3/25/15 - by John Schroeder

The text for the day is from the sixth chapter of the Gospel by John. That chapter begins with Jesus feeding the 5000, after which he departs and hides himself. He was concerned that the crowd was going to carry him away and try to force him to be king. That evening, he does the whole walking on the water thing, and the next morning when the crowd found him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and it was clear he had not used a boat, they got a little excited. The text for today is Jesus' response to this crowd:

John 6:26-40 (I have linked to it, please click the link and read it, it would take too much space to reproduce it here.

In the passage, Jesus seems to be teaching three basic truths that add up to two big questions:

• That if we follow Jesus for material gain, we are not really following Him. (The whole thing about "you seek Me because you ate...but that is food that perishes.)
• The good stuff comes from heaven (the whole manna discussion.)
• Jesus is the source of the good stuff for us, but (circling back to the first point)we have to be serious about it.

The commentaries usually rush to point out concerning this passage that Jesus is establishing His bona fides as the Messiah - the whole thing where he is the source of the gift, unlike Moses who asked God for the gift, and that he is the source of salvation.

But there are two questions out this passage that fascinate me far more:

• Jesus uses our motives for seeking Him as a determining factor as to whether or not we are really, genuinely seeking him. Most of us tend to think that it does not matter why we seek Jesus, just that we do seek him.  So what should our motives be?
• Jesus implies that there is stuff far better than material gain. That's a real "Sunday School lesson" thing to say, but nobody in Sunday School ever told me what that really good stuff is.  Just what is it?

These are the questions I want to examine here, and as we do so, I think we will find they are deeply related to each other.

What Should Our Motives Be?

Jesus teaches much of this same lesson, in somewhat less harsh terms, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 6:25-34, the very famous passage where we are told to consider the birds and the flowers and not to worry food and clothing. In verse 33 Jesus says, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Let's bottom line this, our motivation should not be about ourselves at all.  Our motivation is to join God's Kingdom and do what is right.  Our motivation in to put someone else, God, in charge and to be good.  That has absolutely nothing to do with my desires.  My desires are to be in charge, not let someone else be in charge.  My desires are for what feels good, and all of us know that what feels good often is not what is right.

In the end, our motivation for seeking Christ should be selfless, not selfish.  That is a hard sell.  It is easy to get people to come to Jesus when there is something in it for them, but it seems like to get to the good stuff, we have to give up asking the question, "What's in it for me?"

What Is The Good Stuff?

So, if I am no longer asking, "What's in it for me?" then we can be pretty sure the good stuff is not what we think we need or what feels good.  If Jesus will, as he says, "give us what we need," as if we can take it for granted like the air we breath, then the stuff we think we need is pretty ordinary and hardly good at all.

The good stuff is when we "live righteously."  Living righteously is about both attitude and action.  It does not just mean, euphemistically,  "no smoking, drinking, and chewing" though that ends up being part of the deal.  It means being so wholly transformed that we no longer want those things.  That's what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount when He talks about "lust in the heart."

See, right now, I don't think we can really understand what the good stuff truly is because we still desire the mundane stuff or the bad stuff.  This is not a substitution problem, substituting good stuff in our desires for bad stuff, this is about changing our desires, or perhaps eliminating our desires altogether.

Speaking as a science and math person we live in a world that is essentially Euclidean and Newtonian.  Without belaboring the point, that means where there are three dimensions that meet at 90 degree angles (a corner in a room) and when you drop a rock it falls straight down.  But our science has begun to reveal that there are different worlds that operate on entirely different principles, where there are 10 dimensions meeting at 90 degree angles and where a dropped rock "falls" sideways.  I can do the math behind such things and even I can't really get my head around them.

God, because He is so much more than we can possibly be, lives in a world that even our science cannot reveal.  It is a world that in some ways makes no sense to us, like a rock falling sideways.  That's where the good stuff is.  It is good beyond our capacity to really understand good - at least for now.

That said, when we do get the good stuff, we will most certainly know it is the good stuff.  Not only that, when we get the good stuff, the hard sell of not asking "What's in it for me?" won't be so hard.  The good stuff is so good that other people are going to take one look at us and  want to join the party.

But for that to happen, we need to stop asking "What's in it for me."  That question grounds us in this world.  Getting to the good stuff starts when we move from selfishness to selflessness.

3/24/15 by Donna Herrin

John 9:18-41

How does one even begin to blog about this passage? I am NOT the person to help you comprehend these scripture verses. I could barely get through the first verses; not because the passage is long, (although that in itself was a bit intimidating) but because I struggle with the parents of the blind man, specifically in verse 22. The Jews still disbelieving the man, ask the parents ¹⁸ “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” ²⁰ “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. ²¹ But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³ That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 

WHAT? They threw their blind son under the bus! 

What parent does this? I have been hung up on this passage for about a week. It’s crazy, but it has really bothered me. So much in fact that I had to put this passage away for a few days and try to forget about it. The parents were afraid. Parents aren’t supposed to be afraid, are they? More importantly, we’re not suppose to show fear. We’re suppose to be strong; Stand up and protect our children from oppression. It’s an unspoken law that is placed upon our heart the moment we meet our child for the first time. 

But as I dug deeper, I knew it wasn’t just the parents’ weakness that bothered me, it was my own weakness.

I put myself in the parents’ place and thought, “Have I have said or done the same thing because I was afraid that I would be put out of the ______________? (Fill in the blank with what matters most to you.) I remember as a child being told that someday I may have to defend my faith. That there may even come a time when I will have to declare my allegiance to Christ or die. I remember thinking, “Of course, I will never deny Christ. I will die before I deny Him.” Such easy words to say, but when faced with adversity have I been faithful? Have I remained silent, when I should have taken a stand? Have I turned my back on my Lord? I wish I could say that I am the model poster child for how a Christian should behave, but I am far from it. I have blown it, just like those parents. I have been afraid and have remained silent. I am Peter and I hear the rooster crow once again. 

And yet the time has come for many to be strong...

Lately, as I log on to the internet my eyes are drawn to the latest caption that more Christians have been beheaded or blown up. I find myself becoming physically ill at the thought of such hatred and violence. I can’t take it! Proverbs 3: 5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” That is what I must do. My heart aches for my fellow believers in Christ, for their families, and for their friends. I pray for their protection. I pray that God will give them the strength they need to not back down when they are told to deny Christ or die. I ask God to grant them peace in the midst of terror and sorrow. 

Lord, give me strength like theirs.

Lord, I am weak, like the blind man’s parents. I pray that you will give me the words to speak up for you and to tell others about you. That I will not remain silent when I have the chance to praise your name. To live boldly for you. To never walk away from a situation knowing that I had an opportunity to witness, but chose to remain silent. As your child, I thank you for loving me despite my flaws. As my Father, I love you for being the perfect example of what it takes to be a good parent, child, friend, and witness. I thank you for showing me the greatest love a parent could have when you sacrificed yourself to save us. Help me to be more like you. 

Amen.

3/23/15 by Ashley Fernandez

Matthew West - Hello, My Name Is

Hello, my name is regret….

Hello, my name is defeat….

These are the voices, these are the lies
,

And I have believed them, for the very last time

CHORUS:

Hello, my name is child of the one true King


I've been saved, I've been changed, and I have been set free


"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing


Hello, my name is child of the one true King.

I love this Matthew West song and every time I hear it I sing loudly that I am a child of the one true King.  But not before I have to stop and listen to the lyrics that remind me that I believe that I am broken, I have regret and I have been defeated.  These are the things that Satan wants us to believe.  And we believe it! 

When will we stop believing the lies and listen to our Father? 

Think about the blind man that Jesus healed.  (John 9: 1-17)  He did nothing to deserve the grace that Jesus lavished upon him, he only believed that Jesus could heal.  And Jesus did!  So many did not believe it.  They saw but still did not believe.  Is this how we are living out our daily lives?  Knowing that Jesus wants us to accept His grace, knowing that He is the one true King, but not believing?  Listening to the lies that we are not good enough, not   deserving enough?  How much will it take for us to believe that Jesus, our One True King, is for us and not against us?

My prayer today is that we live accepting Jesus’ grace, not believing the lies that Satan is telling us.  Let us be like the blind man, all trusting and knowing that we are children of the One True King!

3/20/15 by Kristin Jewell

I don't know about you, but when I'm really hungry, my whole world turns upside down. I start to feel jittery, can't form coherent thoughts, often say things I don't mean to say...my whole being starts to shut down.

John 6:53 says, "So Jesus said to them, "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 you." (ESV)

Even though Jesus isn't telling those listening to him to literally eat of his flesh and drink his blood, I can see that without consuming Jesus' blood and flesh, our whole being ceases to function in the same way that hunger affects us- "you have no life in you."

To eat of Jesus' body means we acknowledge that His presence is enough to sustain us and His word is sufficient enough to nourish us. When we drink of Jesus' blood, we receive the truth that His sacrifice on the Cross, the spilling of His blood and of His life for us, are enough to cover our sins.

Why must we see Jesus as the "main food group" for our lives? We need Him because the world is only feeding us junk. It boasts that we can be nourished by money, by power, by the love of others, by achievement...you name it. But, when we use these things to feed us, we are nourishing our heart, soul and mind just as sufficiently as a meal of Cheetos and Coca-Cola could. For a moment you are filled, but soon you start to feel that hunger; the aching of your stomach, the shaking of your hands and the edginess that comes when you really just need a wholesome meal.

All this world has to offer will end up starving us. What a gracious and loving Father we have who gives us the true Bread and Wine.

3/19/15 by Shirley Carlson

Jesus Is The Bread of Life...John 6:41-51

Just like Pat Chambers felt her scripture passage for the blog she wrote was perfect for her, I have the same feeling about this passage in John. 

Jesus said, “Yes, I am the bread of life!”  John 6: 48.

I love bread and there is very little that satisfies me more than bread--the aroma of it baking, the delicious taste, and the joy of baking it and sharing it with others.  In fact, for several years I kept a bread starter going and fed it every couple days.  By feeding it, I was then able to use some of the starter to make delicious loaves of bread.  Often there was more than we could eat and I was able to share both the bread and the starter with others.  However, in one of our moves, I lost the starter because a bread starter needs to be fed to keep its yeasty action going.  I miss not baking it now.  But every chance that I get, I relish the taste of good hearty bread.

But the passage in John 6:41-51 is not about my love for bread.  It is about Jesus once again using the ordinary experiences in our lives to teach us something.  By referring to himself as bread, a common staple in our diet, I believe he is saying that we need to feed on him daily for our spiritual nourishment.  Just like the aroma of baking bread permeates a home, Jesus wants our lives filled with his presence so that it permeates our lives forever.  Also, just like bread starter needs to be fed, we need to feed on his word.  When our faith is strong, we then can share it with others. 

In this passage, the crowd has difficulty in believing that Jesus is who he says he is. They know his parents and therefore reason that he is ordinary just like them.  And what does he mean when he says they are to eat from him and never be hungry again?  We can sympathize with their confusion.  So often we want proof, but Jesus wants us to chew on his words, to feast on his teachings, and to believe in him, our Savior.

Some things to think about:

            -When you think of Jesus as the Bread of Life what does that mean for you? 

            -What kind of bread would you choose to best describe Jesus?  Why?

            -How will you keep your starter going? 

3/16/15 by Jim Gorton

Lent is a season in which we are to discipline ourselves by fasting, prayer and study in expectation of the Passion of Christ, which in turn leads to the Resurrection and the abundance of new life promised by God to those who believe in him.  Ideally, Lent is a reminder to us that we owe all that we are and have in this life and in this world to God, a reminder to shape our lives in conformance with His will.

It is commonplace now to hear that ‘religion’ is responsible for many of the ills of our world and much of the wrongs that have been committed in it over the centuries.  That much has been done in the name of Christ which has ignored His spirit and His teachings is undeniable, but says nothing.  It is the usual false comparison with an ideal political or religious ideology and a system of thought, political or theological, as actually put into practice by mankind.
In this case, the ‘ideal’ is a world without religion, and in particular Christianity.  It is a world in which people would act in accordance with commonly understood ethics and morality as established by logic and reason, rather than through religious superstition.  This of course is the ideal without reference to the actions of mankind.

What would a world without Christianity look like?  As it happens, we have no shortage of examples, both from our own times, but also from ancient times and from cultures ruled by other religious systems.  The critical difference has been that Christians and Jews follow a God who has taught us that every person has an immortal soul, is equal before God and, as in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31, are accountable to God for their actions in life.  In Christianity, it is the poor and down-trodden who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.  Over time, peoples and nations who have followed Christ have established societies ruled by law which respects that even the lowliest beggar has an immortal soul and cannot be killed out of hand.

In our own times, numbers of nations have attempted to found states in which an order was established which, as it certainly seemed to those who founded it and who followed it, arose out of the exercise of human reason to establish societies in which religion of no kind had any part, namely Lenin and Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, the killing fields of Cambodia and the ongoing example of North Korea, among others.  In each of these societies, people established a societal order along lines which seemed to them good as determined by their own wants or desires, untethered by any morals or ethics imposed from ‘outside,’ such as God.  That logic in all cases disposed of any belief in an immortal soul and disposed of any notion of the worth of a life.  The only absolute in these systems being human reason and logic, there was no logical reason for those who were in positions of power to allow the worth of any one or more individuals to frustrate or block the actions of those in power.  That millions were slaughtered in these states or as a result of their actions followed inevitably.

The society and legal system which we now enjoy and under which we shelter is essentially a construct of Christian societies, the result of a faith in which the worth of the individual soul was and is indisputable.  If that faith is tossed aside, however, there is no especial logic or reason which dictates that it continue to be the touchstone of our society, rather the reverse.  The history of the 20th century is testament to this if nothing else.

As part of our Lenten contemplation, we as Christians often attempt to acknowledge all that God has given us, but it is difficult most of the time to understand the enormity of that gift.  One such aspect of that gift has been in recent times, the ability to live in a society guided by His principles.

3/13/15 by Michelle Bouse

“Forgive” appears 42 times in the Old Testament, 33 times in the New Testament. The word “Forgiven” appears 17 times in the Old Testament and 28 times in the New Testament. And the word “Forgiving” appears 6 times in the Old Testament and 1 time in the New. (from http://garyeugenehowell.com)

We are here to love and forgive. The Lord asks us multiple times to do so.

Ephesians 4:32  "Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
We have all said "I'm sorry," and we've all said "I forgive you," but did we mean it.  How many times did you pray for that situation or person after you forgave them?

True forgiveness is from the heart, it is when we not only pardon someone or something, but allow our heart to let it go – giving it to God. The healing continues when we pray and ask for blessings over the person or situation. Forgiveness always points back to Jesus' ultimate message, to love one another. If God has forgiven us, shouldn’t we then forgive others?

Forgiving is a process.  It is much easier (just like most things in life) when we ask God for help. So many of us are holding on to things that no longer serve us.  We say we forgive, but we won't forget. We learn our lesson, but won’t let it go. Anger, hurt & resentment are harmful.  It can make you sick and dims your light (and this world needs your light), the light of God’s love in your heart. God is the only one who can change our emotions, soften & heal our heart.  Asking God to help us forgive, is the only way we can surrender, let go and move on.

Luke 17:4 "Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and ask forgiveness, you must forgive."

On Ash Wednesday I asked the Lord to help me learn to forgive as he does. I asked for the strength and purity of heart to pray for those that have deeply hurt me.  I pray to forgive them, bless them and thank God with all my heart for holding my hand & healing my emotions.

I believe God gives us many opportunities to heal and learn the peace that comes from forgiveness. By forgiving others, in turn we are the ones who receive the greatest blessing of all.. Peace.

Is there someone or something in your life that needs forgiveness?  For Lent why not finally give up your deepest pain, let go of the anger, the past hurt & sorrow.. pray to forgive & be forgiven. Let God pour love back into your heart & fill in those cracks.  It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!

We are made to love, not to hate. By not forgiving we are just blocking love.