Mark 15:43 - "Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus."
Psalm 123:1 - "To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!"
Psalm 14:2 - "The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God."
I rarely, if ever, go when the light initially turns green when I'm first in line at a traffic light. I value my life way too much. Plus, I really do want to see the expressions of all the drivers who are running the red light as they fly down the road in a hurry for their funeral.
As the cars zip in front of me through their red light, while I'm getting honked at from behind at my green light, I notice two primary expressions on the faces of the red-light-runners. The first expression is that they are staring ahead, laser-focused on the road, but exuding a spirit that you can feel where they clearly think that if they don't look at any other car while they're running the red light then it makes it all okay. The second red-light-running expression is much more rare where the driver realizes that they've made a poor judgement, and they actually turn my way, waving both hands (which is also dangerous) as they're trying feverishly to apologize for the high probability that they would've killed everyone in my car if we had gone when the light turned green.
Do you see the contrast? One does something wrong and looks away from the wrong as if not looking makes it right. The other does something wrong and looks feverishly for someone to apologize to and for forgiveness.
I don't know about you, but I will mess up today. In today's Bible verses, God plainly encourages us to be like the Psalmist and Joseph of Arimathea who are both constantly looking to the Lord and for the Lord because they're looking for help when they mess up and when they're hurt and when they're confused and when they're looking for strength and when they start a new segment of their day and when they're wanting to taste the constant fellowship that God promises and because they've tasted the inexplicable peace that comes over you when you look to God for everything and not just to apologize and for forgiveness.
And best of all, Joseph and the Psalmist look to God and for God because they clearly believe God when in Psalm 14:2 God says, "The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God."
May God help us today and everyday to look for the Lord and know the blessings that God promises when we do.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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