Category Archives: New Testament

Still

Posted on August 15, 2021 | Leave a comment

Romans 8:18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

Suffering in a fallen world is what came to my mind as I read these verses. I thought I understood that relationship pretty clearly until my husband was killed.  The world was a wreck and suffering was the result!  Grief has become my faithful teacher and my repeated prayer is now “Lord, help me to honor you, and my husband in my grief.”  Grief has shown me a new bottom line; suffering in a fallen world reveals new strengths and glaring weaknesses. They are both gifts from God.  The benefits of the strengths are obvious, but it’s in the awareness of my weakness that I recognize God’s reminder to me, in a brand new way, how great my need for Him still is, and that His desire is still to be my strength.

“If there were no afflictions and difficulties and troubles and pain, our fallen hearts would fall ever more deeply in love with the comforts and securities and pleasures of this world instead of falling more deeply in love with our inheritance beyond this world, namely, God himself.” John Piper 

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Posted in New Testament, Romans, Sunday

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Obligation

Posted on August 11, 2021 | Leave a comment

Romans 8:10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.  12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Jesus’s Part:
…to give life to your mortal bodies” that overcomes sin because “the spirit [of Christ in you] is alive because of [His] righteousness.”

Our Part:
…“We are under obligation” to live being “led by the Spirit of God,”

What does that look like to you?  I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you’ve fallen into the same trap I have – it looks like doing the right thing at the right time in the right place. That’s certainly a good look but it’s the least valuable part in God’s eyes.  Remember all the venerated people from the Old Testament who did the wrong thing at the right time and in the right place?  God led them and saved them despite the evidence they were often careless, broken and flawed people.  They have their place in the Bible because of one simple thing; they were willing to be reminded by God of their need to pursue their relationship with Him despite having only the slightest inkling of what He really desired from them.

For most of us that’s still the reality of what we have to offer God today.  It’s true we have much more knowledge, we have the Bible and we often have true shepherds who lead us.  Sadly, we have have turned those things into our “obligation” instead of recognizing our magnificent and determined Creator has given us those things as His graces.  Our obligation is still the same simple one from long ago; that we be willing to pursue our relationship with “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead” and He will lead us and save us despite the repeated evidence we too are often careless, broken and flawed people.  

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Posted in New Testament, Romans, Wednesday

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Of The Spirit

Posted on August 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. NASB

Circumstances bombard us with “the things of the flesh” and they do have a negative impact on our mindset.  Paul has reminded me about Jesus’s promises of blessings that have a positive impact “if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  I share my own words written back in 2016 because right now I personally need to remember “the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Use the underlined links below to read them and then the back button to return.  I hope your Spirit might be refreshed today and…

• Blessed by knowing it’s not our spirit that sustains us. Self has Fallen Through the Cracks of life and in the process caught a glimpse of a promised new kingdom of heaven.
• Blessed by realizing that in the Unfamiliar Reality of the emotions of mourning God is replacing the need to cope in unbearable circumstances with the release of comfort.
• Blessed by an undeserved and unearned inheritance and an eternity to explore and understand what submissive, yielding and obedient is. Meek is the mystery of God moving us into position to fulfill his plans as we learn the difference between Be-ing vs Choosing.
• Blessed by Jesus using something as basic and daily as our body’s craving for nourishment to remind us there’s Another Kind of Life to crave: long for, yearn, desire, want, wish or need – a life of righteousness.
• Blessed by the mercy of Jesus and The Perfected Golden Rule: “Do unto others…as I have done unto you.”
• Blessed by the power of God and the life of Jesus to create pure hearts by chiseling away stony pieces to bring us One Pebble Closer to being able to see God.
• Blessed by peacemakers who go Beyond Just Fixing to create opportunity for those in conflict to explore the reality of truth as God means it to be: a path to unity not separation.
• Blessed by a new perspective on Jesus words and the fullness of one Greek word, diṓkō.  The blessing that overtakes persecution is two-fold for “those who live according to the Spirit [and] set their minds on the things of the Spirit;”  righteousness and endurance.   In Each Case the reward is the kingdom of heaven.

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Posted in Blessing, Matthew, New Testament, Romans, Sunday

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Potential AND Limitations

Posted on August 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. NASB

It’s a sad truth that many Christians have looked at God’s acceptance of their apology as little more than a release from guilt.  There is a difference between knowing you’re forgiven and “no condemnation.”  It’s the difference John Piper points out in this quote: “our apprenticeship to Jesus is living into both our potential and our limitations.”

Even forgiven believers struggle to accept the potential God has created in them because there are obvious limitations that condemn us; the ”shoulds.”  The “Shoulds” are “the law of sin and of death” that “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has overcome.   We have incorrectly separated our potential from our limitations rather than celebrating that God has a plan to weave a life for us that includes potential AND  limitations.

Nothing is more powerful than the realization that careless. broken and sinful people can be forgiven AND that Jesus has a plan to redeem our potential AND limitations as part of the perfect life He’s creating for us right here and now.  Can you believe that?  It’s true!

Read what the Apostle Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 12:10 “For when I am weak, then I am strong…”  Click the image to enlarge it. It’s a visual object lesson.   God has lined up those secured vertical strands of His promises to be like the years of our life.  Our choices sometimes fall under the promises and sometimes skip right over the top of them.  The Lord has chosen to weave those “+” and “-“ choices of our life into a fabric that completes His life in us.  Potential AND limitations woven together “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit;” confident that we are part of His perfect design.  “Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

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Posted in 2 Corinthians, New Testament, Romans, Wednesday

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Nourishment

Posted on August 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

John 21:12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. NIV

What caught my attention in this last chapter were these three verses. I recognized in them both the devotion of these disciples and their humanity. Even when they had trouble recognizing Jesus out of context, not looking their “Sunday” best and not daring to admit they might have any questions, Jesus was waiting to provide His nourishment for their devotion AND their humanity.

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Posted in John, New Testament, Sunday

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Peace and Power for Mere Humans

Posted on July 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

John 20:30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe [or may continue to believe] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

“Jesus comes to us and gives us his peace with God. Then he gives us power to do the kinds of things that mere humans can’t do — like defeating our own selfishness, and loving other people, and treasuring Christ above all. And then with that peace and that power he gives us our central purpose for existence” John Piper

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Posted in John, New Testament, Wednesday

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Truth

Posted on July 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

John 19:10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. 12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.”
…19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews.  20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.  21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” NIV

Some power is real and some is illusion.  Mostly human nature seems to respond more to the power of illusion because it makes us think we are able to control life and circumstances.  The illusion of power was clearly behind Pilate’s question: “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jesus answers Pilate in two sentences that tell him his  power is only an illusion, that he has no real power at all, AND at the same time offers him something that seems designed to ease his guilty conscience.  Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

And look at Pilate’s response to Jesus!  “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free”…and finally his response to the chief priests and Jews when they complained about his notice posted to the cross –  “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews.”

Something real happened in that interchange with Jesus that affected Pilate.  Isn’t that just like Jesus to clearly remind where the source of real power lies AND then to create a small grace space in a reprimand so that truth would be revealed even without faith when “Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

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Posted in John, New Testament, Sunday

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Betrayer

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

John 18:1 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.  2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.  3 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

It is not an enemy who taunts me —
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me —
then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
Psalm 55:12–13 RSV

What do you think about Judas?  This is one of the saddest passages of Scripture because of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. 
Did Jesus mistakenly choose a betrayer to be one of His disciples?
Did He purposely set Judas up for this awful betrayal?
Was Judas’s mind lost in a battle with “the” enemy?
Did Jesus grieve these words of Psalm 55 over Judas?
What about Peter and his three denials?
Did Jesus grieve these same words of Psalm 55 over Peter?
……………………………WHAT ABOUT YOU?…………………………………

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Posted in John, New Testament, Psalms, Wednesday

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Glory

Posted on July 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

In John 17:6
Jesus said
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.“  NIV

Can you believe this?  Jesus saw past the limitations of time and the  human imperfections of those whom God gave him “out of the world.”  He could see the days yet to come of every person who “knew with certainty” that Jesus did come from God “and they believed.”  Long before your days even began, in ages past, Jesus recognized the glory that would come to Him through…

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 NIV

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Posted in John, New Testament, Old Testament, Psalms, Sunday

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Advocate

Posted on July 14, 2021 | Leave a comment

John 16:7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. NIV

“…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 NIV

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Posted in 1 John, John, New Testament, Wednesday

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