I walk most mornings. Usually about the length of a sermon or other Bible teaching - some are much longer than others! This morning I listened to a podcast by Chip Ingram with Living On The Edge.  I don't remember the sermon except that it was a teaching on the gospel of John. That gospel is a testimony of who Jesus is.  John states his purpose in John John 20:30-31 .  The question I do remember in the sermon is "Who is Jesus to you?" I tried to honestly answer this question in my head as I was walking:  Saviour, Master, Lord, Brother, Friend, Guide, Teacher, Authority, Light, Accountability partner  -  Wait, what? Accountability partner?  I had never thought of Jesus being my accountability partner. But upon reflection of this stunning revelation I discovered that He tries to be my accountability partner!!! ("Tries" because I'm not very good at listening.) When I go for another snack - which I don't need or even have room for! - I ...

John 10:19 ( NLT ) When he [Jesus] said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him.  The footnote to this indicates that "the people" were the Jewish people who listened to Jesus. As I read this verse today as part of my daily Bible reading, I think that it is still the same today.  People, and not just Jewish people, are divided in our opinions of Jesus and His teachings. We fight and argue amongst ourselves demanding that our opinions and interpretations of the Bible are the only correct ones, that somehow we each individually have the inside scoop when it comes to understanding God and His word.   Now I've said before that I believe we each individually have or can have a relationship with God.  I believe each relationship with God is unique and not like any other.  I also believe that one passage touches a different nerve than another passage.  However, I don't believe that my understanding of a passage is the only right...

These are the words of the Samaritan woman at the well. I'm sure you've heard the story told in John 4 . The woman was by herself in the middle of the day, presumably to be away from the spiteful, sniping gossips of her day. While she was there, Jesus came upon her asking for a drink. There was some discussion about the well, living water, how many times she'd been married and her current living arrangements. Jesus was neither judgmental nor harsh. His tone and demeanor didn't threaten or pain her. She didn't rush off but listened to what He had to tell her. As a result many came to believe in Jesus. They even came to listen, at least this one time, to this woman and the story she had to tell. This may have been a turning point in her life beyond the living water Jesus spoke of. Perhaps the townspeople treated her somewhat better after she brought them into the light of Jesus words. An idea strikes me today as I read this passage (with the help of an unlikely book...

Well, Jesus wasn't only human but he was human too.  If you want to see part of that, read the story of the first miracle at the wedding at Cana. The one I'm reading today is John 2:1-25 .  I love this story. It is a wedding celebration, much different from now. The feast could last a long time, days instead of hours. I wonder if the "better" ones lasted the longest. If that's the case, we don't want to run out of food or drink.  That is just like our wedding celebrations - (receptions).  We don't want to run out of anything until we want people to go home. Plenty of food, drinks, music, etc. ....until it is over, or the hosts want it over. Anyway, as we read the story, we are at the wedding feast. Jesus is there. His mother is there We don't know if any other family members are there.  We also don't know whose wedding it is. The disciples are there. We don't know how many but this is the day after Jesus called Andrew, Peter, Nathanael, and...

John 10:17-18 "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” I noticed today when I read this for the umpteenth time that not only did Jesus say He had the authority to lay His life down for us, but He also had the authority to take it up again. I'm not sure what that means. I don't find commentary about it. God gave Jesus free reign, just like we have. Jesus could obey or not. Jesus could come be our savior or not. He could have been a great teacher and walked away from the rest of what God requested. He could have taken Satan's bait after the wilderness 40-day fast. He could have paid Judas to not tell the Jewish authorities where to find Jesus away from the crowds. There were so many things that Jesus could have done, that He had power and authority to do. He...

A couple of things I've learned this week: 1) I haven't spent time thinking about the humanness of Jesus and what that means. 2) I have been asking for God's will - but attaching some strings. Let me explain. Jesus was human. He bled when his skin was cut. He sometimes got dust in his eyes like everyone else if the wind was blowing a lot. He got angry. He got hungry. He doubted (think of the Garden, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me...." Jesus says twice in Matthew 26 ). My normal focus on Jesus is that of being supernatural. - able to resist Satan even after 40 days without food and water in Matthew 4 - or able to pray for his killers while hanging on the cross in Luke . I put Jesus on a pedestal, and rightfully so, but I miss the rest of the story by only looking at the divinity of Jesus. We don't know how much Jesus kept himself from knowing. (As God, He knows everything but on at least on occasion Jesus said he didn't kn...

May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your window pane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you and  May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead. I don't know who wrote this prayer. I don't see anything that makes it "Irish" but that's how it was introduced to me. I like each line.  The last line makes me smile. I don't know that the devil has any "claims" on a person when they die. I think that we make that decision, even if we don't know we have. You know, the decision to follow Jesus or not. Even when people don't make the choice, they make the choice of by their non-decision. According to Ray Pritchard, in An Anchor for the Soul - Study Guide , "Not to decide is an decision in itself. If you don't say yes to Christ...

I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, the Son of the Living God.   After bible study last week, I also know that I believe on Jesus Christ.  This phrase appears in several places in the New Testament but only in some translations.  I see it every so often and have wondered if it is a typo.....the letter o instead of the letter i.  Believe IN or Believe ON.  Last week, this phrase popped up so I asked my Bible Study group what they thought about the phrase "believe on".  (I love my Bible study group!) Here are some bits of the discussion.  Even the devil believes IN Jesus and knows He exists. The devil doesn't believe ON Jesus. Satan doesn't have Jesus as the foundation. When you are ON something, you are on top of it. The thing is part of what you stand on. Belief ON becomes our foundation, what we will take a stand for because it is our very foundation, the basis of who we are, and what we will fight for. So I not only beli...

According to the Bible, the first three people to sin were the first three people. Adam, Eve, then Cain killed his younger brother, Abel. In each sinful event, God confronted the sinner.  In each event, they denied their sin. I want to repeat that.  In each event, they denied their sin.  They blamed someone else, or made excuses or tried to pretend it didn't happen. We still do that today.  No matter the issue, we try to dilute it by calling it something other than sin. We all do it.  Then when we are confronted with the sin, we make excuses or try to convince others that it isn't really a sin. There was a tragic shooting in Arizona a few days ago.  Some are trying to say the shooter isn't responsible for his actions.  We just can't face it when we do wrong. We can't accept that there is evil in the world. But the Bible is pretty clear that there is evil, and there is sin and that we will be held accountable.  Thank God for Jesus who died to t...

John 14:13 " And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14:31a  "but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. " I think of the tough questions like Why was Jesus here? What was His purpose? Why would He do anything for me? The answers are not as hard as we may think. I think Jesus tells us very plainly. Jesus was here, Jesus' purpose and what He did for me is explained in the fourteenth chapter of John . Jesus came so that the Father may be glorified in the son and so we learn that Jesus love[s] the Father , as is evidenced by do[ing] exactly what [his] Father ha[d] commanded [him]. I'm not trying to imply that Jesus doesn't love me or you.  But He loves the Father more, actually the most of anything or anyone else.  He endured what he endured because of his love for God.  He loved God and had to demonstrate that immense love by ...

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/worryfea/pride5.htm John 3:30 says "He [Jesus] must become greater; I must become less."  This quote is from John the Baptist.  I don't ever remember hearing this verse or seeing this verse anywhere, like on wall hangings, coffee mugs, book marks and the like. I'm guessing it isn't a very popular verse.  We like Bible verses that make us feel good or profess our faith.  We don't much like the ones that call us on the carpet! And this one does. We often put ourselves first, as one greater than Christ. We want the worship service to fill us, the music to lift us, our prayers to grant us whatever we want/need.  This verse gives us the equation that sums up what our purpose is.  We are to increasingly make Christ bigger in our lives and make ourselves smaller in comparison.  We are to spend more and more time, money, brain power, activity on Christ and His work. AND we are supposed to spend more and more shrinki...

I heard something on the radio the other day. It was on NPR.org . It made me think about light differently, especially the words light and lamp that are spread throughout the Bible.  Here is a clip from the program that I'm talking about: "We forget just how painfully dim the world was before electricity. A candle, a good candle,  provides barely a hundredth of the illumination of a single 100 watt lightbulb. Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century . The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed. " This is from a book called At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson in the chapter called  "Fuse Box". Mr. Bryson quotes from a diary of a guest at a dinner party where there were 7 (only 7) candles (candles, not candleabras) lighting the room, stating that "it was a blaze of light". Think of that.  Look ...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all Christians....everyone in the whole world?  At first the thought was calming and peaceful.... soothing. Then I thought of the fighting that goes on in church families, in Bible Study groups, in church organizations. I hate to say it but as wonderful as it would be if everyone were Christian, it would not eliminate harsh treatment, disrespectful attitudes, back-stabbing, and rumor-spreading.  There would be more forgiveness. There would be more love, service, assistance, caring. But we Christians still carry too much pride....pride that causes us to want things our own way at whatever the cost (because we don't take time to evaluate the true cost). But I still like the idea. Yes, other faiths would protest this notion as being hurtful and prideful, that it is arrogant to say ours is the only way to truly love and honor God and accept His offer of eternity in heaven. But we, Christians, aren't the ones who said it. Jesus did. So i...

I participated in some kind of bible survey quite some time ago. I don't remember anything about the survey. The payback for participating arrived in my mailbox last week.  I received a copy of a new translation of the New Testament with a note that the complete translation will be available in 2011.  This new translation is called the Common English Bible (CEB).  It uses modern words and phrases to translate the original texts. It is hard to use a new translation.  We get used to certain wording of familiar phrases.  " Blessed are the poor in spirit " is what I'm used to.  (Mt 5:3) not " Happy are people who are downcast ". It will take some time to get used to this translation.  I may never fully accept it but I will enjoy parts of it for certain.  One thing I really like is that all phrases in the New Testament that are from the Old Testament are in italics with the OT passage noted in the footnotes. I like that. Anyway, the first thing I w...

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago called Jesus and the Holy Spirit .  Someone read it and made a comment that included a link to a 2-hour video called The Human Jesus .  I did watch the video over time. I couldn't devote 2 continuous hours of sitting at my computer to watch but I did watch it.  From the wording of the comment the commentator wanted to change my mind about the Trinity. The comment said "prayerfully it will aid you to reconsider 'The Trinity'". Well, it worked. I did reconsider and am reconsidering The Trinity. I can't say that my mind has been changed but it has been opened up. There are a lot of things that we take for granted as fact without actually looking into them ourselves. What the church teaches is full of those things that we take as fact. The Trinity is certainly one of those. Preachers preach about it from the pulpits. It is part of Bible study materials. The book 52 Words Every Christian Should Know is an example. We looke...

I just love finding Jesus in the Old Testament.  He's there from the beginning ( Genesis 1 :26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." ) and interspersed throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Today, I found Him in Hosea 6 .  Hosea 6:2 says   After two days he will revive us;        on the third day he will restore us,        that we may live in his presence. When the Lord gave these words to Hosea, I doubt that he had any idea what he was saying.  He was only doing as he was told, repeating the words that the Lord told him to say. But as we read it, we can see Jesus.  "On the third day" is when Jesus was raised and offered us forgiveness and salvation. That's when we were revived.  That is when we were restored.  That is when we were offered the opportunity to live in his presence. I have a study Bible that says that Hosea became a prophet in 753 BC. He...

John 16:1 - 3 " 1 All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. " These are some of the words that Jesus tells the disciples before He is arrested. He is warning them what is going to happen and why.  Notice the second part of verse 2.  He is laying the groundwork for their acceptance of Saul/Paul.  "in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God."  Isn't that exactly what Saul thought when he was pursuing followers of "the Way', before He met Jesus.  See Acts 7:57 - 8:1 "At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the fe...

I know that is a "duh" title but that's what comes to mind.  Two of today's scripture readings are John 20:19-31 and Revelation 1:4-8 .  Today, I noticed for the first time, that this passage in John is AFTER Jesus has been savagely crucified and then resurrected.  He says in verse 23: "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. "  If you remember, Luke 23:33 - 35 records where Jesus forgives those who were crucifying him while they were doing it, while he was dying a torturous death. (Luke 23:34) Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  Jesus has provided an example of forgiveness that we should follow.  The next reading is Revelation.  Look at verse 7:  Look, he is coming with the clouds,       and every eye will see him,    even those who pierced him;       and all...

JOf course, I'm reading more Holy Week passages. Today is Luke's account of the Passover . ( Luke 22:7-13 ) I haven't gotten very far until I am reminded of the first time I had this one thought: Jesus must have made arrangements with the owner of the donkey ( Matthew 21:1-6 ) and the owner of the room where they going to have the Passover meal.  Ok, it is possible that these owners were so in tune with Jesus that they just allowed use of their things, no questions asked.  But it seems even more likely that Jesus had made arrangements with these people. This is more astounding to me.  Jesus took time to make sure that the disciples were able to enjoy the Passover festivities.    He knew what was required to fulfill scripture prophecy and He knew the different sort of Passover meal in which they were going to partake.  Think about this.  The man was obviously busy with all those people flocking around him mobbing him for healings, teachings, etc....

2 Peter 2:23 When he [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. When Jesus was taken before the various authorities during his trial, he reacted with calmness.  First when he was arrested, he healed the ear that had been sliced off by one of his well-meaning disciples.  When the authorities chided him, demanding that he defend himself (in order that he might prove their case against him) he stayed silent.   When he was on the cross and being mocked and laughed at and challenged to come down from there, he endured quietly and with great dignity.  Indeed, He even forgave others while hanging on the cross. This is really amazing to me.  I have such a hard time just allowing a minor misstatement against me to go unanswered.  Jesus was in a position to defend himself with the truth, the absolute truth, not just what might be the truth based on his recolle...