Two things stand out to me in today's reading. The first is it was the Greeks that came to Jesus. First, they go to Philip, whom John makes clear is from Bethsaida of Galilee. Then he and Andrew take them to see Jesus as they requested. So Jesus directs the following to those Greeks. It may not seem much to us today, but in their day, the Jewish people were very zealous of their status as God's people, and to them, the Greeks were outsiders allowed in up to a certain point. Jesus gives them full access as He does to anyone who comes to Him. And not only permit, but the Father will honor those who lose their life to serve the Son. The second, Jesus asks the question, "What shall I say, "Father, save me from this trouble?" Jesus knows why He came and even hints at how He would give His life. Even the Father's voice from heaven was for them and not to comfort Jesus. The people didn't understand what He was saying because it made no sense (to them) that the Messiah would come and die, but if you remember yesterday's devotional, Daniel said 800 years before that day that it would be so. Such a beautiful saying- "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." Jesus, of course, speaks of Himself, and just like that, he departs from them. Ask Yourself: Have you become a child of light? Jesus says we become a child of light when we believe in Him. If you are, then walk in the light. If you are not, I invite you to love and lose your life, hate your life in this world, and keep it for eternal life. :) Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good!
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Please save is not what most people think of when they hear the word Hosanna but that is what it means, literally speaking. It is what the people cried out as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the dinkey over 2,000 years ago. They were crying for help. Though now we sing and say it as an expression of praise. After reading the prophet Jeremiah who says they would be in captivity for 70 years because they broke the covenant between God and Israel, Daniel was praying for his people. Then God reveals the plan for his people, with great detail and a timeline. Daniel 9:24-25 HCSB Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city-- to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to wipe away iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times. A week in Daniel's timeline is a series of 7 years, so 70 weeks is 490 years. And it says, "From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince (who is Jesus) will be seven weeks and 62 weeks." If you add that up, it is 483 years. History tells us King Cyrus of Persia would sign that decree shortly after. From that time to when Jesus entered Jerusalem, it was precisely 483 years, as God told Daniel! That leaves one week or seven years left, the time of Tribulation covered in the book of Revelation. As we read today, knowing there is a week left, let us pray that God will prepare our hearts for that final week. We live in the time between as Daniel did. We are also in captivity, caught up in this world while we wait for the next. We will be set free at Jesus' second coming, but He said that no one knows when that time is, so we are to follow Him until it arrives. Ask Yourself: Am I eagerly awaiting Jesus' second coming? Please save, or Hossana is appropriate for us to sing as we wait for what Paul calls the blessed hope and coming of our Lord. We need His help and guidance during this time. John would later write, "Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure." May it be so with us. Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! You may have noticed, I combined yesterday's and today's reading. I didn't go back to finish yesterday's after my grandbabies arrived in the morning. First I'd like to talk a little about Judas. He not only betrayed Jesus but he was stealing from them the whole time. Jesus must have known but He treated him just like the other eleven Apostles. That says something about the Lord Jesus Christ. 1, He is merciful and allows some who do not believe in Him to follow Him 2, A person may respond to Jesus' call to follow Him but they will foud out in the end. Mary pouring her perfume on Jesus feet must have been a beautiful fragrance and quite the sight. A woman's hair, in her day, would have been covered and to have it uncovered must have made quite the statement. But that was not her concern and she would forever be remembered for it. From what I've read in the past, buying and saving expensive perfume like Mary did was a way to invest or save your money. So this act of love toward Jesus cost her all she had. King David in the Old Testament once said- "I will not offer to God something that cost me nothing." That should be our atttude as it was David's and Mary's. To worship God is to say that He is worth it. Ask Yourself: What does it cost me to worship? When we worship God with our time, talent, and/or treasure, we are saying that He is worth it. True worship comes from a heart of gratitude. Mary worshipped Jesus not because she had to but she was grateful for Him. He truly is worth it. Concerning the plot against Lazarus, it's just as ludricris to think that they would want to kill Lazarus as them wanting to kill Jesus. They couldn't deny what Jesus did because Lazaras was literally walking around alive after they knew he was dead for four days! Four days was signifigant becasue after four days the body would have started to decompose meaning it was really, really dead. That's why Martha said- “Lord, he’s already decaying.[d] It’s been four days.” Did you know that the Bible says we were dead in our trespasses and sins? We had to be brought back to life as well, though it was spiritual, not physical like Lazarus. Every believer is proof of God's work. The Apostle Paul but's it ths way- "You show that you are a letter from Christ that he sent through us. This letter is not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on stone tablets but on human hearts." It's been said that we may be the only Bible that some will ever read. Think about that as you breath and live in you body today, God's letter for others to read. Have a great day, Loved Ones, and od bless you real good. Again Jesus is deeply moved. Yesterday we read that he was angry in spirit and deeply moved. So it turns out that Jesus wept before he even got to the tomb. Again this paints a different picture for me. Jesus is angry in spirit and deeply moved, asks where have you laid him, weeps, is deeply moved again, then arrives at the tomb. Jesus knew he was going to raise Lazarus, so his death wasn't the reason He wept, neither was it the others wailing because that only made him angry in spirit and deeply moved. One person writing concerning why Jesus wept considers the Calamity of Sin (among other things) and says- It had taken Lazarus, and it would take him again before it was all over. Tears of anger and longing were mixed with Jesus's tears of grief. read more:www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-jesus-wept This seems to describe best why Jesus wept at the death of his friend. That said, we get into Jesus' prayer. It was said out loud, and Jesus explains why- "I said this on account of the people around, that they believe that You sent Me." Then Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. Dylan notes- Seriously, if I saw this happen, that would be proof enough for me that Jesus was who he said he was. -D I would hate to be those who refuse to believe after that on the day of Judgement. They will not have a leg to stand on. If you find yourself a believer, thank God for His grace; apart from it, we couldn't nor wouldn't believe. If you find yourself in doubt today, ask for clarity. What are you doubting? We would love to answer any questions, comments, or complaints. :) Have a great day, Love Ones, and God bless you real good! Most people love life. We'll hold on to it at any cost. Exercise, medicine, meditation, you name it, and we'll try it if it means extending our life a little longer. Jesus loved life and enjoyed it but also lived in light of eternity. He understood that His time was limited and had a purpose. He would give His life as a ransom for many.
Death seems so final. That gut-wrenching moment, when you watch the casket lowered into the ground, is too much to bear for some. Some even throw themselves onto it or into the hole as they lower the casket. It is not wrong to love life, even the bodies we live in. God created us with a body and a soul, so it is fitting that we would want to stay in ours. In today's passage, Martha goes to Jesus and expresses her grief and belief in the resurrection. The Jews in her day understood that in the end, God would raise all people from the grave. But that doesn't mean we don't feel the pain of separation on this side of eternity. Daniel, of the Old Testament, wrote hundreds of years beforehand- Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt. Daniel 12:2 HCSB But that doesn't mean we don't feel the pain of separation on this side of eternity. Jesus said He is the resurrection and the life. He has us covered on both sides of eternity. In chapter ten, He said He came that we would have life and have it abundantly, and in today's passage, He says that we would never die. Death speaks of separation, of which there are three different types.
Ask Yourself: Which one am I? If you are a believer, rejoice, for Jesus is our resurrection and life. If you are a non-believer will continue to pray for you that God would open your eyes to His truth and that, by faith, you would believe and receive eternal life and say like Martha- "I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world." Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! Sometimes I struggle, teaching week after week, wanting someone to believe and be saved. Knowing people are saved by grace through faith, I must keep my eyes on Jesus. John came baptizing people so that they to prepare them for the Lord. He was already with God in heaven at this point. John was killed for speaking God's truth. It's good for me to read that years after his passing, people believed when they remembered what he said about the coming Messiah, and he baptized Jesus. It is an honor to be a vessel in the labor of the Lord. God works in and through His people, His word, and His Spirit to bring people to a place where they believe and place their trust in the Lord.
Ask Yourself: Am I ever discouraged because I do not see the results I desire? We'll all be discouraged if our eyes are on ourselves. That's why the writer of Hebrews reminds us to lay aside every weight and sin that so easily entangles us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne. (Hebrews 12:1b-2) Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! It's incredible to read how many times they picked up stones and were ready to stone Jesus. But it wasn't His time, so Jesus wouldn't allow them. Jesus did say He would give His life for the Sheep, but it would be on His terms, not there's. It was also told beforehand that he would die by crucifixion.
Jesus tells them that His work speaks for itself and they actually agree! But they are after Jesus because He is saying He is equal with God. Not only is He saying it but He is proving it by the signs/miracles. In the end some even realize that John came baptizing and did no miracles but everything he said about Jesus is true, so they bellieved. Maybe you find it hard to believe. Our prayer as a church is that God would help you along wherever you are so that you too would come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah (the Christ) the Son of the Living God and in Him have eternal life. This is why John is writing and why God has preserved His word over 2,000 years. Ask Yourself: Is what I feel getting in the way of what you know? Don't allow yourself to be led by your feelings, be led by truth. Go back and read. Jesus said that we would be purified by His truth. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or complaints, we are here to serve you. Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! So it is that Jesus applies all the illustrations from the first six verses of our lesson from Sunday to Himself. He, Himself is the Gate and the Good Shepherd. Not just the Shepherd but the Good Shepherd- God Himself who promised in the Old Testament that He would come, gather His own, and be their Shepherd. Ezekiel 34: 11-16 HCSB It is clearly God who is speaking and Jesus is claiming to be the God of the Old Testament and that He is. God is good and He is the Good Shepherd. He will gather, guard, guide, and go before us. Praise the Lord! My prayer is that we all follow this Good God and Good Shepherd. Jesus says He will gather the sheep and give His life for the sheep. Valarie notes- I hope I am one of them. If you are thinking the same thing than think no more. Trust Jesus and answer the call to follow Him. If you have already, than continue to follow Him. He is the Good Shepherd and He is responsible to keep you until He returns for you and me. Ask Yourself: Are my eyes on myself or on the Good Shepherd? WIth eyes on Him, let us be led, fed, and protected. Have a great day, Loved Ones and God bless you real good! I was lost and now I'm found. These words are exactly what happens to every believer. It's not that we go looking for Jesus, rather He finds us. This is what He did for the man who was formerly blind and for all of us who are spiritually blind and are given eyes to see that He is the Son of Man- the One promised by God to save people from their sin. Jesus asks Him a simple question, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" and just like that the man says, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped Him. Only God is worthy of worship and Jesus recieved this man's worship. This tells us that Jesus is indeed God because the signs/miracles authenticate Him and His message. :) It is not only tough, it is undeniable. Like Jesus said, "Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out." These words are perfectly manifested in our passage today. The man was cast out by the religious leaders but Jesus found him and received him as his own. Jesus then turns to the religious leaders and flat out tells them they are blind and remain in thier guilt. Pretty bold thing to say but Jesus speaks the truth. But I'm sure it got them thinking just as did Valerie. This is why I ask if you have any questions, comments, or complaints at the end of our lessons. The blind man asked a question, Jesus answered it, and he believed and worshipped Him. The answers may just be what removes the blindness so you can see clearly who Jesus is. Ask Yourself: Is there something that is keeping me form seeinf Jesus for who He truly is? Come to anyone of your leaders, including me, and we would love to talk and answer any questions, comments, or complaints that you may have. Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! I tell you, sometimes you read the Bible and it's almost comical how the religious leaders react to Jesus' miracles. A man born blind that the whole town knows receieves his sight and after questioning him they decide Jesus is a sinner because He healed him on the Sabbath (day of rest). Unbelieveable! Think about the man never even saw Jesus and he ready to follow Him because he cannot deny what was done to him. Not much unlike anyone today. We cannot see Jesus yet when we believe, it is because we cannot deny what we know to be real though we cannot see it. Tay's note in the end is the best- It is as if the formerly blind man himself cannot believe what thier saying and finally snaps. The religious leaders keep calling Jesus a sinner. For him, them are fighting words. Ask Yourself: What are you willing to fight for? The man didn't know who healed him but he was willing to go to the mat for Jesus, even calling himself a disciple. Tomorrow we'll read about him actually meeting Jesus. Stay tuned... Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! |
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