Jn12

Jesus said to Peter, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to Jesus, "You will never wash my feet."

Peter was always resisting the plans of Jesus! Not because he didn't love Jesus, but because he couldn't understand what Jesus was doing. Peter needed to have faith in Jesus, not in himself. Jesus could see into the future. Peter could only see in the past and the present. Peter's perspective almost always had him resisting the will of God.

I am the same way. I often think that I know what God wants to do and it is not at all what He wants to do. My thoughts are clouded with my own desires. My actions are shaped by those same desires. Jesus knew Peter would see clearly in time. Jesus knew Peter's heart was to follow Him. He needed to see from a different perspective. Peter would understand in time.

What is God wanting to do with us today that we are resisting because of our wrong perspective? It is not enough to love Jesus. He wants our faith and obedience. He will not follow our desires for Him. He is God. We are not.

Jn12

Most often the ones who question the generosity of others are motivated by their own selfishness. Judas loved money. Mary's generous outpouring toward Jesus, did not reveal his heart for the poor! In fact, it exposed the greed in his soul.

Greed is a horribly sticky sin. Most of us love money, but would never admit it. We like to judge others for what they do with their money, but rarely want to give an account for what we do with "our" money. One sure way to check our generosity is to examine our hearts when we see generosity in others.

If we are generous, our hearts rejoice when we see generosity. Generosity is motivated by generosity. To see others giving freely motivates us to do the same. If we are greedy, we tend to judge other's gifts by the standards that we ourselves don't keep. We justify ourselves and judge others.

Are we motivated by the generosity of others? Are we sacrificially generous towards the things of God?

Jn11

Lazarus is a powerful example of the resurrection power of Jesus! He was dead, and now he is alive. His life was totally lost. No more time. No more opportunity. No more relationships. He was dead.

In one moment, everything changed. With one short sentence Jesus changed everything. "Lazarus, come out!" From that moment, Lazarus began a new life. Every breath was a recognized gift. Every day was a bonus day. What was his new choice? To radically testify to the resurrection power of Jesus.

In the same way, our lives have been changed. We have be born again. Brought from death to life. We are to live each day as if it is a gift from God. Why? Because it is. How will we spend these bonus breaths? How will we spend the days, months and years of the rest of our lives.

Jn10

My prayer is that all of us experience the love and concern of the "Good Shepherd". Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd who lays down my life for the sheep".

Jesus knows us! He loves us! He knows that we are weak, defenseless and vulnerable without Him. His desire is for our good. He knows what is truly best for us. We can not only trust Him for eternal life, we can trust Him today.

Think about these amazing truths today. Follow Jesus.

Jn9

"This I know, once I was blind and now I see." - The blind man Jesus healed

There is nothing more powerful than a personal testimony. A changed life speaks more boldly than a well crafted speech. How has Jesus changed our lives?

I both love and hate it when people who knew me before I knew Jesus talk about the person they knew. I hate it because I was a godless man (even though I could talk a great talk). I love it because almost always they are talking about how "different" I am.

My only response is to say, "I used to only know about Jesus, now I have met Him personally. He has changed my life."

Jn8

This chapter begins and ends with religious leaders holding rocks in their hands in order to stone someone! The first is a woman "caught" in adultery. The second is Jesus because He was "blaspheming". In both instances their stone judgements were the result of unbelieving, hard hearts.

They accused Jesus of having a demon and Jesus told them they were sons of Satan. Can you imagine this conversation? Was it heated? Did Jesus raise His voice? I often wonder what these interactions were like.

Jesus said to those who believed in Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." True freedom is in knowing and following Jesus.

Jn7

Jesus described the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who would believe in Him as a "river of living water flowing out of their heart." This river would enable them to follow Jesus.

The river that most of Jesus' hearers would have been familiar with would have been the Jordan river. The Jordan provided life for the entire region. Without the Jordan, life in Israel would be miserable.

In the same way the Holy Spirit enables us to experience the life of Christ. It comes from within and helps us obey Jesus' commands. Without the Holy Spirit there is no life. Without the Holy Spirit there is no ability to obey Jesus.

Jn6

Most of us do everything we can to get people to like us. Not so with Jesus. He never compromised His message or His methods in order to gain followers. His desire was always to please just One...God.

Jesus' words were difficult to accept. His action, especially healing everyone, drew large crowds that wanted personal healing and others who wanted to see miracles. His teaching was difficult to understand and embrace. In fact, most chose to not follow Him. So many stopped following Jesus that He turned to His disciples and said, "Do you wan to go away as well?"

It was in this moment the we have some of the most tender words ever spoken by Peter. He said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You (alone) have the words of eternal life." Already he was leading others to follow Jesus. He knew that Jesus was the chosen One of God. He was a simple fisherman who was a profound follower of Jesus.

Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. Choose to follow Him.

Jn5

There is no question about what Jesus believed about Himself. One of the main reasons that the Jews wanted to kill Him is because He was "making himself equal with God." Why? Because He was, He is, and He always will be God.

John wrote this gospel to help everyone understand this truth. If Jesus is not God, He cannot save us from God's wrath. Jesus said, "whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." Only God could make this statement and it be a true statement.

On the other hand, Jesus sometimes heals people that He doesn't save. The lame man received healing from God. He did not receive salvation. What a horrible thing to see a man healed by Jesus who remained lame in heart. I call this guy the "double lame" guy. After he was healed, Jesus sought him out again. After the second interaction, he immediately went and "told" on Jesus.

Crazy story.

Jn4

Change your perspective, change your prayer life. Change your prayer life, change your values. Change your values, change you life!!

Jesus said to his disciples, "Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." In other words, "your focus is all wrong! Get your head up and see what I see!" The disciples were worried about food, reputation, and fame. Jesus was focused on the kingdom of God. While Jesus was changing the world the disciples were arguing about petty things.

Aren't we the same way? Don't we get caught up in things that don't matter? Aren't we consumed by giving our time and attention only to the things that effect our little kingdoms? How vested are we in the things of God?

Let's get our eyes off ourselves and try to see what God sees. The harvest is plentiful. Pray for laborers.

Jn3

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. -v. 36

This is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, chapters in the whole bible! So full of gospel truth. It is simple, straight forward and clear. I have read it a thousand times and every time it moves my soul. Today I saw something that I had not remembered in verse 36. Look again at this verse.

We know that the key to salvation is belief. "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." But look what John declares will happen to those who believe and have life. The will OBEY the Son.

What we believe shapes our actions. Our thoughts govern our behaviors. We cannot separate our beliefs and our activities. Works do not save. Never have. Never will. We cannot earn salvation. Only Jesus saves. AND when faith happens, our behaviors begin to change as well.

Faith is Jesus is more that happy thoughts about Jesus.

Jn2

The church is not a place for personal business! It is to be a place of prayer and worship.

Even today many people "attend" church as a social event. It is where they make friends, get connections, and yes…grow their business. The bigger the church, the better the opportunity.

Jesus has no time for this kind of "business". The church is to be a place of worship. When the church gathers, we should be inspired to worship, called to prayer and motivated to sacrificially give of all God has given to us to see God's kingdom advanced! It is never to be a place of "personal gain".

Jesus values those who will "lose everything" to follow Him. He said, "whoever loses his life for me will truly find life."

When our involvement in religious activity becomes about us and not about God, we have lost the reason for going. Jesus would not be pleased.

Jn1

Have you been baptized? When and where? Was it with water only or were you baptized with water because you wanted to proclaim to the world that you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

John came baptizing with water. Only water. Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Without the baptism that Jesus gives, the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation.

Most people have only gotten a religious experience and either partially or totally wet! That is NOT the baptism that Jesus is talking about. Water baptism is symbolic of a spiritual reality.

Many of us should check into this. Many of us need to be baptized!

Tt3

God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out richly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. v. 5-6

Jesus saved us without any works! Salvation IS the work of God, yet this salvation should compel us to do "good works". He has given us everything we need…and more. His desire is that we would live this life not for ourselves, but for His kingdom.

How much of our day will be focused on pleasing God? Why not make pleasing God the entire focus of every day? He is worth it.

Tt2

"Jesus gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." v - 14

We are the people of God. We have been bought out of slavery to sin and placed into the community of God. Our hearts have been changed and our activities should demonstrated that reality. Sin should no longer control our lives and worldliness should no longer determine our activity. Being zealous for God and pursuing His agenda is to be our primary agenda.

What would have to happen in our lives before we actually were excited to do the right things? When will we get to the place of maturity where "doing good works" is an overflow of our relationship with God and not act act of "duty"?

God has poured out His Spirit into our lives. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. The choice is ours today. Will we pursue the things of God? Will we give ourselves for the things that matter?

Tt1

"They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works." vs.16

What we do with our lives is a far more convincing testimony than what we say with our words. What we say matters little if our lives contradict our words. Don't get me wrong, what we say also matters, but will be null and void if our actions don't back that up.

I love the saying, "faith works." Some believe that works save. in fact, this is one of the most common false teachings of our day. Everyone knows that someone who says one thing and does another is a "hypocrite". What do our actions say about our faith? It matters.

2Tm4

Possibly the saddest verses in the whole bible! "Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me…"

Demas was on Paul's church planting team. He personally observed miracles and saw the spread of the gospel throughout the known world. He was on the inner circle….YET his heart was never really "in love" with Jesus. He chose the present pleasures of this life over God's heavenly kingdom. What a fool. What a D_m _ As_!

God help us all to stay the course and finish the race of faith. Our hearts are deceptive and pursue foolish and temporal things. It is so easy to get caught up in this life and forfeit the life that is to come. It is not how we start. It is how we finish.

2Tm3

Do we desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus? If so, here is a verse we should all memorize. "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…"

I have seen a lot of verses on memory cards, but I don't ever recall this one being in my discipleship packet! Most of those verses tended to make me think that following Jesus would make my life easier and not harder. It is verses like this one that really clarifies what it means to truly follow Jesus. I wonder how many believers around the world are enduring the persecution promised in this verse today?

Most of my suffering is cause by my sin! Most of my pain is cause by the poor decisions that I make or poor decisions those I love make. I would be hard pressed to give one illustration of how I have been persecuted for the sake of Christ. Can you think of any? I would love to hear your examples.

Thank God for His blessings. They are not guaranteed.

2Tm2

"Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the name of the Lord with a pure heart." -v22 As believers are we "fleeing" and "pursuing" the right things? Are we working in the context of other believers to strengthen ourselves and those around us?

Paul compares our faith to being a soldier, a farmer and an athlete. All of these comparisons are lifestyles not events! Being a soldier involves training, warfare and suffering. Being a farmer requires total dependence on God and hard work. Being an athlete requires knowing and following the rules.

Following Jesus takes everything we have. We won't follow Jesus alone. Let's give ourselves fully to following Christ today. Let's make sure we are in a context that pushes us to do this better.

2Tm1

Do not be "ashamed" of the gospel or to speak boldly about Jesus.

Paul encouraged Timothy to not be ashamed of the gospel and boldly stated that he himself was not ashamed of Jesus! Doesn't it seem obvious that if we are embracing the salvation that only comes through Jesus that we would never be "ashamed" of Him? Why would Paul have to tell Timothy this? Why would he make a point about his personal boldness?

The answer is personal. Haven't we all experienced the desire to NOT identify with Jesus? Don't we all tend to shy away from boldly standing with Christ or speaking about Him to those who don't know Him? We generally call it, "not being offensive", but actually it is fear and shame.

This is the "spirit of fearfulness" that is not from God. God has given us the "spirit of power, love and sound judgement." Don't shrink back in fear today. Speak boldly about what you believe and who you believe in.

1Tm6

What is it that we "crave"? To crave means: to long for, to want greatly or to desire eagerly. Cravings take our thoughts, capture our emotional energy, and get us into conversation. Cravings are desires that we feel a need to satisfy. The problem is when we "crave" the wrong things.

It is one thing to be pregnant and "crave" a certain food. It is a completely different thing to "crave" to be rich! In fact, Paul said that this kind of craving has caused people to "wander from the faith and pierce themselves with many pains." Money is not evil. Craving it is! Paul calls this craving "a root of all kinds of evil."

In contrast Paul calls us to "crave" the things of God. How much do we desire what God desires? How much time does God's kingdom occupy of our thought life, our emotional energy or our conversations? Do we even know what it means to "crave" the things of God? How financially invested are we in God's kingdom?

Jesus warned the rich on many occasions. Paul echoes Jesus' warning in this chapter. Who are the rich? Anyone who has more than they need to satisfy their basic earthy needs. Anything beyond need is a measure of rich. Even today "the rich" of the world are those who don't have to worry about food, shelter and clothing. Today the majority of the world is still "craving" to not have to worry about these things!

This chapter is for us.

1Tm5

"Anyone who is self-indulgent is dead even while they live." -vs. 6

We are self-indulgent when we continue to get ourselves what we want without considering the needs of others! Self-indulgent would describe most Americans I know. We believe ourselves generous if we give a tithe to the things of God. We consider ourselves bad money managers if we are unable to buy something we want.

Paul describes self-indulgent widows as "dead even when they live". This is a pretty harsh statement. They were not encouraged to be supported by the church, nor were they commended simply because they were widows. If this is true for widows, how much more does it extend to us who are not? Wow.

This is a convicting thought! Are we generous or self indulgent? What did we spend our last outside of the budget $100 on? What about the last $1000? We should evaluate our faith through the lens of our money. Often our true God is most clearly seen by how we spend what He has given to us.