Monthly Archives: January 2023

AND

Posted on January 29, 2023 | Leave a comment

This “cliff note” idea is not meant to be a definitive commentary of these verses. What I see now is just that — what I see now,  I spend each day between posts reading and re-reading the current verses.  I’m concentrating on looking for what catches my interest enough to make me ask “is this the truth I believe?”  My confidence is in one important thing; the Spirit of God is at work.  He’s the door opener. AND I want to get it right.  When I “ink” what I think I know, in plain sight for you to read, it’s a risk of obedience. I know the Spirit’s work is to teach AND correct.  That’s not an either/or it’s an AND.

Today’s notes are about the Shepherd, the Gatekeeper, the Father and the sheep that recognize them. The Gatekeeper is the guard, the Shepherd manages the sheep and His charge from the Father is to find the “sheep that are not of this fold…so there will be one flock, one Shepherd.”  That’s spot on!  However, I wondered why I’d ignored the last three verses of this chosen passage and realized I didn’t want them to mess up all that lovely truth-teaching with the hard fact of division and doubt. That’s when the “teach AND correct” kicked in. Sometimes it’s the ugly Words that remind me how much I need the Shepherd, the Gatekeeper and the Father to open my own eyes so I can recognize division is the thief and robber who will never “open the eyes of the blind.”

 

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Posted in John, Light, New Testament, Sunday

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Risk

Posted on January 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

Isaiah wrote about restoring the sight of the blind as part of the Messiah’s ability…And the Lord said:
— Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book,
and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.
— 35:5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf.
— 42:7 You will open the eyes of the blind.  You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.   

 Jesus speaks to his disciples in a third party-like conversation about the cause of blindness and Him being the Light of the world.  That’s a Messianic claim!  Then He physically takes direct action by coating over the man’s eyes with clay he’s just made.  The mixing of the mud is evidence of “violation” of working on the Sabbath!  He never tells the blind man his sight is going to miraculously be restored.  The blind man must choose to risk responding to Jesus and go to the pool to wash.  That’s a step of faith!

The sticking point for the Pharisees was complicated. Twice Jesus had confronted the Pharisees hypocrisy [John 7:23 and Matthew 12:5].  Jewish rules had legitimate provisions for violating the Sabbath in specific cases like circumcision in order to obey Mosaic law, temple service or the birth of a baby.  Isaiah’s words, a broken rule, the eyes of a blind man being opened and an itinerant rabbi who claimed to be the Light of the world became their sticking point. Isaiah’s words were a trusted part of the Pharisees Messianic history and according to their own rules denying a miracle of God was unbelief.  The evidence of acknowledging this miracle might prove Jesus to be the Lord Isaiah wrote about.  That didn’t mesh with what they’d carefully mapped out for the coming Messiah. They couldn’t risk choosing to take that next step of faith. 

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Posted in Isaiah, John, Light, Matthew, New Testament, Wednesday

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Stead Fastness

Posted on January 22, 2023 | Leave a comment

Where’s the joy I can count on when I’m at my most vulnerable? How in the world do “trials of various kinds” produce steadfastness?  Sometimes the meaning of a specific word becomes the catalyst of my heart when I’m unsure about where the Spirit is leading my thoughts.  Today that word is “steadfastness.”  

My thoughts began with steadfastness being about my strength and my survival.  I know everything is not supposed to be about me but honestly we’re talking about “my” trials and “my” joy. I know that is surely a vulnerable beginning to count on so I had to ponder…what is steadfastness?
— stead: the place a substitute fills
— fastness: being fixed and able to maintain it’s color without fading

I have some experience hand-dyeing fiber that has helped me understand how important the preparation of sheep’s wool is to color “fastness.”  I have much more experience with Jesus as my substitute. The delight of my heart is finding new meanings of old words to help me understand that preparation beforehand is what explains the relationship between various trials that produce steadfastness and joy.

Joy is more than just the result of having endured the “testing.”  I can “count it all joy” because long before any of those various trials became a reality I prepared my heart to trust that Jesus is there in my “stead” when I’m most vulnerable, being fixed and able to maintain the “fastness” of my faith without fading.  Amen!

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Posted in James, Light, New Testament, Sunday

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Highlights From John 9:1-5

Posted on January 18, 2023 | Leave a comment


1 As Jesus passed by,
2 his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned?
3 Jesus answered “It was that the works of God
might be displayed in him.
4 night is coming,
5 I am the light of the world.” 

The condition of the human mind is to connect sin to behavior.  That’s a much narrower view than connecting sin to darkness.  Jesus wants the disciples to recognize just how vast and real that difference is.  Opening this one man’s eyes is going to display Jesus as God’s connection that can overcome the pervasive darkness of sin with Light for those who dare to risk obedience to gain sight.  

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Posted in John, Light, New Testament, Wednesday

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The Mysterious Ministry

Posted on January 15, 2023 | Leave a comment

This is a mysterious truth about God choosing to advance His Gospel through the least likely of circumstances. What evidence do we have that supports Paul’s truth that what had happened to him had “really served to advance the gospel?”  We have his many writings including four epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon written while imprisoned!  God had given Paul a unique history that preceded him to Rome.  He’d appeared and defended Jesus before so many powerful Roman leaders that he’d gained some notoriety.  “The whole imperial guard and all the rest” clearly knew his “imprisonment is for Christ.”  Paul had become a celebrity “criminal.”  He was allowed to have visitors and two-way communication about his many ministries.  It’s likely he was chained to his guards and they became his very personal in-prison ministry. People who would never have heard the truth of Christ in any other way became the captive audience of an “ambassador in chains” given one of the most mysterious opportunities for the Word to create new believers and inspire “brothers” to be “more bold to speak [the Gospel] without fear.” 

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Posted in Light, New Testament, Philippians, Sunday

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Think About These Things

Posted on January 11, 2023 | Leave a comment


What If…
— Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5

— You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13

— We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

— God’s workmanship in me began long before a specific egg and sperm met one another

— God began to justify His choice in my mother’s womb before my first breath

— That first breath began my sanctification even before my first cognitive thought

— God has created me in the likeness of His perfection to insure I could be of value and succeed at what He’s prepared beforehand

— My whole imperfect and incomplete way of life is the inspired field of operation He’s chosen to accomplish His good works

— In him we live and move and have our being…for we are indeed his offspring  Acts 17:28

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,
if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.  Philippians 4:8

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Posted in Acts, Ephesians, Jeremiah, New Testament, Old Testament, Philippians

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Dictionary Day

Posted on January 8, 2023 | Leave a comment

In: enclosed or surrounded by
Love: strong affection arising out of kinship or personal ties
Manifest: clear or obvious to the eye or mind.
World: the earth with its inhabitants and all things upon it.
Live: to exist
Through: able to move from one side to the other
Him: I=Jesus, Ch=Christ, Th=Theou (God’s), U=Uios (Son), S=Souter (Savior) ICHTHUS

Enclosed or surrounded by the strong affection of God, arising out of kinship or personal ties with Him, it becomes clear or obvious to the eye or mind that God sent Jesus to the earth with its inhabitants and all things upon it so we might exist knowing we are able to move from one side to the other of eternity because of Him.

 

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Posted in 1 John, Light, New Testament, Sunday

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Doors

Posted on January 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

What an invitation…Jesus knocking AND apparently speaking…offering to enter and share the most basic part of life with us, on a regular basis.  It’s a glorious and familiar invitation.  But there are another eight verses that surround this verse that make you realize there’s more to consider here.  Jesus is speaking to His church, His people of faith, the very people who’ve already heard His voice!  Jesus has told us in John 14 about our place in His house of many rooms. Don’t all those rooms have doors too?  That’s the “Revelation!”  Jesus wants so much more for our life than a one-and-done moment.  He wants full permission to access every room.a  He wants an ongoing and on-growing relationship. He wants us to open every door to Him; our will, our self-sufficiency, our ears and our heart.

a My Heart Christ’s Home

 

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Posted in Light, New Testament, Revelation, Wednesday

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New Year’s Day, 2023

Posted on January 1, 2023 | Leave a comment


2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself… ESV

One word in this short passage made me ask; am I ready for a New Year?   I remember a time when my whole focus of life was waiting for the new, yet-to-come, experience.  I wasn’t aware that focus often caused me to miss the blessing of the moment I was in.  Now it seems I’ve switched to the opposite focus.  It’s often the moments I can never experience again that I wish I’d cherished more.  Lord, make my thoughts compatible with yours [reconcile them] and teach me not to revel in the past that can’t be changed or long for the future which is out of my control, but to learn the Patience of Trust that your perfect timing is…NOW.   Lord, in this New Year, 2023 make me a “NOW” creation!

 

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Posted in 2 Corinthians, New Testament, New Year, Sunday

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