February14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:11:20-24 UPBRAID - How could a God of love be so uncompromising and mad? Like no other time before the Lord pours Himself out in mighty works with the intent of convincing us His deity, His power, His worthiness, our standing within His love and mercy and judgment. It is not like He hasn't poured Himself out before, for He surely has. It is that this is the time for all times that His people have looked forward to and His people will look back on as the one time He really put it all out there face to face. This is His showing of love. This is His showing of full acceptance without any compromise; His full on love sent direct and in person. And what do the people do? They attempt to explain it away however they themselves see it. They attempt to contain it in a wrapper of improbability; try to make it something it is not; something to be disrespectful of. The faith of our Lord is that enough people will take a hold. What He is willing to offer is greater than any other thing that this life/death could hold. Some will take hold seeing Him in the smallest of His expressions. Some will require His largest efforts. Only one time will He present His case in person and if that is not enough what further then can He do? He will give it time for our decision, but, at some point it will be time to take His loved/loving ones and move along.
May1 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:1:14-20 KINGDOM - Jesus mentions the "kingdom of God frequently as do His Apostles kjv@STRING:kingdom+of+God. It has an importance in the message that I fear we often miss. We take the repentance and belief in the gospel and try to run only with that without placing those things in the deeper context of why they are to be done. Jesus is purposely trying to avoid the immediate political connotations that "Christ" or "Messiah" would have to the people of Israel hungry for regaining their own national determination and governance. His kingdom instead begins and ends with Him and what He must accomplish for the sake of all mankind, having done so the portion that the Father will give Him, the spoils of which that He then will divide amongst the many, the kingly role He will play when all things are finally gathered to Him. This kingdom on our part is first sought, received, entered, costly to enter, preached, inherited, rewarded, waited for, seen coming with power, revealed from out of a mystery, within us, entered with much tribulation, etc... The kingdom suggests God's governance/authority/judgment, God's economy/providence, His design and desire and know how. Repenting for anything less is repenting for more selfish reasons. Believing the gospel of salvation/redemption/remission/cleansing for anything less is believing for more selfish reasons. The faith of our Lord is in an actual kingdom that is now in Heaven, for us both there in the future and here in our hearts. It grows like a mustard seed, it is as the little children coming unto 'Me', it is of very glad tidings. It is a treasure. It is a long and determined process much like making fisherman fishers of men.
July24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:5:1-11 NEVER THE LESS AT THY WORD - I've been confused here in Luke where the disciples came in. Matthew has Jesus meeting Simon and Andrew, they leave all to follow, then John and James in similar fashion, no mention of the Mother-in-Law. Mark has Simon and Andrew first, John and James a little further, then Simon's Mother-in-Law. Luke has Simon's Mother-in-Law then all four fishermen as partners. John has two of the Baptist's disciples one of which is Andrew follow, he brings Simon to Jesus, Jesus then finds Philip who finds Nathaniel, these men go to the wedding in Cana, no mention of the Mother-in-Law. How do we pull these all together in proper respect? I will give it a try. The Mother-in-Law seems to be the pivot point. The first miracle being at the wedding puts John's account ahead of the Mother-in-Law's time as in Mark. John's is more detailed, Marks typical style is compressed. This means that they know each other and have toured a short time before returning to Peter's home to heal her then pick up again leaving all to follow full time. Matthew and Luke pick up at the healing and attempt to talk Jesus into staying, after a brief rest Jesus returns to the shore where the boy's have partnered up to regroup telling them about becoming fishers of men, given what has happened they realize their sinful nature, leave all behind now for a full time road ministry. To me this better describes a process Jesus utilized to gently bend the men by introducing them to the road and ministry, taste the good and bad of the experience, see the truly miraculous, before asking them dive full in. It also explains the importance of this moment in Galilee and why two of the Gospel writer decide to start at this. The faith of the Lord includes faith in these particular men. These men are given to Him by the Father, it is His responsibility not to loose any of them except for the son of perdition. These men are full in now thanks to His gentle patient yet determined manner as well as His obvious miraculous powers.
August6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:7:11-17 THIS RUMOR OF HIM - Theophilus, if you are still reading this, here is a point that I have researched and feel comfortable that you yourself could confirm throughout the region as this miracle is still widely spoken of. There were many people there that saw it, the story spread, there was a great fear between those that saw/heard of it, that there was and is a saying among them that "God hath visited His people". Today we read through the passage and can't wait to get on to the next. It reads like a book, the stories rush by like here in ten quick sentences. What if this story was made into a book? The names and the faces came forward? Their lives before and after touched? Imagine that you knew this widow, her son, her deceased husband. Imagine that you knew her struggle and her mourning twice over. Imagine that you saw the "great prophet" when His lungs swelled up with such compassion and you then anticipated by the sudden silence from everyone in the crowd that something absolutely astonishing was about to happen. Will it happen? How can it happen? Am I really here to see this happen? Imagine Luke some twenty five years latter researching account after account of someone that was there (or someone that their parents made a point later to tell) taking notice of their eyes and lips as they spoke of the young man sitting man straight up. Do you still see it as a ten sentence passage? While there was so much going on in these three and a half years and surely moments like these must have just flown by with too many details to pen, we should never speed read through a single moment thus testified of. It is the faith of our Lord that we will give more time and more consideration to the accounts outlined in these gospels. We too can sense the profound drama, even relive them in our imaginations, have them soak through into our lives today. Linger rather my friend, thereby better join in the fear and awe and the long lasting gasping echos that remain.
September26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:18:31-34 ALL THE THINGS WRITTEN - Clearly the disciples do not understand. Is there anyone from those who had studied the scriptures to those who had spent the past three and a half years that understood? The question we must ask is why not? It is apparent that unless you have been taken through His experience of the death and resurrection of Christ, you can not grasp what has been written and taught concerning it. Further, unless either the resurrected Jesus Himself or the Holy Spirit (the seal and confirmation of it) open your eyes to it the experience of it is only intellectual at best. At this point no one there even intellectually grasps it. It is a statement of the condition of man that should well be considered, that even having it written and taught and experienced in person, left to man's intellectual resource the connection spiritually cannot be made. The ability required is not within man (neither friend or foe). Further, Paul in his writings suggests that the abilities of man's carnal mind will actually fight (be at complete enmity) against the realization and knowledge of such. The prophets themselves predicted much the same. And it is no surprise to Jesus. It is not as if He is just now realizing this, He has known it to be the case from the Garden of Eden or long before. The divine plan has this human inability fully considered. The faith of our Lord is that even though man has not the ability in any shape or form, the very thing that He is prepared to perform will give man that ability; the ability to finally see and believe to salvation. This is why He must perform this, complete it to it's fulfillment.
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.
November26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus *John:11:17-37 BELIEVETH THOU THIS - We have illustrated for us the different levels of belief. There is the belief of if He had been there, the brother would not have died. Is this true and how many other levels of belief does this branch off into? There is the belief whatsoever He ask, God will giveth it to thee. This is true, but how many other directions could this branch off into? There is the belief thou art the Christ which is come into this world. This is true, but how many other directions could this branch off into? There is the belief I know that he will rise again in the latter resurrection. This is true, but how many other directions does this lead? There is the belief could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind cause that this man have not of died. Again, all true, but how many other ways could these belief branch off? The question is how does this event have the Father best glorify the Son? Jesus says "he that believe in me shall never die. Believeth thou this"? He is speaking this about a dead believer. "Though he were dead yet shall he live" it is stated. Obviously, physical death is not death, eternal separation from God is. "I am the resurrection and the life". Think of how many different directions our faith can be taken with all the other human approaches, even scriptural approaches. Yet there is only one direction our faith can be drawn by this particular approach wherein the Father is glorifying the Son in this passage. Jesus is "The Life". Not even physical death can deny it. If it is too hard to believe it by what He says, believe Him because of His works; works such as this raising the dead to life. Four days dead and the body putrefies. Four days dead and the professional mourners come to wail at your doorsteps. Four days dead and you start coming up with all these beliefs and rationalizations that take you every which way, but toward the truth. Four days dead and the impossibility of it all becomes overwhelming. The faith of our Lord, He believes in a sweet spot, a spot where if hit full on that men's faith only have one direction to go. Choose you this day between life or death. The life that surpasses death's decay and corruption or else the death eternal that separates one's soul from God's. This is the glory of the Father upon the Son. Believeth Thou This?
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