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