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May25 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:6:45-56 IT IS I - Jesus is pushing the Disciples hard to understand something very important, something that they did not understand in the first pass with the loaves. There is a hardness/resistance there with them against this teaching that must be broken up. In order to do this He has them work frantically against the wind to save their own lives. The similarity to the message of the loaves is being intensified and personalized. It is a spiritual teaching remember where the Disciple is doing what he is told but, is long getting nowhere, barely maintaining the position to this point reached. How many times in the course of ministry are we found at the same point with our faith (even our lives at times) out on the line and the waves that could end it all are closing in all around us? Why was it Jesus was just going to walk on by? He wasn't, He was waiting for them to recognize Him. Up to now it had been their effort only, their fishes and loaves, but the situation before them was humanly impossible, improbable by nature and supernaturally unheard of. Had they simply asked Him to join on board and help the rowing effort it would still be their futile effort with an extra oarsman. Instead, had they called out to Jesus to rebuke the wind, do that which no man can do, their fulfillment of the task at hand would have gone much smoother. The few fish and the loaves amongst many, paddling against life threatening gail forces are all a part of obedience and serving this Lord. These are not meant to be lessons of learning defeat, they are meant to be moments of calling God to do the impossible; all in the course of obeying His will. The faith of our Lord is the faith of a master teacher. Certain lessons have to be learned, but, we find mere words often sell the lesson short. Teaching spiritual things often requires physical examples, physical experiences, even fearful adrenaline and sore amazement. If the Lord appears to you only as some ghostly spirit in these times you know that you are not recognizing Him for what He is and what Lord over all things He needs to be in your life. IT IS I.

June30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:14:66-72 COCK CROW TWICE - How many more times in Peter's life was he greeted by the crow of the cock? Every morning likely! Don't think that this isn't what he thought of each and every time? It could have driven another man crazy had he not relied daily on the forgiveness of His Lord/Friend. Jesus knowing that he was going to do it surely forgave him before he had even done it. It wasn't giving him permission that He told him, it was simply stating where Peter was at spiritual having yet to be fully converted. So what was the point of Peter's full conversion? Perhaps it was this very thing in light of the death and resurrection he was about to witness. We, like Peter may have spent much time alongside Jesus learning by His words and His actions, we may insist that upon trouble that we wouldn't deny Him; yet, by our disobedience or doubt in small small ways we deny Him everyday. In larger ways we deny Him by pretending to be His light in our own yet corrupted ways. Now Peter could have just said "yes I am Galilean, what Galilean doesn't know about Jesus". He could have said "this man arrested tonight I know to be a good man at heart and it is up to all God fearing people here tonight to make sure that He gets the type of trial that god fearing people deserve". Or he could have said "I am here on the family's request". Why did he not say "watch closely, He has promised to raise again in three days". It was not an accusation of Jesus having foretold this, it is a spiritual fact, evidence of a spiritual condition, a condition that He is willing to use towards the fuller conversion of all of us. There is no doubt in my mind that any of us would have answered both the Lord and these maidens the same way. It is time for us to wake to the crow of the cock as well. But not to let that destroy us, not to make us all the more self determined, but, to allow His death/resurrection/forgiveness/lordship take hold of us completely as well. The faith of our Lord is that denial is not the end, once realized and confessed it is the starting point; now He can teach you. With proper counsel, the word of God can bring us forward out of what we merely think to be right. Peter was not a perfect man even years latter; he would be the first to tell you. Peter was a man saved by the grace of God and by the full and deeper experiences of serving a risen Lord.

December5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:13:31-38 A NEW COMMANDMENT - You will remember the two great commandments "love the Lord your God with all your heart/soul/mind/strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself"? You have also heard "love your enemy"? The new commandment puts a much more practical face on all of this, to "love one another as I (Jesus) has loved you". How has Jesus loved us? While many would rightly to lay down one's life, consider this, Jesus Himself has not at the point of saying this done has not yet done that and we are not all likely to be put into that situation and Peter here is offering that very thing. While the giving of one's own life in the right situation (for the right glory) can be the greatest form of love, there must also be something much more daily and practical. The key may be in verse 31-32; the direction towards which the glory is given by Jesus. Jesus' love for us was directed toward the glorification of His Father. He did not seek His own glory; love does not seek it's own glory. Neither did Jesus glorify the people that He showed love, but pointed them to the glory of the Father. In His presence His love covered a multitude of transgressions and yet made it clear that this was not the behavior of the world to come, that the only way out from this death sentence was the answer that the Father had sent. He never criticized or convicted individuals, only the groups of religious hypocrites that held the people down. He concerned Himself with the spirit of the law rather than the letter. All this and more done for no better reason than to glorify the Father who sent Him. Compare this to the sacrifice of two opposing soldiers giving their life for country, you can see how Jesus rightly could have died and risen for the sins of both and how that His commanded form of love exceeds even this so great a human form of love. How does that apply to our love for others? There is much that has been modeled for us that all boils down to the Father's glory. Peter was ready to lay down His life for his master, true/loyal/much to the point we thought Jesus might be teaching through this passage. Despite the best of Peter's intentions, it is a love pointed toward his own glory. If the command was to love the others as Jesus loved them, how then would this self sacrifice on behalf of Jesus have servered the others? Would it not step all over Jesus' time of glorification? Peter will one day follow where Jesus now goes, but it will be in a time and manner that better illustrates a love for the others such as Jesus has shown to all believers. In it's time Peter's sacrifice will greatly serve us and glorify Father and Son and Spirit. Until his time of ultimate sacrifice (or the possibility of our's) there will be much learning on Peters part (and our's) to know the true meaning of this new command. God will be glorified in Jesus and Jesus will be glorified in HIM straightway and then by all. The faith of our Lord is that He one day will be known as our Lord by this very same type of discipled love one to another. It is a love for others that seeks to glorify none but the Holy Trinity. To love God with all heart/soul/mind/strength and others as self by loving as Jesus has loved us.