A Wonderful Door

In olden times the main key to protection in a house was the door. Barring the door was always the first defense when threatened. In our reading today (John 10:1-18)  Jesus says, "I am the door". He then goes on to say that by going through this Door you will find safety, freedom (can go in and out), and provision (find pasture).

Remember our Door is wonderfully strong, wise, and loving. His love was forever demonstrated when He allowed Himself to be ripped up and pinned to wood so that we could go through. He was pierced to the heart so that we could enter into His heart. There are so many features of this wonderful Door. But He is our way to life abundant and eternal so we are forever grateful.

Now I See!

Wow, look at the transformation of our blind man! At the beginning of Chapter 9, he started out as a disinterested "object lesson" on who sinned. But in today's reading (John 9:18-47), he becomes a courageous seeker, teasing the Jewish leaders (verse 27 and 30), getting put out of the synagogue (what his parents feared), and finally saying to Jesus, "Lord I believe".

What a difference being healed can make! It is noteworthy that after the now bright-eyed with sight man confessed to Jesus that he believed in the Son of Man, "he worshiped Him". We can hope that he kept doing that and telling his good news for the rest of his life.

Oh, that we would all have our friend's kind of sight. If only we can just have the same testimony, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" God has surely opened our self obscured eyes to see His love and light. Praise His Name.

I See!

I have a new appreciation for sight. There is nothing like the threat of losing something to paint a whole new opportunity for gratefulness. In our reading today (John 9:1-17), Jesus"saw a man blind from birth". The disciples missed seeing him with the same love and compassion because they were just casually discussing who had sinned - the man or his parents.

Can you see the next event? As Jesus said,  "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world," he made spit and dirt into mud and put it on the man's eyes. It sounds yucky to me, but to a desperate blind man it gave enough hope to find the pool and wash. He "came back seeing". That means his eyes and his brain were instantly healed so that even the process worked. As Jesus predicted, it all happened "so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

I am struck by our Lord using spit to heal this time when later (Matthew 26:67) He received the unthinkable spit and slaps in the face from the religious leaders as He was bringing about our opportunity for healing and forgiveness. How great is our God!

Hearing Clearly?

We serve a Great God who has such good news for us. In the reading today (John 8:39-59), the people just were not hearing it. Jesus said, "Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say." The only language that they evidently understood was the devil's dialect,"Lies". ("When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.")

It is so clear how important it is to surround ourselves with truth and good news so that any other language sounds foreign. As truth and good news becomes our native language, it is evident that we are in God's family, and we have the capacity to hear our Father clearly.

Lord, help us to know You and delight in hearing You.

Giving God Pleasure?

There is a little phrase in our reading today (John 8:21-38) that just thrills me. Jesus says,"The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." Can you get over the fact that we can actually give our Precious Lord pleasure and please Him? It just bowls me over!

In the Message this verse says,"The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him." It sure gives me joy to think that my actions can give delight to the Lover of my soul. I'm thinking of the Bridegroom just delighting in having His bride by His side as they partner together in Kingdom work.

How beautiful and humble is our God. It's amazing grace that we give Him pleasure.

Neither Do I Condemn You

What a drama is in our reading today (John 7:53-8:20)!  The Pharisee "police" have caught a woman in adultery "in the very act". Can you imagine that scene? It is early and they burst into the temple-teaching Jesus has started, shove her in front, to see if He would go along with the law to stone her. He responds by bending over and writing on the ground. I would love to have seen this.

Finally, things have diffused so people can hear when He says, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." That is enough to make even the religious "police" think twice. So they all retreat (oldest first). Then He who was without sin says to her, "Then neither do I condemn you."

It seems that it is hard for me to get it through my judgmental head that Jesus came to set His people free. I've been trying to pound it in by remembering Romans 8:1 ("Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,").

Lord, help us remember this especially when we are tempted to condemn ourselves. Let conviction lead us into Your arms.

Flood of Grace

We get to listen to our Lord speaking Life in our reading today (John 7:32-52). To explain why they had not arrested Him, the officers for the chief priests and Pharisees said, "No one ever spoke the way this man does."

Yes, it is on the final day and climax of the feast that Jesus makes His stand and cries out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says." (The Message). Wow!  We are not talking a stream of grace. We are not talking a mighty river of grace. We are talking rivers of this living water (the Spirit who was about to be given). God is into abundance and multiplication. An alternate reading of verse 37 says, "let him keep coming to Me and let him keep drinking." As we keep absorbing His love and truth, He pours out a flood of life by His Spirit to others (Isaiah 58:11, 55:1-2, {44:3-5 - about our children! }).

So let's not be like the Pharisees who were careful to believe what the "others" were believing. Let's come to Jesus, believe His truth and become an unstoppable flood of God's grace to others.