Fitting In

Jesus did not fit. He did not have the "right" education to suit the religious leaders. And what about those radical healings on the Sabbath - of all times! Even the crowd complained He came from a poor, lowly place and family. He sure did not seem like a Messiah to save anybody.

So Jesus told them: "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:10-31)

In our world Jesus does not fit. He doesn't lead us down paths we expect. He doesn't use people that we would have picked. He even seems to show up in the most awful looking situations and people.

" Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

Righteous judgment seems to be based on love. A much bigger, deeper and purer love than I tend to carry around. And when you think about it:  How can an all-powerful, all- knowing, and infinitely loving God fit into my perspective?

Lord, open our eyes to expect bigger, better, "too good to be true" from You.

Leaving or Cleaving?

What can cause us to turn away from Christ? The disciples found out in John 6:53-7:9.

Jesus had spoken what was impossible and distasteful in the natural: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves." So these guys were offended and began full of doubt grumbling: "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

Jesus wondered at His followers. Even His flesh and blood brothers rejected and ridiculed Him in verses 3-4. And Jesus warned that belief would be even more challenging when He left. So He speaks the crowning and comforting word: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

God's truth is understood through His Spirit. We can't figure it out own our on. All our best intentions won't keep us close to Him and believing. 

Lord, we look to you for amazing grace through Your Spirit to cause us to cleave to You and never leave.

Our Real Work

So many of us are working hard! We're trying to make a better life - for us and our children. Whether we are serving someone else for a pay check or doing the child care, cleaning and cooking on our own, we work hard to help provide. We all do need to eat.

But Jesus says, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life."  O. K.  What kind of work would that be?  He says, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:22-40)

Hmm..  Believing in Jesus must be our real work. It puts all our other jobs in right perspective. It means that our burdens get lifted because the yoke He gives is easy and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:29 -30) Actually the yokes on animals in Bible times were often double. Taking His yoke would mean that His infinite strength would be pulling alongside us!

Also when we can move into trusting belief and past worry pleading for provision. So often our prayers are like  "Dear God...worry...worry....worry...worry...In Jesus name, Amen." We can start praising and thanking and seeing Christ as more than useful. He then becomes beautiful. And we become Christ Adorers.

Lord help us to see that our real work is to believe. We want to adore you!

Letting Jesus In

Sometimes life gets scary. It sure did for the disciples in John 6:1-21. They had launched out into this notoriously unpredictable sea. It was now dark. And what had happened to Jesus? Soon "the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing." After struggling some three to four miles in this tempest, they saw something out on the water. It looked like a figure walking! The closer it came, the more fear throttled the guys. Finally the shape *said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid.'" And at the word of Jesus they were willing to let Him into the boat.

What a key truth to remember! In the midst of everything scary, weird, impossible, they heard His word and received Him into their midst. 

How crucial for us to follow their example. And can you believe the result? One description said Jesus climbed into the boat and all was still. But John says, "immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going". (Probably more than made up for the "wasted" time fighting the storm.)

Whew! What a trip. This adventure was amazing. Life with Jesus makes for wonder-full unforgettable memories. 

Thank you, Lord.

Whose Initiative?

Wow! Can you hear Jesus? "I can do nothing on My own initiative..." (John 5:30-47) If the Son of God says this, what should my life look like?

Jesus can be trusted because He is not an empty self-serving witness. He came to carry out orders. "...I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." And the Father confirmed Jesus' pure service by enabling amazing works of love. 

People can trust us when they see that our business is not self-serving. When we are about carrying out God's will with His initiative, we look a lot more like our Lord.

Wrapped in Love

Jesus was so wrapped up in the Father's love. In John 5:18-29 Jesus said, "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel."

And we do marvel at the wonderful works that Jesus did. He has given us new life in Him - a gift that we are only beginning to appreciate.  ("Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.) We actually have the opportunity to pass out of a  a stench permeated living death into a vibrant new life with Jesus. 

And it is all because of the Father's love. How sad that so many do not understand that love because of absent or angry fathers in their life. But God's love in bigger and better and more creative than all our inadequacies. He can soften the hardest hearts with hugs from His love. His love is truly an ocean into which we have seen maybe one inch. 

Lord, help us to relax and float in the ocean of Your love today. Help us to soak it in and wrap it around us until it is the essence of our whole existence. 

A Chance to Walk

Jesus asked that sick man by the pool a strange question: "Do you wish to get well?" (John 4:46-5:17)  Why else would he be lying there with the multitude? When the angel came and stirred the water, the first one in got healed. Seeing others get well must have fired up the man's own desire.

But Jesus knew his condition. He had been suffering a long time (38 years). Languishing by the pool had resulted in a victim's response: "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Maybe he felt like giving up.

But wait! This is his big chance. Will he obey Jesus and "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk" ? Good news! Yes, he takes the chance and "immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk."

The good news is for him and us today. Despite all the past suffering, we have a chance today to trust Jesus and receive the healing he has for us.

Let us say "Yes" and get up and walk - with Him.

Time for Harvest

So much of the country may not look like harvest time now. It's white! Snow white!

Jesus says, "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest." (John 4:27-45)

It's the spiritual harvest that is ready for them and for us. We don't have to wait for the best preparation or the way things have always been done. We don't have to worry about the finished job of people turning to Christ (reaping). Our work may be to sow seeds of Jesus love and truth.

The Samaritan woman sowed much truth and good news back in her hometown: "From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all the things that I have done.'"

But the big harvest came as those outcasts persuaded Jesus to stay on two days. The people then said to the woman, ""It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."

Yes, Jesus has done the hard work of drawing people to Him. We just need to spread the news as He leads. Let's pray as He encouraged us in Matthew 9:37-38:    "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.'"

Lord, send us!

Living Water

We are so thirsty. It is on my to-do list to make eight tries at drinking water today. But only our Lord offers the true life giving water. As He told the woman at the well, "Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:7-26)

And as this well woman learned, we can come to Jesus, acknowledge all (even a secret, ugly, five - husband past), and He will reveal Himself: "I who speak to you am He (the Messiah)." 

But our Source does not give a dribbling, penury stream. This "well of water springing up" is a lavish gushing fountain.(Jeremiah 2:13) And we would do well to follow Jeremiah's advice and stop trying to contain God's life birthing water in our man made broken "cisterns". He came to be a leaping, lively fountain for all.

How appropriate! The final word in God's whole revelation to us is an invitation to come and drink: "And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." (Revelation 22:17)

Let's come drink deeply from His fountain today.