Caught....

".....and they said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. " (John 8:4)

It is a familiar story to anyone who has been churched.  "The woman caught in adultery"

I have never been an adulteress. But I sure know what it is like to be caught in sin.

The most important thing is my response to having been caught.  Do I try to cover it up? Deny it? Make excuses for it,  in attempt to justify it?

Worse...do I just accept the sin, callousing my heart so that I'm not even bothered about my wrong behavior?

We do that you know.  Just say 'oh well...', and keep right on with the wrong choices and wrong actions.  Pretty soon, we don't have a second thought about our wrong behavior. (...it can even get to feeling right somehow....)   Maybe I'm the only one with that tendancy.  But I doubt it.



I've read this story many times.  One character I don't want to find myself playing is that of the ones who drug this naked, sinful woman to Jesus.  Out into the street, out into public. 

It is easy for me to identify sin in other people. That in itself is not wrong.  Just as it was not wrong for these religious leaders to call this woman to account for her sin, it is not wrong for me to call others to account for their sin.

Their motive had nothing to do with the woman's spiritual welfare. It had to do with promoting their own agenda.

God help me to never have the wrong motive for bringing sinful behavior to the Light of Jesus Christ.

Division...

"...So there was a division among the people because of Him." (John 7:43)

Jesus admonished us to seek unity.

His whole purpose in becoming a human was to bring about a restored relationship with our Creator God.

Yet when He is present, there is a schism.   A divided sentiment.  Divisions in the way people respond....

Jesus never promised superficial harmony.  In fact, He warned us of the opposite. 

"Don't think I've come to make life cozy...... Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies....If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me. (Matt. 10:34-39 The Message)



When I was 12, I recieved a Bible with my name stamped on the front in gold lettering.  There was a poem printed on cardstock in it that I used for a bookmarker.  It is the only poem I can remember much of and I had lost it somehow, somewhere down thru the years.  (....Google can find ANYthing...)

The poem used the word schism.

I had not heard that word and it was hard t find a definition for it. (...didn't have Google then...)

I still have that Bible with it's notes in the margins.  Notes taken from sermons, notes copied from other people...very little notes from sitting alone myself at Jesus' feet with that Bible opened. I had the information drilled into my head....much of it with a certain doctrinal twist.  (...schism...)



That strange word, 'schism' has always stuck with me...and that Bible has become more than ink on a page. I do not tire of the message written within...and I pour over it prayerfully that no preconcieved doctrinal slant (schism) cloud my vision or dull my hearing. 

I want nothing to bring about any division in my heart regarding Jesus.
I purpose to seek Him with a completely undivided heart. 


He has promised that when I do that....He will be found.  (Jer. 29:13)

My Bible And I

We've travelled together,
My Bible and I,
Through all kinds of weather,
With smile or with sigh!
In sorrow or sunshine,
In tempest or calm!
Thy friendship unchanging,
My lamp and my psalm.

We've travelled together,
My Bible and I,
When life has grown weary,
And death e'en was nigh!
But all through the darkness
Of mist or of wrong,
I found there a solace,
A prayer and a song.

So now who shall part us,
My Bible and I?
Shall "isms" or "schisms"
Or "new lights" who try?
Shall shadow for substance,
Or stone for good bread,
Supplant thy sound wisdom,
Give folly instead?

Ah, no, my dear Bible,
Exponent of light!
Thou sword of the spirit,
Put error to flight!
And still through life's journey,
Until my last sigh,
We'll travel together,
My Bible and I.

Publicity....

Publicity is an attempt, deliberately designed to attract and manage public attention.  It is possible to buy it. I don't do it often, but I have paid lots of money for some of it....

Movie stars and politicians are very stratetic about managing how the public percieves them. They go to great lengths to be at the right place at the right time, wearing the right thing, saying the right thing...

The best kind is free.
The best kind can't be bought. 
The best kind is word of mouth....not managed, not designed, not some strategy.

Jesus' disciples would have been publicists if Jesus had cooperated with them. 

As I continue in my study of John's gospel account, I read in John 7 about Jesus' ministry going forward, and it is again near the festival season. (...think 4th of July when everyone rushes to the lake with hamburger and hotdog supplies..) 

Jesus would have participated in these festivities every year as He grew up.  It would have had great religious meaning but would also have been part of His heritage and something He had shared with His family and friends.

"It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews.   His brothers said, "Why don't you leave here and go up to the Feast so your disciples can get a good look at the works you do.  No one who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes. If you're serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the world."    (John 7:2-4)



Just as the devil had suggested, (Matthew 4:5-6), now Jesus' brothers suggest, "Dazzle them! Show off some of those tricks you can do !! This is a perfect opportunity, all these people in town, everyone receptive to hearing about Messiah, You can take down the house !!"

But....as they should have realized, miracles don't bring about belief.  They had seen, yet demand more miraculous 'proof'. 

Jesus is the most famous person Who ever walked this earth, but His strategy to be in the right place at the right time was not a plan to manage public opinion. 

It was a strategy planned out from eternity past.....

It was a strategy to be in ONLY the right place at the right time....


.......on Calvary's hill, as the Lamb of God, at the time of the final Passover.



Hallelujah.





Devil...

Around Halloween, a devil wears a red suit with a long pointed tail, horns on his head, and a spear in his hand.

I've heard people call a mischievous child a 'little devil'. 

I don't like either.



Jesus faced 'the' devil in the wilderness.

In John 6:70 Jesus spoke of  'a' devil.



 He had been talking to the following crowd  about spiritual food rather than the free fish dinner they had enjoyed previously. In the process, He was exposing false motives.  The real reason they followed Him was not for Who He is, but for what He could do for them. At least in part....

A profound truth I see this morning is that the Word of God brings life, and it divides. 

Some of the people said Jesus' teaching was 'too hard', and left.  They stopped following, stopped seeking Him out, stopped listening.

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. (John 6:67)


I love Peter's answer.

"Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life.We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:69 The Message)

But Jesus' response chills me.....

"Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" (John 6:70)

I purpose before God this morning to not just 'look' like a follower of Jesus.

I purpose before Him to be authentic. 

Difficult....

"On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" (John 6:60)

Acting in obedience to what God instructs is rarely ANYthing other than difficult.

 Making a decision to follow Christ seems only to make life more difficult. 

Choosing to do what HE says is right is much more difficult than just reacting to our life situations in whatever way we feel at the moment.

Often I have repeated this to Jesus. "This is hard !!"   "Who can do this?" (John 6:60)




"I can"....He whispers.





".....the Spirit of truth.......... you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you........

 I will not leave you...." (John 14:17-18)

Teach....

Continuing in John 6...I think about the crowd of Jews following this new Teacher Jesus. 

They had been fed......miraculously.
People had been healed....miraculously.



I feel sure I would have been right where they were.  Questioning. Drawing on my knowledge of scripture. I'm pretty sure I would not have recognized prophecy fulfilled in this carpenter from Nazareth.....no more than they did.

Why did so many not get it?  Why did they not recognize Him for Who He was...immediately?  They had so much knowledge of scripture, prophecy......




In John 6:45, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54:13 and Jeremiah 31:31-34, telling the critical Jews who questioned His teaching that "...all will be taught by God.." (John 6:45)

To teach it to communicate to another the knowledge of that of which he was before ignorant. (Webster's definition)



I am struck this morning with that phrase, "taught by God". 

I can learn lots of information. I can replace any area of ignorance with facts and data. I can scrutinize and analyze....

But in matters of God and His Word, what He has said, what He IS saying, what He is doing....I do well to not teach myself.  I may accumulate some knowledge, but that knowledge will be useless unless it is brought to Life by The Holy Spirit of God. 

I purpose today to be taught by God. 

Endures....

Webster says "To last; to continue in the same state without perishing"

In John 6:27 Jesus says, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.."

What does that mean?  I echo the question of the crowd following Him that day. 

As I ponder on the situation recorded in scripture, I see a crowd of people following Jesus because of reasons like the free food and free medical help He was providing.

Why do I follow Him? 



I have learned that my greatest needs are not the immediate needs we all have.  While Jesus is indeed concerned with the needs of my flesh, (He knows about those....personally..), His desire is that I have my eternal needs met.

And those needs are needs that I am absolutely powerless to fill.....


How thankful I am that it is not my own work and labot, but the work of grace, that provides the eternal food that I would die without. 

Eternally....that is beyond a long time.