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February17 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:12:15-21 MY SERVANT - Matthew ties a quote from kjv@Isaiah:42:1-4 into the reasoning Jesus did not want the people to make Him known. It appears to revolve around the judgment that He intends to shew to the Gentiles and the plots that are beginning to solidify from the Jewish leaders. Israel and His covenant to them remains in His heart but, not everything He does is strictly for Israel. In a sense Israel will have to come around in the future to this understanding of revelation and in great measure the Gentile nations will be used to drive them to this conclusion. For now, everything He does, every act of mercy, every piece of indisputable logic, every revealing parable only goes to anger them all the more. Their minds are now set against Him. Jesus does not snap, does not get unruly, does not turn away, His judgment is crisp and clear and evident and victorious to all honest observers. The faith of our Lord is not only in the past and the present, but, in the future; how pieces all come together as a whole. Words and deeds are one thing. The examples He lays out another. How they all play out in the end, that is the beautiful thing; the miraculous thing that can only be done by this God's servant and the spirit place upon Him.

February17 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:12:15-21 MY SERVANT PART 2 - I should not neglect to state as well that we need to see Jesus as He sees Himself, The Servant. This brief stay on earth is not about Him, it is about serving His Father's will. He is revealing the Father as never before to the future generations and to the many nations. With humility and meekness and tenderness He is showing forth a truly victorious form of judgment. His judgment could have included press and publication and mass outreach, but, instead His judgment was for the individual (here..this is your healing...do not tell) and for His disciples (go..as you have freely received). Service is not rewarded at the present time, reward is a long hard road. And so it is for The Servant; My Servant. Thus is the faith of our Lord.

April23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:27:45-56 MY GOD MY GOD - The gospel writers record Jesus saying seven things on the cross, Matthew records one - the most important. Few there on the scene are going to know that Jesus quotes from kjv@Psalms:22:1, but those of us that do know and are interested we should go on to read the entire chapter kjv@Psalms:22. There is a reason now that Jesus qualifies as the governor among nations deserving of all man's praises and adoration. He despised not the afflicted nor turned His face from them, the meek shall be satisfied, because that His Lord was not far from Him and saved Him from the mouth of the lion. He poured Himself out like water, His heart melted like wax, He was cast upon this will of the Father's from the womb. Now the course has been fulfilled. The full weight of sin had been transfered upon Him; because of which the Father stepped aside momentarily and was far from helping. Jesus yelled out victoriously with tremendous strength when no strength should have been left in Him. The faith of our Lord was in that He trusted in the Father and the Father did deliver Him. The weight of sin was not as great as the pain of separation and the drowning fatigue of death not so great as the defiant liberating yelp against it. Those that saw these things feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

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.