March16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:18:21-35 BECAUSE THOU DESIREDST ME - You can imagine a man going through this life void of the sense of debt to his creator, doing as he pleased, taking what he pleased, conducting himself amongst the rest of creation just as he pleased. If anything is owed by anybody, it is owed to him for having made him work so hard to get where he is at; right?. Imagine then his surprise when his creator calls in the man's debts to Himself. How small is his grasp of the reality things when he thinks that somehow he can repay it on his own? Though the debt is forgiven him this man then continues on thinking that whatever is owed God from here on out will be extracted from what others owe to him; he won't be caught in the embarrassment of having to beg for mercy again. How small is his grasp of the reality of things again when he thinks that the small hundred pence owed him by others is anything near the amount of any future debt incurred to his creator? Instead he is incurring all the more debt. The two debts are completely dissimilar but, the principal being taught is the same; true compassion. Many today seek God to be unconditional without placing the same expectation upon themselves. Isn't that convenient? The Lord instead places one condition on compassion, it is implied by His forgiveness to you, that along the way from here on out that you proceed with the same compassion to all others that He has shown to you. That in itself is impossible to do unless we daily leave ourselves behind at the foot of His cross and pick up with His eternal burden. The faith of our Lord is that He will suffer many a horrible things in the weeks and months to come. He will suffer from the hands of those that He has most compassion for; He is the Father's direct offer of compassion. He see's this time as proving of His oath and understanding of the compassion of His Father. Not unconditional by our odd standards but, so much more effective towards the eternal.
April11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:26:6 A GOOD WORK UPON ME - Now that we are this far into the storyline and sense just how many people are daily around Jesus, let's count the number of good works done unto Him. Let's count now that one is done how many others see it as a good work. The next good work? Joseph of Arimathea and our Lord's secret acquaintance Nicodemus. Both of these good works have to do with His burial. How often today do we get caught up in what the Lord is going to do for me? How the Lord needs to go about doing my business? What the end result should look like? How I want His praise and blessing? This woman gets it. If but for a moment she is on a wave link few travel. It is not all about what we want/need things to be, it is not all about what is going on in our lives but in His. Where this woman got this perfumed oil and what she was hoping to one day do with it we just don't know. We are glad however that she decided to do what she did if even to remind us of the place we ourselves need to be in regards to our Lord. The faith of our Lord endures hardness even from His closest softest companions. These are all teachable moments. Hearts need to be taught to be softened all the more to their surroundings and to their core, locked into the present moment of the One and of others outside of themselves.
April13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:26:17-30 THOU HAST SAID - The Lords supper is a monumental event for the disciples to look back on the remainder of their lives. You think back on all that they have seen and all the stories that they would have to talk about, what would be their most cherished moment of all? This would probably rate second after seeing Him resurrected/glorified. The memory would be tainted however with the undercurrent of betrayal throughout. Like when a close friend unexpectedly takes his life or is caught in a criminal affair, the shock that the others would later be left with regarding Judas and the clues that they would feel that they might have missed would be considerable. Jesus did not flush Judas out other than to Judas himself. Judas remained with the group for a good part of the evening trying to keep his cover. Some would conjure that Jesus somehow wanted him to betray Him. I rather think that Jesus was not going to stop him. The weight of the evening did not cause either man to buckle. The disciples surely, though it is undocumented, would have discussed this under current extensively in the weeks to come. The dipping could have been anyone of them at the time. The faith of our Lord is in Him being the sacrifice. The strength of our Lord is in holding true and not letting the gut wrenching emotion of this evening distract or sway Him. Satin's three previous tests were juvenile compared to these matters at hand this night. Judas's test comes after he finishes what he is about to do.
May7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:2:13-17 HEARD IT - Some one has either told Jesus or He has caught the sounds in the corner of His ear that there is growing displeasure with Him eating and drinking with sinners. I don't know whether the religious elite are still holding out a chance for Him as it would be hard to deny His miraculous powers or whether they have outright given up. I do believe that there is something substantial going on culturally that modern audiences would not be attuned to; Jesus is being radical to their viewpoint. Often the best teaching is not discussed it is exposed. Jesus is not going to them and partaking in their sin, He is going out like a physician to where they are and gracefully calling them to establish the ground work of something much better. If that means eating in a room of them, then by all means. Contact with one man leads to the man inviting His circle of friends. These friends are coming to partake of their own friendships and because of their trust in their host in turn they trust in His goodness. No doubt fame precedes Him here but, even without fame the trust building process works the same; why not build upon what is already there? Other's fear the associations that may be implied, if one hangs out with sinners one must be a sinner. The faith of our Lord is not afraid of such possible negative associations, He is afraid of what may happen to these people should He not reach out. In His eyes He is a physician and physicians go where people are sick. He does not partake in their sickness, he partakes in the future fellowship that might come should He be able to win their further trust.
June4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:9:33-37 WHOSOEVER SHALL - A contrast in objective is drawn by our Lord: obtaining/deserving rank and receiving a child in Christs name. Two unrelated frames of mind involved. We serve Christ by serving others. The child is not representative of age and innocence as much as helplessness and lowly stature. Serve this person and you have served Christ, serve Christ and you have served God the Father. Serve your opinion of yourself even in helping the same child and you are still serving your opinion of yourself. The child, the helpless, the lowly are best served when received in Christs name thus serving our mutual Father. One's opinion of self and one's position butts up against other like opinions causing dispute and puts a person above or below receiving another and/or creates a ranked system of tiered implementation/execution. Jesus asks but, they hold their peace. It may be embarrassing for them to be caught red handed thinking this way; not embarrassed enough moving forward however to discontinue this line of rationale. The faith of our Lord speaks to us in real to life pictures. While others can imagine this being that or this, He wraps His arms around the unexpected answer, the one we would have never come to from our delusion. Two men, two frames of perspective/objective can receive and serve a child. Which one in doing so faithfully serves child and God? Jesus must address this ill immediately (whether they want to discuss it or not) as soon as it pops up and He must address it throughout His earthly ministry. He must address it immediately even today.
June16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:11:27-33 ANSWER ME - The Sanhedrin seem to be caught in a trap with both prophets. They do not answer Jesus because of what the people think of John, at the same time they are not arresting Jesus outright because of what people might think of Him. However, there are too many minds at work here for this to be their tactical blunder. They are banking that if they do not tell then He won't tell. Jesus is banking on the same. Both are banking on what will best connect with the people. Stalemate works to both's advantage. The chiefs had only to connect to the crowd of that day. Jesus had to connect with the crowd of all time. Both may have accomplished their objectives. Opinion is beginning to sway. Within the next day even some of those leaning toward Jesus will retreat and even disdain. For them the temple stunt and the rough talk about their leaders may have gone too far. You have heard the adage "winning the battle but, loosing the war"? The faith of our Lord is battling a much bigger war than just those who oppose Him. This battle He wins, all battles He wins, they are just not aware of it yet. By thwarting His will they are playing right into it.
September6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:13:10-17 WHOM SATAN HATH BOUND - Jesus has said that He can only do what He sees the Father do. He sees the Father loosening here. #G630 The word means to send away, divorce, pardon. The woman goes one direction and the infirmity goes the other. The more classical view is that God would be causing infirmity either because she is a sinner or because there is a break down in His genetic codes. If we go back one passage to Jesus' talk regarding catastrophe and mayhem, the context may be that this is what it looks like having a fruitless tree. You will recall in the wilderness for forty years people did not get sick, their clothes did not fray, their shoes even did not wear. When they were in God's complete care infirmity did not appear. As they have removed themselves from God's complete care infirmity abounds more and more. You will recall all the many quotes through the prophets that God has always been willing to heal Israel if they would just keep things straight. Like with the collapse of the towers innocent people may be caught under societies rubble. In fallen societies (from God's view) normal sexual inhibitions lessen, diets change, fears of pain and infirmities and deformities and bad deaths rise and thus odd prescriptions and remedies worsen the situation, medicines and surgeries are mis-prescibed, the entire course of affairs have dire affects upon what was otherwise made to work by God's command. It is an environment dominated by abject fear. Worse yet the door is left wide open for Satan to operate at his will. If God's will is not being followed, whose other will is strong enough? Does this mean that this woman was a devil worshiper? Probably not. Does this mean that she was a sinner? Well we all are. Why are we not all folded over? When so much of God's creation works so well as designed, when it does not these relatively few times (and there is no apparent reason why it shouldn't have) it should be a sign that we have as a society left the door open to another's will. It is not as easy as any one person reaching up and closing that door, it is opened by the whole, it effects the whole, it is closed by the Lord when He sees fit (re-establishes a final closure) for the whole. We also have Israel receiving a double measure sworn from the Lord. God's blessings to us are magnified in them for our observation; so too His curses. Israel was given something Holy to possess: His Commandments, His Covenant, His Name, His Temple, His Seed. Moses warned them of how such blessings would turn to curse should they not fulfill their obligations to that covenant. We today possess a similar (extended) form of that covenant in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Should we not expect the same double measure or more should we as a group neglect so great a salvation as well? Jesus appears to be walking in an extraordinary time of infirmity and demonic possession. The fruitless tree as a whole is rotted from the core outward. Yet for now, His work was being done on a smaller individual level because that is what He saw the Father as doing. It is not the time yet to remove all sickness because it is not a time yet where we have all come back to HIM. The holiness of His that we hold is yet held by defiled and idle hands. That this miraculous and instantaneous healing was done on Sabbath better states the idleness that prevails week long because of defiled (dead) religious traditions. The faith of our Lord is simply beyond our capacity to understand; our perception of it is too short sighted if not blind. Signs and indications that we should be seeing as messages and proofs are seen rather as God abandoning us. The big picture healing for mankind is not as instantaneous; it has taken several thousand years already to develop. And each one of us (believer and non-believer) are swallowed up in that plan till it comes to full fruition. That it hasn't already is a sign of the size and scope of the problem.
October11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:22:39-46 THAT YE ENTER NOT - There was not any hiding or deception. Jesus went to where He always went. Where He knew He would be found. From other accounts we know that He left Himself little defense dividing His disciples eight and three, telling the three to pray. What was the temptation that they were supposed to pray over? Was it the temptation to try and defend Him? Was it the temptation to try and follow Him to His trials? Was it the temptation to try and disguise themselves amongst the crowd where they would be caught in the position of having to deny Him for their own safety? Is this what would open the door to Satan sifting Peter? There are many temptations on the road ahead for these men. Without knowing what one was likely to face how would one go about praying over their temptations? Like the Lord's model prayer one would fill their minds and hearts with the righteousness of God and His kingdom, submit oneself to His will, surrender ones earthly cares asking for His provision and deliverance, offer repentance and seek forgiveness, acknowledge the essential attributes of God, pray this again as the corporate "us". Not everyone did this. Apparently the wrestling over who was the greatest had worn them all out. Jesus is going through something that we cannot explain. We like to focus on His petition, but what we should be focusing on physical agony that He is under even after being supported by an angel. What strength did the angel give? Probably confirmation of the Father's answer to the petition, that this was indeed the Father's will. This extreme pressing of Jesus to the point of blood coming through the pores you will note is happening before Jesus is placed into anyone else's custody. The disciples may be vaguely aware of this sudden change, they are sleeping for sorrow. The temptation may be to hide in sorrowful sleep from what is happening, that it is by the Father's hand, that it is happening before anything other, to be overcome with the developing situation and resort to one's own carnal resources to hold it off. The faith of our Lord steps outside of it's agony for the moment to check on the others and finds them unconscious. He exhorts them once again to pray for themselves.
October19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:24:1-12 WHICH WAS COME TO PASS - The faith of our Lord stands out in this passage as to how much He had entrusted to the future. His disciples and followers genuinely did not understand nor were they prepared even though He had told them plenty of times beforehand. Leaving them before they had the slightest clue, observing in their conversations and reactions their lack, knowing that they would be scattered and God's hand turned against them (kjv@Zechariah:13:7) all shows a level of faith equal in importance to the faith that He had in His own resurrection itself. It is clear that they were not going to understand nor believe until they had seen these things for themselves, they were going to be caught completely off guard. Along with their understanding was going to have to come their remembrance. It appears the Jesus knowing that their temporary understanding being so distant would have had approached everything said/done up to this time specifically in a fashion optimized for future immediate recollection once the actual act had been accomplished. Think of it as time released revelation. Add to His effort the effort of the pre-existing scriptures to further support and explain and we see that He has been operating in this time released mode all along. Now that the act is performed what does it all mean? That is what will be sorted out and realized in the days to come until the Holy Spirit comes to teach them all things. Makes me to wonder what else they thought they knew that they really didn't? What about us? The faith of our Lord is seen as a long term process leading man from the very point of creation forward to the point of believing and understanding and relying upon the righteous act between Father and Son onward to the new creature in Christ to the all things gathered unto Him Kingdom in eternity. That which has come to pass is about to become that divinely empowered trans-formative process that which makes all that they (the Godhead) have ever intended happen. Much of this happens in the spiritual foreground without our understanding. We should understand now that on our part it is largely left to reverence and humble acknowledgment.
November12 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:7:1-13 AFTER THESE THINGS - Fast forward about six months after the fall out. We are reacquainted with Jesus' own family. They do not believe either. There are two reactions likely when one does not believe the claims of Jesus, hate enough to tempt Him into that which He is not or will not do, hate enough to seek to pull Him down or hold Him aside or eliminate Him altogether. There is a reason for this hate in the world, because He testifies of the evil in it. It is against the Law for the Jews to hate each other the way that they hate Jesus. Jesus has deliberately kept Himself from Judea to keep this hate from festering too soon (or in the wrong way). It clearly illustrates what Jesus is up against even at this point of His ministry. This is not a delay in the ministry it is the work of His ministry taking effect. The leaders certainly expect Jesus to return either to His family or to Jerusalem direct. What a prize it would be for them to both have Jesus caught on their own terms and to have His dissenting brethren bring Him in. Willingly or not, consciously or not, the brethren's words ring with the provocative entrapping tone that the leadership would have planted all around them. They have become the Pharisee's messenger. It is important to the grand scheme for us later that Jesus' half brothers eventually did believe and played active roles in the early church. Far to often the popularity of an icon for good is countered and tarnished by a brother or son or nephew for the bad; and the opposition knows just how to play it. Jesus does secretly go; on His terms not theirs. I feel to be there for His family and for His champions near enough by. The pressure on them is immense. In a sense it is risky having left His group behind. In another sense it simply is not yet His time, it is all to happen on the Father's time clock. We benefit from this visit as well by seeing a glimpse of the not so disguised hatreds that Jesus is up against even to this day. The faith of our Lord is keenly aware of what He is up against and remains mindfully present to keep matters on His terms and not anyone else's. His faith is working forward publicly when it needs to be, reserved and patiently at others, even secretly and undercover when it serves the greater purpose. His ministry is not only about the words and the miracles, it is also about timing and using the processes of the heart to the fullest.
December12 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:16:17-33 DO YE NOW BELIEVE? - The disciples are caught at two things, they have questions they are not asking and they say that they now understand when they really don't. Could these traits be universal among believers? Just how much do we really understand of what Jesus just said two thousand years after the fact? What about the second reprise of going to the Father is different/plainer than the first? Jesus declares that hereto we have asked of Him nothing and He will be gone away (days of sorrow?) and in the same breath exhorts them in another day (day of joy when I see you again, shew you plainly of the Father?) to ask anything of the Father in His name. This comes moments after discussing the importance of having the Holy Spirit indwelling and the Spirit's role in bringing the new life in Jesus into our daily life. What day today is this? For these men it is hours ahead of being scattered and left to their own. For us it is a time of their tribulation when we believe in His ascension and the indwelling of His Spirit, but the world is set against us/Him. It is a time that the Spirit uses for gestation. A day ahead of seeing Him again. Then there is a day when we see Him again, a day when the promise and gestation is completed. There are many questions that in that joyous day we will want to ask and will finally be able to. How was this? Why did that? Is this going to be? And the Father who is plainly shown will answer. These things He has presented to us ahead of time that in the midst of these things we might have cheer knowing that He has overcome the world. So what are we assuming to hear from this passage that is not there or we barely yet understand? The faith of our Lord is in our voluntary submission (even blind) to the times and processes He has laid before us, depending solely upon the Holy Spirit for guidance and teaching/revelation and comfort. It is a new life similar for us to the wind where we do not always know where we have come out of or to where it is leading us, but we know that no matter where it blows us it is by God's breath. This even if scattering for a moment or travailing for days and months. DO YE NOW BELIEVE?
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