A Quiet Morning In The City

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me."  Acts 1:4

We can imagine ourselves there in Jerusalem on a quiet morning a couple of weeks after the man from Nazareth had been put to death. Those who did not want to believe the stories of the resurrection had the bought and paid for testimony of the soldiers; while those who believed were lying low even as they, strangely, refused to recant their testimony of the Son of God. And yet those reports of the living and risen Jesus kept rising up each day for forty days. It seemed that every time people got together somewhere, someone else had seen this man alive again! And those disciples of His were known by all to still be there in that upper room in Jerusalem. What were they waiting for? 

From the reading in the Acts of the Apostles, we know that the day would come when those disciples of Jesus would suddenly become lions of the Word, in quite a few languages at that. No more would they lie low in that upper room waiting, but ventured forth in an explosion of evangelical preaching such as the world had not seen before. It was a startling start of a new church! 

Loving one another we go on in Christ,

Bucky

A Practicing Plinth

And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 1 Corinthians 12:28

At the base of the column that everyone sees lies the humble plinth. People will generally notice the plinth only when stubbing a toe on its corner. Then derogatory terms are heaped on its already humble name. That is if the stumbling stubber knows its name at all. I like plinths, they labor quietly while the column gets the glory. As one person can be heard by many through the audio/visual media of our world, most of us will enter into the kingdom of Heaven by way of less noticed positions. Using Paul's list from our verse today, one apostle might need a great many 'helps' or helpers. While the apostle's name scrolls across the TV screen, the helpers may not even get a credit at the end. That's okay, the greatest of servants did not come for His own glory.

God's grace and mercy to you,

Bucky

One Active Dead Fellow

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:6

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Acts 1:3

So, according to the Bible there was this period of forty days when a man raised from the dead appeared to more than 500 people. Paul tells us the numbers while Luke wrote in the Acts of the time period. That's a serious crowd and one active dead fellow! Of course, raised to life again, the resurrection, means that He was not dead, but alive. And just to take the tale a bit further out there, it was an angel who asked, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5). And it is this story from the Bible that causes many to refuse to believe. So... the part they have the most difficulty with is not so much about faith, but about believing eye witness testimony? It does seem to all come in a package: if one believes in Jesus first, then one believes all the testimonies too. If another one believes all the witnesses first, then it follows that the one will also next believe in the One they bear witness of, Jesus the Christ.

And we pray for those who choose to believe neither of them!

Bucky

We Are But Sheep

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
    --Matthew 26:31

Attacking the sheep has been popular among the principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this age for a long time. We should expect no different in our time. Not only are we easy to strike, but we tend to go astray with but a slight puff of evil winds. As sheep we are afraid, weak, focused on feeding ourselves, and not always aware of the danger lurking nearby. We also have a Shepherd, and one who has been struck once. 

On the night of our Lord's arrest, His disciples were scattered like the sheep they were. The sheep still tend to scatter and be scattered, but the Shepherd will not be struck again. As the hymn goes, 'He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!' We look to the Lord Jesus our Shepherd to return us to His green pastures. And to those who would scatter us to be devoured we say, "Have you met my Shepherd?" 

Better than a stout big brother, the Lord Jesus our Shepherd!

Bucky

Running To Safe Ground

There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.  John 12:2

A supper, or dinner for some, and Martha the servant does her thing. But this is some supper, for the man, Lazarus, had been dead for four days, buried in the family crypt, and is here alive to eat, drink, and tell us of life after the grave? Except that Lazarus is not the biggest elephant sitting down to this meal. Jesus, the one who raised Lazarus from the dead, is there with them. So, who do you really want to talk to and ask questions of?

Quite a few people would answer, "Martha!" Why? That is safe ground. No rising dead people involved, just serving a meal to some guests who dropped by.  Safe ground and safe, denying, explanations for things that shake the ground under our feet is the desire of many. Otherwise they must face a man dead for four days and raised to life again. Does Lazarus have to die again after that? What if he doesn't behave  himself according to the Law during that extra time he got? And what happened to the guy who had the power to raise a dead man to life again? Jesus and Lazarus raise questions of an uncanny nature, and for some it's just safe to go back to Martha serving an evening meal. 

Martha would of course point us back to Jesus, the One who is the Life and the Resurrection!

Bucky

Expectations

But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Luke 24:2

Those disciple men may have been slow to get going, but the women got up at the dawn burdened under a certain expectation. This is not surprising given the usual progression of death - funeral, burial, spice 'em up a bit for the smell, and eventually we move on from the dearly departed - had gone on since they were little girls. Then someone went and moved the body, and they were perplexed. And then that unexpected question came, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" How does one answer a question like that?

It is at times like this that an old expectation meets the new wineskin of Jesus with a sort of wet splat. When the women ran to tell the disciples, they too would have one of those I'm-missing-something feelings. It was a strange morning all around, except that Jesus had told them repeatedly what was going to happen with Him. But that old what-we-think-we-know monster had them firmly in its jaws.

Have a great Easter week! Our condolences go out to our Catholic brothers and sisters on the passing of Pope Francis,

Bucky

Directionless Intention

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28

A set of shelves needed to be moved from the garage, and as I finished disassembling them and stacked the pieces (after vacuuming off the creepy tenants that had survived our mild winter), I realized that I had an intention to move the shelves but no real direction. Shelves invite stacks of stuff, and I don't want more in my basement this year as one of my goals remains to simplify, simplify, and simplify. That is not redundant as this simplification involves garage, main floor, and basement. The goal must be broken up into three parts as I have through no fault of my own entered the first floor of that building known as Old. This lack of direction brought to mind the disciples again on this day.

In their time this week, this day would be the Sabbath after Jesus died on the cross and was buried by Joseph and Nicodemus. The disciples had made their way back to the upper room and probably barred the door and stationed their more capable members to stand guard. Not that any of them were old and weak like me, they having just followed their rabbi in a tramp of some three years over Galilee, Syria, Judea, and parts of Samaria. However, on this day they had no direction. The women were preparing spices and fragrant oils for the body of Jesus, but these eleven capable men were not sure what to do after the Sabbath. How can we know this? Well, the next morning it was the women who got things going by taking their grave mixture to an empty tomb. The Bible does not say it, but we would not be surprised if the Mary's did try to get some of the men to go with them. 

A bit chilly here this morning, I hope your Easter warms up!

Bucky

He Told You

Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Luke 23:56

Resting gives much time for thinking, and each year at this time I wonder what those who had followed Jesus for 3 years or more were thinking on this Sabbath. Were they doubting like Thomas, denying like Peter, or just plain lost? We know from the scriptures the disciples and other followers had been scattered at the arrest of Jesus. However, at some point they began to gather again from the four points of the compass to which they had fled. And they waited. Did anyone mention the three days Jesus had spoken of before this all happened? Were the religious authorities satisfied at the death of Jesus or were they coming for the rest of the gang? That morning after this Sabbath rest held a great many questions for the followers of the former rabbi from Nazareth. And then someone came back and said that she had seen Jesus, the risen Lord!

No doubt that woke 'em up!

Bucky

Believe Him

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40

One of the many 'faith tests' in the scriptures comes from those days and nights we count on our fingers from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday, and come up short in our counting. We can talk about Passover and what day of that week it began, or how the crowds in Jerusalem necessitated an extension to maybe Thursday, or this, that, or the other thing. We might even discuss how our day names come from pagan deities. But a couple of things about the Crucifixion of my Lord Jesus and His Resurrection come to mind. Counting on my fingers and naming days will not save me, but believing my Lord Jesus will. Therefore I suggest: believe Him.

And we went rejoicing in our faith in Jesus!

Bucky

If Only They Had Been Told

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. 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 14:10-11

Wednesday morning of Passion Week, and we wake up to wonder where Jesus and the disciples were at that time almost two thousand years ago. It is quite possible that at least one of the followers of the Christ were pondering the verses we read today on that morning long ago, maybe Philip the one who had asked to be shown the Father. Although the timing of events to days of the week can be difficult for us, it may be that at this point even Judas was still one of the boys, Jesus had not been arrested, and the big booting out of Rome would happen any day now, they thought. But, Jesus had already spoken the Word, and all was going according to God's plan. The happy moment of the triumphal entry was a couple of days back, and soon those things Jesus had said more than once would come to pass would begin. The disciples of Messiah woke up to begin their day.

They were told, but they did not understand.

Bucky

Not The Usual Week

A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.  John 16:16

Holy Week and Passion Week are names for this week before the Easter holy day. But back in the day that it was lived, the week was simply another Passover celebration. In the same way that it is difficult for someone close to the action to come up with a clever name for the time, so it was with the disciples when Jesus threw out this statement in our verse today. They were completely baffled by what Jesus said, even though this was not the first time that He had told them what was to happen to Him in the coming week. The twelve disciples could not brainstorm a memorable name for the week because they could not yet understand that His prophecy was quite literal and immediate in its fulfillment. They would not have long to wait though. As we like to say, by this time next week they would understand. 

Well, except for Judas who did not give himself the time to see the fulfillment, and maybe Thomas who just had to have that physical encounter first.

Rejoice in the Risen Christ this week!

Bucky

We Still Have Prayer

Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
  -- Psalm 27:9

David the king of Israel had his conflicts too. And, he turned to God in prayer. While we also work to settle our conflicts with one another, we too must turn to our Lord God in prayer. This current conflict we face is not the first time God has heard the prayers of two or more of His children who all believed themselves in the right. Nations, including this one, have fought civil wars with believers on both sides praying to God for victory. We are not always in the right, they are not always in the right, but God alone is always in the right. Therefore, as long as we all go to God in prayer, resolution will come to us all by His sovereign grace.

The road we must walk to get there may not be easy though...

Bucky

Judge Over You?

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” Luke 12:13-14

We ask at times the question, what would Jesus do? And the scriptures do give the answer to us, probably more often than we may think. In this case one brother asks the Lord to take his side in a civil matter. Jesus doesn't. There goes an expectation down in flames! You mean the Lord Jesus did not come to take your side or mine? Nope, sorry. He came to do as His Father in Heaven told Him to do. So, does that mean Jesus left civil matters up to us to work out? Oh yes, and even a commandment on that to make every effort to come to a settlement before we are drug into court. Plus, if to court it must be, then we have commandments on cloaks and tunics, and turning the other cheek.

Working things out between us works! Especially when we do it in His love.

Bucky

Listening To Us

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:25

It began when Jesus was but 12 years old in Luke 2, this thing of people listening in to the Good News that He brought. Or, you might say it began with Sarah listening in as the angel told Abram she would bear him a son way back in Genesis. People will keep their ears open for news that concerns themselves and their future. In our verse for today, some prisoners had a new thing show up in the midst of their tedium and they listened. How we talk and what we speak of will be heard by the world, and we must be careful of what we say. If we sound much like the world does, then they will quickly tune us out as more irrelevant noise. And in our age, this ability to tune out excess noise grows with each passing moment and generation. So, if we gripe and moan over things like everyone else, why would they listen to us? If our speech is rife with those worldly words and phrases, why hear us? But if we sound different from the other prisoners as Paul and Silas did, then we have a good news message going out to the world.

Therefore, rejoice in the Lord always!

Bucky

Territorial Turf Talk

Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else’s territory. 2 Corinthians 10:16 NLT

From the distance of time it is possible to think of the mid-first century as a time of lovely cooperation in the early church with mutual support among the followers of the Way. We almost hate to find out that they were people much like us. At the point of our verse for today, Paul the apostle has to address some territorial turf talk in the church. Because with the Roman authority coming down on them, the Jewish religious leaders trying to end them, and all the other dangers of life on the road in the first century, why not trash talk your fellow Christ-ones too? It seems here that Paul must answer and defend himself against accusations of taking credit for another's work. Boasting, work, territory? Is this some sort of sales competition?

Alas, some days the greatest danger to the Good News is the lips in the church itself. May God have mercy on His sheep!

Bucky

Simple Instructions

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.  Matthew 24:4

Throughout the gospels we get simple instructions from Jesus that are so awfully difficult to implement every day and every moment. This particular response from our Lord today came from the disciples asking about our Lord's return and the end of days. We are interested in those things as well. The whole Covid thing may have helped to bring about that resurgence in what is called eschatology, or study of the final events in human history. Which is an interesting study given that we only have prophecy to go on and those signs. It's not like we can look at those events in hindsight after all. Taking heed that no one deceives us means that deception will run rampant in this area, and it may come from well-meaning people too. 

So carefully and scripturally study the end times prophecies, and with much prayer! 

Bucky

The Others

But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8

It's April and that means spring is underway, in some places more than others. That is my painfully obvious observation today for those readers currently living under big rocks. As for you others, we can see from our verse for today that it is not a bad thing to be an 'other' sometimes. Of the seeds the farmer planted in the four soils parable, these others fell on good ground and produced a bumper crop. Not all the same though. It seems that even in the good soil there were differences in circumstances for each of the seeds. But then the little plant popped up from the soil, looked around and said, "Good soil? No way, I must be planted among the thorns!"

We must trust the Farmer, our Lord Jesus, no matter what it looks like from our view.

Bucky

The Annoyance Test

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2,3

Head down, mind bent on the task at hand, and an interruption arrives. Grr, and thus begins the testing of your faith. It is not persecution or even scoffing, but it is the annoyance test and how often ya fail at it! Sometimes it does seem as if the Lord God has provided a particular person or several to specifically get on that side of you most likely to react with annoyance. It is a personality quirk, a mannerism, a habit learned from another region or nation, that seems to burrow under your skin of peaceful intent and disrupt all manner of inner workings leading to annoyance, and if you are not careful, an outburst of anger or even rage. It is not hard to imagine that someone has died from causing annoyance at some point in the story of us.

Why us though, have we not already believed in Jesus? Well, that is the point, dear believer! According to James, the trial that just walked in your door to cause that annoyance is a part of the fertilizer applied to the soil of the heart to grow the Spirit's fruit of patience in us.

Now go out there and be annoyed!

Bucky