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January1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus geneva@Matthew:1:1-17 - 42 generations. A span of some 1950 years. Peoples lives and peoples future hope in God. It is a long time preparing mankind for the Savior's entry. There has been nearly a constant steady movement towards this moment when Son becomes incarnate flesh. Things are about to take a sudden turn. The taskmaster, the Law is about to be fulfilled and the Law of Grace about to superceed it. What do we find as the faith our Lord possesses in this geneology?. 1. His faith in the Father's plan, His judgment, His timing. 2. A faith in the Holy Spirit's abilities once the Son comes into this flesh and a faith in the same when He departs. 3. A faith in His own complete submission. 4. A faith backwards to include salvation to those this life has passed, a faith present into the salvation of those with whom He will be here with for 3+ years, a faith future toward the salvation of thise who will believe based on these present men's testimony. It is a large faith that we hope to look more deeply into as this journal continues.

January26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:7:1-6 JUDGEMENT - Judgement is so very closely related to hypocrisy. We are so much willing to hold others to a standard that we would never hold ourselves to. We can sniff out hypocrisy in others from a mile a way, perhaps that is because we fully expect it. Judgement cannot be avoided in our day to day lives. Most every activity and relationship encountered in a day requires some form of judgement. It is not judgment that is being forbidden here, it is the type of judgement; the most common type - Hypocrisy. One should learn to expect it from themselves and know how to look for it. We want to be judged a fair judge, one whose judgement applied first and foremost to their own-selves. Judge as one who knew his on weaknesses yet was brave enough to battle his weaknesses and to help others through theirs as well. What use is it to strive not to judge at all, neither owns-self nor others? The Lord's faith is not that we will become a bunch of passivists, it is that we will be able to judge right from wrong, truth from falsehood, help from oppression........

January29 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:7:15-23 FRUITS - Two lives are examined by their fruits; a third is implied. The two are extremes but produce similar corrupt fruit, false prophets and those who presume to do the Lord's work but are not. To Jesus the equation is simple: good tree good fruit, bad tree bad fruit; no in between to consider. What in life is so stark in comparison? Spirituality! It is either born of Him or not. Does that mean that we do no wrong? No that means that He is able to produce good fruit through us as we abide in His tree. Think of all the elements discussed so far in this sermon (low and meek to self/reflecting His light/having all righteousness fulfilled in Him, convicted under the fullest sense of the law, non-hypocritical/judgmental, will be done, seeking first.... ). Is there any doubt that this tree can produce nothing other than good fruit in the big picture? The faith of our Lord sees the stark division between good and corrupt, works of flesh and of spirit, fruit born of Him versus all else that is not. He is sure of our path.

January30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:7:24-29 THESE SAYINGS OF MINE - Therefore. Therefore what? Therefore everything He has said in this sermon is something supremely wise for us to take hold and build our faith/lives upon. It is our Lord's faith that this series of sayings will make the needed spiritual difference in us. Not only will we be built up but built on solid indestructible footings, all focused and centered upon His righteous fulfillment of the righteous eternal demands of His/our Father. The difference is as radical and stark as darkness and light. The fruit of which exceeding the righteousness of the most zealous scribes and legalists. The entirety of fulfillment would still not be available to us until His death and resurrection, but, He is well on His way to providing us the reasoning and the means of the Father's plan. This one sermon is without doubt the greatest most concise and all encompassing teaching delivered by any person in human history. Well worth re-reading kjv@Matthew:5-7

February3 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:8:18-22 HOLES AND NESTS - Our lives are filled with priorities. One man believes he can set Jesus as his number one priority, Jesus asks him to consider more carefully just how much of a priority that commitment could become. Another man has Jesus as his priority but another priority temporarily becomes more the priority, Jesus asks him to reconsider. The Lord knows our hearts and our lives. He knows that they are controlled by priorities; priorities that we ourselves set. At this particular time, given His short stay, His disciples priority had to be one thing and one thing only. Even during His time here at times He worked within other peoples commitments (Peter's mother in law for instance) to make His message known. Now that His pathway for us has been paved, though we be not removed from being His disciples, neither are we to remove ourselves from our vows and obligations. The message is that we make those vows and obligation and we set those priorities; not to make those rashly or hastily or foolishly that they become a distraction from our true obligation following and serving the discipline of our Lord. Not to let those involvements become an excuse for not proceeding further in the Lord's work. Understand how much sacrifice and commitment our discipleship must at all times be. Our Lord's faith is shown in how single minded and dedicated His obligation and priority was and is.

February20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:12:46-50 STANDING WITHOUT - Is Jesus saying that His mother and siblings are not doing the will of the Father at present? What were they going to tell Him? That they were being followed every where they go? That strange cults were beginning to develop outside the house regarding Mary? Was the public's curiosity making carnival acts out of their own lives? Were they projecting their own stress upon Jesus and asking Him to come home, rest, let things cool down? Were there threats circulating? It would all be conjecture, but, surely their quiet lives have been burdened as well. This lifestyle is not anything that they would have chosen themselves, at times it may have even been understandable for them to resent. Jesus is not pushing them away, He is desiring for them to come along side. He is asking them to consider the larger picture, the adoption of a great many into the brotherhood of the kingdom. The faith of our Lord regards many issues as one; it all comes down to obeying the will of God. It would be easy to be pulled aside by this problem or this concern or that wise motherly counsel. His followers must be able to follow along with Him even through the impossible and uncertain as much as is both humanly possible and spiritually empowered. Without this frame of mind we too could find ourselves outside the crowd insisting to advise Him on something that in the grand scheme of things is of little consequence.

February23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:13:31-35 SECRET FROM THE FOUNDATION - There may be a way to look at these parables and have them confirm what we have known all along. Jesus intends though to reveal things that have been concealed up until now and this/that parable. One must ask 'what do I understand now that until this parable was not known'? To do that one must search deeply with more than a passing glance. If the tiniest of seeds becomes a substantial tree, if the Kingdom hidden in three measures of meal raise the entire loaf, what new thing then does that mean? I think that the casual reader gets that He is talking about increase or growth here. Do they get what it is that is growing? Isn't the example of leaven also used as a analogy to spiritual corruption? Isn't the mustard seed used of the size of faith? Commentary cannot answer everything for you. Somethings simply must be searched out by one's self. To know that the true meaning is deep down into what has been concealed is an invitation into the parable. To know that parables are only opened up to the honest and sincere of reverent faith is a discipline. It is the faith of our Lord that all those that truly ask/seek/knock will find this wisdom and that this wisdom will grow out into every area and aspect of the believer's life. That the lives of believers together and united will combine throughout the world and ages to be supernaturally more than can be found in just one person.

April2 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:22:34-40 THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS - When Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets kjv@Matthew:5:17 now basically He is saying that He came to love. Likewise we should love, but, without believing on Him first we find that we are unable to love to this extent. For most people love is this large nebulous puffy cloud of whatever they want it to be. How do you love God with all heart/soul/mind when you know nothing about Him, when He is merely whatever you want Him to be? Likewise, how do you love yourself and thus your neighbor without knowing the type of love God has for you? God's love very well could be shown in His law convincing us of our sin and the need for change, our inability to that of ourselves. God's love could be shown in the prophets pointing us to the single person from which that change is possible. God's love could be shown in that while we were yet sinners He sent His Son to become the propitiation for our sins. How does one love to the full extent without such blessed knowledge? Does and mom and dad truly love their dear newborn child without first knowing the actual love of God? Can a child be raised in true love having any doubt or reservation or false pretense about God's hand and doing? If not a child then how so a neighbor? And the prophets, had they not constantly told us where God was going with this, would we not have known who Jesus would be, what He would do, and where to look for Him? So a question is asked to tempt Him, a question that they probably know the same answer, love. Two opposite directions occur at the point of believing on Jesus, man's and God's. The faith of our Lord is that these two commandments properly seen and practiced will revolutionize the lives of it's adherents. His love which is the Fathers love will shine through to our love, our true love will be made to sprout. Our love separated from His love is darkness. His love separate from Jesus is imaginary.

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.

April18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:26:69-75 THRICE - It would be hard for any Galilean in Jerusalem to deny that He is not a follower of the accused Galilean, his speech/inflections would give him away. No one was fooled of course and the more he tried to deny it the more insistent others became. So why then did he continue? Keep in mind that he swore that he wouldn't. I feel that the sense of personal danger must have been too great. If the authorities wanted to reign in the rest of Jesus' group what better place to start than with the interogation of Peter. Torture could be used to discover the whereabouts of the remainder. The mood of the public had certainly changed as well, Peter may not have made it into the hands of the authorities if taken by the hand of the mob. Peter's testimony of what Jesus had declared could be used against Jesus as well. There is so much unknown and suspicious tide to consider. Earlier Peter had thought that he understood the pressures that would come to bare against him as a disciple of the captured Christ; he underestimated the depths that this late night could erode down into and the sentiments of the aroused mobs now gathering. There are well thought out reasons not just cowardice at work in Peter's denial. Extreme danger brings with it different angles and realities that Peter had not before considered. Jesus had considered these pressures and angles though and yet was not condemning. Peter would weep bitterly. A river would flow of embarrassment and shame and powerlessness and complete let down, but, most of all a torrent of love for the man that he had invested all his devotion and hope into. Even though we may not know the full weight of momentum behind this denial, we can certainly sympathize with it as we are just as likely or more so to do the same under lesser conditions. The faith of our Lord understands the pressures His word can bare on us just as much as He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows that what we intend to be/do for Him is rarely what comes out; and frankly He is okay with that as long as there is open repentance and progress made. The way of our lives is a constant correction. This is a real and correctable experience Peter has stepped into that will mold and shape the remainder of his life. Not many would have the guts to step into the danger so far as Peter did, it is almost as miraculous as stepping out onto the raging waters. We cannot say that what Peter ended up doing as he realized the storm set against him was right but, we can say that it was transformative; love and devotion will continue and grow. The Lord knows how to lead us from here in our bitter and broken tears to there into His secure and loving arms. This as much as anything is the trust that we must come to have in Him.

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.

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.

June1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:8:31-9:1 GET THEE BEHIND ME - It is one thing for Messiah to be despised and rejected amongst His own chosen Hebrew people, is it any different for His own followers to be ashamed of where He is heading and what He must do? Isn't the effect the same? Jesus sees His life as given completely to bear our cross; He savors that because that role is from God. Our role is to savor that as well. When Peter rebukes Jesus he is not thinking of what God has for Jesus to do. Is that not rather being ashamed of Him and deny His God given course for mankind? If we do not fully see the necessity of Christ baring our sins and dieing for them on the cross are we not rather ashamed also? In our varied discourses through out the day if we are rewriting the Jesus story into something other than it truly is meant to be are we not denying Him then before men? Are we not otherwise ashamed of Him? Though baring our daily cross certainly suggests much more than this, this essential core at minimum must be picked up and followed. Jesus lived that He might die for all sin. Through Him we in our daily lives must die to sin, live towards others that His death may be for their sins as well. To not do that is to deny Him before men, to be ashamed of His mission, to not savor the things of God, to stand firmly behind Satan. Is this not worse than being blind to Him and outright rejecting Him? The faith of our Lord is in something more than intellectual consent, it is what He gave His life to/for. Our faith and life and discourse must be something very similar. What else has a man in exchange for his soul?

June27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:14:32-42 SPIRIT WILLING FLESH WEAK - Would you consider falling asleep a sin? It could be if you were in trusted to post the watch. It would be if you had been commanded to (regardless of lives depending on it or not). The spirit may be ready but the flesh is weak. So how did Jesus want the three to counter act that weakness? To pray lest they enter into temptation. Temptation? What is the temptation? The pull of the flesh. What was the pull of the flesh in this case? To sleep and to take offense. The disciples had vowed to be by His side and no doubt they fully intended it. How did Jesus know that they would scatter away tonight offended? Because He would ask them to do something spiritual that they would only be able to do having received the strength to do it from the Father by prayer. The flesh pulled them away from receiving that strength. In contrast the Lord worked through the pull of His flesh by locking Himself onto a tractor beam of prayer. The sore amazement, the heaviness over the agonizing cup He was about to drink, the wrestling of His own will would perhaps have been too much had He not asked for and received the strength from the Father by His prayers. There are a great many things we've been asked to do that we fully intend to do but, the flesh has pulled us away. Maybe not in Ten Commandment kind of ways but, in deserting our post kind of ways, in dosing off kind of ways that leaves these things mostly undone. We can resolve by our own strength to do these things but, truly it is only by the strength received by prayer. Our spirit is ready for His strength to overcome the pull of flesh, but, we have not because we ask not. Jesus did ask. Jesus was able to complete His obedience. We have the feeling that He had asked us to do something He knew we couldn't do and when we fail somehow we get offended. I heard a wise man say today that "victory is not won it is received". The faith of our Lord is that when He asks us to do something near impossible (by our own resources) in the future that we will remember His similar "up against the impossible" example and pray for the strength required lest we enter into temptation, the pull of the flesh.

August6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:7:11-17 THIS RUMOR OF HIM - Theophilus, if you are still reading this, here is a point that I have researched and feel comfortable that you yourself could confirm throughout the region as this miracle is still widely spoken of. There were many people there that saw it, the story spread, there was a great fear between those that saw/heard of it, that there was and is a saying among them that "God hath visited His people". Today we read through the passage and can't wait to get on to the next. It reads like a book, the stories rush by like here in ten quick sentences. What if this story was made into a book? The names and the faces came forward? Their lives before and after touched? Imagine that you knew this widow, her son, her deceased husband. Imagine that you knew her struggle and her mourning twice over. Imagine that you saw the "great prophet" when His lungs swelled up with such compassion and you then anticipated by the sudden silence from everyone in the crowd that something absolutely astonishing was about to happen. Will it happen? How can it happen? Am I really here to see this happen? Imagine Luke some twenty five years latter researching account after account of someone that was there (or someone that their parents made a point later to tell) taking notice of their eyes and lips as they spoke of the young man sitting man straight up. Do you still see it as a ten sentence passage? While there was so much going on in these three and a half years and surely moments like these must have just flown by with too many details to pen, we should never speed read through a single moment thus testified of. It is the faith of our Lord that we will give more time and more consideration to the accounts outlined in these gospels. We too can sense the profound drama, even relive them in our imaginations, have them soak through into our lives today. Linger rather my friend, thereby better join in the fear and awe and the long lasting gasping echos that remain.

August9 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:8:1-15 THE SEED IS THE WORD - Hear the word, keep it, bring forth fruit with patience; that is the process on our part. Fruit contains seed, more of the same original seed that was planted, lots more in each fruit born. For those that think that their good works are fruit this passage does not say that, unless to say that their works bare the spreading of more seed. How many of your works bare more of the word? Certain women ministered unto Jesus out of their own substance. Jesus was allowed to spread His word unencumbered. They heard the word and were delivered. They kept the word by caring for it's messenger (and later messengers). They bare fruit then and to this day as we are fruit in part because of their patience. Out of their substance? How much substance did a women of their means have in that day? Enough to help minister unto our Lord. Enough to be mentioned in this passage. Their faith did not choke the word off, it did not wither the word away, the word planted was not stolen away nor trodden down. They had experienced the power of the word in their lives. They sought to multiple the word into the lives of others even if they were not of the position or gender of the time to do so. What is your fruit? Does it bare the seed of the word? Else, does it minister to the sower of the word toward spreading? Else does it minister to the sowers of the seed? Is the seed being sown to all indiscriminately? Unto you it has been given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom; given as if not by your own discernment or worthiness. To whom other is it given that has not yet heard? That has not yet kept? That has not yet brought forth? If you take the seed to mean your faith or as your good works then you miss the interpretation given by our Lord. The faith of our Lord is in His word, the preaching and showing of the glad tidings of the kingdom. Is that word being snatched away in your ministry? Is it being withered? Is it being choked off? The word that is not anything other? Or is it baring fruit as it will one hundred fold with patience?

September1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:12:22-34 THERE YOUR HEART WILL BE - We surely know by now how important the heart is in the overall plan of scripture. Looking back on all the many examples of the Old Testament we've seen how the heart of a people waxes cold without much effort. It is almost the natural course to harden and takes special protracted effort to keep (on ours/God's part) to sustain any level of softening for any length of time. On both an individual level and as a nation we see how important the heart is in God's way of thinking and how He looks upon it to get to the truth of any matter. Where is the heart? Here Jesus says that it is with whatever you treasure. One could say "but I don't treasure one particular things, I have various interests, mostly people and family". Perhaps though we should re-examine how central to our core elements such as food and clothing and shelter fit into our relationship with God. Mostly He is something completely separate from these other elements, the control of these constant pursuits are difficult to blindly hand over. It is not that we don't have to make an effort towards these things, toil as Adam because of the curse, it is that we cannot allow them to be the things that harden us. Because they will. They always will. The moment after God performs something great in our lives we are likely to miss the onions back in our captivity in Egypt. The battle after the battle won by God will be the one that we try to win on our own. We will presume to be living by faith, but in these elemental areas proceed with confidence but one in God's provision. All these things the nations of the world seek. It is our Father's pleasure to give us the Kingdom. However, it takes a good measure of trust, a good measure of discipline, a good measure of obedience, a good measure of prudence and stewardship, planting/watering/harvesting. Most of all it take focus on God. To treasure God and His provision more than all and to work as for Him and His glory with thankfulness and a solid sense of His sufficiency. Much of what we worry about is out beyond that which we truly need. God will often lead us through a wilderness surviving on manna before leading us to land of milk and honey. It is likely that we will want to skip over the discipline of trust and obedience to get to the point of immediate plenty. These are the provisions that we inescapably tend to squander knowing not how to make best use of them. Israel squandered the promise land several times over. The faith of our Lord is in the heart. The heart has it's problems, but the heart can be true, it can be sincere, it can be focused. Our time here is a time to be spent becoming this type of heart.

September20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:17:11-19 SAVE THIS STRANGER - You just have to come to expect it. It happens all of the time even in our own lives. You have mercy on as many as you can and you are likely to see one (if any) of all of them return with a thanks or a nod or a hand shake or something; right. But, it is not really the reason you do any of it. You do it because it is the right thing to do. I can picture the ten men nearby, maybe on a bluff close to the city. Interesting that they would be there all together. I can picture Jesus with everything else that is going on around Him taking notice out of the corner of His eye. The whole moment has as much to say about the crowd as it does the ten men. Jesus had been down these roads before, He had healed a great many in the past; probably in this very spot. How many of those people had come out to the gates to glorify Him? Probably some...but the thousands? It is interesting that He sent these men on before fully healing them as if almost a test as to whether they would turn back. Did Jesus know beforehand which one would come back? He might, but we don't (and we never will). The one's that we would expect never seem to be the ones who do. He does not seem over upset about it; it just seems to be a point that He is making. One in ten... One hundred in a thousand... One thousand in 10k....those would be pretty good numbers if the math holds up. A Savior could probably pull those kind of numbers; not any of us. So what does that tell you about our natures? The faith of our Lord is not in numbers. If prophecy is true the numbers will eventually come. What is important for now is the quality of faith inside those numbers. Finally, for our own mercy's sake, this doesn't necessarily mean that the other nine were not made whole or that they weren't immediately thankful; it only tells us for certain how that they chose to/not to express it.

October6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:20:41-47 GREATER DAMNATION - The concept of a scaled judgment is a tricky one. It would be easy for us to think that because we were slightly better than some others in good works we would receive slightly less judgment. We could extend it even further, that even though we did not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, we did believe that He was a very good man, we were inspired by Jesus to better love our neighbor and such, this would stand better in judgment than had we not believed/loved at all. Perhaps if we were on the verge of truly believing (teetering on the edge) we could avoid judgment altogether. The problem is that there are not separate areas in hell, one level of torment for the really bad, others graduated for the not so bad and almost good. Hell is hell. Hell is a complete separation from God (not varying degrees). What possibly may be the difference is the level of comprehension of one's utter guilt, that much was given to this servant and much was expected, that the expectation was not carried out, that what was carried out lead many of these tormented souls to this very place. Tyre and Sodom would not have this level of comprehension, but they would have the comprehension that they had lived vile and perverse lives. Those that sheepishly followed their leaders or peers into all manner of falsity and idolatry would know that they had been foolish and wrong, but they would not have the same responsibility for this eternal torment of others as would those given such responsibility over a great many. Interesting that this was tied in our reading to the momentary relief that the Pharisees felt in the debate over resurrection; they were right on one point, but yet absolutely wrong in the totality of their belief. The stumbling point for them was still Jesus being the Christ. This remains the stumbling point for many others as well including even the people who will prophecy and perform great works in the name of Jesus, but still refuse Him as their one and only Christ. Eternity is not a graduated scale of extreme torment to extreme serenity just as salvation is not a graduated scale slight acknowledgment to solely devoted. The faith of our Lord for His part is in absolutes. Absolute heaven and absolute hell. However He does know that on our parts, even the heaven that many will experience may be graduated by our comprehension of our responsibility to the dear ones there with us and how well we sought to fulfill our role in that responsibility. Clear (or clear-able) conscience may be our greatest eternal reward.

October26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:1:35-42 COME AND SEE - There are pivotal moments in one's life where a decision to change or start anew is stepped out on. In the case of two the one thing lead to the next. Had they not made the original decision to follow the Baptist they would not have been in a position to decide on the next. In a sense the opportunity came to them. In another sense now they have to pick up and go to the opportunity. They are asked what is it that they seek. Now you could imagine not knowing the first thing about who this Messiah actually is. You are filled with a hodge podge of bits and pieces of heresy and conjecture and interpretation, you are filled with certain hopeful expectations, but there is absolutely nothing that you know about His manner or nature or temperament. This to you is a total stranger and you are going after Him based on the word of a wild and crazy locust eater. Further, now others are being introduced to Him by your acquaintance and testimony. We are told elsewhere that there wasn't anything physically about Jesus really that would indicate or point Him out, make us to desire Him. So for these men it must have been the word or the buzz that was developing; we are not told whether He has done/taught anything spectacular yet. To often in our own lives our formulations are based everything but the testimony of people in the know, people that have been searching these details out. We wait until we are desperate, until we see the indisputable, until the evidence pounces upon us; which means we spend a whole lot of time just waiting. These men however seem much more intellectually sincere and honest about their approach. The are asking simply where is the Rabbi staying and taking it from there as it comes. The faith of our Lord doesn't need to drive men to utter desperation or into the miraculous to get their minds/hearts to follow, it is intriguing enough on it's own merit. It is observed here as spreading based upon the testimony of prophet God had firmly established who prepared the way by calling men to universal repentance. Once repentant, the heart is more likely of inquiring into the strange and unfamiliar paths of God's bolder righteousness.

November9 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:6:16-24 BE NOT AFRAID - Between the point where Jesus left the people and where the people catch up to Him, there are three interconnected miracles (four if you count allowing Peter to walk on water); the walking on water, the submission of the wind, the immediate landing negating 3-4 miles of water. I would imagine each one of these fearful in their own right. You could imagine someone among your group standing up and commanding the wind to stop; and it does. You could imagine hitting shallow beach in the dark when you knew that you still expected more than 40 minutes of clear weather paddling left to do. Why these miracles were expended in conjunction on the same eve as the five loaves miracle is not hinted at; unless miracles just tend to string together or unless it was a continuation of the previous examination. Symbolically, if the loaves show God's heavenly provision when there is no earthly way to do it, then perhaps these show that when there is a earthly way (keep paddling or sink) but the tempest is prevailing it is God's heavenly provision that will both calm the storm and get you to the other side. What would keep us then from calling for that heavenly provision and receiving it? Either pride or fear; likely both. These lessons are only for the disciples and the true followers, the "Jesus for President" crowd don't need to be more emboldened. There is a point where one's (or the team's) confidence and ability will only get so far; likely to the point of drowning. That is when one must face their fears. Not with more self determination and effort but with Jesus as Lord. We, like they that night, seem more afraid of Jesus walking alongside us than we do our own boat capsizing. This comes from only seeing through our natural eyes. A man is simply not supposed to walk upon water storm or not. At the same time why wouldn't the Lord of Heaven and Earth be near to His disciples in their time of greatest need, even if it meant Him doing what can not naturally be done? There are going to be many tempests ahead of these men of various sorts. Their lives will constantly be on the edge of danger. That edge of danger however is often the crossing point between the natural and the supernatural (or the natural beyond how we define it). They will need to know this lesson. They will need to be fast learners and I believe that they are. Are we though? That's the question nowadays. Maybe right now our tempest is a much smaller situation, but our ability is being proven to be short of the need. Is our pride and fear going to keep Jesus outside of that boat or is He going to be allowed to do His thing? The faith of our Lord is that His truer nature is sufficient for calming the fear within us that we have against Him and the "extended natural". It is not that He has to create these situations to make us to realize this, there are plenty of these situations that we row into or create ourselves out there anyway. If you are going to try to go somewhere, be someone, land in the spot to which He pointed you, you are going to have to cross the edge into the supernatural at times. You will have to know this lesson... BE NOT AFRAID FOR IT IS I.

December18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:18:15-18 PALACE OF THE HIGH PRIEST - When Jesus foresaw Peter denying Him three times what was it that He saw? How much of it did He see? How much did He plan even? For instance, did He know that John was known by the high priest and would be there or did He make him known? The Greek word doesn't show the level of familiarity. It becomes important because it is John that lets Peter into the servants area. Did John and Peter follow with Jesus in the procession or in the near distance tailing behind? Did they tail together? That becomes important to know how John knew Peter was near by to look for him; or to know that it was safe to bring him in. I guess my question is would Peter have denied Jesus regardless of where he was and then space and situation becomes unimportant? Did Jesus simply see three denials or see the situations developing outside of what He Himself was experiencing that lead to Peter's denials; even perhaps having a hand at making the situation(s) develop? We may never know from the text available to us. The theology that trails each possible explanation however does become quite interesting and complex. Why doesn't the Spirit lead the writer firmly as to these details? The Spirit records what is most important, Jesus is taken, two disciples follow. Little details are thrown in to make us wonder and ponder the possibilities. The possibilities are as enormous as God's sovereignty and as narrow as a man falsely accused and unlawfully treated. In our lives we can often sense the same circumstantial complexity and should center our faith on Him regardless. Would it be wrong for a woman of her own volition to come up and ask us a probing question? Would it be wrong for the Spirit to set that question in her heart to have her probe us? Would it be wrong of the Spirit to have a trusted associate of ours to come down and let us into a position where we could be probed? Would it be wrong for these things to occur most innocently and the test be us testing ourselves? The answer regardless is to have faith centered on Jesus. Whether we pass or fail the test, no matter how the test came about, the answer is to have faith centered on Jesus. It may be that this is the sole purpose of the test to begin with. The faith of our Lord is in God the Father and the Holy Spirit. How much He sees regarding us is an interesting consideration as the apparent depth alone is enormous. How much more He sees of the Father is a solid fact that He is willing to die for.

December28 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:20:19-23 SO I SEND YOU - There will be a discernible difference between the disciples up to now and after receiving the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit job to set us apart from all of the many human deficiencies that spiritually beset us. And the Spirit comes upon their belief of the death and resurrection of the Son of God sent to accomplish the Father's will and provide for the complete remission of sins. One of the most substantial differences will be in their forgiveness towards others. By the same measure God judges us (our belief in Jesus the Lord/Christ) we judge others. By the same measure God forgives us our sins (completely in Jesus Christ) we forgive others who have sinned against us. I cannot rightly forgive one who sins against another in the others place, but I can show both parties the necessity and way to come to that ends in Christ. Neither can I rightly stand in for God other than to avail the terms and counsel on behalf of such agreement, but I can/must for that which is done against me. Should I not forgive any that has sinned against me, I will find that neither has the Father in heaven for I have failed to understand and except the forgiveness the Father has offered me in Jesus; my sin of un-forgiveness will be retained. Should I not help others to come to this level of forgiveness between themselves, I have acted with a similar un-forgiveness by not understanding and accepting the forgiveness of the Father as well; even by such inaction.The Spirit is now here to guide us, to comfort us, and yes if necessary convict us of the sin that we still hold against our Father's judgment/mercy. If forgiveness of this type was the sole accomplishment of the Spirit in us it would be substantial and revolutionary. Can you imagine all the sins just among all of us being remitted? Such forgiveness does not come easily or by our resources however, that is where our problem yet remains. Only by the Holy Spirit which comes by belief in the full work of Jesus Christ, breathed into us as it were by Christ Himself does this impossibility become possible.The faith of our Lord past has now earned the right of our most serious consideration.These things now have been proven and righteously extended to us. We must now take hold of His faith and move it forward into our lives and make it known into the lives of all others.It is by no mistake that along with the gift of His Spirit that the first thing He mentions is the remittance and or retention of sins by us of others.

December29 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:20:24-31 BECAUSE THOU HAST SEEN - What would of happened with Thomas had Jesus not returned for Him? Thomas would have to come into his belief just like any other of us; by the testimony of others. The thing is that there are plenty of Thomas's out there that have their mind fixed that there is nothing in these testimonies to believe, that it is something that they will have to see and feel for themselves. Is Jesus obligated to return for them as well? The thing is that that don't really need to see and feel in so many other areas of their lives, why is it so important to them in this particular case? They will take another's word when it comes to politics. They will take another's word when it comes to economics, investments, history, future prediction, court testimony, science, global warming, etc... They will also swallow rumor and innuendo and false premise and distortion and murmuring and intimidation and unjust balance. Why is it not their intellectual creed in these cases? The point is that we try intellectually to be these things and to a certain respect we are, but the reality is that it is close to impossible to be this in the broadest respect. Truth is that we are inescapably made to rely upon the testimonies and opinions of others. Yes it is difficult and error prone and requires discernment; even trust. Yes others have their personal motives and view points and see the same event with dissimilar details. But for men like Thomas (well meaning though they think that they are) to say to the others "no, I won't allow your word even into my preliminary consideration" or "you all are liars" or "this is something so much different than what Jesus told us that would happen; I think you are all reaching" such is not much more than self inflating pride. So you won't believe until you see for yourself. Well where were you Thomas when the rest of us saw Him? How many times do you think Thomas that He has to come back when you just happen to show up? Is Jesus really obligated to meet you on your terms and with your objections? In a sense it is important for the over all record that there was dissent observed in the group, at least for us that long after would follow, but in Thomas's case it is merely a stroke of God's grace that he was given another opportunity to satisfy his hypocritical and prideful demands. What if Jesus had not come to any disciple? What if He had appeared to the common public or to Pilate and Ananias instead? Would that have changed the fact of our Lord's resurrection? The faith of our Lord is in the testimony of others testifying to the veracity of His word. He didn't even attempt to write it down Himself. He may be the only major world messianic figure that went about it this way. Such a defense would be more than proper in a court of law. Why would it not in the court of individual belief?