NOTES:

Prayer Requests
Praise! Our daughter (Jolene & John Altrichter)
Katie celebrated 1 year of sobriety on March
14th! Yay God!
Family of Erika Tate as they mourn the loss of
her grandpa.
Mary Smith (Lori Brouillettes mother) in
hospital with mass by her lungs and in pain.
Carol, Betty, Jeff (cousins of Lana Fruke) and
friends Jane, Lynn and Nan, who are all battling
cancer.
Duane Nagel (Sally Leitchs uncle) diagnosed
with advanced cancer.
Kaye (Heather Butterfields friend Lisas
daughter) to have a safe, full-term pregnancy
with a healthy delivery.
Sandee Landsburg (Pastor Pauls friend) who is
recovering from cancer surgery and starting
chemo.
Jerry Hermsen, who had to move because of a
house fire.
Babbie Pearson (John & Gloria Ivers friend) as
she has cancer and is under hospice care.
Dr. Lim (Heather Butterfields moms boss) to
be healed of cancer and for him and his family
Sherri and Dewi and son to have faith in Jesus.
JoAnn Carrick (Rochelle Carricks step-mom)
as she transitions into assisted living.
Spring (Heather Butterfields friend) would be
healed of CRP.
Julie Papil (Rochelle Carricks friend)
diagnosed with breast cancer.
Pray for Ruthann Coburn as she lives with
health issues.
Julie Fjeld (Jennifer & Mike Huehns neighbor)
who has new battles with her cancer.
Donna McCullen (wife of Ken McCullen) as she
lives with cancer.

Chain of Lakes Church

10130 Davenport Street
NE, Blaine, MN 55449
763-208-8049
www.colpres.org

Devotion
We are moving closer to the end of Matthew! This
week we have the opportunity to read a wide
variety of stories and teachings and even healings
from Jesus. These chapters are a powerful witness
to the Messiah!
As you are reading Matthew keep these five
questions in front of you:
What does this passage teach me about
God?
What does this passage teach me about
humanity?
What does this passage teach me about
the church?
What does this passage teach me about
myself?
How does this passage help me love
more?
Enjoy! Comments about the devotion can be emailed to pastor@colpres.org.

Monday, March 23
Read Matthew 15
In Matthew we often find that Jesus was very
critical of the Pharisees. What is important to
remember is Jesus wasnt critical of them because
they were Jewish leaders. (And some in the
history of the church have used these sections to
call the Bible anti-Semitic.) Jesus was critical of the
leaders because of their hypocrisy.
And he would be critical of any religious leader or
even follower today of their hypocrisy. It doesnt
matter if the person is Jewish, Presbyterian,
Lutheran, Catholic or any other religious tribe.
It is easy to point fingers at hypocrisy in others;
however we need to keep a mirror in front of
ourselves. Do our actions match our heart? Do
we do the right things on the outside while
inwardly condemning others? These are hard
questions and worth giving to God in our prayers.
Pray that your inward thoughts and outward
actions can be marked by love and be consistent.

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Tuesday, March 24
Read Matthew 16
We can learn quite a lot about humanity in this
chapter by examining Peter. In verses 13-20 Peter
got it right about Jesus. He was able to identify
Jesus as the Messiah, the son of the Living God.
For one short moment Peter aligned himself with
the Kingdom of God.

3
came that Elijah was going to come. The four
disciples asked Jesus about this. Jesus explained
that Elijah had come in the form of John the
Baptist. Once again the identity of Jesus came out.
In thirteen short verses Jesus was connected to
Moses, Gods son and the Messiah.

Thursday, March 26
Read Matthew 18

But then in the next chapter Peter messed up. He

began to rebuke Jesus for the idea that Jesus
would suffer, be killed and then on the third day
be raised. From our perspective on looking back at
this story with our knowledge its amazing that
Peter would even rebuke Jesus. Can you imagine
rebuking the Son of God?

In the story of the unforgiving servantthe last

story of the chapterwe once again come across
the important of consistency and even
authenticity. The slave at the start of the story
was given a terrific gift of forgiveness. He probably
could have never been able to pay that large
amount of debt off.

Jesus response shows that our task is to do our

best to set our lives on divine things and not
human things. From his human perspective Peter
couldnt fathom that this would happen to Jesus.
He couldnt look at the situation from the lens of
God. Its easy for us to do the same.

When that same slave was asked to forgive a debt

of a much smaller sum he refused to forgive. He
had the man who owned the debt thrown into
prison.

Wednesday, March 25
Read Matthew 17

We forgive others because God has first forgiven

us. If we have difficulties in forgiving someone,
think about the forgiveness and grace that God has
extended to us. When we can get in touch with
that grace for ourselves it is much easier to share it
with others. As you pray today, ask God for a new
recognition of the grace that God has given to you.

The Transfiguration story in the first thirteen

verses is an echo of God appearing to Moses on
Mount Sinai. In that story a great cloud came
down on the mountain while Moses was there.
Moses was given what we call the Ten
Commandments.
The words from God to Peter, James, and John in
verse five is a reminder of the words that God
spoke at Jesus baptism. The parallelism is cool to
see.
This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased. Matthew 3:17
This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well
pleased; listen to him. Matthew 17:5

God was upset about this inconsistency.

Friday, March 27
Read Matthew 19
The rich young man really wanted to inherit
eternal life. He was willing to do almost anything.
He was willing to follow the ancient laws of not
committing adultery, of not stealing, of not
bearing false witness, of honoring his father and
mother, and loving his neighbor as he loved
himself.
He could follow the laws. But he still had an
obstacle. His wealth.

Once again we come across the identity of Jesus.

On the way down the mountain Jesus did some
teaching. People believed that before the Messiah

Jesus knew the mans heart. He knew there was

an impediment there. So he commanded the man

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to sell his possessions and give the money to the
poor.
The man couldnt do thisand lets be honest this
was a very hard commandment.
We cant follow laws and get to heaven. There will
always be something in our own heart that gets in
the way. Often it is wealth. And those of us
reading this devotion are in the upper one fourth
of the wealthy in the world.
What gets in your way? God already knows what it
is. And God accepts where we are on our journey.
As you pray today, share that impediment with
God. Ask God to gently work with you to remove
it.

Saturday, March 28
Read Matthew 20
This chapter is the last one before Jesus entered
Jerusalem. Its appropriate that we read it on this
day as tomorrow the church will read the story of
the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.
In verses 17-19 Jesus for the third time shared that
he was going to be crucified and then raised from
the dead. Despite this acknowledgement Jesus
was still willing to heal others. At the end of the
story he healed two blind men. Their request is a
prayer that we could pray. Look at what they said
in verse 30 and 31. The word werent exactly the
same, but the idea was. Lord have mercy on me.
If you dont know what to pray, just say this prayer
over and over. In fact you could say it during your
day. Try to pray it each hour of your waking hours
today. Its a beautiful prayer to launch your spirit
into Holy Week.