Following the fourth Wiseman- Breakfast on the beach

April 18, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler has tried to remain with the disciples ever since the upper room. He lost track of them a couple of times but has now managed to follow them to the sea. They decided to go back to fishing. They don’t know what else to do. He asks if he can join them and they agree. As he works to become used to fishing he sees something that changes his world forever.

John 21:1-7, 9-10, 12 ESV
[1] After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. [2] Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. [3] Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. [4] Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. [5] Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” [6] He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. [7] That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
[9] When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. [10] Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
[11] So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
[12] Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

Our traveler waits at a short distance and watches as the Messiah goes off with one of the disciples. Then He returns and he looks at our traveler and smiles. Our traveler goes to Him and falls to his knees.
“My Lord, you do not know me…”
The Messiah kneels in front of our traveler and takes his face in His hands, “I know you.”
Our traveler’s eyes fill with tears one more time and he is embraced by the Messiah.
“I could not get to you sooner.” Our traveler weeps.
“You have arrived when my Father planned for you to arrive.”
“I was meant to be here?”
“You were meant to go and tell the other Magi who had followed the star all those years ago, what you have seen and heard so they can tell others. Spread this as far and wide as you can travel. You are my traveler, after all.”
Our traveler smiles. In the end. He was not late. He had not missed his chance. He was where his Messiah had always meant for him to be.

In the calling of the deciples all those weeks ago, our traveler had wondered if he too could follow Jesus? Despite his inadequacies. Now, because of the cross he has his answer. Yes. Yes he cam follow him. Yes you can follow Him, more than that, He is calling you to.

Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting

Following the fourth Wiseman- Are you still at the pool?

March 25, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

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.

Christianity · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · Love · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting · True Joy

In the box of grief

January 25, 2024 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

I don’t know who needs this tonight. But grief is like a box. You feel trapped by walls that you can’t touch or see and you feel a need to escape but can’t. This is why so many turn to suicide, because the box is everywhere. You run one direction and it follows you, you go another direction and it’s still there. The worst part of the box is that it is there even when you try and escape into sleep. It follows you into your dreams and makes you feel like you can’t breathe.
No one else sees the box, so they don’t understand how you feel.
But Jesus sees the box. He alone can hear you pounding on its barriers and screaming for help. The best part is, counselors and support groups -though great – can only meet you outside of the box. They try to coax you out and then meet you on the other side. But Jesus doesn’t need to wait until you are free from the box. He goes into the box with you. He sits there with you as long as you feel you need to be there. Because sometimes fighting the box takes too much out of us and we need time to sit and cry. When you are ready, Jesus will hold your hand, tap the box wall and make it fall before you. He will set you free.

If you are in a box right now, take a moment to speak the name of Jesus and realize that you are not alone.

Christianity · Devotional

When it’s too late

December 31, 2023 carriedinthecross1 Comment

When it’s too late

The question is, when do you give up?
Recently I had a friend pass away. But where she went is my struggle. We had often spoken about Jesus. Mostly to a grunt on her part or perhaps a sympathetic smile. She had grown up in a ‘live how you like but believe that God exists and you will go to Heaven’ church, convincing her of anything else was hard. But nothing is impossible for God. We prayed when she needed prayer, but when God answered she would find an excuse to show that the cure or help came from something other than God. Eventually I stopped pushing. Then she turned 95 and I began pushing again. I felt her time was running out. But I failed her. I never once had the courage to move past talking about God and all He can do and praying with her from time to time, to actually saying, “have you accepted Jesus?”
Now she is gone and I don’t know of she ever made that change. The type of “church” she had grown up in did not believe you had to accept Jesus to go to Heaven and she never did so while we were together. All I can do is hope that in her private time she turned her life over to God.
I recall a preacher once saying, “that person you feel will never change. The one you have given up praying for. Is your battleground. You have to fight past the doubt the devil puts in your mind and keep talking to that person and praying for him/her.”
It’s hard and scary to ask a friend a question that could ruin your friendship forever. But ‘too late’ comes faster than you might imagine. Take the chance. Don’t give up. People can change. God can work miracles. And you don’t want to be here. Sitting and wondering. Did she ever accept Jesus? Or is she forever in…. no, you don’t want to be here.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting · True Joy

Behind her

November 26, 2023 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Behind her

My dad has been transferring over a bunch of our HFV s so we can watch them. One of them was a two hour production of a play I was in. I was part of the choir, which was pretty large. At the end of the production the leader came to the lead mic and gave an invitation for anyone in the audience who had not yet accepted Jesus as their Savior to raise a hand. No one did. She gave the call one more time and then we all prayed the sinner’s prayer. You could see she was disappointed that no person From the audience had put up a hand. She had felt the call from God that someone needed her to give the invitation, but she saw no results.

My mom was video taping the whole event, this part too. Behind the leader who had given the call, two boys in the choir and one girl, put their hands up to receive Jesus. The leader could not see them, so she thought she had made a mistake but had everyone pray the prayer anyway.
In the back there were three young souls who had never accepted Christ who went home with the Holy Spirit in them, because a woman gave a call, and wouldn’t give up, even though it looked like no one had answered.

Don’t get discouraged. You may never see the results. But you have never made a mistake by inviting people to come to know Jesus. Come and see said Andrew. Come and see said Philip. Come and see said the shepherds.
Come and see says the repentant souls who know that of no one had ever told them to come and see, they would still be lost.
All we can do is give the invite, the rest is up to God.

Christianity · Devotional · free · Jesus · lent · Love · searching · The Bible

Who is He?

April 14, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 37

Who is He?

Two people walked past the platform in the street market. Amid the shouting of the vendors and the bartering of the shoppers you could hear a single voice raising. It said As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’
Acts 13:25 NIV
“Who is he?” The one person asked the other.
“One of those followers of John I think.”
“Who is he speaking of?”
A shrug, “who knows, the man is crazy, he lives in the bush and rants about the Messiah.”
“Yes but, what if he is right?”
“And what if he is wrong?”
The two continue on and later find themselves arrested, each had stolen from the vendors as they passed through the streets. Their trial took several days and at last they were executed. While on the cross he had earned through his crime the man wondered again if his Messiah would truly return soon. He hoped ‘soon’ would be within the hour. Then he looked at the man next to him. His face, His eyes, they were not right, they did not belong next to him. His friend gloated and mocked the man in the middle. What was wrong? Why did He seem so out of place? So many mourned this man, so many seemed to hate Him, for what?
The man turned on his old companion and silenced him, deep down he knew that what he had heard was not the ravings of a man in the wilderness, it was the prophesy of one who believed he would see God. The man wanted that, even at this late hour while death stood waiting the man desired to see Heaven, to be free of guilt and shame. He turned to see sad eyes staring at him, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
The face smiled, “today we will be together in Paradise.”

We don’t know much about the two men who died with Jesus and though the scriptural parts are true the rest is an idea, an idea of how the man with Jesus whom Luke claims came to know God in his final moments might have felt, had he heard John or one lf his deciples speak of Christ? Had it simply been the presence of Jesus Himself that turned the man’s heart? Maybe he had been at the sermon on the mount? We don’t know. All we know is that Luke says he asked to come into God’s kingdom with Jesus and Jesus said ‘yes’. Was this man significant to the story? Yes. And God would have known that. We needed to see that it is never too late and you are never too far gone for God to save you. It is so important to remember that. He wants you with Him. That was the point of all this. So that you could come to know Jesus and be with Him forever.