Do Doo, Do Doo

 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So, if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. John 13:12-13

Jesus has just finished washing the disciple’s feet. Much to their surprise, He, the Master, had acted as a servant. He had just stated very clearly that leaders lead by example, by demonstrating what obedience looks like in real-life situations. He showed them leaders are to be humble and serve their followers. Followers are to follow and do what their leaders do.

Some of us are very familiar with this scripture. In our discipleship groups we asked what we have seen Jesus do in our lives in the last week? Today begs a different question. What have I done to be Jesus to someone this week? How have I loved with Jesus love this week?  Whom have I served like Jesus served?  And the list goes on…..  Jesus demonstrated what He wanted His disciples to DO!  He wasn’t so concerned about what they knew, but what they did! He was saying, if you believe me, watch what I do and imitate me.

 Knowing is important, but doing represents understanding. Do I just know the Word, or do I apply action to my understanding? Does my joy come from digging deep into cultural context, descriptive nuances, and word meanings, all of which help me understand scripture and are exciting, or from actually applying this understanding to my lifestyle and interactions on a daily basis? Jesus opens our eyes so He can use our hands and feet for His glory.

Jesus, thank You for the opportunity to discover new truths each day as we study Your Word. You created a desire within us to know You and show those around us how much You love and care for them. Now, Father God, help us to humbly practice WWJD (What Would Jesus DO), today.

OH No, Not Them

“If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection.  John 11:47 – The Message

I love the way the message expresses Jesus’ mission. He says here and in John 3:17 that He did not come to reject and punish, He came to offer life and save the world. He did not come to condemn, but to bring light and dispel darkness. He did not come with His finger pointed in our face but with arms open wide to receive us. He came to free us from the curse, not to curse us. He came as righteous, powerful and mighty, but never proud and haughty. He came in truth and love, not in manipulative revenge.

Why, if Jesus came in all these positive and saving ways, do we Christians often come off as finger-pointing, self-righteous do-gooders who deserve blessings? Why do we try to force everyone into our box of faith? Why do we condemn more, instead of love more? Why do we reject those for whom He died? Why is it easier to love the sinner “out there” than to love the sinner we live with or raised?  The people Jesus spoke to, had all kinds of truth from age old teachings, and evidence of miracles and yet they still didn’t take God seriously. Jesus just said He didn’t reject those people, the ones that frustrate us to no end, but often we reject them.!  We need to ponder our understanding of God’s love.

Jesus, Friend of sinners, Light in the darkness, Hope of the lost, Savior of the world, help us to stop condemning those whom You are not rejecting and show us how to love them in the same way You do. Absolutely impossible without an infilling of Your love and Spirit. Impossible without surrendering our expectations and claim on their lives. It won’t happen until Your love in is stronger than our judgment.  Jesus, it won’t happen unless You do it in and through us as we surrender our judgement and we take You seriously!

Don’t You Care?

 43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”45 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.  John 11:43-45

Martha, Mary and Lazarus were good friends of Jesus. He had shared many meals in their home. When Jesus hears that his good friend Lazarus has died, he purposely delays going to Bethany to visit Mary and Martha for two days. What? Doesn’t He care about them? Then, He comes and in the presence of many Jewish unbelievers, He calls Lazarus from the dead and raises him to life. Many who were watching believed in Him.

. Over and over, I am discovering more about miracles and why they are performed. It seems in our culture with the influence of the health and prosperity gospel, we think we deserve the miracle of healing because we are believers and God promises us health, wealth, wisdom, and prosperity, to entice others to follow Him.  It always seems to end up for our personal benefit and ease in this life. The more I look deeply into the miracles of healing by Jesus, the more I realize it has very little to do with the person being healed and everything to do with salvation of the lost around them. It appears Jesus doesn’t heal so believers will be glorified, but so that sinners will believe!

I remember when my 5 yr. old niece developed cancer, how I prayed for God to heal her so my brother and wife would become believers. I imagined her with a powerful testimony, becoming a missionary and being mightily used by God. I was devastated when she died and mad at God. What good would her death do when He could have healed her and brought about their salvation. In this case, Jesus knew her death would not only be the instrument of their salvation but also a call to ministry for my brother. If she had been healed, they could very well have believed for a time and then gone back to normal once the newness and excitement of her healing wore off. Her death brought about a shocking reality and lasting transformation. God can be glorified in life or death, healing here or ultimate healing and life in glory. Both are miracles of His love and grace!

Jesus, thank You for revealing Your healing power to Your children and using the miracle of healing for Your glory in the salvation of the lost. I pray You will display Your glory in me for the good of the salvation of others and that I will never deny Your healing power but participate in any way Your Will requires.  Help me to see it is not about my comfort, but about the healing of others from eternal pain and death.

Walk the Talk

If I don’t do the things my Father does, well and good; don’t believe me. But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and just take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes. John 10:36-37

Jesus has been using the idea of a good shepherd to explain who He is, but the Jews weren’t getting it. When He said He and God were one, the Jews exploded and wanted to stone Him! Finally, His last defense was to point to the good things He had done, forgetting what He had said. Even then they refused to believe Him.

These verses shout out, “Actions speak louder than words!”  I may speak about love while displaying disinterest. I may speak about generosity and give sparingly. I may speak about kindness and respond with rudeness. I may expound on discipline and give in to desire.  I may shout out, “share Christ,” and walk in silent fear. Confession comes from the mouth, but action comes from the heart.  If I’m not living it, I’m not believing it!

Lord, this is a challenge for many of us who love to talk and understand much more than we practice. You know our hearts and minds, Jesus, continue to show us when our walk isn’t measuring up to our talk.  Continue your work in our hearts until both walk and talk are genuinely one in Christ. A slight twist on the idea of having the mind of Christ is … “Let this heart be in me which was in Christ Jesus!” Help us to grow in heart and mind in You!

Wise In Whose Eyes?

2-4 Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing. 5 If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking. James 1:2-5 The Voice

The Christians of James day had faced many trials and persecutions. Some experienced difficult and sometimes life threatening challenges daily. When you see trouble coming, your first response is to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction or fight back. Fight or flight is an natural human response. James is trying to encourage these believers that patient endurance will bring ultimate joy and final victory. If you feel you just don’t have the patience and wisdom for this journey , ask God, who will grant you wisdom and patience to finish the race.

Wisdom comes with age. Wisdom comes from experience. Wisdom comes from the counsel of others. Wisdom comes with patience. “Yes” and “No” to all of the these. In my 79 years, I have suffered many challenging and heartbreaking seasons. I have been counseled by pastors, seasoned Christians, and professional counselors, who have all imparted wisdom from books and their personal experiences. Some have been very helpful and others just added more doubt or fear depending on the situation. Those who pointed me to scripture and God’s wisdom were the most helpful. Only God can give me the strength to patiently endure in my most difficult struggles. Only God can give me wisdom to see beyond to struggle to my eternal destination. Only God can help me look back and see all the ways His wisdom had protected me and prepared me for the next trial. NO, I do not look forward to tests and trials, and I’m still working on patient endurance, but I know His wisdom with patient endurance is best and will lead me to eternal peace and joy in Heaven!

Thank You, Jesus, for patiently enduring the most tragic and painful trials while on earth,, that You might not only understand my heartaches, fears and trails, but You know exactly what I need to face and endure those times patiently, knowing that finishing the race will make it worth it all.

Peak-a-Boo, I See You

 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? 8 If I go up to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the place of the dead, You are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning or live in the farthest part of the sea, 10 even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. 11 If I say, “For sure the darkness will cover me and the light around me will be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to You. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to You. Psalms 139 7-12

This is my favorite Psalm and my life scripture, the one I go to over and over to remind me who God is and who I am. It helps me keep a proper perspective in life and encourages me daily in my walk with Christ.

Try as we may, we cannot hide from God or escape His presence. This is good news for the believer and bad news for the sinner. As believers Christ has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Whether we are on the highest mountain of joy, or in the deepest valley of temptation and despair, Jesus has promised to be with us there. In verse 4 He tells us that He even knows what we are going to say before we say it. And in verse 16, He says He was there when we were in our mothers womb. None of us cannot hide our hearts or actions from the all-seeing eye of God. God knows all and sees all! His eyesight is 20-20 in all directions and His presence is everywhere we are. It is comforting for the obedient and embarrassing and condemning for the disobedient.

Have you ever thought, it’s dark out and no one can see what we are doing. Or have you wanted to make a hateful remark about someone and because you didn’t say it, you weren’t guilty. God sees. God knows. Most of all, God is forgiving and compassionate when we admit our sinful thoughts and behaviors and ask for forgiveness.

Father, we are thankful for Your presence in our lives 24/7. Because You know all, see all and are in all, You encourage us, empower us, and reveal Yourself to us. You also correct us when necessary. You are everything we need, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. You promised never to leave us or forsake us! Thank You, God.

Don’t Chicken Out

“Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust God, your God— Deuteronomy 1:29-32-The Message

Moses is preaching his final sermon to the people of Israel. He is reminding them of all God has done for them and how they have responded to God’s goodness. In this passage God has brought them to the end of the wilderness and is commanding that they take the land He has promised, but they chicken out with excuses and additional requirements from God. They have watched God in action for forty years and just when He is ready to give them what He has promised, the task seems impossible to them, and they panic! 

Note- they had to fight to receive the promise, but He guaranteed success.

This entire chapter is a lesson for today. When God says “go,” we need to go even though the odds seem impossible. When God says “stay,” we stay even though the conquest seems reasonable, even easy!  Later in the chapter they repented and decided to try the easy way, but God said no! Even though they had the power to succeed, they were defeated because God was not with them. When God is with us, He has set the timing and circumstances to assure victory even though the task seems more than we can handle and entirely out of our comfort zone. How would we know it was God if we could do it on our own? Why do we need God to do what we know we can do?  After years of following Jesus, I know, even the things that seem easy for me need the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish their purpose. Even my gifts used in my own strength can backfire. I need to listen closely and go when He says go, even against my gifting and stay when He says stay, even with my gifting! I must trust and obey knowing His way guarantees victory.

Jesus, this lesson is as old as Adam and Eve, and yet I sometimes still struggle with it. I know I must test the spirits to make sure it is You speaking and not the tempter who appeals to my desire to please and succeed. Once I know it is You, I must obey and take the first step. Often, I have found You reveal only one step at a time, and I cannot see exactly where I will end up. Sometimes there are bumps even detours on the road, but You said I would have to fight for the victory. Oh Father, give me the courage and strength to fight at Your command and resist the temptation to take the easy way out!  Don’t let me miss out on the victory only You can give. I trust Your love always goes before me, behind me and hems me in. Thank You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for Your presence and guidance in my life!!

Fight or Flight

The picture was becoming clear to the Pharisees that Jesus had gained a following much larger than that of John the Baptist, the wandering prophet. Now He could see that the Pharisees were beginning to plot against Him. 2 This was because His disciples were busy ritually cleansing many new disciples through baptism,[a] 3 He chose to leave Judea where most Pharisees lived and return to a safer location in Galilee. 4 This was a trip that would take them through Samaria    John 6:1-4

John is still baptizing for repentance of sins and now Jesus and His disciples are also baptizing.  Seems Jesus and his disciples are baptizing more followers than John. The Jewish leaders, always trying to make trouble for Jesus, chose to introduce the idea of competition and jealousy. Instead of fighting this idea and setting things straight, Jesus chose to continue His ministry of salvation Samaria.

This reminded me of what Bob Goff, author of “Love Does” said about this issue, “Don’t argue of fight about your faith, instead walk away in humility and confidence and let God handle your challengers.” Sometimes we feel driven to prove we are right, innocent, well-intentioned and justified in our actions, especially for the cause of the Kingdom. Maybe it’s time we let Jesus right the wrongs and fight the battles as we move on in obedience to Him.

Jesus, once again you are asking us to surrender our rights, even when we are right! This seems impossible in our human strength.  Just another area for us listen, learn, and obey, in faith and confidence. Another area to release our people-pleasing desires, our competitive nature, and our need to control. Wouldn’t it be much easier to choose the Jesus way, to humbly excuse ourselves and move on leaving them to argue among themselves.

Thank You, Jesus for another example of how we are to navigate in this sinful world. Help us to surrender our pride and stay focused on You and Your kingdom purposes.

The Aroma of Fresh Bread

32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:32-35

Jesus is the true bread of life, always fresh and ready to fill us physically and spiritually.

Jesus had met the needs of the people for physical nourishment with the loaves and fish. Because their physical needs were met, they followed Him. But when he began talking about their spiritual needs they were not as thrilled. Earlier in John, Jesus says that those who worship Him must worship “in spirit and in truth.” He continues this theme here as He uses bread as His metaphor. They knew full well the importance of bread to physical life but failed to make the connection to their spiritual life.

We have been decaying since the day we were born. No matter how well we take care of this physical body, it continues to decay. Nothing can stop that process!  So, Jesus is offering them hope and a future, not in the physical but the eternal.  Eating His Bread and drinking in His Spirit is necessary if we want to live with Him forever in heaven. Obviously, this crowd was still concerned only with the physical and when He moved to the spiritual, they left Him to continue searching for another to meet their needs.

 We are so often centered on what Jesus can do for our bodies, our families, our finances, our earthly concerns that we overlook the most important need that He came to meet, our need for forgiveness and eternal life.  The need to love others and put their needs ahead of our own.  The need to put God first and see and act as His hands and feet in this hungry world. We need Him to meet our daily physical needs, yes, but only to highlight the reality of our need for spiritual nourishment to prepare us for eternity.

Oh, Jesus, we have been taught to seek and serve You, but not for our physical and temporal health and success only, but to live in the spiritual reality that seeks to sacrifice so that others may come to this truth and experience hope and nourishment as they feed on the Bread of Life in community with all believers. May we drink of the Living Water and partake of the Bread of Life and share it with others both now and forever, we pray.

I Am Guilty

40-42 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, “We’ve found the Messiah” (that is, “Christ”). He immediately led him to Jesus. 45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It is Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” John 1:40-42, 45-56

 John, the Baptist had been proclaiming that Jesus was coming and lo, Jesus came to be baptized by John. As Jesus is walking along after his baptism John is shouting out to tell his own disciples who Jesus is. Andrew hears and immediately chooses to follow Jesus and the first thing he does when He meets Jesus is run to find his brother to share the good news. Likewise, Phillip does the same and finds Nathaniel to share the good news and they follow Jesus.

I remember when I began to follow Jesus at the age of seven, when the preacher preached on heaven and hell. I certainly didn’t want to go to hell and Jesus loved me and wanted me to go to heaven, so I decided to follow Jesus that day. The next day I shared my joy with my friend Martha at school and invited her to come to church with me. I was so excited! Even at seven, I felt God’s transforming presence.

 Every Sunday morning and Wednesday night I was in church and learning more about Jesus. But gradually over the years the excitement of learning and sharing with my friends at church, took the place of sharing with friends who did not know Christ. If anyone asked or seemed the least interested in my Jesus, I had the answer for sure, but I had lost the excitement that made me want to shout to the world, “Come, see who I have found!”

 I fear that there may be the problem with many of us who have been saved as children or teens and been in church most of our lives. We have settled into the routine of Christian living. God is still very real and present in our lives. We participate in our churches, pay our tithe, have a daily time with Jesus and pray regularly, even for the lost, but we are often waiting for them to come to us, rather than boldly seeking them out. Is it that we have forgotten that excitement and joy of having the guilt, shame and fear of hell lifted and replaced by joy, peace, and the promise of heaven with Jesus? It seems it has become more about us than about sharing with others. Ouch!! If you can identify with me, join me in praying for God to restore the joy of our salvation.

Jesus, restore to us the joy of our salvation. Restore our desire to share with those around us. Rekindle a fire and burden for the lost and give us a Holy boldness to share Your miracles and work in our lives. Open our eyes to see where You are working and give us discernment, compassion, and a desire to join You in that work. In Jesus Name, we pray, Amen.