January5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:2:19-23 RETURN FROM EGYPT - The savior of the world could have grown up or even based his ministry from anywhere, Egypt, Rome, South America, etc... It was not the Father's will though; the plan was to save the world by fulfilling the promise made to Abraham and the exact details given long ago to the prophets. Joseph is not told Nazareth specifically. Unless he himself knows of the prophecy, his own fear and protective sense leads him to the fulfillment of God's prophecy. Our Lord's faith, again by previous consent, is that He has come first as and for the children of the covenant and by that then also the rest of the world. He has also come that all prophecy may be fulfilled. No other religious icon has been prophesied to such extraordinary detail and fulfilled it thus passing the test of our scrutiny. Our faith needs to be placed in exactly that!
January15 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:5:21-26 BUT I SAY UNTO YOU (MURDER) - 'Okay, so this is the way you have been taught, the way that I am about to teach you is the way it needs to be taught'; this is essentially what Jesus is saying. For instance, consider murder (one of several similar considerations). The key twist is the word 'therefore' because it ties two very different thoughts (so we think) together. You are bringing your gift to the alter. You remember or become aware of another person having ought against you. What ought would another have? An ought that places you in danger of judgment/tribune/hell fire. The alter that you thought you were standing at has become the throne of a Judge, in His hands you have been delivered to stand for the sin of murder. How so? A person was kept from heaven because you religious person were angry at him without cause. A sister was kept from heaven because you made her to feel her worthless. A struggling sinner was kept from heaven because he was called or was treated like a fool. Who have you kept from heaven's gate in your own pursuit to this alter? Who soul have you damned? This is a murder beyond all murder, the murder lasting eternity; the type of murder never considered nor taught against by men. Our Lord's faith is in a much higher calling, a completely different frame of mind and self image. All men fall short. All men have done this. Where then have we repented? Where have we turned our course? Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way with him....
January20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:5:43-48 BUT I SAY UNTO YOU (ENEMIES) - Every man determines himself his enemies. The label enemy can also be influenced by peer pressure, religious indifference, racial prejudice, false witness, etc.. What criterion then is to be used? Justice? The common teaching has become the mentality of us against them, just versus unjust. The fuller teaching is that God makes his rain to fall upon all. There is a higher calling, to love even a much proven enemy with the love of God; to see others as God sees them. If we needed any further prompting, God added a reward for such. The faith of our Lord is much the same. Though He is surrounded by the wicked and the unjust and the foolish and the hardened and the negligent and the abusive and the timid and the disbelieving and the... (you get the idea), the core of a man's heart that makes Him at enmity with God, His love yet remains all the more. It is not just for them that we should do this, it is for Him and for our own selves.
February7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:9:9-13 I AM NOT COME BUT - 'Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners' tells a lot about the frame of mind of the so called righteous. We are all sinners. The fact that we would not consider ourselves sinners would preclude us from inviting a savior into our home dine. The message is not so much in who Jesus ate with but, who would allow themselves to eat with Jesus. Some would feel it an honor to host the Lord, to invite as many friends and citizens along with to meet with Him, to celebrate a moment face to face with divinity; others would be disgusted and ashamed at the very notion. These are the so called righteous. There is not much one can do for these people, they feel no need for a savior. The faith of our Lord is not going to beg and plead at the door of these people for whatever tiny morsels that they are unlikely to offer. He goes where He is needed and accepted and invited. Maybe that will make them mad/embarrased enough to reconsider their indefensible position.
February25 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:13:44-46 WHEN A MAN HATH FOUND - Is the man described here one of us or is it Him? Could be either, but, not as you might think. There is not anything that we could sell or trade to buy the kingdom of heaven ourselves. The price is not in our hands. The price has been paid however by Him. Is it so much to ask that we would not be better off now selling all that we have that is holding us back in this life for His life to live in us? He once said 'where a man's treasure is, there will be his heart'. Peter later implored 'having done all to make our calling and election sure'. There is the grace that saves us, that pays our price for us. There is the grace that we release ourselves into as a daily living sacrifice. There is the exceeding and overflowing grace that we share as a result upon others. The faith of our Lord is that He is willing to pay the price for this type of kingdom, even if it means hiding it away for the time that it takes to come up with the price. Now that He has the price, this is what He most wants to see and what He is most willing to give Himself entirely to. How about us?
March1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:14:13-21 LOOKING UP TO HEAVEN BLESSED - Jesus performs miracles for many individuals, for the twelve disciples specifically, and for groups large and small. After a day of many individual healings it may be easy to loose sight on the 'for whom' and 'by whom' all such things are done. Jesus looks to the heavens. The disciples offered a logical plan and conclusion. Jesus took their humane effort in this case releasing the masses to fend for themselves as an excuse for not putting their wellfare into the Father's hands, thanking Him for what they did have and asking His blessing upon that. In all it is a perfect conclusion to day filled with wonder, a time to refocus on 'whom by' and 'whom for'. It is the faith of our Lord that it is the Father and Spirit by whom these things come about. They are doing it for the Son. The Son is to stand apart from all others so that He may lead the people's hearts back to them. He stands apart because the Father and Spirit are doing for Him. This is not as much about having the power to do so as it is the power being done for Him. He in turn thanks and blesses and continues to be obedient to the course laid out.
March8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:16:13-20 WHOM AM I - The base context throughout is who Jesus is, not Peter, not the Church, everything is His, God is unchanged about not being a respecter of persons. God has revealed who Jesus is first hand to the disciples for whom Peter is often spokesman, they in turn at this point are to tell no man. The label Messiah/Christ unfortunately has a much more corrupted political meaning outside the group than Jesus wishes to draw attention to at this time. They are the very first, there was no one other to tell/reveal it to them, in this respect they are truly blessed. The foundation He has built already in them through revelation knowledge and in person witness/testimony is the Rock that He will continue to build His Church upon. The Rock is who Jesus is. The keys for Peter are the same keys as to any gospel believer/evangelist, abiding in the righteousness and knowledge of God and Son and applying all diligence toward becoming fruitful. With faith in the person of Jesus Christ and obedience to the will of Jesus Christ both heaven and earth mirror each other in the ability to bind and loose for the Kingdom sake. The faith of our Lord in who He is and what the Father is doing through Him towards us. It is the same faith He calls His gathered believers to hold and identify with. It is not to establish an intermediary papal system; it is a direct assembly/submission to Himself and His immediate Lordship alongside other like minded servants. Nothing, not even death, not even a papal version of itself, will prevail against this type of Christ infused church.
March12 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:17:24-27 - Jesus has taken for Himself an oath of poverty; anything He must put forward must be provided to Him by the Father. While He technically would not be required of the Father to pay the Temple Tax (because He actually is the Temple), He pays the tax just the same in order not to add fuel to the priest's fire. The faith of our Lord is shown in this oath of complete poverty. The utter reliance on the provisions of the Father, how and when to call for them, the knowledge as to where these provisions maybe found, all go into His definition of faith. He legally has the position of authority not to have to be required certain customary things, to rather demand such observances/taxes be paid Him, however, the course forward at this time is best served by putting what is due Him aside. Though late in the eyes of the human temple, He pays out of His sworn poverty for Himself and His disciple.
March14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:18:10-14 THE WILL OF YOUR FATHER - Parable part one warns against offending the child of faith. Parable part two warns against despising the child of faith whom the Son of Man goes after when he has gone astray. Offended and offender, despised and despiser, who is who? The principal can be applied in several ways. For now, let's ask the question this way: Who are typically considered the lost sheep over and over in the scriptures? How often has the larger body of believers rather despised these lost sheep and the Lord's attention to them thus becoming their greater offenders? Did Jesus not know that in the future this historically defining opposition would be so? The faith of our Lord is that it is the Father's expressed will that not one of these should perish; He has come (been sent) to save that which was lost; gentile believers are not being lost they are being grafted in. The angels over Israel rejoice exceedingly along with their Shepherd when another Jewish soul is redeemed. Whomsoever that despises them despises God's Will and shall be an offender of all.
March16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:18:21-35 BECAUSE THOU DESIREDST ME - You can imagine a man going through this life void of the sense of debt to his creator, doing as he pleased, taking what he pleased, conducting himself amongst the rest of creation just as he pleased. If anything is owed by anybody, it is owed to him for having made him work so hard to get where he is at; right?. Imagine then his surprise when his creator calls in the man's debts to Himself. How small is his grasp of the reality things when he thinks that somehow he can repay it on his own? Though the debt is forgiven him this man then continues on thinking that whatever is owed God from here on out will be extracted from what others owe to him; he won't be caught in the embarrassment of having to beg for mercy again. How small is his grasp of the reality of things again when he thinks that the small hundred pence owed him by others is anything near the amount of any future debt incurred to his creator? Instead he is incurring all the more debt. The two debts are completely dissimilar but, the principal being taught is the same; true compassion. Many today seek God to be unconditional without placing the same expectation upon themselves. Isn't that convenient? The Lord instead places one condition on compassion, it is implied by His forgiveness to you, that along the way from here on out that you proceed with the same compassion to all others that He has shown to you. That in itself is impossible to do unless we daily leave ourselves behind at the foot of His cross and pick up with His eternal burden. The faith of our Lord is that He will suffer many a horrible things in the weeks and months to come. He will suffer from the hands of those that He has most compassion for; He is the Father's direct offer of compassion. He see's this time as proving of His oath and understanding of the compassion of His Father. Not unconditional by our odd standards but, so much more effective towards the eternal.
March22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:20:20-28 EVEN AS THE SON OF MAN - Christ has dramatically humbled Himself in ways that we barely comprehend from His previous state to the point where not even who sit at His future right and left hand are not in His power. He has given it all to the Father that He might minister to man and give His life for many. Few could ever say that they ministered unto Him but, that He ministered unto them. His answer settles a lot of question and dispute on both sides. As His Father ministered through Him to man, He is to continue ministering through us to man. The focus for us is to be as Him, humble to the point where it is Him working through us. Humble is not determined by standing or position or even how many possessions and effort that you and your family have volunteered into the ministry; it is an attitude and viewpoint that is pervasive through out your being. The faith of our Lord is in His Father. He submits Himself to whatever the Father wills to be, knowing that whatever is willed to be is throughly righteous because the Father is righteous. His cup is filled with the Father's will if even to death.
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".
March24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:21:1-11 HOSANNA - kjv@Psalms:118:26 is where 'blessed is he' comes from. Hosanna is better defined as both kjv@Psalms:118:25 'save us now I beseech thee' and kjv@Psalms:118:26 'blessed is he' combined. In turn we must recall kjv@Psalms:118:27 as well 'bind the sacrifice' 'unto the horns of the alter'. If Jesus is aware of the quote that the crowd is chanting (we must assume that He does) then He would know the context of how He is to bless/save them and why it is that He has come; He is the sacrifice. kjv@Zechariah:9:9 is where the 'thy King cometh' comes from which has it's meaning continued in kjv@Zechariah:9:10 'shall speak peace to the gentiles' and 'dominion...to the ends of the earth'. While this is the time for riding the ass and colt in, this is not the time for the ends of the earth. Why not? He is to be bound to the alter first. The palm branches I believe are from the Feast of the Tabernacles, a harvest time remembrance of the Lord leading the captives out of Egypt. The symbolism is to deliverance from sin. This day's events are rich with meaning, but, He is the only one that really knows really what that meaning truly is. The faith of or Lord stands alone. Even the closest to Him know little of what He sees even at jubilant times such as these.
March27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:21:23-27 IN LIKE WISE - He says you can answer your own question with one word, the answer to my question will be the answer to yours. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. He waxed strong in the Spirit waiting in the desert for God's word to come. Once word was received he then preached a consistent message the repentance for the remission of sins telling the Pharisees specifically to bring fruit worthy of repentance. He preached in the spirit/words from Elijah preparing the way of the Lord. A great many were prepared by him to hear the words of the one to follow, not the elders and chief priests however, their road was paved to be hewn down like a fruitless tree, there was shown no fruits of repentance. It was a worse sin in their book for Jesus not to comply under their authority than not comply with God's. Whose authority? Well it certainly was not theirs. John had called them vipers to whom wrath was to come, urged individuals of them to flee. Where are these men now today? Where is their authority gone? It is gone. Why indeed did they not believe John then? What was there to fear from the people if they themselves were correct? The faith of our Lord is in the authority of God as proven out by the Holy Spirit. Things have been done, steps made and proven out for millennium by the Spirit to prepare these next few days, things that Jesus if a man could not have possibly prepared for himself. All the pieces now will fall together, mind you not accidentally but, quite masterfully. Had they really been concerned about proper authority they would have traced all the steps.
March28 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:21:28 INTO THE KINGDOM BEFORE YOU - Let me try my hand at stringing the past few sections together. They are tied by the authority of the Father, the ability/responsibility of the believer who is convinced of that authority, and the message to the church and then the world for repentance as preached by John; the way of righteousness. They also have the common thread of producing fruit for a divine purpose. Let us suppose that the fig tree is the calcified/unrepentant church; John/Elijah said that Messiah would hew it down, Jesus says that if one does not doubt the Father's authority that they will have this power too. Then there is the call to go out into the vineyard and work. Here He illustrates that if you say you're going to obey the authority of the Father and don't go work the vineyard the kingdom is not yet yours. Repentance from this disobedience separates those who will receive it and those who will not. If the fig tree speaks of unrepentant/disobedient religion as a whole then it is just as likely that He is speaking of the repentant/obedient Church of the Disciples as a whole as well; this would explain the two sons, Jew and Christian (both His). This is not to say that individual members of these bodies cannot become encumbered by these tendencies also. The faith of our Lord is in this "way of righteousness". It begins with the righteousness and authority of the Father, works it's way outward through the prophets of old and the law which Jesus fulfills, continues as a call to the world at large to repentance and then obedience back to the authority of the Father thus producing the fruit in us of an overall righteousness. It is collective just as much as it is individual. The way of righteousness is righteous in every way.
March29 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:21:33-46 MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES - Why did the Lord choose the Jews in the first place? To be husbandmen over His vineyard. What happened to the fruit of it? It was withheld, kept by them for their own purposes. Did the master not try to get the fruits back? He did, they would have nothing of it. So where are we at now? The master has sent His Son and they are days from killing Him. Why would they do that? Because they know that He is the rightful heir of the vineyard and they want it for themselves. Wait a minute...they know? Yes they know and thereby reject. We are not told how many know, but, it is enough to make useful minions of the rest. It is also suggested that this take over has been the plan since the vineyard was given over (WOW!). How could they not know with all of the prophecy being fulfilled before their eyes; do they not know their own treasured prophecies? Sure they appear to have their intellectual arguments but, in the end what it all comes down to is that they want what is His for themselves. So they perceived that He was talking about them, but, did they repent having been called out? No they sought to lay hands on Him. This changes our perspective of the faith of our Lord knowing how He sees them, knowing that He knows what they have done to those before Him, knowing that this vineyard is the Fathers and He is going to get it back. How He gets it back is what is a surprise to everyone but the Father. There is a twist in here however, the multitude still only see Him as a prophet.
March30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:22:1-14 MANY ARE CALLED - Of those called, there are those who refuse, there are those who make light of (some of which who strike back at the messengers), those that accept, those who come but are irreverent or ill prepared. The first thing to clarify is that we are not talking about the bride or any portion thereof rejecting Christ, these are strictly guests talked about here. The wedding is going to happen regardless and will be well attended by a most appreciative crowd kjv@Revelation:19:7-9. We are told even of bride's maids not having enough oil for the wait in their lamps having the door shut on them kjv@Matthew:25:1-10. If these people are outside of the bride then we must consider who the bride is. Some would say the Gentile Church; who then are the guests from the highways? Some would say the Raptured Church; where then would Tribulation Israel fit in? Some would say Israel and with Old Testament reasoning; but, she would have to be dressed in the righteousness of the saints kjv@Jeremiah:3:14. Israel would give cause for many of the invited to reject the invitation or run out of oil in the wait. Truth is that we may not know exactly who/what (as in institution) the bride consists, but, we know of the bridegroom. If we are merely guests it is best for us to be dressed as a reverent guest and not ourselves as a bride or a party crasher. If it is the institution instead that we are to witness then we best be reverent to the institution as well so as not the upset the groom. The faith of our Lord is in the marriage made by the Father. He has given Himself wholly and unreservedly for Her. If we see Her as tarnished or unacceptable it is very likely that we know nothing of who she is or have mis-identified Her altogether.
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.
April3 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:22:41-46 WHAT THINK YE - Theology can fork at very interesting points leading believers in differing directions. Take the phrase "Son of David". If the Christ is only the descendant of David then he is not God incarnate; a whole world of different doctrines develop. Christ becomes just a really good really strong Jewish leader. If Christ is God in the flesh, flesh borrowed from the line of David and has to suffer and die in the flesh to redeem fallen mankind, the direction of doctrine is forced much different way. The distinction is crucial. "The Lord said unto my Lord" is the theological fork between Christianity and Judaism. From it way have two thirds of the Trinity, Incarnation, Redemption, Atonement etc... From it we also derive the second coming of Christ in order to fulfill the remainder of "leadership" prophecy. Christ however is not to be leader of just the Jews. He is not to be king of the same old untransformed sinners. It is not everything would be alright if we had a really good leader. Mankind has to be changed from the deepest core and once brought out of it's utter depravity lead to entirely new unfamiliar un thought of holly ground. No one there on this day was going to understand that. Symbolically after days of intense interrogation the inspection of the passover lamb was over. The faith of our Lord was that though no one yet understood it, what being Christ meant, they soon would. Until His resurrection everyone would continue to see Him as a Son of David and not the Son of David being God incarnate. The distinction is just as important for us today.
April6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:24:36-51 FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT - Two sets of eyes see the same passage differently. Some see it as an intellectual challenge to piece together all the prophetic clues and come up with a theory as to when. Other eyes see it as call to be doing the Lords work all the more for the time is not known but sudden when He will look in on His accounts. Responsibilities have been entrusted to us to immediately and diligently service. It is likely that many given these responsibilities will be found not doing so when the Lord returns because of the allowances they give themselves in the Lord's delay. The emphasis is not on knowing "when", but, it is on "what" "to what extent" we are fulfilling ordained obligations until it does happen. The servant is described as the good man of the house on watch and the ruler of the household giving meat. The faith of our Lord is in the urgent doing here and now in light of how sudden future event will happen. It is in the responsibility at hand, not so much in the exact time-frame.
April7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:25:1-13 OIL/LAMPS - I guess that I have always figured that the oil was faith; half did not have enough faith to last the wait. How then could they ask the wise maids to share fuel for their lamps? In light of the previous passage the oil more likely is the doing of the Lord's work. the fulfilling of responsibility and obligation. How then could the wise share their fulfillment with those that have carelessly disregarded such? The lamp is then faith, a container filled or emptied of oil. The Lord's work is never done, it never runs out. The only reason a lamp would not have oil is because the lamp doe not contain the sense of urgent calling and diligent obligation. Oil has also often been associated with anointment, which fits in well with this analogy. How does one run out of God's anointing unless he does not hold himself to do what he has been anointed to do? Watch therefore. Watch for His coming? Watch yourself for what you are doing in light of His coming? Anointing carries the obligation to perform. The faith of our Lord has performed and is performing it's obligations. Many of those obligations he has now delegated to us so as to test and build us up. Many will be thankful of His performance and will be awaiting His marriage so as to attend, not everyone one waiting will be able to perform their duties then because of their failure now to be ready.
April16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:26:47-56 THUS IT MUST BE - kjv@Acts:1:16 David prophesied about the betrayal by a friend/equal/guide kjv@Psalms:41:9 kjv@Psalms:55:12-15 and the crucification kjv@Psalms:22:1-31. All this kjv@Acts:2:23 by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God as Isaiah and others reported kjv@Isaiah:53:1-12. The faith of our Lord is in the Father and the pathway Divinely reported to Him through the prophets. Jesus places a very heavy emphasis on the prophets as should we. In modern times prophecy is uncommon and near silent dry hard ground. We lack to see it's former miraculous operation and necessity in revealing divine depth. Jesus' course was laid out before Him and well written for continuous direction and confirmation. He was out to fulfill it's every word. We should now know that we have the more sure word because of the more sure word of prophecy. We should know the tremendous arm/power of the Lord revealed in the fulfillment of the prophets report kjv@Isaiah:53:1. Modern spiritualism teaches that all things are within ones power, legions of angels can be called by us as well; yet we are taught power and prudence are two separate things. What is all important is obeying God's will, much of it revealed by the prophets, if true for our savior than surely for us.
April19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:27:1 BLOOD MONEY - Isn't it interesting the chief priest's sudden concern the money for blood being put back into the treasury? It is as if it goes out holy and just spends an hour or two with an informant comes back and because they now have officially decided Jesus will die now it becomes contaminated blood money. Interesting the contortions the reprobate mind goes through to justify it's self. When was payment for info leading to the capture and execution of a man of miracles (possibly a prophet if not messiah), a man that you had to frame with false testimony and hung jury ever holy and just? Isn't it interesting that they bought a field to bury strangers with it? That makes it all clean and wholesome eh! Within just a few verses Peter feels his guilt, Judas feels his guilt, the chief and elders magically transform tainted money (tainted by another's guilt?) and make it whole again. So that essentially was the price Jesus was valued at, the price of a small clay quarry. The author quotes the prophet Jeremiah, though we are not actually sure were this quote is found in our canonized version. The importance still remains on the report of the prophets not being believed (as kjv@Isaiah:53:1 suggests). The Lord is silent at this point. It is not Him describing all these parts and pieces of the mob mentality. This is a collection of testimonies gathered later from insiders and onlookers that observed these events. The faith of our Lord is that by the hand of the Holy Spirit that the report of the prophets along with these collections of testimonies will be convincing and convicting and insightful to the future generations of Jews and Gentiles whom He seeks to deliver.
April20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:27:11-26 WHETHER OF THE TWAIN - One man washes his hands of the blood guilt and the others pour it on to their heads of themselves and their children. Blood by both is made lite of. One cannot be innocent of the blood simply by washing their hands of the matter. The fact is that matters were poorly and unjustly handled in the first place. Pilate proved coward to the pressures of the Sanhedrin. Others cannot take such minute opinion of any man's life so as to not guarantee a safe and judicious proceedings, so as to not be driven by impulse or shrewd coercion. After all Jesus had done to reveal the sinful hypocrisy and false teaching and spiritual callous blindness of the Pharisees/the Sadducee/the Scribes the make up the Sanhedrin, for the general public to be so easily intimidated and manipulated is a sin equal to that of Judas even if this had not been Christ. What then of the evidences in favor, the many and daily healings, the exorcisms, the wondrous and picturesque sermons, the miracles, the possible ties to long held prophecy, the hope of Israel? Were these possibilities no factor to them at all? The blood stains of guilt cannot be washed away. The price of guilt cannot be negotiated by the guilty parties involved. Jesus' blood is meant to redeem but, if it is not accepted as such it becomes a terrible pronouncement of guilt; guilt then, guilt today. There is a notorious thief that is given amnesty by us even at this hour. He is the embodiment of our being so easily turned and manipulated and used as a driving wedge between justice and those that must judge. Perhaps the greatest revelation of our hearts by Jesus was taught without a word. The faith of our Lord is not in the present but, in the future. It is a future ripped free from the clutches of man's continuous evil imagination and heart that is deceptive above all else. It may be a good time to review kjv@Proverbs:1:20-33 in consideration of this particular multitude and then ours.
April24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:27:57-61 DISCIPLES - There are twelve men (now eleven) that we use the specific title Disciple for. There are many others even in high places, even secretive that we use the more general term disciple for as well. Three are mentioned early on at the tomb burying Jesus (A forth Nicodemus reported by John). The two men in particular are members of the Sanhedrin and are thereby given consent for burial and possession of the body by Pilate. Joseph is elsewhere described as a counselor, the word having direct ties to this governing body. Pilate may have seen these men as "non consenting" to the crucification but, surely not as pupils of the convicts' teachings. Had the major disciples attempted such they would have either been detained to squelch any possible uprising or they would have brought intense criticism as to the validity of the burial should something happen to the body under his watch. In these two men Pilate would find a comfortable political solution to the awkward/crucial issue of what to do with the body. These disciples are very important to birth and history of the church, as much as any other even though they were somewhat hidden away. There is very little that we have to go on to know how much of this Jesus had prepared for or how much that he had left to come about organically or by the Spirit. My guess would be all of the above. The more obvious evidence is that He had the faith to leave it to capable hands after His departure. The faith of our Lord is in the ability of His Father and His Holy Spirit. It is in peoples and places we may not have considered friendly to our cause. It is in the emotional but thoughtful obedience and effort of some loving women fearless that would attend to Him. It is in peoples two thousand years still having access to their testimonies that will come to believe. It is in a stone being rolling away, human eyes peeking in to see an Angel sitting at the foot of uninhabited burial linens and a folded napkin. It is in four women running back to the house to tell the others in the dawn's early light. Our Lord's faith is most supreme!
April28 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:28:16 WITH YOU ALWAY - Over five hundred people at different points saw Jesus glorified by resurrection according to Paul kjv@1Corinthians:15:6, some present at His ascension. Of the several occasions available, Matthew focuses on a meeting in Galilee ahead of Pentecost with the eleven to close His gospel. Everyone present there appeared to worship Him, but, we are left with the observable sense that at this point there was still some intellectual doubt present in the group. I think this to be admirably honest. We know that all were later present in the upper room for the infilling of the Holy Spirit and from Church tradition/history we know that each actually did go on to pursue this great world wide commission; so the doubts must have been laid to rest somewhere from this time forward. Doubt can take several different forms. One can be in agreement with but, still have some reservation. One can be in flat out denial. One can be scientifically skeptical awaiting further/conclusive data. Seeing Jesus stand before you may not cause all doubt to be erased immediately and I believe that this is alright with Jesus, He understands it as natural as long as is is not outright unconvincable denial; everyone comes to believe at different rates. Once on-board, occasion to doubt doesn't vanish either. To know however that our Christ is always with us and that all power is given Him in heaven and earth is of great great comfort. Doubt can be caused by fear, doubt can be caused by tribulation or the sudden death of a loved one. It is in these times most of all that for us to Love God and others (which is the the whatsoever He has commanded) as He has loved us and given Himself for us (even our enemies) that our doubts subside by faithful obedience. The faith of our Lord is always of great comfort to us and He wants it to be that way. With that comfort comes the power to pursue even this Great Commission. And with the power given to Him all things are to be gathered back unto Him to which we perform our obedience. Therein is the true worship even to the end of this world!
May7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:2:13-17 HEARD IT - Some one has either told Jesus or He has caught the sounds in the corner of His ear that there is growing displeasure with Him eating and drinking with sinners. I don't know whether the religious elite are still holding out a chance for Him as it would be hard to deny His miraculous powers or whether they have outright given up. I do believe that there is something substantial going on culturally that modern audiences would not be attuned to; Jesus is being radical to their viewpoint. Often the best teaching is not discussed it is exposed. Jesus is not going to them and partaking in their sin, He is going out like a physician to where they are and gracefully calling them to establish the ground work of something much better. If that means eating in a room of them, then by all means. Contact with one man leads to the man inviting His circle of friends. These friends are coming to partake of their own friendships and because of their trust in their host in turn they trust in His goodness. No doubt fame precedes Him here but, even without fame the trust building process works the same; why not build upon what is already there? Other's fear the associations that may be implied, if one hangs out with sinners one must be a sinner. The faith of our Lord is not afraid of such possible negative associations, He is afraid of what may happen to these people should He not reach out. In His eyes He is a physician and physicians go where people are sick. He does not partake in their sickness, he partakes in the future fellowship that might come should He be able to win their further trust.
May8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:2:18-22 THE BRIDEGROOM - There are some key elements to consider here. There is the purpose, the occassion, the vessel and the substance. The purpose of our Lord has always been the same, to have the Father gather all things back unto Him. Along the timeline of achieving said purpose, different occassions are brought up nessecitating different vessels and substance. Take the illustration of wine. There is wine for everyday events, there is wine for very special events. Approaching the first coming of Jesus a certain container and substance was called for. Now that He has come in person with the intention to marry a new and different container and substance is required, a vessel and substance of much greater honor as the occasion has dramatically shifted. Not that anything is wrong with the old wine, it has and continues to serve the overall purpose. It is not the purpose but, is a step toward the purpose. Pouring the new wine into the old container alongside the old substance is not good for either wine for the old container will burst, both substances will pour to the ground, the overall purpose will not be forwarded. The same truth can be illustrated in the original question as to fasting. The purpose is constant and moving forward, the occasion changes nessecitating totally new attitude of feasting, the occasion is promised to change again shortly, but, for that brief moment we had a glimps of the expectation and honor of being invitees/attendees of a most heavenly marriage banquet of our Lord. Don't get confused by the changing of vessel and substance as occasions are dynamically driven by His purpose. The faith of our Lord is much larger than the finite things our minds are left to consider. He attempts to illustrate them in terms that we can identify with, really though, how much do we actually understand? Just because it is bigger than we can understand doesn't mean that it doesn't exist or is anything less. Wine/Fasting/Sabbath/Law, these are but things to get us to understand slight as that may be His big big picture.
May11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:3:13-19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:3:13-19 HE ORDAINED TWELVE - Of several select individuals called to Him in the mountain Jesus ordained but twelve. There is the thought that if twelve why not have fifty, if fifty why not have five hundred....? Jesus is revealing something very substantial about the divine plan at this moment. It is not that He is cutting anyone out, all men are to be discipled under Christ's tutelage and all have been sent to declare the gospel. All men have been given communion with the Lord and been granted to suffer for and as their Savior for their own and the church's edification. These twelve will now be sent two by two to preach/heal/cast out demons. A hundred more will be sent soon after, they will be gifted similar ability but not in the same sense of being ordained. What Jesus is doing is establishing order not just for now but for all the future. The situation now is developing on the ground where both the following of disciples and the following of seekers has grown beyond capabilities of the loose fit organizational structure previous. As the numbers increase and the danger increases, as the training of the select few intensifies, the time has come to make the organization more formal. Think of a small business today that grows into that next bigger level and the changes necessitated by that. In the long run this move proves most valuable to the early first century when many falsely proclaimed to be apostles that most people knew better who their Apostles were. This move even later gave second century scholars a road map to verifying and canonizing certain Apostolic epistles over a flood of lesser. There are weakness of course further out to the system as we see in the centuries leading up to the reformation as men corrupt the system but, the scriptures yet hold true as pillars even in those turbulent times. "Sola Scriptura" (only scripture) (Hebrew old with Apostolic new) becomes the protestants reforming creed lessening but, not eliminating the influence of church held traditions. I believe that the faith of our Lord is in being fully aware of the future Church that He is building and the types of problems and issues it will undergo. These issues may be healthy in that they are a constant stirring of the resolution of mens' intents and wills but, certainly less resolvable for true seekers had He not taken the steps that He just took. His declaration of these twelve gives the Holy Spirit written reinforcement/authority to conduct it's operations on a massive scale after Christ's Accession.
May13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:3:31-35 THE SAME IS MY - It could very well be that Jesus' half brothers and sisters did not see Him as the Christ yet. To them He was still only their brother. Mary His mom probably knows too well His heavenly appointment and is having difficulty with what it all means; she may have been pressured into this. It may seem harsh that He would reply to their request in this way, but, it also seems harsh that they would call Him out in front of a crowd. Some commentaries suggest that they were the "friends" or a part of those that were suggesting that He was "beside Himself". I do not believe that Jesus is discounting His physical relationship to them, He is elevating His spiritual relationship to greater humanity and thereby expressing their need to get on board believing in Him fully as their Lord and Savior. It is a difficult relationship to fathom being the half brother say of the Son of God. Few will ever have to process faith in those terms. The time is short however. They will remember His words no doubt when His death comes. Also notice the absence of His dad Joseph, by all appearances deceased. Did Joseph ever come to true spiritual faith? Did Joseph ever do the will of God? We are never told. The faith of Jesus reaches out into all the world but, is also close to home in His brothers and sisters and mom. Their entry into His kingdom is on the same exact terms as all the rest. He is not willing that any should perish but, that they come to repentance and knowledge of Christ.
May14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:4:1-20 WITHIN WITHOUT WAYWARD - This is a foundational parable that helps us to understand the rest. Principal one is that it is not given for others to receive the payload understanding of these parables; the revelation of said parable is a Jesus to sanctified believer exclusive, spiritually discerned. In fact, no man can come to it complete with out living and proving it out which requires a strong devotion to Christ. Theoretically, a class of college senors can analyze a Jesus parable and probably come to the same initial message that a believer can, maybe to another level or two, but that is as far as they can take it. Because they do not believe in Jesus it holds no further interest, any further meaning is stolen away. Many religions can be/have been formed from borrowing the superficial understandings of these parables; this is what Jesus has always strived to protect Himself from. However, by believing squarely in the righteousness of Jesus the desire will be to search out and grow into the message further. The message has to be applied into the daily life of a believer and experienced fully before the payload Jesus is revealing comes to fruition. The heart to apply oneself to it's growth is where the difficulty comes, as some believers lack the root, others lack the valor and fortitude, others lack the will to keep worldly influences weeded out. As hard as it is for believers to come to this knowledge without sincerity and endurance it is outright impossible for the insincere and academic critic. The faith of Jesus does not cast it's pearls before the swine and it cannot be counterfeited nor universalized. This is utter foolishness to the wise and learned, but, this foolishness is deliberately made to be our wisdom. Take this introductory understanding into the remaining parables and your efforts to live/grow into this word will yield plenty fruit.
May16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:4:26-29 SO IS THE KINGDOM - Let's again try to recall that it is easy for believer and non believer to begin at the same point with this parable but, if the two end at the same place the believer has operated from mere carnal intellect. The true understanding is going to require the Spirit/revelation and engagement with the growth process. Ask/Seek/Knock. There are some clues however to begin with. Action in terms of self should be changed to terms of the broader Kingdom. Receiving should be changed into spreading. Analytical pre-process should be changed to trust and observance, investment and experience seed to sickle. One does not have to know how the process works for the process to work, it works regardless as it is supposed to. The faith of our Lord is not the one being depicted here as not knowing how it is going to happen, that is our faith. It is not that He will leave it all up to us to fill in the details or to nature to make this Kingdom happen. His faith is in the "Kingdom come, Thy Will be done" principal where if we obey the Will the Will will take us where He wills us to be. The commitment is our's, the details are left to Him.
May18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:4:35-41 LET US PASS - Fearful and no faith tie together in this passage. This Greek "no" may also suggest the definite no, as in never or not yet faith. Intellectual consent got them into the boat. Intellectual consent assumes that everything ahead will go alright, if trouble comes up there will be time to adjust or abandon. Spiritual consent assumes that no matter what comes up against it it will be as planned, placing more faith in the master of the wind than the obvious physical tumult of the tempest. Fear is natural in either respect, it is where intellectual consent hides to when faced with something greater or more threatening/unknown comes against it's approved consent/control. Just as these men had never faced fear to this level before they had never faced faith. Note that this took place at the end of one of the most successful single days thus far of their discipleship/ministry. The faith of our Lord challenges both faith and fear to it's core and calls for some uncomfortable occassions. It rebukes not the person nor the elements but the forces stirring them toward disturbance. Peace and calm are found in the divine settling of these compulsively consuming momentums. Let us pass over to the other side!
May20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:5:21 NO MAN SHOULD KNOW IT - Jesus is an equal opportunity healer. The woman with the blood issue has for twelve years been considered defiled. According to the law she must not go into the Temple, she must watch and wash every where she sits, she cannot lay with her husband. Once healed she ends her time of separation with more time apart and sacrifice. The ruler of the synagogue is about as high up as one Jew can get at that time. From all public observances his hands would be as clean as ceremony and ritual and stature could get. Both have needs, both people Jesus addresses. The experience for the three together does not go without complication however. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. It is evident that the women has strong hope as her determination presses her through the crowd that is already thronging Jesus. It is evident in the ruler as he goes against the grain of what all his peers would think regarding Jesus. It is evident in Jesus as He works His way to the ruler's house though cornered by the throng, through the tumult of the professional wailers, past the jeers of the household, despite the urgent rush minding to touching details as stopping to acknowledge the woman's faith and sharing the private moment with both the father and mother. Clearly hope comes with plenty of opposition, plenty of obstical, plenty of objection. Hope often calls to Jesus as a last resort. Many things may be suffered on the way to becoming able to place all hope upon Jesus. When Jesus says "no man should know it", it doesn't mean that no one is not going to know it. Everyone that followed Him up to the house would know, everyone that saw the woman made whole would know, everyone in the house that was ordered out would know, the few that were invited in would know. And anyone who saw the young twelve year old girl walking out to play like nothing had happened would know. Jesus is wanting these people now in the know to figure this what has happened out on their own. The faith of Jesus faces resistance everywhere He goes. It is never as simple as hoping that mankind will understand, there is every evidence that He is determined to make it so. This is evidence in face of opposition.
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.
June7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:10:1-12 BUT FROM THE BEGINNING - This is a planned attack by the Pharisees. Somewhere along the way they have counseled together, decided, put out talking point directives to all that would come in contact with Jesus. These may be hired guns as well, men that are directed to seek out and trip up Jesus. It is obvious by what they are going after and the number of times that they have posed the same type questions that they believe that this is their best play. How would this be a no way out for Jesus? Is there really such unanimity amongst the sects regarding divorce and the law that all would disagree with Jesus' analysis? No, there is such hardened inflamed public sentiment about anything restricting to their personal freedoms and desires. The Pharisee have a less restrictive view of divorce and they want to make use of that to turn public opinion against Jesus and toward themselves. The same trick may have been used against John the Baptist. He told them what the law really meant, called them vipers to their face, and got in fatal trouble with the Herods for it. Why not try the same? Essentially, the hardness of the Pharisees is being used to stir or play the hardness of the people against the correct interpretation of the Law boxing Jesus into a corner. This is a much bigger test/temptation for Jesus that we today perceive. Jesus instead goes back to the beginning intention, Man, Woman, in God one flesh; hard to argue against that. If it were not for the hardness of a couples heart one or both toward the things of God they would have remained such. Now they make living together a living hell and their hearts harden all the more. If allowance had not been made in these cases the hardened would lash out all the more and take society down with them. The Law then can be used in at least two opposing ways, one as a warning against hardness or two as an easy justification for divorce. Jesus does not call them a broad of vipers, but, does make it known that the hardness of couples to the designs of God and hardness of the religious towards the true intents of the Law were not going to box Him into a place that truth can't still get out. The faith of our Lord is in the spirit of the Law as the spirit addresses the hardness of mankind complete. Without the Law we would not know our sin, knowing our sin makes us to resist and to sin all the more. Only being one with God through Jesus Christ makes us one flesh man to women and one with the spirit and design of all things.
June12 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:10:46-52 MADE THEE WHOLE/SAVED - kjv@Matthew:20:29-34; kjv@Luke:18:35-43 also give the same account. Mark here says "whole", Luke says "saved", Matthew omits the response noting Jesus' compassion but, he says that there are two beggars. Is there contradiction? Only if you want there to be. Why would you want there to be? So that you don't have to believe it. Is it that you believe that sight can't be restored as in a communicable eye disease? Is it that two men can't be present and one remembered in particular by Peter because of his name and perhaps as reference to those who might know him further? Is that being made whole cannot mean being saved? Is it that you think the Holy Spirit would make such an obvious mistake? There are plenty of other seeming contradictions if you want there to be. I would rather see it that the fame of Jesus was known well enough to the many beggars along the road near Jericho that some called to Him causing a disruption to the caravan of pilgrims to passover Jerusalem. The more they called out the more people tried to quiet them until finally Jesus was close enough to call at least two to where He was. They gladdly came and made petition of Him. He had compassion on them and seeing their faith was assured Himself that they were made whole/saved through the encounter. As others later read the account those who knew Peter would recognize the one name and be able to certify that he indeed could see and did remain in the faith perhaps having done or become something significant/memorable. The faith of our Lord is in the testimony that both had preceded Him and would follow Him. Where things needed to be further explained He made sure to mention, even repeat. Where things did not need but the benefit of a doubt He left it alone as a testing point. There are certainly challenging areas in our faith as there needs to be to prove our sincerity and give us room to grow, but, not one is contradiction unless one wants it to be. I would ask are you certain that you want this particular challenge to be the point your two paths split?
June13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:11:1-11 THE LORD HATH NEED - So many times we have read where the Lord was playing it low key not wanting to stir up any politics, not forcing Himself where He wasn't wanted, commanding others not to make Him known. Now something has changed. He has sequestered a colt to ride into Jerusalem ahead of time. Does that mean the the others know to add the touch of the palm branches? Are these others from the caravan that escorted Him in through Jericho? While He has spent time in Jerusalem on brief occasions, the majority of His work has been out in the cities and towns, countrysides and shorelines. This is largely a outsider movement moving into Jerusalem. The words and accounts have been streaming in causing quite the stir in His absence. Now however He seems to be taking the gloves off and calling the elite to their defences. Few in the streets probably know what this is all about, many are getting swept along with the momentum, but, surely the leaders know what this is about; this is Jesus saying bring it on. He is on their turf now, He is the rich landlord's son who has come to the wine-press to collect whom the hired hands know to be the son and wish to kill him to make this vineyard their own. Jesus is all in now and pushing every one of their sore spots. They will soon lash back at Him. The faith of our Lord will not stand down, He will stir the viper den to show all what they are really made of, this is His course long planned for even from before the creation. We should not stand down in describing it as such either.
June14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:11:12-19 DEN OF THIEVES - Was the Temple in Jerusalem really as bad off as Jesus said or was He trying to making a bigger point? My guess is that it is far worse, that the Temple courts were just the most easily identifiable manifestation to the public of the darkness that dwelt within. He knows that like the fig tree what little fruit it does bare is not given to Him and is rotten to the core not of His liking; at this point He is just finished with it. Actions like these have targeted messages higher up. If this is the second temple event of this sort the message would be that "you've had time to think this through, we are back where we left off, now what are you going to do?". Notice that it is Jesus performing the action, He is not delegating to His disciples and not encouraging His crowd or other revolutionaries to do likewise. This is between Him and those with the power to make the decisions. Theoretically they have the choice to reform their Temple system or to try to destroy Jesus. Actually however, their choice has long been made, Jesus is just calling them to make it. The faith of our Lord knows of a time to calmly teach and instruct, convey and convince, but, also a time to curse fruitless fig trees and over turn money grubbing exchange tables forcing others to act upon the decisions that they've already made. It is not ever business as normal either way. People are astonished at His doctrine because His doctrine moves forward unafraid and unimpressed by fraudulent abusive power and principality; even in the den of thieves.
June15 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:11:20-26 HE SHALL HAVE WHATSOEVER - A mountain often stands between here and there. On one side of this passage there is a mountain like the fig tree, a corrupt way of religious life that bares not fruit, which has been cursed, is dried and withered yet still holds much power. On the other side of this passage stands a mountain of unforgiveness needing to be removed and tossed deep into the sea. Perhaps it is all part of the same mountain, be it a system or be it an individual trespassing the power these things have over you can be removed if only you believe in His righteousness and power to do so. So often we see the mountain as the hole that we have dug for ourselves financially or in our relationships or in our careers, health etc; what a shallow inverse mountain. Peter did not ask if he would ever be as rich as he wanted to be if he believed. Why do we contort this passage so? The fig tree represents something that is planted by the master intending to have plenteous fruit; often it symbolizes the Church or Israel. When it is contradictory it hurts His children and trespasses His will. His well intending children outside the church in turn can be just as fruitless holding hard to their unforgiveness of the trespasses against them personally or as they feel done onto their Lord. Thus it is an surmountable mountain for runaway church and injured believer and or rogue believer and injured church. To accept this, repent of this, to allow God the presumption of complete righteousness in all things and thus the power to cast aside any ill effect from such without any doubt; this is miracle producing faith. Believe that these things shall come to pass and they will at least for you. The faith of our Lord is in overcoming insurmountable mountains, in calling things not only by what they are but by what they will be. Jesus has not given up on Israel and not the Church. He has empowered accepting individuals the power to cast aside the insurmountable corrupt and unfruitful and unforgiving mass one by one and thus make the true Church and true Israel to be whole.
June21 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:12:35-40 BEWARE OF - The teachers of the law in that day were unwilling to correct an interpretation of David's words that the common folks were glad to hear. Maybe it was not so much that the public understood/agreed to the full implications, but, they knew the parading and predatory practices of those teachers in general. How could the scribes be right on the point of interpretation and so wrong on the point of practice? they might ask. If their infamous practices were so commonly known it is more likely that their interpretations were part of a means of disguising of hiding their false practices behind. Logically, the interpretation of Messiah being a mere descendant of David (not David's current Lord) puts the scribe always in charge and in supreme necessity, for there are many descendants of David and only the learned scribe could sort a certain one out. They alone would have the power to mark Messiah out. All that the scribe has become is a desire to be in charge; in charge of doctrine, in charge of interpretation, in charge of tradition, in charge of the law, etc... I have been conjecturing that this has been a day that the Jewish elite have gone about to do all that they could to prepare the public to move forcibly against Jesus. The success that they have been able to have will soon bare out. This passage however seems to tell that the crowd was at least as skeptical if not more so of the elite trying to call the shots and yet were easily whipped into a feeding frenzy when the blood began to surface. The faith of our Lord is that we need to be aware of the same type struggles for power and misuses of power as they effect us as well. Manipulation of a crowd did not stop with the scribes. Manipulation of a crowd against the truth seems to fairly simple fare. Audiences can be glad to hear, know exactly the examples and practices that you are pointing out and still when all is said and done be moved forcibly against you. We should not be surprised by any of this, in fact, expect it from both those who exhibit such self serving practices, and those who would still rather invest themselves under them.
June22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:12:41-44 HE CALLED UNTO HIM - It is interesting that Jesus is allowed to be near the treasury after all that has happened the last few days. It is interesting that the disciples have to be called to Him having left Him to His own. It is interesting that not long after telling of widows that have been ripped off by the Pharisees here a widow comes giving her last farthing. We take it to symbolize the depth of her giving, which it is, but, it could mean more than that. If this is one of those widows it is her last farthing because of the oppression of the religious. The faith of our Lord that behind every farthing there is a story. Giving is important, the heart from with which one gives extreme. The reasons behind the giving and the depth under His watchful eye.
July4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:15:33-41 WHY HAST THOU - That Elias would be called upon to bring Jesus down from the cross shows a cockeyed fabrication of prophecy but, it shows that there were people their that still anticipated something more was about to happen. There is a portion within us that wants to say that once something dies it is dead, there is no bringing it back. Would not God the Father it follows stop short of allowing Jesus to fully die to perform some wondrous miracle upon this cross to confirm Jesus as HIS Son? Why did Jesus have to die all the way? In order for Jesus to be Lord over life He would have to conquer death, to conquer death He would have to become death, pass through it, exit triumphantly. It was sin that brought about death, He was made to be sin kjv@2Corinthians:5:21 though He knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God. His death is the proof of Him becoming our sin. His new resurrected life is proof of our becoming God's righteousness. For those that expected something else, though they were close to understanding (having a hope but not "the" hope), the darkness of that day just kept getting darker and darker until His final breath. He cries out "Why hast thou forsaken me"? Their last false hope is shattered. But, we know why He was forsaken. His death is sin's death, His life God's righteousness. The faith of our Lord goes all the way not just most of the way only to pull back. This is the cup that He had to drink, this is the baptism no one else yet could share, this is the "not my will but Thine". This then is why!
July5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:15:42-47 BOLDLY - The body of Jesus legally remains the property of Pilate at this point. I would think that there would be several interested parties at least as to the whereabouts of the corpse if not full possession of it. Joseph is taking a big chance here if he is a member of the Sanhedrin should Jesus rise the third day as it would mean that He rose or was stolen in Joseph's possession, Joseph would be in kahoots. If he is not Sanhedrin then Pilate's judgment would be called into question. We are not told what became of Joseph nor his partner in this burial Nicodemus. If not known to be believers then they are certainly outed now and with that there must have been a price to pay; how costly would be conjecture. It was a bold move indeed, a considerable honor, an obedience to the Holy Spirit who would be in charge. Perhaps someday we will get the chance to talk to these two men to find out just how bold of a move this really was. The faith of our Lord was that everything, body soul and spirit, happenings on the ground were in the Father and Spirit's capable hands. His faith puts the fates of His followers into the same hands as it always was and is and always will be. As it should be!
July13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:1:67-80 THROUGH THE TENDER MERCY - Luke is now well into his attempt to convey the certainty of these things to his respected acquaintance. What more can he now be certain about? That this is God's work. False messiahs do not go about planting seeds through the holy prophets thousands of years before their conception. They don't go about setting other people into motion months before their birth. They don't make announcements through Angels and declarations through the Holy Ghost while gestating. One could theorize that somebody else is orchestrating all this, well then of the cast of actors so far who would fit that bill? Would it be Mary? Would it be Joseph who hasn't even been mentioned yet? Zacharias or Elizabeth? The Sanhedrin? Who could impersonate angels, mute priests, impregnate a woman past her years, impregnate a virgin? Some have said that cousins Jesus and John masterminded all of this. How then did they conjure their parents to make these bold declarations before they were even born? The key to all of this goes back to the word of the prophets long before and with all prophecy the participants did not have to be conscious or in agreement with what they were saying or even present for it to still come about. Take Zacharias here, how much of what he was saying did he understand or believe himself? Had he lived to the Crucifixion would he have argued on Jesus' behalf? Would he still want his name associated with all this after it had played out? It is likely that he saw a different interpretation the scriptures quoted and of what the Holy Ghost was saying and yet the prophetical course did move straight ahead. Recall that Jesus said that many would come to Him in that day saying "Lord did we not prophecy in your name". Just because a person was used by God to speak His word does not mean that the person was fully on board later. This truth throughout all prophecy matched alongside with the fact that this is what has come about despite any private interpretation and yet can still be confirmed by scripture is the exact certainty we need to be convinced of. This is God performing His mercy not us deciding what we think this performance should be. The faith of our Lord is that one day will all will come to understand the performance by God of His tender mercy. It has everything to do with His covenant, the remission of sins, deliverance from the hands of our enemies, the holiness righteousness before Him, but, it has everything as well to do with it being done completely on His Father's terms. Having confidence in that will lead us to the certainty that it all has been done right.
July14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:2:1-7 LINEAGE OF DAVID - Luke continues to work for the confidence of Theophilus with some historical markers that would either be well known in his time or easily verifiable by his excellency. We today as well would know by other sources of the second of these periodic fourteen year census/taxations happened in 20 AD putting the first on or near AD 6. We also have the reference to one Cyrenius governor also known as Quirinius. The Father would use the secular world as a time clock and a particular city as a locator, Bethlehem. Bethlehem we know prophetically kjv@Micah:5:2 as the birth place of Messiah and also by association as an indicator of probable lineage of David. That they went to their own city and there was nowhere to stay either shows that no family remained settled at that time in the city or that the family had no where left for them to stay or that the family hers/his was not willing yet because of their curious circumstance to receive them in. All of this doing puts Mary and Joseph in an awkward situation regardless but, it puts us in a place where matters can be confirmed and verified by others. Wouldn't you like to know if Theophilus ever used his influence/resources to look into the AD 6 census logs for Bethlehem to see if their names were listed? The faith of our Lord often puts believers similarly in awkward situations for reasons likely unknown to us. He seems able not only to make these times work out for us but, make these times valuable to others as well.
July19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:3:21-38 IT CAME TO PASS - A very significant day for Jesus symbolizing the passing of the torch from John to Jesus. John's ministry will now diminish and Jesus' strengthen. It is much like the passing of leadership from generation to generation. Jesus respectfully submits to John's baptism that John might see that this is no ordinary baptism, this is a royal inauguration crowned with the blessing of both Father and Holy Spirit. All the signs now point to Jesus, the lineage of both mother and human dad, the prophecies old and new, the opening of the skies with voices and appearances. That is not to say that everyone will now believe it. Just as Isaiah had written "Who has believed our report" most Jews to this day disregard the lineage of Joseph the child was not of his physical seed. The arm of the Lord can be revealed having performed every detail of the report and the majority still not believe it, being not in the form that they intellectually expect/agree to accept. Had it not been this self imposed technicality it would have been another. As best as I can recall Jesus does not ever entertain this trivial objection as penetrating and lasting as it has been. The faith of our Lord is in the submission to the Father's performance of mercy not in the intellectual suppositions of the fallen race. As it is said "My thoughts are not your thoughts" and "My ways are not your ways", what difference does it make if this is the way the Father did perform it and it still can be shown to superbly fit with the prophecies? I respectfully ask you then, how else did He perform it?
July20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:4:1-13 FORTY DAYS TEMPTED - This passage seems to be one of the oddest passages in the Bible along with the Devil standing before God asking to test Job. The questions that come up are many, some turn bizarre. Satan has had since kjv@Genesis:3:15 to prepare for a moment like this to tempt Eve's promised seed, and at least to this readers eye he never really takes the gloves off with these three efforts. Luke gives us room to interpret that this was forty days of temptation climaxing in these three notable ordeals. Not being privy to the events of those many days we can further interpret that it may have been Satan's plan to wear at Jesus and then at strategic points flash a quick barrage of punches hoping to intimidate Him with a commanding presence, awesome power and authority. The individual events hardly seem like tests plural as much as the overall duration and display. If this is the correct interpretation, we must also be on the constant watch for this multi-front long duration attack. Seldom is Satan outright identifiable. He does typically hide behind others using peer pressure and intimidation, he does hide behind scripture as well. The tactic isn't always to scare us into doing something wrong, it is often to scare us off or scare us into doing nothing at all. Therefore it is advantageous for him to wear at a believer any way and any time he can. Forty days of dull pressure is just as effective as three minutes of fright. Combined together, the impact could be devastating. Note however that Jesus fasted. His chosen preparation was to put His human flesh into submission to His spirit and to feed and strengthen His spirit upon the Word of His Father alone. This He did knowing the the dull test was constant and the barrage was soon to come. The faith of our Lord is in preparation. Not just waiting for events to happen that are then responded to with prayer/fasting but, putting oneself in front at the ready at all times should any sudden assault or need come about.
July25 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:5:12-16 HE WITHDREW HIMSELF - What would Jesus have to pray for? Prayer is the balancing weight in His life. There has to be balance. There is no doubt that Jesus could stand in one place all the day long not saying a word and heal every one that passed by. Where then is the word? Where is the gospel? Where is change? It is like hitting a reset button a computer, the symptoms are all cleared and the carrier can go right back to what he intended on doing, but the ailment still resides deep inside awaiting all new symptoms to project. With out the full word the likely reply would be "thanks a lot Jesus, I'll be sure to come to you first next time". Fame is one thing, fame for the wrong reasons is insulting. Physical healing must be balanced with spiritual regeneration. Fame must be balanced with humility. Responsibility for the souls of others must be balanced with responsibility to one's own relationship with God. This is where prayer comes in. Jesus uses prayer to keep His balance, to keep sharp, to keep invigorated. He separates Himself strategically more and more so that He can keep engaged with the others more and more. The demands upon Him at this point otherwise would become extreme. The faith of our Lord is in balance. He is an example to us as to how we can come to such a point even in our most demanding experiences.
July30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:6:12-16 LIST OF TWELVE - Well here they are ladies and gentlemen The twelve top human candidates for disciples of God the Son Hand picked Ready for intensive specialized training A once in an ion opportunity Cream of the crop Don't believe it? Let's review the judging criteria. Willingness to leave all behind and follow someone doing something you can't comprehend in a manner that you don't understand. The eliminates the academics and philosophics and intellectuals. Willingness to die for this somebody and His cause after He Himself has died with extreme public humiliation for the same belief/cause. That eliminates the scientific and political. Willingness to present oneself a living daily sacrifice, a bond servant of the gospel. That eliminates any with ulterior motives. We could go on, but let's count who among us is left in the running. That fact is that not one of us has chosen Him not even the disciples, He has chosen us, He has chosen them. Whatever qualities they possessed He alone saw, He alone determined. Those that may have prepared themselves would not have known what to prepare for, most likely they would have been hidden qualities that only He could bring out of us. So why did these men follow at His call? Was it a tough decision on their part or a explainable feeling of destiny? How much of their future did they know upfront? How is it that brothers and partners were just as likely join Him? Recall that Jesus prayed for those whom the Father had given Him. That He did not loose any that were given but the son of perdition. The faith of our Lord is in that which is given by His Father. He has the spiritual balance and discipline afforded (by prayer mainly) to identify where the Father's hand is at this moment, what HE has given for this, what direction HE is leading, what next step will be obeyed. That may be all we need any given moment as well.
July31 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:6:17-26 REJOICE IN THAT DAY - Are you rich? Are you full? Do you laugh? Are these themselves bad things? Salvation is based upon holding Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior. His death upon the cross is our death to sin, His Resurrection the beginning of our new spiritual life, His ascension confirmation of His heavenly reign. To not hunger for His truth, to laugh alongside His many scoffers, to be rich with all the treasures of this earth yet minus His grace is a woe most threatening indeed. To be poor in spirit however, to hunger for His truth, to be weeping where there is chiding, to be reproached even cast out for His sake, in this there is a kingdom sized blessing. Who are these rich according to Jesus? Their fathers doing is the key. Who so treated the prophets of old? The so called religious leaders of Israel. Do I have to fear if I am a rich kid from America? If I let it effect me like it did the Scribes. Do I have any to fear if I am a poor kid from the streets of Calcutta? If I let it effect me like it did the Scribes. Jesus speaks this as He is healing the multitudes one by one. He is looking up to His newly confirmed main disciples. What a sight it must have been for them to see; what a lesson. The prophets were right as evidenced here this day. These men too will be right, prophets in their own respect. Look though at how the right are treated. What does this tell us about man? What does this tell us about man's religion? It is rich, it is full, it is spoken well of, but they have already received their consolation. The faith of our Lord is in the broken and hungry and mournful heart. This heart is the starting point for something big, something that fits into an even larger eternal kingdom the type of which has not yet entered our minds; well worth the fiery trails of this present earth to be part of.
August4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:6:46-49 MY SAYINGS - When the flood arises (and it will) there are two possible outcomes, the house stands or the house falls. What is the house? What one believes? What one has done? What is the rock? Both builders are building. Because of one builder's hearing and doing of the Lord's sayings he has built his house in a certain way. He hears and does by faith, faith in the Lord and faith in the storm, and what he does by that faith he does long ahead of the first droplets. The other builder builds a very similar structure I am sure, roof, walls, rooms, doorways, may even be bigger with more luxurious accommodations; the difference being the ground on which the foundation is attached. One might say that this is the far superior build up until the storm. This builder by all appearance has drastically under estimated the storm or the solidity of the rock perhaps selfishly over estimating his ability in framing the structure. The type of storm is unforeseen. It could then be said that it is not so much the structure that the two builders constructed but much more the ground on which the structure was errected. It is much tougher to build on rock, some say impossible and do not try, some try but on their own meager terms. Those that do best do so on the terms of the rock. Note that when tested for all that the second builder put into it it all immediately fell. The faith of our Lord is that we will understand and not under estimate the approaching storm nor the ever present rock, that we will choose to do our building on the only ground safe enough to withstand. His sayings. Our hearing them and our doing them; it is all that stands between us and a house built on sand.
August10 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:8:16-18 WHEN HE LIGHTETH - When who lights? Did you light? With what did you light? The answer is that we did not light. Light typically symbolizes the knowledge of God, the candle-stand prophetically the church (or a church). When Jesus lit the light He placed it on a stand so that they that entered in might see the light. He had no intention of hiding it from them, but they did have to enter in. In the OT such a candle and candle-stand was the only light inside the tabernacle in the Holy Place. God's light was the only light that could light the darkness of mankind. Jesus says "I am the Light". John says "the Light came into the world". Jesus addresses seven candle stands, churches of the revelation, holders of His light, He Himself walking in the midst of these candlesticks. In the light of the knowledge of God nothing will remain secret, every dark hidden thing will be found out. God already knows these things, the revelation will be to those that have entered in. First and foremost are the things hidden within our own darkness. To those that have been revealed in His light more revelation will be given. To those that have not been revealed or yet turn away even what has been revealed will be taken away. We must then be careful how we hear. Some believe that the light is their own faith, nothing to do with their darkness being revealed and dealt with, that this is a call to believe all the stronger and let their own faith shine forth. The faith of our Lord is in those that will actually enter into His light, that willingly and consistently become more and more discovered/transformed in the knowledge of His light. It is in the collection of these discovered individuals as a body dedicated to holding true to His light, that stand to raise His light. We are revealed individually, we are revealed holding together as a group.
August17 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:9:18-27 WHOM SAY THE PEOPLE - Clearly the word is getting out about Jesus. How could it not? The thing being brought out here to me is that the word is spreading out in bits and pieces that are not logically being tied together. If He were John the Baptist then they are completely ignoring the fact that the two were cousins and had met together at the Jordan, Jesus having produced many miracles while John was still alive. If He were Elias then they are completely ignoring that Jesus referred to John as one having the spirit of Elias. And if He were an old prophet, what other prophet was ever prophesied to come back except Elias in the very end? I am not so certain that all the facts are available to them like as they are us to even put these pieces together in a form resembling the truth. It is partially to their blame for not searching it out further, but a greater measure is just in how word is commonly spread. In modern times great effort and expense is put out by the major companies/governments to make sure that their message is spread and disseminated correctly by the masses. Jesus at this point appears unconcerned, in fact He tells the disciples not to tell anyone. It could even be said that He is using other's misinformation out ahead of His true message. The faith of our Lord is in the spread and dissemination of a message that at this point still under construction. In order for that message to undeniably state what He needs it to state it must include His road toward and following His cross, what "has been" accomplished upon that cross. It is in that precise unalterable message that His message escapes the corrupting forces of human interpretation upon the spread of it's truth. Today, now that it undeniably states all of this, for us to conclude anything other as to who He is, it is in full measure our own condemn-able act. Whom say you?
August18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:9:28-36 THE FASHION OF HIS COUNTENANCE - There are two was we could logically approach this transfiguration 1). that He was suddenly raised to this glory so that we notice it 2). that He was always in this glory but it was being hidden (except for this one pre-pentecostal time) so that we did not notice it. The triune member of the eternal Godhead humbled Himself greatly in many (all) ways to become incarnate; humbling did not alter the fact that He was triune member of the eternal Godhead. If men were to judge and accept His work upon the cross for their salvation it was important that they be able to judge based upon the action as much as upon the person, therefore the appearance of the person had to stand aside. God not being a respecter of any man past present future had to give all men the ability to judge based upon what they heard not upon what they saw as not every man (3 only) would have opportunity to see Jesus this glorified way. These three men were strictly being used as the vehicle of transmitting the message to us from which to judge and they had to come to a similar if not tougher decision themselves not to tell till afterwards. This passage also visualizes the soon passing of the torch (over mankind) from the Law of Moses and the Law of the Prophets to Jesus and the Gospel of the Kingdom of His Grace. The faith of our Lord is not that He will become all this, it is that He is/remains all this even though for righteousness sake much of this kept temporarily out of focus. He has set out to achieve that which was planned before creation. Nothing of that has been changed or altered. He will not be hidden on His next return, He will be seen shining from out of the heavens.
August21 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:9:51-62 WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF - Have you ever stopped to wonder what manner of spirit you are of? John has two instances back to back where he has felt that he was in the right, forbidding a non-follower from casting out devils and calling for fire upon the Samaritan village dissing Jesus. Within the group he may have voiced the majority opinion. Was there anyone other than Jesus that was going to challenge John's perspective? He was after all looking after his master? It is likely that there are few if any in our own circles today that would discern enough to challenge our perspective as well. How would we know what manner of spirit we are of? As right as John is, as protective of his master as he is, as in the majority this "son of thunder is", as loved as this "beloved" is, it is not from the Holy Spirit that his spirit is operating from. Peter has likewise been called out on this as well. Without clear discernment the borders between spirits the human mind is likely to justify/rationalize it's way to wherever it intended originally. Without discernment from those holding us in their confidence how else can the question of manner be asked? There are certainly stiff and sharp lessons a disciple must endure on his road through sanctification. Just as we must consider the immediacy and personal price associated, we must consider the manner of spirit we proceed from. The faith of our Lord is not in discouraging these men from their holy ambition, it is to steer them toward a clearer road of spiritual discernment. We know what manner of spirit we are from; one likely to bend perceptions it's own direction. James and John would make it through this and other challenges. It is likely that these others did as well (by our Lord's guidance).
August22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:10:1-24 JESUS REJOICED IN SPIRIT - It must be pleasurable to observe your followers making their first few spiritual steps. After all that you have invested in them, to set them out on their first solo flights, then to have them return with such encouraging words. These men are just babes and they are sent out among the wolves, but they have held their own. There will of course need to be adjustments, corrections, reproof, for what it is worth though it was a good first effort. Seventy people now doing the advance leg work of the Lord's final journey back to Jerusalem has to be on the radar of a great many chiefs and leaders. Tensions have to be ramping up. The so called wise and prudent are preparing their ultimate denial and rejection. Twelve, now seventy? What next 300 little Jesus' healers coming in to town for Passover? A great many works have been done by Jesus and now by His followers. If there were any chance of believing there would be signs of cracking by now. The faith of our Lord is in the mission ahead and it's timing. It is good that He had a moment of rejoicing and encouragement. However, there is a point where miracles and wonders are too plenteous to be noticed. What is there left to do by the time yet another town is on the "woe unto thee" list. It is time to make toward Jerusalem.
August25 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:1-13 BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY - To be delivered from evil does not mean that evil is avoided all together. kjv@1Corinthians:10:13 claims that He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able. He will alongside provide you a means of escape. So what does that have to do with forgiving the debts of others and asking for three loafs for a journeying friend? It is likely that we will be unable to see of that means if we have yet to see how God has forgiven us our debts and if we have yet to believe the good fatherly intentions of our Lord for both ourselves and for those journeying souls that we petition on behalf of. The Lord gives us our bread day by day, that is near all we physically need be concerned for ourselves. As a model of Christian prayer we should see that a great deal of the emphasis in this passage is placed upon the belief in our Father because of His holiness and the installment of His Kingdom provides not only for you but also for those in need that you petition for. One temptation may be to service their spiritual needs by our own limited physical means. In a spiritual sense we have nothing to give these souls, but we do have a friend ready in Jesus. Another temptation may be to hold back and send the wanderer on his/her way empty handed. The model command is to love God with all and your neighbor as oneself, so to is the model prayer. A means of escaping evil is given in each temptation and it usually involves clarity of ones relationship to God and also spiritual service (even in the face of evil) to others. To see that means one must be observant of how God has treated you in your varied needs and deliverances. The faith of our Lord is in a sincere believing prayer that recalls God's merciful actions to us and calls upon those same mercies to be bestowed to the soul that still is searching.
August26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:14-28 WITH THE FINGER OF GOD - A lot is being said here by both sides. It is not a casual "I wonder how He does that" statement, it is a definitive and hardened accusation. Likewise, Jesus is responding in no uncertain terms that if this is the finger of God (and using even simple logic there is a great possibility), you have just blasphemed the work (the finger) of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom which stands before you. It is one thing to have doubts. It is one thing to be skeptical. It is another thing to throw down against God's Son and the Holy Spirit. Then extra insight is given to the disciples as to the inner workings of demons, that it requires one stronger than the strongest demons to cast them out and to keep them out; otherwise they return later in much larger numbers. Recall the times as with Mary Magdeline multiple (7) demons (even Legions) were cast out at once by Jesus. He is saying that not only is He strong enough to cast out any number of demons, He is more than strong enough to keep the increasing numbers out should the person allow Him to. This further information and self declaration is even more convincing to me than the "house divided falls" logic. Demons apparently have no rest in or out. They can bide their remaining time nervously tormenting a human like parasites, that is the closest the can come to striking back, but they know full well of the torment just ahead for them. The faith of our Lord can be stated in this passage as "he that is with Me and he that is against, he that gathers with Me and he that scattereth"; Two types of people as He observes it, no middle road. The others took a big step today declaring for public consumption the work of the Kingdom as the "lord of the flies/dung" doing. They are now against Him and seeking to scatter His supporters. They are perhaps more dangerous than the demons themselves. Even among His supporters, if all you get from this discourse is a polite or feminist appreciation for the womb that bore Jesus, you have missed a huge spiritual point.
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.
August28 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:33-36 THAT THEY WHICH COME IN MAY - See the light. The whole purpose of the man lighting the candle is for they that come in seeing it. It does not say for them to see their way around the room or so they don't stub their toe. Here are some facts about the light Jesus speaks of: Jesus is the light kjv@John:8:12, the light of the world kjv@John:9:5. Believe in the light that ye may be children of the light kjv@John:12:36, he that follow Me shall have the light of this world kjv@John:8:12. He that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest kjv@John:3:21, he stumbles not because he seeth the light of this world kjv@John:11:9. Take heed therefore that the light that is in you is not darkness kjv@Luke:11:35. There are many so called lights and enlightenment's. Not one of them do truth seekers come to to have their deeds made manifest nor where their belief is based upon what one person has done for them not what they have done for Him or themselves. Our eye must be single individually, collectively, for the purpose of those that come in to see His light. Focused on the insufficiency of our works and the supreme sufficiency of His. He is the light. The candle is not lit that those that come in can see "oh look they are doing supremely sufficient works now" rather "my works fail as well" and "this Lord may have done supremely sufficient for me as well". The eye will then feed this light to the body, the whole shall be full of light. Evil and darkness are tied to our works, light and fullness to His. Can you imagine the faith of our Lord that there will be all sorts of His children about His side filled with His light? From what was darkness of their own insufficiency into light of His total sufficiency? Works having been made manifest and surrendered to His great work? The joy He must anticipate on their faces as He brings them into the presence of His glorious Father? Sets before these His children their eternal inheritance? So now, when the others come in (and they will), what will they see from you? Your works or His? Your light or His? One last: quote kjv@Matthew:5:16. Do they glorify the Father because of our good works? Or that our eye and body being so filled with His light has produced now a spiritual fruit? His doing within us?
August29 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:37-54 RAVENING AND WICKEDNESS - Esteemed Theophilus, so that you don't get swept away with this liberal notion of a gentile passive peaceful ecumenical Unitarian type of Jesus, you will recall that I mentioned twice now a light is not lit to be hid... that in His light men's works will be manifest... well welcome to the making manifest side of Jesus! Jesus is invited to dinner, remember that, He is their guest. The pharisee did not see the freight train heading his way. Jesus ties His hosts (the leading parties of this temple generation) to the blood guiltiness going all the way back to Abel. Another man, a scribe, takes offence at the implied association of scribes to the pharisees; Jesus pours it on even harder. The blood of the prophets is required at these men's hands. And there will be more prophets by the end that will be added to their account; namely Jesus Himself. There is no reason for us to believe that Jesus did not mean exactly what He said. If so it is shockingly profound as to the history we have recorded of Israel, it's true nature and the direction of it's religious leadership all of this time. What is interesting is the reaction to this; peppering Him with every type of question to draw Him out with things they can use against Him. It is a tactic to take the offensive without mounting the slightest defense; they believe that in the public's eye that they have that advantage... and they are right. Ravening and wickedness have been quite effective for them all this time, there are challenges publicly, but certainly not reason not to press hard at Jesus now. What is not explained is how Jesus walked away from this in one piece or on what note the gathering ended. The faith of our Lord is not about being peaceable and gentle it is about being true to God's word. Liberal theologians who confuse Jesus with Gandhi or a dove of peace have a much different version of Jesus than does Luke. If these men are what Jesus says they are there is no way that He is going to stay silent; not for the sake of politeness, not for the sake of His hosts, not for the sake of bringing all sides together for a big pow wow. Call the spade what it is... especially when the case is so clear, has been for so long, and the blood of your many servants is to be accounted for.
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.
September6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:13:10-17 WHOM SATAN HATH BOUND - Jesus has said that He can only do what He sees the Father do. He sees the Father loosening here. #G630 The word means to send away, divorce, pardon. The woman goes one direction and the infirmity goes the other. The more classical view is that God would be causing infirmity either because she is a sinner or because there is a break down in His genetic codes. If we go back one passage to Jesus' talk regarding catastrophe and mayhem, the context may be that this is what it looks like having a fruitless tree. You will recall in the wilderness for forty years people did not get sick, their clothes did not fray, their shoes even did not wear. When they were in God's complete care infirmity did not appear. As they have removed themselves from God's complete care infirmity abounds more and more. You will recall all the many quotes through the prophets that God has always been willing to heal Israel if they would just keep things straight. Like with the collapse of the towers innocent people may be caught under societies rubble. In fallen societies (from God's view) normal sexual inhibitions lessen, diets change, fears of pain and infirmities and deformities and bad deaths rise and thus odd prescriptions and remedies worsen the situation, medicines and surgeries are mis-prescibed, the entire course of affairs have dire affects upon what was otherwise made to work by God's command. It is an environment dominated by abject fear. Worse yet the door is left wide open for Satan to operate at his will. If God's will is not being followed, whose other will is strong enough? Does this mean that this woman was a devil worshiper? Probably not. Does this mean that she was a sinner? Well we all are. Why are we not all folded over? When so much of God's creation works so well as designed, when it does not these relatively few times (and there is no apparent reason why it shouldn't have) it should be a sign that we have as a society left the door open to another's will. It is not as easy as any one person reaching up and closing that door, it is opened by the whole, it effects the whole, it is closed by the Lord when He sees fit (re-establishes a final closure) for the whole. We also have Israel receiving a double measure sworn from the Lord. God's blessings to us are magnified in them for our observation; so too His curses. Israel was given something Holy to possess: His Commandments, His Covenant, His Name, His Temple, His Seed. Moses warned them of how such blessings would turn to curse should they not fulfill their obligations to that covenant. We today possess a similar (extended) form of that covenant in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Should we not expect the same double measure or more should we as a group neglect so great a salvation as well? Jesus appears to be walking in an extraordinary time of infirmity and demonic possession. The fruitless tree as a whole is rotted from the core outward. Yet for now, His work was being done on a smaller individual level because that is what He saw the Father as doing. It is not the time yet to remove all sickness because it is not a time yet where we have all come back to HIM. The holiness of His that we hold is yet held by defiled and idle hands. That this miraculous and instantaneous healing was done on Sabbath better states the idleness that prevails week long because of defiled (dead) religious traditions. The faith of our Lord is simply beyond our capacity to understand; our perception of it is too short sighted if not blind. Signs and indications that we should be seeing as messages and proofs are seen rather as God abandoning us. The big picture healing for mankind is not as instantaneous; it has taken several thousand years already to develop. And each one of us (believer and non-believer) are swallowed up in that plan till it comes to full fruition. That it hasn't already is a sign of the size and scope of the problem.
September8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:13:22-30 THRUST OUT - If the question presented is how few will be saved, the answer given is to just make sure that you are one of those who do enter. No number is given, we are told that many will not be able to enter. Why not? One common belief today is that all people will make it through. This presupposes that God wants the next life to be just the same as this life, we are free to be and do and believe whatever we want and will therefore spend eternity suffering these same consequences. Another common belief is that only good people will make it through and that this can be any good person of any good faith. This presupposes that Jesus' death and resurrection was not necessary and that Jesus is a liar about nearly everything He taught and said, but oddly His lies may have produced the will in some to do good. A view held by the people in this parable is that because they ate with Him and He taught in their cities that this brief familiarity should suffice for entry. It would be like us today saying because we greeted each other in an elevator you should consider me as friend that you know or that because my Grandmother believed I should be proxied. The thing that strikes me is that suddenly these people realize that they have to get in through the gate to the master. Suddenly they storm the gate demanding concessions from the master. Suddenly there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for seeing who does enter. In the case of these Jews those entering are those that they themselves presumed to be in league with but were not. What a terrible crashing down of all that you've believed in. They are called workers of iniquity. Is there any good that can be worked without God Himself working it? Is there any good that be worked if the work of Jesus Christ is denied or lessened, commingled or distorted? Is there any good that can be worked that in the end still must call/demand upon the concessions of God? Mercy is not a concession to allow one to remain the way that they are. Mercy is a person that is a "stand in" substitution receiving the penalty better deserved to us. The faith of our Lord is in being this stand in substitution for us without which we will in no wise enter into His Kingdom. There is no other good work than that. Separate yourself from that and you have essentially thrust your own self out the gateway of His Kingdom.
September13 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:15:1-7 NINETY AND NINE JUST PERSONS - There are two forms of justification here, those who are justified by Christ the Righteous Servant and those that are justified by the law. As much as the Pharisees and Scribes are convinced that they are justified by the law, Jesus has shown the Pharisees and Scribes as hypocrites and sorely missing the mark called for by the law. They often transgress the law in the very same breath that they are trying to fulfill the it. The is the position all men are in. When Jesus says ninety and nine just He is not talking about men that are justified by the law, He is talking about men whom presume themselves to have met it, whom have been proven not to have met it and yet insist that they have met it. They are in quite the predicament. Why would the Great Shepherd rejoice over their insolent unresponsive hearts? Why would He not leave them to go find the one that has drifted out of their hardened pack and rejoice? Why would He not put the new found believer on His shoulders, carry Him proudly, make a joyful proclamation to all? It is not that Jesus sits with sinners and publicans, it is that He sits with people who see the pack for what they really are, who leave or refuse to go along with the pack in the first place, that are sinners just like those in the pack, who are willing to entertain the notion of Christ, who are willing to accept the promise of His salvation, who are willing to turn from their hardened ways and become Christ's. It is a very large number of people who think that they are above this business of Christ compared that to those that become found. Notice that they did not find Him; He went out and found them. The faith of our Lord does not see justification the way most of us do; it is something that He does for them, not something they do for themselves. Try as you might not to have to need Him, one must be lost before they are found.
September16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:16:1-15 WISER THAN CHILDREN OF LIGHT - Being wise did not make the unjust servant just. It got him no further than a commendation and an awkward place in a parable. So what is it that Lord is commending and wanting us to see as the example? Spiritually speaking, is the steward in the business of collecting other's debt or relieving it with the Lord's goods? The difference between being just and unjust may come down to the man's perception of this very point. The oddity of this passage is that He says "when ye fail". Servants will fail their Lord; fail in the small things, fail in the large. Many fail for fear of failing. Many will fail for letting the others skate by or trying to collect from the for one's own gain instead of applying the goods toward full relief (two masters). Failure apparently is tied into which of the two possible directions men most esteem. We often limit ourselves into being failures instead of risk our way into successful obedience. Risk may be at times going against that which is more esteemed. The faith of our Lord is much about our stewardship of His goods in service to His business interests here on earth. There is a debt that many others still owe. It is the stewards job to take the spiritual goods of the Lord and relieve the spiritual debt of the others. If His goods are wasted on something else then the steward will be called to accounts and his stewardship may be at jeopardy. We are the Lord's stewards just as this man was. Our best advantage is to be trust worthy at all times beginning with the smallest things including mammon. At various times we will fail that calling (wasting or re-purposing it mainly). Our second best advantage is to go back to proper stewardship of goods versus debt and at least do something in that direction. There is also the danger of despising the service to the Lord because of what it takes away from the more pleasurable forms of wasting and profiting and worldly esteem.
September19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:17:1-10 FAITH AS A MUSTARD SEED - What does this mustard seed size faith look like? Does it not look like the servant simply plowing or feeding the cattle at his master's command? Doing that which is our duty to do? So if in the course of doing that which we commanded an obstacle outside of our control was in the way of us performing that assigned duty, because we are ultimately doing the task as told, we could if need be demand to the obstacle that it remove itself and it would. The faith is in the master and accomplishment of his command. The obstacle moving is only that, it is yielding to the master's authority. How else does the faith seed look? It is operating in forgiveness inspired by the forgiveness of our Maker upon us. Regardless of the number of times called upon it is given. Rebuke in many cases is wise (see: Proverbs), but forgiveness always required. It is not a matter of taking heed to the offender, it is taking heed to one's self. It may be better for the gross offender to be drown in the sea (similar to where the obstacle was removed), however that offender could well be you if you were not to forgive. Should we think that we are owed a reward from the Master for performing this faith consider that is only doing that which we had been commanded. Many people would think of this mustard seed faith as a positive energy or strong willed determination. If so, could not the offending man in the sea say to the millstone "be thou removed", climb the sycamore tree back out to safety, then call upon you to forgive him another 499 times? The faith of our Lord is in the obedience of His servants to the tasks He has assigned. If something/someone stands in the way of them performing that task, He has given them the authority to move many of these obstacles without having to go back and get His permission another time. It is nothing special or out of the ordinary if you knew the authority of this Master. The elements of faithful obedience (even the beginning seed) to the assigned task has to be present however. That is why this is told to His disciples.
September22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:18:1-8 ALWAYS PRAY - There is a nearly constant theme throughout the Old Testament of the just praying that God avenge them. Even in Revelations the martyrs under the throne are crying out "when". It may be something that we today miss as we look to the faith for prosperity and wellness, not to put us in a position of needing call upon God in our persecution to be avenged. Simply put, we at least in the west no longer have an adversary. Is that because there are no longer the unjust? Is that because the widow and orphaned and poor are so justly treated? Is that because the disadvantaged are so well off that we the just don't need to stick our nose into their business? Is that because the cause of God's righteousness is so widely excepted and welcome that the adversary is kept in his place? Jesus begins by saying "men out to pray and not faint". What have we today that we have to pray for other than our own comfort and self worth? What do we have that would cause us to faint if not for prayer? This widow? That poor man? The other persecuted elect? The prayers of David especially reflect a very interesting conflict, he himself being anointed being not able to lay his hand against another of God's anointed in hot pursuit. Much of what the early Christians suffered was from the other elect. Much of what the early reformists suffered was from within the church. Men ought always pray indeed, but that ought to be in a position of needing to pray as well. Not for prayer's sake, but for divine justice's sake. The faith of our Lord was always tried and tested. He put Himself in a position of needing to be avenged. He put His own self out there on behalf of those who are treated unjustly. His voice is the clearest of all those voices that have cried out and up, voices some to this day met above with only long-suffering for now.
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.
September25 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:18:18-30 SAVE ONE - Is Jesus saying that He is not good? Is He saying that He is not God? Neither. He is speaking the ruler's hidden thoughts. The ruler is approaching Jesus and addressing Him as "good master" which if truth be told the ruler does not fully believe; not in the general sense of a local rabbi or high priest, not in the overall sense of Lord of Heavens. If so he would have dropped all that he had and followed. So why did he address Jesus as "good master" if he perceives Jesus neither good nor his master? Jesus said that none is good, save one, God. Not even the rabbis of the day were called good because it was doctrine that such a determination would put them on a level of God, which they weren't about to do. It was/is also their doctrine that there is not a triune godhead of Father/Son/Holy Spirit, even though they believe in Holy Spirit and the Seed (Righteous Servant). There must have been some suspicion on the man's part, reluctant yet curious that Jesus is attempting to expose. If Jesus means to say that He is not good/God He by implication is also saying that the Holy Spirit is not good/God either for only one is good implying the Father; and yet that would be blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Rather, He is saying that He is good/God as is the Father, as is the Holy Spirit. Further, as He is good/God then He is Master and need be surrendered to and revered as such. If the master has done such (forgone all His riches and glory) so then should his servant. Imagine a rich lord or barron with many servants that upon an approaching war leaves all his riches behind so as to fight the battle and asks his servants to come fight as well. Yet the servants do not let go of the lords possessions that they hold thus hindering their movements towards the battlefield. It is ridiculous to see an enlisted soldier attempt to fight while his arms are filled with silverware and fine tapestries. The rich ruler hardly realizes that his Good Master stands before him heading down the road to the greatest of all battles, the battle for all men's souls. This man is talking about obediently performing the daily household chores when his weary master is talking leaving it behind for now to join in the fight. Unfortunately, few of His servants are able to do that; none by their own terms. The faith of our Lord is not writing this man (nor any man) off, He is simply identifying the present dilemma. Those that have given up all things for the cause have done so by God having brought them through the eyes of the needle. If this man is to do it it will be by God's hand as well; the good triune God's hand.
September30 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:19:28-44 TIME OF THY SALVATION - Mark the importance of this passage; there is an important shift to take note of. We have known for sometime Jesus's intention, He has been working his way over the past several chapters towards this entrance into the city. For all of the rejoicing and excitement and build up, we must also consider the solemn separation Jesus must feel. When you think of the entry of others they are typically riding the wave of momentum of support and allegiance. To the contrary Jesus is going into this all alone while being surrounded by people that think that they know what needs to happen. Though they've been told what must happen, even His most loyal disciples are far from the true allegiance required supposing that Jesus will opt for other options. He is essentially being carried on the shoulders of the blind and confused into the hidden broad of vipers. Nobody present clearly sees this entry as Jesus does. The faith of Lord is not in the snowplow effect where you are so convincing that everyone else gets swept up and comes along with you, it is in taking the lead when no one else is ready to come along and won't be ready until much later when they realize what has been done. Think of it as that lone shepherd walking into the smoky distance from the fold to give his life for his fold. Eventually their eyes will be opened, but that time is not now. They rejoice now because of what all they have seen, however, what they are about to see will challenge them to their very core!
October1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:19:45-48 DEN OF THIEVES - Two worlds collide, the world of a heavenly kingdom, the world of tough daily realities. The reality is that for all the miracles and tremendous teachings and wondrous prophecies for the chief people Jesus lacks one major thing; an army to face up against Rome. To get on board with Jesus is to sign the temples' death certificate. Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple because of Israel's disbelief and hardness, but really what happens to the temple and Jerusalem when Rome finally says enough is enough? Masses of people are coming to hear Him now and clinging to His every word. Tax revenues and money rate exchanges are being over turned, rebellion to the rule of Rome fills the air. Jesus being warned not to come now has come. How do they back a man with no army however when Rome would tear this little heaven fest to pieces? Rome expects the Jewish leaders to take care of this. Favorable deals have been struck, intimidating statements have been made, strongman knuckles are being cracked. The leaders are being backed by both sides up against a wall of very harsh realities. What a terrible state for Israel now to be in. How far have they fallen from the glory years to be at the point of sacrificing their own Messiah for the sake of their own safety. Is there then any choice left for them now that they have gone down this road for this many years? The faith of our Lord is about something much larger than even Israel, it is about a very definite undeniable truth. Israel turned it's back several centuries ago and lived a subservient and shadowy existence for far too long. It now will be made the executioner of it's own Righteous Servant. The Scepter of Judah is being ripped from it's hand and all possibility of it's continuance beyond its grasp. The table merchants may be called a den of thieves, but it is a long series of sinful rebellions against God that has stolen this chosen nation away to this.
October3 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:20:9-19 THAT THE INHERITANCE MAY BE OURS - If they knew that He was heir, what would make them think that the inheritance would be theirs at any rate? Let's take it a step further. If you knew He was the "head cornerstone", why would you reject Him knowing that He would grind them into powder? Let's take it a step further. If these things were spoken against you why in the same hour would you in the same hour seek to lay hands on Him? Fast forward to modern times. The Scribes, Pharisees and Sanhedrin have all been destroyed and pulverized in one fell swoop (well within what should otherwise have been Jesus' lifetime) and the temple mount given to others for over two thousand years. The Jewish leaders all dismiss Jesus as a false blasphemous liar. Can you Rabbi name me one prophet who could have claimed to be heir before the destruction and scattering of Judah to the far reaches that the husbandmen of that day took out of the Holy City and murdered? Who had told them to their face what they were about to do and they did it anyway? Why did they think that the inheritance was theirs for the taking? Because they thought it was their's (not His) all along. Why do you reject the chief cornerstone still? Because you think that the inheritance has been your's (not His) all along. Given all that has occurred all this time after, what other sustainable reason is there? No! The inheritance is for the Righteous Servant of kjv@Isaiah:53 whose portion will be divided amongst the mighty. The arm of the LORD has performed this wonder. Who ("God forbid") would believe such a report? Those to whom the "arm" has been revealed. Look to the temple mount today. Is it not in the hands of others? Have you not spent this time broken? Has not the so called false prophet's words been true for some time? Is this not by the arm of the LORD? The faith of our Lord is that from the portion that He has received by the travail of His own soul thus claiming His inheritance, He will divide that amongst His strong, the sons and daughters of faith in the fulfilled promise. What a glorious day when He finally comes to remove these others and rules over the vineyard's glorious overflowing fruit! Will you be there for Him?
October4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:20:20-26 WHY TEMPT YE ME - So the plan is to trap Him in His word, to use his words against Him before Pilate. To do that they have to disguise their approach. Their first approach Roman taxation. Nothing that Jesus could answer about taxes could draw the death penalty in and of itself, but it could along with other well feigned approaches could add up to the charge of sedition against Rome. Their means of future attacks are immediately telegraphed. They will use all the talk of His kingdom as intentionally sowing rebellion against the state, boasts of the destruction of their temple stirring the people into a frenzy, talk of Him being a God on the lines of the Caesar able to rebuild a temple in three days to therein manipulate Pontius Pilate's better sensibilities. All of this might still seem lame and harmless to the governor unless they can make the evidence and accusation stronger with some quotes as to taxation and/or government authority. The case even then would be pretty lame if it were not for the sheer numbers of people now gathered daily to hear Jesus in and around the temple. They will need to come up with numbers of their own to show the disruption Jesus is creating. It is a lot to have to go through just to rid yourself of someone unwanted isn't it? Especially when He is wise to your craft. Jesus probably knew the grounds on which they would attack all along, if not He knows now. He knows that this is all in the Father's hands and that there is no turning back. At the same time though He is not going to just make it easy for them by stepping into their trap without exposing to us what it is that they are doing. The faith of our Lord is that once we knew how and why these men acted against Him we would come to see how and why we have acted against Him in similarly disguised ways during our rebellious disbelief; the measures that we are willing to go through to make Him likewise no longer exist or be a nuisance. We however would know that He died to redeem us out of this corrupted nature and the cleansing of His blood. We would know by His resurrection that He has the power to make our better calling to a true glory and virtue happen.
October5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:20:27-40 GOD OF THE LIVING - It is amazing how many doctrines and layers of doctrine can be built from one wrong assumption. If wrong in this one area, how many other areas can one be wrong with? Add all the layers up and you can see how easy it is to live a religious life that believes in the same name of the one and only God, but is as wrong as wrong can get. Bring that truth forward into today's universalist notion that "all paths lead to God". A path derived from the assumption that there is no resurrection leads to a outlook and experience that differs from outlook and experience of others. It leads to a different perception of the necessity of Christ for salvation (salvation from what?). It is this perception and the many other possible combinations that allow one to rationalize the procedures necessary to kill off the Christ that stands today before them. How then do all paths lead to God if most paths lead to replacing Him? What the "all paths" argument is actually saying is that God is a big enough person to excuse these murderous (physically, intellectually, theologically) idolaters who blaspheme the work and testimony of the Holy Spirit, completely shun the design and plan of God the Father and disregard the sacrifice made on their behalf by God the Son. What this God is is whatever one wants Him to be; He is nothing more than a vain imagination. Do all paths lead then to a vain imagination? If even the believers of the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can go astray at several essential points, what hope have the many would don't even believe that? The faith of our Lord is that man will not only be in heaven eternally, man will be on an equal footing with the angels that are already there. There is quite the transformation that has to occur between here and there. It is a transformation that only His death and resurrection can make on us. If God is the God of the living, then and now, how many of the living will have accepted Him for the God He actually is?
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?
October10 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:22:7-38 I HAVE PRAYED FOR THEE - What does Jesus pray for Peter in this circumstance? That he not have to go through it? That he would clobber Satan over the head with cartoon wooden mallet? No, that his faith not fail. Was there a danger that it could fail? Why else would Jesus be praying? Does this not show an interesting side to the faith of our Lord's? Did He not pray for the others faith as well? Of course He did, but He knew the importance of Peter's faith within the group. Imagine the others had Peter's faith failed. At the same time, as much as there was the possibility of failure there was twice the confidence in the man He had hand picked, plus twice again the confidence that He had in the power of righteous prayer, two hundred times that in His confidence in the Holy Spirit's hand. If left to his own Peter's faith could very well fail (as could ours). But here is the thing, soon Peter will be receiving the indwelling Holy Spirit, the death and resurrection of Jesus will assure that. One hates to see a loved one have to go through this. If however, going through this comes out to mean that, the process becomes all the more hopeful. Peter at this point believes in a uncruxified Christ, one that has not died for sin, one that has not risen and ascended to right hand throne of God. He is most vulnerable to this type of satanic attack. Providing visual and symbolic remembrances will help, revealing what will happen to him in advance will help, making him repeatedly to feel a loving responsibility to feed His sheep after His departure will help. More than anything though to know that the very Savior is praying for the strength of his faith will be encouraging. It is hard to say theoretically what incarnate Jesus does and does not know at this point. What we do have however is an excellent discourse of how much He cared and how much He believed in others, how He steered others toward victory. The faith of our Lord seeks to prove His victorious strength in our human weakness. Get yourself on board that strength with unfailing faith.
October12 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:22:47-53 YOUR HOUR - The guards are there under orders, they are going to do what they are sent out to do. One has to wonder though what they are thinking individually as Jesus heals their buddy's ear. I believe that these are Temple guards; pretty easy uneventful duty til now. They are probably as unfamiliar with wielding a sword as is fisherman Peter. They are no doubt familiar with the crowds of followers Jesus has drawn to the Temple daily and the calls of Hosanna and probably not so familiar with the arguments being tallied by their bosses the Sanhedrin. Do they also know of the false witnesses being coaxed up? Here the man that has taken them to this park is pointed out by this possible messiah as having betrayed Him with a kiss. This possible prophet has called for calmer peaceful heads to prevail at this time and has questioned the chiefs and elders as to proceeding against Him as a common thief yet oddly in such secrecy as if they knew how the masses would react. Yet of all of this talk the most eerie statement is captain Malchus' ear and the look of startled awe in his eyes. What argument is there against that? The power of darkness is that to those serving it there is no argument involved. One does what one does because there is penalty and consequence to not doing it. One is not paid for thinking through the facts and coming to a rightful judgement. Realize however what these men are forced into questioning. Recall when you were a non-believer and the anxiety you felt approaching anything Jesus related. Translate that tense inner apprehension to these men and amplify it by the obvious fact that you are now called upon to enforce the capture of this Holy Man and take Him even to Pilate (the man who recently slaughtered a host of Galileans on your temple steps just to make a political point). There are times when one ear speaks louder than several mouths. This should have been one of those times. The faith of our Lord is voluntary towards it's duty to the Father. The duty of darkness is demanded and employed and coerced. These men will carry out what they have been directed to no matter what they believe personally, but so too will our Lord Jesus in His hour.
October16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:23:26-43 WHAT SHALL BE DONE IN THE DRY - There are several things to brought out by this passage. I will mention a few. One, the respect of women throughout the gospel for Jesus, not one instance of hostility or disrespect mentioned. Two, the prophecy Jesus is speaking of is eerily similar to one by Moses in kjv@Deuteronomy:28 . While there have been flirtations in the past with the fulfillment of this, this act on this day is the final and ultimate breaking of God's commandment and therefore comes the day like no time before has seen and the scattering to ends of the earth. They have seen God uphold His blessing even during their pitiful attempts to uphold their obedience. They have seen brief flickers of the curse meant to re-awaken them, but this is the moment of the breaking. The fulfillment will be executed within one generation 70 AD after the new church pollinates and takes hold elsewhere. Third, the petition for forgiveness is often thought as a petition for all involved, but what if it was more directly meant for the soldiers that were getting carried away in the moment without a clue of what this all meant to the Hebrews prophetically? Isaiah described Jesus as growing before God a tender root, Jesus now describes this as a green tree. If men are willing to do this when the tree has life, what can be supposed when they steal the tree's life? God's blessing till now has withheld a great turmoil and tribulation from these people. The faith of our Lord is now at it's sacrificial apex. This is what He came here to do, this is what He is now doing. The day is soon to come when the faith of our Lord will be at it's apex of judgment. There are those of of the Jewish fathers that will return from this curse by coming to grips with what has happened on this cross and what/who it has been done for.
October17 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:23:44-49 INTO THY HANDS - His final words in Luke are a quote from David kjv@Psalms:31:5 . Was scripture like this what He was focusing on up there to get himself through this? He did always combat temptation with scripture quotes! So much of what David writes about mirrors what we'd imagine Jesus saying if He had He not kept His silence. kjv@Psalms:31 as a whole is very close in details with just a few oddities such as an iniquity that David had that Jesus would not (unless it is the iniquity of man He bore). There are several Psalms of David that Jesus could be reflecting on like this one kjv@Psalms:22 etc... David's Psalms have that kind of similarity to our struggles and are often used to empathetically encourage us. It could have been the same for Jesus as He felt His bodily functions shutting down. Perhaps these Psalms would be too focused on what He was going through and He was clinging to several of the more "Glory/Splendor of the Father" type writings kjv@Psalms:21 kjv@Psalms:104 etc... Jesus appears lucid to the end and amazingly strong to speak considering what is happening to His lungs (He is basically suffocating, drowning in edema and exhausting himself to death nJesusDeathScientific). Or could it be instead that David was reciting Jesus' silent Psalms. Our Lord has put absolutely everything on the line; there is nothing else for Him to give. If He were a gambler He would be said to be "all in". For it to be finished this way there seems to be a lot left on the table for the others yet to accept and understand and take on. The faith of our Lord is in everything now out beyond this certain death, and as to those He is leaving behind it is in the work of the Holy Spirit to tie all the pieces for them together.
October18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:23:50-56 BEGGED THE BODY - There is some guess work here to be done as to the faith of Jesus in the execution of this burial matter. One, all the arrangements could have been left in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Joseph and Nicodemus did as they were led of the Holy Spirit. Two, we had mentioned previously with securing the donkey on Palm Sunday and or the upper room at passover that Jesus easily could have made arrangements himself for these matters apart from the disciples. Knowing these two men He could have asked them to do this. Three, the men could have done this of their own volition seeing that other arrangements (or the lack of) were unsatisfactory. In this case the Holy Spirit would have supported their ambition. Four, it may have been the combination of any or all of these things that the Holy Spirit used to perform the necessary task. To one extent it wouldn't have mattered who or where that they buried him, thirty feet of cement, and He still would have come out. It could have been the vaults at Fort Knox with an entire division of Marines guarding it, it was still going to happen. What would be important is for more than just a few followers to have witnessed it in order to testify of it and I am sure that the Spirit would have made sure of that. It may even be better for the critics to know that there wasn't any set up to this alleged magic trick, that it happened quite organically. In this regard we may not fully know the faith of our Lord as to the means, I do not know of any prophecy prescribing how this played out, we can however know His faith in the outcome and results.
October19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:24:1-12 WHICH WAS COME TO PASS - The faith of our Lord stands out in this passage as to how much He had entrusted to the future. His disciples and followers genuinely did not understand nor were they prepared even though He had told them plenty of times beforehand. Leaving them before they had the slightest clue, observing in their conversations and reactions their lack, knowing that they would be scattered and God's hand turned against them (kjv@Zechariah:13:7) all shows a level of faith equal in importance to the faith that He had in His own resurrection itself. It is clear that they were not going to understand nor believe until they had seen these things for themselves, they were going to be caught completely off guard. Along with their understanding was going to have to come their remembrance. It appears the Jesus knowing that their temporary understanding being so distant would have had approached everything said/done up to this time specifically in a fashion optimized for future immediate recollection once the actual act had been accomplished. Think of it as time released revelation. Add to His effort the effort of the pre-existing scriptures to further support and explain and we see that He has been operating in this time released mode all along. Now that the act is performed what does it all mean? That is what will be sorted out and realized in the days to come until the Holy Spirit comes to teach them all things. Makes me to wonder what else they thought they knew that they really didn't? What about us? The faith of our Lord is seen as a long term process leading man from the very point of creation forward to the point of believing and understanding and relying upon the righteous act between Father and Son onward to the new creature in Christ to the all things gathered unto Him Kingdom in eternity. That which has come to pass is about to become that divinely empowered trans-formative process that which makes all that they (the Godhead) have ever intended happen. Much of this happens in the spiritual foreground without our understanding. We should understand now that on our part it is largely left to reverence and humble acknowledgment.
October20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:24:13-35 DID NOT OUR HEARTS BURN - What is effecting the disciples at this point is the same thing that effects us in our faith. 2Peter:1 would call it a faith that is being shortsighted to the point of being blind. These men have the hope that He would redeem Israel, but do not see that to redeem Israel something much bigger and broader had to be accomplished. They sense the need for redemption, but it is a smaller redemption from Rome. By means of these smaller fields of vision these hopes perceive an entirely different course of action, say the raising of an army, the winning over of several political foes, the standing against and defending Israel from the authority of Rome. But, here exactly the opposite is apparent, Rome has come out the victor. There is no wonder that they are sad and much confused. Everyone in Jerusalem is having similar conversations, each and every one based upon shortsighted hope now dying or dead. We tend to see things reduced down to our immediate needs whether it is Rome or potential divorce or recovering from addiction. We have faith indeed, but that faith has an entirely different set of expectations (shortsighted) as to how the Lord is going to perform it. It is these expectations that blind us to the person of Christ standing before us. He can be a mighty man of deed and words, however, until we see Him as the Lord that He really is and His actions as He rather intends our faith lays dormant and unfruitful; dead. The scriptures are opened up to them, the big picture becomes visible, the broad vision burns within the heart as they begin to see the revealing of the true "Arm of The Lord". Even then until He is recognized as alive and risen, the bread broken as before, that burning is incomplete. After knowing Him as risen, how could they not get up this evening and not walk the seven miles back to the others? How could they not proclaim it to all those along the road between here and there? The faith of our Lord is that we will see Him as dead but now living. And if living, then truly the Son of God. And if truly the risen Son of God, then the "Righteous Servant" spoken of throughout the prophets. And if the Promised One, then much broader in vision and scope then just this brief occupation by Rome or this occupation by the hypocritical and murderous Sanhedrin or occupation of the problems of this single day or time or lifetime. Engaged and concerned in these items? Most certainly! Lively faith however, knows His answer and performance for that are begun in and paid for by the broader course and objective of this. Many today are still talking, how many though have the big vision living faith?
October21 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:24:36-49 YE ARE WITNESSES - The plan has much to do with the eleven plus telling to others what they have seen. Not everyone is going to be able to touch and feel the risen savior, that would be highly impractical. In future generations it will still come down to one's word. Jesus could stand before us to be touched and still be asked "how do we know that it was you that died" etc... Seeing and touching doesn't seem to be all that effective either as the mind has trouble excepting the sensory data as much as the other. It seems to be a combination of data sources that wins these men's hearts and minds, as well as the faith invested in them by Jesus. And for us now later it will be the testimonies that they themselves will give and His faith invested in us. It is faith on the part of the Lord that they will give testimony and faith that we will receive it. The faith of our Lord is in our faith however. No matter how much is indisputably proven there will still be a larger element of just faith; evidence itself requires faith. This is true of all things even science itself. In this passage, He is also calling upon their obedience and patience to wait till endued with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will weigh heavily into this receiving faith and being guided by it equation throughout the future. They/We must simply have faith enough in Jesus to receive it. It will be repentance and remission of sins in His name along with their testimony that these men will need to preach.
October22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:24:50-53 HE BLESSED THEM - Doctor Luke began this exercise as a means of detailing these events to foster certain man Theophilus' certainty in these matters. It is by no means an exhaustive detailing (how could any such work be given the subject matter?), but enough to be most convincing. The letter will become important as the years go on and other stories and fables begin to germinate. This letter along with a few select others will become the standard barrier to keep us grounded to the true faith in the midst of so much other chatter. Work will begin immediately by many to disprove it and disassemble it and detach it. It will be this harsh acidic test throughout the ages that will make it to standout to demand our more consideration. Two things in this passage should begin any examination, that they (those who saw all this) worshiped Him, that they were continually praising and blessing God, which is most likely the point years later where Theophilus first encountered them. Theophilus, like us must first consider why do these people behave in this manner and what/why they believe in this Jesus. The story is laid out so that any person of any intellectual ability can examine it and come to terms with their own beliefs. The Lord did not write these things down Himself as with other so called messiahs but relied upon the testimony of common down to earth men and their life long living and sacrificial reactions to what they had witnessed. Such proves to be a powerful indication of the veracity of said evidences. The faith of our Lord is in men being transformed deeply by His message, so deeply as to desire to testify on His behalf to others, so as to spread such transformation to many more as well. Many will come to know and praise/worship God because of Him.
October24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:1:19-28 IF THOU BE NOT THAT CHRIST - Apparently if left to their druthers there would be no baptism. One would have to be either someone that they believed in long ago that that didn't believe and persecuted at that time or one would have to be one now whom they don't believe and are going to persecute shortly. All this over a simple baptism of repentance. This is not the baptism that Jesus will provide. Those who are baptized in this manner are only being prepared for the eventual baptism for the remission of sins that will come after the cross. We are not even sure how many of these souls followed through to the real deal; likely they were swept up in the moment and faded away unaffected. The preparing the way has more to do with the timing of the prophecies, one had to happen before the other. It made for quite a news worthy spectacle; other gospels have John calling these critics a broad of vipers. The faith of our Lord we have said is in the testimony of men like John, but it is also in the testimony of the prophecies and in the testimony of these men's actions against Christ. How would you like to explain to the prophets why you killed them and their Christ believing all the time that it was what God wanted you to do. John is not Christ nor Elias nor that prophet, He is the one who prepares the way of these testimonies.
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.
October29 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:2:12-25 DESTROY THIS TEMPLE - Jesus knew what was in man. For instance, men ask for a sign, but don't take the time to think the sign through, to see it for what it truly means. Jesus never said that He would destroy the temple, He said that they would. Therefore, regardless of anything said beyond that they are completely off track. This issue does come up again and we see that they are still of the mind Jesus intends to destroy the temple. They are asking for a sign of His authority and pinning it to a misconception that He wants to destroy. Once taken this direction, their minds are consumed by the obsessive thoughts of how a facility of stone of this size could be rebuilt in three days. Nothing of what He is saying is being understood. So similarly then why would He commit himself to men when they falsely believe on Him even for the miracles? We ourselves must be aware of this ill being within us. What are we mis-understanding? What are we falsely believing? What have we allowed into our zeal that has made our worship into a market place? Why didn't Jesus make it clearer at that time that He was talking of His body? There may be a fine line between making a permissive statement about what this human ill leads men to do and making it a outright suggestion or command. There is a difference between "why don't you kill me and we'll see" and "not even death can hold me down". He is not asking for them to kill Him, He is suggesting that because of what is in them that they will. He is suggesting that when they look back on all this they will remember these words and realize how far off track they really were, that He would have raised and that that would be the final sign of authority that they had sought. The faith of our Lord is not in the apparent success of numerous followers, but in the eventual belief that each will hold when His righteousness if fully performed. There is a long distance that they must be lead through to get them to where their belief is fully in that unadulterated mode. It shows how far the human heart universally has sunken and how much further it typically has to go before being turned around and set straight. It is interesting that His half brothers and sisters where with Him a short time, for down the road they too will later need to be turned as well.
October31 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:3:22-36 GIVEN NOT BY MEASURE - Isn't it interesting that the Baptist's mission of preparing the way by calling Israel to repentance/baptism didn't end at the start of Jesus' ministry and that along with the miracles and teaching Jesus is also having His disciples baptize followers just like John's? The baptism of the Holy Spirit mentioned earlier does not come into effect until after the death and resurrection of Jesus at Pentecost. Jesus has that Spirit in Him without measure, but it is not for the sharing at this particular point of time. John the Baptist has been moved and used mightily by the Spirit from even in the womb, but He is not filled with the Spirit in the same sense that we all as believers from Pentecost on will be. Jesus speaks the words of God like no other has nor ever will because He is the Son, He is from above, He is from heaven, He is above all, He is the bridegroom, He is filled without measure by the Spirit. It would be one thing to be skeptical of say a prophet until his word is proven, but to be skeptical of Jesus? What better source is one ever to have? Should one receive His testimony the seal would be set that God is true; one would have eternal life and of an answer of a good conscience one would then be baptized. Many many many were baptized by the two concurrent ministries driving towards the same goal, the soon baptism of the Holy Spirit afforded by the death to sin at the cross and the resurrection to new spiritual life. The faith of our Lord is that this stage of the testimony will lead men to receiving the further stage, testimony of the new life signed sealed delivered. No one fully receives the word at this time and He knows it, yet He is willing that they be baptized of water just the same until that time when all will be presented the Spirit to receive. Himself filled without measure, measuring out a goodly portion to soon fill the rest.
November1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:4:1-26 IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT - Jesus is apparently avoiding/postponing conflict with the Pharisee's who are now taking notice of Jesus by the numbers He is drawing away from them in Judea. He takes the most direct route to Galilee venturing through the hated Jewish half breed land of Samaria. Jesus stops outside of Sychar and sends His band of Jewish looking fellows into the town to barter with the natives for food. A woman comes to the well to draw water just as she did probably twice a day, this time to find a lone road weary Jew sitting at the step of the well. What ensues is one of the most intimate conversations recorded in the gospels. It describes how Jesus pursued His way past her many defenses to bring her into an understanding of who He really was. First defense was ethnic, though they shared a common ancestry she made it a point to draw out their difference rather than their similarities. Jesus dislodged that defense by suggesting that who He was was someone that both and Jew and Samaritan had long looked forward to and that what He had to give was much anticipated by both. Her second defense was to claim ancestral rights to the lineage of Jacob. His response was to offer her more than an old decaying inherited landmark and to point to the vast difference of the shallow mountain runoff well's water to His eternal living water. Still calling Him "sir", her third defense is to make Him prove His offer. He replies by pointing her politely to a adulterous secret she holds that could not be known by any stranger. Now that she sees Him on the level of maybe a Jewish prophet, her fourth defense is to deflect His piercing gaze into her soul by diverting it to theoretical controversy as to the true singular sacred places of worship. It is an easy answer for Him to turn back on her for it does not matter where one worships as it does who the true object of that worship is given to. Her fifth defense is to put the concept of Messiah off into the future "well when messiah comes he will". Jesus declares "I am He". She has no other defense, she has only to believe His oath or not believe. There is no doubt that Jesus had many such conversations like this with a great many people. The few that we have recorded (like the previous with Nicodemus) are much glossed over and tightly edited with purpose. This seems to be one of the most open and free flowing of them all and show us a very intimate side of Jesus. He was not pushy, but very engaged and direct. He spoke in vivid pictures and concept that could be latched onto and remembered easily with time released multilayer payloads. He was able to work through her defenses with an intriguing honesty and sincerity and passion that she would come to respect. By the time the woman reaches her kinfolk she is convinced that He is Christ. The recorded record of our Lord is fast pace and compact with good reason. The faith of our Lord however is on a much deeper one on one plane that connects with the very core of the people He presents Himself to.
November6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:5:16-30 HEARETH MY WORD - This passage is an amazing display of our Lord's faith. The Pharisee's have just accused Him of thinking Himself equal to God. He reveals how that arrangement works. In His present state He will do nothing of His own self. What He see's the Father do, that is what He will do. He seeks not His own will. Think of all the things thus far we have seen Him do. Think of all the things that He is about to do. Think of the cross for which He is best known today for doing. Surely now the Father has not put Himself technically on the cross and died for sin, but literally He has shown that to Jesus. It is said that the Father has given the Son judgment, the cross is that judgment. Jesus has seen it, has understood it, has pursued it, will become it because He seeks not His own will. The judgment then for us is quite simple and straight forward. He that believeth this Son's word and He who has sent Him has eternal life. The Father is showing Him things along the way to do that will make that belief all the more believable for all men. When He makes the man at the pool whole, He see's the Father doing that. When He releases the legion of demons from the grave dwellers soul He see's the Father do that. What a clarity of vision He must have and need to upkeep. It takes constant prayer and devotion. He can see it written before Him in scriptures placed hundreds even thousands of years before Him. He can see it in the Holy Spirit moving Him from location to location. He can see it in His dreams and visions. He may be able to see the event right before the event occurs and know to do it. Whether He is shown an overview/outline/direction or the brilliance of detailed motions the effect is just the same. So not only is He equal, He has surrendered that equality in order to perform the will of the Father. He has not come to condemn any man in the way that we mean it for only the man himself by not believing in His word and He that sent Him can do that. Even the those in the graves shall hear His voice and raise up to be judged, those having done good by believing to the resurrection to grace, those having not believed to the resurrection of damnation. Many will ask "how could He do that?". The question is rather "why would man not do that?". Why would the Father do this? That the Son might be honored even as the Father is. It is an equality certainly, not though as a simpleton would think. The faith of our Lord is in a very intimate relationship to/with the Father who has given Him all things and is placing all things at His feet. As the Father has loved the Son, so the Son is loving of the Father. Not just in words and platitudes, but in actionable deeds and obedience's. Our faith then is in what the Son has shown the Father to be doing. As we love the Father, His Son having been seen by us to be sent, we see what it is we are to do likewise seeking not our own wills.
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.
November10 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:6:25-59 VERILY VERILY - The phrase is not only Jesus pointing us to a truth, but highlighting the truth by use of the compound. Four times by my count it is said in this passage underlining different aspects of the same truth. kjv@John:6:26 questions us as to our motives for seeking Him. kjv@John:6:32 Just as the miraculous manna in the wilderness alone sustained Israel those near forty years, so to is the flesh and blood shed alone sustaining to us eternally. kjv@John:6:47 Belief in the person of Jesus Christ being sent by the Father and the all sufficiency of His completed work is the lone access to eternal life. kjv@John:6:53 The flesh that bore our sin and the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins/cleansing must be fully partaken of for there to be any life in our soul's present or future. Having then these four keys, why do we seek Jesus if not for this life brought upon us by His sacrifice and resurrection? What has it to do with anything less than that, like some personal temporal benefit or advantage? kjv@John:6:29 This very thing is the work of God. kjv@John:6:38 This very thing is the will of Him whom sent Jesus. kjv@John:6:44 No man can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus unless the Father draw him, kjv@John:6:45 unless the Father has taught him, kjv@John:6:39 that the Father has given us unto Him. In the context of what we had just been taught (us being proven our insufficiency) (the greater availability and sufficiency of His Divine power) we face the reality of our mortal predicament. There is no earthly way for us to become eternal; the life we have today is nothing but a spiritual death living forward towards a physical death. There is no life nor substance for our soul outside of Christ. We must rely solely upon the miraculous flesh and blood of the "Sent" and "Anointed One". This is the true manna from heaven. This what we should be laboring towards. The faith of our Lord has nothing to do with what the people want Him to be, everything with what the Father needs Him to be. The Father needs Him to be life unto the spiritual dead and physically dying. The Father needs Him to be their "Manna" now and eternally. The Father needs to draw us to this conclusion otherwise we would not come to this of our own. There is only one way for the Father to do this - to send Him down and to raise Him back up, to make us to believe in this. This then is the verily verily of truth.
November11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:6:60-71 WILL YE ALSO - The proving began with Philip and Andrew. It ended with many leaving. Jesus knew what He was going to do beforehand and He also knew who was going to believe because of it; not many. We are told no one comes to Jesus but those who the Father gives. We also are told later in the end when Jesus prays in the garden that Jesus did not lose a one of those given except the son of perdition Judas. This would suggest that originally Jesus was given as few as eleven. The others involved such as the women that often traveled and served Him might either be part of that number in a different sense or will become part of that number fully at His resurrection. Remember that there can be a difference between being in the process of being drawn to Jesus by the Father and being fully given by the Father, between being taught of the Father and receiving He that has been sent. The length of this delay however may be a pre-cruxification dilemma as now we can be taught by the Holy Spirit of the entire completed work of Jesus without Him first having to perform it as here. I do not believe that this meant all of those who walked away this day stayed away either, only that they no longer walked with Him physically while He was here on Earth. In a real sense not even the eleven disciples are fully aware of what it is that Jesus will be shown by the Father to actually mean to them. They believe proportionately and somewhat selectively, but yet are said to be given. That Jesus knew this beforehand says a lot about the human heart and it's condition; that it cannot come to this saving grace on it's own; that it is a divine drawing and a spiritual process. The conviction and acceptance realized of this condition may well be the initial result of the drawing. Many left Him initially rejecting this truth. Some of that many are likely because of this pending conviction to return at some point. The faith of our Lord is definitely in the process performed by the Father and Holy Spirit. He can prove out the stark realities present in this condition because He knows that the divine process is in motion and ultimately effective. It seems to be a very long and deep process, but it is what sets us apart preparing us for the eternal. In this we know He truly is that Christ, Son of the living God.
November19 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:8:48-59 BEFORE ABRAHAM - Stones are drawn. How serious of an offence must one be convinced of if to be party to a stoning execution (and in/near the Temple). Jesus had said that men hate Him because He testifies of the evil in the world. Evil you would think would be ax murderers and rapists, thieves and the such. I don't recall Jesus testifying to this all that much.. Who would imagine evil to be the religious types seeking to kill Christ? The equality claim of Jesus to the Father seems to be the primary issue. It was brought to light by the mention of the pre-incarnate existence and work of Jesus and the use of the sacred title "I AM" of kjv@Exodus:3:14. Though Jesus physically can not be stoned nowadays the religious attitude and effort can still be just the same. It is interesting that witnesses saw both Abraham and Elijah standing with Jesus, but were sworn not to testify of this till after the resurrection. It is also interesting that Jesus doesn't go immediately to the prophecies like kjv@Micah:5:2 "whose goings forth are from old" kjv@Isaiah:9:6 "and His name shall be.. Mighty God" kjv@Proverbs:8:22-30 "possessed me in the beginning" etc.. Nor does He rebut them here with the logic of David's seed being his present tense "Lord" or the "who did Moses see if no man has ever seen the Father and lived". The question is not so much why He didn't do any of this here because He was revealing their own hearts, it is more when and whom was going to do this for Him. The faith of our Lord again comes back down to the Father's timing. This was not the time to convince, but to convict. This was not His time to die. This was not how He was going to die and nothing that they could conceive of doing to Him was going to be anything more than a insight into the evil that clings to man even to this day. Who then is to testify of the pre and post incarnate and incarnate sovereignty of Jesus? We are by the Holy Spirit When? Now To whom? The religious types that still today would stone Jesus (or us His ambassadors) for the very thought. "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death". What saying? These sayings. What death? The second (eternal spiritual) death.
November20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:9:1-12 WORKS OF GOD MANIFEST - We must be very careful not to make this say what it does not. The issue is disease and impairment, specifically prenatal. Does it come from the sin either of the parent or the affected? We know that in the case of a heroine or crack addict mom, her sins can cause deformity and severe often fatal consequence. A father also with his sexually transmitted diseases etc... So it is possible. If we are talking about all sin in general then why are not all kids born of sinners diseased and sickly? And if not all born to sinning parents then why any at all? We could also see the possibility of an adult of consenting age doing something dietary or promiscuous or risky etc.. that would result in their calamity. Again if sin is the cause why not all sinners and if not all then why any? In this particular case we are talking about a man blind from birth. Like so many similar cases it defies explanation unless we are to take into account the original curse and the removal of the tree of life. This explanation would make such disease and deformity and impairments much more indiscriminate on God's part. Man falls, death is sentenced and enforced, tree of life removed, toil and pain added, genetic disturbance and entropy, sub mutation and viral/bacterial balances altered, sickness and disease obvious and increasing. Add to this the theory that Israel itself is under double measure of God's blessing/curse given their possession of the sacred articles and covenants with God. We see more blindness and deafness and leprosy and demonic possession particularly at this biblical time of reprobacy than perhaps ever before/since. That Jesus would say that this particular man's blindness is not because of any one person's sin does not mean to say that sin, especially original sin and the sin of Israel mishandling of the sacred are not involved. Neither does it mean that the man's condition was forced upon him just so that God could show that Jesus can heal him. The works of God being manifested could rather go to show the indiscriminate nature of the curse, the compounding of the curse by Israel's indolence and irresponsibility, God's undeserved mercy pointing from all directions to His Anointed One, this same Jesus Christ. Now, we must ask in the other cases when Jesus concluded a healing with the words "thy sins are forgiven" how many of these times was it said in addition/conclusion to the healing and how many times was it necessary in order to provide the healing? The faith of our Lord is that the works of God will be made manifest and that He is the one that must work these works. What kind of works would these be if He was the one that necessitated them just to show Himself capable? Sin undoubtedly made for the necessity. His manifestation is the mercy presented to atone for it.
November21 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:9:13-34 A MARVELOUS THING - Since the world began, that is a long time. A man born blind is made to see. What difference would it make where the healer was from? He would still require serious consideration. How could just any person perform such a thing? Let alone a sinner? It is often asked why Jesus used the mud and the wash. It is commonly held that it was used to help build the man's faith. The man did not see what Jesus was about to do. The man at least would have known by touch that something had been done and feel it all the way down to the bath. Others point to the possible medicinal purposes of the mud (but to heal prenatal blindness?). What if the mud was to mark the man that a miracle had been performed again by Jesus on the Sabbath? What if it was a message to the Pharisees and had little to do with the event itself? The inquisition asked more than once "how was this again? Mud?". It was perplexing to them. Mud sticks to things. In mud things get stuck. If one is trying to get a perplexing puzzle stuck into a group of antagonist's brains why not stick it there with mud? The theory is interesting. As much as these men wanted to control the proceedings and rule out the miracle all together, their perplexity kept the inquiry in play, broadcasting to others that they were not all together sure what had taken place. It aggravated a division already occurring within their group and made to surface a policy they wanted to enforce that commoners insisting Jesus to be Christ would be excommunicated from the assembly. The mud is now on their face. How Jesus had healed has as little to do with the consideration of sin as when He did it or where He was from. The fact is that it hadn't been done to anyone's recollection ever before, that was the most urgent point. Some there came close to the matter, but apparently they lack the political strength and determination of the others. The faith of our Lord is in bringing the darkness to light, to make men to see the spiritual struggle happening daily all around them and the various intentions/motives being played out. Sometimes something as simple as mud can be used to remind one man who cannot see that his eyes are soon to open and at the same time reveal to a great many that certain so called seers are actually driven to blindness. That makes it an even more marvelous thing!
November23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:10:1-21 BUT THE SHEEP DID NOT HEAR THEM - There are many revealing things spoken in this passage that might have gone unseen. First, for there to be a door to enter there has to be a wall or partition preventing entry elsewhere. What is this partition that would make there to be only one way in? God's will? His judgment? It says that there are those that would climb up it other ways, avoid the door, put themselves above His judgment, but it does not say that these others are making it. There are those entering in and that He is leading out called by name that know His voice. They will not follow a strangers voice and will not hear them. There is another fold that He mentions, however the two folds are make one; the same door, the same calling, the same recognition of voice. Note also that there is a porter at the door to open it. Even if one came to the gate the porter (Holy Ghost) would have to let one in. It is interesting that the old prophets (Isaiah Ezekiel etc) referred to the religious leadership of their day as shepherds. These prophetic references would mean something to the Pharisees. Jesus referred to His time as being shepherd-less. Something has happened between then and then removing the former corrupt shepherds. If these men now are the hirelings there is another to whom they are hired and to whom they are being scared off deserting their posts; "He" would be the one who comes to steal/kill destroy. "He (The Thief)" in context is likely to come in the form of the chief priests and/or the political structures who are not deserting yet, that desire Jesus dead. Note that there are the true sheep, the ones for whom the Shepherd gave His life and took it back again that know His voice and follow. The partition is of little consequence to them as it is, they freely follow where He leads. The faith of our Lord is knowledgeable of a very complex web of story lines strung together moving against Him with increasing energy. He remains certain however of what this means and what it will mean to His sheep fold. Are we aware and certain?
November27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:11:38-44 SAID I NOT THEE - How then did the glory of the Father show upon the Son? By performing a work that made people to believe that Jesus had been sent by God to do the works of God. If you think about the many people in the gospels that confessed their faith that Jesus was good teacher, a prophet, maybe a future king, could perform miracles, they are mostly indistinguishable. If you think about the number that confessed Jesus to be the Son sent from God three stand out, Peter, the Samaritan Woman and Martha. Of the three only Martha believed for something as immediate and tangible as Jesus raising her brother physically from death. Now some see Martha as doubting in the end, Jesus was not going to let that stop this. I rather feel Martha had realized the horror and embarrassment that when Jesus did raise her brother he would be decayed and soiled and putrid. In other words, I believe that for her it was not whether Jesus was going to do this, it was the state that she was going to see her brother in when He did. Remember that Jesus had done this miracle (she was likely to know this) previously to the young girl. Regardless of what her comment meant, Jesus was willing to take this miracle all the way for the sake of those that would finally believe for the very reason that they should believe. You will notice that Jesus will soon die for man, there will be nothing similar to this miracle that man can do for Jesus. In this instance though, even before His own resurrection by God the Father, through Him God the Father would raise Lazarus from physical death with the intent of showing HIS Son to believers in the proper and glorious light. The faith of our Lord is shown in the form of praise "I thank Thee that thou hast heard me" and in the form of the command "Lazarus Come Forth". It is also in the understanding of how this was to be and to whom/for whom it was performed. Who is to tell Lazarus of what has happened? How to tell him? He may have heard Jesus say the time He taught at his house; he may have believed Jesus that He is the "Resurrection and the Life". Well now he and his sisters truly know! Now to tell the wailers.
November28 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:11:45-57 JESUS THEREFORE WALKED - It was no surprise to Jesus how the Sanhedrin/Pharisee coalition would react, it was part of the equation going in to the miracle. One only has to go back to the times of Moses before Pharaoh to see how miracles tend rather to harden the hearts of those it should have softened. It is as weighing in the one hand the tremendous weight of the many works and believers in the works of Jesus against the weight of what is self important in the other; the more weight added to the side of Jesus the more the scale tips towards self. Self is a communal property here, there is much investment into it by these individuals. It is no less true in our day. What we call freedom of will is clearly very territorial and pack like. Measure again the imbalance between the one sent doing the works of God and the several who find it expedient for all that the one man be put to death. It is the same measurement we face today. Why should the works of God be put to death (in our case explained away)? Because they threaten the so called works of man. They see it as a work to keep their place and their nation. Their place is as spiritual and moral leaders of a pitiful run down thoroughly dominated depraved frontier outpost of Rome, a vague resemblance in name only to the nation that by God they once possessed. That is the work that they put above God's? What is our's? So what does it take, we must ask, for them / for us to see matters on the ground as they truly are? The results and consequences of our possessiveness and self (pack like) justifications? How the works of God are sternly pushed aside as if to the wildernesses? These men gather to purify themselves and at the same time they issue a state wide edict for His capture. The feast is being prepared for. The faith of our Lord knows more of what it is up against ahead of time than we tend to know even after the fact because it knows the heart of man; all men; the real state. He will spend this time now with His disciples preparing them and their faith for the similar battles they will one day face themselves. He will walk no more openly amongst these hardened.
December1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:12:20-36 IF I BE LIFTED UP - There at least three objectives I see stated; that the Son of Man be lifted up, that the prince of this world be cast out, that men while they have light be drawn to follow Christ. Think of man's state as being compressed and flatted as if by a mechanical press where everything is at the same level. Look around and it all seems about the same including the person and works of Jesus. Slight variations, He (maybe another) might have been a better man, may have done some miracles and such, but near to our human level. Now think of Him as being lifted up off our compressed level by His resurrection and witnessed ascension. Our understanding is no longer as flat and perceptually relative, there is space between us and Him and we are drawn towards Him from out of our tight quarters. With that space we look back on His miracles, His healings, His parables, His teachings, confirming voices and testaments and we now see that God the Father was trying to show us something much bigger at the time than we could comprehend. There becomes an expanded middle ground so to say so that even the prince of this world cannot perceptually hide in the previous flatness. Satan is exposed and forced out into the open having not the same death hold on us as before; he then, when purpose unfolds, can be extracted. It all comes as a result of one man's death and resurrection; His uncommon lifting up. There have been those like Lazarus that have slept and been raise from sleep back into this earthly dimension. There is no one other than Jesus that has raised fully into His previous glorious state having conquered both sin and death, shown Himself tangibly to us glorified and ascended up through a parting of heaven and earth to the right hand throne of God His Father. Okay, so see how different that is, see how uncommon and not flattened that is, allow for what is expansive and drawing about that. "If any man serve me, let Him follow me" He says "where I am, there also my servant will be". Is Jesus in our flattened/compressed sphere or is He lifted far above it? There may be additional significance that there are Greeks in this audience with the Jews as well as they would more closely resemble us Gentiles today. For the moment they see the signs and hear the voices, but they as of yet do not know who the Son of Man is or what it means for the Son to be "lifted". The "Light" is amongst them also for this short preliminary time. Take notice of this time He tells them, remember what is said and done while I am here, it will help you to see how dark things are at my passion and death, how glorious and expansive things have become once I have raised and lifted up. The faith of our Lord is in the way things actually are that we cannot yet see and in the way they better need to be if we can just be made to see it. The first spiritual sight from our blindness we will ever see is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living Father God high and lifted up. These men are yet to see that, but then the act has not yet been physically performed. Today the act has been performed, are we willing now to see that? Are we willing to follow in the sense that He means for it?
December2 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:12:37-50 I KNOW HIS COMMANDMENT IS LIFE - Similar to God hardening the Pharaoh's heart, He has hardened many of the chief priests. I don't know if it is meant that He enacts this upon them, rather that the thought of Him as now presented makes their hearts hard. It is like us saying "you make me sick". You of course do not make me to be sick, my guttural response to you is sickened. The thought of God dwelling in the flesh? For the hardened sickening. The thought of messiah not coming from their ranks, sickening. The thought of them not knowing God, but this unlearned fool, sickening. The thought of Him calling them hypocrites and children of the Devil and a broad of vipers, sickening. That He heals on Sabbaths, that He claims to forgives sin, that He associates with sinners and publicans, that every answer to them is a parable or puzzle to solve, that He is leading the uneducated masses and them into a head on collision with Rome; it is all just sickening to the chiefs. Worse yet, there are suspicious people among these leaders who seem to believe on this Jesus, but wont stand up for Him (which must go to show what type of people He draws). You can see how hearts can become hardened with very little external pressure from God, in fact it is likely to believed that they are doing God the favor for putting this revolting lunatic down. Here is the thing though, everyone knows that Isaiah said that all this would surround the "Righteous One"; that He would be denied and rejected and tremoved from the living. Jesus said that if a man hear His word and believe not, He (Jesus)judges the man not; His word (Jesus speaking the Father's command) judges Him. If God has forced a hard heart upon one then how can HE judge him? HE has not forced, we have responded that way in facing His truth. Why not judged until the last day? Because until the last day there remains that possibility that a person's heart can be changed; and if not changed, used to strengthen someone's that has. The faith of our Lord is that the Father's commandment equals life everlasting. Therefore He speaks what He has been told. One that believes on Him believes on the Father. That same word is eternal life to one and judgment of similar kind to another.
December4 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:13:18-30 TO WHOM I GIVE SOP - Why didn't Jesus out Judas right then and there? Let's put ourselves in the mind of Judas for a moment. Whatever it was that made him to inquire with the Sanhedrin in the first place he has probably carried in his heart long before that; one doesn't just jump to such a decision. Now he is carrying all of that plus the anxiety of it all now coming together into this supper attempting to disguise it. The disciples there with him are looking at one another sizing each other up. Peter the courageous spokesman is even timid about asking who Jesus means. Jesus though is leaving it hang out there over the room. Judas and He both know who He is talking about, yet it is left for everyone to ponder and search out for themselves. Judas has to be thinking "Master just tell them". Orelse maybe Jesus is thinking "Judas just tell them". The truth is Jesus is man enough (has better purposes) to not out Judas to the others and Judas is coward (disturbed) enough not to confess either to Jesus or the others. How odd it must have been to dip the morsel in the Lord's bowl and still not be noticed by the rest of the attendees. It is nearly impossible to get into the mind set of Judas. The faith of our Lord however sees this as a moment that they/we will all look back on with breathless amazement/confusion. As this event continues to hang over the crowd of believers today, what message exactly does the Lord's faith wish us to look back on? How easy it is to miss what is actually going on in any moment let alone the few epic ticks. One first sees Judas go out the door and thinks nothing of it (or finds another explanation for it). Next thing Judas is approaching with a platoon of temple guards. Suddenly one looks back and remembers that Judas did take up the sop. Days later one recalls Jesus never outed Judas, but then again He did; no one else was close enough to the moment though to know any different. If not close enough to this moment, what other moments are we too distant in?
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?
December10 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjvJohn:15:18-16:4 BECAUSE I WAS WITH YOU - Notice that when the Holy Spirit comes He does not come to keep any of these things from happening. They happen, they continue to happen, they increase there is not an end of their happening at least till Christ returns. What does that say about the plan? The plan is to hunker down and absorb the fight that will be leveled by the world against Christ and His followers. And if that is the plan what does that say about the His love by which we are to love others? This passage does not say that eventually everyone will realize that the love of this world equates to hatred for God and turn from their ways, instead it says that what they do they will think that they are doing for God. It doesn't say that there will for a time be enough of a majority to hold the persecution off. It says that because He has called us out from this world and we are not of this world that the world hates us. It says because they persecuted the master they "will" persecute the servants. Why then do they today not hate the Christians in the United States? Is it that we are so Christ like? Could it be because we do not bear witness to the true image of Christ? Because they have not seen His works in us and are not called out from behind their cloak's? Earlier in the passage we were exhorted to abide in Him, to him who abides in the commandment the Father and Son will abide with him. Has this been done? Earlier in the passage we were exhorted to "keep" (fortress) the true meanings of His commandments from the influences of self and world. Have we done that? We are called to love one another as He has loved us. Have we done that? You see how the evidences stack up against us! I think the faith of our Lord is very evident here, that this is not the end of the process, this is the beginning. Added to His faith that the plan is right and that these disciples will be ultimately fruitful in it, it is a testament to the amount of effort/resource that He is investing into this long hard fought process to make it work. This is an important time for these men now to know this as without His physical presence they soon have to recall and depend solely on these words and the Spirit in the years to come as will we.
December11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:16:5-16 HE SHALL RECEIVE OF MINE - We have been negligent in speaking of the Holy Spirit as He is so much the faith of our Lord. What Jesus has performed here is certainly monumental, in every sense beyond human/angelic comparison. What Jesus has done is to bring to this world new life and to set it into motion. What the Spirit is about to do is every bit as much monumental as He is taking everything Jesus has done, setting it into our hearts, spread it, help us to live it. New life is life indwelt by the Spirit, we need the Spirit like we do living water; there is no spiritual life without. His mission is to glorify Jesus, to take what is now Jesus' (the glory that the Father has given Him) and shew it to us. Shortly in these chapters Jesus will be raised to the right hand throne of the Father with the keys to life and death and release from the chains of sin in His hands. The ministry of reproof is one of many things He does ahead of indwelling us. It is a ministry because it is much needed and ultimately very loving. Now that Jesus is proven to be where He is at, sin in it's entirety has become not believing in Jesus Christ, the seal of righteousness is that Jesus was raised, judgment is that the prince of this world is judged. These things Jesus now has. These things the Spirit shows to us for us see the light of and turn from our ways. What a monumental task just in this alone. Once inside the Spirit will guide us in all truth. Just as Jesus, the pattern well developed, He will not speak of Himself but repeat what He hears divinely spoken. He is also called the Comforter, a title perhaps relating back to the previous section describing the hatred and persecution believers will be subjected to. It is obvious that as complete and triumphant as our Lord's work is needed along with that is the effort of the Holy Spirit to really put that in the clearest light and to make full use of it. Man left to his own though filled with every good intention would only take this as far as what would serve him and shortly it would all die off. The faith of our Lord, though in man, is in man because of abilities He knows of the Holy Spirit. The right for the Holy Spirit to do these things will be bought and paid for by the blood and ascension, but it is crucial living work just the same; eternal in scope and daily in nature.
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.
December14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:17:6-19 THEM WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN - I am overwhelmed this morning with the sense that I have long misinterpreted this prayer of Jesus. The consequences to my theology will have to be sorted out, but I have the feeling that this prayer is meant for the eleven men there directly (us only indirectly). There are more than eleven disciples within miles of Him tonight, they are not mentioned. There are many that have followed and even hosted Him these three+ years, they are not mentioned. There are many that will believe on Jesus because of these men, they are mentioned later on but not yet. The fact is that these eleven are the humans that He has invested everything into. They are certainly spiritually weak and frail at this point despite their blessed experiences and discipleship so far, but their meekness is exactly what He is looking for. He refers to them as the "given". He refers to us as "those that will believe because of them". I have a feeling the He refers to His other many devoted followers in the region as the nucleolus of "those" or us. What about Martha then? What about Mary and Lazarus and the blind man? What about Nicodemus and the others this night being shunned by the Sanhedrin? Evidence now suggests that there is a mission much bigger than our personal beliefs and sacrifices that our Lord needs these eleven hand selected men to proceed with. A mission or calling that the remainder of us are barely spectators/receivers of. Jesus begins by praying not for the world, but for these eleven men for they are "THINE"; He is glorified in "them". He prays that they be one, that they have His joy fulfilled in themselves, that they be sanctified through HIS truth/word, that they be kept from evil. He prays this because they are not of this world, they are hated, they are sent by Him into this world. Now these words could certainly be applied to us as we are often in similar (lesser) situations. The spiritual warfare that would surround these eleven men would be perhaps beyond compare. It is because of them however, their being given, their meekness and their being used of the Spirit to the extent that they were that we even have opportunity to follow their steps. We call these men today Apostles; the pillars of our faith. This is who this prayer is for directly. Men like this Apostle John. If not for them we would not know that this prayer was even made. The faith of our Lord barely needs to be said here. It is a tremendous thing to consider that all of this is bestowed upon them for our benefit and for those that will follow after us. The mission spreads out and takes us in and we pass it on to the next each in our smaller ways. Our thanks to "those which THOU hast given". Our praise to HIM who meant this to the continuation of our Lord's ministry after His heavenly glorification.
December16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:18:1-11 WHOM SEEK YE - The impression I take from this passage is that Father is in control of everything and Jesus is giving Himself to the Father. The officers and guards marching on the way over surely had rehearsed the situation over in their minds as they approached and were fully aware of who it was that they were coming to get. Others had been sent on the same mission other times and had come back empty handed. The pressure was on them this time. They may have been under orders to assume control of the situation, that they fell back may have been part of that plan (or not), but there was little control for them to be had. Judas may have thought that he was in control, but when the guard fell back exposing him powerless and later when the swords were drawn exposing him to danger and even later when the purse was tossed, control was found furthest from Judas' hands. The Sanhedrin thought themselves to be in control on many occasion and ended up being shown as the fool. This could easily play against them or even explode and cause the very same public rioting they most feared against. If there is any control or settling in their hands it comes directly from their understanding of prophecy oddly enough and Jesus' own words which ties us back into the Fathers control. Out walks Jesus like the shepherd before the pack of wolves, coming between the ravenous and His fold. He asks them twice who they have come after, making certain the release of the others (except for a momentary diversion from a mis-intentioned Peter). Had anyone other than the Father been in control this event would have gone much differently. So we must ask, why is it important that the Father be in full control of this? Couldn't this have played out more dynamically? kjv@Isaiah:53:10 may be our best source for an answer stating that it "pleased the LORD to bruise Him, having put Him to grief" and again "make His soul an offering for sin" and again "see His seed and prolong His days". The "arm of the LORD" is being revealed in this and the events to come. It won't be because of the success of any certain group or person or principality. These actors will play the part that they are given, they will be used as tools and Jesus will be shown as giving Himself freely and completely as sent and directed to perform the Father's ultimate long awaited for mercy. People today see the Father of the Old Testament as harsh and temperamental despite every evidence to the contrary. They point to specific instances like Abraham and Issac with horror not realizing that it was not Abraham that suffered this sacrifice it was HIM the Father. The faith of our Lord presents the Father in a whole new light, that HE is willing to do this for us and for HIS own good name, that HE loves us to this extent and price, that for all that we've mistaken and corrupted HE is still wanting to work it all out, HE will use all of HIS power and ability to make this what it best needs to be. Not only all of this, but that it was HIS plan all along. Maybe today you are part of that guard that is marching lock step to seize our Jesus away. Maybe you are the one who is turning Him/us in. Maybe you are in the elite thinking that you are doing God's work by ordering this to be done. Maybe you are just a simple fisherman at the ready with knife and sword. Regardless, you think that you are coming at this under control. Three words Jesus will have for you... "Whom seek ye?". Think about it!
December21 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:18:28-40 TO THIS END - Apparently when you are breaking your own law by having a trial at night and coming to a judgment of condemnation in the same day it is important that you not break your own traditions of not dirtying your hands by going into a Gentile's house; it makes it all better. Apparently if you yourself do not have legal power to perform capital punishment it is okay to take him to someone that does; it is all right. John doesn't go into the false evidence and witness that the Sanhedrin itself trumped up, but apparently it too is okay as long as you don't sully your hands and your image by expressing concern over not missing the closing hours of the paschal festival. Aren't you glad that they thought this all through and got it to where they could murder God's Son without breaking their ceremonial traditions? Why should Pilate entertain this motion? Because they wouldn't have brought him had He not been what they said he was; you can take their word on that. Oh so Pilate doesn't find anything wrong with the man, but it is okay to offer him in a trade for a seditious robber? Did that come out of left field or what? Is it article ?#$& that says that it is lawful to trade an innocent man for a convict tried by Roman law if the Jews insist? What business does Rome have with a man who won't tell you directly that he is a king, with no army, with no intent of removing anyone from their throne, who has gone out of his way on several occasions not to present himself to the public as someone who would? Some would say that Pilate felt for Jesus but cowarded to the pressure of the Jews. WHat? Pilate (who has been tyrannical and utterly vicious to the Jews as recently as a few months ago on the temple stairs) and the Sanhedrin suddenly being buddy buddy should alert us to something politically motivated happening here in a big way. They are both trying to present themselves to the public (and to history) as having clean hands. Don't riot against me Jerusalem for well I pretended not to want to be involved in this when most vehemently I did. Don't riot against us thousands of followers because we did not kill Jesus, Jesus killed Himself by what He said to Pilate. This is why all the detail is given to public perception. Little did they know that it was going to be written about. A few weeks and all this messiness would be done with, so they thought. It was written in a time span where if the written testimony that we have was false that the many witnesses could have fought back, we would have historical evidence that these misrepresentations had been vigorously disputed.Truth is that Rome didn't think much of this little incident until it had stirred the people so that they had to destroy the Temple, burn the records and ransack the city a few decades latter. What we do have is our Apostles talking about it quite openly to the public in a tone that everyone else knew about it and accepted it; many were convicted by it. The words here of Jesus then take on deeper meaning when He says that He came into this world to "bare witness unto the truth" and everyone that is "of the truth" heareth His voice. Truth is not the perception portrayed of washing ones hands of the matter, nor is it of making it back to the festival in time, truth is why it is you feel the need to trip all over yourself and the law on the way to portraying yourself as innocent of a most guilty matter.Truth is proving man his nature so that then you can show them God's. The faith of our Lord remember is that this is all in the Father's hands. No it is not right what they are doing, but what else could be expected. How does this ever change unless the Son of God suffers this wrong and takes it in His flesh to the grave along with every other wrong so that He might raise up a people free of it's corruption. Born into to bare wittness, to this end completed.
December23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:19:17-27 THIS TITLE - A epitaph may not say as much about a man as it does about the meaning others held about him. Pilates' title for Jesus is mounted atop the cross for all to see, no doubt there could have been a thousand more titles that could have been nailed there as well. What title would you put on His cross to some up His meaning to you? Would it be "fable or myth"? Would it be "fool for believing as He did"? Would it be "good guy...wish He could have hung out a little longer"? Would it be "old dude back then.. not relevant today"? Would it be my Savior" (not fully knowing what all that meant)? The crowd on this day had their own private ideas about what the life and now death of Jesus was going to mean. Think of those near to His mother Mary. Think of the Sanhedrin. Think of the guards. Think of the casual observer. All had their own idea, some personal and emotional, some separate and detached, some involved with the clean up, few realistic, none searching nor understanding of the meaning to His Father God (after all this is HIS sacrifice). What tile would His Heavenly Father put on that cross? As promised? I told you? Beloved in whom I am well pleased? After all that I have done you still do not know me? How about "MY SON"? Could it be that the meaning we give this matter is only of secondary importance to the significance the Father places on it? Could it be that for all that we know we really know nothing at all? When you read this gospel did you really think that it was all about whatever meaning you wanted to give it or did you think of the meaning God wanted you to give it? Pilates' meaning, a slap in the face to get over on the Jews, a means of re-establishing his own power, based on nothing that Jesus told him. How about yours? The Jews' meaning, an accusation of a man foolishly claiming to be something that he is not, a man despite his miraculous abilities is an imposter to the legalistic faith they would rather hold to. How about yours? To His mother, a sharp pain in the chest, a stream of tears that is unending, a period of time and hope and physical separation now suddenly/forcibly ending. To the disciple whom He loved, a shock though prepared for never fully anticipated, a yet intellectual realm of spiritual possibilities, a new set of of obligation and responsibility. It could be that the title hung over a man publically (like in this case) has nothing to do with your perception, but you lack the power publically to do anything about it. What then about yours? What title, what meaning would you give this solemn occasion? Is it closer to these peoples meaning, closer to the principalities meaning or is it closer to His Fathers? One title comes to mind; Lord/King. Even it too comes with a multitude of selfishly saturated individual/public interpretations. The faith of our Lord is that somehow, someway, some time by the power of word and His Spirit that you will be drawn into the deeper meaning/the more rightful title. It is the richer fuller faith closer to the meaning that His Father has placed on Him. It is this meaning that reveals the Father's heart and intentions like no other. It is the banner we then must carry forward as a church into the fields of public perception.
December26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:20:1-9 AS YET THEY KNEW NOT - It is interesting to see the state of things as Jesus has left them. Remember, these are the very people Jesus has left the future ministry with. They seem totally unprepared; do they not? First of all, Mary doesn't seem willing to trust what she saw and had been told along the way to Peter and John; she appears to withhold information that we know from the other gospels leaving it all to their own inquiries instead. Second John, one of the two speed racers, willing admits that as much as Jesus talked about it neither man yet knew the Old Testament scriptures relating to the necessary resurrection. We can interpret this a couple different ways, either the men were just coming up short (a blinding of human pride say) or the information was being externally withheld (a purposeful blinding of sorts by the Spirit or such). The first option seems most likely, the second most intriguing. It may be that the initial apostolic contemplation of resurrection to His glory must come at the time after the crushing reality of the loss and finality of His death as a human is most deeply absorbed, when the guilt and shame of our own roles in this have been fully tasted. It is like tasting the bitters before the sweet. Think of the many believers today who grab on to the resurrection gospel without first grasping the ripping pain of His sacrifice. Do they really know the one without knowing first the other? Think of the many believers today that grab on to the pain and sacrifice without then grasping the glorification through resurrection gospel. Both halves are equally important, but there seems a proper order intended especially for these particular disciples who have been called to be the Apostles. Certainly there is a blinding of pride or doubt or such that each of us inflict upon ourselves. Certainly there is a blindness of newness and unfamiliarity with things spiritual, the thoughts of God not being ours and such. Why wouldn't it also be certain that there is an order and process (time released revelation) God is employing to reveal these things to those chosen to testify to and continue the earthly work of Jesus. Add now that Jesus knew and left the keys to His kingdom to this; meaning that the things that we are witnessing from these men and women are crucial first steps, a sign of the gradual unveiling, the crack of dawn growing brighter. What they have learned before this is set aside for an awakening. What they have learned before will by the Spirit be reintroduced into their remembrance. Now however is the rustling ahead of a new birth. The faith of our Lord is that we will know not by our own understanding, but we will know by His revelation. These men and women will be the first to know. They will begin to know when the Spirit is soon received. Already though they are sensing the motions of the heavenly fluttering near and surrounding them.
December27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:20:10-18 MARY - What does it take to draw the purest faith out of a person? The answer may be different in every person's case. Do you see how differently the revelation of the resurrection is coming to different people.Mary hears her name called by a familiar voice and immediately she wants to touch but lo it is forbidden. Thomas hears and sees the sight but refuses to believe unless he can touch; he is allowed. Women go down and come back having the good news, travelers discuss the news with a stranger and the stranger while eating with them reveals Himself to be Jesus, yet Peter and John and others still sort through the mounting evidence but must themselves wait longer to see for themselves. Why so many approaches? Why not one big here I am revelation? My guess is that it is important to the drawing out of each person's faith.Some believe and so want to touch, but what must be drawn out is the part of that faith that has holy reverence. Others refuse to believe until they touch and suddenly reverence isn't the same immediate issue, the draw is toward that initial acceptance. Others (key individuals in this case) so want to see what the others are reporting, but must wait, drawing on that patience and a cool head. What would be most important in your faith to be drawn out at first glimpse? Perhaps by the appearance of Angels? Perhaps by the weary evening concluded by the eating together of bread and fish? Perhaps by a barrage of separate but similar eye witness reports (somewhat of an embarrassment of other's riches)? What is most needed drawn from you to start your faith off on the best foot? What is needed by the Lord to produce the faith and the irrefutable and glorious testimony He needs to ignite the new ministry of His gospel of complete salvation? I'd like to think that the events here are being properly timed and staged, that there is perfection and purpose to the righteous performance as it is being revealed. After all this is a once in an eternity event that intends to bare the entire weight of redemption.The faith of our Lord is in this exact moment and the reaction of His followers in it. He believes in this moment for their sake. He believes in this moment for our sake. This for Him is an exciting moment. This revelation moment may come in different ways to each one of us, but with purpose; the purpose of drawing out what is most needed in our faith.He said that His sheep would know His voice. His first whisper was Him perceived as a gardener to a deeply mournful and bravely seeking believer named Mary. How about yours?
December31 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:21:15-25 FOLLOW ME - Two of our favorite personalities of the bible Peter and John face the ultimate question in our final passage. Peter is asked directly by Jesus "do you love me". John reports to us from a curious distance. Three times Peter is asked and what could he honestly say? What could any of us say? Peter just a week or so ago had denied Jesus three times. Peter has learned first hand of the often cloudy climate of intention and misguided result within our hearts. So must we. Jesus twice is asking however if Peter loves with the "agape" that Jesus loves him with. With much thought Peter admits that he loves Him more like a brother. Could any of us truly respond rather in the affirmative? Peter answers with naked honesty. I don't know whether John understands at this point either. He writes some sixty years later with much introspection addressing himself simply as "the one Jesus loved"; perhaps the best answer of all. We love Jesus best we can because He first loves us best that anyone can, in so doing He teaches us what it means to be agape loved. Any agape form of love we have is solely a reflection of the love with which He has always loved us. Peter is asked the third time "do you love me then like you say as a brother"? Taking the inquiry a step further, do any of us even know what the brotherly form of love is all about? Could we know without first knowing His agape love? Jesus here presents these questions to Peter further as a "if/then" conditional statement. It is almost better translated "if you feed on My agape then feed My agape to My other sheep as well". We easily fall into the trap of thinking that it is our love that we are to show and so too we forget that we are all His sheep; our love/our (or scattered disassociated) sheep/our feeding. His sheep need fed His agape not the mere human resemblance of it. If we have any resemblance of love of our own for Jesus we would know this. This ties into the notion of abiding fully in His love and therein/thereby producing fruit. The moment we step out of that love into a lesser forms of love from our own reserve our fruitfulness withers detached from the vine. It also ties into the notion that we are to crucify our former self daily as a living sacrifice being transformed by the renewing of our minds, as much of our mind is going about doing our own forms of love and not His. Couldn't the question be interpreted "I know from which love you love me by the love with which you are feeding my sheep"? Peter's love one day will become sacrificial and will glorify this very Savior, not to confuse it with the Saviors though. It will remain within the agape love Jesus has shown all men. In Peter's case it matters not what the other men like John will be called to do because it all is the working of the Lord's agape. We are compelled by the agape love of Christ to freely partake and distribute of said agape to the benefit of all His children. The faith our Lord is that we can come to know His agape love and that it is His agape love will can be presented and distributed to all men world wide. It is often best combined with our more agape infused brotherly forms of love as that is what we are more generally suited to produce. However, it must always be the focus of His agape not our forms for that is where all credit truly lays. The honor of fielding His banner into the unknown territories is the greatest form of due respect to Him possible. It is an honor men like Peter and John and others have followed and for some even died for.
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