Neither Let It?

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27

There are those times when we treat the words of Jesus like some kind of magical incantation, and then we wonder why it didn't work on us. This verse in particular holds a couple of those faith action commands with 'let not' and 'neither let it'. This leads us to understand that the words of our Lord Jesus are participatory for us. He gives to us His peace, but we have work to do in not letting the heart where the trouble likes to set be troubled. You are right; He did not say it would be easy. We also have our work cut out for us in not letting it be afraid. And with what the news media likes to shovel our way in this age, that is not an easy faith action either. 

However, with prayer and the Word of God, we have good help in this!

Bucky

The Old Believer's Boast

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Let's take inventory: Am I weaker today because it takes longer to do what I used to do, or it hurts way more to do what I once did, or I just flat out can't do what I was able to do not so long ago? Getting older is not without its frustration. As older believers in our Lord Jesus, we have something those young 'uns don't have yet, lots of reasons to boast of our weaknesses. Where once we might boast of how much we could lift or press, now we have no cause to boast of that sort of thing. Praise God for the opportunity to show off the sufficiency of His grace! Where once we might have impressed someone with dexterity of hand or smoothness of motion, now we can tell of the perfecting of God's strength in our infirmities.

Evidently, like John testified, I must become less as He becomes greater in me!

Bucky

Still Feeling A Bit Dumb?

Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. John 10:6

This verse for today follows a particular teaching of our Lord Jesus, but it could be tagged on to a great many of them. If you feel a bit dumb this morning over a passage of scripture or a teaching of Jesus from the gospels, join the club! We all have much to learn in Christ our Lord, and we have the company of those twelve disciples as they are the 'they' in this verse. With about three years of direct teaching from the Man Himself, still those disciples struggled to understand the teachings of Jesus. Many times they probably felt like we do, just a bit on the dumb side. Therefore be patient in the Lord. Does your rushing mighty wind (Acts 2) feel more like a slight breeze? Patience, the disciples had to wait for a time too. And, our Lord may not do things the same way for everyone who comes to believe in Him.

Trust in His way and timing!

Bucky

One Who Testified

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”  So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of His own word.  John 4:39-41

Early in His travels, Jesus our Lord went to Samaria to meet with one particular woman at a well. If you have seen the newer TV series, The Chosen, you watched a delightful portrayal of this woman's transformation in Christ. While the disciples follow their rabbi, this woman goes out and testifies of the Christ. Where many of His fellow Jews refuse to believe, this woman helps to bring a Samaritan town to believe in the Lord. Between the testimony of one and His own word, Jesus found faith in a place that would shock the Jewish religious leaders when word got to them, as it surely did. And so we testify, because like this little Samaritan town, we never can tell where the Word of God may take root and grow. 

Rejoice in the Lord always,

Bucky

His Prayers

As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. John 17:2

In John 17, Jesus prays, and unlike many previous times when He went out away from the disciples to pray, we get to hear what our Lord Jesus said in prayer to our Lord God. Authority over all flesh, we want it, we seem to remember it through our family line going back to Adam, but that dominion was lost to sin. You may have felt the desire to be at peace with all the wild beasts as in Isaiah 11, but that is for a future time. But while we worry over peace with the wild things, Jesus takes His authority and gives eternal life. Wow, His prayers are so different from mine.

Have a prayerful day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

A Silent Testimony

And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Matthew 8:4

"See that you tell no one," would appear to contradict later commands to spread the good news. However, we can read that this command was given to just one person and not even the disciples, and at a time prior to the commission at the end of Matthew's gospel. While the testimony was to be silent this time, there were actions commanded by Jesus to testify of His healing. We too may be led by the Lord's Spirit to speak out at one time, while to show our faith by actions at another time. This may appear to contradict the teachings of your favorite evangelical preacher from these latter days.

As a writer from the word, I can tell you that it is easier for me to grab a verse or two from the Bible and fire off a singular solution for your testimony. As Jesus our Lord made the commands according to His time and timing to the healed leper here and the disciples there, we too should go to Him in prayer inquiring each time. The Spirit of our Lord will guide us to a showing or a telling, or even a combination at any given time as we follow our Lord bearing the good news.

Showing or telling, it's still a testimony!

Bucky

To The End

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1

Not quite in the spiritual state of the eternal yet, John has an interesting mix of tenses going on here in our verse for today. The end of our Lord's life on the cross was as we all know now not the end at all. And John would be the one who visited Heaven to receive the Revelation and learn of a different end. However, whichever end John spoke of, Jesus still loved and loves us all to the end.

We also want to know as Jesus knew that we will depart from this world to the Father, and we can in Christ our Lord since He made that trip first.

Endless is the love of our Lord Jesus!

Bucky

Who Are You?

Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”  John 1:19

Who am I? Last night I dreamed of heavily-armed squirrels, and their little backpacks were so cute too! So the answer to that question could be some sort of crackpot or screwball in my case. As I watched season 4, episode 2 of The Chosen last night before bed, I have no rational explanation for that dream. John the Baptizer had a better testimony when the priests and Levites came to ask our question this morning, "Who are you?" For us, well some of us are still trying to come up with an answer to that question. Or are we? John gave us an example to follow, and we can use it well. We are not the Christ, but we represent Him, and, like John, we are not worthy to untie His sandal straps. And our testimony is not made up of a job, or a career we chose, or how many times we had peculiar dreams of armed rodents, but of what our Lord Jesus has done for us.

May God guide and bless us in our testimony of Christ!

Bucky

To His Glory

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11:4

Monday again? Already? Yes, I am in that stage of life when the weeks and months seem to go by rather quickly at times.

In this verse for today there is a great deal to unpack. Jesus said that Lazarus' sickness was not unto death, and yet we know from the story that He waited so that Lazarus would die before He arrived. This would not be the only time that disciples of Jesus both then and in our day have not understood what Jesus said. We also know from the story that Lazarus spent one more day in the tomb than Jesus did. Is there something we can learn from that? One thing we can take from this verse is that those who believe in Jesus are not exempt from fatal illness. And? Yes, don't forget the other part, that Jesus to His glory and God's is also able to restore and revive us from that place we see as death.

Therefore, does Jesus not see that period of time each of us may spend in the grave as death? Perhaps not. But we learn in this verse that the resurrection of a man who died in the way that we see as dead is for the glory of God and to glorify the Son. And? Yes, and it also shows to us that through Jesus that death thing is not permanent! So, if your illness or mine does take us to the place where we rest in death, no worries! Jesus will come in His perfect time to fetch us back to His place of life.

Rejoice in His good news!

Bucky

One Among You

John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”  John 1:26-27

From the testimony of John, it would seem that Jesus may have come one day before His baptism to hear John preach. Or, it may be that John referred to Israel as a whole as the 'among you'. In either case, the Pharisees did not immediately begin looking around for the long-awaited Messiah. Which would have been the natural thing to do in a group when the preacher points out that the one you've been looking for is right there among you. Unless, of course, the Pharisees didn't really want to find the Messiah. From about three years of interactions between the Pharisees and Jesus, we can confidently say that is true, they did not want to see or find the Messiah. Even when John pointed out the man in verse 29 on the next day, no one among the Pharisees ran to spread the good news. One of John's disciples did run to tell his brother though, and the choosing of the 12 disciples of Jesus began. 

What a person does when the Messiah is pointed out to them testifies of their faith. May we all be filled with faith in Jesus!

Bucky

A Man Changed

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

Our verse for today comes from a man who, along with his fellow disciples, had quite failed to understand or believe what Jesus had said about His coming death and resurrection. Years later, John would write these magnificent words about our Lord Jesus. What marvelous change Jesus had made upon this man who had been called from the fishing trade in Galilee. And yet we know from the gospels that the change took more than three years under the personal discipleship of our Lord Himself, a visit with the Lord in His glory along with Elijah, Moses, and the voice of God; some time with the risen Savior, and then an outpouring of the Spirit of God in a most startling manner. So, given that we must learn by faith from John's testimony of all that. If your anticipated change after being saved by the Lord has not seemed to go as far or as fast as you might like... be patient and wait on the Lord!

We are His work in progress!

Bucky

Reminders Needed

Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. Titus 3:1-2

Today we observe a moment of silence for those whose lives were taken on 9/11. You do not need a reminder of this date, and you can probably tell me where you were when the news first broke of the terrorist attacks. For other things in our walk with Jesus, we need a reminder now and then. One of those reminders that Paul wrote to Titus in a letter, will be tested on us no matter which of the candidates debating last night becomes the next President of the United States. Of course there could yet be a candidate who was not invited to the show that takes the election from 'out of nowhere'. When the election is decided, we will need to be ready to speak evil of no one, as Paul wrote, and to be peaceable. This scripture for today lays out several things that are not so easy for us to do in politics or in anything else. There is only one answer for that: take it to the Lord in prayer!

Peaceable love to you in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

Seeing Something Wrong

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children. Matthew 11:19

That time of the year has come when mornings say 'autumn!' but the afternoons still vote firmly for summer. The two main political parties have put forth their candidates for the next president of the United States, and they are busy shelling each other with words and ads. Each party wants us to see something very wrong with the other's candidate.

As Jesus took the good news of His ministry to the people of Israel, some of them could not abide the change. These religious leaders thought they saw something wrong in this new rabbi and took to pointing it out with some derogatory labels. While a couple of those old-time labels might seem tame to us, each of them, true or not, attempt to take away from the perfection expected of the Messiah. The religious leaders wanted the people to see something wrong with Jesus. To put a play on words: sadly, it was those religious leaders seeing something wrong who failed to recognize the Messiah.

If we believe in Jesus today, somebody will see something wrong in us too. Be ready to be called some names.

Love to you in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

Thorns Of Fame

Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.  John 12:42-43

We should not underestimate the allure of fame on those struggling to believe in Jesus our Lord. Having never had even the tiniest sliver of fame, I cannot estimate what it meant to those long ago rulers or those who live with it today. In fact, I'm so infamous that even people I know from phone calls do not recognize me on the street. Wait, is 'infamous' the right word?  However, for those who have experienced fame, I have observed that they do not often want to give it up. Here in our two verses for today, we see the thorns of this world reaching out to grab and strangle the faith of these rulers. A warning for us to beware of those thorns of fame. 

Keep the faith in Jesus!

Bucky

You Know It

But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Matthew 20:25

Jesus, by way of introducing something new, began with what the disciples and we already know. At work, in school, by the government, and even in the church, you and I have felt the ruling ways of the Gentiles. Here in the United States we were born into a nation that is rather full of them; Gentiles that is. In Judea and Galilee at this time the disciples had the example of that Roman Empire and its ruling over them. You know it, they knew it, and Jesus began from a comfortable place for all of us in that common knowledge. And then came the new stuff!

Want to be great? Be the servant. We could see from here all twelve disciples being brought up short in their headlong charge to be great in the kingdom of heaven. Be the servant, how much does that slow our rush to greatness?

Love to you in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

The Kingdom Has Come

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Mark 1:15

In Mark, this is how Jesus begins His ministry. By the Spirit of faith, I see that there is no more waiting, the time is fulfilled. And, since the kingdom of God is at hand, then Jesus as God has come in the form of a man who can be seen, heard and touched. Repent speaks to all that I was and believed in before Him. Repenting of all of that, I turn to the Lord Jesus and set aside all unbelief for faith in Him alone. And this belief in the gospel is to believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. And finally this statement forces that choice we heard from C.S. Lewis: This man making this enormous statement is a crackpot who actually believes it though it cannot be true, or he knows that it is false and he is the worst of liars, or, all of it is perfectly true and He is the Son of God. He is who He is, but we each must make that choice to believe or to deny.

So, from faith to faith we follow our Lord Jesus,

Bucky