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