John 9
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” John 9:1-2
You don’t have to be a believer to ask, “Why?” Why is this happening to me?
Seeing a blind man on the side of the walking path, the disciples wondered the same for this man. Why? Why has this happened to him? These Christ followers knew a little bit about stuff like God and sin. No doubt they had been taught that death and suffering came into the world through sin, since we see a glimpse of what they believe in the assumptions they make regarding the man’s blindness. Certainly he was in this situation out of sin. Their only question was whose sin it was, this man or his parents?
It can happen, and the disciples knew as much. Sometimes our sins really do ruin our lives, and even kill us. Few sins so clearly demonstrate this than sexual sin, as sexually transmitted infections continue to plague our world. The sins of others can also affect us. If this article is read widely enough, certainly some of us have known or lost loved ones at the hands of a drunk driver. If you don’t know, God isn’t big on the getting drunk thing in the first place, let alone getting behind the wheel. Sometimes the answer to the why, really is sin.
The infectious nature of sin goes even beyond these. It brought with itself into the world what many Bible teachers call the curse. Even when our sins don’t have a direct consequence, we still fall under this curse. We get sick, just from the general death, sickness and decay in the world even when it isn’t a direct result of sexual immorality or any other act of disobedience. We get cancer, and I can’t think of too many ways that cancer comes from sin. It’s just part of the curse, and we don’t get it from telling one too many lies. Sometimes the why is simply from the general curse itself.
This blind man however was blind neither from his sin, his parent’s sin or even part of the curse. If you are in a place in
life where you are asking why, this may or may not be of comfort to you. At times our suffering is an opportunity for God to reveal His goodness. He is a God who loves us, sees our needs and chooses to demonstrate His compassion towards us. Looking at the life of Jesus as He interacts with humanity, it’s difficult to miss His care towards us. This man’s condition was just such an opportunity for Christ to display His goodness.
As we walk through life we don’t always know the why. As much as we ask the question, I generally doubt that the answer itself has the ability to satisfy us. What I am convinced of is that Jesus is the only one who has the capacity to either redeem us or display His work in our lives. If we have sinned, the consequences generally stand, but there is forgiveness for sin. If we languish under the curse He is able to intervene, yet has additionally made a way for us to receive life eternal. If your struggle is an opportunity for Him to work in your life, I hope you can find the strength to hold on until He does.
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Friday, January 13, 2017
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Consider Christ
John 8:31-59
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36
I don’t believe His audience really understood how Jesus’ words applied to them. I wonder. Do we?
Jesus has been speaking to the Jews, declaring to them that He can set them free. As we look at the conversation between Jesus and the Jews, they really didn’t have any sense of how they had been enslaved, and what being made free would look like. Little has changed in the 2,000 or so years since His time. We still have little sense of how we are enslaved ourselves.
Christ talked about being a slave to sin, and that He and He alone can set us free from that bondage. When we process what He meant by sin, it goes much deeper than ethics or morality. The specific sect of Jews He was addressing were a people who strove after moral excellence rather fiercely. They even made up more rules to follow than what was found in the scriptures themselves. I’ll hear atheists say that you don’t have to believe on God to be a decent, moral person. And they are quite right. Consider this in light of the fact that Jesus is directly confronting a people group who were known to be among the ethical and moral elite of their time, and still He calls them the spawn of Satan. vs 44.
Sin goes much deeper than the dirty little acts that we keep from mom and dad, and off of social media. Neither does the freedom He speaks of imply that we won’t be tempted to do that naughty thing again. PLEASE get that!!!! I meet different people who tell me that they tried to follow Jesus, but He didn’t magically stop their temptations. If that’s what you think faith in Christ is supposed to do, you’re headed for disillusionment.
Sin is the defiance towards God Himself and it shows itself in different ways. It reveals itself when we push back against what He wants for us. We fight against His commands, and resist any suggestion that we take His Word seriously. We use reason and argument to defend why His Word doesn’t apply to us today.
The way we feel about and respond to Jesus Himself is probably the best indicator of whether or not we are living under the kind of slavery that Jesus is talking about. It’s acceptable in some settings to talk about God in a general sense or even about going to church. As for ethics, I believe the bulk of humanity prefers to believe they are good and decent people. Yet if you bring up Jesus at work or at school, the conversation gets real, very fast. Try it sometime.
There are many people who are fine with and even embrace their aversion towards God. They look at their slavery as their prize and crown. If that describes you, I don’t know what to say. I guess I hope you can enjoy your defiance for as long as it lasts, but it won’t last forever. Do you want to come out from it? There are many more who live under this kind of oppression, whether they have sensed it or not. Perhaps you have had a sense of it, a weight of sorts, but just couldn’t put a name on it. Why fight so hard against the One who made you? Consider giving up the rebellion. Consider Christ.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36
I don’t believe His audience really understood how Jesus’ words applied to them. I wonder. Do we?
Jesus has been speaking to the Jews, declaring to them that He can set them free. As we look at the conversation between Jesus and the Jews, they really didn’t have any sense of how they had been enslaved, and what being made free would look like. Little has changed in the 2,000 or so years since His time. We still have little sense of how we are enslaved ourselves.
Christ talked about being a slave to sin, and that He and He alone can set us free from that bondage. When we process what He meant by sin, it goes much deeper than ethics or morality. The specific sect of Jews He was addressing were a people who strove after moral excellence rather fiercely. They even made up more rules to follow than what was found in the scriptures themselves. I’ll hear atheists say that you don’t have to believe on God to be a decent, moral person. And they are quite right. Consider this in light of the fact that Jesus is directly confronting a people group who were known to be among the ethical and moral elite of their time, and still He calls them the spawn of Satan. vs 44.
Sin goes much deeper than the dirty little acts that we keep from mom and dad, and off of social media. Neither does the freedom He speaks of imply that we won’t be tempted to do that naughty thing again. PLEASE get that!!!! I meet different people who tell me that they tried to follow Jesus, but He didn’t magically stop their temptations. If that’s what you think faith in Christ is supposed to do, you’re headed for disillusionment.
Sin is the defiance towards God Himself and it shows itself in different ways. It reveals itself when we push back against what He wants for us. We fight against His commands, and resist any suggestion that we take His Word seriously. We use reason and argument to defend why His Word doesn’t apply to us today.
The way we feel about and respond to Jesus Himself is probably the best indicator of whether or not we are living under the kind of slavery that Jesus is talking about. It’s acceptable in some settings to talk about God in a general sense or even about going to church. As for ethics, I believe the bulk of humanity prefers to believe they are good and decent people. Yet if you bring up Jesus at work or at school, the conversation gets real, very fast. Try it sometime.
There are many people who are fine with and even embrace their aversion towards God. They look at their slavery as their prize and crown. If that describes you, I don’t know what to say. I guess I hope you can enjoy your defiance for as long as it lasts, but it won’t last forever. Do you want to come out from it? There are many more who live under this kind of oppression, whether they have sensed it or not. Perhaps you have had a sense of it, a weight of sorts, but just couldn’t put a name on it. Why fight so hard against the One who made you? Consider giving up the rebellion. Consider Christ.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Authentic Mercy
John 8:1-30
“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:11
If these words from Jesus don’t sound unusual, perhaps you really haven’t thought about them. There is something drastically different between the mind of Jesus seen here than what is lived out among humanity.
With regards to sin, we generally fall into one of two camps as to how we treat people. The word ‘sin’ simply means disobeying God. For today’s discussion, let’s just talk about the things we consider to be wrong. Sin is not synonymous with ‘wrong’, but it might help us to get what’s going on if we do so for now.
When a person does something that we believe to be wrong, we generally respond very much the way we see the Pharisees treating the woman caught in adultery here in John 8. Something in us wants to throw stones, usually not literally, but metaphorically. Throwing stones was an act of judgement and condemnation, and our action is chosen or altered depending on the situation. If a political candidate is found to be a sexist pig, the stone you throw might merely be casting your vote for his opponent, or you may feel compelled to speak against them on social media. If a man is found to be a pedophile, you might want them locked up.
Apart from the way of Jesus, there is only one other way I’ve observed how we tend to treat others who do what’s wrong, and that is to condone the action itself. It has the appearance of being the loving thing to do. We have the capacity to embrace the individual, so long as we are persuaded, convinced in our conscience, or honestly believe that the actions of that person are fine. It’s a nicer form of conditional love.
Where else have you seen the attitude of Christ, but Christ Himself?
“No. I don’t approve of your sexual practices. Neither will I condemn you. Sin no more”
There is nothing in me that can be reasoned to think that Jesus is fine with this woman cheating on her husband. (As a side note, I’d like to know why her partner wasn’t brought forward) Living out this attitude of Christ is a tough gig. It’s difficult even to try and have His attitude. It’s also a challenge because even if you and I were capable of dealing with wrongdoers in this way, the world we live in would be rather inhospitable to us. The angry Pharisee types would accuse us of being unjust. The permissive condoning types would accuse us of being hateful.
Which are you? Do you get riled up at people who do wrong? Do you have to condone a person’s actions before you embrace them? Can you call sin – sin, embrace the person and call them to what is right? Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to seek and to save. Don’t misunderstand that to mean that He’s fine with everything done by us, because He really isn’t.
“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:11
If these words from Jesus don’t sound unusual, perhaps you really haven’t thought about them. There is something drastically different between the mind of Jesus seen here than what is lived out among humanity.
With regards to sin, we generally fall into one of two camps as to how we treat people. The word ‘sin’ simply means disobeying God. For today’s discussion, let’s just talk about the things we consider to be wrong. Sin is not synonymous with ‘wrong’, but it might help us to get what’s going on if we do so for now.
When a person does something that we believe to be wrong, we generally respond very much the way we see the Pharisees treating the woman caught in adultery here in John 8. Something in us wants to throw stones, usually not literally, but metaphorically. Throwing stones was an act of judgement and condemnation, and our action is chosen or altered depending on the situation. If a political candidate is found to be a sexist pig, the stone you throw might merely be casting your vote for his opponent, or you may feel compelled to speak against them on social media. If a man is found to be a pedophile, you might want them locked up.
Apart from the way of Jesus, there is only one other way I’ve observed how we tend to treat others who do what’s wrong, and that is to condone the action itself. It has the appearance of being the loving thing to do. We have the capacity to embrace the individual, so long as we are persuaded, convinced in our conscience, or honestly believe that the actions of that person are fine. It’s a nicer form of conditional love.
Where else have you seen the attitude of Christ, but Christ Himself?
“No. I don’t approve of your sexual practices. Neither will I condemn you. Sin no more”
There is nothing in me that can be reasoned to think that Jesus is fine with this woman cheating on her husband. (As a side note, I’d like to know why her partner wasn’t brought forward) Living out this attitude of Christ is a tough gig. It’s difficult even to try and have His attitude. It’s also a challenge because even if you and I were capable of dealing with wrongdoers in this way, the world we live in would be rather inhospitable to us. The angry Pharisee types would accuse us of being unjust. The permissive condoning types would accuse us of being hateful.
Which are you? Do you get riled up at people who do wrong? Do you have to condone a person’s actions before you embrace them? Can you call sin – sin, embrace the person and call them to what is right? Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to seek and to save. Don’t misunderstand that to mean that He’s fine with everything done by us, because He really isn’t.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
The Christ: Deliverer and Ruler
John 7:37-52
“...some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ” John 7:40-41
There is something within humanity which is constantly looking for a certain kind of leader; a leader to save us, a leader to make things right, and to lead us well. We see the sentiment in the entertainment we consume. In the Star Wars franchise, they looked to the one who would “bring balance to the force”. The family friendly LEGO Movie made much of the “Special” one. We have an engrained longing for the ultimate hero. Have you ever considered to possibility that we have this yearning BECAUSE there really is a Hero, a King – a Christ.
When we hear the mention of “Christ” in our day, we generally associate it with being part of Jesus name. The word Christ however is not a name, but rather a title. It’s really another word for Messiah. It literally means, the anointed one, or the one chosen by God. The Christ was supposed to be a certain kind of person, filling two main functions for humanity. He was to be both a King AND deliverer.
We don’t think of kings the way the ancient world saw them. Our world political climate more popularly functions by democracy. A king was a leader, not elected by the people, but one who rose to the position by some means of power, or inheriting it from his predecessor. The Christ was to be the one good king, to rule truly right.
Although we don’t have kings in our North American political climate, we do still look to our leaders to carry that kind of hope for our nation. We place more hope and expectation on some leaders than others. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, I believe not only America, but much of the world placed a great deal of hope in his ability to rule rightly. Much talk was given to him being the first black president, the anticipation being America was gaining ground on its racial woes. There was optimism for many areas such as climate change and foreign policy as well as breaking down age old racial and religious barriers. For a short time it seemed there was hope for The United States.
Have a look for yourself and see if you agree with my assessment of the time:
World Reacts to Obama Victory
The Christ was to be more than a ruler. He was also to be a deliverer. The notion of deliverance implies that we are in a mess, and need to be rescued from it. I hope to develop this further in the future. For now, all I will say is that we as a race have gotten ourselves into a state of hopelessness which we are not in ourselves able to escape from.
I will present this to you.
The reason we have movies like “Star Wars” and “The Lego Movie” and the reason we place our hope in our leaders is because there really is a King, a deliverer and Christ. Jesus, as The Christ, is the only One who has been able to carry the hope of a people like He has for the past 2,000 years. No one else is coming to save us. Anyone else who claims to be the Christ is a fraud.
“...some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ” John 7:40-41
There is something within humanity which is constantly looking for a certain kind of leader; a leader to save us, a leader to make things right, and to lead us well. We see the sentiment in the entertainment we consume. In the Star Wars franchise, they looked to the one who would “bring balance to the force”. The family friendly LEGO Movie made much of the “Special” one. We have an engrained longing for the ultimate hero. Have you ever considered to possibility that we have this yearning BECAUSE there really is a Hero, a King – a Christ.
When we hear the mention of “Christ” in our day, we generally associate it with being part of Jesus name. The word Christ however is not a name, but rather a title. It’s really another word for Messiah. It literally means, the anointed one, or the one chosen by God. The Christ was supposed to be a certain kind of person, filling two main functions for humanity. He was to be both a King AND deliverer.
We don’t think of kings the way the ancient world saw them. Our world political climate more popularly functions by democracy. A king was a leader, not elected by the people, but one who rose to the position by some means of power, or inheriting it from his predecessor. The Christ was to be the one good king, to rule truly right.
Although we don’t have kings in our North American political climate, we do still look to our leaders to carry that kind of hope for our nation. We place more hope and expectation on some leaders than others. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, I believe not only America, but much of the world placed a great deal of hope in his ability to rule rightly. Much talk was given to him being the first black president, the anticipation being America was gaining ground on its racial woes. There was optimism for many areas such as climate change and foreign policy as well as breaking down age old racial and religious barriers. For a short time it seemed there was hope for The United States.
Have a look for yourself and see if you agree with my assessment of the time:
World Reacts to Obama Victory
The Christ was to be more than a ruler. He was also to be a deliverer. The notion of deliverance implies that we are in a mess, and need to be rescued from it. I hope to develop this further in the future. For now, all I will say is that we as a race have gotten ourselves into a state of hopelessness which we are not in ourselves able to escape from.
I will present this to you.
The reason we have movies like “Star Wars” and “The Lego Movie” and the reason we place our hope in our leaders is because there really is a King, a deliverer and Christ. Jesus, as The Christ, is the only One who has been able to carry the hope of a people like He has for the past 2,000 years. No one else is coming to save us. Anyone else who claims to be the Christ is a fraud.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Deal With It
John 7:1-39
“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.” John 7:7
When I was a newer Christ follower, I had a very skewed perception of what it would look like if I “really followed Jesus closely”. I had the sense that I should be a pastor or something and if I were to take that step, my relationship with God would mystically help me bypass many of the regular troubles of life. I even thought that maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about getting the flu or any other kind of sickness anymore.
If there is anything in you that believes a relationship with God is meant to make life easier or help us avoid trouble, please just drop it. When a person chooses to follow Jesus, whether they recognize it or not they are choosing to walk a harder path and we get a picture of what that looks like as we look at the life of Jesus Himself.
Yes. You will still be susceptible to the flu when it goes around in the winter time. We still suffer from heart attacks and strokes. Cancer hits believers as well as nonbelievers. Your sports team will still often lose, even when you cry out to God during the game. We continue to suffer through all of the regular tragedies of life, but added to that comes an unwanted by-product of our faith – Alienation from the world.
It takes on various forms. Some people will actually want to kill you, for no other reason than that you love Jesus. In the first verse we see that the Jews were trying to kill Jesus. Certainly, in the life of the early church the Jews were among the most militant group involved in the persecution of Christians. Today, other religious groups and even governments are known to actively target Christians.
Fortunately, not everyone wants us dead. It’s more common in North America to simply be the butt end of a joke, and much of it comes from within our own personal connections and even family as we see here with Jesus in verses 3-5. If you make fun of a person with a disability, mental illness or facial deformity, that’s absolutely cruel, but poking fun at a believer, well, they just need to deal with it and get over it. And generally we do. I think. At least, I hope most of us just come to realize that it’s basically part of the gig, and feel little need to wallow in the self pity of being victimized by some grave injustice. I doubt your school or workplace has a support group for Christians who get made fun of. We’re supposed to be secure enough to handle it.
If you can’t handle being laughed at or ridiculed, maybe Jesus isn’t for you. He isn’t looking for cowards. He is calling a people out of the world, to be a part of His people. There are certain rights and privileges we give up in this life when we choose to align ourselves with Christ and this happens because choosing Him is actually about choosing a different nation. This is the nation of Christ, often referred to as The Kingdom of God. We don’t have a hockey team, border crossings, government offices, military or a national mascot. We have however received eternal life. Some think that’s worth surrendering not only their comfort, but their very lives.
How about you?
“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.” John 7:7
When I was a newer Christ follower, I had a very skewed perception of what it would look like if I “really followed Jesus closely”. I had the sense that I should be a pastor or something and if I were to take that step, my relationship with God would mystically help me bypass many of the regular troubles of life. I even thought that maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about getting the flu or any other kind of sickness anymore.
If there is anything in you that believes a relationship with God is meant to make life easier or help us avoid trouble, please just drop it. When a person chooses to follow Jesus, whether they recognize it or not they are choosing to walk a harder path and we get a picture of what that looks like as we look at the life of Jesus Himself.
Yes. You will still be susceptible to the flu when it goes around in the winter time. We still suffer from heart attacks and strokes. Cancer hits believers as well as nonbelievers. Your sports team will still often lose, even when you cry out to God during the game. We continue to suffer through all of the regular tragedies of life, but added to that comes an unwanted by-product of our faith – Alienation from the world.
It takes on various forms. Some people will actually want to kill you, for no other reason than that you love Jesus. In the first verse we see that the Jews were trying to kill Jesus. Certainly, in the life of the early church the Jews were among the most militant group involved in the persecution of Christians. Today, other religious groups and even governments are known to actively target Christians.
Fortunately, not everyone wants us dead. It’s more common in North America to simply be the butt end of a joke, and much of it comes from within our own personal connections and even family as we see here with Jesus in verses 3-5. If you make fun of a person with a disability, mental illness or facial deformity, that’s absolutely cruel, but poking fun at a believer, well, they just need to deal with it and get over it. And generally we do. I think. At least, I hope most of us just come to realize that it’s basically part of the gig, and feel little need to wallow in the self pity of being victimized by some grave injustice. I doubt your school or workplace has a support group for Christians who get made fun of. We’re supposed to be secure enough to handle it.
If you can’t handle being laughed at or ridiculed, maybe Jesus isn’t for you. He isn’t looking for cowards. He is calling a people out of the world, to be a part of His people. There are certain rights and privileges we give up in this life when we choose to align ourselves with Christ and this happens because choosing Him is actually about choosing a different nation. This is the nation of Christ, often referred to as The Kingdom of God. We don’t have a hockey team, border crossings, government offices, military or a national mascot. We have however received eternal life. Some think that’s worth surrendering not only their comfort, but their very lives.
How about you?
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Where Else Will You Go?
John 6:22-71
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69
A large crowd has begun following Jesus. Some would see that to be a positive thing, even within Christian circles. This crowd is following Jesus; literally. They are following the real Jesus. No joke. It would seem that there would be thousands of them.
I have mentioned earlier that people often follow Jesus for something other than Him. These are just such a people, and Jesus knows it. They aren’t there because they really believe, or particularly want to be His. They are with Him because they found a guy who can make food. Jesus even calls them out on it saying, “you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” John 6:26
You might be happy to see that Jesus soon disbands them. He isn’t the sort to be interested in developing a political or social following, at the cost of collecting a band of hypocrites. He’s looking for people who really want to be right with Him. It grieves me to report to you that we as Christian leaders today do not have the discernment of Christ, and so it happens. We have people in our midst who are there because they appreciate the community, or see some decent social value in what the church is up to. Sometimes they feel belonging meets a certain personal need, or think that if they hold on they might receive something special from Him. (I’ve even been known to pray for my sports team to win on occasion)
Even though Jesus isn’t here in bodily form to challenge us to pack up and go, I think those of us who are insincere eventually fall away. Assuming the church is a Biblical church, eventually we figure it out. In time we discover that the church doesn’t exist to suite our needs. The miracles were and are real, but aren’t the whole show. So over time, we eventually lose interest when we uncover the reality that the church isn’t a social justice movement, commune or cure all for what ails us. His works were to be a witness to testify that He was indeed sent by The Father, One with Him and the means for us to be reconciled to the Almighty God. There is peace with God through Jesus Christ. I call that good news.
I’m expecting more from you. There are some who stay even after being challenged. Jesus confronts His closest disciples directly asking if they want to go too. I absolutely love Peter’s response. ‘Where are we gonna go? You’re the only hope we have for eternal life. You’re God’s guy.’ I’ve loosely paraphrased that, but I believe you’ll find that I’ve captured the essence of it.
What other hope do you really have for eternal life? No one else is even about the business of salvation. Do you see the same in Jesus? There is a steadfastness typical of those who have come to realize that there just is no other game in town that gives us legitimate relational access to God Himself, and the eternal life He so freely offers to those who come to be His. I want that for me, as well as for you. Would you want me to strive for anything else?
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69
A large crowd has begun following Jesus. Some would see that to be a positive thing, even within Christian circles. This crowd is following Jesus; literally. They are following the real Jesus. No joke. It would seem that there would be thousands of them.
I have mentioned earlier that people often follow Jesus for something other than Him. These are just such a people, and Jesus knows it. They aren’t there because they really believe, or particularly want to be His. They are with Him because they found a guy who can make food. Jesus even calls them out on it saying, “you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” John 6:26
You might be happy to see that Jesus soon disbands them. He isn’t the sort to be interested in developing a political or social following, at the cost of collecting a band of hypocrites. He’s looking for people who really want to be right with Him. It grieves me to report to you that we as Christian leaders today do not have the discernment of Christ, and so it happens. We have people in our midst who are there because they appreciate the community, or see some decent social value in what the church is up to. Sometimes they feel belonging meets a certain personal need, or think that if they hold on they might receive something special from Him. (I’ve even been known to pray for my sports team to win on occasion)
Even though Jesus isn’t here in bodily form to challenge us to pack up and go, I think those of us who are insincere eventually fall away. Assuming the church is a Biblical church, eventually we figure it out. In time we discover that the church doesn’t exist to suite our needs. The miracles were and are real, but aren’t the whole show. So over time, we eventually lose interest when we uncover the reality that the church isn’t a social justice movement, commune or cure all for what ails us. His works were to be a witness to testify that He was indeed sent by The Father, One with Him and the means for us to be reconciled to the Almighty God. There is peace with God through Jesus Christ. I call that good news.
I’m expecting more from you. There are some who stay even after being challenged. Jesus confronts His closest disciples directly asking if they want to go too. I absolutely love Peter’s response. ‘Where are we gonna go? You’re the only hope we have for eternal life. You’re God’s guy.’ I’ve loosely paraphrased that, but I believe you’ll find that I’ve captured the essence of it.
What other hope do you really have for eternal life? No one else is even about the business of salvation. Do you see the same in Jesus? There is a steadfastness typical of those who have come to realize that there just is no other game in town that gives us legitimate relational access to God Himself, and the eternal life He so freely offers to those who come to be His. I want that for me, as well as for you. Would you want me to strive for anything else?
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Waiting on a Miracle
John 6:1-21
"...Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do." John 6:5-6
It's interesting to see, that even those who walked personally with Jesus, seldom knew what Jesus was going to do until it was done. We find here a beautiful picture of God at work among his people, meeting insurmountable obstacles.
Seeing a vast crowd, Jesus tests Philip by asking him how they would feed all of them. I'm not sure whether we would call Philip's response a pass or fail. It's likely something in between. A fail would have been, "Feed them? That's not our problem."
Just like Philip, we never know what God is going to do. There are however at least two principles at work here in this passage which highlight our role when we face problems bigger than ourselves.
We Need Others: Specifically - The Community of the Church
It is often fanciful to think that once we get right with God, we've got this special connection with the King of the Universe, so we've arrived at a destination where we are able to live out a new level of independence. We're right with God now. Why do we need input from other people?
Philip's response was a decent first thought, but it did not capture the whole of what Jesus was looking for. If you’re reading along, you may notice the piece Andrew brought to the discussion was an essential part of Christ's lesson for them and for us today. Jesus' end game for you and I, isn't for us to fly solo with Him, but also to be in community with the rest of his family. We are not the whole package, but so often, our insufficiencies are met through each other.
Do What You Can
God certainly can and does act without any input from us. Also, five barley loaves and two fish are not enough to feed five thousand men, plus women and children. What we offer reveals to us how serious we are about whatever lies before us. If we aren't willing to do what we are capable of doing, we really aren't committed. Are we? It isn't a magic trick that 'makes God move on our behalf', rather it would be odd to expect God to act on an issue we care so little about.
It truly is beautiful to see God move mightily beyond our ability. It takes nothing away from His power when we offer all we can in community with each other, but instead can blow us away when He reveals how He has so much more for us than what we were able to achieve.
We don't know what God is going to do with the problems we face. Don't let that discourage you from taking your place among His people, doing what you can, and trusting in His goodness.
"...Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do." John 6:5-6
It's interesting to see, that even those who walked personally with Jesus, seldom knew what Jesus was going to do until it was done. We find here a beautiful picture of God at work among his people, meeting insurmountable obstacles.
Seeing a vast crowd, Jesus tests Philip by asking him how they would feed all of them. I'm not sure whether we would call Philip's response a pass or fail. It's likely something in between. A fail would have been, "Feed them? That's not our problem."
Just like Philip, we never know what God is going to do. There are however at least two principles at work here in this passage which highlight our role when we face problems bigger than ourselves.
We Need Others: Specifically - The Community of the Church
It is often fanciful to think that once we get right with God, we've got this special connection with the King of the Universe, so we've arrived at a destination where we are able to live out a new level of independence. We're right with God now. Why do we need input from other people?
Philip's response was a decent first thought, but it did not capture the whole of what Jesus was looking for. If you’re reading along, you may notice the piece Andrew brought to the discussion was an essential part of Christ's lesson for them and for us today. Jesus' end game for you and I, isn't for us to fly solo with Him, but also to be in community with the rest of his family. We are not the whole package, but so often, our insufficiencies are met through each other.
Do What You Can
God certainly can and does act without any input from us. Also, five barley loaves and two fish are not enough to feed five thousand men, plus women and children. What we offer reveals to us how serious we are about whatever lies before us. If we aren't willing to do what we are capable of doing, we really aren't committed. Are we? It isn't a magic trick that 'makes God move on our behalf', rather it would be odd to expect God to act on an issue we care so little about.
It truly is beautiful to see God move mightily beyond our ability. It takes nothing away from His power when we offer all we can in community with each other, but instead can blow us away when He reveals how He has so much more for us than what we were able to achieve.
We don't know what God is going to do with the problems we face. Don't let that discourage you from taking your place among His people, doing what you can, and trusting in His goodness.
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