He is kind with the sort of kindness that shines out, but is resolute, not fooled. -Mary Oliver

Put your trust in the LORD and do good. He will make your righteousness as clear as the light and your just dealing as the noonday. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 37:3-7

Now it happened that one day while he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up, together with the elders, and spoke to him. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘what authority have you for acting like this? Luke 20:1-2

Because I am sort of an odd person, I have to admit that I am totally clueless about the latest binge show watching and certainly have no idea about the latest actors and media trends. It cuts a lot of conversations short with my eighth grade kiddos. Really, I should do something about my severe lack of cultural literacy. However, really last night I was rereading Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes just before curling off to bed. And this chapter was pretty complicated, addressing the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry, mostly because so many things can be translated several different ways. And taken in the context of the sort of theological training Jesus had, at the local haberim, a lay movement that had sprung up in the villages of the Holy Land around this time. The word means “the friends” and they joined nightly in discussion of the Torah and applying its laws to their day.

And Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, as he edited Isaiah 61, reading it aloud to the congregation, leaving out all the bits of vengeance on the Gentiles. Jeremias points out that the words can be translated, “And all witnessed against him, and were amazed at the words of mercy that came out of his mouth, and they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’”

And this is the good news that He preached, and continues to preach each day, until His return: to proclaim to the prisoners–freedom, and to the blind, recovery of sight, to send forth the oppressed–in freedom, and to proclaim year of the LORD’s favor.

Bailey sums up this gospel of Jesus as being radical in every sense from the expectations of the crowd. It is not about material blessing, but rather it is a call to action, as exemplified by the faith of a Gentile woman and man, the hungry Sidonese widow and Naaman, the Syrian commander-in-chief. The faith exhibited here involves intellectual assent, trust and obedience.

And it’s all about the simple little chorus I learned as a child: Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Choosing to see with ayin tovah, a good eye.

Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my meditation. Psalm 5:1

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 54:6

John Parsons talks about the words of our heart, divarim, and the need to realize that they define the course of our life. Proverbs 4:24 says “more than all else, guard your heart, because from it are the bounds of your life.” Our thoughts and words are ultimately prayers we are constantly offering…How I think, which is prayer, determines the “bounds” or course, of my life. As Yeshua said, “According to your faith it shall be done unto you.”

Yeshua spoke of “good and evil treasure of the heart” that produces actions. The focus is not so much on externals, but rather on the underlying condition of the human heart. My inward motive determines my thinking, which in turn affects the way I act and use words. I must be on guard to keep away for lashon hara (evil speech) by focusing on what is worthy, lovely, and of good report.

And maybe I could get discouraged, because sometimes it doesn’t seem like I ever climb up higher and higher, but I just go round in round in circles. I mean, I wrote Remember Lot’s Wife over two years ago, and it is still the plea of my heart.

But I am reading Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, and he explains that it is the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the walking-alongside-relationship that is bless-ed, not the actually achievement of act and deed.

And I am obviously doing the stay-in-bed-and-get-well thing this fine cloudy Sunday morning. And listening to The Way of the Warrior by Grahame Cooke as he talks about entering into this place of ascension, above our normal circumstances, of abiding in this fearlessness of our approach to God, embracing His innate goodness, and joyfully trading on the immense favour that He has for us, getting lost in His beauty and grace.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own.

And the joy we share, as we tarry there

None other has ever known.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 54:6