Back To God

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.  John 14:6

Some persons will read the gospels of Jesus and see the New Testament as a way to get away from God and His Old Testament. However, in one of the great verses, in my little opinion, of the gospel of John comes this claim by Jesus that He is the way to God. There are others as well, such as our Lord's ascension where He goes to His Father, and the Revelation where John sees God on His throne and then the Lamb of God. And of course we cannot ignore in the New Testament the army of quotations by all of the writers and Jesus Himself of Old Testament verses. No, seeking the good news of Jesus to get away from His Father just doesn't make sense to the one who believes in the Christ. Now using the New Testament to see Jesus and come back to God, that seems like a plan. And then we can read all the wonderful promises in the Old Testament that Jesus has fulfilled and will continue to fulfill! 

Finding God in Jesus is like finding a pastry where the filling exceeds the delightfulness of the frosting. 

Bucky

Let's Talk About Home

There are many dwelling places in my Father's house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. John 14:2 NET

There are homes that give us a bit of trouble, homes that we would rather get away from, and even homes that are so beautiful we wish we could afford one. But there is only one home for those who believe the words of Jesus and that is the one He has gone to make ready for us. Many translations of our Lord's statements use the word 'mansion', but why should we limit our Lord to a mere mansion? The dwelling place He has gone to prepare may be larger than we imagine, or smaller. It may not have inside it what we think of here on earth, but will certainly be better than we can dream. We like to think that this heavenly home will not be actively falling apart as houses do here, but that may not be true either. What we do believe from our Lord Jesus is that this home will be more than a joy, greater than a delight, and just right with Him.

Let us talk about our home with Jesus!

Bucky

Blessed Assurance

The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
  -- Isaiah 32:17

I am probably not the first one to search for blessed assurance in the Bible only to be told that the two words do not appear together anywhere in the New King James version.  What a disappointing development! Does that make that great old hymn a heresy? Some people consider the NKJV itself a heresy since it isn't the King James version of the Bible. Others consider the KJV a heresy since it isn't in Latin...which wasn't the language Moses or Jesus spoke either. We have a pattern formed here. The scripture as we are given it in those various versions is sufficient, but we also have the word of the Spirit of our Lord working in us. The songs, sermons, speeches, and yes, even short notes of devotion in the morning, are all responses from those who believe to the Word of God living in us. Blessed Assurance could certainly take its place among the psalms, but it doesn't have to if doing so will shake the faith of those who need to place boundaries on the Word. 

Sing to the Lord, it's all His work in us!

Bucky

That Rejoicing Commandment

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4

There are those times when it may seem that the Lord has called us into this huge burden. We know that the Lord Jesus told us to bring our heavy burdens to Him, but we still have this tendency toward doubt. Paul the Apostle gave to us a commandment to help and encourage us at all times. Rejoice always. And the great letter writer of the Bible said it again in case we gave into a doubt. However, you and I feel that doubt again, don't we? Yes, how do we rejoice always with this heavy burden of rules and regulations? Again, did we miss that commandment of our Lord to bring those heavy burdens to Him? Paul even gives us another clue in this verse to that life's walk of always rejoicing, it is that state of 'In the Lord'. That which happens to be the place where life is - in the Lord!

Have a rejoicing day in the Lord!

Bucky

He Hears You!

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Mark 6:30

Often we gather to hear the words of Jesus and the disciples did too. Those words are of course of the greatest value to us. Here in this verse we see the disciples gathering and Jesus listening. As so few of the disciples' words were written down in the gospels, and there must have been a great many questions in the three or so years the group traveled together, we do not always get to know what they said. However, in this case they reported teaching what Jesus had taught them and doing those things He had shown them to do. What we may miss in this one verse though is Jesus listening. Yes, He heard them out as those disciples told the Lord of their adventures in teaching. What a delight!

Our hope and comfort from this is that we too can talk to the Lord in prayer and know that He hears us. Yes, He hears you!

Bucky

The Worry Imagination Machine

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Matthew 6:25

Out here on the high plains, we are just barely into the daylight hours. And yet I have to wonder how many of us have already blown this morning's commandment from Jesus in this verse? Did the Worry Imagination Machine begin the day with a worrisome scenario manufactured with only the slightest provocation? If the powers that be in the world today produced an Artificial Intelligence that worried like we do they would laugh and then shut the thing off. The powers would join Wile E Coyote saying, "Well, back to the old drawing board." We are so bound up with our worries that if we find someone going about without a care in the world, we think them simple, naïve, perhaps even deficient in a mental way. And yet, that person would be in obedience to the command of Jesus and we... alas, we are the sinners in this. Therefore come to the Lord Jesus in prayer today and ask for His great help in living without worry. 

Trust in our Lord Jesus!

Bucky

The Lost Sheep

But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Matthew 15:24

Have you achieved a life of professional success? Are you respected in far regions of the globe for your worldly knowledge? No? Me neither. As the world measures success, I'm not quite there yet and may not make it before the end comes. Do you feel often like a lost sheep sending out a querulous bleat to an uncaring world? Good! You and I are exactly what the Good Shepherd came to this world to find. "But I'm not of the house of Israel, just one of those Gentile dogs," you say. Read the story around our verse for today and see how great faith won the day for a woman of our ken. 

Is the Lord not giving you direction for where to go? Perhaps He already has you there, right where He wants you to be. 

Bucky

For This Sin Too

For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:22b-26

At times we may wonder what happened to this person or that from the Old Testament stories. All those who died years and centuries before Jesus came did not have the chance, it would appear, to be saved. Paul answers this question for us in the passage that we would call a run-on sentence in our present age. And yet in this sentence Paul sets down for us that one then and one now has the same condition of sin and falling short of God's glory. All have the same Savior and all may be redeemed in Christ by His grace through faith in Jesus.

To God be the glory by our faith in His Son Jesus!

Bucky

Every

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Revelation 14:6

The revelation our Lord gave to John to pass along to us in these latter days takes great pains to show how the good news of Jesus goes out to everyone. Several lists start with every and have nation, tribe, tongue, and people in various configurations. And as that message does not go out in vain, we have the assurance of a psalm in Heaven that praises the Lamb of God and assures us that the redeemed are from every one of the four groups.

For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
  -- Revelation 5:9b

Thus we see no need for anyone from any nation, tribe, people, or tongue to look down upon any other person, for out of all of those nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues come the redeemed of the Lamb of God!

It appears almost too simple for many to grasp these days. Rejoice in the gospel of Christ!

Bucky

Adventures of the Night

My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
​​The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
  -- Isaiah 21:4

Once in a while I am reminded that I have neither outgrown nor out reasoned nightmares. Easter morning was once such example, and though the fearful image left quickly the physical reaction hung on for a bit. Isaiah seems to have enjoyed a similar thing in our verse for today. It is instructive for us that his fearfulness frightened him. FDR said a similar thing in his first inaugural address, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Isaiah continues how the night he longed for had been turned into fear by the Lord's vision that was sent to him. We like sleep at night, but sometimes it is taken from us by fear. For Isaiah it was to serve the Lord's purpose in prophecy. For us, well, why should we think the Lord cannot use it for good too? I wonder how many of the saints got up to read Matthew 27 & 28 at 0045 on Easter morning still quacking in their boots from a nightmare like I did? And behold, he maketh the sound of a duck in his spelling in place of the quaking like he should!

God bless and keep you in perfect courage this day!

Bucky

Paul's Little Fantasy

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  1 Corinthians 1:10

Whoeee! Paul really lays out the fantasy there, don't he? If only Brother Paul could have seen ahead to our current political and religious time he would know the futility of his wish! Hmm, let us see. Paul lived as a Roman citizen under the occupation of Rome where the empire had their ways of disseminating news to the republics of every new law, scandal and celebrity peccadillo. The order of the day was pagan and heathen, and about every other religion one might imagine,  as long as they obeyed Caesar first as the word from their god. Politics was such a rough and often deadly game that even barbarians in the Colosseum might have been more likely to make it to old age and retirement. No, Paul had all the evidence he needed about what our world has become and his pleading remains the same: Come together, be one in Christ our Lord.  

That of course does not mean that it will be easy or even immediate. You likely have a division, disagreement, or dispute with one or more of the saints right there in your own Bible study or church group, no matter how small it may be. As it was for Paul and the Corinthians, so it is for us, we all need our Lord Jesus at the heart of this life, or maybe that is IN the heart of our life.

Love and joy in Christ our Lord,

Bucky

His Awakening Day

These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” John 11:11

One evening I read a newer translation of the resurrection story and Jesus spoke of His awakening day. As that agreed with what our Lord Jesus said of Lazarus, I thought that term brought a little more clarity to me and you. Easter is how we were taught it back in the day, but that word for the holiday always seems to require additional explanation. Resurrection Day helps and tells us of the event that happened on that day. Awakening Day seems good as well, as long as we do not fall into thinking that our Lord simply had a three-day snooze. The scourging, crucifixion, lancing by the Roman soldier, and most assuredly, His declaration of the giving up to God of His spirit, all tell us that Jesus our Lord died on that cross. What the use of awakening tells us is of the impermanence of His condition, and the promise for us that we too will awaken when He calls us from the grave. 

May we finish well in Jesus our Lord!

Bucky

His Blood Price

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me. Matthew 27:9-10

The actions of Judas Iscariot are to us like the reaction John has to that woman on the scarlet beast in Revelation 17. We are astonished and wonder what motive went through the man's mind as he went about betraying his rabbi. Did Judas have the scripture from Jeremiah come to him at some point in the affair? Matthew certainly made the connection later, for none of the disciples guessed that Judas would be the one to betray in the moment Jesus pointed him out.

This part of the story of Judas does point out the priests who knew quite well what they were doing with that blood money. While they celebrated their victory over Jesus on this Sabbath, another prophecy loomed over them, one we will celebrate on Sunday. You know how it starts, 'Up from the grave He arose...'

Yes, He did! He is risen indeed!

Bucky

Down To The Grave

Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:

“They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”
  -- Matthew 27:35

Sunday morning, the one we celebrate every Easter, and the day of our Lord's resurrection. There seems to be no question that Sunday was the day when that big crescendo of music came and we sing, "Up from the grave He arose..." to commemorate the event. So, counting back three nights and three days on my chubby old fingers, we have Thursday, the day Jesus died on the cross. On this day those many years ago Jesus went down to the grave. Some might think the resurrection the most important, since we in our fallen first birth like to put something on top of every subject, but all that Jesus did from Bethlehem to Nazareth to Jerusalem and Golgotha was of the utmost importance to us. However, I must admit that coming out of the stone-cold tomb that morning to greet Mary was awesome and awe-inspiring all at once! It is like... His ascension is so big, but just wait for His return! Jesus has a way of exceeding our superlatives, both all the way and over the top!

Love in Christ our Risen Lord!

Bucky

The Pass Over

Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:13

This evening begins the annual celebration of the Passover in Israel. This story comes down to us by way of the Bible and tells of a time of destruction, a highly specific destruction. You likely know the story well from the Bible studies of your youth. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for about 400 years, God sent Moses to bring them out of the land, and there was this Pharaoh who was perhaps the world's foremost anti-change champion. But not so much that God didn't need to help out by hardening this pharaoh's heart. God's hardening worked of course, and the final plague upon Egypt would target a group of beings so specific that even today we marvel. The first born of Egypt, including livestock, would all die at once in all the land one night with this one exception - a sign. Only the sign of blood on specific places of a home would cause the destroying agent to pass over a particular house. And that, boiled down to a paragraph, is the reason for the annual celebration of the Passover to this day among God's children of Israel.

Take the time today, if you can, to read that first part of Exodus and how God by His mighty hand separated Israel to Himself.

Love in Christ,

Bucky

Sought Opportunity

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.  Matthew 26:14-16

From this short passage two things stand out quickly for us: one of the twelve and betray. For one of the twelve disciples of Jesus to turn Him over to the chief priests for money appeared inconceivable to the other eleven disciples. We can know this from the last supper when no one suspected or even suggested Judas, not even with two named Judas to shorten the odds. So little was Judas Iscariot suspected in this betrayal that after Jesus handed him the cup and gave His word to start the thing, no one among the eleven suspected the man. Judas Iscariot was truly one of the twelve until he wasn't. 

Every year at this time I tend to marvel over this betrayal of Jesus. How easily it went once Judas opened that door of opportunity. The monetary reward was right there ready for him. But, even the betrayer could not start the event until Jesus gave the word to go. 

Great is our Lord and His Word!

Bucky