Neither Worry Nor Fret

And which of you by worrying can add an hour to his life?
So if you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about the rest?
-- Luke 12:25, 26

One extra hour of life is called for, and to add it by worrying? We have some knowledge that worrying will do quite the opposite. And He calls it such a very little thing. To think that worrying and fretting are two of our favorite activities. One might think we would be much better at those activities with all of the practice we have put in. As neither worry nor fretting about have done us any good, then perhaps we should set about to obey our Lord's admonition. Will we gain that extra hour of life then? Let's hope not, for the sooner we are with Jesus the better for us all!

Love and faith to you this morning!

Bucky

I Have Found

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!"  Luke 15:6

That a sheep just on the other side of a hedge and overlooked by the shepherd would bring a cause for rejoicing with the neighbors and friends seems unlikely. No, this sheep had managed to get itself into a place that a sheep should not have been able to find. Or, the sheep wasn't just missed on quick look but was missed for several days or weeks. So long was the sheep lost that the shepherd had all but given it up for lost. Thus the rejoicing with friends and neighbors in our verse for today. Now imagine Jesus coming home to the Father in Heaven and saying much the same thing. You and I are of course playing the part of the lost sheep, and so is that friend over there and the neighbor on the street and that fellow in church, and so on. When each lost sheep is brought into the fold, there is that announcement by the Savior our Lord in Heaven, "I have found!" It is a statement of discovery, of rescue, and of rejoicing. 

Feeling lost today? Imagine the Lord Jesus announcing to the saints in Heaven, "I have found this one!" over you as you look up to your Savior. 

Bucky

Any Person Who

 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

The burdens of this verse are all on the Father. He loved, He gave, His Son, and He gives the everlasting life. Our part is one we qualify for by being part of whoever. In the dictionary, whoever is defined as: any person who. After the 'who' comes 'believes' in our verse for today. There is no qualification for your looks, quantity of sin, your fitness, fatness, fidelity or future prospects, only any person who believes. Whoever can do it, whoever wants to do it, whoever comes to the Father through the Son; it is available to you, me, anyone, any person who believes in Him, the only begotten Son. 

Help someone to be a whoever, whenever... they will believe!

Bucky

Chasing The Neverending

And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Ecclesiastes 12:12

Since the first six books were published, there have been those of us who wanted to write and to read them. Truly as Solomon observed, there can be no end of making books. And, if we try to acquire a library, there will always be at least six dozen new books on our wish list. If a friend were to help us out by purchasing those books as a gift, it would only awaken the ravenous beast of desire for the next six hundred books. For this we have an admonishment from the wise king: correct the error and be on guard. Too much reading and study are wearisome, and one of the great unfairnesses of the world is that it burns few calories. Living persons are important too, and we can learn much by talking to them. At the least, we can talk with them about the books we have read. This is no idle boast, as the collection of books we know as the Bible can be the beginning of our testimony!

Rejoice in the reading and sharing of His Word!

Bucky

No Peeking!

Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter. 1 Samuel 6:19

I read in the notes for this verse that another translation states that 70 men and 50 oxen were slaughtered that day. Certainly 50 oxen dying is more palatable to me than 50 thousand persons, but I hesitate to change the word of the Lord to make it easier for me to bear. The ark of the Lord carries with it a serious penalty when a peek inside brings death! But that isn't quite the point is it? The penalty came from disobedience of the law of Moses, and when the ark was set within the tabernacle, even to gaze upon it was to invite death. When we read of the deaths we tend to focus on the ark, but it was the disobedience of the law that brought the penalty.

That a large container covered in gold would invite a peek inside to the mortal flesh we understand. Would you or I be able to resist even today? Perhaps under the threat of that penalty, but we would feel the urge from curiosity if nothing else. The great work of the law of sin and death is that it highlights our need for a savior. That a holy object of the Lord should become a temptation to disobey Him shows the first birth and our need for a rebirth in Christ.

All our faith must be in Christ alone!

Bucky

The Loving Controversy

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

As I brought up the love of God for the world He created yesterday, it is only fair that I bring up the controversy over this love. There are some in the world who hate this verse we examine once more today, John 3:16. Their hatred stems most often from some form of loss. If God so loves the world, they say, how come He lets people die by war, misfortune, murder, and other means? The patient in the hospital who has lost his health might ask why a loving God would allow such suffering in His world. However, it seems to me that all arguments against God's love boil down to one: If God loves me, why doesn't He run the world the way I want? That was of course the choice offered to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. One tree they were forbidden of all trees in the garden, and it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know from further reading and experience that you might also call it the tree of I wanna go my way and not God's way. The name does not matter quite so much as that it was a choice. A choice given to Adam and Eve because love does not force but allows for the beloved to make a wrong decision, and they did. The love of God comes by way of a gift, His Son, and a choice - does a person believe in Jesus or not? 

Thank You, dear Lord God for your great gift in Jesus, your dearly beloved Son. 

Bucky

For God So Loved

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

Looking around at the world, we see both that which is loveable and some which appears less so. Yet there were no exceptions or conditions placed on this verse. It begins, for God so loved. No one could force the Almighty to love, so God must have chosen to love. God so loved the world we see right now, for the Roman empire of our Lord's time was hardly better than what we see today. Untimely death and suffering were common then as they are now. Sin and hatred lived near love and righteousness just as we can see in our time. This is all useless though, as the great verse of our Lord Jesus simply begins with the stated fact: for God so loved the world. And you and I did not do a thing to earn that love, it flows from our Lord because He chose to love. 

God's love and mine to you and yours!

Bucky

The Comforter: Our Help In A World Of Discomfort

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.  John 15:26

A little of the King James Version for you today as I wanted that word for God's own Spirit: Comforter. John gave to us from the words of Jesus another of those verses where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit appear together. The mission of two of the Trinity in this verse is to give testimony of the Christ, Jesus. And the Paraclete, to use the Greek term, Who is at once our helper, counselor, and comforter, is sent by our great Lord Jesus to be with us in this world of discomfort. We note also that the Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, fulfilling another need we have in a world of deception. Just how close are these persons of the Trinity? Jesus, who is in 14:6 of John the way, the truth, and the life, sends from the Father the Spirit of Truth to testify of Himself. 

Praise God for His Son and His Spirit!

Bucky

To The End

Indeed the LORD has proclaimed
To the end of the world:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation is coming;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.' ”
  -- Isaiah 62:11

I did not, as even I'm beginning to think, take a resolution this year to stop writing. The sewer problems continue their 10-day cycle and last week my home PC crashed hard on the monthly Windows update. A few discoveries from this time of trial include that God is still good, the Bible on my table has not broken down, and while I cannot trust the systems and devices of this world, God remains trustworthy and loving to the end.

From the time of Isaiah's prophecy, there has already been a great span of years until now, and none of us know how much further we have to go. To the end of the world then, we and Israel await the return of our Savior and Lord. He is our salvation from the ravages of sin and the mundane little problems that make life here just such an endurance race.

Pray for one another, my friends, God is great and good!

Bucky

Without Jesus

They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.  Psalm 14:3

Without Jesus, we have this observation from David, king of Israel. It is not a flattering message to us, nor a thing to be proud of. And this is what we have to offer God in exchange for salvation. Then to those living in darkness came a message of love and hope in Jesus. We might wonder, how are we to take this? In faith each receives the message of love from God, or rejects it and goes his own way. One might ask, "Am I worthy?" Of course not! But the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, is worthy. There is none who does good among us, but there was One who came down from Heaven to save us. We do not deserve this salvation by our own works, but we can gain it by accepting Him. Salvation: it is the strangest of one-sided deals, and yet the most wonderful!

Have a joyous week and love one another!

Bucky

Learning In The Struggle

But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings.  Hebrews 10:32

Good morning in this new year! I have been gone or off the air for a while now, and you may be wondering, what's up with that? A vacation would have been a strange event, but it wasn't that and I would have told you. The sewer in my house backed up, twice. And after trudging down the stairs one evening to scoop the stuff up from my basement shower and bag it out to the trash, I resolved not to do that again. And so began my morning trips to find a potty before the need became urgent. Plus there was that trip to the laundromat which I had not done in years. An inconvenience to be sure, but one that takes up time from my morning routine. Of course the writing of my testimony should always come first due to the Great Commission and so on, as some would point the Pharisee finger at me. All I can say in defense is...try telling that to my digestion! There are biological processes in us that just have to complete their mission or dire consequences come. One morning this week I only just made it too. 

While 'great struggle' might be over the top in this example when compared with what others have endured, it was a struggle nonetheless. I have learned more ways to conserve water, and that my faith in Christ remained even in the times when I got down a bit. 

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. v35

Bucky