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

Where Do We Seek Comfort

And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul's hand.  1 Samuel 18:10

Saul and a distressing spirit, we know where that spear will go at least one time! Here in this verse we find a couple of methods or means we use to seek comfort in the world, music and weapons.  Comfort, we need it in this disturbing world. Many ways and means have been used, but all of them will need to be used over and over again. And that includes prayer. While prayer to God our Father should be our first recourse to comfort, we cannot get by with just one. God wants to hear from you and me, so He made it so that one quick prayer dashed off to Him like a quick text to someone we don't really want to talk to won't do it for constant comfort. 

So seek out the deep prayer, the immersive prayer... the prayer where we don't fall asleep, maybe? Although useful at bedtime, the falling asleep prayer should not be the only one we keep with God and His Son each day. Prayer training? Yes, it may seem strange, but if we want to get better at a thing, we need to train.

Have a prayerful week in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Not Understanding

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. John 12:16

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem and our Lord's last week before His death on the cross, and His disciples didn't get it. John confesses some years later in his gospel writing that the group of disciples who had been with Jesus for so long, did not understand Him. One of them would even die shortly of a guilt-ridden conscience gained in actions that show he understood Jesus least of all of them. So... how are we doing at understanding our Lord Jesus?

To borrow a line from Paul, there is therefore now no condemnation from us to those long ago disciples since we are still working on understanding all there is of our Lord's Word just as they did. Our only advantage is that some of it already happened, and those disciples were kind enough to pass it on down to us.

Love and joy to you in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Bucky

Wine, Folly, And Wisdom

I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. Ecclesiastes 2:3

Wine and folly? Whoa, king, better ease up there! In the Bible there are many to-do's, but sometimes we come upon a to-don't. It may be better for us to see how King Solomon with his famous wisdom came out in this experience before we take up wine and folly together. It takes little experience with wine to know that too much of it brings on folly, and then wisdom is out the window! Solomon likely knew all that before he began this experiment. Read on in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs to see what the king discovered in his God-given discernment about many of the earthly things we seek out.

God's love and mercy to you,

Bucky

Remember His Name

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  -- Psalm 20:7

It may be easy for us to remember all of the things we have trusted in this life that have let us down. Or perhaps that list has grown too long to recall every one of them. Of all the names we have forgotten in this life, there is one we must remember: the name of the Lord our God. His name is Jehovah, but in prayer Jesus said to address Him as 'Abba'. We need His name since we do not just pray, we pray to the Lord our God. Some in the movies and shows just toss a prayer out there. We want the Lord our God to answer, and not just any old spirit who happens to be floating by when we toss one up. And so Jesus started us with, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name." (Matthew 6:9)

Have a wonderful prayer, or two or three, with our dear Father God today!

Bucky