tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63815574442694137472024-03-19T04:47:45.860-04:00Mind On FireReflections on this brief pilgrimage in the Shadowlands - of course, soon the term will be over and the holidays will commence - then we'll turn the page and begin Chapter One of the Great Story.Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.comBlogger1200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-20507723460179084252024-03-16T07:23:00.005-04:002024-03-16T07:23:41.629-04:00Orphans, or Sons and Daughters?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“I will not
leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As a reminder, these
verses and passages, as all Bible passages, ought to be read and pondered again
and again in their context – that is, in their extended passages. This one
verse is connected to its immediate context (the verses immediately preceding
and following it) and it is a thread of a glorious tapestry revealing Jesus
Christ. The man or woman who is born again of the Holy Spirit can never exhaust
the depths of Jesus Christ in the Bible – Jesus Christ is forever and always
coming to us afresh in and through His Word. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Someone recently
said to me, “I read the Bible once and I know what is in it.” What can we say
in response to such a statement? Such a statement is likely the result of
ignorance or arrogance, or of both. No doubt I have lived in both places,
ignorance and arrogance, not realizing the depths of Jesus Christ in the Bible,
thinking foolishly that the Bible is a matter of information and data, thinking
like a fool that the Bible was something I could “apply” the way I might
“apply” mathematics or logic or the laws of physics or the rules of accounting.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus calls us
to obey Him and His Word, not to apply it. Jesus calls us to receive Him and
worship Him and say, “Not I, but Christ.” Jesus commands us to deny ourselves
and follow Him, to live as those purchased by His blood, no longer belonging to
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Those who know
the Scriptures, realize they know so little of the Scriptures – for the depths
of the Bible are the depths of eternity and the Eternal One. We may be, at some
point, “wise master builders,” but even then we know that we are such because
we sit at the feet of the one true Master…our Master. To be mastered by the
Master, that is to be most desired. Don’t you think?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As we ponder
John 14:18, I am struck by Jesus saying, “I will come to you.” Isn’t this a
theme of the Upper Room? Jesus is always coming to us, He is promising to do
so, to always do so. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In 14:3 Jesus
says, “I will come again.” In 14:21 – 23 He speaks of disclosing Himself to us
and coming to us. In 16:16 – 22 He again speaks of His coming to us, of us
seeing Him. And then, in John 17 Jesus calls us into the depths of union with the
Father and with Himself, into the holy koinonia of the Trinity. Also,
throughout the Upper Room Jesus is speaking to us of the Holy Spirit coming to
us and living within us, and of the Father living within us.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We, individually
and as His Body, are to experience His coming to us as our Way of Life. But O
how many of us live as if we are orphans! How much of our teaching and
preaching dumbs us down rather than raises us up! Why do we not know and
experience and embrace the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives –
as individuals, as families, as congregations? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Dearly beloved,
we are the sons and daughters of the Living God and Jesus Christ is our elder
Brother who has redeemed us and brought us back to our Father. We ought to
banish forever the thought that we are orphans, that we have no Father…or that
we have a Father who is far away from us, a Father who does not care for us, a
Father who does not desire to be in deep communion with us every moment of
every day. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">God came to
earth in the Incarnation some 2,000 years ago, and He has never left…He lives
within the Body of His Son Jesus Christ. We are no more orphans than Jesus is
an orphan.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O beloved, the
enemy would rob us of our identity in our Lord Jesus Christ. If the enemy cannot
rob us of our salvation, he will seek to rob us of the riches of our salvation –
he will seek to blind us from the fulness of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. And
let us make no mistake, this is not about us or our glory, this is about the
glory of God and the blessing and salvation of others – for if we are
debilitated then our witness is debilitated and muted.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">If we ponder
this passage before us, if we consider the flow of John Chapter 14, indeed of
the entire Upper Room discourse, we will see that Jesus calls us to hear and
see and live beyond the veil of natural hearing and seeing and understanding – “After
a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I
live, you will live also.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We simply cannot
afford to live as earth dwellers, as bottom feeders, as orphans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Can we not cry
out to Jesus to raise us up on the winds of the Holy Spirit? Can we not cry out
to Jesus to make His words in the Upper Room a present reality to us? Can we
not plead with Jesus to set us free from the bondage of our natural
understanding, including our natural “religious” understanding (see 1 Cor. Chapter
2), and to transform us into His image from glory to glory? (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18;
Rom. 8:29 – 30). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“For you have
not received a spirit of bondage leading to fear again, but you have received a
spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters!] by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…”
(Rom. 8:15 - 16). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let us, in
Christ, live as the sons and daughters of our glorious Father today – <i>let us
not deny our birthright in Jesus, let us confess our Lord Jesus and our Father
and rejoice in the Holy Spirit!</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Glory!!!!!!!<o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-16605029819986902612024-03-06T06:18:00.000-05:002024-03-06T06:18:04.244-05:00The Holy Spirit<p> <b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“I will ask the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him
or know Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. I
will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16 – 17. (See also
John 16:5 – 15).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The “Helper”,
the <i>Paracletos</i> in Greek, comes alongside us as our Comforter, our
Intercessor, our Advocate, our Helper. We are not left as orphans because our
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, lives within us. But note, that not only does the
Holy Spirit live in those who believe and trust in Jesus, but the Father and
the Son also live in them, “…My Father will love him, and We will come to him
and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23b). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">God tabernacles
within His People; Jesus first tabernacled <i>among </i>us (John 1:14), and now
the Trinity tabernacles <i>within</i> us; in Christ we are the Temple of God
(Eph. 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 10). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let us please
not miss the significance of these words of Jesus, “…He abides <i>with</i> you
and will be <i>in</i> you.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">During the Feast
of Tabernacles, Jesus says (John 7:37 – 38), “If anyone is thirsty, let him
come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">John, the Gospel
writer, then adds in verse 39, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who
believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.” (See also John 16:7 and Acts 2:32 – 33). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we
experiencing rivers of living water flowing out from us to others? Is this our
Way of Life in Jesus Christ? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How is it that
on the one hand we preach that we must be born again of the Spirit of God, and
on the other hand we live denying and ignoring and suppressing (if we can use
such language) our new life in the Spirit? Jesus says, “The wind blows where it
wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and
where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We often insist
that the Holy Spirit conform to our notions of behavior and reasoning – and
since God the Holy Spirit conforms to no man, we are left with our own
diminished devices. We ignore the Holy Spirit epistemologically (1 Cor. 1:17 –
2:16), and we rationalize away our glorious inheritance as found in passages
such as Romans Chapter 8. We think that the Holy Spirit can be confined and conformed
to rationalistic and naturalistic wine skins (Mt. 9:16 – 17); (if we can use
such language, for we are speaking of God).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
when we live in the Throne Room, and the Throne of God is established in our
hearts, His River flows to us and through us (Rev. 22:1; Ps. 46:4). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We become fountains of Living Water that
others may drink from (John 4:7 – 14). Why is it that we insist on focusing on
our supposed wants and needs when our Father has given us all things in Jesus
Christ and we are to be about our Father’s business? Why do we not see that we
are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”? (Romans 8).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Why do we not
confess that, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons
of God”? (Rom. 8:14).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">If we consider 1
Corinthians 2:1 – 3:1 we see that there are “spiritual men” and “men of flesh”
(1 Cor. 3:1); people who are learning to live in and by the Holy Spirit, and
those who cling to the natural, the earthly and self – centered way of life.
Paul is writing to those in the church, he is talking to Christians about
Christians, he is writing to them about themselves. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
Paul writes (1 Cor. 2:7), “…but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden
wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory”! This wisdom, this Way
of thinking, this Way of Life in Jesus Christ, can only be received,
understood, and shared with others in and through and by the Holy Spirit. How
have we become so naturalistic in our thinking, our teaching, our preaching, and
in our way of church?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Paul writes that
God’s hidden wisdom (in Christ, see Col. 2:1 – 3) is for <i>our glory</i>.
Jesus says in John 17:22, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to
them…” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The creation is
travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:18), so that it
might be set free into “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom.
8:21). Are we learning to live in His glory today? Are we living in the Holy Spirit
as our Way of Life? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When we gather
together, whether on Sundays or during the week, whether in large groups, small
groups, or in simply meeting another Christian for coffee – <i>are we gathering
in His glory? </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And lest you
should misunderstand me, His glory radiates Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain who is
Alive. His glory can be boisterous at times, it can be silent at times, it can
be a whisper at times – this is not about artificial noise or artificial quiet
or artificial decorum. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">His glory
radiates from the Cross, and it is Jesus Christ and Him crucified from whom all
Life flows to us and in us and through us (1 Cor. 2:2 – 5). It is in the
preaching of the Cross that we see the power of God, now and always. It is in
the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified that we are transformed into His sacrificial
image and participate in His sacrificial Life for His glory and the blessing of
others (Phil. 3:10). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we knowing
the joy, peace, power, and comfort of the Holy Spirit today? Are we trusting
the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and teach us today? Is the Holy Spirit
empowering our witness to Jesus Christ? Is the Holy Spirit our biosphere, or do
we still breathe earth’s atmosphere? <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-8464110832200718722024-02-26T02:00:00.001-05:002024-02-26T02:00:00.133-05:00“If You Love Me…”<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I wonder if we
love Jesus. Do I love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Do our congregations love
Jesus?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The Upper Room
begins in love and it is completed in love. In 13:1, “…having loved His own who
were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Then in 17:26, “…so that the love
with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In 14:21 Jesus says,
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me…” Do we love
Jesus?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then in 14:24,
“He who does not love Me does not keep My words…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then in 15:10,
“If you keep my commandments you will abide in My love…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">John continues
this theme in his first letter; “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’
and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but
whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected…” (1
John 2:4 – 5).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then, “For this
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not
burdensome.” (1 John 5:3). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus Christ
does not give us commandments that we cannot keep, I cannot understand why we
do not recognize this…unless it is that we have been taught that we cannot keep
them, unless we are convinced that we cannot keep them. Is not this akin to
Israel believing the negative report of the ten spies that the land that God
promised could not be possessed? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How cruel it
would be that our Father should give us commandments, in Jesus Christ, knowing
full well that we cannot keep them. How mean it would be if Jesus, commanding
us that we should love one another as He loves us (John 13:34 – 35), knows full
well that we cannot possibly keep such as commandment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Thankfully, our
Father and Lord Jesus do not treat us this way, they do not give us stones for
bread or serpents for meat or wormwood for water – instead they give us
themselves – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite us to live in them and they
come to live within us (John 14:16 – 17; 23). Jesus bids us to abide in Him, to
draw our life from Him, so that we may bear much fruit, for without Him we can
do nothing – but in Him we can do all things, including keeping and fulfilling
His commandments (John 15:1 – 11). When Jesus becomes our Way, Truth, and Life,
fulfilling His commandments becomes our Way of Life as we live in Him and He
lives in us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">One of the great
distinctions between the Law and the Gospel is that the Law was given to
manifest our sinfulness, our need for a Savior, to drive us to Christ. We could
not possibly keep the Law, we were essentially powerless. However, in Christ
the Gospel through the indwelling Holy Spirit and empowering grace sets us free
from the law of sin and death and condemnation and releases and empowers us, in
Christ, to obey and fulfill the commandments of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is a tragedy
when professing Christians think they cannot fulfill the commandments of God in
Christ, it is a repudiation of their identity in Christ, of His perfect work on
the Cross and in Resurrection, a rejection of the reality of the indwelling
Holy Spirit – it is saying to Jesus in response to His teaching of the Vine and
the branches, “Yeah but…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is allowing
our experience to determine our interpretation of Scripture – something we
might reject when it comes to other teachings…and I find an irony here. The
irony is that believers who criticize other believers for their supposed
reliance on “experience” in one area of life and thought, do the very same thing
when it comes to other areas of life and thought – if not more so. I write “if
not more so” because the issue of our identity in Jesus Christ and of His
perfect and complete work of salvation and its outworking within us is what is
at stake here – whether or not the Vine and branches is an actual present reality
or some elusive ideal that we cannot experience. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we
continuing to grow in Christ? Let us hope we are. Is our obedience continuing
to be perfected, let us hope it is. Is conformity to our Father’s will an
ongoing process and experience? Again, let us trust Him that this is so. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says that
if we love Him that we will keep us commandments. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we love Him?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What Jesus
commandments, He gives us the power to obey and fulfill – He “wills and works
in us for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). And as we will see, the Lord
willing, in our next reflection, He gives us the Holy Spirit – not just to be with
us, but to live within us. <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-77193959625266180662024-02-16T05:26:00.002-05:002024-02-16T05:26:40.034-05:00Series on Revelation<p> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Good morning dear friends,</span></p><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My friend, Dr. David Palmer, has just started a series on Revelation at Kenwood Baptist Church in Cincinnati. I love David's passion for Jesus Christ and his devotion to Scripture. I hope you will consider watching this series and pondering how Jesus is speaking to us in our generation.</span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a link to the Sunday service, the message begins around minute 30.</span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhK9ClH6rkA" style="color: #1155cc;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhK9ClH6rkA</a><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a link if you want to know a bit more about David.</span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.gordonconwell.edu/faculty/adjunct/david-palmer/" style="color: #1155cc;">https://www.gordonconwell.edu/faculty/adjunct/david-palmer/</a></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">much love,</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Bob</div>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-39822138648477320332024-02-13T09:46:00.001-05:002024-02-13T09:46:56.329-05:00Asking in His Name…A Life<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Whatever you
ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13 – 14.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus encourages
us to ask (see also John 15:7; 16:23 – 27). Early in His ministry Jesus says,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will
be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Why doesn’t God
answer prayer?” is one of the questions we most often ask. I still wonder why
my Mom died when I was 17 and my brothers were 15 and 12. Wasn’t I praying
effectively? I wonder why Martha, a mother of young twins in our congregation,
died after much intercessory prayer. I wonder why I have made such selfish and
stupid and sinful decisions in my life; haven’t I been praying for God’s will?
(Maybe not really.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What I do know,
and I am more deeply certain of this as I advance in years and as I continue to
know Jesus, is that God’s character is perfect, His love is perfect, His desire
for us is perfect. I know that God can be absolutely trusted. God is the core
of our life, the ground of our being in Jesus Christ, our Alpha and Omega. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">While there are
prayers in my life and in our marriage that God <i>does not seem </i>to have
answered, I believe that my Father has always heard them and I know that He has
always been with us. I have seen many prayers answered, and it has taken years
for some of them to be fulfilled. When I look back over my life, I see God’s
lovingkindness and mercies, I see answered prayer, I see His kind and loving guidance,
I see His forbearance – both when I have been wise and when I have been
foolish. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When it comes to
praying for others, we should never give up. Jesus did not give up on us, and
He makes intercession for us always (Heb. 7:25), and so I think that we should
not give up on others in prayer and intercession. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I suppose, for
me, questions surrounding prayer are an element of the human condition – even the
redeemed human condition as sons and daughters of the Living God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">While we will consider
prayer again, the Lord willing, in John 15:7 and 16:23ff, for the present let’s
note four things:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Jesus
wants us to ask, three times in the Upper Room He speaks to His disciples about
asking so that they may receive.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The
context of prayer is relational – we are the friends of Jesus (15:12 – 17) and are
called into the koinonia and unity of the Trinity (John 17). The Father loves
us! (17:23).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->In
relation to 14:13 – 14, it follows the “greater works” statement of verse 12,
what might this indicate to us?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Obedience
to Jesus Christ is an element of prayer (14:15; 15:7, 10). The relational
element of prayer contains the element of obedient discipleship (is there any
other kind?) and filial obedience to our heavenly Father. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Here are two
passages in the <i>Valley of Vision</i> which have caught my attention:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Help me to be
all prayer and never to cease praying.” (page 265).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Give me
unwavering faith that supplications are never in vain, that if I seem not to
obtain my petitions I shall have larger, richer answers, surpassing all that I
ask or think. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Unsought, thou
hast given me the greatest gift, the person of thy Son, and in him thou wilt
give me all I need.” (page 271). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Asking in His
Name entails much more than simply verbalizing the name “Jesus.” Professing
Christians can come pretty close to pagan thinking when it comes to the name Jesus
– for His Name is not a code word, it is not magic – it is holy, it is sacred,
and it is the Name of the One we worship and obey and who has purchased us with
His blood – the Lamb of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Yes, there is
power and authority in the name of Jesus – when we live under that power and
authority, when we live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. We are to live in
the name of Jesus in all that we do, Paul writes, “Whatever you do in word or
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God
the Father” (Col, 3:17). When we come to prayer again in John 15, we will see
that it is linked to abiding in the Vine, living in our Lord Jesus Christ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Asking in His
Name is to be our way of life; His Name, His Nature, is to be our Way of Life.
Our days and our nights are to be lived in Him, our vocations are to be devoted
to Him, our marriages and families are to be rooted in Him, our friendships are
to be found in Him, our recreation is to be enjoyed in Him – He is to be our All
in all.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Life in Christ
is conversing with Him throughout the day, living each day in fellowship with
Him – sharing each day with Him, enjoying each day with Him, learning from Him
throughout each day. When we live in Him thusly, we naturally ask in His Name –
being aware of His authority and power, and being aware of living in His Nature,
drawing our life from the Vine. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“These things I
have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made
full.” (John 15:11).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Again, here is a
passage from <i>The Valley of Vision</i>:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“When thou
commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because thou wilt
give me the thing promised, for thy glory, as well as for my good.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Help me not
only to desire small things but with holy boldness to desire great things for
thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show thy glory.” (Page
267). <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-27135888454601765512024-02-02T07:24:00.000-05:002024-02-02T07:24:21.860-05:00A Mystery of Greater Works<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and
greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I would be happy
to simply do the works that Jesus did, and quite content to live life there. I
would rejoice at healings and deliverances and seeing others come to the
Father. I would be thankful to see others share the Gospel as a result of
receiving the Gospel from Christ through me. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What about you? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Note that in
verse 10 Jesus couples “words” and “works” together. “The words that I say to
you I do not speak out of Myself, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
I write this to caution us about equating the “works” of verse 12 solely with
miracles, healings, deliverance from the demonic, and the like. “Works” can
include words. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">On the other
hand, “works” can include miracles and I see no warrant to exclude them and no
reason not to desire them for the glory of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let’s also note
verse 13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may
be glorified in the Son.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Regarding
healings and deliverances, I cannot imagine anything exceeding the ministry of
Jesus Christ on earth when I read passages such as Mark 1:32 – 34, when
virtually the entire city comes to Jesus and there are many miracles. Then we
have the raising of the dead, such as Lazarus. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Of course we
have Paul in Ephesus. “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands
of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the
sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.” (Acts 19:11). We
also see both Peter and Paul raising the dead in Acts. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The writer of
Hebrews reminds us that the Word of the Gospel was surrounded by the power of
the Gospel. “God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by
various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
(Hebrews 2:4). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When we have a
discrepancies between what we ought to be and what we really are, we can either
make excuses for our shortcomings or we can acknowledge them and ask our Lord
Jesus Christ to help us. When we excuse our shortcomings by rationalizing them
away, and especially by saying they are God’s will, we are on dangerous ground.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Paul writes, “For
as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through
Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2 Cor. 1:20). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Since Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), we ought to
expect Him to be the same in ministry within and without His Body – His continuing
Incarnation - today as yesterday; and we ought to expect that the Holy Spirit
abides in us today as He does within the Body when 1 Corinthians chapters 12 –
14 were written. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I cannot believe
that brethren who profess a high view of Scripture venture onto the dangerous
ground of teaching against the present – day living and working of the Holy
Spirit in Christ’s Body in accordance with 1 Corinthians 12 – 14, as well as
other passages. No matter how we may want to gloss over this, no matter how we
may rationalize it, this is robbing others of the promises of God and of their
life in the Holy Spirit and I just don’t understand it. Have we forgotten
Revelation 22:18 – 19? Ought we not to leave things alone that we don’t
understand? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Just because we,
at least in the West, are falling short of living in the fulness of our
inheritance, is no warrant for any of us to add or detract from the Word of the
Bible – and I suppose I should say that there are, no doubt, those on the other
end of the spectrum who often add to the Word of Christ. Being demonstrative is
not a sign of living in the Holy Spirit nor of spiritual worship – the Presence
of Jesus Christ and His Living Word, our koinonia with Him and with one another,
is what we should be seeking. As Jesus says, and as He will repeat, “If you
love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As Jesus makes
clear, the distinguishing marks of Christians are to be our love for one
another and our unity (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13; 17:20 – 23). This is where
we will see the glory of John14:12, this is where we will have a Biblical
Gospel witness, and this is where we will all see clearly. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Whatever John
14:12 means, its meaning cannot be understood apart from its context, apart
from John chapters 13 – 17…which of course culminate in the Holy of Holies of
John 17. Its meaning must be lived in Christ and with one another and in the
context of the entire Bible – I wonder if we will see this in our lifetimes? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-83580721974970059422024-01-27T07:22:00.000-05:002024-01-27T07:22:05.803-05:00A Mystery of Belief<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Believe Me that
I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the
works themselves.” John 14:11.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus calls us
to believe in Him, He calls us to come to Him. Jesus says that He is the way,
and the truth, and the life. The message of the Early Church was Jesus, the
Person of Jesus Christ. A friend recently asked me, “Do we believe in Jesus, or
do we believe in what we believe about Jesus?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">A congregational
leader once said to me, “Right doctrine produces right living.” This man’s life
proved his statement wrong because he was dictatorial, abrupt, abusive, and
even slanderous to the congregation he was supposed to be serving. Doctrine in
the mind does not necessarily translate into doctrine in the heart and soul. I
have known dear brothers and sisters who may not have had the soundest
doctrine, but who had lives of devotion to Jesus and others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Perhaps we ought
to remind ourselves of Paul’s words to the Romans, “Who are you to judge the
servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand,
for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:4). Then we have, “Therefore
do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes
who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the
motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”
(1 Cor. 4:5).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus desires
that we believe that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him, but if
we cannot see this glorious reality, Jesus says, “…otherwise believe because of
the works themselves.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How we believe
is a mystery, and, I think, how we grow in our belief is a mystery – for God
must be the Author and Completer of our faith, our belief, our destiny in Jesus
Christ. Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of
it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone
who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are not we all
in some stage of belief and growth in Jesus Christ? If this is so, then is it
so strange that some of us will see that Jesus is in the Father and that the
Father is in Jesus, and that others may not yet see this glorious reality? Is
it so strange that some of us will see that the Trinity lives within us and
that we live within the Trinity, and that others will not yet see this, our eternal
destiny?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we not often
like the Ethiopian official of Acts 8, who was not really sure of what he was
reading in the prophet Isaiah? Not being sure of what we’re reading can be a
very good thing, it surely beats presumption. It is an especially good thing
when we ask, “Just what does this mean? Just what am I reading? Just who is the
prophet writing about?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The Upper Room
of John chapters 13 – 17 has many enigmas, many nuances to ponder, many points
and counterpoints – it is a never-ending dance, onward and upward into the
Trinity with one another – a dance in which the very image of “one another” envelops
us in the Glory of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Learning the
dance steps is a process, and the steps are progressive (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18), and
Jesus is patient with us. If we can’t see that Jesus is in the Father and that
the Father is in Jesus right now, Jesus says come along anyway and, “…otherwise
believe because of the works themselves.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we give
others room to believe in Jesus Christ? Do we give others the freedom to grow in
the mystery of belief in Jesus? Do we accept that there is, or ought to be I
think, mystery in our own pilgrimage of faith in Jesus? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What Paul writes
about in Romans 14 and 15 respecting where we are in our spiritual growth and
understanding – and how we are to treat others - is about more than what we eat
or drink or what days we observe, if indeed we observe any days. We are all
somewhere on the journey, somewhere on the mountain; we are all (hopefully)
learning new dance steps and sequences as we grow in Jesus Christ and with one
another. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus takes the
measure of faith and trust we have in Him today and grows it into a greater measure
tomorrow – for after all, life is about knowing Him – and since He is infinite
we will forever and always being growing in Him and into Him. <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-63965527775874599592024-01-17T06:16:00.000-05:002024-01-17T06:16:21.738-05:00Not From Myself<p><b style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Do you not
believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to
you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
John 14:10. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The theme of
Jesus being in the Father and the Father being in Him, and of Jesus being in us
and us being in Him, and of the Father and Jesus being in us, and the Holy
Spirit being in us, and of us being in the Trinity, is embedded in the Upper
Room. This is woven into the music of what I’ve termed a dance. In a few
moments Jesus will say (Jn. 14:20), “In that day you will know that I am in My
Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In John 15:4
Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in
Me.” Then throughout John Chapter 17 Jesus speaks of our union in the Trinity,
our oneness in the Father and Son, enveloped in the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus invites us
into His Way of Life, and that Way of Life is abiding in the Father, in Him,
and allowing (if we can use such a term) Christ to speak and work and live
through us as the Father speaks and works and lives through Jesus Christ. This
is a mystery in the sense that it exceeds our comprehension, but we can
nevertheless participate in this wonder, we can have koinonia with and in the
Trinity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I do not think
the simplicity of the Greek of John 14:10 can be improved upon, “I do not speak
from Myself”, or “of Myself”. Whatever Jesus means, we need to wrestle with it
in all of its possibilities and implications, and with its baseline simplicity.
Here we have the simplicity of John 15:5, “…apart from Me you can do nothing.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When I write
“simplicity” I mean simply this, that when Jesus says in John 5:19, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something
He sees the Father doing…” that Jesus means exactly what He says (see also John
8:28; 12:49). If this is true of the Incarnate Son, how much more ought it to
be of us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We might say, if
this is true of the Incarnate Son, the Head of the Body, how much more ought it
to be true for us, His Body. (Of course I’m using a limited manner of speech
and comparison – because in reality we are One in Him…but are we manifesting
that Reality?)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Who are we to
think and live on our own, if Jesus Christ did not think and live on His own?
The idea that we go to God when we are at the end of our resources, that God
wants us to only turn to Him when we have exhausted all of our effort and
ingenuity, is simply false. Jesus is clear in John 15 that we are to live in
Him and that without Him, apart from Him, we can do <i>nothing</i>. We were
created, and we have been redeemed, <i>for uninterrupted communion with God in
Jesus Christ. </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When Jesus says
in John 14:10 that, “I do not speak from Myself,” He is giving the disciples a precursor
of what is to come – that He is inviting them into the very same life in the
Father as they live in Him. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we living by
the life of Jesus Christ? Are we abiding in Him? Are we learning to speak and
act, not out of ourselves but out of our koinonia with Him? O dear friends, if
we will live this Way in eternity, why should we not embrace this Way of Life
today?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“I have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-17784642963777421062024-01-05T07:00:00.005-05:002024-01-05T07:00:58.039-05:00Seeing Jesus, Seeing the Father <p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i>“If you had
known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and
have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough
for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not
come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how can you
say, ‘Show us the Father?’”</i> John 14:7 – 9.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What do you
think about what Jesus is saying? What do you see? Here, once again, is the
Divine mystery, the Holy Dance; to attempt to “figure it out” and explain it
leads to frustration and profanation, to receive Jesus’ Word leads us into the Trinitarian
Family of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says
(Matthew 11:25 – 27), “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You
have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them
to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well- pleasing in Your sight. All
things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone
to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We are utterly
dependent on the grace, mercy, and kindness of God in all things, including in
knowing Him. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus replied,
“Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to
you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 16:17).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We ought not to
be surprised at the images and language Jesus uses in the Upper Room, for John
begins his Gospel with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.” This is shortly followed by, “And the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the
only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">John’s Gospel
begins with a dance, in the Upper Room the dance continues. Then on Easter
morning (Jn. 20:17), we hear the melody, “…but go to My brethren and say to
them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Paul writes that
Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” in Col. 1:15. The writer of Hebrews
tells us that Jesus the Son “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation
of His nature” (Heb. 1:3). As we see in Revelation chapters 4 – 5, and 21 – 22,
our destiny, our ultimate existence, is rooted in and focused on and lived with
the Lord God Almighty (the Father) and the Lamb (the Son) as the Holy Spirit
gives Life to all the redeemed in the Lamb. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">There is enigma in
Jesus’ words to Philip, “If you had known Me…” Hadn’t Philip been with Jesus
since right after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist? (John 1:43). Wasn’t it
Philip who found Nathanael and told him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in
the Law and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Why does Paul
write, well into his life with Jesus Christ, well into his apostolic ministry, “…that
I may know Him…”? (Phil. 3:10). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We know Him but
we don’t know Him, we see Him but we don’t see Him; for Jesus Christ is God and
we are always coming to Him and He is always coming to us for He is infinite
and we are not. Yes, yes, we live by His life, His eternal life and Nature
dwell within us – but He is always God and we are always not God – even though
we are His Body, even though we are His Bride – and so here is yet perhaps
another enigma.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Yet is it really
an enigma? If it is “here” it won’t be “there” – for “there” His overwhelming
light and life and love, and His glory in “one another”, is such that I doubt
we’ll ponder these things the way we do now – O what peace we will have in Him,
what peace with one another in Him!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Of course Philip
knew Jesus, but then again of course Philip did not know Jesus – isn’t this the
most natural/supernatural thing in the world and in heaven? Wherever we are in
Christ, we know Him and yet we don’t know Him; we know Him and yet there is so
much more of Himself that He is giving to us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Our arrogance
ought to frighten us. How many Sunday school lessons and commentaries treat
Jesus Christ as a psychological and religious specimen for study – rather than
bow before the God of the Incarnation? We are not called to “master” the life
of Jesus, we are called to submit to Jesus Christ in obedience and to allow His
life to master us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Thomas, Philip,
and Judas (not Iscariot) all ask Jesus questions or make requests of Him in
John 14, and Jesus responds to each one. They do not ask in the challenging
attitude of the religious leaders, but rather they ask in the posture of
disciples and friends – for they love Jesus, whether they understand Him or not…they
love Jesus. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What about us?
Do we love Jesus Christ? Is He our Lord and Master? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we coming to
know Him, and do we daily see Him coming to us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we realize
that while we may know Him, that yet we do not know Him? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I have a friend
who says, “I want to love Jesus more today than I did yesterday.” I first heard
my friend say that years ago, and since then I have woven it into the fabric of
my morning prayer and daily desire. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I want to love
Jesus more today, to know Him deeper today, to receive more of Him today…than I
did yesterday….knowing that In seeing Him, we are seeing the Father…Jesus is
bringing us home to our Father. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What about you? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-37480622849328977782023-12-23T06:39:00.003-05:002023-12-23T06:44:48.320-05:00Coming to the Father<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“…no one comes
to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6b<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The essence of
life is coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is coming to
the Father through Jesus as His individual sons and daughters, and it is most
certainly coming to the Father in koinonia with one another (1 John 1:3;
Hebrews 10:19 – 25). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Those who follow
the Lamb wherever He goes have the Lamb’s Name, and the Father’s Name, “written
on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1). That is, they have the Nature of the Lamb and
the Father infused in their minds, their hearts, their souls. We learn to live
by the Light of the Lamb and of the Father <i>exclusively, and we have no
Temple but the Father and the Lamb</i> (Rev. 21:22 – 23). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And so we see
that our Father is “bringing many sons [and daughters!] to glory” through our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother. (Hebrews. 2:9 – 13). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“This is eternal
life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have
sent.” (John 17:3).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The Upper Room,
John chapters 13 – 17, is about coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Indeed, the Gospel is about coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus
Christ. In John 13:1 we see that Jesus is departing from the world to the
Father, in John 17 we see Jesus bringing us to where He is in the Father. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In Matthew’s
Gospel, in the beginning of the teaching of Jesus Christ, we see Jesus teaching
us to pray “Our Father” and teaching us to be perfect and mature “as your heavenly
Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:9, 45, 48; 6:9, 32). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Paul writes that
we cry out, “Abba! Father!” “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that
we are children of God.” (Romans 8:15c – 16).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we declaring
the Name of our Father to our brethren? (Heb. 2:12). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we realize
that the creation is travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God? (Rom.
8:22).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In the story of
the prodigal son in Luke 15, the wayward son comes to his senses while in a far
country and eating the food of pigs, as wonderful as this story is, and by no
means to diminish it – there is yet the story of Advent, the story of the Word
being made flesh and living among us and giving His life for us (John 1:1 – 18).
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">For in the
Incarnation it is the Elder Brother who leaves His Father’s House and goes into
the far country, goes into the place of the unclean with its unclean food, in
order to bring His wayward brothers and sisters back to their Father (Hebrews
2:9 – 18).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The essence of
life is our returning to the Father through Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Isn’t this a message
worth sharing? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“When they had
seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this
Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the
shepherds.” (Luke 2:17 – 18). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-55164697734549974832023-12-13T07:02:00.000-05:002023-12-13T07:02:58.272-05:00Jesus, our Life?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Jesus said to
him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.’” John 14:6<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is Jesus our
life?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is He our source
of life? Do we feed on Him throughout each day and night? Do our hearts beat
for Him? Do we worship Jesus? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">John writes, “In
Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). Do we see all
things in, and through, the light of His life, the life that He gives to us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In John’s first
letter he writes of the “Word of Life,” “and the life was manifested, and we
have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and was manifested to us…” (1 John 1:1 – 2). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says to
the Father, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When people are
in love there is often a glow about them, an excitement, an ongoing
anticipation of looking forward to the next time they see their beloved. The
hearts and minds of people in love are often consumed with feelings and
thoughts for their beloved. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in
love hopefully know, and are coming to know, their beloved. That is, they are
in a relationship with their beloved – they are coming to know and coming to be
known.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">For myself,
there is nothing quite like seeing friends who have been married for many years
love and care for one another; there is a special beauty in seeing a couple
advanced in years holding hands in a restaurant or other public place. As Vickie
and I come to frequent medical facilities in our own advancing age, we often
see other older couples together – walking with one another in the final season
of life, supporting one another (sometimes literally), encouraging one another,
being there for each other.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we see that
Jesus is our Beloved? That our life is in Him, in our union with Him? Do we
know Him as our life? Do we only speak about Jesus as someone whom we have
never really met, or do we speak of Him because we know Him? <i>Do we have firsthand
knowledge of Jesus Christ?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I am writing to
the professing church, for we have a Bridegroom who loves us, who gave His life
for us that we might live by His life, a Bridegroom who has given us His Name –
and yet we live without wearing our wedding ring, we live not as married to
Christ, but rather in promiscuity – for we have many “lovers” – many substitutes
for our Bridegroom…some religious, some political, some economic, some hedonistic
– we have so many idols and so many excuses for them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As I have said
and written before, if we loved Jesus we would talk about Him to one another
and to others – but we don’t. We speak of church, we talk of religious programs,
we market leaders, we engage in therapy, and we justify our exclusion of Jesus
in daily life – we wouldn’t want to offend anyone with the Cross…that wouldn’t
be nice…whether they are within or without the professing church. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O beloved, there
is something amiss in a marriage in which one spouse lives as if the other
doesn’t exist. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus desires an
intimate relationship with us, with you. How intimate? As intimate as the
Trinity (John 17:20 – 26). We are called to live securely in God’s love (Romans
8:28 – 39) and His peace (Romans 5:1 – 11) – the Bridegroom can indeed take
perfect and eternal care of His Bride.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And so I ask
again, is Jesus Christ our life? Whether we are in our early years of just
getting to know our Beloved, or our advanced years of mature and deep
relationship…or in between…is Jesus Christ our life? Are we married to Him? Are
our congregations married to Him? Are our souls living in union with Him?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Shall we ask
Jesus to reveal Himself to us as never before? Shall we ask Him to draw us
closer and closer into a deep relationship with Himself? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Shall we ask Him
to make us a Bethlehem, a House of Bread, so that others may partake of Him
through us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Might this be an
Advent season unlike any we’ve ever experienced? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Come Lord
Jesus.”<o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-57875624388587831072023-12-02T13:28:00.000-05:002023-12-02T13:28:41.406-05:00Is Jesus Our Truth?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“I am the way,
and the truth, and the life…” John 14:6.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What does it
mean when Jesus says, “I am…the truth”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As I pondered
this question I was drawn to the following portion of the Nicene Creed:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i>I believe in
one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before
all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not
made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us
men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the
third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge
the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I love the following, <i>the Only Begotten Son
of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I often think of
this passage in the Creed (consider John 1:1 – 14 and Colossians 1:13 – 20),
both in my own meditations and when I encounter professing Christians who don’t
seem to know Jesus, who seem to consider Jesus as being far away from them and
more of a figurehead than a Living Person radiating the glory of God…who don’t appear
to be worshipping Jesus. (Now if you think this too harsh, then explain to me
why we don’t speak of Jesus when we are with one another.) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It occurred to
me this morning that the Creed is like wedding vows, and that when we recite
the Creed that we renew our vows to the Trinity and to one another in the
Trinity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we know Jesus
as the Creed portrays Him? Certainly the Creed is faithful to the Scriptures
and portrays Jesus as the Bible reveals Him, if we will have eyes to see Him. Do
we know Him as <i>the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all
ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not
made, consubstantial with the Father</i>? Is Jesus the <i>truth of our life</i>?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">This goes far
beyond believing in, or affirming, a set of statements or propositions about
Jesus Christ; this has to do with the Person of Jesus Christ being our truth –
realizing that He is <i>the Truth</i>.<i> </i>Jesus Christ is the Truth because
Jesus Christ is God, and to live in Jesus Christ is to live in the Truth, it is
to live in God – it is to live in the Throne Room of Revelation chapters 4 and
5, and in the City of Revelation chapters 21 and 22. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">To know Jesus
Christ is to know the unfolding reality of John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he
will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our abode with him.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Consider that
the primary image of God’s relationship with His People is marriage – we see
this throughout the Bible, and we see its consummation in the Bride of
Revelation chapters 21 – 22. Paul writes that we are to have one husband, Jesus
Christ (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3). Our Husband, Jesus, is to be the Truth of our lives,
as His Bride we are to exhibit a “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
This simplicity and purity and devotion means that anything that impinges on
our intimacy with Jesus Christ is to be immediately rejected – this becomes the
truth of our relationship with Him; He is our Truth – and this Truth, because it
is Him – His very Person – surpasses statements about Him, doctrines about Him –
as true as those statements and doctrines may be. This <i>does not</i> mean
that doctrines and true statements are not vital, but it does mean that doctrines
and true statements do not equate with an intimate relationship of the Bride
with the Bridegroom. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In the world of
mankind, historically a wedding ceremony does not make a marriage, nor does a marriage
certificate. Historically there must be a wedding ceremony with vows, a
certificate attesting to the marriage, and then the marriage must be consummated.
A ceremony and a certificate without a consummation is not – historically speaking
– a marriage. Is it possible that many professing Christians have yet to
actually enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ? Is it possible that He
has yet to become their Way, Truth, and Life? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How many of us
who are married hide the fact that we are married? Do we take our wedding rings
off when leaving our homes? Do we leave them in the car before going into our
places of work? What would our spouses say to such behavior? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Well then, how
many professing Christians fail to speak of Jesus during the course of their
days and weeks? How many professing Christians hide their relationship with
Jesus at work? In civic life? In their social lives? In their neighborhoods? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
can we not see that something is deeply amiss when so few professing Christians
share Jesus Christ with others? When so few professing Christians do not even speak
of Him when they are among themselves? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is Jesus truly
the Truth of our lives?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are we wedded to
Him?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i>I believe in
one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before
all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not
made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us
men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the
third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge
the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.<o:p></o:p></i></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-116888712353156242023-11-25T11:47:00.000-05:002023-11-25T11:47:21.096-05:00How Do We Know The Way?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 250.5pt; text-align: justify;">“And
you know the way where I am going.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Thomas said to
Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus said to
him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.” John 14:4 – 6.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Here we have more
steps in the dance of Jesus going and coming, of us following Him, of us
knowing how to follow and where to follow, and of us not knowing where to
follow and how to follow. As we’ve noted, this is a theme, a point and
counterpoint, throughout the Upper Room of John chapters 13 – 17. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is this not a
motif of our lives? Do we not know moments of where to go and other moments of
mystery? Do we not see Jesus clearly at times, then at other times does He not
hide Himself? Why O Lord do we see You clearly, and then not so clearly? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus has just
said (13:33, 36), “Where I am going you cannot come.” Now Jesus speaks of the
disciples knowing the way where He is going. When Thomas responds that they don’t
know where He is going nor do they know the way, Jesus tells him that He is the
Way. Jesus is leaving and Jesus is coming (John 14:3, 18, 23, 28). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We tend to think
of Jesus has having left and that He will come back at some point in the
future, but Jesus is always with us (Mt. 28:20; Jn. 14:23), calling us into intimacy
with Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit…and with one another (1 Jn. 1:3).
Yet, we do have this dance of seeing Him and then not seeing Him, of
understanding Him and not understanding Him. We also have the exciting
assurance that when He seemingly leaves us that we can look forward to another
of His glorious appearings.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Has not Thomas
been listening to Jesus? Why does he say, “Lord, we don’t know where you are
going?” Hasn’t Jesus been speaking of His Father's House? In a few minutes Jesus
will say, “I go to the Father and you no longer see Me” (Jn. 16:10). And yet
they will see Him. Jesus will refer to this as “figurative language” (16:25) in
a few more minutes – and confusing it may see at first. This is one reason why
we must read and ponder the Upper Room as a unity, a whole – we must stand back
and view the painting in its completeness, again and again and again. We can
draw closer to it, then we can sit here or there and stand over there for
perspective, but to approach John chapters 13 – 17 piecemeal, to see it as a
verse here and there, a chapter here and then a chapter there, is to ensure
that it will never be our home in Christ. (Indeed, this can be said for the
entire Bible and for the books of the Bible – they must be lived in, not
visited.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Thomas asks, “How
do we know the way?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Don’t we often
ask the same thing? What is the will of God? How do we know the way? What shall
we do? What does God want of us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says, “I
am the Way.” Jesus also says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (17:3). Can we hear
Jesus saying, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent”? (6:29). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When our
thinking about the “way” becomes our realization that Jesus is indeed the “Way”
our lives move from black and white into Technicolor; they are transformed from
flat and linear into multidimensional with texture and height and depth and
breath and length (Eph. 3:18). Jesus is the food we eat that the world knows
nothing about; He is the food we have that much of the professing church knows nothing
about – so caught up are we in our earthly religion of man’s knowledge and
efforts and righteousness, our own version of scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His
blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true
food, and My blood is true drink.” (Jn. 6:53 – 55). And may I say, the person
who confines this passage to the Eucharist misses the holistic sacramental
glory of Christ, and our Way of Life in Him; and the person who excludes the
Eucharist does the same thing – partaking of Jesus Christ the Bread of Life is
seamless…and in fact it includes partaking of one another in Him! (1 Cor. 10:16
– 17; 12:12 Eph. 4:16; 1 Jn. 1:3).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is the Person of
Jesus Christ our Way of Life? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I am not
speaking of a distant knowledge, I am not writing of an ideal, I am not talking
about adherence to a confession or a creed (as vital as I consider the Creed to
be) or a set of doctrinal statements; I am talking about loving Jesus Christ
and worshipping Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I am
speaking of a Bride being excited about her Bridegroom, about her waking up
every morning to be with Him, about every day being a Day of enjoying His
Presence, delighting in Him, and being faithful to Him and to Him alone. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">If we are loving
Jesus then we do not need artificial inducements to assemble together – we do
not require entertainment (but we are called to freedom in the Holy Spirit!); are
we not joined to Him (and to one another) in sickness and in health, for richer
or poorer, for better or worse, in good times and bad times, in seasons of
great light and those of deep darkness? Are we married to Jesus Christ or do we
have a relationship of convenience? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How many lovers
does the professing church have? Money? Country? Fame? Success? Religious
pride? Politics? Morality (which is in the eye of the beholder)? Sports?
Entertainment? Possessions? Therapy? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do others know
that we are married to Jesus, or do we hide our wedding rings?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Are our congregations
married to Jesus – or to doctrinal distinctives, traditions, and denominations
(or to being non-denominational)?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is Jesus our <i>Way
of Life?<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When we know
Jesus, we know the Way…for He is our Way.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Ponder that
little word “w-a-y.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Who, or what, is
your way of life?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-61253051491318246772023-11-17T06:22:00.000-05:002023-11-17T06:22:54.011-05:00Many Dwelling Places – In Him<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“In My Father’s
house are many dwelling places; if it were not so I would have told you; for I
go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John
14:2 – 3. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">There is a sense
in which all that follows in John chapters 14 – 17 is the unfolding of these
words of Jesus about His going and coming, our Father’s house, the Trinity
living in us and us living in the Trinity; Jesus receiving us to Himself so
that we may be always with Him. Jesus wants us to be with Him today and
tomorrow and forever – do we realize this? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus’ final
words in Matthew’s Gospel are, “I am with you, always, even to the end of the
age.” In John 17:24 Jesus prays, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You
have given Me, be with Me where I am…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The heartbeat of
Jesus Christ is that He may be with us and that we may be with Him. In John 15:4
Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In the very
first chapter of John, when two disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, where are you
staying?” Jesus replies, “Come and you will see.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
everyday Jesus says to us, “Come and you will see.” Everyday Jesus comes to us,
everyday Jesus calls us to Himself, everyday Jesus presents new opportunities for
us to come and see Him. These opportunities are often not what we expect, they
are often not what we immediately see and discern and understand – anymore than
Jesus’ impending betrayal and torture and crucifixion and resurrection were
things the apostles expected and “saw” and understood. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In Hebrews 3:6
we read that we are the House of Christ, and in Ephesians 2:19 – 22 we see that
we are God’s “household” and that in Christ “the whole building, being fitted
together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being
built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Peter writes
that we are “living stones” and that we “are being built up as a spiritual
house for a holy priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:5). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We are the
Father’s House and the Trinity is our House. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">If we never move
beyond our cleansing in John Chapter 13, if we cannot see and live in the reality
of justification, if we do not embrace the glory of 2 Cor. 5:21, we will never accept
and see and live in the intimacy of John chapters 14 – 17.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Do we believe this? Do we see that this is
imputed <i>and </i>imparted in Christ? Do we see our union with God in Christ,
our blessed koinonia in the Trinity? A koinonia so sure and seamless that John
says in effect, “If you have koinonia with us then you will have koinonia with the
Father and the Son” (1 John 1:3). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is a scandal,
or at least it ought to be, that we are not permitted to wear the white robes
of righteousness with which Jesus Christ has clothed us. It is a tragedy that
many who use the term “grace” refuse to live in the righteousness and holiness
which the grace of Christ Jesus has imputed and imparted to us – and that they
insist that others live in soiled garments. We may employ New Covenant terms but
we function in the sin consciousness of the Old Covenant, a covenant of condemnation
and sin and death! (2 Cor. Chapter 2; Hebrews chapters 7 – 10; Romans 3:21 – 8:39).
It seems that every Sunday morning we sew up the veil (Hebrews 10:19 – 25), not
permitting God’s People to enter into intimacy with Him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Such thinking
and teaching blinds us to the glories of John chapters 13 – 17; indeed, they
blind us from the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is like touring a
stately mansion in which most of the building is roped off – you must stay on
the walkway, you must not go beyond the ropes, you <i>must not sit on the
furniture and enjoy it</i>! You may look but you may not touch!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is it not absurd
for the children of God not to be relaxed and joyful in the House of their
Father, the House which their Lord Jesus Christ has brought them into? And then
we wonder why we have such conflict in the professing church. Then we wonder
why people leave congregations. Then we wonder why professing Christians fall
into sin and apostasy. If we cannot sit on the furniture, if we cannot eat at
our Father’s Table – then why are we here? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is this not Babylonian
captivity? Have we not been stripped of our inheritance in Jesus Christ? Are
our harps not on the willow trees?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus wants you
to be with Him every hour and every moment of every day – every day He has
places prepared for you. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Shall we go and
see what Jesus has for us today? How shall He come to us today? How will He
draw us to Himself? Where shall we discover Him? <o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-30467591887550859992023-11-09T06:44:00.000-05:002023-11-09T06:44:46.519-05:00"Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled"<p> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Do not let your
heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are
many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know
the way where I am going.” John 14:1 – 4 (NASB). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Peace I leave
with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do
not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“These things I
have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.” John 16:33a.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus will
shortly be betrayed, arrested, mocked and tortured, and then crucified. Yet,
His desire is that His followers know His peace. He follows His words to Peter
about Peter’s impending denial of Him with the words, “Do not let your heart be
troubled…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Much of what
Jesus is saying in the Upper Room is shrouded in mystery for His immediate
hearers, the unthinkable and the unknowable and the unbearable and the
unbelievable is about to descend upon them, envelope them, disorient them –
until they are overwhelmed with ever greater unfolding mystery and glory on
Easter, Pentecost, and beyond. What Jesus says in John chapters 13 – 17, in the
Upper Room, is dense – its depth and height and breath are ever expanding –
what we may think is simple is not so simple, and what we may consider mysterious
and complex is yet something we can experience in Christ as we are drawn into
the koinonia of the Trinity. When Paul writes of “the peace of God that passes all understanding” (Phil. 4:7) he means exactly that, we cannot comprehend the
peace of God, we can experience it but we cannot understand it – it simply
doesn’t make sense. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We must look
foolish to the angels with our substitutes for the peace of God, our therapies,
our diversions, our self-centered preaching and teaching – when Jesus desires for
us to receive His peace, when His peace is offered to us again and again, and
yet we think it too simple to receive – we refuse to acknowledge our dependence
on our Lord and Savior, we must find a more reasonable way to have peace, a way
that has the approbation of mankind, that humanity approves of, that makes
sense to the world – that we can take some credit for devising or participating
in, or at least paying for. Why would we rather be dependent upon humanity than
upon Jesus Christ? How foolish we are in our supposed wisdom. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“If it were not
so, I would have told you.” Does not life come down to this, the Word of Jesus?
Can we trust the Word of Jesus? Can we trust Jesus Christ? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Did the disciples
remember this statement through the tragic events they were about to live
through? Did they hear Jesus’ voice saying, “If it were not so, I would have
told you”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus has a
place for us with Him and in Him. Jesus is preparing that place, He has
prepared that place; it is a place of discovery and peace and rest and joy and
wonder – a place beyond human words. If it were not so, He would have told us –
do we believe this? Do we look into the eyes of Jesus and believe Him? Do our
hearts beat with trust in Him? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">This is not
about amassing the evidence of others that tells us that Jesus can be trusted,
though we may indeed rejoice in the testimony of others. This is about me and
you encountering Jesus Christ, one to one – however He may graciously bring
this about – and saying, “I trust you Lord Jesus with all that I have and all
that I am. I give myself to You and I receive You into my heart and mind and
soul, into the depths of my life.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When we are
disoriented, in confusion, in hurt, in despair – when our earthly certainties
turn into nightmares, this is about hearing Jesus saying, “If it were not so, I
would have told you.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When the
suffering and confusion and hatred of this world bombard us, are we hearing Jesus
say, “If it were not so I would have told you.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus has
prepared a place for us, a place deep within the holy Trinity – He invites us
to that Place today. Jesus says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus is saying,
“If it were not so, I would have told you.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Can Jesus be trusted,
and do I trust Him? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Can Jesus be trusted,
and do you trust Him? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-77231395689248796062023-11-03T05:31:00.006-04:002023-11-03T05:31:59.928-04:00End Times<p> Good morning dear friends,</p><p><br /></p><p>Below is a link to a sermon my friend Dr. David Palmer (Ph.D. Hebrew Union) preached last Sunday at his church, Kenwood Baptist in Cincinnati.</p><p><br /></p><p>David says that this may be the most important message he has ever preached. </p><p><br /></p><p>What do you think? </p><p><br /></p><p>The sermon begins around 30 minutes into the service, so you can fast forward to there depending on where the link takes you. </p><p><br /></p><p>I hope you will share this with others.</p><p><br /></p><p>Love in Christ,</p><p><br /></p><p>Bob</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ8yH7dmmmc&t=1819s&pp=ygUWa2Vud29vZCBiYXB0aXN0IGNodXJjaA%3D%3D">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ8yH7dmmmc&t=1819s&pp=ygUWa2Vud29vZCBiYXB0aXN0IGNodXJjaA%3D%3D</a></p><div><br /></div>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-45373496069557052122023-11-01T06:43:00.001-04:002023-11-01T06:43:45.756-04:00How Much Do We Really Know?<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Simon Peter
said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you
cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why
can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.’ Jesus
answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a
rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.’” John 13:36 – 38.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I think it was
Oswald Chambers who talked about “the graciousness of uncertainty.” While I
don’t recall the context of the phrase, it is a reminder that our Lord Jesus
reveals Himself in uncertainty – an uncertainty often manifested in the midst
of certainty. That is, when we are so certain that we know the truth of
ourselves and our situations, God often leads us into whitewater and upsets our
equilibrium. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We can receive
God’s graciousness in uncertainty when we realize that we don’t know as much as
we think we know, whether our purported knowledge is about ourselves, about our
situations, or about others (especially others!). Is it not the mercy of our
Lord Jesus that He upsets our self-centered knowledge rather than allowing us
to continue in our misconceptions and delusions? Is it not His graciousness
that brings us to the end of ourselves, again and again and again – driving us
back to His Cross? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Peter wants to
know where Jesus is going; he will find out soon enough. This will not be the
last time that Peter has the experience of following Jesus into unlikely
places, of seeing Him and then not seeing Him and then seeing Him again. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Peter will later
write, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered
for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps…Beloved, do not
be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your
testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree
that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the
revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” (1 Peter 2:21; 4:12 –
13). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">From the home of
Simon the Tanner, Peter will follow Jesus to the house of Cornelius – a place
where Peter would not have expected to go (Acts 10). In Antioch (Galatians 2:11
– 21), Peter will receive Paul’s rebuke, again, a place Peter would not likely
have chosen to be. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In the Upper
Room Peter did not understand the situation he was in, he did not understand
his surroundings, he did not understand what Jesus was saying and doing (recall
John 13:6 – 9). This reminds us of Peter’s confession and denial in Matthew 17:13
– 23; one moment Peter is receiving the revelation of the Father, the next
moment Peter is playing the role of Satan.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
it is good and proper that we be sure of Jesus Christ and His faithfulness and
trustworthiness; it is not very smart to get caught up in ourselves for we just
don’t know as much as we think we know – not about ourselves, not about our
situations, and most certainly not about others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says, “Where
I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">This is, dear
friends, a motif of discipleship, of being conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ. Our Lord Jesus must do a work in our souls, in our hearts and minds,
for us to follow Him. Jesus brings us onward and upward, He leads us through valleys
and up mountains, into places of bright light and shadows of death – into times
of rejoicing and seasons of sorrow. Our Good Shepherd leads us thusly that we
may know Him and be blessings to others. Jesus teaches us the Cross, then He
teaches us the Cross again, and then again and then again. We experience Easter
one morning, and then another morning, and then another morning. We are
transformed into His image from “glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 8:29).
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Peter’s denial
of Jesus will cause him to “weep bitterly” (Luke 22:62). Yet, Jesus has not
only told Peter, “I have prayed for you,” (Luke 22:32), but Jesus has told all
of the disciples, just as He has told all of us, “Do not let your heart be
troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (Jn. 14:1). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let us remember that
chapter breaks were not in the original New Testament manuscripts, therefore
let us not stop after reading John 13:38 but rather continue reading to listen
to Jesus. What do you hear?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Jesus answered,
‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will
not crow until you deny Me three times. Do not let your heart be troubled,
believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling
places; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place
for you.” (Jn. 13:38 – 14:2).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In our
uncertainties, in our confusion, and even in our times of denial, Jesus says, “Do
not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus has
prayed for us (Jn. 17:20), Jesus is going away for us, Jesus is coming to us
again, Jesus is taking us with Him so that where He is, we may be also. We have
His assurance that He wants us to be with Him (see also Jn. 17:24). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><i>Jesus Christ
wants to be with us!</i> He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the
Author and Finisher of our faith. Jesus Christ is the Guarantor of our faith,
the One who guarantees that He will be with us and that we will be with Him –
for without Him we can do nothing, and “nothing” means just that, “nothing”
(Jn. 15:5).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When we were “dead
in our trespasses and sins” we were “made alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1
– 10). We are “His workmanship” – we are not our own. We were marked out in
Christ “before the foundation of world” that we would be “holy and blameless
before Him” (Eph. 1:3 – 12). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends,
in one sense we don’t know as much as we think we know, not about ourselves,
our situations, or about others. However, in another sense, if we know Jesus
Christ then we know all that we really do need to know – for we will find Him
coming to us again and again and again, never leaving us, never forsaking us –
in our uncertainties, our denials, our arrogance, our fears, our selfishness –
Jesus is always with us, coming and going, convicting and healing, wounding and
making us whole; bringing us onward and upward in Him, guiding us into the
depths of the Trinity and life with one another. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Life in Christ
in the Upper Room means that Jesus uses even our denials to bring us to the Cross
and Resurrection. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled…” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus brings us
to the end of ourselves so that we may know Him as our All in all. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is this worth knowing? </p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-56292993226135051332023-10-27T07:56:00.004-04:002023-10-27T07:56:47.469-04:00A New Commandment, A New Way <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34 – 35.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Consider the
context of what Jesus says, how do verses 34 and 35 work in the passage?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In verse 33
Jesus says, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will
seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going,
you cannot come.’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then in verse 36
we read, “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered,
‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is as if
Simon Peter ignores the New Commandment and wants to get on with what Jesus is
saying about going away and coming again, about being seen and then not being
seen, about the disciples not being able to follow and then being able to
follow. (Recall the passages on this theme listed in the previous reflection
that we find throughout the Upper Room).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We tend, I
think, to view verses 34 and 35 in isolation from its context, an enigmatic
context if we will follow the theme of Jesus appearing and leaving and
appearing, of Jesus being seen and then not seen and then seen, of us not being
able to follow and then following. (Do we not see this motif in the Song of
Solomon, with the Bridegroom appearing and then withdrawing, and then appearing
again? Do we not see the Bride searching for her Beloved?)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is this not a
dance of the Bridegroom and the Bride? Can we not “see” that when our Beloved
withdraws Himself it is an invitation to follow Him into deeper intimacy? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The depths of
this invitation to intimacy are seen yet again in John 15:12 – 13 where the New
Commandment contains the “greater love” of laying down one’s life for our
friends. For us to love as Jesus loves means that we lay down our lives for the
brethren, it means that we know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“We know love by
this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren.” (1 John 3:16).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The way to
follow Jesus, the way to go where He is going, is to love one another as He
loves us, and this is to be how all men are to know that we are His
disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Note also John 17:23. Our
love for one another and our unity in the Trinity are the marks by which we and
the Gospel are to be known – they are our testimony!).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Living in the
Holy of Holies of John 17 entails the ever-present and unfolding Way of Life of
John 13:34 – 35 and John 15:12 – 13. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">There are at
least two great dangers in pondering the New Commandment, the first is to gloss
over “even as I have loved you” and say, “That is impossible. We’ll just do the
best we can.” The second great danger is to think that we can obey this command
in and of ourselves. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We have no
warrant to edit the Word of Jesus Christ, to dumb it down, to lower the standard,
to make excuses – <i>including the excuse, “Well, I’m just a sinner saved by
the grace of God.” </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God forbid that
we should think that, in Christ, we are anything but saints – the sons and
daughters of the Living God, born of the Holy Spirit and made new creations in
Jesus Christ! (2 Cor. 5:11 – 21; Rom. Cp. 8; Jn. Cp. 17).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">To love as Jesus
loves means that the Cross, the laying down of our lives, is ever working
within us and through us. It also means that we know the reality of abiding in
the Vine and that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:1 – 5). Jesus
Christ is our organic source of life – not a religious or moral or ethical
system, no matter its Christian trappings, and certainly not a political or
economic or nationalistic system – no matter the pressure exerted upon us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The New
Commandment brings us to the end of ourselves and to our new life in Jesus
Christ. It brings us to the end of ourselves because we cannot obey it – we have
not the life to do so. It brings us to our new life in Jesus Christ because in
Him, in the Vine, we have resurrection life – the working out of the Cross and
the Resurrection in the ebb and flow of life throughout our entire being and in
koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The life of the
Trinity lives in us, through our redemption in Christ, and this life finds
expression in community, in koinonia – leading us together in Life in which God
is all in all. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And yet we gloss
over the New Commandment as if it were some sort of high and lofty unattainable
ideal – when it is to be the bedrock of our life and witness in Jesus Christ. We
make excuses when our Father will have no excuses. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let us make no
mistake, living in the New Commandment will cost us our lives – for it leads to
the Cross and it is empowered by the Cross – the Cross working in us as individuals,
in marriages, in families, in congregations, and (if we must have them) in our
traditions and denominations. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus is saying,
“I’m going away, but here is how you can follow Me. Here is how I will reveal
Myself again and again and again. I will go away and come again, then I will go
away again and come again. You will see Me as you follow Me in my love, as you love
as I love, as you die as I die, as you rise as I rise, as you give as I give,
as you forgive as I forgive…as you live in Me and as I live in you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O the glory our
Father has given to us in Jesus Christ! The joy of being His daughters and
sons!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Galatians 2:20.<o:p></o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-75762386198754760902023-10-21T06:25:00.002-04:002023-10-21T06:29:30.555-04:00His Going, His Coming, Our Following<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“‘Little
children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said
to the Jews, now I also say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come.’” Jn.
13:33<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Simon Peter
said to Him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you
cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’” Jn 13:36<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“’…for I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know
the way where I am going.’” Jn. 14:2c - 4.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“After a little
while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you
will live also.” Jn. 14:19.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“You heard that
I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’” (Jn. 14:28a).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“’A little
while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will
see Me.’” Jn. 16:16<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The Upper Room
theme of His going, His coming, our seeing Him, and our following Him flows
through Jesus’ words, His unveiling of Himself to His followers. Here is an
example of why living in the Word and meditation on the Word is critical, for
there is no sermon, no book, no commentary, and certainly no footnote in a
Bible that can explain these words. We are called to live in the Upper Room
with Jesus, to know its furniture the way we know the furniture in our homes so
that we don’t need to turn the lights on at night to walk through our rooms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It is not enough
to preach through the Bible verse by verse (the way most of us think of this
today), the Bible was not written that way and we are not meant to “see” it
that way, we are called to see Jesus and to see the glorious images and
narratives and interconnectedness of the Bible. When the Fathers, such as
Augustine, preached the Bible verse by verse, they did so by unfolding the
interconnectedness of the Scriptures – they roamed the entire book in Christ as
they were centered on Christ – much as the Apostles did when writing the New
Testament letters – including Revelation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We have a
microcosm of this challenge in the Upper Room, for what is introduced in John
13:1 – 3 and continued in 13:33, expands throughout chapters 14 – 17. The only
way to see and experience what Jesus is saying about going away and coming
again, about not being seen and being seen, is to live in these chapters with
Him (and others). Therefore, in our preaching and teaching and reading we must
keep coming back and coming back, and reading and reading again in order to
hold the entire image and Word of Jesus before us, allowing the Holy Spirit to
open our eyes and plant Him in our hearts – taking us farther up and farther
in, deeper into Jesus Christ – the inside is larger than the outside. I suppose
we might say that the Upper Room holds all that is outside it…and beyond.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And may I say,
that we are called to be in the Upper Room as we read this passage, we are
called to see Jesus – <i>we are not called to read about what Jesus said, we
are called to hear what Jesus is saying</i> – for He is the Living Word. The
Upper Room is birthed in the eternals before creation, it comes forth into time
and space and history, and it continues onward and upward in Christ and in His
People – it flows from the Father and returns to the Father – John 13:1 – 3;
16:28; 17:24. I may be in my office or in living room when I read John chapters
13 – 17, but I must also be in the Upper Room with our Lord.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Here, in the
Upper Room, we have the vision of the “mystery of His will” (Eph. 1:9) in the
“the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on
earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined
according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to
the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of
His glory.” (Eph. 1:10b – 12). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As you read what
Jesus is saying above, what do you see? What do you wonder about? What themes?
What patterns? As someone in the Upper Room, what do you hear? If you imagine
yourself as being one of the Eleven, for Iscariot has now gone out into
darkness, what are you hearing and thinking and feeling? What is Jesus saying
to you about His going and coming and your not seeing and then seeing and
following Him?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do you know this
experience? Have there been times when it seems that He has left you? Do you
know what it is to look for Him but not find Him…if only for a season, if only
for a moment? Do you know what it is to see torches in the night sky and for a
mob to come and take Him away? Have your hopes and dreams and expectations been
shattered?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Have you seen
Jesus on trial before religious leaders? Have you heard the crowds crying, “Crucify
Him!”? Have you denied Him three times? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Well, whatever
our experience, whatever season of life we may be in, Jesus says to us, “Do not
let your heart be troubled…Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not
as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let
it be fearful.” (Jn. 14:1a, 27). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-87653608097654577272023-10-13T08:45:00.002-04:002023-10-13T08:45:55.587-04:00Glorification - A Mystery<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Therefore when
he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is
glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in
Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.’” John 13:31 – 32.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Now that Judas Iscariot
has “gone out” we are called to go further in with Jesus. It may take a while
to get a sense of what I mean, to experience what I mean – for most of our
religious experience is linear, we move through the Scriptures as if we are
checking off boxes, as if we are watching a car’s odometer, verse by verse,
chapter after chapter, frame after frame of a movie, scene after scene of a
play. We are captives of a naturalistic and humanistic approach to Scripture,
one that is the antithesis of Biblical “epistemology” and “hermeneutics” –
technical words that speak to the questions of how do we “know”? or how “should
we know”? and how are we to interpret, receive, and understand what we read? We
will encounter these questions of knowing and understanding as we experience
the Upper Room; I raise these questions now to prepare us, so that we won’t be
surprised (too much) at what we find. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">(I hope we’ve
seen in previous reflections that there is more to feet washing than the
natural eye can see).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">What do we see
in John 13:31 – 32? Ponder what Jesus is saying. What do you see regarding His
relationship with the Father? What do we see regarding glory and glorification?
Allow the play of words, the point and counterpoint, to speak to you – for here
the veil is pulled back and we glimpse a Divine mystery, a holy interchange.
What do you see? What do you hear?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let’s recall
John 12:27 – 28: “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father,
save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ‘Father,
glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it,
and will glorify it again.’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Let us also
anticipate John 17:22: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them,
that they may be one, just as We are one…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">As well as John
17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me
where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You
loved Me before the foundation of the world.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Between John
13:31 – 32 and John 17:24 we will encounter more of the mystery of glory – a mystery
that incorporates the sons and daughters of the Living God, that is, a mystery
that incorporates us – you and me. How do we respond to John 17:22? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“The glory which
You have given Me I have given to them…”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear friends, it
was once true that “All have sinned and fell short of the glory of God,” (Rom.
3:23), but such is no longer true of the saints of God in Christ – for the Son
has given us His glory and we cry out, “Abba Father!” (Rom. 8:15).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Consider that
His glory empowers us to be one as the Trinity is one (John 17:22). His glory
is to be our biosphere, our breath, our joy – our ever-present experience. And
in His glory we glory in Him and in one another in Him. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Paul prays that “the
name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to
the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:12). Paul sets
forth the vision of God coming to be glorified “in His saints (2 Thess. 1:10).
Do we see the similarity between 2 Thessalonians 1:10 – 12 and John 13:31 – 32?
The Father is glorified in the Son and the Son is glorified in the Father; God
and Christ are glorified in the saints, and the saints are glorified in Christ
and God.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In Romans 8:17 –
30 Paul writes of the glory of the children of God, of us being glorified with
Christ, and of the Father glorifying us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then in Hebrews
2:10 we see that the Father is “bringing many sons to glory.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How sad that there
are many who – intentionally or not – seek to rob the saints of their present
inheritance in our Lord Jesus Christ. How sad that the Gospel is truncated and
that we are forbidden to claim and live in the glory of our Father and Lord
Jesus Christ. What a tragedy that the veil is sown up week after week on Sunday
mornings, in books, on the radio, on podcasts – and that the Bride of Christ is
thrown rags to wear rather than the glorious glory of her Husband – Jesus Christ.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How ironic that
many who use the term “grace” do not desire us to live in grace – but in
bondage to self-flagellation and a perpetual consciousness of sin – rather than
in the fulness of justification, sanctification, adoption, and life in the Holy
Spirit. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The account of
Jesus Christ in the Upper Room is our story too, for we are in Him – and we are
explicitly called into the koinonia of the Trinity by the Father and the Son,
through the Holy Spirit. We are the sons and daughters of the Living God, we
are saints in Christ and no longer sinners – and we are called to be broken Bread
and poured out Wine to our generation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And dear dear
brother or sister, who protests and ignores this Gospel teaching, insisting
that God will not give His glory to another. Can you not see that we are bone
of His bone and flesh of His flesh? We are one in Trinity. We are the Body of
Christ. <i>We are not another</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is this not a
mystery?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-2916832838468796662023-09-29T06:32:00.000-04:002023-09-29T06:32:57.986-04:00A Slave and His Master – Betrayal<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">“Truly,
truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me…Now is the Son of Man
glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” (John 13:21 and 31).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">If
the slave is not greater than his master, (Jn. 13:16, 15:20), then since Jesus
was betrayed we ought not to think it strange when we are betrayed, nor should
we hesitate to embrace the Cross of Christ when we are betrayed, for are we not
called to know the koinonia of His sufferings? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">However,
let me hasten to add, that betrayal carries a particular pain and sorrow in its
cup that touches the depths of our souls – and I suppose we carry its scars
just as Jesus carries the print of the nails. To be admitted to the “fellowship
of the betrayed” is not something anyone ought to aspire to, nor is it
something that we should glory in – for betrayal is beyond words and is costly
– both to the one who is betrayed and to the one who is the betrayer. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">“For
it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who
hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him.
But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend; we who had
sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng.” (Psalm
55:12 – 14). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">In
his <i>Inferno</i>, Dante reserves the depths of Hell for traitors. Barbara
Reynolds describes Dante’s depiction of the city of treachery thusly:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">“It
is a freezing of all human bonds, of kinship, loyalty to country or party,
hospitality, and gratitude for benefaction.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">We
may contrast betrayal with the love of God, “This is My commandment, that you
love one another, just as I have loved you. Great love has no one than this,
that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12 – 13). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Betrayal
sacrifices others, God’s love sacrifices itself. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Consider
that not only does Jesus wash the feet of Judas, His betrayer, but that in the
midst of this betrayal Jesus continues to love and serve His disciples. That
is, Jesus continues to focus on loving His friends, and in loving His friends
who were in His immediate presence, He is loving us who will come to know Him
(John 17:20; Heb. 12:1 – 2).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">When
we are betrayed, the pain and uncertainty and surprise is so great, the threat
is so unexpected, that the betrayal can absorb our attention and energy to the
exclusion of all else, to the exclusion of loving others. The betrayer can loom
larger than anyone else in our lives. Yet should anyone be larger than God in
our hearts and minds and souls? Is not Jesus Christ our Lord, does He not
remain Lord of all? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Judas’s
betrayal did not alter Jesus’ commitment and obedience to the Father, in fact,
if anything it confirmed and highlighted it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">“Now
My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this
hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27). The “hour” that
Jesus speaks of includes the great betrayal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">When
Judas leaves the Upper Room to consummate his betrayal of Jesus, Jesus says, “Now
is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified
in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.”
(John 13:31 – 32). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">The
Betrayal plays a role in the glorification of the Father and the Son – <i>then and
now</i>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Peter
writes, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the
Spirit of glory and of God rests on you…Therefore, those also who suffer
according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in
doing what is right.” (1 Peter 4:14 & 19).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">In
the midst of being betrayed, Jesus continues to commit Himself to the Father,
trusting that the betrayal is in the Father’s plan for glorification and for
the salvation of others. Likewise we also, when we are betrayed, are called to continue
our commitment to our Father and Lord Jesus, trusting in the Holy Spirit to
fill us and rest upon us as we walk through the betrayal; trusting God to use
the betrayal for His glory, for our glorification in Him, and for the blessing
of others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">We
must not allow betrayal to distract us from loving and serving others, we must
not allow betrayal to make us bitter and vindictive. In the midst of betrayal,
we ought to embrace our call to follow Jesus Christ and to take up our cross
and follow Him (Mark 8:34 – 38) and to view betrayal as an opportunity to allow
the Cross to work within us for the glory of God. Is the slave above his or her
Master? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">This,
my friends, is one of the differences between a spiritual child and an adult –
a child sees betrayal as all about himself, while an adult offers betrayal to
the Father for His glory. A child tells everyone about the betrayal, an adult
only speaks what is necessary, when it is necessary. Indeed, to the adult
betrayal is an element in the pilgrimage of the Cross. Indeed, the adult
realizes that at one time he (or she) played the role of Judas himself – for we
were all enemies of God at one time. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">None
of this lessens the pain and anguish of betrayal, and the more we have trusted
the betrayer the deeper the pain. I recall a time when an employee who I had
poured myself into and opened many doors for betrayed me. I could not believe
what she had done. Even though my eyes told me the truth of the betrayal, my
heart could not accept it – until I had another trusted employee review and confirm
the theft – only with this additional confirmation could I accept what my mind
told me was true. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">I
have also experienced betrayal within the professing church, and I will frankly
say that this scar tissue remains with me – I am writing about something I have
experienced. There is perhaps no pain like the pain of betrayal by professing
Christians, by brothers and sisters (other than betrayal within marriage and
family). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">But
here is the thing, no matter the degree of betrayal, no matter its results, we
are still called to serve Christ and others, we are to embrace the Cross, we
are to love – and we are to wash the feet of Judas well as the feet of Peter. We
<i>are not</i> better or greater than our Master, and we ought to be thankful
that Jesus trusts us enough to call us into the fellowship of those who have
been betrayed…for we know that the Father will be glorified, that Jesus Christ will
be glorified, and that we…individually and as Christ’s Body, will be glorified
in the Trinity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">If
you are bitter about a betrayal in your own life, please meditate on our Lord
Jesus Christ and what we see in Him in the midst of the great Betrayal by Judas.
Are you greater than your Master? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">How
might you allow Jesus to walk with you and speak to you?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Please
ask your Father for grace to forgive the betrayer(s) – let us not forget that
we are to forgive others as we desire God to forgive us (Mt. 6:12; Eph. 4:32). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Let
us guard against the trap of closing ourselves off from others because we have
been betrayed – let us rather embrace the Cross and the comfort of our Father
and love and serve others out of our broken vessels (2 Cor. 4:7 – 12).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">After
all, life is about Jesus Christ…and if we are to find ourselves, our destiny, we
must lose ourselves in Him. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-55577804836615988592023-09-23T16:37:00.002-04:002023-09-23T16:37:51.032-04:00A Slave and His Master <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">“Truly,
truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is
sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are
blessed if you do them.” (John 13:16 – 17).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Later
that night Jesus will remind them, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A
slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also
persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:20).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">How
often do we expect and insist on special considerations that were never given
to our Lord Jesus? How often do we assert our privileges and supposed rights,
how often do we advocate for special recognition in areas which are contrary to
our status as slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ? That is, how often do we insist
that we are treated better than Jesus was treated? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">I
cannot think about this without pain and shame because I cannot begin to count
the ways I have thought myself worthy of more consideration that Jesus was
given.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Now
to be sure there are complexities to these questions, for example, in the
workplace my sense is that we ought to assert our rights and protections
against discrimination and harassment in its insidious forms – not solely for
our own sakes, but for the sake of others. I write “for the sake of others” because
if one person is being discriminated against it is usually a pattern, meaning
that others are being discriminated against. Discrimination is respect of
persons, and it is using a false balance, which is an abomination to God (Proverbs
11:1).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Paul
asserted his right as a Roman citizen to be treated according to Roman law and
to appeal to Ceasar. His appeal to Ceasar led to his witness to many in
authority over the course of his imprisonment and journey to Rome. His invocation
of Roman citizenship both protected his witness and expanded his witness. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">I
wonder why Paul didn’t immediately assert his Roman citizenship in Philippi. (See
Acts 16:22 – 40). Whatever the reason, the beating of Paul and Silas and their
jail experience was quite a testimony to our Lord Jesus and led to the jailer’s
conversion and that of his household. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">The
heart of the issue is whether we see ourselves as slaves of Jesus Christ,
whether He is our Master and we are His servants. Do we see ourselves as being
purchased by His blood and as belonging to Him? Paul writes in 1 Cor. 3:23, “…you
belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.” Then in 1 Cor. 6:20, “For you
have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">To
identify with Jesus Christ is to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ. The
recipients of the letter to the Hebrews were reminded of this in the midst of
persecution, “So let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to
come.” (Heb. 13:13 – 14, see also Heb. 11:13 - 16).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Peter
writes, “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a
person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there
if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if
when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds
favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps…” (1
Peter 2:18 – 21, of course please read the context to get the full import!).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Then
we have, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which
comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to
you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing…If
you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory
and of God rest on you…but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be
ashamed, but is to glory God in this name.” (1 Peter 4:12 – 16 passim). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">But
the idea of Jesus as our Master and we as His servants is not limited to our
witness and the world’s response, as critical as that understanding is – it is
to encompass all of life, hence Jesus not only speaks of the Master – slave relationship
in the context of persecution (John 15:18 – 16:4), but also in the context of
feet washing and serving one another. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Jesus
washed the feet of Judas knowing that Judas was betraying Him. While I hope to consider
the subject of betrayal in the next reflection, for now let me say that if the
Master washed the feet of His betrayer that we, His slaves, are called to wash
the feet of our betrayers and those who would destroy us. (See also Matthew 5:38
– 48). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Have
we considered that when Jesus was washing the feet of the other apostles that
they did not understand what He was doing and what we can learn from this? The
apostles did not thank Jesus for washing their feet – or if they did it isn’t
recorded. In fact, the apostles had just argued about who was going to be the
greatest in the Kingdom (Luke 22:24 – 27), so their minds and hearts were
hardly focused on servanthood.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Jesus
was serving the apostles and they had no idea what He was doing and, as far as
we know, they didn’t express appreciation for His service to them. Do we serve
others when we don’t receive recognition? When we do serve others and do not
receive thanks and recognition, how do we think and feel and act? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Consider
that Jesus would shortly be betrayed and abandoned and tortured and crucified –
and yet the Master is still serving His servants – without receiving thanks or
recognition. In fact, as the Upper Room unfolds in John chapters 13 – 17, Jesus
not only continues to serve, He invites His servants, His friends, into
intimacy with the Father, the Spirit, and with Himself, the Son. That is, the
Master calls His servants into the love and life and joy of the blessed
Trinity; He loves His own to the end (John 13:1). <i>Jesus is holding nothing
back, He is giving Himself away to those who, at the moment, do not understand what
He is doing, do not appreciate what He is doing, and are not thankful for what
He is doing. <o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">How
does this compare with us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Are
we willing to serve, to wash the feet of others, without thanks and
recognition? Are we willing to be like our Master? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">If
we consider the sacramental element of feet washing, as explored in a previous
reflection, the reality is that if we wash the feet of the saints with the Word
that few will know what we are doing, for few of us live in the Word and are
therefore aware of the Word. O for sure we may know current “Christian’ jargon
and pithy sayings and the latest songs, but we typically don’t breathe the
atmosphere of the Word of God. We may know the title of a Christian best -
selling book or DVD series, but we don’t live in the Word, we don’t speak the
Word, we don’t recognize the Word. We know more about “Chrisitan” therapy than
we do the disciplining and molding and convicting of the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">If
we are not speaking the Word to others (Col. 3:16), how will we know when
someone is speaking the Word to us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">When
we consider other forms of service in the Church and in the world (Rom. 12:3 –
21), are we willing to give and to serve without recognition? (See Matthew 6:1 –
18).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Is
there not something amiss in the professing church when those in vocational
ministry are elevated to pedestals? It is one thing to honor those who faithfully
serve our Lord Jesus and His People, but to make them (and often their
families) the objects of veneration…how does this harmonize with what we see in
our Lord Jesus and His life and ministry? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">But
are we not all infected with pride and a desire for recognition? Do we not
insist on others being thankful for us and on being given, despite what we may
say, some measure of the spotlight? Some acknowledgement?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">While
we all need encouragement, how easy it is to move beyond a desire for encouragement
to a hunger for glory centered on ourselves. I know what it is to drink from
this poisonous cup. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">What
would our congregations look like if we were willing to wash the feet of others
without recognition? What would we look like, as God’s People, if we served one
another out of love, without thought of reward and recognition? What would we
look like if we served others whether or not they realized our service? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">While
I have seen much beauty within the professing church, I have also seen ugliness.
I have seen more ugliness and destructive behavior in the professing church
than I have seen in decades in the business world – much of this has been about
recognition, praise, and honor; much of it has been about who is the greatest. O
that we would learn to wash one another’s feet. O that we would learn that the
servant is not above his or her Master. O that we would learn the high calling
in Jesus Christ to serve others, to wash others with the Word, with loving
service – <i>whether or not they recognize what we are doing, whether or not
they recognize us</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">When
we serve others, we serve our Master (Matthew 25:31-46).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;">Is
this enough for us?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 196.5pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-4297562610338658912023-09-18T06:30:00.000-04:002023-09-18T06:30:09.745-04:00He Knew The One Who Was Betraying Him<p> "For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, 'Not all of you are clean.'" John 13:11.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the holy place of the Upper Room, in the midst of the sacred and sacramental acts of the Bread and Wine, and Feet Washing - there is Judas Iscariot. Iscariot even intrudes upon us by reference in John 17:12, before reappearing in the garden in 18:3. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before we ponder the glorification of the Son of Man in the midst of betrayal (John 13:31), I want to look at Judas Iscariot so as not to gloss over him. I'll do this by sharing something posted a while back, it is a handout I prepared for a congregation in 2009. I hope it will be helpful.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>As we’ll see
below, the Bible does not tell us a lot about Judas Iscariot (not to be
confused with another Apostle named Judas), but that is the case with most of
the Apostles, and in one sense this shouldn’t be a surprise because the Gospels
are about Jesus Christ and not about us or anyone else. Of the twelve original
Apostles we know more about Peter from the Gospels and the Book of Acts than
anyone else, and next to Peter we know more about John than anyone else – but
beyond those two Apostles our information is pretty scanty and in some
instances nonexistent. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> Concerning Judas Iscariot, of the
four Gospel writers John tells us more than Matthew, Mark and Luke; the Book of
Acts (also written by Luke) also refers to Judas (in the first chapter) – but
John is where we get more of a glimpse of Judas than anywhere else…and yet it
is only a glimpse.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> The temptation with just getting a
glimpse of something is to read more into it than we ought to and to build an
image or teaching which may not be there at all; it is a temptation that most
of us, including me, find hard to resist!<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> The temptation with getting a
glimpse of Judas is that we want to find some way to understand why he betrayed
Jesus. Why <i>did</i> he do it? What <i>was</i> he thinking? What was he feeling?
Perhaps he wanted the best for Jesus and just went about it the wrong way?
Maybe he repented after he saw the consequences of his actions and asked for
forgiveness? Isn’t there some way we can turn Judas into a sympathetic figure?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> The challenge in asking these
questions is to stay within the Biblical text – a difficult challenge with
almost any Biblical text; but perhaps a particular challenge with a tough
subject like Judas Iscariot.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> Below are the key New Testament
passages referring to Judas Iscariot, I have not included passages from Mark or
Luke because they parallel those in Matthew and John – what <i>do</i> these passages teach us? <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">JN</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">6:70</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen
you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">71</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> (He meant Judas, the
son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> The word “devil” means “slanderer” and whether or not Jesus
means that Judas is a slanderer as opposed to being possessed or influenced by
the devil at that particular time, the fact that Jesus uses this particular
word forms an association with Judas and the evil one, known as the devil or
Satan.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">JN 12:4</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">But
one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later
to betray him, objected, </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%; position: relative; top: -4pt;">5</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> "Why wasn't this
perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's
wages." </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%; position: relative; top: -4pt;">6</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> He did not say this because he cared about the
poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help
himself to what was put into it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span>Here is another <i>glimpse</i>.
We are told that Judas was a thief and we are shown that Judas was also a liar
and a deceiver. In John 10:10 Jesus teaches that the thief (referring to the
devil) comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. In John 6:44 Jesus also teaches
that the devil is a murderer, a liar, and in fact “the father of lies”. So once
again we have <i>association</i> occurring
with Judas and Satan.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> The following passage in John Chapter 13 occurs in the
Upper Room:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">JN 13:2</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> The evening meal was being served, and the
devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of
Simon, to betray Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">JN 13:26</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I
will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then,
dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas
Iscariot, son of Simon. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%; position: relative; top: -4pt;">27</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> As soon as </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">Judas
took the bread, Satan entered into him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> In 13:2 we
see that Judas had already moved to betray Jesus; see also Matthew 26:14; Mark
14:10; Luke 22:3. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> In 13:26 –
27 we see something akin to a consummation of relationship between Judas and
Satan – though the exact nature of what we’re reading is hard to grasp. Without
a doubt a line of demarcation is crossed with the words, “As soon as Judas took
the bread, Satan entered into him”. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">MT 27:3</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> When Judas, who had
betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and
returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%; position: relative; top: -4pt;">4</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> "I have sinned," he said, "for
I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they
replied. "That's your responsibility." </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%; position: relative; top: -4pt;">5</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> So </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went
away and hanged himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> Here is another glimpse of Judas, which without a full
Biblical context could be open to different interpretations. Could this mean
that Judas came to God in repentance, asked forgiveness, and was forgiven? This
is a fair and reasonable question. Of course we all know that <i>remorse</i> can take many forms, from true
repentance and confession and seeking forgiveness; to being sorry for being
caught. Remorse coming from a recognition of sin, a recognition of wrongdoing,
does not in and of itself mean that it is remorse leading to repentance. Are
there other Biblical passages that might throw light on this question: Did
Judas turn to God in repentance?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">JN 17:12</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> While I was with them, I protected them and
kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except <i>the one doomed to destruction</i> so that
Scripture would be fulfilled.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">2TH 2:1</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">2</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by
some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the
day of the Lord has already come. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">3</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;"> Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for
that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is
revealed, <i>the man doomed to destruction</i>.
</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">4</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif;">He
will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is
worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to
be God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> In
John 17:12 Jesus refers to Judas with a specific term, in the NIV it is <i>the one doomed to destruction</i>. Other
English versions translate this phrase <i>the
son of perdition </i>or <i>son of
destruction</i> – and indeed the word <i>son</i>
is exactly what the Greek text says. So Jesus is referring to Judas as the <i>son</i> or <i>child</i> of perdition or destruction. What does this mean? A look at
Paul’s passage in 2 Thessalonians may help us to understand this phrase.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> In 2
Thessalonians Chapter Two Paul is dealing with, in part, the personification of
Satan and Satan’s opposition to the Church of Jesus Christ. In describing the <i>man of lawlessness</i>, or who the Apostle
John refers to as the <i>antichrist</i>,
Paul uses <b>the very same</b> <b>term</b> that Jesus uses with respect to
Judas; <i>the man doomed to destruction </i>(NIV),
<i>the son of destruction, the son of
perdition </i>(other English versions). <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> Once
again we are confronted with the association of Judas Iscariot with the devil
or Satan, and now also with the spirit and persona of the antichrist – to the
point where Paul and Jesus use the same term to describe <b>both Judas and the antichrist</b>. Considering this clear association
it is unlikely that the “remorse” we read about in the Gospel of Matthew is a remorse
of true repentance, for the Biblical picture of Satan and the antichrist
presents no such picture – see Revelation 19:20-21; 20:10. While we may not
understand any of what really went on within Judas Iscariot, anymore than we
can say that we understand what went on with Satan that led to his rebellion
against God; we can say in both instances that the Biblical picture ends in
perdition, in an abyss that defies our understanding and which is beyond our
comprehension. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> Beyond
the above there are at least three Old Testament prophecies of Judas Iscariot,
Psalm 41:9, which Jesus quotes in John 13:18; Psalm 69:25 and 109:8 which are
both quoted by the Apostles in Acts 1:20. And then we have the words of Jesus
about Judas in Matthew 26:24, “<i>…but woe
to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for
that man if he had not been born.”</i> Perhaps all we need do in reading about
the remorse of Judas in Matthew 27:3 is to look back to what Jesus said about
Judas in Matthew 26:24 – perhaps Matthew did not intend to leave us with any
question about the irrevocability of Judas’s betrayal? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> There
are many mysteries in the Scriptures, things that we can dimly see but which we
cannot fully understand; as much as we would like to engage in speculation,
speculation is generally unprofitable and diverts our attention from the
Biblical text with its focus on Jesus Christ, God’s love for humanity, and the
offer of redemption that is extended to us through the Cross and Resurrection. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> What
can we learn from Judas? The first thing is in the words of Jesus, “Therefore
when he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and
God is glorified in Him,’” John 13:31. God uses persecution and betrayal in our
lives to transform us into His image and to be glorified in us. If we are going
to know Christ in the <i>fellowship of His
sufferings</i> (Phil. 3:10) it will likely mean that we experience betrayal. We
are called to allow the most painful experiences in life to be the means by
which we are transformed into the image of Christ and the means by which God is
glorified within us. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"> The
second thing we can learn is the heinousness of sin and the consequences of alignment
with Satan. We are not engaged in a religious game; the Gospel is a matter of
eternal life versus eternal death. What we believe matters, how we live
matters, and our faithfulness to Christ matters. There is a lot we may not know
about Judas Iscariot; but we should give heed to what we do know. <o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-11352420015093070412023-09-12T07:09:00.000-04:002023-09-12T07:09:31.701-04:00Do You Know What I Have Done To You?<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Do you know
what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for
so I am. If I then, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I
did to you…If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” John 13:12b
– 15, 17.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Did the apostles
know, in that moment, what Jesus had done? Do we understand what Jesus did and
why He did it? What do we see in feet washing and how do we wash the feet of
our brothers and sisters? Do we see into and through and beyond the water, the
basin, and the towel? Are we touching Jesus the Christ and is the Christ
touching us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“If I then…you
also.” What do these words mean? What heavenly portal do they open?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">O dear, dear
friends, this is about so much more than taking physical water and washing
physical feet – this is about our life in Christ and the life of Christ in us,
this is about life with one another in Christ.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“If I then…you
also.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Consider what
Jesus says in His follow up:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another, <i>even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another</i>. By this all men will know that you are
My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34 – 35. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Can we see the
call, the reality, of “If I then…you also”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We are to wash
feet as Jesus washes feet, cleansing one another with the Word, and we are to
love <i>just as Jesus loves</i>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Consider: “This
is My commandment, that you love one another, <i>just as I have loved you.</i>
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
(John 15:12 – 13). The Apostle John later writes, “We know love by this, that
He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
(1 John 3:16). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">May I ask, what
would our churches look like if we loved as Jesus loves? What would they look
like if we saw and understood and obeyed, “If I then…you also”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;">One of the first things Jesus
teaches us is that we are to forgive others as God forgives us. “And forgive us
our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;">Paul incorporates “If I then…you
also” in Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, <i>forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also
has forgiven you</i>. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and <i>walk
in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, </i>an
offering and as a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;">Here we have both love and
forgiveness incorporated into “If I then…you also.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;">We are to wash one another’s feet
with love and forgiveness. We are to live barefoot in the church, barefoot with
one another in Christ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">When Jesus, in
the Upper Room, teaches us that He is the Vine and we are the branches, and
that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5), He is saying to us, “If I
then…you also.” We are to love as Jesus loves, forgive as Jesus forgives, live
as Jesus lives, for Jesus is our Life. We are to be Christ to one another for <i>we
are</i>, in Him, Christ to one another. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And so Paul
writes that, “…nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me…”
(Gal. 2:20). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus says to
the Father, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the
world.” (John 17:18). Later, after the Resurrection, Jesus says, “Peace be with
you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (Jn. 20:21). Can we see, once
again, “If I then…you also”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">We are to go as
Jesus goes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">How are we
responding to Jesus’s question, “<b>Do you know what I have done to you?”</b>?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do we really
know? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Do our lives
manifest that we know? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The lives of our
congregations? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6381557444269413747.post-9077536921027578412023-09-09T06:45:00.000-04:002023-09-09T06:45:40.714-04:00The Body of Christ, the Feet of Christ <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The feet washing
of John 13 leads us into the Holy of Holies of John 17, our perfected unity and
oneness in the Holy Trinity, bathing in the glory of our Father and Lord Jesus
– resulting in an ultimate declaration to the world and all creation that the
Father sent the Son and loved us as He has loved the Son (John 17:20 – 26). We
might say that Revelation chapters 21 and 22 are the outworking of John 17;
just as we might say that John chapters 13 – 16 lead us up and into John 17. We
might also say that John chapters 1 – 12 lead us from the Incarnation to the
INCARNATION of chapters 13 – 21, meaning that the grain of wheat falling into
the ground is bringing forth much fruit (Jn. 12:24).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In Ephesians 1:3
– 12, as in Colossians 1:9 – 20, Paul gives us an eternal cosmic perspective, a
perspective which the author of Hebrews 11 emphasizes is a characteristic of
godly faith – faith which is always and ever “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews
12:2) and which touches and lives in the communion of the saints (Hebrews 12:18
– 24).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">In Ephesians 2:11
– 22 and 4:1 – 16 we have portrayals of the Temple of God, One New Man, and the
Body of Christ; then in Ephesians 5:22 – 32 we have the image of the Bridegroom
and the Bride – these are ever present cosmic eternal realities that are transcendent
in Christ, spanning heaven and earth and time and space as we sit in the
heavenlies in Him (Eph. 2:6).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Then we have
this statement in 1 Cor. 12:12, “For even as the body is one and has many
members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body,
so also is Christ.” Is it any wonder Paul writes like this? For Jesus said to
him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). That is, to touch
the members of the Body is to touch the Head of the Body.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And this, my
friends, is what the feet washing of John 13 is about, it is about washing the
feet of the Body of Christ – the Body which is “<i>the fulness of Him who fills
all in all</i>” (Eph. 1:23b). These are the feet beneath which the Father has
put “all things in subjection” (Eph. 1:22). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">These are the
feet of Psalm 110:1, the feet of Joshua 1:3 (can we hear the Father speaking to
the Son?), the feet of Isaiah 60:13 and 14, the feet of Isaiah 52:7; Zech.
14:4; Mal. 4:3; Psa. 8:6…and more.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The feet are
those parts of the Body that have contact with earth, and while the Body has
been fully bathed in the Word and blood and water, while the Body has been
fully sanctified and consecrated unto God our Father (Hebrews 10:10 – 14),
those of us on pilgrimage on earth, throughout our generations, need our feet
washed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Hence we have
both our continual cleansing (1 Jn. 1:7) and our specific confession (1 Jn.
1:9) of sins. Hence we have the washing of water with the word (Eph. 5:26).
Hence we have feet washing, speaking the Word of cleansing, affirming forgiveness,
speaking the Word of justification and sanctification and of glorification to
one another in Christ (Rom. 8:29 – 30). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Visualize the
Body of Christ, the communion of saints. If we conceive of this Body spatially,
we see the Head in the heavens and the feet on earth. All that which is beyond
the dust of earth need not be cleansed again for it does not have contact with the
earth, but we in the here and now, we who are on the earth – O how we need our
daily and continual cleansing and refreshing – for while we have been fully
bathed in Christ Jesus, we nevertheless walk in the dust of the earth.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">And this means
that when we wash feet, when we touch our brother or sister with water and
towel, that we are touching so much more than the physical feet of a brother or
sister (as holy as that person and that touch indeed is in Christ!) – but we
are also touching the feet of the Body of Christ – the feet of the transcendent
and indwelling Christ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Jesus’ teaching
in the Upper Room of the indwelling Trinity, of our union with the Trinity and
with one another in the Trinity, and the subsequent coming of God to live in
His Temple at Pentecost, lead us to this holy awareness.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Is it any wonder
that Jesus said, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter”?
(Jn. 13:7)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Bob - Mind on Firehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13018004821460668489noreply@blogger.com0