A Little Thankful Consideration

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17

So, amongst your Black Friday choked inbox, here comes a little message of giving thanks to God. If it seems like you've been seeing BF emails for weeks, then I'm right there with you. It is interesting that Paul writes to the congregation at Colosse to give thanks in whatever they do in word or deed. Not every word of mine has been constructive to others and some have been quite mean, but I'm to give thanks for that? Thinking again, perhaps if I recall often that I will be giving thanks to God for my words, then I will take more care with those words. If that deed is not one that I would feel right in giving thanks to God, then maybe I don't need to be doin' that thing I want to do?

In remembering that we are to give thanks to God for word and deed, we may want to give a little consideration to what it is we say and do. Yes, the internet needs a big dose of that!

Thanks and glory to God our Father on this Thanksgiving weekend,

Bucky

Thanksgiving Eve 2025

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

Yesterday, I got to show off some of my weakness to a few kind folks. Strength and power are more compelling to my flesh as trophies to present to my fellow humans. As I get older though, weakness comes to the front and center more often than any strength I still possess. However, in this famous verse we read once more today, Paul makes an offer that is difficult to argue with: boasting of my infirmities, as Paul came to prefer, and gaining the power of Christ to rest on me. Does Paul mean that the One who stopped the storm with a few words, walked on water, and healed the blind would rest His power on me in my weakness? But not in my strength? It is like when the light of the Lord shines brightest in the darkness. Imagine that. Amen.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

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

Looking For The Good News

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
Loving favor rather than silver and gold.
-- Proverbs 22:1

In the pursuit of wealth game, I will admit that others have greater skill than I do. Looks like I'm in a position to take Solomon's advice then. Hmm, in this competitive world, not every person I have met will remember my name as good, or look upon me with loving favor. So what is left for me to present to the Judge when this all comes to a close? Fortunately for me, I have heard good news; a gospel with salvation in it for the lost sheep of the world. Even a person with a bad name, hated by all, and useless in gathering riches can come to the Savior and rejoice in Him. Now that's some good news!

Praise God for the gospel of Jesus!

Bucky

Served Many

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Mark 10:45

A respectful Veterans Day to all those who served their country in the armed forces. For many of us the model of our service is Jesus the Christ. Did I fit that model perfectly when I went to the Marine recruiter that day? Sorry, no I was looking out for myself and that seemed like the answer to life, problems, and everything. Others will recall their own reasons for joining the military, but each of us I believe come to appreciate our service more as the years go by. Perhaps it was those years of Sunday School or the sermons we sat through, but somewhere in each of us was the desire to serve. It may be that the Son of Man who came to serve many, had some of us in mind for military service even before we were born. So, praise God for allowing us to serve our nation.

May God bless all those who served!

Bucky

The Beloved Name

Today marks the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. And contrary to what some would have you believe, I have only been around for a small portion of those years. I mean about 25% isn't such a large portion is it? It is rather a larger portion than I would have expected though. Now I'm feeling a bit older. Maybe something further back, King David reigned in Israel around 3,000 years ago, a certain son of David was beginning his ministry in Judea 2,000 years ago, and in 1025 King Cnut of Denmark ruled over England, Denmark, and parts of Norway. If you want to pronounce his name how I want to pronounce it, we would both be in trouble in his royal court. The Cnut ruled over 2 1/2 countries, so let's stop giggling and be serious! Okay, I had to pause for a minute or two there, but I'm back.

Historical names may look funny to us on the written page, or even sound humorous to us in speech. And that, my beloved friend, is why God's name was not spoken and Jesus bears a name only He knows. Once we are fully cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and restored to our Father in Heaven, we will treasure the names of the Lord in a loving way.

In the name of the Lord Jesus,

Bucky

Become Humble Children

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 18:3-4

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision, costs $181.95 on Amazon. I'm not going to purchase one because I think such texts without qualified education can be dangerous.  What I wanted to know was the page count, 1050! And what I learned was that the reading age was 1 year and up. If I find a 1-year old child reading this sort of manual, I might be a bit frightened. Parents will recall the terrible twos; imagine that in a kid with a complete knowledge of mental health disorders! 

While there are precocious children, that might be a bit far fetched. However, perhaps not so far away from our capabilities as what Jesus tells His disciples in our scripture today. Humble yourself as a little child? Become as little children? We worked for decades in schools and careers to become as adults. At least one of us still isn't sure he has made it that far. Now we must turn it about and go the other way? It is of course no different than Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born again. It is this work of our Lord's Spirit that we do not understand and must accept in faith. And it might take a bit to reach the full effects. 

Raise a glass of orange juice to becoming as children again!

Bucky

Great Son Of Many Peoples

And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations... Genesis 14:1

With this verse taken out of its story, we have a bunch of names adrift with their little titles. Is Shinar a big place with lots of people? Is Chedorlaomer named for loving a type of cheese? And who is this Tidal and how many nations is he king over? As names often have a meaning in the old scriptures, Tidal is 'great son', and goyim, translated as 'of nations' also means 'of many peoples'. So this man is said to be the great son of many peoples. That's interesting, you might say with a bit of the ol' sarcasm, but why study the Bible that deeply? Is this not just part of the setting of a story that will soon involve Abraham?

For one reason, we are there. Not literally of course, but with each name of a leader in the histories comes a group of people like you and me. Goy or Gentile or the pejorative 'dogs', we are there in the pages of Bible history. Not kings and great sons, but common people who may get to see a man such as Abraham or a woman such as Sarah go by, walking with God. While the Bible is packed with prophecy, and we would like to study that and get some advance knowledge of tomorrow, we also study the histories and see what Tidal may have done that we can learn from. However, as with many names of old, Tidal may appear once or twice and never be heard from again. At which time ol' Tidal makes a mockery of my big point and, well, how many times does your name appear in Bible history? For those of you named after Biblical persons, maybe quite a bit!

But, God loves Tidal too, and I hope that ancient king believes in the Son of God,

Bucky

Don't Doubt God's Plan

Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. Acts 2:23 CSB

You may have noted an election day passed by yesterday. This morning some election results may be to your liking, while others may cause disappointment. In Peter's sermon our verse for today shows how God's plan may look rather like a huge defeat for those of us who believe in His Son. As Peter spoke, Jesus had ascended up to be with the Father and Peter could not point to the man and say, "He's right there!" To some standing there, Peter may have appeared to be preaching from the deck of a sinking boat. Yes, it does seem as if I preach this after each election: don't doubt God's plan. I do this because I know that whoever is elected and whatever amendment is added, someone out there needs some reassurance that God is still working His plan.

So, trust in God and His plan!

Bucky

Ask Of The Lord

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

We need words to communicate in several forms. Letter mail, e-mail, phone calls, and speech all use words. When I cannot think of anything to write to you in the morning, I call upon the Word to ask for words. John the apostle in setting down his testimony of Jesus on paper used words to tell of the one he came to know as the Word. Now that is an odd thing to think of one who called John his friend. If you and I must endure that separation between one of us going to sleep in this world and our reunion in Christ, we likely will not think of one another as a personification of a word or words. In the first chapter of his testimony, John goes on to explain how he came to call his Lord and friend the Word.

May Jesus the Christ, the living Word of God, bless you this day.

Bucky

Lost Sheep in a World of Anxious Imagination

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  John 10:11

Though we may struggle with anxious imagination, those of us who believe in Jesus the Christ have been found by the Good Shepherd. Through His good work in us, we are on the way to green pastures and rest beside the still waters. However, many are still wandering like lost sheep in the world of anxiety and dread. They have not believed or have not heard the good news of Jesus. In their imagined fears they live without hope. And so we pray for them, minister to them, and tell them of the saving grace of Jesus, even as we struggle with His ever present help in this anxious world. 

Love to you in Christ our Lord,

Bucky

Born Blind

He answered, “Whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see! ”  John 9:25 CSB

The Pharisees were convinced they knew who Jesus was not. The disciples of Jesus were convinced they knew him. One man refused to make a judgment without knowledge, but bore witness of what he did know. Okay, a bit of explanation for all that. The Pharisees had convinced themselves that Jesus was not the promised Messiah. Plus they tried to get the formerly blind man to confess that Jesus was a sinner since they just knew that he was. The man who received his sight from Jesus would only testify of what he knew: that he was blind all his life until Jesus came to him. 

Born as lost sheep in a savage world, we also have no way to find ourselves, but we can bear witness when the Good Shepherd finds us. We were spiritually blind, but now we see, and our new sight came by way of the Christ, the Son of God. 

Bucky

A Little Starter Verse

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  Mark 1:9

Good morning! Hey, we have the same temperature here as Juneau Alaska does right now. A famous writer wrote down some rules for novel writing, and the first was to never open with the weather. Good thing I'm not writing a novel to you this morning.

From our verse for today, it had been 30 years since the big events at Bethlehem in Judea, and people had forgotten all of that in their daily lives. Now along comes John the Baptizer preaching of the coming kingdom of God and repentance. One day while John does his usual thing in the Jordan river, a man from the unlikeliest of places, Nazareth, shows up and gets dunked. With only this verse to go on, there is no big story, no four gospels, no revelation, and nothing much for me to write to you on this chilly morning. We might as well talk about the weather if this were all we had been given from the days of our Lord. As we know, even the biggest of stories begins somewhere, and this verse from Mark is the introduction to the core of the greatest story ever told, that short ministry and death of Jesus of Nazareth. It is one story though that does not conclude with the death of the main character. 

And by faith we help to continue the story,

Bucky

Making Mention

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:15-16

It used to be in the days of dinosaurs and such that to have your name in the newspaper was a big deal. Now it's harder to find a newspaper in paper form and having your name seen on social media is the norm. However, to make mention of each other in our prayers to the Lord must remain important to all the saints. It lets the Lord know that we are more than just about ourselves in prayer. Even if we do not know names, we can make mention of those affected by a natural disaster, as we call them, in our prayers. There is the potential for a huge amount of destruction in Hurricane Melissa right now.

God has the best answers, but we get to make mention of our beloved in prayer.

Bucky

A Mind Needs Guarding

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Why does my mind need so much guarding? Well, it seems to want to be anxious for no good reason. It takes little to get the maelstrom of imagination going down, down to the bottom of the sea of anxiety with my little ship of heart feelings going down with it. And this season provides more than just a little impulse to start that dark funnel. So, a peace of God which surpasses all understanding sounds like just the medicine needed to treat the malady! Start with the verses of our passage for today and those before (Philippians 4:4-8), then do a search for those psalms of David where he dealt with his anxiety. Read and reread as needed for that peace of God to come. Let those requests be known to God in the way shown in the verses.

And always trust in Him!

Bucky

A Day Of Remembrance

Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you.
  -- Deuteronomy 32:7

Today we observe the anniversary of the Beirut Marine Barracks destroyed by a terrorist in 1983. It is not a fun thing to remember. To forget and let it go into the past though is to invite a person with similar views to do the same thing to us once again. And so as 'elder' Marines now, we bring it up by way of remembered wisdom. We also do not want the sacrifice of those 241 American service members to be forgotten.

In a similar way, God did not want the Israelites to be constantly forgetting the lessons of their past days. And thus for all of us, our duty is to remember.

Bucky

Your Beautiful Word

Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity have dominion over me.
  -- Psalm 119:133

The word combination 'Your word' appears 36 times in the NKJV psalms, and 35 of them are in Psalm 119. You may not get as much of the 'Wow, cool!' from that as I do, but each of us who believe in the Lord gain something from His word. The beautiful word of God provides us spiritual sustenance for each day, even every moment of this life. Jesus was so much the living word of God that when the woman at the well went out to spread the good news about Him, He had no further need of the physical food His disciples had gone into Sychar to purchase for Him. We are assured in the Revelation that the good news of God's word will be preached all over the world before the end comes. Yes, there is something about the beautiful Word of God that catches our attention.

Enjoy some time with the Word today, and let that second part of our verse today come to pass for all of us as well.

Bucky

A Different Pharisee

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. John 3:1

We meet the Pharisees many times in scripture, and in nearly all cases they present as opponents of the Messiah they had spent years watching for. In the first verse of John 3, we find nothing to indicate this will be anything but another story of Jesus versus the Pharisees. That Nicodemus is a ruler of the Jews leads us to expect a stronger antagonism. But as the story unfolds before us in the chapter, this one Pharisee is quite different from his colleagues. Nicodemus exemplifies the seeking and asking we hoped to see from the Pharisees in all those other confrontations.

If you feel a little different today, perhaps God's Spirit has you at the seeking and asking place. Be sure to seek out Jesus and ask of Him!

Bucky

He Knows You

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”  John 4:17, 18

Watching a show last night, I made the observation that this executive of a large organization had something we might call 'professional nice'. He spoke politely, but I could tell that he was not really interested in the person. In the nature of such high-level executives, he wanted to get the job done and move on to other important tasks. Now this is not to lay any blame on the man, in his position he will have to meet a great many people. To keep his sanity, the executive will have learned to categorize them quickly and move forward to the next meeting. Only a few friends, competitors, and people important to his job will get more than the 'professional nice' of his trade. Which makes it all the more remarkable when the highest executive to ever visit the Earth knows you or me. 

The King of kings and Lord of lords had time for this woman. And there he was in our verse today telling this woman at a well near Sychar all about her life. That this woman would go on to testify that Jesus knew everything she ever did shows us that the husbands fact was only a high-level summary. He knew her.

And He knows you too!

Bucky

Sneakily Obvious

For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Matthew 24:38-39

We live in that time, the one of eating and drinking plus arguing over how it should be done. We are marrying and giving in marriage, and then divorcing and marrying again. Add to all that the army of distractions we have in the world, and one can see why the next coming of the Son of Man could sneak up on most everyone. Yet, it shouldn't because we have all been warned by the prophetic word to be ready. As with the guard on duty, we must watch out for the distractions that leave us unprepared and unready to respond. It would be a sad thing to be left behind because the Son of Man returned...and walked right by us when we weren't paying attention.

Pray, read the Word, and watch!

Bucky

Comforting His Flock

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. John 14:1

Jesus awaits His arrest and at the same time comforts His disciples. The man who will soon go to His execution, gives a final teaching, prayers, and comfort to those who will soon run away into the dark night and desert Him. Jesus had spoken before this verse of the horrors awaiting Him in Jerusalem. And still our Lord was concerned for His flock, comforting them with a future none of those deserters could merit. And we would do no better. The entire circumstance of the Savior's distress and the arrest was just too much for anyone but the Lord Jesus. Let not your heart be troubled.

Bucky

Home With Imperfect People

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."  John 14:23

So today we remember a man who had a flawed idea of how large the Earth was, landed in a place where he misnamed the people, and gets credit for discovering entire continents though he was by no means the first to arrive there and hadn't quite made it to either continent. Details, details, Mr. Columbus would likely be the CEO of a large corporation today. So, can God love a man such as ol' Christopher? 

We had better hope so, for not one of us is perfect either. In the religion of the day, we need to be right and correct at all times, plus strong, fit, rich, and pretty too. Which I think leaves me at zero out of five, though I may have miscounted. Thank the Father that when Jesus comes to look for a home, He will be looking for love and a keeping of His word. A word that has love in both of the greatest commandments, and love in His new commandment. 

So love on this day in Christ, and maybe forgive poor, flawed Christopher too. 

Bucky

What About Those End Times?

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV

One morning, I decided to take up a pursuit of the knowledge of the end times. Am I even qualified for such an undertaking? My morals have shown a rather common ability to compromise with most any temptation throughout my life, darn them, so exemplary morality provides no basis. My education tended toward information technology, so that wouldn't seem to fit the bill. I have no degree in divinity, not even the candy concoction, so that also leaves me out. And yet, each of us who believe in Jesus feels the call to study His word, the Bible. In that word, we find a great many prophecies of the end of this world and the return of our Savior. And I feel an urge to know more!

So, let us therefore exercise the freedom to study God's Word!

Bucky

The Curse At The End Of The Word

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.  Revelation 22:18

Last night I noticed the early morning dew was already doing its thing on my truck, long before it was due. So of course we are bound in by the fog of painful writing along with the atmospheric fog this morning. 

While it may be many years too late for me, I wondered this morning at the curse at the end of the word John gave to us. To take it literally is to stop all preaching, writing, and singing in church or outside it for the past couple thousand years, since it is all, we hope, adding to the words of this book we hold called the Bible. Did John really mean to put that sort of chill on the spreading of the good news when His Lord told him quite the opposite at the end of Matthew? Do we voluntarily curse ourselves each time we try to explain or expand on the word of God? Is prayer adding to the words of this book, since so much of the Bible holds the prayers of Jesus, David, and many others? For goodness sake, have we ruined our chance at the Rapture by singing a hymn, and we must all now endure the plagues of the Revelation?!!  Wait, what does John mean by 'these things'?

Before we run to tell the preacher that he cannot preach this weekend, I should think we would be in more danger to say something like, Rev 8:9, "And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed, and the seashore was covered with blue Lego blocks." That last bit after 'destroyed' would clearly be adding to these things as revealed by the Christ to John. Don't do that. But go ahead and write, preach, sing those hymns and songs of praise, and spread the good news of Jesus Christ!

Bucky

A Prayer For Disciples

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:20,21

It's a big prayer in these two little verses from our Lord's night prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. From Jesus to those present disciples, and the ones to come who believe through them, and finally that the entire world would be one and believe. That's a lot to pray for, and we can see all around us that it has not come to pass yet. We also come to see through our Bible study and other writings that these disciples, the saints of old, and we who believe today all struggle to remain faithful to our Lord Jesus. So, does the success of our Lord's prayer depend on us? Apparently not, for on the cross Jesus stated that it was finished.

We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!

Bucky

A Patient Heart Cleaner

I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. John 12:46

Accept Jesus they say, and be saved. However, some will take that as license to accept this Jesus in the same way a tolerant parent accepts that weird friend you brought to the party. "I've heard about him," the parent tells you, "He can come in as long as he behaves himself. And you make sure he obeys my rules, or he's outta here!" Well, that's not quite the acceptance we're talking about here. Jesus stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20), but it is to be invited in with full acceptance. If anyone tries to hand our Lord a list of rules of the house, that's not going to work for salvation. And we understand that in our heads, but does the heart understand that in practice? As Jesus comes to clean the house, that old wicked heart rises up in rebellion. Praise God His Son is patient, loving and kind as He overthrows that wickedness within each of us.

We are His work in progress,

Bucky

Tough One To Obey

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44-45a

Reading our scripture passage this morning, you likely do not need me to tell you how tough this one will be for us to obey. It goes against our nature to do any of those things for those particular people. If someone curses me, my first reaction is not a blessing. As for praying for the spiteful persecutors, I'll send up a prayer about them; Jesus might need to add me to the list of those sons of thunder! It was no different for those gathered there on the mount as our Lord spoke those words for the first time to them. I'll bet there was an odd sound of many jaws dropping as the people heard what they weren't sure they heard right. Jesus was not speaking these words simply to stun the crowd or gain their undivided attention. They were then and we are now called by our Lord Jesus to something completely different from the world. Yes, this one will be tough for us to obey. But, we have good help by faith in Jesus our Lord to do what is right by Him.

He has called, and it seems we will need to call on Him for constant help in that calling,

Bucky

Hard To Imagine

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  Luke 4:1,2

Some find it easier to believe in Jesus as God than to believe in Him as a man. They may read the story of the temptation of the Christ and sort pass over it as God not being really inconvenienced by the struggle. However the testimony Luke gathered has what I consider one of the great biblical understatements ever written down, 'He was hungry.' After forty days of eating nothing that just seems a bit bland for us in our day. 'Starved almost to death' might seem closer to the state of Jesus after that long fast. When we see that, then we see the man who lived and died for us on the cross. 

And yet, we also see the authority of God in the man who walked across the waves and then told the storm to knock it off. So, yes, He is God and human. 

Love in Christ Jesus,

Bucky

P.S. For more on the divine Word of God, see my sister's message today at: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CdLLc87fT/

A New Month

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12 NLT

We made it! It's October at last. Hmm, trying to inject cheerfulness with just another day on the calendar that arrives each year as the only reason doesn't seem to do it for me. Each day that comes is one day closer to the great promises of the Bible. Okay, now we're talking! Some days it seems such a long slog to the end, which we cannot see on our personal calendar anyway. Yet, each day does not come back again, and the world is one day closer to the end. So, what does this promise of fruit trees in our verse for today do for us? I want to see you there. Yes, you, me, and Jesus with a picnic spread under the trees of that life-giving river.

Bucky

A Greater Need

And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. Mark 2:4

Those persons in law enforcement might call this a crime. Others might call it rude. The homeowner might interject a word or two. But those carrying the paralytic had a greater need and knew by faith that Jesus held the solution to their friend's problem. The scripture story does not tell us whether the four remained behind to repair the roof or not. The paralytic walked away with his bed as Jesus told him to do. The scribes and Pharisees present? Well, they griped and complained about Jesus, and of course refused to believe even as they marveled at what they had seen with their own eyes. Some people will not be saved no matter what they observe. We can only pray that their greater need will one day become known to them. For the greatest need we all share is to be redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ.

Bucky

A Prayer For Action

Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O LORD, for your name’s sake;
for our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you.
  -- Jeremiah 14:7

Oh, here we go again, another wanna-be preacher calling us to the door knocking thing. Nope, this call to action by way of prayer came from the prophet Jeremiah to the Lord God. And with three lines of sin confession to one request for action, Jeremiah admits that it isn't for anything righteous he or his people have done. Our calls to the Lord for His action must be of similar format since we are by no means any more deserving than Judah was back in Jeremiah's day. While we are quite proficient in prayers for the Lord's action, perhaps we have come up a wee bit short on the confession parts? Let us confess our sin to the Lord, and then we can enjoy the mercy of Christ Jesus and live!

Bucky

A Reminder

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  John 14:2

Jesus is on a mission, and it is to our benefit! We have passed this way before. Our verse for today is both famous and sometimes debated. But this morning I asked of the Lord and He sent this reminder to us. His Son is on an important mission to prepare something great for you and me. Yes, this very morning someone will likely remind you of some rule of the law or prophets that you have failed. I didn't include myself because I have already failed even before getting to the morning writing. It's that easy to fail and sin before the law. That is why we are saved by the One who has gone to prepare a place for us, and not by our efforts at law keeping. So, believe in Jesus and prepare to see a grand new place in God's house one day!

Bucky

Do You Believe This?

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”   John 11:25-26

Lazarus lay dead in the tomb, and Jesus asked Martha this question. But first she had to show off her knowledge of the last day. Jesus took her a step further, do you believe this now? In other words, do you believe Me? Do you believe that Jesus, the man standing before you, has authority over life, death, and everything? The question is not just for Martha, but has come down to each of us through the Word of God. Do you believe this? Would it help your belief if someone dead four days was raised up from his tomb? Martha was asked to believe before Jesus raised Lazarus. And credit to her for answering with a positive 'Yes!' We also face that same test. Before you, me, or any of our beloved are raised from the dead, we must believe this. 

We must believe Him!

Bucky

Autumn of Reconciliation

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. Colossians 1:21-22

A loved one may have passed on before you or I had a chance to reconcile with him. We hold faithfully to a hope in Christ that we will have our chance in Heaven. However, do we have a time, perhaps a brief time, to reconcile with someone here on the earth? Yes, as long as we are alive here and the earth keeps on turning, we have time. We have one superpower that Christ our Lord grants to all who believe in Him, forgiveness. But reconciliation requires both sides of the conflict to do their part. The transgressor must sorrow over the sin and express that sorrow to the victim. That may not always happen, and then reconciliation may have to wait. Our forgiveness can start a reconciliation, but cannot force it to completion. So then we pray.

Please start a prayer with me for a season of reconciliation in our land,

Bucky

Pete's Contradiction

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. 1 Peter 3:15-16

Explanation time for the apparent contradiction? Nope! Today we have the Jesus Rules Party on one side and the party For Pete's Sake on the other. In place of asking for an explanation from Peter, seeking wisdom from Jesus in prayer, or knocking on Paul's door to get some teaching, the two parties have squared off on social media. One might expect that with such rapid communication available to them, the two parties would seek further understanding of one another. But no! They like holding opposing positions. The Jesus Rules party is no longer interested in following Jesus nearly so much as they are in ruling. The election of Peter to First Pope has inflamed the For Pete's Sake party to new levels of political rhetoric. With this latest writing the Jesus Rules party is certain beyond any reason that the so-called First Pope should be excommunicated forthwith!

That all sounds so ridiculous, dear Bucky. Why didn't you just try to explain the apparent contradiction? You might ask.

Yes it does, but you can also see how I simply took events from the past few years and stirred them into a rough story that never happened. Sadly, our current story has become inflamed to the point of murder. And commentary on the murder has become a sort of backlash culture that has organizations terminating jobs left and right...uh, oops, sorry about that. (Left and right pun, good grief, the guy never stops!) However, the nation whose constitution guarantees freedom of speech is once again perilously close to ending that right, and not so long after a thing called cancel culture threatened it so severely.

Prayer for our nation is in order!

Bucky

Fantasy Call

Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Luke 12:11-12

This morning as I dillied and dallied, I saw myself rising up, as another ceded the pulpit, and speaking words that were received as wise and good. Yes, it is the older feller's version of the boy's fantasy about that touchdown in the big game. If a person thinks that his own words are wise and good, that is not a call to the ministry but a temptation to start a cult. So important is the teaching of the Holy Spirit to us that we read of Jesus telling those who were to be grabbed and brought before the authorities to not rehearse what they might say in the moment. It would seem that if given the chance to speak to the official inquisitor, Jesus did not want either His disciples or us to get in the way of His word.

But wait, contradiction time! Did not Peter tell us to always be ready to give a defense? Yes, he did, in 1 Peter 3:15. It seems we have a subject for another day!

Go with God this day,

Bucky

Did He Say Reward?

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Revelation 22:12-13

Reward, He said? Is this where the meek inherit the earth? No, an inheritance is not a reward for work. We have seen some get an inheritance in this life who deserved nothing but a kick in the backside. The final paycheck maybe? If it were payment for work performed, then we don't usually call that a reward. Also, one would have to wonder where such payment would be spent with the world as we know it gone and fled away. The reward of our Lord's Christ also does not bring to mind bags of gold or gift cards to our favorite big box stores. Even lands and property won't work as an answer because of the meek inheritance thing. So what could this reward be? Salvation? No, much was said earlier in the New Testament regarding salvation by faith and not of works. Plus the apostle mentioned the boasting thing, and surely the Lord would not want an eternity with a bunch of boasters. So, what could this reward be that the Lord brings with Him?

Some may have answers they hold dear, but as for me, I'm not too proud to say that I do not know. By faith in Jesus though, I know that it will be something awesome!

Bucky

Dealing Before The Disaster

So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” Genesis 19:17

Tuesday? Yes, I'm sneaking one in on you. Usually our Bible study group meets early this morning, but this year for the first time since I joined in 2013 our group has struggled to gather for the past couple of months. It is a season of vacations, illness (mine), internet outages, and some goofing off that has prevented our study at times. This sort of thing is not unusual except in the concentration of the challenges we have faced as a group. Now, as we are going about our usual life, imagine that two angels show up and issue the words shown in our verse for today.

Escape? From what? If one believes the words, then he will hot foot toward the nearest mountains as commanded. If one happens to be named Lot, then he might try to cut a deal even as angels are warning of impending destruction. And Lot did. Lot claims in his dealing that he cannot escape to the mountains lest some evil overtake him and he dies. Which is a bit humorous in that just a few verses later, Lot leaves Zoar, because he was afraid to stay there, and goes up into the mountains to live. From the story it is easy to see that Lot dealt in fear, the same way many of us live today.

Trust in the Lord Jesus, let His love drive out your fear,

Bucky

There Is Hope

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  Genesis 6:5

A casual glance at the news might make it appear that the world is in the same state as our verse for today, but not so fast there! It is hard for us to imagine a world where every intent and thought was only evil...continually. Even for one of us to pause and wonder about it means that one thought is not given over to evil for that moment. Even this morning many people are going to work determined to do a good job for their employer, which we should do according to the scriptures. Others are hoping to simply endure another Monday. That's a lot of not-so-evil thoughts going on there. Of course there can be more than just enduring a day, and more than doing a good job, we can embrace a higher calling in loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

Jesus confirmed that the loving of the person next to us was indeed the second greatest of commandments and like the first, which was to love God with our all. There is hope for us when even one of us will keep that love alive. 

Love to you in Christ our Lord,

Bucky

Waiting On Him

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Revelation 21:4

It is no easy walk to live life waiting on this verse to come to pass. And yet, yesterday evening came and the prayers of thanksgiving and sorrow were prayed to God our Father. Somehow Jesus walked each of us through another day of mourning while we also worked, learned, taught, and performed many other daily tasks. And it still bothers me that I am writing another message much like so many that have come before. This is not a day to give up though. While social media makes it apparent that the love of some has grown ice cold in this age, keeping the love of Christ active in the heart remains a primary concern for those who believe in Him. 

To love, and Jesus who makes loving possible!

Bucky

Comfort Them

Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
  -- Matthew 5:4

Before yesterday I was not familiar with Charlie Kirk and his work. Before yesterday I might have hoped for a time to mourn for those closest to the man after his death. Social media put my naivety to rest rather quickly on that! What do I learn from this? That Jesus gave to us a potential response to the bereaved in His great sermon, those mourning shall be comforted and we have a great opportunity to be among the comforters. Some will choose something else, especially on social media, but we are only responsible to the Lord Jesus for our response. And that is to love and comfort those hurt by the actions of evil in this world. 

May the Lord Jesus Christ comfort us all,

Bucky

Then You Will Know

Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.  John 8:28

Wait, what? After Jesus was lifted up on the cross and rose again from the dead, the Pharisees still did not know or admit that Jesus was the Son of Man. Even as Peter, James, and the other apostles spread the Gospel of Jesus, the Pharisees threw them in prison, killed them, and refused to know. So, when does this knowing take place? It may be one of those things where one, Nicodemus, began to know, then another, Joseph, and still another in Paul some years later came to know that Jesus was who He said. It may be that in the final years of this age the Pharisees become the largest force of our Lord's evangelists the world has ever seen, when they lift Him up as the Son of God and the Son of Man all at once. It happened with Paul, it could come once more. 

Rejoice in the Lord Jesus, He has this!

Bucky

Casting Doubt

I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9

These days it is popular to cast doubt at any group other than your own. If you do not feel this in your life, run for public office and you will soon have all the doubt you can wish for cast right at your door and yourself. John wrote a letter to the seven churches which are in Asia, and from the get-go doubt has been cast. Some doubt the revelation happened, others doubt that it will have any literal fulfillment, and one book I began last week even cast doubt on poor John himself. Why all this doubt? Well, it is right there in our verse for today, "for the testimony of Jesus Christ." Yes, state your testimony of Jesus and you too will have doubt cast at you. It might even come more quickly and with more force than any political position one may take.

Who knew that your testimony of Jesus or mine could be so divisive? Well, Jesus did of course. Even His people voted Him out before the Roman governor.

Bucky

The Prince Of Division?

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. Luke 12:51

This morning with but a few words I can become to some a flaming liberal Christian, while with those same words become an intolerant fundamentalist Christian to others. I will not attempt to write those words lest I break apart from the strain of conflicting opinion this morning! It may seem a little funny that some of us may have thought that these words of Jesus in our verse today would somehow pass over the Church, maybe even our particular little church. Division, we don't want no stinking division; the Lord Jesus is supposed to be the Prince of Peace, not division! And yet, from what may be the most recent writing of the Bible, if AD 95 can be called recent, John wrote to seven churches in Asia Minor, and they were all different. What! Already? Ha, Mary Magdalene met the risen Jesus outside the tomb that first morning, and the disciples did not believe her story. Yes, division came that quickly.

And still, the Lord will bring us all back together in Him, and He will be the Prince of Peace, Isaiah foretold it! (9:6)

Bucky

Not In Despair

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.  2 Corinthians 4:8

Despair is an easy thing to slide into, but entirely inappropriate for those who believe in Jesus our Lord! Paul reported being hard-pressed, in that proverbial space between the rock and a hard place, and yet he was not in despair. He confessed to being perplexed, but still not in despair. I don't have to guess that at some point in your life, you have been perplexed and hard-pressed just as Paul was in his time. But did you despair? That may have happened, Paul may not have succeeded in remaining despair free his first time either. In fact this may have been the 76th time he faced a tough test before he remembered the Lord Jesus and did not fall to despair. We sometimes think that Paul always got it right the first time out, but that is likely not the case. 

I pray that none of these are in despair now, dear Lord Jesus. And if they are, please rescue them quickly!

Bucky

The Easy Part

This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:11

Heyo! The disciples have believed and the journey begins. So, why did the disciples have so much trouble with belief later on? Well, ya know friends this miracle may seem tame or easy to our fledgling belief. As for the disciples, they may not have seen the water, or they may have enjoyed a bit too much of the really good wine. If belief in Jesus came easily to them at the first, it would also depart easily later when challenged by His words and other actions. Wine could be left behind, walked away from, even eliminated from the body. "You must be born again," challenges the faith to remain faithful to the One who does the rebirthing. And as adults, like Nicodemus, they had reason to doubt that to be born again was even possible. However, this rebirth must be faced and decided on, to believe in Jesus or not. And the disciples had not even heard the drinking His blood and eating His flesh part yet, the old vampire-cannibal thing that would strain their new faith to the max!

The beginning of His signs was the easy part, and then He kept going on about dying and rising up again.

Bucky

Come To God And Pray

Assemble yourselves and come;
​​Draw near together,
​​You who have escaped from the nations.
​​They have no knowledge,
​​Who carry the wood of their carved image,
​​And pray to a god that cannot save.
  -- Isaiah 45:20

You may wonder at my choice of a verse for today and the title. And yet, that is where we began: outside the assembly of believers in Jesus, having no knowledge of the Lord and His salvation, and praying to idols that cannot save us. We had no knowledge of how to come to God and pray, but the Spirit of God moved us, parents and preachers taught us, and then there was Jesus.

Praise God, Jesus lives! So, come to God and pray.

Bucky

Ask Until You Receive

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?
  --  Job 21:15

Job said that? Oh, yes, he did. Had Job given up on the Lord then? We know from the story that Job wanted a discussion with God, but no, the man did not sin by giving up on God. The argument had been made that Job suffered the consequences of his sin. And one of Job's responses was to invite his mockers to look at how the wicked prospered and grew strong in the world. The wicked in Job's example even said things such as those two questions in our verse for today. By their argument, the wicked should be in much worse suffering than Job, yet they were not.

Someone, somewhere may well be asking those two questions this morning as they look at the news from Minneapolis. Encourage that person to continue in prayer. Yes, we should continue in service to the Almighty. Why didn't the Almighty protect those children by stopping that person yesterday? Ask God in prayer!

And keep on asking until you receive His answer,

Bucky

Fighting The Sickness

As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
  -- 2 Samuel 22:31

As I had another practice session with sickness the past four days, I wondered in amongst the self-pity if there wasn't a way to praise God even in such a condition. Praising God for the sickness while griping about it seemed a bit hypocritical. Evidently the self-pity would have to go since, as we read in our verse for today, His way is perfect. It would seem that self-pity is of itself a sickness to be fought with praise to God. You will understand that I had to recover some from the worst of it before this sort of thought would take root and grow since, well, the wallowing in self-pity can be hard to stop. And as all know, men are such babies when it comes to being sick!

So, from one sickness baby to all the others, Praise God for once again pulling me out of the Slough of Despond. Praise and glory to God our Father, and healer, savior, redeemer, and friend!

Bucky

Contrition Needed

I said, “LORD, be merciful to me;
​​Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
  -- Psalm 41:4

Some may have said that we do not have to pray things like this after going down to the altar to be saved. David, writing this psalm, was a man after God's own heart, a man blessed with the Spirit of God, and yet he also wrote this verse for today to us. Jesus, a man who was and is God, wrote to us to pray like this, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." (Matt 6:12) Those would seem some strong encouragement for us to pray with contrition: a feeling of remorse and penitence. We need God's mercy all the time, and if David needed to pray it and Jesus gave it to us as a model of prayer, well there we go!

Lord, be merciful to me!

Bucky

Psalming

The LORD is my strength and song,
​​And He has become my salvation;
​​He is my God, and I will praise Him;
​​My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
  -- Exodus 15:2

Sometime back, way back, in the day, Israel began psalming. Whether it was poetry or song lyrics, the writing down of what they said and sang to the Lord became a thing. Perhaps they had sung songs for years before some bright bulb decided to start writing down the lyrics so that they sang the same thing more than once. Given the length of the song in Exodus 15, one would think this was not their first time. Some of us can blurt out a few clever lines here and there, but to compose an entire song takes effort and practice, which some say is the same thing repeated many times. Singing praises to the Lord our God has a strong tradition, and we should do it often.

Grab a psalm and sing along!

Bucky

Also The Whole World

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 2:1-2

The whole world? Yes, before we exclude anyone from the Lord's salvation we may want to review that last part of our scripture for today. Now does this mean that everyone is automatically saved? It does not appear to be so by the words of our Lord Jesus, wherein we find many references to Hades or Hell, and ways to end up there. However, for our part we see by John's letter that the Way to the Father is open to the whole world.

Therefore, do not be afraid to pray for anyone, for even us allergy sufferers can believe in Jesus!

Bucky

What A Promise!

And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life. 1 John 2:25

The weather folks promise us a drop in temperature on Friday. What a promise! Always a welcome change in August, but if one can get excited over that little promise, what about the one in our verse for today? It began in another writing from John, the gospel written down by him, and in that most famous verse: 3:16. God loved, He gave His Son, and we believe in Him to eternal life. So, if we like even the little promises, then surely we must rejoice in Christ Jesus and the much bigger one!

Be faithful in Jesus and rejoice in His eternal life!

Bucky

Start With Prayer

For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.  Romans 10:13 from Joel 2:32

It seems too easy that someone should be saved merely by calling on the name of the Lord. And yet, would we be so mean as to forbid salvation to someone who suffers such a stressful moment in life that one name is all they are able to call on? I certainly agree that if we have the time, and most of us have, that we should confess our sins, repent of them, believe in the Lord Jesus with earnest prayer, and be baptized for our salvation. However, as we read and study the prophecies of the end times, we must come to know that not everyone in those (these?) days will have the luxury of hours or days for quiet reflection and comparison of the Lord's way and the way of the world. Of course we hope that no one waits for the terrors of the apocalypse as the Lord's name is not "Aaaugh!" or "Aiiieee!" 

Start with prayer now, when times are easier.

Bucky

Victory In Jesus

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  1 John 4:4

There is a hymn to sing it, but the reason we like to proclaim victory in Jesus comes from what He did for us and this verse we read for today. With the many great and powerful things the world has to overcome us, it is wonderful to know that there is one greater than he who is in the world. As seen yesterday, I can be defeated for a time by a blankety-blank recording device. How will little ol' fumbling me overcome the powers of the world? Nothing in this world can overcome my God and Savior though! It is comforting to know that the Good Shepherd who saved you and me also rules by the mighty power of His command. (Hebrews 1:3). 

Have a comforted day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Blasted Time-Period Recording Devices

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” Revelation 1:10-11

You will be able to relate to this one: a device arrives, the instructions are followed, time period configuration completed, the 'record' button is pressed, and afterward the device smugly reports no recording took place. That period of time is gone. Not one of us can get it back. It is almost as if some gnome-like programmer deep in the bowels of a multinational corporation chuckles evilly every time an event is missed forever by their device. Well, you and I are in good company as Moses got so mad at his first recording device that he smashed it to bits, and God had to provide a new copy of the Ten Commandments. The difficulties we have with recording devices also make it all the more remarkable that any of the Bible scriptures made it to us these thousands of years later. We know by experience that copies of copies of copies are fraught with peril every step of the way, especially since we have so much trouble obtaining that first one. Yet somehow, we can read the Revelation and 65 other books of scripture from a long time ago.

I guess God was a lot better with His recorders over thousands of years, than I was with one blasted recording device on just one little night. Sigh! As Mr. Coyote says, "Well, back to the ol' drawing board."

Bucky

A Babe's View

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. Luke 10:21

Do you have a baby's view of the Bible? Good! We are often called in the Bible terms that the proudly educated would not approve of, such as lost sheep, little ones, and babes. It is among these simple folk that Jesus finds His treasures to bring home with Him. The educated Pharisees struggled to accept Jesus, and few of their number ever followed Him. Therefore, if that sort of thought comes to you that a person must be really educated or highly smart to believe in Jesus, doubt the source of that thought and just believe in Him!

Faith may not make sense to the sensible,

Bucky

Feeling Powerless?

The God of my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation,
My stronghold and my refuge;
My Savior, You save me from violence.
  -- 2 Samuel 22:3

So, a meeting Friday between the presidents of the USA and Russia in Alaska. This week the boss is gone on vacation...to Alaska. Oh, no!

If you are feeling powerless for being left off the guest list for the presidential meeting in Alaska this week, then imagine how Ukraine feels. Perhaps President Trump shows wisdom though in that nothing has been accomplished by meeting with the war leaders together, so he chose to start with one of them. And perhaps I am trying to make an excuse for someone who has not asked.

2 Samuel 22 is a psalm from a powerful leader, a king, who chose to give the glory for his victories to God. Living in a time when most leaders and other famous persons sing the song of themselves, David's psalm is refreshing to read.

Read it, and rejoice in the Son of David!

Bucky

Sometimes We Ask

They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” Mark 10:37

A well-known example of asking without knowledge comes in our verse for today when John and James, the Sons of Thunder, asked for special places with their Lord Jesus. We know from our scripture studies that it wasn't a request for two places at the dinner table, or even two honored places at a feast, but in His glory. Words can flow out from us with no regard for any but ourselves, and the two disciples appear to stand in for us in this case. You and I have probably asked our Lord Jesus for something that was inappropriate or set aside for others. Our denial right now comes from that same lack of knowledge that James and John had in their moment of grieving our Lord Jesus. His first words in response tell us all: "You do not know what you ask."

Praise God for the Holy Spirit who makes intercession for us in our requests!

Bucky

Practicing Love

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  Deuteronomy 6:5

A piece of advice sometimes given to us has a cute roll to it, and that is 'fake it till you make it'. However when it comes to approaching the Lord to learn love, that just does not seem like good advice to me. Practice till you become proficient seems like a better way to go. If I do not yet understand love fully, then I can go to the teachings of the word of God and practice. Faking love would certainly be obvious to God, and likely to everyone else as well. Practicing, on the other hand, will show that I am far from perfect at loving, but that I have a desire to improve at it. I believe the Lord can work with practicers, but fakers? Uh, not so much.  

May the love of the Lord, who is of course 100% good at it, go with you this day! 

Bucky

Attention Derailed!

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  1 John 1:7

Plastics crisis, nuclear accident, global temperature abnormality, hurricane #542, and the sky is falling!  Any number of things demand that our attention to the word of God be derailed right now and most immediately. And by the way we are being fogged this morning. Whatever comes next, seek some comfort in the Word. Each day will present some sort of crisis to test us from little bitty personal ones to the big international news spectacles. We have plenty to pray over and many people to pray for, but we also need to see to our mental health in the word of God. As our Lord said, love your neighbor as yourself. 

Love me and love you, and God said love both of us too...

Bucky

Sinstincts

But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”  -- Genesis 18:15

Since Adam and Eve took of the forbidden tree and ate, we have lived in a state of fear. To this fear are added those instincts of self-preservation that we can easily recognize: lying, cheating, stealing, and many others. These all seem to be sins according to the law of Moses. And if one thinks that doing one by thought alone will excuse a person, Jesus assured the disciples that thinking the sin was sin too. So, we have an inherited 'sinstinct' reaction to perceived danger, even if it is merely the danger of being found out. We see a famous example in our verse for today. Clearly then we need to be saved and reborn somehow, which Jesus addresses with the teacher of Israel in chapter 3 of John's gospel. 

I can't save me, and you can't save you, but Jesus can save us both, it's true,

Bucky

Read The Word

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  1 John 1:5

Strange things go across social media feeds, and I saw one of those hidden word ones today that try to tell you the first word you see will be your day. Only certain words are hidden in the puzzle, and why should my day be determined by some stranger or AI making up something like that? Some people read the Bible in a similar way, like it's some sort of hidden word puzzle or a code game. While there may be passages that I do not yet understand, I believe the word of God was not given to baffle me. Those parts I don't understand yet? Well, that's there to bring me back to try again! 

Read the word, and learn from the Word!

Bucky

A Higher Standard

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Romans 3:23-24

Are those who believe in Jesus held to a higher standard? I wrote it in the affirmative last night, looked at it again this morning, and realized that I was wrong. No, we all have one standard, we have all failed to meet it, and we all fall short of the glory of God. Faith in Jesus is where we gain the ability to reject the sin by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. That does not mean that we will successfully negotiate the temptation traps every time, but that failing may tempt us to believe we now have a higher standard. The disciples saw the perfect example of the sinless life each day, and they soon realized how far they were from the standard. As we walk in grace by faith, we also get to know more of how far short of the standard we began the journey. Forgiven in Christ we are, but perfect sinless behavior we are still working on with Jesus our Lord. 

Remember the key words of the second part of our verse today: justified, grace, redemption, and Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Not Seeing Enough Miracles?

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. John 14:11

Or else believe? The works or miracles that Jesus did seem to be His second preference for the faith of His disciples. When the religious leaders demanded signs, Jesus refused them. Many may think that there are not enough miracles to believe in anything these days. But if a person already believes in Jesus, why do we need signs again? Asking to see more miracles of the Lord puts us in a place similar to those religious leaders of so long ago. Sounds like kind of a backward sliding sort of thing. Eek! Backsliding, we don't want to do that. So, yes the word of the Lord has more than enough miracles for us.

Let us go forward with Jesus in faith!

Bucky

Prodigals On The Way Home

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Luke 15:20

How did that father see the prodigal so far off? He was looking for him of course! I see all those who believe in Jesus as prodigals on the way home to our father. We have spent our time in sin, living for ourselves and our pleasure, and now we each journey toward home and the Father. At some point in life we hit bottom in some fashion and looked back toward our heavenly Father and the home promised by His Son. The Father, though letting us go our way and indulge in all manner of sin, also had His eye on us all that time. The Father waited expectantly for that day we would turn around and come home to Him.

If you have not begun that journey yet, look up, repent, and start on the way home. Jesus opened the way for every prodigal to come home to His Abba.

Bucky

Asking - With Motive

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. Matthew 12:9-10

The account of Matthew clearly ascribes a motive to a question in this scripture passage. In most cases, we would ask a question with the motive of wanting to learn something. Here these Pharisees had already decided the answer for themselves, and used the question to set a trap for Jesus. An easy target from this passage would be to come down on those Pharisees, but Jesus already took care of that and they are long gone anyway. Instead, let us look at our own asking and see if any underhanded motives are present in our prayers. The Pharisees make a good example of what not to do. So as we get with God in private prayer, we want to make sure we didn't join their band by accident or worse, intent.

As Jesus showed us, "Not My will, but Thy will be done."

Bucky

One In The Father

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. John 14:10

In our age we have these celebrated persons who come as a package. One is their screen persona presented to the world, and the other is their private self which is often more hidden. Then social media came along. No doubt the pressure on these celebrities is greater than ever to be like what is seen on the screen. Which could be difficult if the actor's claim to fame is a comic book superhero character.

Imagine though what it was like for the disciples of Jesus to understand that here was God, in the form of a man, standing, sitting, eating, and being human in front of them. The Father, God, dwelt in Jesus and did the works they had all seen. Not an actor, nor a madman, just a baby born in Bethlehem grown up to present God to them in a form they could see and touch. Amazing!

Have a faithful day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

A Bad Apple?

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 3 John 1:9

John the beloved apostle wrote to Gaius a short letter with an important complaint, there was a person in the church who did not receive the brethren. It seems that within a short period of time from the church beginning at Pentecost, there was already one who did not want anything to do with hosting the traveling apostles. And that wasn't all, as John tells of malicious words from this Diotrephes. Now short in this case might mean 30 years or more, but it kind of shatters my wishful illusion of a new church growing by leaps and bounds with harmony among all the saints. Sometimes that did happen, but other times we read of people just being darn poop heads too!

Praise God that Jesus brought redemption to us all,

Bucky

A Marvelous Work

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Romans 11:15 LSB

Good morning to you on this day! Most people I know are what the Israelites called Gentiles. This was a term that included everyone who was not of Abraham by way of Isaac and Jacob, that is Israel, hence the Israelites. Therefore, Gentiles as a term includes a lot of people who can be quite different from one another. We have all one thing in common though, as the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, we get to reconcile with God through Jesus! God has taken a rejection by His chosen people and turned it into a marvelous work of salvation for us.

Great are the works of our Lord God!

Bucky

A Kingly Figure

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” 1 Samuel 16:6

Eliab, firstborn of Jesse, must have been built with a kingly figure. Samuel certainly thought so when he came to him first among Jesse's sons. Samuel was familiar with Saul, the Lord's choice for first king of Israel. Samuel had a good look at Eliab, and could see the man as the next king of Israel. The Lord shut Samuel's wrong-way train down though, telling His prophet to quit looking at appearance and stature. So glad we have taken that lesson to heart in our time and no longer judge on appearance and stature...right? Dream on, sonny!

May God strengthen us to look past appearance and stature,

Bucky

For That Reason

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
  -- Psalm 16:9

As a child, asking why may be our most common question. Therefore, the Bible uses 'therefore' a lot for the children we must become in God's Word. Therefore means, for that reason or consequently. You may have seen the word a lot in your Bible study, and your imagination is not playing tricks on you. The New King James Version of the Word holds a mere 1,356 usages of, therefore in 1,340 verses. Therefore, there is a good chance that if a 'why?' occurs to us in the Word, then a reason may follow a therefore for us quickly thereafter.

For this provision of reasons to our questions, we rejoice in our Father God.

Bucky

We Need One

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1

When John wrote this letter, he probably knew quite well that the 'if' conditional here would likely be met many times as we strive to live a sinless life. We need one advocate, and we need Him a lot... no, we need Him constantly. When all it takes is the mere thought of a sin, then we are in it more than we think. Repentance may have begun at the altar back in the day, but it is something we must practice and pray for as we walk with the Savior. It seems this is one Advocate we need to keep on a prayer retainer.

In Christ alone!

Bucky

If You Love One Another

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13:34

A friend, even a brother or sister in Christ, has lost a beloved one from mental illness. You hear their story and later find out they may have said the wrong thing at a critical moment. The source of your knowledge has expertise in the subject, a doctor or anesthesiologist perhaps. (I just wanted to see if I could spell that second word there - blew it, forgot the 'h' the first time through.) Now, as the beloved of your friend has already passed, what good would it do for you to blurt out your new knowledge? Will your words be received with appreciation? I think we can see that a good dose of the ol' silence may be the more loving thing to do in a case like that.

This thought came to me while doing the dishes one night. The Lord sometimes gives me a devotion to write at the oddest of times. The key to those odd times is of course to dry the hands and go write it down before a distraction comes along and, poof, it's gone.

Give thanks to God this great Monday morning!

Bucky

What Is In The Middle?

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits.
  -- Psalm 103:1,2

While the word of God is centered on His Son, Jesus, I wondered what verse was in the middle of the text. The answer according to the Google is the two verses we read for today. What an appropriate passage too! The middle of the word of God calls upon what is within us to bless the Lord. And as an answer to the anxiety so present in our world of this day, we are called to not forget the benefits of the Lord. 

From experience, I can tell you that anxiety and forgetting the Lord are quite the same activity. When I have anxious thoughts, they are not centered in the Lord. A session of anxious rumination is so unlike prayer that they must be polar opposites. So, when anxious fears come, bless the Lord O my soul!

Love to you in Christ our Lord, 

Bucky

By Twos

So they came to Noah into the ark, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Genesis 7:15

While it may have appeared in the previous writing that nothing could be worse than two consenting adults, we have a great deal of evidence in the Bible that a pair can also be a great blessing. After the four pairs of humans entered the ark, then came the beasts and birds by twos in our verse for today. We also saw in the gospels how Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs. Two can encourage one another in the Way, or help to keep each other accountable in moral bearing. And of course we have the word from Jesus on marriage where a man and a woman join and become one flesh. (see Matthew 19:4-6). So, over the past couple of days, we have seen how a pair can go toward the light or down into darkness. What can we learn from this? Let Jesus be your Savior first, and from there walk with Him in the light. Then let the Lord help you with those other pairings, such as friends and spouses.

May the Lord Jesus guide us in all things,

Bucky

Decided By Two Consenting Adults

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.  Genesis 3:6

While blame has been laid upon Eve, it is clearly seen in this verse for today that her husband was there with her. And therefore, we can see that the first sin against our Lord God was decided by two consenting adults. Many Bible stories tell us of two consenting adults deciding to commit a sin, sometimes more than one. It would seem that two can get into sin trouble at least as fast as one. So perhaps the best indicator of whether something is a sin or not would not be the decision of two consenting adults?  

Of course we cannot leave it there. Tomorrow, if the Lord is willing, we will see what a partnership can do when it is centered in Christ Jesus. 

Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Look At My Heart?

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  Matthew 15:18-19

So, in order to meet the One who was, and is, and is to come, there must be a fix for this heart problem. Reading the two scriptures passages for today, one may easily think that there is no hope for us at all: God sees into the heart, and Jesus reports what He found there. However, with a bit more reading in the Word, we find that God, who sees the heart, sent Jesus, who knows the heart, to be the sacrifice to cleanse that evil heart and redeem us for God. Therefore our hope is in Him!

As the hymn says: I once was lost, but now am found!

Bucky

Who Is To Come

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”  2 Peter 3:3-4

'He was' and 'He is' each have their problems for those who will not believe in the Christ. But if the past tense is easier and the present one more difficult, then the third separates the faithful from the fallen with the sword of the Word. Many in this world would rather continue on as before until somehow fallen humans achieve some sort of utopian-ageless-evolved paradise on Earth. (You may estimate for yourself how well we are doing on that!) The Revelation 1:7 tells of tribes mourning when Jesus returns (also Matt 24:30). Perhaps that will happen just after they think aging has been stopped. As for me, I think I have aged one day for each day I've been alive. (I guess that makes sense.) What the promise of our Lord's return grants to those who believe in Him is, well, the promise of His return! Like the aging thing, it just sort of makes sense to us. Since I cannot point to the hour, day, month, and year of His return, and neither can anyone else, many refuse to believe this appointment will ever arrive. And so they scoff, and may be scoffing at the moment of our Lord's return. 

Pray for those who refuse to believe, while there is still time for repentance,

Bucky

He Is

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Hebrews 1:1-2

In the early part of the first of what would come to be known as the Anno Domini centuries, Jesus was in Galilee and Judea growing up and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. With the evidence of their eyes, the disciples of Jesus along with a great many others were quite comfortable with 'He is'. The scribes and Pharisees were somewhat less comfortable, but they did not believe in Him. Belief of course brings us to faith, and by faith we speak of Jesus of Nazareth as a 'He is' even now, about 2,000 years after he began the ministry that changed the world. While the execution by Rome of this same Jesus gave all those who refuse to believe in Him a comfortable 'He was', we by faith know of the resurrection on the third day. We do not have the evidence of our eyes yet, but from John 20:29, we have this assurance:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Bucky

He Was

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

Not many people, I think, will have a problem with the 'he was' part when speaking of the man who lived in the first century A.D. Jesus is known through the Bible record and by other historical records such as Josephus. However, to some of those people during what we would consider the 'he was' time, Jesus said that he was from a time before their time, way before their time:

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58

Properly freaked out by this, they stooped to gather some rocks to make him a 'he was' right there and then. But His time had not yet come.

Rejoice in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Wait On the Lord

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!
  -- Psalm 27:14

David, the youth who found the king's army waiting in fear, because of that giant fellow, and acted in courage, would later write psalms of waiting on the Lord. As it was time for him to act in one circumstance, other circumstances taught David the value of waiting on the Lord. Wisdom comes from the Lord to teach us also when it is time to act and when to wait in prayer for the Lord.

Of course to the world around us, it will often look like acting quickly equals rash foolishness and waiting in prayer appears to be doing nothing. And the voice of temptation will be there to help us know how the world sees us in those times too. This is why we need the strengthening of the heart only our Lord can provide!

Have a blessed day in Christ Jesus,

Bucky

New Speech, Please!

He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
  -- 1 Peter 3:10

The verse today looks like a psalm, and it is as Peter wrote from Psalm 34 in his letter. And it still addresses issues we have today. So a psalm of David from about 1,000 years before Jesus, came to a letter from Peter written about 2,000 years before our time, and still we struggle with those two lips and one tongue.

May God grant us mercy, and clean, loving, and encouraging speech.

Bucky

An Unlikely Gospel

As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.  Mark 2:14

Each of us may recall back in those days of our youth when we were caught in that hard place where experience came from jobs, but jobs were closed to us by that same lack of experience. Many of the jobs we ended up taking we would have easily given up to follow a traveling rabbi, if we had  such a thing in our time. However, let's say we each had a job that paid really well, as in destined for great wealth kind of well paid, and there was personal security in that job from the governing authority, and performing well in that job directly benefited our savings accounts. Sounds too good to be true! The tax collectors in Levi's (Matthew's) time had it that way, and they liked their jobs. Their only problem was that their nation and people hated them for doing those jobs. No doubt counting their money in the evening helped them get over their most-hated status. What could be more unlikely then for a travelling rabbi with no money to call one of the most hated men of Galilee to follow him and give up that lucrative job? I guess it would be for the tax collector to drop everything and take off following that same rabbi! And so from a couple of highly unlikely choices, we have the wonders of the Gospel of Matthew. 

Praise Jesus for choosing the unlikely ones,

Bucky

A Prayer For Jesus

Help us, O God of our salvation,
For the glory of Your name;
And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,
For Your name's sake!
  --  Psalm 79:9 

Centuries before the Christ came to Bethlehem, Asaph wrote a psalm praying that the Savior would come and deliver them. This prayer for Jesus asked God for just what His Son did for us as told in the gospels. What an awesome answer to this prayer God gave to us in His Son Jesus!

Bucky

Servant He Is

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. John 13:13

After one of His great examples of serving by doing, Jesus sat down with His disciples having washed their feet like the lowest household slave. And then He acknowledges titles of honor the disciples had used for Jesus the Christ. Rabbi or teacher of us the students and learners, and master or lord, as in we belong to You. It was a strange thing the disciples witnessed: the teacher and master had just taken up the lowest slave position and done the dirtiest job available. And in the next verse, Jesus told them to do the same. Even today we are encouraged to strive for the highest position in the corporation or government. And at some point in life, most of us join in that game with enthusiasm. Imagine achieving that high position of CEO, president, or king, and then going out back to do the lowest and dirtiest job. The disciples were freaked out a bit, I'm sure, just as we would be.

So, are we okay as servants yet?

Bucky

Fearless All Day

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
  -- Psalm 91:5,6 

Night, day, darkness, and noonday, we have the day covered in these two verses. Terror, arrow, pestilence, and destruction covers all our fears as well. But it's that promise from the start that gives the assurance needed to be fearless through every day. "You shall not be afraid..." Of course I seem to be still working on that. Nope, cannot claim to have stood fearless all day of pretty much any day yet. Call it anxiety, PTSD, nervousness, trepidation, or any other term, it remains and has always been plain ol' fear. Even worry has its basis in fear. Worried about that? Then you might be afraid God won't. Worried about this? Then you may be afraid God will. Worried the world will soon be blown up? Then maybe you're afraid God ain't. Read Psalm 91 sometime this weekend and see that God is, and that God loves, and rejoice!

Yours in Christ,

Bucky

No Other Burden

Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. Revelation 2:24

Thyatira had some sin problems, including sexual immorality, but there were those in the church who did not fall into this sort of thing. And the Lord Jesus remembered them too as He promised to put no other burden on them. Is that even possible? We might ask because we gain this impression from certain preachers in our past or present that this life but one burden after another piled on us until we drop. Whatever problem that preacher had, or whatever misunderstanding we jumped into from their teaching, we should not have gained that from the Son of Man who said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

From the story of the church at Thyatira, we understand that it is sin that burdens us, along with the chastening that must take place for that sin. Avoid the sin, and no further burdens will be put on.

Happy Juneteenth! Rejoice in Christ our Lord for the freeing of slaves to sin.

Bucky

Emergency Verses, Quiet Reflection

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
  -- Psalm 91:1

Sometimes the unexpected pounces upon us with tribulations we might rather not face on a particular day. In the Bible we have what have been called emergency verses for those sudden tough times. And one of the easier to recall is the reference for today's verse, 911, or Psalm 91:1. However, these verses are also quite suitable for a calm time of Bible reflection and study. Dwelling is a place where we live, but in this verse if we dwell in one special place, we get to abide in another. It may seem that to dwell in the secret place of God, the Most High, would be Heaven, but that is not secret. The secret place we all have is in our heart or mind, where even repressive governments cannot see what is going on in those thoughts. Much of the time they wouldn't want to, but that's a story for another day. When the seeker comes to believe in Jesus, the door opens to the Holy Spirit and we dwell from then on in the secret place of the Most High. Which grants to us an abiding under the protecting shadow of the Almighty. This is not to say that tribulations will not come, as our Lord Jesus has said, but now we do not face them alone. 

Have a heart safe day under the shadow of the Almighty!

Bucky

Working A Change

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  James 2:5

Last night I looked out a window after midnight, as I often do to see what is going on, and I saw something out of the ordinary. For a moment or two, my mind didn't want to believe what my eyes clearly saw. A branch had fallen onto my truck bed. That's what made the ordinary look odd. What does that have to do with a Bible-based message, you might ask? So glad you asked! 

When Jesus began his ministry, the disciples he chose, the people he preached to, and even his brothers looked and saw, but failed to comprehend all that he taught them. Here in our verse for today we see James presenting two faith arguments in the second chapter of his letter to the twelve tribes scattered throughout the world. This would not have happened in those early days when those known as James did not believe a brother, wanted to bring the thunder down on some scoffers, or simply did not understand the new covenant. Someone worked a change on James and he became as he says, "A bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

That is some change!

Bucky

Shining Light

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  John 1:4-5

So many thoughts this morning. That comes from looking into the darkness, I suppose. Looking at the life that was the light of men seems simpler, calmer, and a way to peace. The Son of God who lived that life shines through the darkness so well in such a time as this. How much greater did His light shine on that day His tomb was found empty? 

Shine on, dear Jesus, shine in me!

Bucky

Already Done It

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28

For those sitting in the grass listening to this great sermon, thinking, "I have not touched, therefore it was just harmless fantasy." Jesus brought them up short by letting them know their guilt just by thinking of the sin. We have been brought up in a time when our thoughts and even our speech are protected freedoms. Hmm, so if I pass a law for myself that I can think of anything I want, then I'm good! Utter nonsense, that is simply restating what Adam and Eve did when taking from the forbidden tree. The government may not prosecute a person for thinking sinful thoughts, but challenging the judgement of God would not be a way to eternal life. So, how can I stop those thoughts? Prayer for a clean heart, and perhaps most immediately, quit feeding the beast!

Praise God, who can cleanse us from the lust in the heart!

Bucky