Good Monday morning! The final week of July has begun for this year; have you met all your goals for the year already? Now that's a mean thing to do to you on a Monday morning! I can't even remember what my goals were for the year. As I grow in the love of Jesus and in my relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I find that the old goals are not all that important to me. The goals I set at the beginning of the year were all about accomplishment, either in the area of self-improvement or in something I wanted complete or accomplish. What about the work begun in each of us by the Holy Spirit? Can I set a goal for that and is not that much more important than any earthly goal that I have set? For years I have worried about goals and dates; contrary to the wisdom of the day, none of that has worked for me. Perhaps we should consider just abiding in the Lord and in living our relationship with Him. Sounds a bit frightening? We do like to hold on to what we think we know. The world has spent a lot of time training us to think the way everyone else does.
Today, we have a rather simple and straightforward verse:
...and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. (John 2:2)
Of course when we find a seemingly simple verse, we naturally want to add all sorts of complicating questions. Did they invite everyone then? Did the invitation state "Jesus and his disciples" or were they simply all known to the bride and groom? We could go on an on with more complicating questions, or we could simply take the Bible as the word of God and believe exactly what it says. As a group, Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. Did they attend? That we'll find out tomorrow, no sense worrying about it today. Someone cared enough to invite Jesus and his disciples, that is all we need worry about for today. Someone wanted them at their wedding celebration, an important time for all. Do you want Jesus in your life at the most important times?
We often wonder about that. Before salvation, we might have thought something like: "Oh, if he comes I'll feel guilty because he is so perfect and I am not!" You might have worried that Jesus would point out all the sins you have in your past life. "Don't marry that one; you ought to see what he did back a few years ago..." However, we need not fear Jesus. When you received salvation from Him, your sins were put away from you. Jesus isn't going to bring up all your sins at any time. God has cleared your record, which was probably extensive, and we don't need to constantly bring it up. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. Invite Jesus to your wedding; invite Jesus into your life - all of it!
I feel humbly grateful today. Does that make me weak? Not at all. We often read about the many times Jesus told someone to not be afraid. We think of a physical threat, which happened often too, but what if Jesus had another meaning for that? For a moment consider that Jesus wanted us to not be afraid of our own emotions. Men tend to fear emotions more than women and it seems that Jesus was more often telling men not to fear. How would the world view us if we quit worrying about what others think and just enjoyed the company of God and our brothers in Christ?
Start the new week with another dose of the grace of Jesus!
Bucky
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