This Christmas

http://eisakouo.com

Does Christmas ever feel like a burden to you?

It sometimes does to me.

I was looking up "inspirational" quotes about burdens and I found this one several ways:


http://www.iwantcovers.com

I'm not sure this is right. I think maybe it should be: "Don't ask for a lighter burden; ask for GOD'S HELP to carry the one you have."

Remember: "The government shall be upon His shoulder." (Isaiah 9:6)

"You are tired, and driven, and worried, and weak, and ill, and depressed, because you have been trying to carry the government upon your own shoulder; the burden is too much for you, and you have broken down under it." (Quote from Power to Constructive Thinking by Emmet Fox:)

Lord, during this busy Christmas season, help us to leave the government of our lives up to You.

I want to be first in line

...Don't you?

I think we all want to be first in line, at least to some degree.

Last night a water main broke on the military post where I live, and we received notice that we should "conserve water" because it was going to "run out" by evening.

(image from atiqahuda.blogspot.com)

This made me want to run to the shower and get myself clean before someone else took all the water.

I didn't do it, but that was my first instinct. (In fact, I STILL haven't showered. Don't stand too close to me today.)

We all want to be first.

When I was in kindergarten, I learned this Bible verse at church: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35 ) I was impressed by this bit of wisdom.

So I decided to apply this verse to my life at school. While the other kids were fighting over who would be Line Leader before lunch, I positioned myself at the very back of the line.

(image from www.huffingtonpost.com)

Then after lunch, lo and behold, THE TEACHER TURNED THE LINE AROUND.

I was first!

I was very pleased how this bit of Bible teaching had worked out so well.

Of course, the result was that I now had competition for last place as well. You can't win in this world, I tell you.

But of course, I was missing the point. If I had truly been placing myself last, I wouldn't want to be first at all!

This is a hard teaching to live out. Even the disciples had a problem with it. We all remember how they argued over who would be first in the kingdom, and jockeyed for positions closer to Jesus' right hand. It's in our human nature.

We all want to be first.

But Jesus calls us to live beyond ourselves... and put HIM first.

Matthew 20:25-28
25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Lord help me to follow You instead of striving to be first.

I guess I don't have it figured out after all

Difficult Passages in the Bible

There are some Scriptures I don't particularly care for.

Is is wrong of me to say that? Maybe, but I'll bet I'm not alone.

Seriously though, some Bible verses, IN PARTICULAR some of the sayings of Jesus Himself, are hard to understand. And even harder to accept if you do understand them.

Here's an example:

Luke 17:7-10

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Okay. I don't like this.

I mean, is Jesus saying that when the servant comes in all sweaty and tired from the fields, he doesn't even deserve DINNER?! Not to mention a "thank you." Sheesh.

This is problematic. Especially if I'm the servant in question, because I'm tired. And thirsty. And hungry.

But a friend in my Sunday School class pointed out another way to look at this.

Rather than a denial of the servant's reward for his service, maybe Jesus meant this as an admonition against false pride.

After all, He tells us many times in the gospels that a reward awaits us in heaven, and that we we will receive rest and sustenance from Him. (Matt 16:27, Mark 9:41, Matt 11:28)

But He also says to be on guard against trusting in our own righteousness, and not to do our good deeds expecting a reward. (Matt 6:1, Luke 6:35)

So this passage tells us: Don't look for recognition when you're doing what you're supposed to do. Don't trumpet yourselves about saying, "Look at me! I help the less fortunate! I give to the needy!"

Lord, help me to remember that when I am serving others, I am only doing what I was made to do. Help me to seek no reward but Yours.

I Blame the Snake

A little story for today:

I was watching the kids' group once at church. As we were walking back from the playground the kids went past the restrooms, and most of them went inside. I proceeded to the classroom to wait for them. 

From the hall I heard a collective scream as a boy named Dominic came into the room with me, grinning a little.

"Quentin just went in the girls' bathroom," he informed me.

A moment later, Quentin came in, looking harassed. "Dominic pushed me into the girls' bathroom!" he complained.

I'm sharing this story because it was funny. Also because it's slightly relevant to the topic I wanted to write about:

In the beginning there was blame.

As soon as sin entered the world, invited and aided by Eve and Adam, so did blaming others.

Adam: Uh.. It's Eve's fault!
Eve: Uh... It's the snake's fault!
Snake: Who, me?!

We as humans love to shift the blame for any and everything onto someone else.

And truthfully, you CAN often find someone at the bottom of it all who was To Blame. (Snake, this means YOU!) But is it productive to blame others all the time instead of taking responsibility for our own actions?

Whenever Jesus was approached by someone trying to push blame on another person, (Matthew 15:1-6, Luke 12:13-15, etc.) He always shifted the person's focus back to themselves. "What does the law say?" He would ask. "What does the Lord tell YOU to do?"

Matthew 7: 3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Lord, help me to remember not to blame others for what happens, but to look to my own responsibilities. After all, I am the only person whose actions I can control.

But I JUST washed up!

Have you ever just finished washing up after dinner, finally jamming every single dish that you can into the dishwasher and switching it on? And then, before you can even enjoy looking at the clean and empty sink, one of the kids brings up more dirty dishes?

Maybe it's just me, but I find that extremely frustrating.

Even worse is the kid who complains of being hungry right after you've finished putting everything away and wants to open up some more food and dirty up some more plates.

I tend to start yelling. ACK! STOP! I just washed that!

I mean, the LAST thing I want to see at the end of a long day is more stuff to wash!

Did you realize this actually happened to the disciples?

Luke 5:1-11:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

the people were crowding around him and 

listening to the word of God. 

2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, 

left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 

3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, 

and asked him to put out a little from shore. 

Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 

“Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night 

and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, 

I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so,they caught such a large number 

of fish that their nets began to break. 

7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat 

to come and help them, and they came 

and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees 

and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 

9 For he and all his companions were astonished 

at the catch of fish they had taken, 

10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 

Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, 

“Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 

11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

I never noticed this before, but Peter and his partners were done fishing for the day. They had already washed up their nets and were ready to head inside for the day.

But here was Jesus, asking them to get the nets all dirty again!

I can understand why Peter said, "But we've fished all night! And we haven't caught ANYTHING!" They were tired, and the LAST thing they wanted to do was more work.

Amazingly, though, Peter had the faith to say, "But because You say so, Lord, I will let down the nets." And look how he was rewarded!

Lord help me to have the faith to see Your rewards in the midst of my weariness.

The Broken Branch

A few weeks ago I was picking some plumeria blossoms for the ladies in my hula group to wear in their hair.

(Wow. What a Hawaii-specific sentence that just was.)

All the flowers were pretty high up so I had to pull the limbs down towards myself to reach them, and I ended up accidentally pulling off one whole branch. Whoops.

So I took it home. At home I pulled off the flowers I wanted and thought about making some sort of arrangement with the remaining branch and leaves.

Then I noticed it was swarming with ants, so instead I screamed and threw the whole thing into the backyard.

Except the flowers, of course. I just rinsed the bugs off those so we could still wear them in our hair. (Shh... Don't tell my hula sisters.)

Anyways, I forgot about the branch until I was in the backyard with the twins and noticed it still blooming. I  was surprised, because I knew it had been a while since I'd tossed it back there.

I counted back to remember when my halau had danced.

(A halau is a hula dance group. See how you learn something new every day?)

I realized it had been more than two weeks since that branch had broken off the tree. But that thing was still industriously blooming away! I guess it was drawing from the sap it had stored and the buds it had already made.

But of course, I knew it wasn't going to last, separated from the tree like that. It was only a matter of time before that branch withered and died.

In fact, the branch was dead already; it just didn't know it yet. It had died the minute it broke from the tree.

That branch was in denial. Although it was still working hard to bear its beautiful blossoms, all its effort was wasted while it was apart from the tree. It was busy busy busy, and it appeared from the outside to be healthy, but inside it was dead already.

Have you ever met any people like that?

Have you ever been a person like that? I have.

John 15:5 (Jesus said,) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."

Lord, help me to stay connected to You, the true vine, and not spin my wheels trying to perform through my own efforts. Amen.

A Thorny Issue

Sometimes an incident happens that reveals your own heart. (Hint: often not in a good way.) Here is how I saw mine:

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from the women's Bible study I attend at the military chapel came to visit the church I attend off-post. This woman is someone I like and respect very much, and so I hoped my church would make a good impression on her.

Things were going along fine as we moved through announcements, and the opening song, and passing-the-peace, et cetera. Then a young woman got up to dance during the offering.


"Thorny Issue" by Sara Wright
(image from speedwaydailyphoto.blogspot.com)

As I heard the opening strains of the song she was performing to, I froze. "When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay..."

This is the beginning of a rap song by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis called "Same Love." It's basically about being accepting of people who are gay.

And it turned out that was the topic of the sermon for the day as well.

Wow. Talk about controversial!!

Now, I'm going off on a little tangent here: I was raised to believe that it is a sin to practice homosexuality. And as far as I can tell, that is what the Bible teaches. But truthfully, I'll be the first to admit I don't understand everything in the Bible, and that many things can be open to interpretation. This one of those tough issues that I don't know what to do with.

In any case, I know that Jesus himself was the first one to embrace the sinner. (Matthew 9:11-13; Mark 2: 15-17)  And the Bible also says it is a sin to hate your brother in your heart, (Matthew 5:22) and that you should love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39, Leviticus 19:18 ).

So the bottom line is, I DO believe in being accepting of people who are gay.

I DO believe that God loves us all equally, and that he wants us to love each other as well.

But, sitting there in church, I realized that I'm not quite as loving-my-neighbor as I should be.

To be honest, I was more worried about what my respectable friend thought about ME than about what Jesus wanted me to do.

That sounds ugly, doesn't it?

Pride is not a pretty thing.

After church my friend left as quickly as she could. She did not speak to me. I knew she had probably been offended.

I started to wonder if maybe I should have been offended as well. Maybe we should be taking a harder stance on sin, and we shouldn't be so let's-love-everyone-because-we're-all-sinners. Was my church wrong? Was I wrong?

I thought about this all day, and during the night I got up and prayed. I read several Bible verses, which I'll detail below if you're interested, and wrote down the conclusion I came to:

"I have been wrestling with a certain issue,

and I have learned that I don't have the answer.

This is quite unsatisfactory to me. I prefer to have all the answers.

But I am not God. Must I really be reminded of that? I am not God.

I don't understand everything, and I'm not going to.

(Job 38:4) Where was I when He laid the foundations of the earth?

I was nowhere. I was nothing.

God is God and there is no other.

He has shown me the path I am to walk, (Micah 6:8)

to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him.

Why am I looking around at the paths of others?

The Lord has called me to pray for others, (Romans 8:26)

and the Spirit will help me in my weakness.

But He has not called me to stand in judgment over anyone or anything.

There may be those who are called to this; I don't know.

But it's not for me. I will trust in Him alone."

(Besides the Scriptures named above, I also read Isaiah 54:10-13, Luke 7:36-50, and Job 42:1-10.)

I think the clear message I received was to obey what God has shown me to do, and STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING AND THINKING.

This is easier said than done, Lord. Help me to follow You.

The Anti-Fruit

What is the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit? (The Anti-Fruit, if you will.)

You know in Galatians 5 Paul lists both the works of the flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit.

But are the works of the flesh the opposite of the Fruits? As he says, the works of the flesh are OBVIOUS:
1. Adultery
2. Fornication
3. Uncleanness
4. Lewdness
5. Idolatry
6. Sorcery
7. Hatred
8. Contentions
9. Jealousies
10. Outbursts of wrath
11. Selfish ambitions
12. Dissensions
13. Heresies
14. Envy
15. Murders
16. Drunkenness
17. Revelries
(and the like)

These are the things we humans do, all on our own. BAD things.

But the Fruits of the Spirit are what the Spirit of God can produce through us:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Gentleness
7. Faithfuless
8. Goodness
9. Self-Control

So when I look at List #1 versus List #2, I feel pretty okay. I mean, I may not have the second list down, but at least I'm not all over that first list.

You won't catch me (lewdly) half-nekkid and falling-down drunk on reality TV. Or casting spells and whatnot. I'm not committing adultery or murdering anyone. I'm pretty clean. I don't even hate anybody! Whew!

Still though... I notice jealousies AND envy are on the list there, along with (gulp) selfish ambition. I might sometimes have a little problem with those... you know, internally. Not so anyone would notice.

But, I figure those aren't the worst sins on the list, right? I mean, which of the BAD things does Paul caution against the most here?

Here's the last verse of Galatians chapter 5:

 ²⁶ "Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

Wait a minute... Did he just bring up jealousy and selfishness AGAIN? AFTER the list of the fruits?

Maybe Paul is trying to tell us something.

The works of the flesh are obvious and outward, but the fruit of the Spirit comes from within.

So the opposite of the good fruit from the Spirit, is the bad fruit: the Anti-Fruit. And it's also from within. It's just like fruit sometimes goes bad from inside without showing any signs on the surface.

So the little sins that no one sees: envy, self-centeredness, and the like, are the rottenness that threatens to rob our lives of the Spirit's true fruit, eating away at us from the inside.

Ewwww:

(image from tumblr.com)

Lord, help me to guard against the trap of unconfessed sin, the enemy of Your fruit in my life.

The Church, The Homeless, and Jesus

Maybe you've seen this photo circulating on facebook with a story about a pastor masquerading as homeless man and being rejected by his church. I have seen it several times recently.

First off, this story is MADE UP.

Also the photo is an art shot of a REAL homeless guy, being used without the photographer's permission.

(Photo credit to Brad J. Gerrard, for what it's worth.)

Still, it makes you think. What do we, both as individuals and collectively as The Church do about the homeless?

The short answer is: We do what we can to help. But this can be discouraging.

I was talking to a friend yesterday who told me about a homeless man, an addict, who had been a regular attender at their church. She said the church had helped him get a place to live, a car and a job, and that he had faithfully stayed sober for nearly two years, coming to church every Sunday. Then he stopped coming. My friend recently saw him downtown, back on the street, obviously "off the wagon." She spoke to him and he seemed pleased to see her. She was glad he was still alive but discouraged that he hadn't managed to "go straight." She wondered what more the church could have done to help him.

This reminded me of a similar story that had played out at my church, years ago in another state. We'd had many homeless people in and out of the church doors and given them various levels of assistance, but mostly just food and clothes. But there was one man the church considered a real success. He'd been clean and sober several years; he had an apartment and a steady job (as a janitor for the church); he was doing really well. Then he started drinking again. Eventually he lost the job, the apartment, all of it. He drifted away from us. We shook our collective heads, thinking we'd given him every chance. We wondered why some people just can't help themselves.

I don't have the answer to this question. The truth is that addiction, homelessness, and poverty in general are sometimes just too big for anyone to handle.

In Matthew 26:11a, Jesus says, "For you have the poor with you always."

Sometimes people quote this verse as an excuse to do nothing for the poor. After all, even Jesus said the problem will never be solved! So why bother, right? Isn't that what these stories of people who "can't be helped" teach us?

Um. No.

I don't think He meant it that way at all. Maybe He meant we will always have endless opportunties to help the poor, not to "fix" them, whatever that means, but simply to serve them, and to show them compassion.

After all, we love because He first loved us, and we have compassion only because He first extended compassion to us.

Psalm 103: 13-18

¹³ The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
¹⁴ For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
¹⁵ Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
¹⁶ The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
¹⁷ But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
¹⁸ of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!

 

We serve a God who remembers that we are dust, and loves us anyways. What can we do, but love our fellow creatures with the same open heart?

 

No one said this was easy, by the way. In fact, it's impossible.

 

But God is in the business of doing the impossible, of saving the unsavable, and fixing the unfixable. We can only trust Him.

 

Matthew 19:25b-26

[The Disciples] said, ‘Then who can be saved?’  But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’

The Weight of the Word

At the airport, my suitcase was six pounds over the limit. The man suggested I remove some heavy items.

I pulled out my Bible and devotional book, figuring those were the weightiest things I own.

Amazingly, the suitcase was then perfectly acceptable.

Who knew God's Word was so very heavy?

He did not come to save the righteous. Why not?

^{"Jesus eats with Publicans and Sinners" by Alexandre Bida from  http://www.gci.org}

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house,

that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came

and sat down with Him and His disciples.

¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples,

“Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them,

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’

For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Matthew 9:10-13

Wait a sec there, Jesus... Aren't we all sinners? That's how I always heard it.

"There is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10)

So these Pharisees were not actually "the righteous," were they? So why did He call them that?

Here's another passage that throws some light on that subject, I think. This takes place after Jesus heals the man born blind from birth (my favorite miracle, by the way) in John chapter 9.

The man born blind was excommunicated by the Pharisees for professing faith in Jesus. Then he meets Jesus Himself again, and the following conversation takes place:

³⁸ Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.

³⁹ And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world,

that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

⁴⁰ Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words,

and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”

⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin;

but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains."

 

So the Pharisees were, in fact, the opposite of righteous. And what made them so, was the fact that they were so very sure of their righteousness.

 

That's what I think Jesus was pointing out, by using the term "The Rightoeus" ironically. 

 

He did not come to call those who believed in their own righteousness, but those who admit their sinfulness and accept His grace.

 

Oh Lord I want to be in that number....

Why can't we all just get along?

Sibling Love/ Rivilary Photo Feb 2010

I have boy/girl twins that are four years old now. They have been together all their lives and they love each other.

They also fight like crazy. Why?

Because they want different things at the same time. Or because they want the same things at the same time. Or because they want the same things at different times. Or because.... I think you get the idea.

In short, they want what they want when they want it, regardless of the other person.

Little Boy has recently become obsessed with playing Mario. The problem is that this game takes up our only TV, which everyone else wants to watch. So we have to take turns.

When the timer goes off, signalling the end of his turn and the beginning of his sister's turn, Little Boy goes into meltdown mode. He curls into a fetal position on the couch over the TV remote, sheilding the controller with his body from all invaders and screaming, "No! No! No!"

As I peel his limbs slowly from the remote control, explaining as patiently as I can that his turn is over, he sobs piteously, "But I want it to always be my turn!"

Isn't that just like a human being? We all want it to always be our turn. We want what we want when we want it.

And that's why we can't get along.

That is why there is no peace in the world, and no unity in the church. But this is not how God wants us to be.

So what is God's plan for us?

Ephesians 3:6
And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.

You can imagine the Jews of the first century saying indignantly, "What? We're supposed to share with the Gentiles? But I thought we were the chosen people! I thought it was OUR TURN!!! Why would He do this?!"

Ephesians 3:10
God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 

So it is His will that we display unity and love to all our brothers and sisters.

And even let them have turn sometimes...

Moses the Unqualified

http://www.reverendfun.com

Did you know Moses argued with God about his calling? As my friend Alyce pointed out, "That wasn't in the movie!"

But the real Moses protested mightily when confronted with the burning bush and God's command to free the Hebrew people from slavery.

Moses insisted on bringing his brother Aaron with him as kind of a crutch. And God allowed him to do so, even though He knew Moses was perfectly capable of doing the task on his own.

(See Exodus 3 and 4 for Moses' long argument with God.)

Here's the thing I take away from that: God doesn't force us to do anything.

We have all heard this: If He calls us, He will equip us to do what He has called us for. (See Eph 4:11)

Moses was already equipped to accomplish the task that God had set before him. But Moses wasn't so sure about it, and came up with all kinds of reasons why he thought the Lord should really send someone else.

Finally God said, "FINE!! Aaron can go with you! OKAY?!?!" Even though Aaron didn't really do anything, (and by the time of the exodus, he had nearly faded into the background while Moses did everything himself the way he had been called to) God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses just to make Moses feel better.

What this shows me is: God will do whatever it takes to assure us that He has equipped us. Including something like send a brother to tag along and hold the stick for us, if we need it.

Romans 2:4a "Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? "

What can we learn from the calling of the disciples?

"Come and See"  by Liz Lemon Swindle

 (image from lizlemonswindle)

 

When reading about the calling of the dicisples in the gospel of John, I noticed that John's account was different from the other gospel writers.

 

Which is not unusual for our boy John. He certainly had his own perspective.

 

 Anyways it led me off on a chase through the other Gospels to see how the same subject was presented there, and to ask myself what we can learn from this.

First, let's read: John 1: 35-50

 

The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples.

³⁶ As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared,

“Look! There is the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

 ³⁸ Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?”

He asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”),

“where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come and see,” He said.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went

with Him to the place where He was staying, a

nd they remained with Him the rest of the day.

 ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men

who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

⁴¹ Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “

We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).

 ⁴² Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon,

Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas”

(which means “Peter”). ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.”

⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

 ⁴⁵ Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him,

“We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about!

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

 ⁴⁶ “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

 ⁴⁷ As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—

a man of complete integrity.” ⁴⁸ “How do You know about me?”

 Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you

under the fig tree before Philip found you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael exclaimed,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

 ⁵⁰ Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because

I told you I had seen you under the fig tree?

You will see greater things than this.”

Okay, two things: First of all, even though it was a big tangent to research all the disciples and what order they were called in, I think it is important. The three synoptic gospels list the two sets of brothers as called at the same time, from their boats. But John tells it a little differently, and he’s the one who was there, after all!

It’s a seemingly unimportant distinction, who was first and who brought whom, but to the people involved it is incredibly important. So…

If Andrew and John had not been hanging around listening to John the Baptist (I’m assuming the “other disciple” referred to is John himself, as that’s the way he usually tells things) they would not have gone after Jesus and then subsequently brought their brothers Peter and James respectively.

I think the application here is to share Jesus with those closet to you, and indeed with everyone. You never know who could be really crucial to the Kingdom, as we know Simon Peter was.

The second thing: Both Andrew and Nathaniel (sometimes called Bartholomew) confess Jesus as the Christ immediately.

Indeed, everyone who meets Him either embraces and follows, or else turns and rejects. Jesus inspires action!

But these same men who believed so readily and followed so quickly were not able to sustain that faith at the same level throughout the Gospels.

After all, there are many accounts of Jesus shaking his head over “ye of little faith.” And at the foot of the cross, how many of the twelve were there with the women? Only one.

The fact is, they believed and doubted by turns, just as we do. This is part of being human, I think.

Jesus accepted both their faith and their moments of unbelief, and He redeemed their works, good and bad. We do not have to have perfect faith to follow Christ; we only need wiling hearts.

We trust Him to do the rest.

Hagar

"Hagar and Ishmael" by Enrico Fanfani

image from www.1st-art-gallery.com

God is recorded to have spoken to a relative few people in the Bible.

And let's be honest. Most of them were men. But there have been times when He revealed Himself to a woman. This was usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

In the book of Genesis, God spoke to a woman three times. (One was Rebekah.) Two of those times were to the same woman: Hagar.

Who was Hagar? She was an Egyptian, a foreign slave of Abraham's. In short, she was nobody.

But God spoke to her in Genesis chapter 16, and in chapter 21.

Why?

Both times He came to her in a time of great distress and reassured her of His presence with her. In fact, Hagar herself said, "God sees me," in Genesis 16:13.

He saw her, Hagar, an obscure slave woman who wasn't even one of His chosen people.

This is just a reminder to me that He sees us all, even the seemingly unimportant.

Also that He chooses whom He chooses for His own reasons. Any person I meet could be someone God has chosen for great and mighty things. Or someone He's chosen for little-bitty things that will someday have great importance.

No one can fathom His plan or understand their own part in it.

Leaving the 99

My kids have a book about the parable of the lost sheep called "The Lost and Found Lamb."

It's a lift-the-flaps book, and they love lift-the flaps books because such books take longer to read and delay bedtime more.

Also, this book has a nice message about how Jesus seeks the lost, in keeping with the original parable, found in Matthew 18:12-14.

 (Image from http://www.amazon.com)

¹² “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! ¹⁴ In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish."

Still, I've always had a little trouble with this parable, because of the 99 sheep that get left behind in it. Who's watching over them?

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this, as I recently read the following devotional essay:

"I don’t know about you, but when I think about the practical aspects of the parable of the lost sheep, I don’t understand it. Why would the shepherd leave 99 sheep unprotected just to look for one that was lost? Wouldn’t some of those 99 sheep wander off or even be attacked and killed by wild animals? Going after one sheep is simply not a practical solution to the problem. It seems to be a bad business decision. But ultimately, I don’t think this parable is intended as a practical solution to an everyday problem. I see it more as a description of the radical love that abounds in the kingdom of heaven. God loves us with such reckless abandon that God will ignore practicality in order to find us and bring us home. That’s astounding love."

(From "The Upper Room" devotional dated 22Jan 2013 by Doug Rolls.)

I like the way this author puts things. A parable is a parable and not meant to be taken literally. The story is simply a demonstration of how much God loves and cares for us, and how far He will go to bring us home. And the answer is: As far as He can! And there is no end to Him.

Besides, being infinite and omnipresent and all of that, He never leaves the 99 at all.

Astounding indeed!