When something is a struggle to succeed at and it feels like we are pressing through a steel wall, people want to say that that means that God has closed that door and does not want us getting through it. Now, sometimes that’s true. However, there are many times when you are oushing to open a door that God has not closed, but the devil has stood behind it, holding it shut so you can’t get it open. Don’t be deceived. The devil can keep the door shut from you, but he can’t keep it shut from Jesus. If you give every struggle over to Jesus and let Him push open the doors that He wants you to walk through, then not only will you walk the right the path, your struggle will lessen, because the one who wants you to walk that way will let you through the most stuck doors.
Tag: adored
Following the fourth Wiseman- But Why?
Our traveler has heard that the Messiah has been taken to Pilot. He has made his way through the crowds, but those time he is pushing and shoving to get to the front. If only he could speak with someone, tell them of the signs and miracles he had witnessed. Tell them of the star and the prophecies. Somehow, maybe he could help end all this. He was no man of small means. He has great influence in his area of the world. Influence he will use if he needs to. If only he can get close! He trips and lands into a Roman guard who immediately, angrily grabs him and drags him I side the building to a room to be questioned. Things were so intense that even a mistaken stumble lead to our traveler being held. A voice sounds from the other room. It’s Pilot! Then another voice… “my King.” Our traveler whispers.
John 18:28, 33-38 ESV
[28] Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
[33] So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” [34] Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” [35] Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” [36] Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” [37] Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” [38] Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”
Our traveler was so glad to hear Pilot speak those words, though when the Messiah was lead out to the crowd and our traveler caught a glimpse of Him from the room he was in, his heart dropped and he had to hold back tears. The blood trailed behind Him. His wounds were so deep. Why?
“Why do this?” Our traveler asks the guard.
“Why not.” He humphs.
“Don’t you know who He is?”
“Yes. We all know that by now. It’s not our people who want Him killed, it’s yours.”
“But why?”
“You tell me. You can go now. We have no more questions.”
Our traveler walks out. Still with the question, why?
Why? The fact is. If it had not been for our sin Jesus would never have needed to die. There was literally no other reason. He was pure. He did kind things. He taught truth. If the garden had never happened and the apple had never been bitten into, Jesus would never have died. There are times when we ask ourselves why? Why did I get hurt? Why did my dream not take off? Why did I get sick?
Then shortly after asking why? We ask where? Where was God?
In communications class for health care professionals, we learn to never ask questions that start with ‘why?’ Because such questions lead us down a bad road. One why leads to another, which leads to defensiveness and anger. Instead of asking why? We are told to make positive statements about how to fix things. We cannot always do this, there are many times when the problem cannot be fixed. But instead of asking God why? Ask Him, what next? If this has happened then show me your reason and purpose. He might do exactly that. You never know what God will show you, unless you stop asking why? And start asking what? What is it you want me to do? What is it you want me to learn? What is your purpose?
God has a reason, we just have to trust Him.
Following the fourth Wiseman- A speck in the crowd
The word had hit the streets two days before. The man called Jesus was teaching on the hillside. Our traveler had been jostled and bumped through the crowds for hours. He was no longer the only one seeking the Messiah and it was almost a fight to even reach His destination.
Exhausted, dirty, and bruised our traveler finally reaches the hill where Jesus was speaking. He was joyful and discouraged to see that there were so many people he could not even count them all. There was no way he would reach the Messiah at this point. He was a speck in the crowd. Our traveler decided to sit down with the others and listen to what his King was saying. As time went on he began to feel hungry. He looked around and realized that he was not the only one. Then there was a shifting in the crowd, the deciples of Jesus were walking through, speaking to people. Next he saw a small boy stand and walk with the deciples toward Jesus. Later he learned what had happened.
John 6:1-13 ESV
[1] After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. [2] And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. [3] Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. [4] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. [5] Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” [6] He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. [7] Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” [8] One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, [9] “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” [10] Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. [11] Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. [12] And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” [13] So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
Our traveler sat with food in his hands that could only have been a gift from God. He wondered at it. He wondered at how he had been so blessed as to see these things and to hear the words of his King. The others had seen the child, the other Wisemen had given their gifts and had blessed Him and been blessed by His presence. Yet he, the one whom he had thought had missed out, was now seeing the miracles of the man who was God.
So often we feel we have missed our chance. Imagine always being so close to your desire and never reaching it? We leave our traveler in a crowd where he would be like a where’s Waldo picture, such a small part of something so big. Yet, even when we feel like we are just a spring inside the massive clock of life, Jesus still sees us. He still offers us His love. We can feel like we have missed our moment. Like God could not use us because we have fallen too far behind. But He has a purpose. We are never too far gone. He is always with us and someday we will see His reason.
Following the fourth Wiseman- Are you still at the pool?
We rejoin our traveler as he walks the darkened cobbled path that he had been directed to by a merchant in the market. The groans of the ill and the smell of the street makes his stomach turn.
“I believe He can do it again!” Says a man laying on the stones, his legs bandaged.
“It was a fluke. Some strange medicine from another land.” Replies another.
“Medicine that could make a man you and I have seen to be crippled for all the years we have been here, get up and walk?”
“You think too much.”
“I have hope. If He healed one He may return to heal more.”
Our traveler walks over to the two men who are speaking and asks them of what they speak?
“None of your business.” The one replies, but the other, smiles.
John 5:2-3, 5-9 ESV
[2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
[5] One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” [7] The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” [8] Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
“Can you believe it?” The man asks excitedly.
Our traveler nods his head, “Yes. I certainly can.”
Our traveler goes back to the market and buys bread and fruit and returns to the alley where he dispenses the food between the people there.
I have always had trouble with the pool of Bethesda. Not the mystery of it, there could have been something God was doing there, or ot could have been a mineral pool. We do know there were stories of people who went in and came out healed. What bothers me is the healed man. There were most likely many people there. Near that exact spot. All of them. Every. Single. One. Needed healing. Yet, Jesus chose to heal only one. I don’t understand that. I never will. Sometimes we see someone receive something that we deserved. We were just as good, we worked just as hard. Yet we walk away with nothing. Why? We cannot always understand God’s will. There are times when it confounds us to the place of doubt. Yet He is still good. Remember what the three Hebrew boys said in Daniel? “And if not He is still good.” To have that faith. To watch the Messiah heal one man and walk away when there were many others there who needed Him just confuses me to no end. But He had a reason. We still don’t know what that reason was. Was it the man’s faith? Jeuss does not say so. Was it because he was Jewish? There were probably other Jewish people there. Was it simply because he had been there the longest? Perhaps he had prayed and Jesus had come in answer to that prayer? We won’t know the answer until we see Jesus ourselves and ask Him. Even if you are the man in the alley, still crippled; or the woman on the stairs, still blind. Jesus has not overlooked you. He sees you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life just as you are now. Would a miracle be great? Of course. But sometimes He only heals one, yet He still has a path for the others. Don’t lose hope because you are still sitting by the well. He sees you, He knows you, He understands you, and He has not forgotten you.
Following the fourth Wiseman- John 3:16
We find Our traveler sitting on the beach today. His eyes are looking at the clear water and the way the breeze moves it, but they are not focused on that. His mind has full control over him, he has heard words from His Messiah through a passerby. The words were nothing he had ever experienced before, and he now can do nothing but sit and think on them.
John 3:16-21 ESV
[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
What was your first thought when you read this verse for the very first time? For God so loved the world. He have us Jesus. We wouldn’t give our place in a Tim’s lineup to people, and God gave us who are so unworthy, His Son. He sent Jesus to save the world. God knew what Jesus had to say would be hard to swallow. He know that people would feel like they were being condemned to death by how narrow the path is, so Jesus reminded us that He came to save the world. He is the light. Yes, the path is narrow, but it is possible for those who know and love Jesus. Run to the Light. Run toward Jesus. This verse, John 3:16-21 is the whole gospel in a nut shell. Jesus came to save us because He loves us and we weren’t making it on our own. He came to be a light to show us the way. The only way to Heaven is by knowing and loving Jesus. Those who love their sin will hate Jesus and will hate those who love Him. But Jesus will continue to shine bright, so even those who once hated Him can come to love Him. Those who love Him, walk in light.
We quote John 3:16 to the place where it’s almost over used. Non Christians quote it as a joke. Athletes put it on their jerseys (which is wonderful). It’s written in the air by sky writers during big events. We hear it all the time. But do we take it in? How do we feel? How did you feel when you first read this verse? Do you still feel like that? Our traveler is lost in his thoughts of overwhelm because of the mesmerizing words. Do these words still overwhelm us? Or have we forgotten how precious they are?
The body – part 1
Hebrews 10:20 NIV
[20] by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
Earlier I mentioned the part of this verse that speaks of us being able to enter the Most Holy Place through Jesus’s blood, here the author speaks of a living way being opened through the curtain by Jesus’s body. In the time of Jesus, and beginning in the days of Moses, there was curtain. This curtain was used as a veil to separate the outside world from the Holy Place of God. Only certain people could enter past the veil. Only certain people got to talk with God. It was a privilege and an honor. It still is even if we don’t view it as such anymore.
When Jesus died the sky went dark, there was a loud Crack like thunder, and the veil was torn. Suddenly we were able to cross the threshold into God’s court. Any of us. All of us. Can now stand before the living God. Because of His blood we are able to enter God’s holy place, because of Hos body was can cross past the curtain into God’s sanctuary.
This makes me think of the scene from BenHur. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading the book. The only movie that didn’t miss the important stuff was the one with Charleston Heston. And even that doesn’t match the book. Anyway. There is that moment in Ben Hur when Jesus dies and Judah Ben Hur’s sister and mother, who had come to see Jesus to be healed from leprosy but hadn’t gotten there before the cross, they have to hide in a cave because a massive storm sets in after Jesus gives up His spirit. The wind pounds and the rain soaks them and they feel things in that moment can’t get worse. Then the look at each other and see that they are both healed. Jesus died so that even if we can’t see Him and touch Him physically, we can still he healed. Healed from more than our leprosy, healed from more than our blindness. Now we are healed from our sins and are reconciled to God. Because He was beaten, buried and rose, we can enter into God’s presence and talk to Him as to a friend. We were worthy of punishment, but Jesus gave His body so that we could be unworthy of grace and still receive it. This is the body we enter through.
Prophesies
What child is this?
Prophesies. Prophesies ushered in the birth of Jesus. Prophesies helped people understand who He was. Prophesies told of His death and resurrection. Prophesies are in part why the Wise Men walked across the desert to find a baby. Prophesies, Prophesies and more Prophesies.
Yet not all believed the fulfillment of the Prophesies. Many still don’t. Even now as we look around our world we are seeing the answers and fulfillment of Prophesies from the Bible and from true God seeking men and women from a later date. But do we believe that they are happening? Don’t we mock when we hear someone shout ‘Repent! He is coming soon!’
So. What about those Prophesies?
What child is this reminds us of the fulfillment of Prophesies. We have seen time and again when God spoke and answered. If we are going according to the past then I would say we should be listening for the trumpet because the Prophesies are being fulfilled.
If we are going by modern thinking, then there are no Prophesies and we can live as we like. But people who say that are already deceived, there are too few Christians these days who stand strong and preach the gospel, too few who have faith enough to hear when the angels speak and say ‘I am the Lord’s servant.’ We want to be royals, not subjects, and do to this we fall into false truth and spread it to the masses.
We promote positive thinking and speaking your words to the air so the blessing returns to you. This is not Christian. We never remind people to Repent, or dare to mention that a second coming is true and that He is already on the move. If God fulfilled the Prophesies in Isaiah about a Virgin giving birth to God’s son, and about that son being slain for the sins of men and women, and then rising again to conquer death. Why do we doubt the prophet’s claims that Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven and vanquish all evil once and for all?
What child is this? He’s the perfect lamb, the conquering king, and my Savior.
Seek Him openly
Seek Him openly
Last weekend I was at our Church camp. I go every year. Since the pandemic (and I’m not blaming the pandemic itself) camp has been a little hallow. Where we used to hear messages from the Lord and saw people being healed and set free we now were interrupted by tye other christians who were skipping church to roar around near by on their quads and seadoos. Fine to do when service isn’t on. The alters were empty at the end of services and many of the seats were empty throughout. I thought that perhaps these two years were a shift that would mark the new normal in our Churches. Then this year came. The services were packed, the bikes out front of the kid’s chapel were so many you could hardly see grass. The alter was full at the end of the services and children of their own choosing came forward to pray. They prayed for others, they knelt by the alter with their Bibles clutched in their hands, teenagers went to the front to seek and anointing from God. It was marvelous! It was like God was saying, “this is the true shift. This will be the new normal.” Where even five years ago you would mostly see older people seeking God and standing for prayer, now we see people who are so young they are coming from kid’s church where they get to watch puppet shows to stand at the alter of the main tabernacle and give their souls to Jesus. No one coaxing them or calling them forward, just a longing to be there, nearer to the heart of God, seeking Him openly. Let us pray that we see more of this, a great revival coming forward as the Holy Spirit spreads afresh through our people. We can’t be good deciples unless we are filled and refilled by Him.
I am a sinner, but I leave that all behind me and choose to follow the third man on the hill, the one the people call Jesus.
We are all the two thieves. We’ve either asked Jesus to remember us or we have mocked Him by not believing Him. The two thieves were a physical example of the two paths to take. A sinner set free by the blood of the Lamb – or a sinner still attached to his/her cross. You can choose to follow Jesus to Paradise or you can choose to stay the way you are. He leaves the decission up to you. But only one road leads to Heaven. Only one way takes you away from death eternal. Jesus is the only way- the choice is up to you.
With Him in the garden
‘Today is my day to sorrow’, thought the tiny flower growing beside a rock. ‘Last night a great trouble came over me as a man, or something more than a man, sat by my side and wept. His tears were so great that when they splashed upon me I felt sick and my roots were weakened. I tried to reach out to the man, but I am just a flower and cannot draw attention to myself like a bird can with her song. He cried and screamed and begged and pleaded, but no peace came to this man. I hoped that He would look at me and I could make Him smile. He left and then returned, even sadder when He came back. All I could do was sit with Him. Then I sensed a resolve in His being and He went to stand once more. He stumbled and His hands landed near me. I tried to be radiant to bring Him comfort, finally He saw me, He smiled very gently, then He rose to His feet. “Thank you my radiant flower.” He said, then He left.
I feel that something great and tragic happened that night. Today I feel as though a friend is calling out for mercy. Today I feel sad. But being a flower, I know that tomorrow will bring new joy and hope.’
Carried in the cross 