Comments - devotion RecentComments

March18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:19:13-15 FORBID THEM NOT - People have their own ideas of what needs be. Sometimes you are thinking of giving the man space, holding the crowds back, keeping the madness under some type of control. Other times you are thinking of the predictable course ahead for a messiah, the steps that should be taken by Him. Who knows what the others are thinking, but, it could easily become a mob. As a Disciple you have His best interest at heart but, in anyway your thoughts come off to either Him or others as rebuke. People from all directions including our own selves are demanding of Him to do all sorts of things as they see fit. To the minds eye it all appears as chaos. It all doesn't seem to phase the Lord however. It takes the focus of the Lord to remind us of what is most important and that includes the children. Who would have ever thought in the midst of such an adult spectacle to bring the children up to Christ for His blessings? They should be commended. It is not just about us after all, our salvation and blessings and teachings, it is about the youngest of the kingdom and theirs. This is an embarrassing moment for the Disciples, but, a teachable moment none the less. The faith of our Lord is that they will remember this one in the times to come, to mark this one down and bring it up over and over especially when it all gets too hectic. Do not get so focused as to miss what things the Lord would have focus on. Do not forbid the children from having their time and experience with Him as well.

March23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:20:29 WHAT WILL YE - The mechanics of a crowd are always interesting. What makes a crowd behave as it does? In this case the expressed will of the multitude was for the two to hold their peace. The two are blind, this is their opportunity to regain their sight, yet the majority see them as a disturbance. The crowd may have been made up of those sympathetic to Jesus as they were following Him out of Jericho. Their intents may have been for Jesus' good and out of respect. The requests upon Jesus may have been so frequent that they had become common and distracting and keeping them from reaching their next destination. Jesus saw the event differently; not as the crowd obviously and perhaps not even as the two petitioners, but, as the Father did. We have seen so frequently that Jesus did not do things to garner more press; He forbid receivers to publicly tell. The faith of our Lord is focused much more on the present moment and the needs of the people around. The two men need their sight, the crowd needs to look beyond themselves. The impression of the truly needy should not be "oh he was too much in a hurry" or "yea she had to get somewhere" or even "should I disturb them". It should be "He was there when I needed/called" and "the first person I ever saw was the one who ever really saw through to me".

May4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:1:35-39 ALL MEN SEEK THEE - Peter leads a group of people in the pre-dawn outside Capernaum. Fame is spreading quickly and the opportunities of the new day are invigorating/intoxicating, perhaps keeping them awake; except for one thing, Jesus their miracle man is missing. There will be a great swell of people coming in from everywhere in the coming hours. People will want to be healed. People will want to be released from demons. People will want a political/religious uprising. People will want to witness miracles, but, will they want to believe in Jesus as the Son of Man? Sure all men would seek after Him, they seek after still today, what is it however that they seek of Him. Peter seeks after Jesus. What are his motives? Good I am sure but, pure? What is best? It is Peters' house that they are staying at, it is his hometown, he doesn't have to leave his wife or his front door step and the lost sheep are coming to him. I am not accusing him nor trying to read his mind, just saying He is new at this fame and miracle thing and the excitement may cloud his judgment/expectations. And the anonymous others with him, are they following Jesus or Peter? Where do they finally find Him? Where Peter's mind is racing with the many opportunities Jesus' mind is settling in worship and supplication to the Father. The settled mind seeks God's holiness, His omniscience, His righteousness, His communion, and from that reverent position receives a peaceful confident heart and direction. The faith of our Lord is not in all the opportunities to use His powers that the others might see it is in the need to maintain those powers and opportunities under will of the Father where all such blessings come. Power makes for itself plenty of opportunities, the focus of prayer makes so that the right opportunity come to light.

June17 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:12:1-12 GIVE THE VINEYARD UNTO OTHERS - The Sanhedrin knew that He had spoken of them, therefore, the first piece of the puzzle is in place; Sanhedrin = Husbandmen. We are then to gather that they knew He (Jesus) was the heir. Why did they seek to kill Him even after He said they did in fact cast the son out and kill Him? So that the vineyard would be theirs. But what about all the reports of the Prophets like kjv@Isaiah:53 , the tender plant growing before Him, the speechless lamb led to slaughter, cut off from the land of the living who ends up receiving the portion and dividing the spoils? This is all a cunningly devised fable to them. It is finally going to be their vineyard now, no more talk of an heir coming to repossess it. Only one thing yet remained between them and their stolen prize; the immediate reaction of the people still supporting Jesus and the rumors of conspiracy that would circulate for the years to come if not properly handled. What was needed was a way to spin present and future perceptions in one swoop; they chose to put Jesus through a national trial. Jesus knows this from the many prophecies, so He replants another old prophecy of the "chief cornerstone" into the public's mind to counter the spin that they are planning for the history books (He states it as if it is past tense). The vineyard long has referred to Israel by the scriptures Old and New. The husbandmen of that time were destroyed in 70 AD and the vineyard ever since have been given to assorted others; proof of this parable/prophecy being further fulfilled. Though the fruit of the vineyard can not be pressed at this time the supposition of self ownership and pretended husbandry is carried on through the traditions of the Jewish Orthodoxy. The "cornerstone" seed yet remains, the marvel to be completed upon His next coming. The faith of our Lord is that His counter measures will stick. We know of a great many Gentiles that hold true to the keeping and remembrance of the "Cornerstone" in Israel's temporary absence, and some Messianic Jews. Israel's eyes will soon be re-opened, perhaps even by the re-opening of this combination parable/prophecy/historical testimony.

August30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:12:1-12 IN THE MEANTIME - You will recall that Jesus had sent the seventy out in advance to every town that He would Himself go. Now that He is going there are much larger crowds; innumerable onlookers. Add to that the common people are hearing of the clash between Jesus and the religious/political elite and that they (those in power) are publicly now going out of their way to try to bring Jesus down. The crowds are huge. How one could speak and project to such a crowd I do not know unless one focuses more so on the twelve primary disciples. Jesus is repeating several frequent messages from earlier, the leaven of hypocrisy, nothing being hidden, whom to fear, the worth of a soul, the unpardonable sin, the teaching of the Holy Spirit in perilous times. It may be that He wants it recorded what was said so that the pharisees can not manufacture their own tale of what He was saying leading up to His arrest. Jesus is far ahead of their plans by preparing crowds for Himself and the crowds are producing by the spectical undeniable interest all the region over. Luke is making it a point to follow up the dinner time explosion with an immediate continuation of attack regarding the hypocrisy, secretiveness, tactics of intimidation, trail and persecution that will be resorted to by these raveness and wicked combatants identified specifically out from the synagogues/magistrates/powers. Just as they are coming against Him they will soon enough come after His disciples as well. The faith of the Lord has already prepared itself for the battle ahead in many respects, but at the same time is being totally open and observant of the impromptu teachings/directions of the Holy Spirit. It is an interesting logistical parallel observed that we might miss if not keeping in mind in a fuller context. There is now building an innumerable amount of witnesses; whether they remain true will be the interesting thing to watch. It is an especially important time to beware of the leaven for it swells the entire loaf quick.

October8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:21:5-38 POSSESS YOUR SOULS - At a time when all of this is happening around you the command is "In your patience possess ye your souls". It would be easy for the heart to be over charged, men's hearts failing them for fear, being distress and perplexed. This is not however the heart of the follower of Jesus. Listen to the commands stated here - go ye not therefore after them, be not terrified, settle it therefore in your hearts, in your patience possess your souls, then look up, lift hands, know that the kingdom is nigh, take heed to yourselves, watch ye therefore, pray always to be found worthy. It would be easy for the mind to chase after only the maze of prophetical details. One could ask how are all these odd un-connectable details ever connect to be fulfilled. The Jews looked upon the earlier messianic prophecies the same way and saw the near impossibility of putting all the prophetic pieces together. So much so that they missed the actual fulfillment happening before their eyes in real time. It was really quite easy to put all the many pieces together once we saw how easily God fulfilled them. These end time prophecies could very well be the same for us; illogical or impossible to see as one completed puzzle, but there is no doubt God will have an easy time preforming them all as one as well. More than the individual details revealed, we should consider that within the many details is a fairly straight forward way of keeping ones head through the time to come; obey the commandments contained therein. They are nearly the same commands that would see us through most any other trial or personal tribulation. One other thought. When this time comes what has ever happened to all the tolerant secularists and intellectuals? What has happened to humanism and pacifism and the great enlightenment? Why are they attacking the elect so? Could it be that they cannot withstand the terrors and perplexities of what is come? The faith of our Lord calls a whole lot upon the obedience of these end time saints. The things that they are asked to do and suffer is almost for to shame to us who have it so good now. It may not be their time now, but it certainly is our time now. What have we been asked to do and suffer? Should not we get to doing it before this time sneaks up unawares?

October9 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:22:1-6 THEN ENTERED SATAN - There are many actors on the stage at this time including Satan, but we need to make it perfectly clear who is directing the action. There is one thing happening, perhaps best described in kjv@Isaiah:53. This time now is between the Father and the Son. The rest is a side show. It is pleasing the Father to put the Son Jesus to this. These men believe that they have the power to make things happen. Even Satan thinks that he is getting one over. Nothing of the sort! If God's will was anything other God's will would be done. God had plenty opportunity to remove Judas. He had plenty of opportunity to strike down these chiefs and scribes. He had plenty of time to move Jesus to a safer location. Jesus knew it was Judas that would betray Him from the beginning kjv@John:6:64, knew that he was a devil kjv@John:6:70, knew that he was stealing from the purse kjv@John:12:6. Choices were made by Jesus all along in obedience to the Father's will that have led Him to this. All of these men have had choices as well, except they chose to play the part of wickedness. They have played their chosen part well, but it is not their show; they are not directing the action they are merely responding to the script. The faith of our Lord is not in worrying or keeping track of who is who in this passion or who is doing what. It is all the Father. It is all the plan. It is all in the Father's hands.

December8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:14:15-31 KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS - A conditional statement "If you love Me" is used to present an actionable practice "keep My commandments". The action that is being pointed to is illustrated in the Greek word Tereo #G5083 guarding as to prevent loss. It is a picture of a military fortress. It appears as if the commandments could be taken or lost or surrendered. It reminds me of the parable of the sower where birds of the air swooped down to snatch the word, where some seed fried up in the sun not having root in itself. Surely the command does have to be obeyed and acted upon (kept in another sense), but before even that can be done the protected meaning (the meaning Jesus has for us) has to be understood by being kept (in the primary sense) from the influences of self, life and world; thus the picture of a fortress. The meaning is detained, it is secluded, it is watched over. In order to do this one must first be aware that there are plenty of influences the change or corrupt or steal away the meaning; external and internal. "Love thy neighbor as yourself" can change to mean calling evil good and good evil. "Love one another as I have loved you" can come to mean what ever odd notion of self love you feel comfortable exhibiting. From whatever that understanding then becomes so then follows any form of obedience to it we care to offer. This is how we can come to the point where every single one of us believes that they have loved their neighbor as themselves without one ounce of the love of Jesus Christ being shed. What fools are we? In order to fortress the true meaning the true meaning must first be sought out and received. For that we have the Holy Spirit who will teach us and put all things into our remembrance. We cannot have the Holy Spirit unless Jesus has died for our sins and is risen back to the Father. Even today, this simple point of faith eliminates many a nominal Christian from receiving the true meaning as revealed/reminded. Their actions, though well intentioned, are not drawn out from the sacred fortress, they are drawn from the meaning altered or lost. The need is definitely for the revelation of the Holy Spirit, but also for the "keeping" of the revealed meaning and the obedient action upon the revealed meaning. For this we also need the strength of resolve. Why all of this? This is what it means to "love" Jesus. He/she that loves our Savior to this extent and in this manner the Father will love, the Lord will love, the two by the Holy Spirit will come and make THEIR abode with him/her. What peace this will leave with us. The faith of our Lord is in abiding with man. The way for Him to abide with us is as much in the true meaning upon which we base our obedient actions as it is in the concept that we even know to love Him at all. He will take care of His part in this and so then must we.

December9 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:15:1-17 EVERY BRANCH IN ME - How essential is bearing fruit to Christians? Other than our being ordained to bear fruit? According to this there are branches within Christ that could well be taken away. Can you imagine being a believer in Christ and not making the cut? There is a wide spread notion today that mere belief in Jesus equals salvation. Jesus here claims that it is not just believing but also abiding are the terms of salvation. How then does one become fruitful? One abides. How does one abide? One keeps His commandments. How does one keep His commandments? One gets to the heart of the message brought by the Spirit and protects it from the corrupting/attacking influences of self and world then acts upon it. What is the commandment? To love one another with the Love of Jesus Christ; the love of Jesus as presented by His laying down His life for ones that He calls friends. Now one might think that the command is to love others with all the love that we ourselves can muster. Jesus says that a branch cannot bear fruit of itself. This form of love then is fruitless. This love is the love of the branches in Christ that are fruitless. The branch that abides in Christ is the branch that His love and His word abides in and makes fruitful. This branch is ordained to go forth and bear fruit and it bears fruit by keeping His command. What better example do we have of the matrix of this fruit/love/abiding than how Jesus conducted Himself toward God the Father? Then there is the point made of the fruitful branches being pruned back in order to produce even more fruit. I believe that this second point becomes important to understand only if we are fruitful in the way He intends to begin with. The faith of our Lord is all about the fruit for therein is the Father glorified. Much can be told about the fruit we think that we are producing by what that supposed fruit means to God. Is it fruit that will remain?

December13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:17:1-5 GLORIFY - Some important facts about Jesus. One, He had a glory with the Father before coming to the flesh. Two, He has glorified the Father here on earth. Three, now that the work is finished He expects that the Father will return Him to His glory. Why is this all important? Because it glorifies the Father. There are other possible directions that this glorification could have come. The Father could have glorified HIMSELF. Deserved no doubt, but not the best way considering no one on earth knows HIM or even cares. The Father could have waited for man to glorify HIM. Deserved, but again not likely and quite corrupted, hollow and imaginary. The Father could have done great big miraculous things to draw the praise of man in, well HE had done that for millennium and couldn't keep man's belief or attention for more than a few ticks (telling us not so much about HIS glory, but our deprived nature). Jesus seeking His rightful glory could have gone about this differently as well. The whole thing is that both relied on each other to glorify the other; I glorify you and you glorify me, which is the way all things are meant to be. How did Jesus glorify the Father? He made the Father known, HIS truth, HIS righteousness, HIS will, HIS plan, HIS judgment, HIS mercy and a tangible/visible portion of HIS supreme power. He glorified HIM by not speaking or doing of His own, but obeying as He saw and heard; obeying even to the cross. How does the Father glorify the Jesus? The Resurrection and Ascension and Pentecost; no other messianic figure can lay claim to. The Holy Spirit which testifies of Him in similar obedient confirmation and subjection. The millions (if not billions) of believers that the Father has now drawn (made the Son known to). The returning of Jesus to the Glory He once had plus the addition of giving Him power over all flesh and His enemies at His footstool. We as believers can attest to Jesus selflessly glorifying the Father, the Father glorifying Jesus the Son; their glory is not just an empty theological word, we see it now with profound substance. The portion He has received from the Father now He is willing to divide with His faithful strong. We too have been called to glory and virtue and we see in Jesus and the Holy Spirit the perfect example of how glory is to be done. The faith of our Lord is that glory does not come from oneself, even when it is deserved as in THEIR case. Glorification is not hollow praise from the lips, it is full to over flowing with the commitment and diligence of continuing the obedient path; only then are the words not hollow or self serving. Jesus is the example of one glorifying another. His commandment? To love one another as He has loved us! Glorify HIM/Him by faithfully keeping this commandment with the meaning intended.

December19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:18:19-24 WHY ASKETH THOU - How do a few powerful elite (but not powerful enough to do this deed on their own) sway the perception and support of enough others to get this job done? Think of those others as the jury. The prosecution's effort here is intended to grab the focus of the jury away from anything Jesus might be defending Himself by. The officer appears offended by the defendant's answer with the purpose of setting a definite tone of authority and gamesmanship by the defendant for the room fully in mind. Whether he was told to do this or whether he just felt it necessary we do not know; I believe it though to be staged. The high priest is seeking to set a similar tone releasing into the room air the scent that Jesus is being secretive for the blood hounds to sniff without having to prove it. Irregardless of any answer, the jury (many of the same) is left with the sense of Jesus disrespectfully toying with authority and that authority knows something that Jesus would rather hold back. It is all an act, but very effective in increments. One does not break the will at first, but bends it. Knowing that this ploy is in place our Lord's comments are as they should be, essentially "what is your intention in asking me that". Jesus is not going to defend Himself here. He has already proved Himself on a much bigger stage. His silence instead will be proof against intents and methods of His accusers. The trial is much the same in our age. His accusers are setting the stage for the jury by filling the air with nebulous scents; no need for proofs (less effective). The scent of holding something threatening back, the ora of descent and rebelion, the air of war mongering and brainwashing and alterior motive, the tinge of stirring crowds into fanaticism, all thrown out not to be answered (how could we) but to set the tone and put the adherent on the defensive. Where then is the Lord's defense? Is it really in us becoming more vocal and defensive? Or is it in us keeping true to what He has been teaching and commanding all along? Is not our love and fruitfulness in the knowledge of Him His best defense? The faith of our Lord is in the work that He has already been doing, it is in knowing from this initial work what in the future will be done. His faith is not in the trial or the defense or the court of corruptible opinion, it is in the righteousness of His Father. So must ours! Not everyone else is an accuser, they may simply be the jury. They should be aware of the tactic just the same.

January1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:1:1-17 - Our search begins today with the patience of God. You see the generations from Abraham whom the promise was made kjv@Genesis:12:2-3 to Mary's Joseph who received it? Further back even in kjv@Genesis:3:15 a prophecy is made that there will be a savior. In these names we likely see the impatience of man as well. It is a checkered path from there to here and here to where we are at largely because we see not the time span as God's patience but His absence. What could possibly be happening in the span that is worth the patience of either party? In the case of Israel it is the process of lifting them into the noticeable awareness and irritation of all the other nations. The establishment of Israel a nation that was not and the amplifying blessing/curse of the double measure was to make the peoples notice, the laws and sacred articles and Israel's continuous mishandling of them to prove to all their own sins, the up and down to show of God's mercy/longsuffering/righteousness. That now being irrefutably shown it was time for the promised one and here He is. We can look at the time from Jesus on as the time we have been aware of the time and process before yet remain of the mind that the length of delay equates to God's hiding or tolerance when in fact it equals opportunity for the last few to believe. In the times to come it will not be said by any that God did not give us the time, that He rushed, that He was impatient. It will be said what fools are we to think that God is anything other than righteous, that if He has given time than that time is for our soul's sake and for His name and plan's sake. we are told of the perfecting work of patience. It is time for that patience to work it's work on us. The faith of our Lord is in the totality of the time presented and the righteousness of the Father in allowing for it. He was there with HIM in before the beginning, He will be there with HIM beyond whatever end. Whatever time we have between that is a time of patiently keeping His commandment and faith; it having it's sanctifying way upon us.