God So Loved

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

Yesterday's message was pretty horrible, so I thought to remind us all of that central statement of the Bible. While there are many difficult prophecies yet to be fulfilled, God's love by way of His Son gives to those who believe just what we long for, everlasting life. We need to go back to this frequently as our watch on world events for signs of the end is a wearisome task, and we shall see horrors come to pass. When this happens, recall God's love and His Son, Jesus the Christ. Note that God's love and His gift came before we believed.

When that belief came, we rejoiced in Him!

Bucky

A Plague Comes

And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:

Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
  -- Zechariah 14:12

Horror movies have nothing over the Bible for sheer horror. This plague was portrayed, with all its horror, in a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when an evil Nazi dude looked in the opened Ark of the Covenant. We might think we will like it when the bad guys get their just desserts, but this may just be too much to wish on anyone. Prophecy is not about what we or the prophet likes or dislikes. Those who received the word of God had to foretell some tough things. However, contained in this prophecy is the key to avoiding it: Don't fight against Jerusalem!

Seems almost too simple! Rejoice in the Lord always,

Bucky

The Hope Of Believing In Him

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. John 17:20

One of the great battles of all times comes in trying to turn human hearts to belief in Jesus. We read of the fight in our Lord's first disciples when He told them plainly that He would be given to the Gentiles, killed, but rise again. The disciples heard it, paused for a moment, and then wondered how to gain a prominent position in His new kingdom. They didn't believe in Him, and they couldn't yet believe His words. So, if these special twelve could not believe, what hope do we have? In this little bit of our Lord's prayers on that night before He was given up to the religious authorities, we read that those disciples would continue to spread His good news and that there would be those who will believe through those words.

Praise God, we are willing to believe in Jesus, His Son!

Bucky

God Is Just

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3

John 3:16 speaks of God's love and believing in His Son for eternal life. This verse speaks of knowing God and His Son Jesus for eternal life. Therefore we understand that knowing and believing in God and Jesus must be closely related. And indeed, without believing in Jesus it seems that a reading of the Old Testament will leave one feeling that God is mean. However, with belief in Jesus we read and see that it is God's justice that many confuse with meanness. With the Law of Moses, Israel made a contract with God. And everything the nation suffered was a consequence of their sin or punishment according to the terms of their contract. Repent and be restored was the message from God by way of the prophets for hundreds of years. Then God sent His Son, and still most of Israel would not believe. We enjoy a time when Gentiles will believe in Jesus, but God is not done with Israel just yet.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Bucky

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Working In Us

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  Philippians 2:12-13

Working out our salvation will not work without the work of God in us. Thar' be a lot o' workin' in that thar' verse! Yup, a pirate more than many occupations might recognize the tremendous amount of work that goes into taking a lost sheep and making it a warrior for the gospel of Christ. Paul speaks in another letter of taking up the full armor of God, and who has ever heard of an armored sheep? Clearly many changes will be effected in and on those sheep to become fully armored warriors wielding the sword of the Word. 

Behind the shield of faith the making of a warrior continues,

Bucky

So He Is

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

My searches for a verse tend toward the even numbered chapters in John, so I made some effort to not avoid the great food in the odd numbered chapters the last couple of days. Here is one for today that refutes again the old argument that Jesus never said he was God. One must stretch it to the breaking point to avoid the "for so I am" part of this verse. Some folks will do it though. This verse for today is part of that great lesson the Teacher and Lord gave to us for seeking to be servants, and not just any servant but the lowest of servants, the foot washer. It is not hard to imagine that most Christians know the servant lesson, but have in mind for themselves a place as the chief servant, or head of the vineyard for an absent owner, or maybe a position similar to their ideal job here in this life. No, the lesson clearly was to do the lowest jobs, like the one the Son of God did for His disciples that night.

It is not an easy lesson to put into practice!

Bucky

Cast Out

They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. John 9:34

Our verse for today comes from the story of the man blind from birth, healed by Jesus, and cast out of the synagogue by the Pharisees. Now getting cast out of the synagogue was a bit more serious than we are used to. If we were cast out of one church even in a rural town, we could go to another one. We would also maintain membership in various clubs around the town. We might even take up college classes to further our education. For the formerly blind man, the synagogue was all these things rolled up into one. Losing his membership might also make it difficult for him to find work, which he could now do. But since this man now has new knowledge, he could do as the Pharisees suggested and become a teacher from the Word of God! Hmm, okay, maybe suggestion is a strong word for what they said. Is it just me, or does anyone else think it would be funny for the Pharisees to find the formerly blind man teaching Scripture classes in the town square?

There are times when a casting out is the start of a new and wonderful thing for us, especially if it comes from having Jesus open our eyes.

Blessings to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Bucky

The Guide

For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide
Even to death.
  -- Psalm 48:14

In something you have not done before it can be a great help to have a guide. In the circumstances of the world one may choose to be a mean guide and teach by hazing or mocking, but I think most of us would prefer the knowledgeable guide who teaches patiently with kindness.

A ship comes to mind as an example of what can be an intimidating situation. If a person comes from a rural town, a cruise ship may be the largest structure he or she has seen in this lifetime. Plus lurking in the dread part of their mind will be the knowledge that once the ship casts off from the pier, there will be some supports left behind. On the first cruise it can help to have a guide; someone who has taken the trip before, maybe even several times. That guide will know things that we need to learn this first time out.

And that is where our verse today comes to us. The Spirit given by Jesus is now our guide on this first time through life. God will guide us back to Himself by way of His Son.

Guided in Him!

Bucky

The Better Word?

And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. John 14:29

John 14 remains one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. However, my favorite does not mean that it is better for me than say, John 13 or 15. We can read even in our verse for today that something our Lord foretold had to come to pass before the disciples would even believe it or in Jesus. Thus even as a favorite chapter of mine, it does me no good if, like the disciples, I do not believe.

It has come up a lot lately in discussion that some think parts of the Word of God better than others. Again, while one of us may have favored verses, passages, and chapters of scripture, that alone does not make them better than our less favored books or stories in the Bible. I like the Christmas stories every year, but without the horrors of the scourging and the shame of our Savior on the Cross, what good would the Nativity do for me or anyone else? We have the better word, it begins with Genesis and reads through the Revelation, and in it all is Jesus our Lord!

Thank You, dear God, for Your Word!

Bucky

Yet Who Knows?

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

It's a famous verse, been used here before, in many sermons and devotionals, and in a movie or two. What do we like about it? Perhaps it is the uncertainty Esther had to face with only faith in God to help her. She was queen and yet she did not know whether the king would hold out his scepter or let her go to her death. No doubt that moment in the movie had a dramatic pause for a little tension building. Faith is a difficult journey with lots of those moments of uncertainty. Most of them do not involve mortal peril for us, but a lack of faith certainly holds spiritual peril for us (pun certainly intended).

Believe in Jesus, and at times you will face the delicious pain of uncertainty!

Bucky

The Only Stranger In Jerusalem

Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” Luke 24:18

Now there is an interesting thought, the only stranger in Jerusalem being the Son of God, the One who wants to save Jerusalem. But in verse 16, it tells us that their eyes were restrained from seeing the risen Lord Jesus. Cleopas is astounded that this stranger on the road, who inserts himself into their conversation, doesn't seem to know anything about what went on there the past few days. As we read of Jesus after His rising on that Sunday morning, we might just detect a bit of fun going on. He appears to the gathered disciples behind locked doors, he disappears from a meal faster than He entered it, He provides another miraculous catch of fish on the Sea of Galilee, and just pops in and out all around Jerusalem for 40 days. Well, if He had a bit of fun, then He certainly deserved it in my estimation. While He did it though, He also opened the eyes of the spiritually blind to the scriptures concerning Himself.

Keep on reading the Word, He will become clear to you as well!

Bucky

A Fair Wind Blowing

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

Accustomed to the hyperbole and bombast of the social media age, I tend to marvel at how the writers of the Bible present remarkable events in rather unremarkable language. But then one thinks about it. The Word became flesh. Imagine for a moment that every word you or I spoke became a little creature hopping about the house. Little living beings that need care and provision to continue their little lives. It would shut a person up right quick! Okay, now that I have weirded out our Monday, John has some more words for us in this verse for today. 

God's word has glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, John writes. Glory would of course be quite remarkable. And the only begotten of the Father is full of a couple of things we need in this age, grace and truth. The Word of God seems a precious gift now, not unremarkable at all. And still the language is calm, peaceful even, and not like what we read these days in political discourse. 

A fair wind blows from Heaven, let us catch it in our sails!

Bucky