Lazarus the Spectacle

Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. John 12:9

Throwing some sort of blame at anyone for wanting to see a man who had been dead four days and then raised to life might be hypocritical on my part. Any of us would want to question Lazarus about his experience. But did anyone miss the man beside Lazarus the spectacle? Lazarus and Jesus were right there at the table. Wouldn't the one who raised Lazarus have more knowledge of what went on with the whole dead then alive thing?

We live in a time of big shows, blockbuster movies, sold-out concerts, and popular evangelists. Even the holidays that begin this week have a lot of stuff offered up to us that is beside the point. All of this distraction might lead a person away from the centerpieces of the holy days, giving thanks to God and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lots of spectacle to enjoy, let us remember the reason.

Bucky

Trust His Goodness

For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. Isaiah 14:1

Gotta song stuck in my head. I will not inflict it on you. God has a nation stuck in his mind, and he sent Isaiah to tell of future mercy and preference. For those who believe in Jesus, we also have a special place for Israel in the heart. Jesus was born of that people by his mother Mary. As were the disciples he chose, and Paul the apostle he sent. Jesus is to us that special mercy God promised. But there must be more since most of Israel did not recognize the Messiah when he came to them. The future-ness of this prophecy indicates an ongoing mercy, choice, and joining. And who are these strangers? Joining sounds like a wedding of some sort. 

Prophecy leaves many questions, but we trust that God is good.

Bucky

Stay On The Lord

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
  -- Isaiah 26:3

And just like that it was a week before Thanksgiving. Hope you are almost ready. 

Oh, the past is full of regret monsters waiting to ambush the unwary traveler in the halls of memory. And isn't the anxious imagination always ready to paint the worst sort of visions of a future that we will never see? Is it any wonder that the prophet Isaiah handed down the word from God to keep our minds stayed on Him? Perfect peace often eludes us because our minds are not trusting in the Lord our God. Instead we run back into regret or forward into anxious dread while our Lord and Savior await us in the present. 

Dear Lord, please help me, I pray, to keep my mind stayed on You! 

Bucky

A Captured Soul?

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls there like birds. I will tear them from your arms, and let the souls go, the souls you hunt like birds." Ezekiel 13:20

Magic charms and captured souls seem right out of the fantasy genre to us. God has a different opinion on that according to His word passed along by the prophet Ezekiel. From the story, we also find out that the women of God's chosen people were doing prophecy, but not authorized prophecy from the Lord God. Thus by false prophecy and magic charm bracelets, they went out to hunt souls. This is not a foretelling, but a telling by the Lord of what His people are up to at that time. Therefore, as we go about our lives today, we must ask what might be trying to capture souls right now - yours, mine, or any soul?

Be wary, remain watchful, someone out there hunts souls. None of us wants to become a captured soul.

Bucky

The Best Advocate

But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
  -- Isaiah 64:6

A man gathered up his righteous good deeds and took them to lay before the throne of Heaven. Immediately a messenger of the Lord swept them up in a dustpan and dumped them in the fires outside the holy city. The man tried to blame the messenger, but in his shock he had failed to note which one it was who had done away with his good deeds. The court looked at him; the man felt a guilty sweat break out on his face as another messenger began reading a list of his charges to the court. His sins, he noted, had begun to pile up rather alarmingly at the very place his righteous deeds had been. If even his good work had been burned like filthy rags, what would his sins look like? What was going to happen to him?

We do not have to enter the judgment like this man. Believe in the One who died to pay for all our sins, and show up to court with an Advocate, Jesus our Lord.

Bucky

According To His Word

Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD—
Your salvation according to Your word.
  -- Psalm 119:41

Ah, a tube of biscuits, what a great way to startle the morning. 

A critical component of our faith is that the word of God is absolutely true. If God should renege on even one promise or prophecy, we are lost and leading the most miserable of lives. The psalm writer here calls upon salvation from God according to His word. God speaks by His word, and His word belongs to God. Anything less and we have serious problems with eternity and such. So, be happy that words like Almighty and omniscient belong to God alone. 

Your word is very pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.
  -- Psalm 119:140

Bucky

A Bit of Thanksgiving

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 2 Corinthians 2:14

We have for ourselves a peculiar thing where our government shuts down if not funded by money it may not have. Well it's over for this present iteration. We may get another one next February. After that stink in Washington D.C., we could use a better fragrance in the air of this place.

Paul the apostle of Christ Jesus often wrote these amazing little notes of thanksgiving and praise. Paul wrote, "and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." Wonderful! We often think that it is our doing that carries the most weight, but it is the work of our Lord Jesus in us that carries the fragrance. Any triumph we have in this life must be from His leading us in Christ. Without that leading we would tend to go off in any direction of selfish pleasure or inglorious sin. So, let's air out this place by following Jesus our Lord!

Bucky