another reason for controversy

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

John 7:7

 

Jesus was controversial because He showed that the natural ends to all the work of a collective of fallen, depraved sinners was evil. He was not about reinforcing some spark of goodness in depressed humanity. He was about confronting sin all around Him. Not arrogantly, for sinners were drawn to Him, but truthfully, so that people could repent and follow Him. The worst sins were done by those who disguised sinful motivations and selfish pride in beautiful religious clothing.

 

The context of this statement shows tragic human depravity at two extremes. The first is personal depravity represented in the brothers of Jesus. They sinned in refusing to believe in Jesus (John 7:5). And they were pressuring Him to go to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem to make a huge public spectacle of Himself. They were motivated by pride.

 

The second extreme, also characterized by pride, was found in the Jewish leaders who challenged Jesus all throughout John 7. They did not believe in Him either… but their reasons for rejection were viewed as “good” even “religious” reasons. They rejected Him as well. His teaching had the unnerving affect of eliminating their profitable market share and destroying their religious livelihood.

 

So there are two evils to guard against in my heart. The first is my own tendency toward prideful lack of faith, wanting to take all actions, even decisions of faith, into my own hands. The second is my tendency to look “holy” by public religious spectacle, rather than to let God make me holy through private obedience and submission to Jesus. Both of these are evils that Jesus exposes in the world and in me. Only by faith, trust, and obedience to Him can I find that Jesus will heal me of them.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion

Stop eating candy!

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

John 6:35

 

Jesus is my soul’s satisfaction. What He offers is complete and full life in exchange for believing and following Him. He is what my soul longs for at all times. But so many times I have sought to satisfy soul hunger with lesser things. I settled for a handful of candy when I could have had a gourmet feast!

 

Many things promise to satisfy soul hunger, but never really do. Money can’t by happiness. Material things just always deteriorate in need of life-sapping maintenance. Position in life does not deal with the deeper questions of the soul. It just postpones them, only to have them return in great, fearful intensity at the hardest moments. Relationships can be fickle. Lusts and longings still remain.

 

But Jesus satisfies as the relationship that orders and strengthens all the others. He is the strong anchor for the soul so that my heart does not drift from the place of satisfying joy.  He provides what I need, so that I am not enslaved by passions, possessions, power, prestige, or position. I am truly and fully aware of how Jesus alone truly gives me what I long for… a satisfied heart!

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion

the claim that matters most

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24

 

This is a remarkable statement from Jesus. It is a claim that He makes that matters most to any person in the world. It states that a relationship with Him (obeying His word) is really belief in God the Father and leads to a new life and a new eternal destiny. He claims to be the only true path to spiritual peace (see also John 14:6), and this is very significant.

 

Jesus had just performed a miracle that had all of the Jewish authorities upset. He healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath and made a claim to use God’s power, asserting God’s preferences in the use of it (John 5:21). This was a clear demonstration of deity. He had physically renewed and enlivened this man on a day of rest and worship. And only God could do what they had just seen done, The scribes and Pharisees knew this. But they refused both to hear Jesus on the matter and to believe what they had just witnessed.

 

Jesus is the source of my life and my destiny is to always live with Him. It is a natural part of my life right now and is what eternity will be. The power of Christ that turned cripples into dancers, made the blind see the artistry of God’s world, brought music to deaf ears, and confronted the hard hearts of the religiously indifferent is at work in my heart and life forever! That is a pretty amazing experience… right now and forever.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion

The Well

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

 

I lower a dirty bucket

down way deep

into a hole in my heart

and I draw up dust that

clogs my throat

still thirsty… still parched

 

And I look for another

place to drink

flies buzzing in the air

but bothered and smothered

in a desert where

no water eases where I suffer

 

And then You, Jesus, met me

at my usual door to hell

and there you offered to me

eternal life from Your flowing well

I drank from there and knew eternity

 

And in me now

is eternal life knowing

so that in Christ I found

real satisfaction is growing

and heaven lives as I show

there my Savior is flowing… vibrant streams where fruit grows.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion

faith & obedience

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36

 

The New Testament does not separate obedience from faith. When it comes to following Jesus and believing in Jesus, both are necessary for true possession of eternal life. That fact is that obedience to the gospel necessarily follows faith in the gospel. We struggle always with the “correct” degree of obedience.

 

I prefer to let Jesus Himself settle the matter. It is not necessarily about who we associate with. He was the friend of sinners, yet He perfectly obeyed the Father. And it was religious legalists who only stayed in their own company who could not stand what Jesus did. So the obedience that was found in following Jesus was not rote legalism. It was a life committed to knowing Him. Those who followed Jesus in this way were transformed by Him.

 

So today, faith in Christ for forgiveness of sin is followed by a willing heart to follow Him. it is not about legalism. But it is always about a serious, life-changing, personal commitment. And the obedience that follows that follows is to Jesus, not human ideas or lists of Christian activities. Without that faith and obedience to the Son, no one will see life or forgiveness of sin. That is clear from this text. Real faith longs to obey and follow Jesus. False professions are not compelled to obey the voice of the Master.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion

Wine that showed God’s glory

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

John 2:11

 

This was the first miracle that anyone ever saw Jesus do. The people who really knew about what happened were Jesus’ disciples, His mother, and the servants at the marriage feast. And exactly what did Jesus do? He provided the wine for the party. Given current evangelical sensibilities, what would we have thought of this had we been there? What would we say if we heard that someone like Billy Graham showed up at a shindig bringing with him an ample supply of the best booze? This is sort of what happened at this event.

 

How did furnishing wine for partygoers show the glory of God in that culture? First, it revealed Jesus as the Creator God with control over the material world. He took a very simple chemical compound, water (H2O) and converted it to a complex, nuanced consumer item and organic compound. Wine ranking is notoriously nuanced and snobbish, but everyone agreed, this stuff was the best ever. So there was something of the artistry of God being displayed. And not once did Jesus need to touch the water to convert it over. He just created with control over the material world.

 

He was also seen as merciful in supplying joy to the people. In the Old Testament wine is symbolic of joy, not drunkeness (Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 3:10). Jesus provided joy, which is always an outcome of mercy. Wow!

 

The result of this first miracle was FAITH in Him. His first disciples believed in Him. They knew what had happened by him. What had they gotten themselves into?! This was no mere man, and this miracle proved it.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,religion

Springtime Nativity

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

 

This is John’s theological version of the Nativity story. It is about Incarnation. I think thoughts of Jesus entering this world just a few weeks removed from Holy Week reflections about His death and resurrection. But I am not limited to any strict liturgical church calendar guidelines when it comes to thinking about my Lord. And John’s gospel is good for breaking up the typical way of talking about Jesus (it was a purpose behind his writing). I can thin of the miracle of God come to us to redeem us at any time. Why not in spring, when the world is born again?

 

And I am filled with an awe. I remember the birth of both my children. How wonderful it is to hold a newborn (even though they are just little depraved sinners) and then to think of the perfect Son of God when He was a new arrival… God in a body, full of grace and truth! I find the thought alone just overwhelmingly beautiful!

 

So the wisdom of God’s plan of redemption is that it stirs us at this deep level. The Father’s glory touches my heart in the place where I am a father. That Jesus came at all is the greatest work that God has ever wrought into human history. I am proud of my kids and see them as my greatest work… how much more does the Father love the Son! That I have access to Him now by faith is the amazing privilege of being Christ’s disciple.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Discipleship,Religion