Daily Lesson for May 12, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 11 verses 5 through 13:

5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," James the brother of Jesus wrote, "coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Speaking of God as a good Father without shadows, who desired to do good for his children was a radically different religious conception in the first century. 

In the pagan world, the gods of the pantheon were capricious and conniving and would as soon zap you with a thunderbolt or sleep with your daughter as do anything for you. You were always needing to do something for these Gods to pacify and appease them.  It was a conception ripe for exploitation by priests and soothsayers and any other huckster trying to make a buck or make it big. 

But Jesus and James and many other Jews in that age conceived and spoke of God in a different and very extraordinary way. For them, God was like a father -- seeking to do good for his children. God was a gift-giver; and His gifts were always, always for the good of His children and nothing else. As James said, God is the Father of lights in whom there isn't even a shadow of darkness.

Let us think on the stunning implication of that statement. God is wholly good and loving and therefore nothing should be said or thought of God which is anything other than good and loving.  As they say in the black church, "God is good -- All the time."

God is a tender and loving parent.  Approach God so. Ask God for what you desire and know God only desires what is best for you. And never, ever subject yourself again to preaching or prophecy which is exploitative and manipulative and based on the concept of God being out to get us.