2/25/15 by Ashley Pollock

“Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people.” John 2:23-24

Technically, this particular entry was meant to focus on John 2:23-3:15, but I am having trouble getting past the first two verses. So I am going to leave the beginning of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus (as found in John 3) for you faithful readers to dig into on your own and stick with what hit me like a freight train this morning. “…many people saw the signs He was performing AND believed in His name” (John 2:23). The phrasing of this verse makes it seem like the signs were the root of their faith and therefore Jesus did not “entrust Himself to them.” It would be easy to judge the nameless people in this passage for needing to see something to believe but doing so would be hypocritical for how often have I waited for Jesus to prove Himself to me? How often have I waited for Him to bring me through a trial before praising Him and reaffirming my faith in His goodness?

Today is day 23 of my stay at the luxurious Huntington Hospital – and believe me, it is luxurious as far as hospitals go. They are bringing me a cottage cheese and fruit plate as I type this! And while here, I, like the crowds in the verse above, have been amazed by the signs the Lord has performed. He has shown Himself in the love of people – people like my LCPC family who have sent cards, visitors, flowers and prayers. People like the children of CFC, who have sent me posters of their footprints and pictures of babies and rainbows. People like the families of a church I sang at one time in Kentucky who have been checking in regularly through social media. The Lord has shown Himself in the way He has quieted our baby girl’s heartbeat when it was racing and we were minutes away from having to call an emergency doctor and suddenly her heart slowed down to a normal pace again. He has shown Himself in several nurses who have not only taken care of me and baby Pollock but whispered that they would pray for me when they went home. God has shown Himself here. I am so grateful and it would be easy to leave it at that… perhaps I would have just left it at that if the Holy Spirit had not used those two verses above to convict me. You see, in my prayers these past three weeks I have been only thanking God for what He has done and the signs He has shown. I have praised Him for the people He has sent me. I have thanked Him for the medical marvels that have kept this pregnancy going. And God rightly deserves that praise and gratitude. He has been beyond generous. But in the midst of it all, I have forgotten that I worship God not just for what He does but for who He is. He is faithful. He is loving. He is good. He is loyal to His children. I have let my faith rest on His signs and that is not where it belongs. My faith belongs in Him – regardless of what He does or does not do. I want to be a servant that Jesus can trust to say on both my best day and my worst: You, Lord, are worthy. Worthy is the Lamb.

2/24/15 by Josh Horton

"Passage: John 2.13-22

In my small group with the 9th grade boys yesterday, while we were reading through a couple of passages in Luke, chapter 9, we read the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000 and then were moving on to Jesus asking the disciples who the people thought He was. And before we read Jesus' response, one of the boys shouted, “He's doing it again!” To which I replied, “...doing what...?” “He's teaching them a lesson! Everything Jesus does has this sneaky way of teaching the disciples a lesson and they never see it coming!”
How accurate that is. In the gospels, Jesus is almost constantly teaching His disciples some lesson or another; developing air-tight metaphors through his every move and word. As we read John 2.13-22, it at first seems Jesus travels to the temple because of frustration with what's going on inside. But we later find that Jesus had something even more important to talk about: the resurrection of His temple; His conquering of death itself. This passage then ends by explaining what is potentially the chief reason Jesus takes the disciples on this journey: V22, “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” The disciples remembered, and they believed.
What a blessing it is, that Jesus is true to His word. What a blessing it is, that we have a Savior who, by His character alone, gives us reason enough to have faith. When I read this passage, another passage immediately came to mind: 1 Cor 6.19-20, where in Paul says to the church in Corinth, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” It's interesting to me that Paul uses this imagery, as Jesus went to the literal temple in Jerusalem to “drive out” and over-turn the tables of all of the things that were distracting the Jews from God. It's almost as if Jesus does the same thing in our own hearts, the new temple of God...
In this period of lenten discipline, let us be encouraged that Jesus in his character, love and glory is both giving us reason to have faith that He will keep His promises, all the while cleansing and purifying our hearts to be evermore identical to His."

2/23/15 by Lee Cook

Mark 8:34-38

One of Peter's biggest obstacles to obedience was his inability to lay aside his own agenda and embrace Jesus' agenda. In Peter's defense, Jesus' agenda was almost unimaginable to Peter at the time. No one would have imagined the Messiah's vocation was to be defeated and executed as a criminal.

This morning, I am reflecting about my own agenda. Where are my blind spots? What agendas have I yet to abandon in order to follow Jesus? Following Jesus means letting go of everything for the sake of the Kingdom. What am I still clinging to?

One of the places where I have failed is in the area of evangelism. I talk about Jesus everyday but rarely to people outside the church. Most of my day is filled with meetings, sermon/class preparation, visits, and administration.  Almost all of that is church related, but I rarely escape these walls and find new ways to introduce others to the Risen Lord.

During this Lenten journey, one of my goals is to obey Jesus' call to go out and reap the harvest of the Kingdom.