Interruptions are annoying. Our internet is acting up and just when the Netflix show gets exciting....interruption.
As I begin to study John 6, I wonder how the interruptions were not annoying to Jesus. Certainly his disciples would have been troubled by the ups and downs of following after Him....the constant conflict with the religious world, the crowds...
Some two years after the wedding in Cana, Jesus has grown quite a following. A lot of them followed Him just for the novelty....maybe they would get to see Him perform...( a miracle).
Some thought He was indeed the Messiah.
Mark 6:31 tells us that sometimes there was not even time to eat.
I don't know about you, but when my tummy gets really empty, I get impatient. And grouchy.
As John 6:1 begins, we see Jesus going up a mountain, away from the crowd, taking His disciples with Him for some peace and quiet. A time of rest...
But they were interrupted.
I imagine how I would have responded. Tired. Hungry. Emotionally and physically spent. Finally found a quiet place to just sit with Jesus....personal one on one time. And here they come, you can easily see them from up the hillside were they sat....coming.
Picnic and naptime is over. No more resting. Jesus looks down at them coming their direction.
Interruption.
And instead of looking for an out, maybe slip away somehow, Jesus thinks about the needs of these people who are seeking Him out.
And He sees a teaching moment for His disciples.
As a disciple of Jesus myself, I don't like interruptions when I have time alone with Him. I love finding a quiet place and just sitting with His Word, prayerfully taking it in...
Interruptions come.
People need to be fed. People need to know Him, not just me.
He is big enough for the crowd. The crowd of the entire human race...
The only time Jesus is recorded to have asked His disciples advice, and He asks them how to solve an impossible situation. How to feed this huge crowd.
He asks us to feed the crowd. Not with fish...
"Feed My sheep." (John 21:15-17)
What will interrupt my doing that task?
Monday, July 9, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Empowered....
It seems such a simple thing to just 'stop' doing the thing that we should not be doing. We are told in scripture to ".... throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles..."(Hebrews 12:1)
Even when we have the knowledge of the evil, even when we come to fully understand the reasons God has for saying 'don't' .....it is not a simple thing to just 'stop it'. It is not easy to 'throw off' those sins we are entangled in.
So, are we just in a situation that is hopeless? When we try and try....and fail....do we just resolve ourselves to it?
From the story of John 5:1-15, Jesus demonstrated the answer to humanity's dilemma.
We can't just 'stop it'.
If we could, the simple list of ten rules Moses brought down from the mountain would have been humanity's answer.
We don't have the power within ourselves to stop the cycle of sin that started in The Garden.
It takes the Word of God. It takes Messiah Jesus speaking to us. It takes the Presence of The Holy Spirit of God within.
Jesus asked the invalid man, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6)
He still speaks. I echo His question, do you want to be whole?
Do you want to be strengthened, do you want the weakness removed? Do you want to walk on your own power? Do you want to stop depending on the strength of others?
Rather than answer Jesus' question, this man offered Jesus an excuse. Don't we do the same thing?
When He asks me if I want some situation changed, isn't my first response an excuse for being in the situation itself?
As I reflect on this passage, I hear Him say "Connie, if you want things to be different, hear Me....listen for My Voice, and when I speak....get up and walk. Don't wait for someone else to lead the way, don't wait for someone to carry you or lead you by the hand....when I say you can walk, you can walk."
How easily I forget.... What Jesus Christ says, simply IS.
I do well to know what He says, believe what He says, and respond in obedient faith to what He says.
Hallelujah.
Even when we have the knowledge of the evil, even when we come to fully understand the reasons God has for saying 'don't' .....it is not a simple thing to just 'stop it'. It is not easy to 'throw off' those sins we are entangled in.
So, are we just in a situation that is hopeless? When we try and try....and fail....do we just resolve ourselves to it?
From the story of John 5:1-15, Jesus demonstrated the answer to humanity's dilemma.
We can't just 'stop it'.
If we could, the simple list of ten rules Moses brought down from the mountain would have been humanity's answer.
We don't have the power within ourselves to stop the cycle of sin that started in The Garden.
It takes the Word of God. It takes Messiah Jesus speaking to us. It takes the Presence of The Holy Spirit of God within.
Jesus asked the invalid man, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6)
He still speaks. I echo His question, do you want to be whole?
Do you want to be strengthened, do you want the weakness removed? Do you want to walk on your own power? Do you want to stop depending on the strength of others?
Rather than answer Jesus' question, this man offered Jesus an excuse. Don't we do the same thing?
When He asks me if I want some situation changed, isn't my first response an excuse for being in the situation itself?
As I reflect on this passage, I hear Him say "Connie, if you want things to be different, hear Me....listen for My Voice, and when I speak....get up and walk. Don't wait for someone else to lead the way, don't wait for someone to carry you or lead you by the hand....when I say you can walk, you can walk."
How easily I forget.... What Jesus Christ says, simply IS.
I do well to know what He says, believe what He says, and respond in obedient faith to what He says.
Hallelujah.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Stop......
My son refers often to some comedy he watches where a doctor of some sort councils with his patients to 'just stop!!' the behavior that causes them to suffer.
It's a simple concept. If something causes you to be sad or be sick....stop. Just stop it.
It's not always easy to do, but we do have the option of exercising our will and doing just that...
...stop it.
In John 5:14, in His own way, Jesus says 'stop it'. A man had been cured from something that must have been the result of some lifestyle or behavior. Maybe he fell down during a drunken state, maybe it was a sexual disease that caused his illness, who knows.
What strikes me this morning is that Jesus said 'stop'. "...Behold, you are made whole. Sin no more lest a worse thing come to you."(John 5:14)
All sickness is not necessarily a result of personal sin. You can read thru the book of Job and clearly see that truth.
While sickness is not always caused by sin, sin always causes sickness.
You sin, you suffer. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not physically. But when we choose to go outside the standard that God has set, we WILL suffer.
From this simple lesson I want to take one thing this morning....
...when Jesus heals me in a certain area, when He makes me whole again in some splintered or shattered area of my life, I want never to repeat that mistake again.
It's a simple concept. If something causes you to be sad or be sick....stop. Just stop it.
It's not always easy to do, but we do have the option of exercising our will and doing just that...
...stop it.
In John 5:14, in His own way, Jesus says 'stop it'. A man had been cured from something that must have been the result of some lifestyle or behavior. Maybe he fell down during a drunken state, maybe it was a sexual disease that caused his illness, who knows.
What strikes me this morning is that Jesus said 'stop'. "...Behold, you are made whole. Sin no more lest a worse thing come to you."(John 5:14)
All sickness is not necessarily a result of personal sin. You can read thru the book of Job and clearly see that truth.
While sickness is not always caused by sin, sin always causes sickness.
You sin, you suffer. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not physically. But when we choose to go outside the standard that God has set, we WILL suffer.
From this simple lesson I want to take one thing this morning....
...when Jesus heals me in a certain area, when He makes me whole again in some splintered or shattered area of my life, I want never to repeat that mistake again.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Accomplishment...
The word 'after' in the verse above has to do with an accomplishment.
The passage talks about a pool of water that occasionally had a 'stirring'...thought to be done by angels. The phrase about the angels is thought to be a quotation, but even if it is not....even if the water was literally stirred by angels, this thought strikes me....you had to be first.
You had to accomplish some accomplishment, be the best, the fastest, get there first.
If you failed, you had to try harder. And harder.
It was up to you.
As I begin study of John 5, I am thanking God that it is not up to me.
There is not one single thing I can accomplish to get myself cleansed.
It's not a competition. It's not about do more, try harder. I don't have to be 'first'. It is simply about Jesus. He comes to us.
....and when He does, we must offer no excuses...
We must simply trust what He says, and make active steps of obedience.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Relate 2.....
Now I reflect on how Jesus handled the situation of the royal official's request and how he related to this father, and even family who were not directly involved. (John 4:46 ff)
The man's son was sick.
This was a man who had some authority to wield. He was a nobleman either by birth or because of holding some office of the court.
This official knew something about Jesus, and he traveled about a day to get to where Jesus was. His intention is clear...his son was sick and he wanted Jesus to intervene.
I wonder what it was that made him think Jesus could heal his son. It is remarkable that he didn't just send someone to get Jesus.
He left a sick son, and traveled at least a day, to speak to someone he had just heard about. He didn't wield whatever authority he had, he didn't assign the task to someone else, he did it personally, not commanding...just simply requesting that Jesus help.
But he thought Jesus’ physical Presence was the key.
Do I ?
At first, Jesus’ response seems harsh….. "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." ( John 4:48)
Jesus wasn't talking just to this father but to all of them. (..and us.)
Isn’t it like us to want to ‘see’? Don’t we all have the tendency to be in doubt and disbelief until we do?
Jesus’ simple Word is enough. More than enough.
Upon His say-so, it IS. Whatever He says….IS.
I don’t have to see or understand.
I don’t have to believe it for that matter…my belief doesn’t change His power or His character. My belief only changes how He is capable of relating to me.
Jesus said ‘Your son will live.’ This man accepted that as truth and returned to find his son alive and well.
The son had a remarkable turn toward health at the very same time the father had been speaking with Jesus.
"...So he and all his household believed." (John 4:53)
The family who might have wondered why God would take a precious son too soon, now rejoiced...
Not just over returned health…but rejoiced because they had cultivated within themselves a new and exciting relationship with Emmanuel…God With Us.
Had the son not been sick, the father would not have gone to Jesus, and the entire household may never have been brought to faith in Messiah Jesus.
And I would not have considered this morning that Jesus’ simple ‘say-so’ is all it takes.
His Word, IS. Period.
I do well to know what He has said.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Relate....
When I look that word up, the definitions are all about connections.
If you are related, you are connected.
We can be related by bloodline. We can relate by similar experiences. We cultivate RELATionships....and when we don't choose purposefully to do so, there is not much that connects us!!
Jesus was a Master at connecting with people....relating. I see some interesting examples of that in my study of John 4.
Jesus related to the Samaritan woman at the well by talking about water.
Jesus related to the royal official by demonstrating that just His 'say so' would be enough.
In both of these circumstances, Jesus took time and made deliberate effort to relate to them on familiar ground, drawing from their individual lives, things to use as teaching tools.
I first consider how Jesus related to the Samaritan woman.....
She had come to the well to get water, and in the heat of the day....a very unusual time to come, (most likely because she wanted to avoid the other women who would be there in the cooler morning or evening times).
It was a daily task, this getting water. Water wasn't piped into the kitchen sink...and it had to be replenished daily. (...you know what happenes to your dog's water in a couple day's time?...)
Jesus talked to her, which was huge....( any other Jewish man would have avoided contact, and in fact, Jesus' disciples might just have done that, as they probably passed her on the road as she was coming....see Luke 4:6-8...).
Then, Jesus drew her into a conversation about water. He says something about water that will permanetly get rid of thirst. She would be glad to find a way around coming to that well every day for water. But she didn't quite get what Jesus means with His talk about 'living water'.
Jesus continues to cultivate a way to relate to her Who He is.
Rather than accuse or condemn the wrong lifestyle He knew she was in, He presents an opportunity for her to confess to Him the wrong choices she had made and the wrong living situation she was in.
Oh boy...is that uncomfortable ! When Truth pricks thru, how do we respond?
Often, just like this woman. Change the subject !!
"Well, I went to church when I was growing up, but I never did like the preaching..."
"Well, my family went to XYZ church, my spouse was raised ABC, we couldn't agree where to go..."
"Well, we went to church where we lived, but then we moved and just never found a church home...."
She took the focus off personal sin and turned it around to focus on religion.
God and church have never been the same thing. Truth is not defined by religion. And religion does not change truth nor gaurantee truth.
Mere religion leaves us constantly thirsty, needing to drink and drink...trying to satisfy that horrible thirst that is the symptom of our sin-sickness. But if it relieves the dryness of soul at all, it is short lived.
You know ....
...the church-going habit for a while
... the 'I'm going to quit ___________' (fill in the blank with your own self-improvement issue)
... the list of good things we devote ourselves to doing.
All of it, a futile attempt to water ourselves from that well and relieve our dry parched spirit.
Jesus Christ tells the Samaritan woman (and US) that HE is The Living Water.
His mere Word does more to satiate our need than any denominational badge you care to wear. All the self improvements we can accomplish leave us as dirty as 'filthy rags' at best. (Isa. 64:6) All the good deeds and pew sitting we can manage won't do it.
Only Jesus. The Living Water.
Have you gone back to the old watering hole? Do you try to satisfy your need, over and over and over....with water that you labor over pulling up out of a man-made religious hole?
Or do you have the continuing bubble and flow of Living Water within?
And with that ever present flow, do you take that life-giving water to share with everyone in your realm of influence?
Do you have it with you Monday thru Friday, all day Saturday, AND Sunday when you assemble yourself with the family of God, whatever denominational badge that may be?
I echo the Samaritan woman...I leave my old method and come to tell you...
Friend, don't just labor at the well, don't settle for stagnant, temporary sustanance.
One Word. Jesus.
"....leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did." (John 4:29)
I've drank from that well.
I now drink from the "...river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. 22:1)
No more stagnant welled up water for me...
If you are related, you are connected.
We can be related by bloodline. We can relate by similar experiences. We cultivate RELATionships....and when we don't choose purposefully to do so, there is not much that connects us!!
Jesus was a Master at connecting with people....relating. I see some interesting examples of that in my study of John 4.
Jesus related to the Samaritan woman at the well by talking about water.
Jesus related to the royal official by demonstrating that just His 'say so' would be enough.
In both of these circumstances, Jesus took time and made deliberate effort to relate to them on familiar ground, drawing from their individual lives, things to use as teaching tools.
I first consider how Jesus related to the Samaritan woman.....
She had come to the well to get water, and in the heat of the day....a very unusual time to come, (most likely because she wanted to avoid the other women who would be there in the cooler morning or evening times).
It was a daily task, this getting water. Water wasn't piped into the kitchen sink...and it had to be replenished daily. (...you know what happenes to your dog's water in a couple day's time?...)
Jesus talked to her, which was huge....( any other Jewish man would have avoided contact, and in fact, Jesus' disciples might just have done that, as they probably passed her on the road as she was coming....see Luke 4:6-8...).
Then, Jesus drew her into a conversation about water. He says something about water that will permanetly get rid of thirst. She would be glad to find a way around coming to that well every day for water. But she didn't quite get what Jesus means with His talk about 'living water'.
Jesus continues to cultivate a way to relate to her Who He is.
Rather than accuse or condemn the wrong lifestyle He knew she was in, He presents an opportunity for her to confess to Him the wrong choices she had made and the wrong living situation she was in.
Oh boy...is that uncomfortable ! When Truth pricks thru, how do we respond?
Often, just like this woman. Change the subject !!
"Well, I went to church when I was growing up, but I never did like the preaching..."
"Well, my family went to XYZ church, my spouse was raised ABC, we couldn't agree where to go..."
"Well, we went to church where we lived, but then we moved and just never found a church home...."
She took the focus off personal sin and turned it around to focus on religion.
God and church have never been the same thing. Truth is not defined by religion. And religion does not change truth nor gaurantee truth.
Mere religion leaves us constantly thirsty, needing to drink and drink...trying to satisfy that horrible thirst that is the symptom of our sin-sickness. But if it relieves the dryness of soul at all, it is short lived.
You know ....
...the church-going habit for a while
... the 'I'm going to quit ___________' (fill in the blank with your own self-improvement issue)
... the list of good things we devote ourselves to doing.
All of it, a futile attempt to water ourselves from that well and relieve our dry parched spirit.
Jesus Christ tells the Samaritan woman (and US) that HE is The Living Water.
His mere Word does more to satiate our need than any denominational badge you care to wear. All the self improvements we can accomplish leave us as dirty as 'filthy rags' at best. (Isa. 64:6) All the good deeds and pew sitting we can manage won't do it.
Only Jesus. The Living Water.
Have you gone back to the old watering hole? Do you try to satisfy your need, over and over and over....with water that you labor over pulling up out of a man-made religious hole?
Or do you have the continuing bubble and flow of Living Water within?
And with that ever present flow, do you take that life-giving water to share with everyone in your realm of influence?
Do you have it with you Monday thru Friday, all day Saturday, AND Sunday when you assemble yourself with the family of God, whatever denominational badge that may be?
I echo the Samaritan woman...I leave my old method and come to tell you...
Friend, don't just labor at the well, don't settle for stagnant, temporary sustanance.
One Word. Jesus.
"....leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did." (John 4:29)
I've drank from that well.
I now drink from the "...river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. 22:1)
No more stagnant welled up water for me...
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Following....
I don't presume to be Jesus, but if you like my Reflections, will you go to the Blog site and 'Follow' me?
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