Read Today's Passage
I love reading this chapter to close out the Journey With Jesus Challenge. Here we see Jesus once again appear to His disciples after He came back to life. Were the disciples just chilling, had some of them gone back to their former lives, or were they simply in between "speaking engagements?" Was Peter fishing naked? Did Jesus conceal His identity from them like He did the travelers on their way to Emmaus, or did the disciples simply not catch on that this was Him?
And I love the symbolism of Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him. Peter denied Jesus three times, so Jesus asks for confirmation three times. I can only imagine what was going through Peter's head at this time. And then to be told that he will be killed for his faith, wow. But he does not run away from his responsibility this time. Peter has grown up in his faith.
We should be like Peter. We are fallen, but Jesus asks us to do much. We should follow Him and His example and do it.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
John Chapter Twenty - August 29, 2008
Read Today's Passage
It amazes me that even with everything the 12 were taught by Jesus while He was with them that they still did not get that Jesus had beaten death and was alive. Their first thoughts are that someone stole His body. And they were cowering in fear, locked away in case the Jews decided to come after them to exact some revenge. Where was their faith? It was like they were in the boat on the stormy sea all over again. The forgot that Jesus is in control, and began to rely upon their own strength and their own abilities. It kind of reminds me of us today.
We do the same things. We trust God for a while, but forget about how powerful He is when things get tough. We start to try and do things on our own instead of allowing Him to do things through us. It amazes me that these 12 men were the building blocks for the church, and they were just as flawed as we are today. It is comforting to know that even those men dealt with the same thoughts, feelings, doubts and fears that we do today.
I look forward to someday learning what happened that John did not include in his account...
How about you?
It amazes me that even with everything the 12 were taught by Jesus while He was with them that they still did not get that Jesus had beaten death and was alive. Their first thoughts are that someone stole His body. And they were cowering in fear, locked away in case the Jews decided to come after them to exact some revenge. Where was their faith? It was like they were in the boat on the stormy sea all over again. The forgot that Jesus is in control, and began to rely upon their own strength and their own abilities. It kind of reminds me of us today.
We do the same things. We trust God for a while, but forget about how powerful He is when things get tough. We start to try and do things on our own instead of allowing Him to do things through us. It amazes me that these 12 men were the building blocks for the church, and they were just as flawed as we are today. It is comforting to know that even those men dealt with the same thoughts, feelings, doubts and fears that we do today.
I look forward to someday learning what happened that John did not include in his account...
How about you?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
John Chapter Eighteen - August 27, 2008
Read Today's Passage
I find it very interesting that the Jews only took Jesus to Pilate when they realized that their laws could not allow them to execute Jesus. Now bear in mind that there were included in the Law crimes and sins that required death. But Jesus had committed none of these. So they tried to convince the people that it would be good for one person to die for all Jews, and to convince Pilate that Jesus was trying to start an insurrection by claiming kingship when the Jewish nation was under the rule of the Roman empire. It's all political jockeying by the Jewish leaders. Jesus was killed because He spoke the truth, and the truth was that the leaders were wrong. And they did not like that so they wanted to be rid of Jesus. How often do we find ourselves trying to find loopholes in Jesus' commands ("it's for a good cause", "it's not sex", "I'll ask for forgiveness later", etc.) when the truth in them commands us to remove ourselves from enticing sin?
And I love Pilate's question to Jesus: "What is truth?" So many people are wondering that today. I get the impression that Pilate would have willingly listened t and been changed by Jesus' message.
What were your thoughts?
I find it very interesting that the Jews only took Jesus to Pilate when they realized that their laws could not allow them to execute Jesus. Now bear in mind that there were included in the Law crimes and sins that required death. But Jesus had committed none of these. So they tried to convince the people that it would be good for one person to die for all Jews, and to convince Pilate that Jesus was trying to start an insurrection by claiming kingship when the Jewish nation was under the rule of the Roman empire. It's all political jockeying by the Jewish leaders. Jesus was killed because He spoke the truth, and the truth was that the leaders were wrong. And they did not like that so they wanted to be rid of Jesus. How often do we find ourselves trying to find loopholes in Jesus' commands ("it's for a good cause", "it's not sex", "I'll ask for forgiveness later", etc.) when the truth in them commands us to remove ourselves from enticing sin?
And I love Pilate's question to Jesus: "What is truth?" So many people are wondering that today. I get the impression that Pilate would have willingly listened t and been changed by Jesus' message.
What were your thoughts?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
John Chapter Seventeen - August 26, 2008
Read Today's Passage
Wow.
This is prayer. We see so many pastors today trying to deliver the greatest, most wordy, intellectual, spiritual prayer. But here Jesus speaks plainly and directly to God. He yields that God is in control, and He makes requests of Him. Not requests to gain things, or favor. But requests for God to lead, comfort and guide Jesus' disciples, and for all who will become believers to be unified with God as a result of the disciples' efforts. We are still disciples today. Are we fulfilling Jesus' prayer here? Or are we falling short because we are afraid, or lazy? Are we operating in the world, yet not OF the world as Jesus was and as He asked for us to be? Or do we look so much like the world that they cannot tell us apart from themselves?
Wow.
This is prayer. We see so many pastors today trying to deliver the greatest, most wordy, intellectual, spiritual prayer. But here Jesus speaks plainly and directly to God. He yields that God is in control, and He makes requests of Him. Not requests to gain things, or favor. But requests for God to lead, comfort and guide Jesus' disciples, and for all who will become believers to be unified with God as a result of the disciples' efforts. We are still disciples today. Are we fulfilling Jesus' prayer here? Or are we falling short because we are afraid, or lazy? Are we operating in the world, yet not OF the world as Jesus was and as He asked for us to be? Or do we look so much like the world that they cannot tell us apart from themselves?
Monday, August 25, 2008
John Chapter Sixteen - August 25, 2008
Read Today's Passage
I have not much to offer today. Merely my amazement once again at Jesus' skill for prophecy and figurative language, and His disciples' inability to comprehend. But once again they don't ask Him for answers, they ask themselves. We are so much like the disciples. I am so much like the disciples.
How about you?
I have not much to offer today. Merely my amazement once again at Jesus' skill for prophecy and figurative language, and His disciples' inability to comprehend. But once again they don't ask Him for answers, they ask themselves. We are so much like the disciples. I am so much like the disciples.
How about you?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
John Chapter Fifteen - August 24, 2008
Read Today's Passage
Today's reading was actually a part of a church service I was a part of this morning. I was on vacation with some friends from college, and we read through the first part of this chapter as part of a discussion on renewing our Spiritual Passion in our relationships with God. Every time I read this passage, I am struck by how little of God we picture in our minds. We blame God for things that hurt us. We think of Has someone who only does good things for us, but when things go wrong it is His fault for not keeping the painful things away from us. But here we have a picture of God as a gardener. Gardeners cut off dying or fruitless branches as part of their care for the harvest. How many times have you blamed God for something that you did not perceive as being right, but did not stop to think about whether or not you were remaining in Him in the first place? Maybe He was working to prune out something that you were not to be involved in, or to have. Or maybe Has working on you period because you were producing no fruit? How many times has He done this to me and I have missed it?
This passage reminds us once again that to follow Christ is costly, and that we will not be popular if we do follow Him. The world will indeed hate us and our message. They do not understand it. But whose attention is more important? God's? Or the World's?
Today's reading was actually a part of a church service I was a part of this morning. I was on vacation with some friends from college, and we read through the first part of this chapter as part of a discussion on renewing our Spiritual Passion in our relationships with God. Every time I read this passage, I am struck by how little of God we picture in our minds. We blame God for things that hurt us. We think of Has someone who only does good things for us, but when things go wrong it is His fault for not keeping the painful things away from us. But here we have a picture of God as a gardener. Gardeners cut off dying or fruitless branches as part of their care for the harvest. How many times have you blamed God for something that you did not perceive as being right, but did not stop to think about whether or not you were remaining in Him in the first place? Maybe He was working to prune out something that you were not to be involved in, or to have. Or maybe Has working on you period because you were producing no fruit? How many times has He done this to me and I have missed it?
This passage reminds us once again that to follow Christ is costly, and that we will not be popular if we do follow Him. The world will indeed hate us and our message. They do not understand it. But whose attention is more important? God's? Or the World's?
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