sensuously happy.

Humanism: Ye therefore shall cease to be, even as all things shall end in dissolution.

Christ: Ye therefore shall be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 33



“Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”

After Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught as one who had real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

Become We call this the Sermon on the Mount. In doing so we do it an injustice and lower its tone. In a sermon we take a text and expound it. There is nothing of that here. This is not a sermon—it is a portrait, a portrait of Jesus himself, and of the Father and of the man-to-be. True, he does not set out to present a portrait of himself, but as he draws the lines in the picture of the Father and of the man-to-be we find he is dipping his brush into the deeps of his own life and experience, and gradually we see that “one dear Face,” the interpretation of both God and man. We have not the lines of a code but the lineaments of a Character. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

Be PerfectBut will this ideal work? Is it practicable? Just here is the central area of our skepticism. We are not quite sure that the Sermon on the Mount is the Sermon for the smart. We are not sure, and an unsure place is an unsafe place. We must go on or go back. We must be more Christian or less. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.




Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”

Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”

Become “And what is it which He is teaching?” John Wesley asks. “The Son of God, who came from heaven, is here showing us the way to heaven; to the place which he hath prepared for us; the glory he had before the world began. He is teaching us the true way to life everlasting; the royal way which leads to the kingdom; and the only true way.”John Wesley, Sermon 21, Prol. 3.

Be Perfect The laws of religious perfection required lepers to live on the outside of established communities. To come in contact with a leper meant the height of imperfection. They had a word for the leper: “Unclean.” Jesus, the Perfect One, runs beyond the boundary of the law, skipping past his own self-interest and touches the leper with healing. A simple word from his mouth would have done. So why did he physically touch the man? Maybe he wanted us to see how perfect works.

2011 Fall Reader 35




As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”

Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”

“Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”

Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.

Be PerfectBut the Life was truly human. He met life as a man. He called on no power for his own moral battle that is not at your disposal and mine. He did perform miracles, but only for others and in answer to human need. He performed no miracles for himself. His character was an achievement. Everything he laid before men in the words spoken on the Mount had gone through his own soul. They were livable, for he was living them. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.




By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.

That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:

He took our illnesses,

He carried our diseases.

Be PerfectThe thing that the sermon on the mount (ch. 5-7) and the ensuing 10 mighty acts of healing (ch. 8-9) have in common is an emphasis on Jesus word. Virtually all of the healings Jesus performs in chapters 8-9 he does by the speaking of a word. It is quite possible and likely that Matthew wants the reader to understand that in chapters 5-7 Jesus’ teaching word is interpreted in light of his healing word in chapters 8-9. There is healing and wholeness in his teaching. Conversely Jesus’ teaching word in 5-7 suggests that the healings of Jesus also teach and instruct regarding discipleship. In chapters 8-9 you have ten mighty acts of healing arranged in three groups. Each group is separated by instructions concerning discipleship. Matthew has so told the stories of Jesus’ healings in 8-9 as to teach through the way he heals; to teach about discipleship. His teaching word informs his healing word and his healing word informs his teaching word.

Dr. David Bauer, Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Asbury Theological Seminary.

Listen to Dr. Bauer teach on the Sermon on the Mount at asburyreader.com.

2011 Fall Reader 37



Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.

A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.

They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. The demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

And he said to them, “Go!” So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.

Be Perfect1. It is generally supposed, that repentance and faith are only the gate of religion; that they are

necessary only at the beginning of our Christian course, when we are setting out in the way to the kingdom. And this may seem to be confirmed by the great Apostle, where, exhorting the Hebrew Christians to “go on to perfection,” he teaches them to leave these first “principles of the doctrine of Christ;” “not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God;” which must at least mean, that they should comparatively leave these, that at first took up all their thoughts, in order to “press forward toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”



2. And this is undoubtedly true, that there is a repentance and a faith, which are, more especially, necessary at the beginning: a repentance, which is a conviction of our utter sinfulness, and guiltiness, and helplessness; and which precedes our receiving that kingdom of God, which, our Lord observes, is “within us;” and a faith, whereby we receive that kingdom, even “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

3. But, notwithstanding this, there is also a repentance and a faith (taking the words in another sense, a sense not quite the same, nor yet entirely different) which are requisite after we have “believed the gospel;” yea, and in every subsequent stage of our Christian course, or we cannot “run the race which is set before us.” And this repentance and faith are full as necessary, in order to our continuance and growth in grace, as the former faith and repentance were, in order to our entering into the kingdom of God.

John Wesley, Sermon 14: The Repentance of Believers.


2011 Fall Reader 39



Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”

“Blasphemy! This man talks like he is God!” some of the teachers of religious law said among themselves.

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why are you thinking such evil thoughts? Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, take your mat, and go on home, because you are healed!” And the man jumped up and went home!

Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen right before their eyes. They praised God for sending a man with such great authority.

As Jesus was going down the road, he saw Matthew sitting at his tax-collection booth. “Come, be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

That night Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. The Pharisees were indignant. “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” they asked his disciples.

When he heard this, Jesus replied, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices.’ For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.”

One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

Jesus responded, “Should the wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Someday he will be taken from them, and then they will fast.

“And who would patch an old garment with unshrunk cloth? For the patch shrinks and pulls away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger hole than before.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. That way both the wine and the wineskins are preserved.”


“You have heard that it was said

Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said

to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”


Become It is evident, this divine temper is not only to abide but to increase in us day by day. Occasions of exercising, and thereby increasing it, will never be wanting while we remain upon earth. “We have need of patience, that after we have done” and suffered “the will of God, we may receive the promise.” We have need of resignation, that we may in all circumstances say, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” And we have need of “gentleness toward all men;” but especially toward the evil and unthankful: Otherwise we shall be overcome of evil, instead of overcoming evil with good. John Wesley, Sermon 22, Section 1, Point 6.

Be PerfectYou say you want a revolution. Perfection picks an army. Perfect chooses a traitor. In the eyes of Israel, Matthew the Tax Collector must have been a blow. Only a Nazi would be more despised.


2011 Fall Reader 41



While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”

Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples. And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”

But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well.

When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder, He said, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. This news spread throughout all that land.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.

As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Be PerfectI do not argue the question as to whether anything happens in prayer—I simply testify: it does. It works. It was said of Jesus that he prayed all night upon the mountain, and when he came down in the morning “the power of the Lord was present to heal.” Of course it was. The power of the Lord will be present to heal through us if we give ourselves to prayer. “The streams that turn the machinery of the world have their rise in solitary places.” Those who move this age toward God have moved out of this age to the solitary places. Then they come back with power. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Every Road.


Saturday, October 1

Behold Ezekiel 34:1-16 NLT

Then this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD:

“‘Destruction is certain for you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the broken bones. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty.

“‘So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd. They are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through the mountains and hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

“‘As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. Though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve.’

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.

“‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, along with their right to feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey.

“‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers in all the places where people live.

“‘Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in lush mountain pastures. I myself will tend my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign LORD. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them justice!’”

2011 Fall Reader 43

Be Perfectperfect appreciates through encouragement.

perfection depreciates through criticism.

perfect thrives in possibilities. perfection struggles with impossibility.

perfection demands proofs. perfect exudes a winsome witness.



Sunday, October 2

Behold Matthew 9:35-10:15 TNIV

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

“Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for workers are worth their keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at that person’s house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Be PerfectThe Greek philosophy tried to make a man invulnerable, but there was always an Achilles heel exposed where life would wound. The gospel begins at the cross, so that a man chooses to be utterly vulnerable—he wounds himself to death. Then he is impervious to wounds. You cannot defeat a man who has already accepted defeat; you cannot break Brokenness; you cannot kill a man who has chosen to die—he is now deathless. Buddha saw that the end of life was death and that it stopped there; Jesus saw that the beginning of life was death, and that it did not stop there but went on to an Easter morning. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 45

Monday, October 3



“Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

“Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

“When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.

“A student doesn’t get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn’t make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, ‘Dungface,’ what can the workers expect?

“Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now.

“Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.”

Be PerfectWe would expect Jesus to sound a more thoroughgoing, radical note in the very beginning. He does. The word Luke uses for “poor” is ani—one poor by circumstances, but the word used here is anav— one poor by choice. The word, then, that would come nearest to expressing its meaning would be “renounced in spirit.” E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.


Tuesday, October 4

Behold Matthew 10:32-11:1 MSG

“Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?

“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.

“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

“We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”

When Jesus finished placing this charge before his twelve disciples, he went on to teach and preach in their villages.

Be PerfectJesus strikes a blow at the self-assertive attitude in the very beginning. He says that this “self” must be renounced. In Mark 9:43, he says, “It is better to enter into life maimed,” and in verse 47: “It is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye.” Here “life” and “the kingdom of God” are used synonymously. This first beatitude could then read, “Deathless and happy are the renounced in spirit for theirs is life.” They have found life—found it by letting it go. This is another way of putting that verse which, to me, is the center of Christ’s teaching: “He that saveth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life shall find it.” E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 47

Wednesday, October 5

Behold Isaiah 61:1-11 NASB

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.

Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs.

For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. Then their offspring will be known among the nations, And their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed. I will rejoice greatly in the LORD,



‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.


‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons and daughters of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”


My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise To spring up before all the nations.

Isaiah 29:17-21 NRSV

Shall not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?

On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off— those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

Be PerfectTo describe the state of those who are right within he uses a word that is crammed full of meaning—“Blessed.” The word is makarios, a word which Aristotle used for divine blessedness in contrast with human happiness. The ordinary word for human happiness was eudamonia, but he passed that by as weak. Since we are to partake of the perfection that God has, so we are to partake of the joy that is divine. The first note of Buddha’s teaching is Suffering; the first note that Jesus strikes is Joy. But this happiness is not dependent on happenings. Its sources are within. “Blessed are.” So this note of joy is not a jazz note-cheap, easy and surface. It sounds the depths before it reaches the heights. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

2011 Fall Reader 49

Thursday, October 6


When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon;’ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Become But the word “blessed” is more than joyful; it means literally, “not subject to fate,” “deathless.” It depicts the kind of life that rises above the fated mechanism of earthly life into moral and spiritual freedom. So the two meanings taken together would give the meaning of blessed, that is, “to be deathless and happy.” E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.



Be PerfectThe great prophet finds himself in prison. He’s keeping up with the Messiah he prepared Israel for. But things aren’t turning out like he expected. His vision of perfection, of high places brought low and low places brought high; of rough ways made smooth and crooked ones straight, is not happening. He sends word to Jesus, “Are you really the one?” Jesus says neither yes or no, but answers, “Go and tell John, ‘The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and good news is preached to the poor.’” In the face of a perfection longed for, Jesus delivers more. He gives them a picture of perfect.


2011 Fall Reader 51

Friday, October 7


Then Jesus began to denounce the cities where he had done most of his miracles, because they hadn’t turned from their sins and turned to God. “What horrors await you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have sat in deep repentance long ago, clothed in sackcloth and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. I assure you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on the judgment day than you! And you people of Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in Sodom, it would still be here today. I assure you, Sodom will be better off on the judgment day than you.”

Then Jesus prayed this Prayer “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!

“My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”

Become The Sermon on the Mount seems dangerous. It challenges the whole underlying conception on which modern society is built. It would replace it by a new conception, animate it with a new motive, and turn it toward a new goal. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

Be Perfect perfection minds the Temple appearance and makes it a house of commerce.

perfect cleanses the House of God and declares it a temple for prayer.


Saturday, October 8


At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.

In his name the nations will put their hope.” [Isaiah 42:1-4]

Be PerfectThe Sermon on the Mount was and is seditious. It finally put Jesus on the cross, and it will do the same for his followers who follow it in modern life. But it would not end there. There would be a resurrection so great, so transforming in human living that we would know by actual experimentation that it is the only way for us to live.


2011 Fall Reader 53

Sunday, October 9


Next a poor demon-afflicted wretch, both blind and deaf, was set down before him. Jesus healed him, gave him his sight and hearing. The people who saw it were impressed— “This has to be the Son of David!”

But the Pharisees, when they heard the report, were cynical. “Black magic,” they said. “Some devil trick he’s pulled from his sleeve.”

Jesus confronted their slander. “A judge who gives opposite verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that’s in a constant squabble disintegrates; if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left? If you’re slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil kicking out devils, doesn’t the same mud stick to your own exorcists?

“But if it’s by God’s power that I am sending the evil spirits packing, then God’s kingdom is here for sure. How in the world do you think it’s possible in broad daylight to enter the house of an awake, able-bodied man and walk off with his possessions unless you tie him up first? Tie him up, though, and you can clean him out.

“This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.

“There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God’s Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.

“If you grow a healthy tree, you’ll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you’ll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree.

“You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.”



Become Years ago when I asked Mahatma Gandhi what we could do to naturalize Christianity in India so that it would cease to be a foreign thing, among other things he replied: “Practice your religion without adulterating it or toning it down”— and he had in the mind the Sermon on the Mount. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

Be PerfectAll these religious leaders giving so much of their time enforcing a vision of legal perfection can’t grasp the vision of “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” In their quest for perfection they completely miss the point says Jesus. He’s not looking for the perfection of sacrifice but the perfecting of mercy. Perfection sets a high bar and enforces an exacting standard. Perfect says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30. That’s perfect!


2011 Fall Reader 55

Monday, October 10



Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.

“The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”

While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Be Perfect“Blessed are those that mourn” is usually taken to refer to those who, as in the Old Testament, mourned for the restoration of Israel, or, in the more personal sense, those who mourn for their sins and shortcomings—in either case an anti-climax. But if it means an active sharing and bearing of the world’s hurt and sin in order to cure it; if it means the kind of mourning that Jesus manifested when he wept over the city of Jerusalem, if there is the passion of the sorrow of the cross in it, then it is not an anti-climax, but a necessary counterpart and correction.


“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before others,

to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you.”


Tuesday, October 11


Later that same day, Jesus left the house and went down to the shore, where an immense crowd soon gathered. He got into a boat, where he sat and taught as the people listened on the shore. He told many stories such as this one:

“A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plants sprang up quickly, but they soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades. But some seeds fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!”

Be Perfect“Seek ye first” this “kingdom of God” in your hearts; this righteousness, which is the gift and work of God, the image of God renewed in your souls; “and all these things shall be added unto you;” all things needful for the body; such a measure of all as God sees most for the advancement of his kingdom. These shall be added,—they shall be thrown in, over and above.

In seeking the peace and the love of God, you shall not only find what you more immediately seek, even the kingdom that cannot be moved; but also what you seek not,—not at all for its own sake, but only in reference to the other. You shall find in your way to the kingdom, all outward things, so far as they are expedient for you. This care God hath taken upon himself: Cast you all your care upon Him. He knoweth your wants; and whatsoever is lacking he will not fail to supply.John Wesley. Sermon 29, Point 23.

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The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When people hear the message about the kingdom and do not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their hearts. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky places refers to people who hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to people who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to people who hear the word and understand it. They produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Be Perfect “Therefore take no thought for the morrow.” Not only, take ye no thought how to lay up treasures on earth, how to increase in worldly substance; take no thought how to procure more food than you can eat, or more raiment than you can put on, or more money than is required from day to day for the plain, reasonable purposes of life;—but take no uneasy thought, even concerning those things which are absolutely needful for the body. Do not trouble yourself now, with thinking what you shall do at a season which is yet afar off.John Wesley. Sermon 29, point 24.


Thursday, October 13


Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

“The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’

“But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Be PerfectSo that they who will not cast their care on God, who, taking thought for temporal things, have little concern for things eternal, lose the very portion which they have chosen. There is a visible blast on all their undertakings; whatsoever they do, it doth not prosper; insomuch that, after they have forsaken God for the world, they lose what they sought, as well as what they sought not: They fall short of the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; nor yet are other things added unto them.John Wesley. Sermon 29, point 25.

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Friday, October 14


He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.”

Be PerfectA new sphere of living—“enter into the kingdom of heaven.” You pass out of the sphere of the kingdom of self and enter the sphere of he Kingdom of God. You change worlds. There is a difference of heaven and hell between those two worlds. Here in this new sphere of living you and God work out life together. You supply willingness and he supplies power. Life is no longer on the unit principle—it is a cooperative affair—you and God in partnership, with God the senior partner and managing director. The lonely, orphaned striving is gone, and now a sense of being together with the One who has all the answers takes possession of you. You feel you belong and belong to Adequacy. E. Stanley Jones, How to be a Transformed Person.


Saturday, October 15


Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

Be PerfectThe Incarnation is the divine invasion of us, an invasion of incorrigible love. You, then, do not have to find God; you simply have to let God find you. Religions are man’s search for God; the gospel is God’s search for man. There are many religions; there is but one gospel. This therefore puts our feet on the right way, gives us a sense of right orientation. We do not have to seek laboriously for God, nor try to lift ourselves into transformation by our own disciplined efforts—we simply have to accept a gift and then belong forever to the Giver. Transformation is so close it is breath-taking. If I reach out, I reach too far—it is here! And here for the taking! E. Stanley Jones, How to be a Transformed Person.

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Sunday, October 16


“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field—and to get the treasure, too!

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that is thrown into the water and gathers fish of every kind. When the net is full, they drag it up onto the shore, sit down, sort the good fish into crates, and throw the bad ones away. That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the godly, throwing the wicked into the fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” they said, “we do.”

Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who has become a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a person who brings out of the storehouse the new teachings as well as the old.” When Jesus had finished telling these stories, he left that part of the country.

Be Perfect14. Does not every reasonable, every thinking man see that he cannot possibly serve God and mammon? Because there is the most absolute contrariety, the most irreconcilable enmity between them. The contrariety between the most opposite things on earth, between fire and water, darkness and light, vanishes into nothing when compared to the contrariety between God and mammon.

So that, in whatsoever respect you serve the one, you necessarily renounce the other. Do you believe in God through Christ? Do you trust in him as your strength, your help, your shield, and your exceeding great reward? as your happiness? your end in all, above all things? Then you cannot trust in riches. It is absolutely impossible you should, so long as you have this faith in God. Do you thus trust in riches? Then you have denied the faith. You do not trust in the living God.

Do you love God? Do you seek and find happiness in him? Then you cannot love the world, neither the things of the world. You are crucified to the world, and the world crucified to you. Do you love the world? Are your affections set on things beneath? Do you seek happiness in earthly things? Then it is impossible you should love God. Then the love of the Father is not in you. Do you resemble God? Are you merciful, as your Father is merciful? Are you transformed, by the renewal of your mind, into the image of him that created you? Then you cannot be conformed to the present world. You have renounced all its affections and lusts. Are you conformed to the world? Does your soul still bear the image of the earthly? Then you are not renewed in the spirit of your mind. You do not bear the image



of the heavenly. Do you obey God? Are you zealous to do his will on earth as the angels do in heaven? Then it is impossible you should obey mammon. Then you set the world at open defiance. You trample its customs and maxims under foot, and will neither follow nor be led by them. Do you follow the world? Do you live like other men? Do you please men? Do you please yourself? Then you cannot be a servant of God. You are of your master and father, the devil.John Wesley Sermon 29, point 14.


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Monday, October 17



He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him.

But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

Be PerfectJesus then is that personal approach from the unseen God coming so near that He becomes inescapable. He becomes inescapable for I know if I escape from Him, I escape from—salvation! To find God then, is the easiest thing in the world. You don’t have to find Him—you simply have to consent to be found. No one is farther than one step from God. And that one step is a short step; turn around and say, “Yes,” and you are at once in the arms of redemptive Love. But that “Yes” must carry with it, you—you must be behind the “Yes,” not a lip-Yes, but a life-Yes. His “Yes” has been said; the Incarnation is God saying, “Yes.” When your “Yes” of response meets His “Yes” of invitation, you are simply there—at the place of transformation. E. Stanley Jones, How to be a Transformed Person.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”


Tuesday, October 18


At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.

On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

Be PerfectAs the greatest manifestation of God to the world was by suffering, so the most influential revelation of His people to the world has been by suffering. They are seen to the best advantage in the furnace. The blood of martyrs has ever been the seed of the Church. The patience, meekness, firmness, and happiness of God’s people in circumstances of suffering, persecution, and death, have paved the way for the Gospel in almost all lands and all ages. A baptism of blood has prepared the hard and sterile soil of humanity for the good seed of the kingdom, and made it doubly fruitful.Catherine Booth (1829-1890).


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Behold 2 Kings 4:42-44 NASB

Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat.”

His attendant said, “What, will I set this before a hundred men?”

But he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’”

So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.

Become Matthew 14:13-21 NASB

Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the crowds heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”

They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

Ordering the crowd to recline on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.

There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

Be PerfectThe Kingdom of God is the most radical conception ever presented to the human race and it is the most secular—”May thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth.” It meant nothing less than the replacement of this present unworkable world order, founded on greed and selfishness and exploitation, with God’s order founded on love and service and mutual aid.E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?



Behold Psalm 77:16-20 NLT

When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled!

The sea quaked to its very depths.

The clouds poured down their rain; the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky.

Your arrows of lightning flashed.

Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world!

The earth trembled and shook.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters— a pathway no one knew was there!

You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

Matthew 14:22-36 NLT

Immediately after this, Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home. Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.

About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came to them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him, they screamed in terror, thinking he was a ghost. But Jesus spoke to them at once. “It’s all right,” he said. “I am here! Don’t be afraid.”

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.”

“All right, come,” Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him. “You don’t have much faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?” And when they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped.

Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.

After they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret. The news of their arrival spread quickly throughout the whole surrounding area, and soon people were bringing all their sick to be healed. The sick begged him to let them touch even the fringe of his robe, and all who touched it were healed.

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Become Here was goodness that was not meticulous, but merciful, not standing on pedestals to be worshiped, but bending in lowly service over the lost. Here was goodness not pharisaical, but friendly, not terrible, but tender. And yet in that very tenderness and friendliness there was a regal something that made men’s consciences flutter and tremble like an aspen leaf. Children sat upon his knees, and yet strong, hard Fisherman Peter, stricken in conscience at the moment of greatest fishing prosperity, found his knees giving way under him and crying in spite of himself, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ Never did majesty and meekness so blend and become so beautiful. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Every Road .

Be Perfect perfection adheres to the letter of the law.

perfect delves deeper into the law’s intent and embraces its wisdom.



Friday, October 21


After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”

But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, “What I owed to you I’ve given to God.”’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:

These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it.

They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it.

They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”

He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”

Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”

Jesus shrugged it off. “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”

Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”

Jesus replied, “You too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands— that’s neither here nor there.”

Be PerfectYou must go beyond the old or fail to get into the new. Your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisee and the scribe, which was a legal righteousness. Yours must be a love righteousness; your righteousness must exceed that of the Hindu ascetic, for he strives for personal deliverance and you must strive for the kingdom of heaven on earth; your righteousness must exceed that of the Buddhist, for at the heart of his righteousness is a bitter disillusionment and at the heart of yours must be an Easter morning; your righteousness must exceed that of the Muslim, for his

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righteousness is a slave righteousness and yours must be that of a free man; your righteousness must exceed that of the Confucianist, for he strives to be a superior man and you must strive to be the servant of all; your righteousness must exceed that of the delicately calculating moralist, for yours is a righteousness that does not calculate—it is that of the second mile and of the other cheek; your righteousness must exceed that of the half-Christian who is content with the mind of Moses instead of going on to the mind of the Master. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.





Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”

But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Be PerfectBy this token may you surely know whether you seek it by faith or by works. If by works, you want something to be done first, before you are sanctified. You think, ‘I must first be or do thus or thus.’ Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are: and if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three points—expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now! To deny one of them is to deny them all: to allow one is to allow them all. Do you believe we are sanctified by faith? Be true then to your principle, and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better, nor worse; as a poor sinner that has still nothing to pay, nothing to plead but ‘Christ died.’ And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. Stay for nothing. Why should you? Christ is ready. And he is all you want. He is waiting for you. He is at the door! Let your inmost soul cry out,

Come in, come in, thou heavenly Guest!

Nor hence again remove:

But sup with me, and let the feast

Be everlasting love.John Wesley, Semon 43

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Sunday, October 23

Behold Isaiah 55:1-13 NIV

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples.

Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.”

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.


“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen;

and your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”


As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

Be PerfectWhen we are dealing with Christ and His Kingdom, we are dealing with “a city which hath foundations.” The other cities are without foundations—they are crumbling to ruin under our very sight. This world-shaking convulsion will shake the cities that have no foundations, will shake them to the dust. But we have a city with foundations—foundations which are laid in the heart of reality. This Kingdom was “built from the foundations of the world,” built into the realities of things, and therefore the apostle cried again, “We have a Kingdom which cannot be shaken.” Amid the shaking kingdoms of this world—the kingdoms founded on social and economic and political injustice—we have a Kingdom that stands as the only solid reality amid all this crumbling unreality. E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

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Monday, October 24



Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”

The disciples said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?”

And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”

And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.

Be PerfectColeridge once said: “Beyond that which is found in Jesus of Nazareth the human race will never progress.” We may add: Beyond that which we see in the Cross the human race will never progress. For the Cross reveals the deepest in God—Love! And there is nothing higher or deeper in this universe for God or man than Love. Since the maturest fact in the universe is love, and the maturest type of love is seen in Jesus, we come now to the very center of our quest for maturity. We must be mature in love if we are to be mature. Our maturity is maturity in love, or it is not maturity. And it must be maturity in the kind of love seen in Jesus or it is not mature love. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.


Tuesday, October 25


One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus’ claims by asking him to show them a miraculous sign from heaven. He replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can’t read the obvious signs of the times! Only an evil, faithless generation would ask for a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Then Jesus left them and went away.

Later, after they crossed to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any food. “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They decided he was saying this because they hadn’t brought any bread.

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said, “You have so little faith! Why are you worried about having no food? Won’t you ever understand? Don’t you remember the five thousand I fed with five loaves, and the baskets of food that were left over? Don’t you remember the four thousand I fed with seven loaves, with baskets of food left over? How could you even think I was talking about food? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’”

Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about yeast or bread but about the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Become “The pure in heart” are they whose hearts God hath “purified even as he is pure;” who are purified, through faith in the blood of Jesus, from every unholy affection; who, being “cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfect holiness in the loving “fear of God.” They are, through the power of his grace, purified from pride, by the deepest poverty of spirit; from anger, from every unkind or turbulent passion, by meekness and gentleness; from every desire but to please and enjoy God, to know and love him more and more, by that hunger and thirst after righteousness which now engrosses their whole soul: So that now they love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and mind, and strength. John Wesley, Sermon #23, Section 1, Point #2.

Be Perfectperfection cries foul and claims wasteful the outpouring of perfume.

perfect embraces the act as offering and basks in the extravagant fragrance.

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When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

He pressed them, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.

“And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”

He swore the disciples to secrecy. He made them promise they would tell no one that he was the Messiah.

Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. Peter took him in hand, protesting, “Impossible, Master! That can never be!”

But Jesus didn’t swerve. “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

“Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”



Be PerfectEverything belongs to the man who wants nothing. Having nothing, he possesses all things in life, including life itself. Nothing will be denied the man who denies himself. Having chosen to be utterly solitary, he now comes into possession of the most utterly social fact in the universe, the kingdom of God… The fullest and most complete life comes out of the most completely empty life—an Easter morning comes out of a Calvary. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.


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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

And the disciples asked him, “Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

He replied, “Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Be PerfectWe gain physical perfection, not by asserting the perfection of the body, but by realizing that in Jesus our bodies are made perfect through His resurrection when we are identified by surrender to Him. His deathlessness becomes ours! As to perfection of “emotions,” you don’t find it by asserting the perfection of the emotions, but by loving God “with all your heart” —the emotions—and in loving Him we find our emotions come back to us perfected as we perfectly love Him. As for “perfection in all our external affairs,” that comes when the Kingdom comes and the Kingdom comes when we “receive” it by surrender. We make an external paradise through an internal Paraclete—the Holy Spirit within.E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.


Friday, October 28


When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered over to human hands. He will be killed, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

“Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

“From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Be PerfectLove prevents a thousand provocations which would otherwise arise, because it “thinketh no evil.” Indeed the merciful man cannot avoid knowing many things that are evil, he cannot but see them with his own eyes, and hear them with his own ears. For love does not put out his eyes, so that it is impossible for him not to see that such things are done; neither does it take away his understanding, any more than his senses, so that he cannot but know that they are evil. For instance: When he sees a man strike his neighbour, or hears him blaspheme God, he cannot either question the thing done, or the words spoken, or doubt of their being evil. Yet, ou logizetai to kakon. The word logizetai, “thinketh,” does not refer either to our seeing and hearing, or to the first and involuntary acts of our understanding; but to our willingly thinking what we need not; our inferring evil, where it does not

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appear; to our reasoning concerning things which we do not see; our supposing what we have neither seen nor heard. This is what true love absolutely destroys. It tears up, root and branch, all imagining what we have not known. It casts out all jealousies, all evil surmisings, all readiness to believe evil. It is frank, open, unsuspicious; and, as it cannot design, so neither does it fear, evil. John Wesley, Semon #22, Section #3, Point #11.


“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”




About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Which of us is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

Jesus called a small child over to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck.

“How terrible it will be for anyone who causes others to sin. Temptation to do wrong is inevitable, but how terrible it will be for the person who does the tempting. So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better to enter heaven crippled or lame than to be thrown into the unquenchable fire with both of your hands and feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to enter heaven half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.

“Beware that you don’t despise a single one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.”

Be Perfect“Those who are well have not need of a physician, but those who are sick.” The mother loves the well child but gives special love and attention to the sick child, who needs it most. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” And to call them to what? To call them to a life of perfect love to Him. And in contact with that perfect love of His, their love is perfected. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.

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Sunday, October 30


“Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn’t he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn’t want to lose even one of these simple believers.

“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

“Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

Be PerfectI find myself better or worse as I pray more or less. It works with almost mathematical precision. We find, sooner or later, that in prayer we either abandon ourselves or we abandon prayer. Prayer will keep us from self-withholding or self-withholding will keep us from prayer. I find God fading out of my life to the degree that prayer fades out. The fading out of God-consciousness is the greatest tragedy and loss that this generation has sustained. Prayer will rediscover it. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Every Road.


Monday, October 31



Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’

Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.

When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.

So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Be PerfectWe need not be impossible and impractical perfectionists, nor futile frustrationists. Those who strive for impossible perfectionism and those who are torn with futile frustrations are both immature. The Christian position is the only mature position. It is free from perfectionism and from pessimism. It offers a perfection that is possible, namely, a perfection in love. Not a perfection in character. We are only Christians-in-the-making. But we can be perfect in love. And that is the maturity we are hoping for—a maturity in love. And a maturity in love is possible and consistent with a great deal of imperfection in character. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.

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Tuesday, November 1THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS


When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”

And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to ‘give her a certificate of divorce and send her away’?”

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”

But He said to them, “Not all can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by others; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

Be Perfectperfect loves “real.”

perfection insists on “right.”

perfect emanates grace. perfection smacks of gotcha.

perfect lifts through Love. perfection lowers through comparison.


Wednesday, November 2


One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: “Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” After laying hands on them, he left.

Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

Jesus said, “Why do you question me about what’s good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you.”

The man asked, “What in particular?”

Jesus said, “Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself.”

The young man said, “I’ve done all that. What’s left?”

“If you want to give it all you’ve got,” Jesus replied, “go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.”

That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.

As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”

The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?”

Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”

Then Peter chimed in, “We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?”

Jesus replied, “Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.

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Become Jesus now goes on and sums up all that he has been saying on being renounced in spirit as the first step toward “life,” or perfection, in these words: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.” E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.

Be Perfect The usual interpretation of this verse is that the gate into heaven is very narrow and few are going to get in. But Jesus says nothing about heaven. He says that the way to find “life” is by a narrow gate. It brings back the same principle we have been enunciating again and again: the way of self-realization is by way of self-renunciation. This is saying in pictorial language what he said in that passage—which, by the way, is the most oft-repeated passage in the Gospels—which shows incidentally how much emphasis Jesus placed on it: “Whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.



Thursday, November 3


“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his supervisor, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Be Perfect perfect pays a day’s wage to the workers who labor all day

and to the worker who only labors the last hour. perfection cries foul and demands its own standard of justice.

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Friday, November 4


As Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. “When we get to Jerusalem,” he said, “the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”

Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. “What is your request?” he asked.

She replied, “In your Kingdom, will you let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one at your right and the other at your left?”

But Jesus told them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of sorrow I am about to drink?”

“Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

“You will indeed drink from it,” he told them. “But I have no right to say who will sit on the thrones next to mine. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”

When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

Be Perfect You can love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and yet manifest that love imperfectly. For our actions are made up of intelligence and intentions. The intentions may be good, but the intelligence may be less than perfect; therefore the action, which is the offspring of these imperfect parents, will be imperfect maturity. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and

with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother or

sister’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the

speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in

your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your

own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck

from their eye.”


Saturday, November 5


As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.”

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

Be Perfect The fact is that I have never seen anyone find spiritual power who did not seek something deeper. Spiritual power is a by-product of the Spirit in the life, making that life Christlike. To seek for spiritual power is very liable to send one off on those tangents of self-glorification and self-assertion that lead straight away from the Christian ideal. To seek for the Spirit to be made Christlike sends one to a self-surrender that leads straight to the heart of the gospel—a cross. Christ’s power lies in a cross… Our power lies in that same cross. Only those who know how to take up the cross for the world know how to move that world. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Every Road.

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Sunday, November 6

Behold Psalm 24 NRSV

The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.

They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.

Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.

Who is the King of glory?

The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah



Rejoice, ye shining worlds on high, Behold the King of glory nigh! Who can this King of glory be? The mighty Lord, the Savior’s he.

Ye heav’nly gates, your leaves display, To make the Lord the Savior way: Laden with spoils from earth and hell, The Conqueror comes with God to dwell.

Raised from the dead, he goes before; He opens heav’n’s eternal door, To give the saints a blessed abode, Near their Redeemer and their God.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748), from “Psalm 24.”

Be Perfect “The Kingdom is coming, but primarily and fundamentally the Kingdom is. These emphases on the past and the future are essential but not the essential. The essential thing to be burned into our thinking is the fact that the Kingdom is. ‘Thine is the Kingdom.’ God is ruling, and if man does not accept that rule, than so much the worse for man. If he attempts to put the Kingdom aside, he does not succeed in doing so. He does something else—he puts himself aside, renders himself unfit to live… You can dodge an ideal, but you cannot dodge yourself.” E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?


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Monday, November 7



As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”



Daniel 7:13-14 MSG

I saw a human form, a son of man, arriving in a whirl of clouds.

He came to The Old One and was presented to him.

He was given power to rule—all the glory of royalty.

Everyone—race, color, and creed—had to serve him.

His rule would be forever, never ending.

His kingly rule would never be replaced.

Be Perfectperfection waits for a mighty deliverer on horseback to reclaim the crown.

perfect rides into town on the back of a donkey to embrace the cross.


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Tuesday, November 8

Behold Isaiah 56:1-8 MSG

GOD’s Message:

“Guard my common good: Do what’s right and do it in the right way,

For salvation is just around the corner, my setting-things-right is about to go into action.

How blessed are you who enter into these things, you men and women who embrace them,

Who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it, who watch your step and don’t do anything evil!

Make sure no outsider who now follows GOD ever has occasion to say, ‘GOD put me in second-class. I don’t really belong.’

And make sure no physically mutilated person is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods. I don’t really belong.’”

For GOD says:

“To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths and choose what delights me and keep a firm grip on my covenant,

I’ll provide them an honored place in my family and within my city, even more honored than that of sons and daughters.

I’ll confer permanent honors on them that will never be revoked.

“And as for the outsiders who now follow me, working for me, loving my name, and wanting to be my servants—

All who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it, holding fast to my covenant—

I’ll bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’ to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.



Oh yes, my house of worship will be known as a house of prayer for all people.”

The Decree of the Master, GOD himself, who gathers in the exiles of Israel:

“I will gather others also, gather them in with those already gathered.”

Be Perfectperfect captures the spirit of grace.

perfection emphasizes the letter of the law.

perfect looks on the heart. perfection examines the outward appearance.

perfect delights in the truth. perfection enforces it.


2011 Fall Reader 95

Wednesday, November 9


Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves. He said, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” The blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them there in the Temple.

The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the little children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.” But they were indignant and asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’” Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight.

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs on it, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up.

The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

Then Jesus told them, “I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Be Perfectperfect forgives flaws and faults.

perfection is exacting in judgment.

perfect covers sin. perfection exploits it.

perfect seeks meekness, purity and peace. perfection traffics in prestige, pride, and power.


Thursday, November 10


When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Be PerfectWe desperately need something to bring us to where the real battles lie. We may be militantly guarding emptiness and pompously sacrificing on dead altars, while all the time the battle center has moved on. The damnation and elimination of the Pharisees lay in this: they were earnest religious men, but they tithed mint and anise and cumin while a world of human need demanded justice and mercy. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Every Road.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

2011 Fall Reader 97

Friday, November 11Behold

Isaiah 5:1-7 NIV

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.



Be Perfectperfect takes the last place.

perfection struggles to take the seats of honor.

perfect lives to serve. perfection lives to be served.

perfect pardons sinners. perfection stones them.


2011 Fall Reader 99



“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

“But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

Be Perfectperfect puts in their last two coins.

perfection calculates a tithe.

perfect invites a dying thief into paradise. perfection banishes him to hell.

perfect dwells in a mustard seed and works like yeast. perfection clings to the surface and works through illusion.


Sunday, November 13


Jesus responded by telling still more stories. “God’s kingdom,” he said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come!

“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!’

“They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.

“Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The 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.

“When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then 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.’

“That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many get invited; only a few make it.’”

Be Perfectperfect wrestles with difficult truths and seeks deeper for understanding.

perfection assesses quickly and never gets past the face value.

2011 Fall Reader 101

Monday, November 14



Then the Pharisees met together to think of a way to trap Jesus into saying something for which they could accuse him. They decided to send some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to ask him this question: “Teacher, we know how honest you are. You teach about the way of God regardless of the consequences. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”

But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Whom are you trying to fool with your trick questions? Here, show me the Roman coin used for the tax.” When they handed him the coin, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God.”

His reply amazed them, and they went away.

Matthew 22:23-33 NASB

On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, asking, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.’

“Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”

But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.



Be Perfectperfect walks in wisdom that emanates authority.perfection walks a trail leading to an adventure

that completely misses the point.



Tuesday, November 15Behold

Matthew 22:34-40 NRSV

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Be PerfectJesus, God’s final Word to man, made love the final thing in character. When a scribe asked Jesus: “Which commandment is the first of all?” the ages and all heaven must have bent over to listen to His reply, for His answer would fix in the mind of all humanity the chief quality in character. A misstep here, and all the ages would go wrong with Him, and go wrong in the most important thing in living—the main emphasis in character. But Jesus did not go wrong. He unerringly picked out two commandments from among the thirty-six hundred which the Jewish law prescribed for conduct, and those two emphasize the same thing: “Thou shalt love” (KJV) Suppose he had picked out some good thing instead of the best thing; for instance: “Thou shalt be just,” “Thou shalt be merciful,” “Thou shalt be kind.” Suppose he had chosen any good thing instead of this highest thing. Then the history of humanity would have been different, and humanity itself would have been impoverished. He sounded a clarion note, “Thou shalt love,” and all the ages, whether they have obeyed it or not, have echoed a deep “Amen.” E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and

only a few find it. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus,

by their fruit you will recognize them.“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”


Wednesday, November 16Behold


Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?”

They said to Him, “The son of David.”

He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies beneath your feet”’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”

No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

Become Matthew 23:1-12 MSG

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”


Be PerfectWe are as mature as we are mature in love, and no more mature. We may be mature in knowledge, but if we are not mature in love, we are immature human beings. We may be mature in religious practices and outlook, but if we are immature in love we are immature. Our maturity is maturity in love, or it is immaturity. This is the central and consistent message of the New Testament. Its message is consistent from Jesus, through Paul, through Peter, through John. The finality of love as the highest characteristic of character is the same through all four of these. There is no wavering, no equivocation, no hesitation—love is central in God and must be central in man. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can take its place. Lack love and you lack maturity, no matter what else you may have beside. Nothing can atone for that lack. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.



Thursday, November 17Behold

Matthew 23:13-32 MSG

“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.

“You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.”

Be PerfectJesus’ final appeal is that we make the tree good that the fruit may be good. Be good at the depths that you may be good at the surface. But I hear you say: ‘It is impossible for the tree to change its nature. If it is not good, it is not, and nothing can change it.’ But remember the peach and the graft! Christ grafted into the inner life makes Christlike living possible, yea, the only natural thing. ‘Christ in you—the hope of glory’—the hope of the glory of that perfection which he holds out for us. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.


Friday, November 18Behold


“Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.

“You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”

Become The center of unrealism was in the Pharisee, the most religious man of the day, and a great deal of the gospel narrative is the story of the clashing of the realism of Jesus with the unreality of the leaders of religion. He saw them compartmentalize their thinking and acting—“tithing mint, anise and passing over justice and the love of God”—justice which is love expressed toward man in human relationships, and love toward God. They didn’t reject these—they passed them over, put them on the side, inoperative, something to be praised but not practiced, to be worshiped but not worked… This fastening on to certain things in religion that ministered to themselves and passing by the things that demanded change in themselves was to Jesus the essence of unreality.

E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

Be Perfect perfection carefully measures out a tithe of the smallest items.

perfect tithes, but makes much more of justice, mercy and faithfulness.

perfection manages all outward appearances, focusing on external imaging, while inside they are “full of greed and indulgence.”

perfect focuses on cleansing the inside which leads to the outside being clean.




As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various Temple buildings. But he told them, “Do you see all these buildings? I assure you, they will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another!”

Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, “When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?”

Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won’t follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.

“Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because of your allegiance to me. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will lead many people astray. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But those who endure to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then, finally, the end will come.

Be PerfectWhen the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade all right. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe, melting away like a dream, and something else, something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in. Something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time it will be God without disguise. Something so overwhelming, that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you could choose to lie down when it is become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen. Whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side.

God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.


Sunday, November 20


“So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down to take what is in the house; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat.

Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’—do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

Take note, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look! He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look! He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

“Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Be PerfectThis gradualistic phase of the coming of the Kingdom was clearly taught by Christ—it comes like silent leaven, grows like a grain of mustard seed, develops like the corn, which is first blade, then corn, then full corn. Jesus emphasized this gradualism and yet He was also emphatic about the catastrophic, apocalyptic coming of the Kingdom. In this He was realistic, for, though gripped by the fact of the sudden cataclysmic coming, He did not overlook or despise the quiet, unobtrusive coming of that Kingdom in individual acceptance and in corporate permeation. His realism is seen when He taught that the Kingdom is coming like lightning and coming like leaven, coming like a blast and growing like a blade, coming with “power and great glory,” and yet as unobtrusive and tiny as a grain of mustard seed—and as growing! E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?


Monday, November 21



“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Be PerfectAs we look back over His teaching we see Jesus taking all His lessons from life. He used parables. The parable shows that the worlds of matter and of spirit are akin and that the laws that govern one govern the other. The parable plants spiritual truth in the heart of the life process, the ordinary life process—some of it very ordinary. E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?


Tuesday, November 22Behold


“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

“Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

“The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

“But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

“And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.

“Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’

“But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’

“Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

Be PerfectThe only mature person is the person who loves the Lord his God with the strength of the emotion, the strength of the will, the strength of the mind, and the strength of the body. The whole person wholly devoted to God. And this is psychologically as well as Christianly sound. For unless there is wholeness of devotion in the affections, in the will, in the mind, there will be inner division; and where there is inner division there is inner conflict; and where there is inner conflict there is breakdown and neurosis, or at the very least a cancellation of one’s effectiveness. The important thing here is to note that the demand of Christ and the demands of human nature coincide. They demand the same thing—an individual and total love. That fact will loom larger and larger in our quest for maturity. E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practiceis like a wise person who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and DOES NOT put them into practiceis like a foolish person who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.


Wednesday, November 23Behold

Matthew 25:14-30 NRSV

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

“The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

“And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

“Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’

“But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’


“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.’


“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

“Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—

I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’

“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’

“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’

“Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.”

Become And, finally, the mills of God grind slowly, but they do grind exceeding small. God doesn’t have a payday at the end of every week, or every month, or even every year, but He does have a payday, and men and nations pay to the last jot and tittle. God’s mills grind exceeding small and nothing escapes. E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

Be Perfectperfection crucifies Perfect.

perfect rises from the dead and puts perfection in the grave.

OVER.

ADVENT BEGINS.


AppendixaSbury theoLogicaL Seminary

Asbury Seminary is a multi-denominational, multicultural graduate school of theology with three campus locations—Kentucky, Florida and Virtual—committed to teaching the unchanging truth of historic Wesleyan Christianity through the most dynamic means available. On the Kentucky campus, Asbury offers a variety of degrees, including the master of arts, master of divinity, master of theology, doctor of missiology, doctor of ministry and doctor of philosophy in intercultural studies, evangelism and biblical studies. The Florida campus is accredited to offer the master of divinity and the master of arts in Christian ministry, counseling and pastoral counseling degrees. The extended learning program allows students to earn one-half of the master of arts or two-thirds of the master of divinity degree online. Total current enrollment is approximately 1,700 students, representing 86 denominations and 42 countries.

abbreviationS

BCP The Book of Common Prayer

CEV Contemporary English Version

ESV English Standard Version

NASB New American Standard Bible

NIV New International Version

NKJV New King James Version

NLT New Living Translation

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

RSV Revised Standard Version

TNIV Today’s New International Version

MSG The Message by Eugene Peterson


featured commentatorS

john Wesley (1703-1791) was an Anglican clergyman and evangelist who became known as “the Father of Methodism.” The fifteenth child of a former nonconformist minister, he graduated from Oxford University and became a priest in the Church of England in 1728. From 1729, he participated in a religious study group in Oxford organized by his brother Charles, its members being dubbed the “Methodists” for their emphasis on methodical study and devotion.

e. Stanley jones (1884-1972) was a 20th century Methodist Christian missionary and theologian. He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the Indian subcontinent during the first decades of the 20th century. He spent much time with Mahatma Gandhi, and the Nehru family. Gandhi challenged Jones and, though Jones’ writing, the thousands of Western missionaries working there during the last decades of the British Raj, included greater respect for the mindset and strengths of the Indian character in their work. This effort to contextualize Christianity for India was the subject of his seminal work, The Christ of the Indian Road, which sold more than one million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925. He is also the founder of the Christian Ashram movement. He is sometimes considered the “Billy Graham of India.”

SeLect biographieSdr. david r. bauer is the Ralph W. Beeson Professor of Inductive Biblical Studies and dean of the School of Biblical Interpretation and Proclamation. He has served on Asbury Theological Seminary’s faculty since 1984. He is an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church of North America and serves in the Wilmore Free Methodist Church as director of seminary ministries and is the facilitator of the Free Methodist Fellowship at Asbury Seminary. He is also a frequent speaker, preacher and teacher at camps and local churches and is involved in organizations offering education and support to families who adopt international children, especially international special-needs children.

catherine booth (1829-1890) with her husband William, founded a Christian mission in London in 1864 which became the Salvation Army. Warring against injustice and poverty, Catherine was a strong feminist who began preaching in 1860; despite much opposition, even initially from her husband, she became well known as a preacher and evangelist.

c. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a Fellow and Tutor of English Literature at Oxford University from 1925-54. Lewis lived as an Atheist from the age of 15 to 33. As a result of his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien and the writings of G. K. Chesterton, he converted to Christianity and became a member of the Church of England. Taking his faith seriously, Lewis went on to become one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century. His areas of interests included but were not limited to literary criticism, fiction and Christian apologetics.

isaac Watts (1674- 1748) is recognized as the “Father of the English Hymnody,” as he was the first prolific and popular English hymn writer, credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in active use today and have been translated into many languages.


permiSSionS

The works of E. Stanley Jones cited herein are used with the gracious permission of his family.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE. TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright© 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.

the Story of thiS reader

In the summer of 2001, a group of 40 students, staff and faculty gathered every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. in the small prayer room next to Estes Chapel on the Kentucky campus of Asbury Theological Seminary. They gathered to hear Scripture, to pray and to listen together for the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit. Each time they conferenced together about what the Spirit might be saying to the Church, and in our case, the Seminary. They recorded their findings. From these sessions emerged a clear and simple direction: Read Scripture Together. The sense of the Spirit was to find a way to gather ourselves around a common text such that it became a constitutional reality in our relationships. From these small gatherings came this Reader you hold in your hand (or see on the screen as the case may be).


pSaLm—SeminariuS

The practice of embodying Scripture in communion is at the heart of Asbury Theological Seminary’s Seminarius initiative. This initiative is one component of the Seminary’s PSALM (Pastoral Seasons as Life and Ministry) project, which is resourced by the Lilly Endowment Foundation and seeks to learn and discover the vital practices that sustain pastoral excellence.

seminarius

Definition and Purpose: Seminarius is the Latin word for seedbed, and it is the word from which we derive “seminary.” Seminarius exists to cultivate excellence of life in ministry through equipping students to establish sustainable practices of Christian formation and growth in wholeness within a seedbed of intentionally formative relationships.

Seminarius shapes Seminary as a season of ministry, a transformational learning experience

• where the pursuit of knowledge and the practices of spiritual formation live in union.

• where Christian disciples participate in intentional community, sharing a lifestyle of worship and prayer becoming mercy and justice, and shaping life patterns of health and wholeness.

• where friendship is cultivated as a core formative practice, both the means and goal of grace in preparation to the end of being sent forth as a well-trained, sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.

Our expectations:

• To see students begin to form highly consecrated friendships from early on in their season of seminary and sustain them through the entire Journey

• To see less “forced” and more “flowering” accountability in relationships

• To see friendship itself become a rich seedbed where the shared practices of a life of grace take deep root and flourish into fruitfulness

• To hear stories about friendships still thriving and bearing Kingdom fruit from people who have been out of Seminary for five years

• To see persons moving into new ministry contexts with the skills and the heart-aim to pursue and develop these kinds of relationships for God’s greater glory in the world

Introducing Seedbed, the Resourcing Network of Asbury Theological Seminary.As we look across the landscape of the Church and listen to the voices of our graduates a consistent cry resounds. You need resources that form disciples in the richness of our tradition and distinctive approach to the Gospel. Clearly, no short-age of discipleship materials exists in the marketplace, yet we find most of those resources aren’t singing in the “key” of Wesley. We find a vacuous void in the avail-ability of teaching and training materials that are biblically orthodox, theologically Wesleyan, missionally astute and deeply transformational.

The Asbury Seminary Seedbed aims to develop a resourcing and social media network to deliver the very best resources from our faculty and ministry practitio-ners around the world. Seedbed opens another avenue to serve our graduates, the communities they lead and the world beyond in the work of building up the body of Christ. Seedbed: it’s literally what the word seminary means.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas about particular resources we might design to best serve you and your community. Email us at [email protected].

Register today at asburyseedbed.com. A downloadable gift awaits you there.

Launches January 6, 2012!asburyseedbed.com

204 North Lexington Avenue Wilmore, Kentucky 403908401 Valencia College Lane, Orlando, Florida 32825

800.2ASBURY asburyseminary.edu

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perfect

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