Category: Uncategorized

John chapter 6 is 71 verses filled with many truths that are vital to our daily Christian walk. In this chapter, Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 (possibly up to 20,000, since only the men are counted), He walks on water, and He discusses being the “Bread of Life”.

I would like to focus on verse 15:
“Jesus saw that they were ready to take him by force and make him king, so he went higher into the hills alone.”

After the people had seen Jesus heal the lame man in Chapter 5 and then here in Chapter 6, see Him feed the 5000+ from 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, they wanted to follow Him. The people were enamored by the miraculous things they saw Him do. They were amazed because they thought He could be useful to them also. He could heal their diseases, feed them, and provide for what they might need.
Is this what we see Jesus for in our life?
Do we follow Him and pray prayers for what we think we need and what He can provide?
The people were focused on what Jesus could provide, not that He was the creator of these miracles. The people were so impressed with Jesus and what He could do for them that they wanted to make Him King.

With all this excitement and people following Him, Jesus needed some time away from the crowds, so He went up into the mountains alone. He has been separated from His Father whom He longs to fellowship with. Can you imagine being the Son of God, yet physically separated from God, your Father?
I have been separated from my husband for the past two weeks as He is in China on a work trip. I have longed for the sound of His voice and his help and encouragement while he is gone. Jesus must have felt this longing x100 when He went to be alone with God. Sometimes we forget that Jesus suffered weariness just as we do. He was able to slip away from this huge crowd that wanted His miracles and be with His Father.

Do we take the time to escape all the business of our day to spend time with the Father? Do we get alone with Him and thank Him for our blessings and ask Him to direct our paths according to His wisdom? Or, are we like the followers in this passage and follow Him to get what we think we need and want?

Let us Love Jesus for Who He Is…The Christ that came to die on the cross for our sins. He came so that we might have life. All He asks is that we BELIEVE. Verse 29 says, Jesus told them, “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he has sent.”

Do we use Him for what He can provide us or do we LOVE Him?

Today’s reading:  John 5

John chapter 5 has been an interesting, and convicting study for me this week.  In this chapter, Jesus makes a very direct claim of who he is and the authority he has been given by his father.

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.   Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him” (John 5:19-23 New International Version).

Jesus’ words in verses 19-23 (above) are in response to the Jewish leaders who were challenging his authority.  But they are also life changing to us today.  I don’t think we can passively read these verses.  Jesus isn’t saying he a rabbi, a teacher, or just a good man.  His claims are way more significant than that.  He calls God his own Father AND he asserts equality with him.   How do you react to this?  What are you personally doing with these verses?  Do you believe Jesus is who he says he is?  Do you believe he is the way?  Read the second half of verse 23 again –

“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him” (John 5:19-23 New International Version).

How long have you been reading our Bible Journal blog?  May I probe a little more and ask why?  Why are you are reading the Bible Journal?  What are doing with messages that our team faithfully posts every day?  It is my prayer that you are following the Bible Journal in order to better know Jesus Christ and faithfully him; that you are using it as a tool to help change your heart to look like his.

Learning more about the Bible and what it says is important.  Ephesians 4:14 tells us knowing God’s word helps us guard against false teaching.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14).  But, if we simply use our knowledge of the Bible to puff ourselves up, we are just like the Jewish leaders in John 5.  You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.  These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39-40).  

Knowing the Bible doesn’t glorify God.  Knowing the scriptures isn’t the same as loving Jesus.  The more we study God’s word, the more acutely aware of our sins we should become.  Thus, our gratitude and love for Jesus should be growing everyday.  It is only through him that we have a way to God.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Today, would you evaluate your motives?  If you need to, would you ask God to change your heart?

Take a minute to re-read Luke 24:13-35, paying attention to the loss of hope that the Christ-followers were experiencing.  I believe that their experience is not unique

We go through life with our eyes closed.  It’s our attempt to shield ourselves from the pain, from anything that might steal our hope.  When we engage in conversations about it, the longing for a full life again arises.  Our hearts burn for it.  Yet, we fail recognize life because we are focused only on death.  We look for what might help us overcome the darkness.  Money, power, fame, sex.  We will try anything.  Nothing works.  It doesn’t work because the leap from death to life is not about what, it’s about who.   Many of us figured that out a long time ago.  Unfortunately, our current circumstances have us again wandering in the dark, living in despair.

What will cause us to remember hope?  How can we recall the hope that we once carried, the hope that we chose in submission through baptism?  We must again remember death.  Jesus death, specifically.  This is the death that restores life.  Nothing else can.  Will you join me today in remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made for us?  The followers in today’s story remembered Life when Jesus broke bread with them.   We now call it communion.  Jesus promises that he will honor our attempt to remember.  We will recognize that we have a savior and salvation is ours.  Life.

By this point in Jesus ministry the Jewish leaders feel so threatened and afraid of Him that they seem to be spending all their time watching Him, waiting for Him to slip up, and seeking out ways to entrap Him. They want Him out of their hair and seem to be willing to try just about anything they think they can get away with, without getting found out by the people.

In the first 8 verses of this chapter, the leaders go to Jesus and try to trap Him by asking where He gets His power. So Jesus responds with a question about John the Baptist’s power. They have to pull over to the side to confer. As they talk they realize that they are stuck so they go back to Him and say, we don’t know. I laughed out loud when I read Jesus response to their lame answer. “Okay, then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”

In verses 9-19 Jesus tells the people (along with the Jewish leaders) about a farmer who plants a vineyard and leases it to some farmers to manage while He is out of the country. Turns out that this story is calling out the Jewish leaders for rejecting God’s gift of Jesus, which made way for Gentiles and outcasts to be accepted into God’s Kingdom while Jews who refused Jesus would not be added.

The rest of the chapter is filled with discussions about paying taxes, Jewish law around marriage and who will be married to whom in heaven, and questions about how the Messiah can be David’s son. So much trickery, scheming, planning and trapping…why? The Jewish leaders were powerful. Their power and celebrity caused them to become filled with greed and pride. They craved attention, prominence, and more money. Jesus threatened the good things they had going in life and they weren’t about to lose their benefits by being replaced by Him.

Before I am tempted to rant about their stupidity and the lies they told themselves and each other to continue pursuing the end of Jesus, lets back up and look at that list again. They craved power, attention, prominence and more money. I’m trying to let those words soak into my mind. I’m trying to be honest with myself about how motivated I am by the prospect of more power, attention, prominence and money. Stings a little this time around, right? I think we have to be honest and realize that this list is our human nature. On some level every one of us, at one time or another (or every day) is tempted to wish and strive for at least one of these. So how do we rearrange our minds and fill our hearts with the desire to be different than our human nature? We have to look at what motivates Jesus. The answer is simple but more powerful and meaningful than I can express. It’s His love for us. He loves us so deeply that He desires relationship with each one of us. Since we are unable to be good enough to be in His perfect presents, He gave His life to pay the price for us missing the mark. By the gift of His life, we are washed clean and able to have relationship with God. This is a different kind of nature than I have. While I cannot fully understand this kind of love and I certainly am not capable of replicating it, He offers to change me. He is willing to help me be motivated by His love for me instead of my old desires.