May23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:6:14-29 AND THEREFORE - How do you explain Jesus? We see how vulnerable human reasoning in this passage. We have the reasoning King Herod, Herodias, her daughter, and others. Each have their bend. Some rationale is being bent by guilt/fear/drunken enticement/exaggerated commitments/justifying unlawful marriages. Other rationale is being bent by retribution/scheming/manipulation/deceit. Anothers' rationale is bent by the vanity of youth/sexual seduction/promiscuity and either a naivete or collusion of her mother's true intents. Others are bent by misinterpreted scripture or myth. All of this and more works against John and now Jesus. People like to think that they are free to make the right choices, that discernment and reasoning is their particular even inherent strength; it is simply not true. The carnal mind is at enmity against the spiritual, the closest it can come to being right is a counterfeit substitution of what God himself has chosen to reveal. Much of that is hidden inside parables and prophecies and large millennium wide swaths of history so that it can't be counterfeited and so that only true diligent seekers can be brought to it. In our own lives the question must be where is our rationale being bent? What sin or carnal trait is obstructing or altering the course of spiritual insight? What keeps us from true discernment of the facts and road map before us? The faith of our Lord is implied in this passage, implied that He knows what He is up against/what we are up against that He must save us from. When He contrasts light to darkness and groups all of mankind into darkness this constant bend is much of what He is talking about. Worse yet people more love this darkness more than surrendering it to His light. They continue to use the same rationale to make the same decisions and take the same actions with the same insolence and self determination and kill off the things that contradict or counteract their torturous corruptions. Somehow they justify this all as being right vaguely aware if at all of what is actually occurring. AND THEREFORE and with this bend they attempt to explain away Jesus.
May26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:7:1-23 HOWBEIT IN VAIN - Imagine spending the bulk of your lifetime judging others presumably on spiritual grounds by what means little to God. If the commandment of God boils down to loving God with all heart/soul/body/strength and neighbor as self, where then have the disciples broken this commandment by not ceremoniously dry washing hands to honour the elders? What would make one ever think that the two are the same unless it was a dirty heart that wanted to appear to others as if it was clean? Imagine being consumed by what went into others' bellies more than what came out of their hearts. Imagine having that be the factor that keeps you from coming to a clear and present knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Imagine that you have come all the way from Jerusalem to argue with/disprove Messiah over that. The funny thing is that even after having this explained disciples like Peter still had problems reversing this clean/unclean thought long ingrained in him later on in life. How deep are the traditions we hold? How do we still hold to them even though we understand differently? Why does such a principal teaching appear to us as a parable and not a plain principal? The faith of our Lord has to keep it's focus. He cannot allow these side issues to detour His teaching, He must vanquish them as soon as they are presented. Our focus must be spiritual and be on Him and His commandment. It can not morph into what we think is spiritual but really is not.
May30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:8:22-26 NEITHER GO INTO TOWN - This time the man is taken outside of town, restored, told to no return back in to the town till after Jesus leaves. How long before Jesus left we don't know. Two options as I see it. One: It is almost as if the bigger miracles are exciting the crowds in ways counter productive to the ministry. Crowds stir leaders and leaders stir counter measures. Whatever the balance is between teaching and miracle and evangelism, the reaction to the miracles is becoming a major concern. Two: unrelated to the reactions of others these commands may be tests of the response those directly involved. He heals, He commands, they fail Him. If the disciples fail Him, the healed/unshackled fail Him, what are the chances that we will fail Him? It is not to discourage us that this is made known, it is to direct us to His pursuing love. If both options are at play we find a Lord of great love and great concern shepherding us, steering us away from the faults deep within us at great risk to Himself and His ministry with great oversight and insight into all the matters at hand. The faith of our Lord is immeasurable. It is hard to be puffed up with leaven when you know that you have failed and will fail but He keeps working to set you apart for His glory.
August27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:29-32 NO SIGN GIVEN - It can't just be evil to ask for a sign, it is evil that after everything that they've seen and heard that there hasn't been a movement toward repentance, that after all this they have not been convinced to turn. Those that have repented in antiquity did so based on less information from lesser sources. What keeps them from repenting? Evil. John placed it that they loved their darkness more than His light. The message is that they have seen everything that they need to see in order to believe and repent but they won't. Is this particular to this generation? Or is it a result of this generation being the one Jesus physically stood before? This is a rejection of Him and His physical presence kjv@Isaiah:53. Had Jesus stayed off in the prophetical and the theoretical distance, had He been an idea safe enough in the future tense people would not have had such an adverse reaction to Him. Even nowadays, where there is so much debate and academic criticism, it is not the same despising rejection as there was that once; He is no longer real enough to us for it to matter. Repentance today is something one offers another for having made an injurious mistake not a realization the entire direction one has spiritually been on in relation to God is wrong. We no longer hold that God has been injured or that God is any different than any of us in right or property or expectation. Oh we need repentance no doubt, but who is to say that we wouldn't have already repented had we not seen and heard the things observed by that generation while He stood in person. While we pride ourselves in our literacy and deductive reasoning, so much of what Jesus leisurely did daily so abruptly defied any explanation, we would be fish completely out of water on the occasions these crowds had. Now there will be a generation soon to come, we already see the evidences approaching (as did Paul) that men will completely be lovers of themselves, reprobate in every detail. That also will be a generation pivotal to the prophetic fulfillment. It is the faith of our Lord that during this meantime we will take every advantage to spreading His gospel, while there are ears eager and hearts accepting and directions that are turntable. There is a sign in each and everything to be seen; signs enough for a great plenty. We have this sign of Jonah completed by His resurrection. Should we still yet not believe/repent we would not be such an evil generation as a tragic one.
September23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:18:9-14 TRUSTED THAT THEY WERE RIGHTEOUS - What does self righteousness have to do with despising others? Can you be self righteous and not despise others? Let's think it through closely. How is it that one can think himself righteous? He sees the faults of others and projects himself to be above that. He sees their works and judges them lacking. He sees their predicament and sees their blame. He sees their station in life and feels it well deserved. Does he not despise these others? Here then is the great commandment "love the Lord thy God because you are not a sinner and despise your neighbor because he is a low life. Okay, so maybe that is the extreme; let's take it down a notch. You are basically a good person because you have kept yourself from the types of issues that they are experiencing. You then are not blaming them so much as you are applauding yourself; right? What you are saying is that they are stupid for falling to such a thing, they are weak for not being as strong as you are. Let's turn it down yet another notch. How about "I came to believe in Jesus", "it was plain to see", "it suddenly made so much sense", "if you just search yourself it will come to you as well"? The truth is that the self righteous man gives himself a whole lot of credit where very little credit can be found. The self righteous man knows very little of the depths of the depravity within. He is disgusted by the depravity of others and puts himself above it when his type of depravity is perhaps the worst of them all. It is the depravity that keeps him from finding the need for God's mercy, from searching the righteous act of God performed for him on the cross, from accepting the payment made on his behalf for his depravity, from depending upon God's grace and nothing but. The faith of our Lord is in the man who knows that he is a sinner and is by God's hand ready to make a whole new start on more realistic terms. Self exaltation will be abased. The humbling of self will bring one closer to his/her exalted Lord.
October30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:3:1-21 GOD SO LOVED - God so loved the world.. Which world? The world that is or the world to come? If it takes this to get to that then the two are inseparable, He loves "The" world. Imagine God when laying out His plan foresaw a future so grand and glorious, communion so rich and wondrous with all angelic and human creation that He knew it would be worth giving the life of His only begotten Son for. Knowing that it meant a time detached and a temporary world that He would have to condemn, but through His Son He would be able to redeem, that all of this would be what brought us all of that which He foresaw. Imagine us hating what He foresaw, what He foretold, what He afore did. Imagine us choosing to continue even if eternally in this condemnation rather than accept entrance into that which God foresaw and so loved. Why would we do that? So that our deeds be not reproofed? How much then do our deeds mean to us? It is evident that God so loves this present world, but not then everything about it. He has given us allowance where the full consequence of our choice is not yet, a time to sort through this invitation. Does He love that many will instead perish? Surely it is upsetting. They might feel it to be His moral quandary having such a high opinion of themselves. It is actually a quandary that they have placed upon themselves for with all sincerity and simplicity He has given them awareness and option out. Jesus reminds Nicodemus of the Brass Serpent of Moses, a time when fiery vipers struck at all of Israel as a whole and only those that looked upon the risen emblem of their Messiah were saved. Can it be any different for the world of all people as it likewise clings to it's sin and rebellion? There is so much that God keeps us from that are of our own consequence, so much that He cannot forever defend us from or support. Does it mean that He doesn't love that world? No it means that the option that He had given them was not ever taken. The scripture says "choose you this day life or death". How hard of a decision can that be if He so loves the world of the living and what that living will be that He gives the life of His only begotten Son to redeem it? That world to come must really be something worth deserting our evil deeds for. The faith of our Lord is in the love of His Father and what His Father sees as being our ultimate destination within that love. Is our faith?
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?
December20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:18:25-27 THE COCK CREW - It is almost like following two stories simultaneously, the most important time for Jesus, but His story keeps getting interrupted by Peter. The stories though are not separate and it is not an interruption because Jesus had predicted this. Jesus' concern was always for His disciples and friends, Peter being high on that list. He has invested so much into these men and women. Like you and I as parents though where you know that you've done everything you can to see your kids off on the right road at the same time you know that they are going to have to make their own mistakes. You can talk and talk until you are blue in the face and they are blue in the ears. You would think that they know, you pray that they would know and not have to go through these things, but they are not truly going to know until they go out on their own and are tested. I believe it is much the same with our Lord Jesus as He looks upon Peter and therefore us. Peter may be the first of His kids to spread his wings out as he was the first in so many other things. He certainly has the desire to be there, yet at the same time he has the "know it all" cockiness that can spell big failure. Peter swore that he had the control not to allow this to happen and he meant every word. Now the cock crews. Interesting that it is a cock, meaning everybody there outside and in probably heard it, it may have stood out like a sore thumb (is it really already that time?). It is not just that we make mistakes, it is often mistakes that other people can't help but know about; in this case John and Jesus would have known the special significance. John may now have tearfully understood that the two story lines are really one. The story line is where the ministry stood as Jesus approached the climax of His trial as He watched along the dawning horizon of His disciple's new frontiers. It stood broken and flat and scattered. We could say that it was unprepared for the reality happening all around it, just like with our kids. On the other hand it has been prepared, the only way it can be prepared, trained up in way it must go, shown the path that it must return to. Note that these men are not operating in the Spirit as of yet; the Spirit is yet to come. Until we come to the path in the Spirit, say what we will, intend what we intend, be as bold and confident as we can muster, we will be much like Peter is right now - strongly believing yet denying the very person we desire to glorify, sticking out to those who know the significance, being noticed for the peculiarity by everyone else. The faith of our Lord is in us operating in His Spirit. He is willing to allow us our mistakes at first. Our mistakes however should be bringing us to realize our need for His Spirit in short order else they are not just mistakes, they become short sighted disobedience. Thankfully, Peter figures this all out in short order; the investment in Him made by the Lord pays off.
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