John 7
37 On the last day, the climax of the festival,
Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds,
“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!
38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!
For the Scriptures declare,
‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
39 (When he said “living water,”
he was speaking of the Spirit,
who would be given to everyone believing in him.
But the Spirit had not yet been given,
because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
John 6
1 After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”
8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
“There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
Like the old hymn says, "Little is much, when God is in it."
Psalm 77
1 I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
Oh, that God would listen to me!
2 When I was in deep trouble,
I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
but my soul was not comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan,
overwhelmed with longing for his help.
4 You don’t let me sleep.
I am too distressed even to pray!
5 I think of the good old days,
long since ended,
6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
7 Has the Lord rejected me forever?
Will he never again be kind to me?
8 Is his unfailing love gone forever?
Have his promises permanently failed?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
10 And I said, “This is my fate;
the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
12 They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
13 O God, your ways are holy.
Is there any god as mighty as you?
14 You are the God of great wonders!
You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
its waters looked and trembled!
The sea quaked to its very depths.
17 The clouds poured down rain;
the thunder rumbled in the sky.
Your arrows of lightning flashed.
18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
the lightning lit up the world!
The earth trembled and shook.
19 Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!
20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.
2 Timothy 3
1 You should know this, Timothy,
that in the last days there will be very difficult times.
2 For people will love only themselves and their money.
They will be boastful and proud,
scoffing at God,
disobedient to their parents,
and ungrateful.
They will consider nothing sacred.
3 They will be unloving and unforgiving;
they will slander others
and have no self-control.
They will be cruel
and hate what is good.
4 They will betray their friends,
be reckless,
be puffed up with pride,
and love pleasure
rather than God.
5 They will act religious,
but they will reject the power that could make them godly.
Stay away from people like that!
Hmmmmm... Paul describing us here in 2024?
This is last few verses of Jesus' interview with Nicodemus...
John3
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.
But anyone who does not believe in him
has already been judged
for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
19 And the judgment is based on this fact:
God’s light came into the world,
but people loved the darkness more than the light,
for their actions were evil.
20 All who do evil hate the light
and refuse to go near it
for fear their sins will be exposed.
21 But those who do what is right
come to the light
so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
2 Timothy 1
9 God saved us
and called us
to live a holy life.
He did this,
not because we deserved it,
but because that was his plan
from before the beginning of time;
to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
10 And now he has made all of this plain to us
by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
He broke the power of death
and illuminated the way to life and immortality
through the Good News.
1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
1 Timothy 5
24 Remember,
the sins of some people are obvious,
leading them to certain judgment.
But there are others
whose sins will not be revealed until later.
25 In the same way,
the good deeds of some people are obvious.
And the good deeds done in secret
will someday come to light.
I know some of you may wonder how I choose what I post.
Or what exactly is my agenda.
I have no agenda.
99% of the time, the things you read in my daily blog or in my story are passages I read that morning.
They are simply verses that seemed to stand out as I'm reading.
Some days I'm just as surprised as you may be that I chose to share them.
Part of it may stem from my desire to share what I consider to be the Word of God with people.
I think I've mentioned before that I believe we all should "read the Bible every day without fail" (RTBEDWF) 😁
But I really don't have an ax to grind with anything I share.
I think some days what turns out to be posted is pretty pertinent with whatever is going on in the world, but i didn't wake up searching for something to enhance my world view about something.
It's honestly just verses that I'm slated to read that morning in the general sequence of my reading.
I know y'all have been lying awake at night worrying about this, so I hope this give y'all some peace of mind. 😂
1 Timothy 4
1 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly
that in the last times
some will turn away from what we believe;
they will follow lying spirits
and teachings that come from demons.
2 These people are hypocrites and liars.
They pretend to be religious,
but their consciences are dead.
"lying spirits" ?
"teaching from demons" ?
"hypocrites" ?
"liars" ?
"pretend to be religious" ?
"consciences are dead" ?
Who do those phrases remind you of, right now?
yeah.....
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.
Luke 20
20 Watching for their opportunity,
the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men.
They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor
so he would arrest Jesus.
21 “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think.
You teach the way of God truthfully.
22 Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 He saw through their trickery and said,
24 “Show me a Roman coin.
Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
25 “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,
and give to God what belongs to God.”
26 So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent.
Luke 19
1 Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2 There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. 3 He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.
8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”
9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 And I, the Son of Man, came to seek and save those who are lost.”
Luke 18
15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus
so he could touch and bless them.
But when the disciples saw this,
they scolded the parents for bothering him.
16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples,
“Let the children come to me.
Don’t stop them!
For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.
17 I tell you the truth,
anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
We have such middle class attitudes about being "a servant of the Lord".
We have a success orientation to it - iow, if we're a servant of the Lord, we have a guarantee of success.
Uhm... most of the time we don't know if what we're being & doing is making an impact.
We also think God owes us an explanation as to why we're being or doing what He's told us to be or do.
Most of the time, there is no explanation.
Servants serve - they don't have input into the decision making process - we middle class Christians think God should make us a part of the process - that ain't gonna happen.
Servants have no rights - we obey.
Anyone who says in a quiet, wistful, sanguine voice, with their hand over their heart, "all I want to be is a servant of the Lord" has never been one.
Here's what Jesus said one time about the whole thing...
Luke 17
7 “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep,
does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’?
8 No,
he says,
‘Prepare my meal,
put on your apron,
and serve me while I eat.
Then you can eat later.’
9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do?
Of course not.
10 In the same way,
when you obey me you should say,
‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”
Over the years, I've read this parable.
I've never quite understood what Jesus was trying to say.
Can any of y'all offer an opinion as to what this is all about?
Luke 16
1 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’
7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’
8 “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”
1 Thessalonians 5
1 Tax collectors
and other notorious sinners
often came to listen to Jesus teach.
2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain
that he was associating with such despicable sinful people...
even eating with them!
Okay... think about these different things...
tax collectors were the BIG social pariahs of that day - they collaborated with the Romans (thought of as big time heathens & conquerors) & grew rich from overcharging the Jews.
I don't know what exactly the identity of "other notorious sinners" might have been, but we can use our imaginations...
These people usually had nothing to do with the religion or religious leaders of the time - all they got from them was vilifying condemnation.
So, these "despicable" people often came to hear Jesus speak.
I wonder what it was about Jesus that made these jaded sinful people WANT to hear what Jesus said?
And another thing... Jesus clearly wanted to be around these outcasts, because He hung out with them with such familiarity that He even ate with them - which drew a lot of emotional criticism from Jewish religious bigwigs.
And Jesus obviously did not care what the religious leaders thought or felt.
So, here's the obvious upshot from all this...
We claim to be followers of Jesus - does He so inhabit who we are that "notorious sinners" want to be around us?
And...
Has the Spirit that is Jesus become so much a part of the DNA of our personality that we WANT to be around these "despicable" folks?
If the truth be told, we're probably thinking that we're too holy to hang with sinful people like that.
And we want to keep our "witness" untarnished - people will think "birds of a feather..." kind of things about us.
Which begs the question that maybe we're more concerned about what our uber-holy friends might think if we're seen hanging with people of dubious character?
Yeah... think about all that...
Here's a moment of transparency...
A lot of the time, I'd prefer to hang out with "notorious sinners" than people who are so holy - the holy ones are usually just so cranky & no fun to be around...
Luke 14
25 A large crowd was following Jesus.
He turned around and said to them,
26 “If you want to be my disciple,
you must, by comparison, you must love me more than everyone else;
your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters;
yes, even your own life.
Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.
27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost.
For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?
29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money,
and then everyone would laugh at you.
30 They would say,
‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
31 “Or what king would go to war against another king
without first sitting down with his counselors
to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him?
32 And if he can’t,
he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace
while the enemy is still far away.
33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything.
(dan note: As my friend, Beth White, says, "Salvation is free - everything else costs you everything.)
Luke 13
18 Then Jesus said,
“What is the Kingdom of God like?
How can I illustrate it?
19 It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden;
it grows and becomes a tree,
and the birds make nests in its branches.”
This illustration is spot on.
I grew up on a small farm in southwestern Ohio.
My mother planted a large vegetable garden every year.
As a result, we had a wide variety of fresh veggies to eat.
I remember one year she planted mustard seeds to grow mustard greens for us to eat.
The seeds were impossibly small - about the size of the head of a straight pin.
There were a few of the plants at the end of a row that my mom didn't harvest for us to eat.
She was going to save the seed for next year's planting.
The plant that grew from that teeny-tiny seed was taller than me - probably between 5' & 6' tall!
Sometimes, if we were out weeding in the garden & got hot, we'd sit under the mustard tree in the shade.
Small birds liked landing on it's limbs, & the birds would eat the seeds.
There were LOTS of seeds - plenty for next year & for the birds to eat.
Every time i read these 2 verses, I think about those mustard plants & how big they grew...
20 He also asked,
“What else is the Kingdom of God like?
21 It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread.
Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour,
it permeated every part of the dough.”
I remember when I was a child having large family get togethers with my mom's side of the family at my grandparents house in the country.
We'd sometimes be there the day before.
I remember my grandmother & my mom baking bread for the get together.
They would have all these large bowls full of flour & they'd put these teeny tiny packets of yeast in them.
And ya know, that yeast spread throughout all that dough!
I always found that to be interesting.
We'd have all these BIG bowls of dough rising up & almost spilling over.
I remember how wonderful the kitchen & dining area smelled with all that rising dough...
And when my grandma would bake all that dough...
Oh my... what a glorious way the whole house smelled...
Luke 12
22 Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said,
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life;
whether you have enough food to eat
or enough clothes to wear.
23 For life is more than food,
and your body more than clothing.
24 Look at the ravens.
They don’t plant
or harvest
or store food in barns,
for God feeds them.
And you are far more valuable to him than any birds!
25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
26 And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that,
what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
27 “Look at the lilies and how they grow.
They don’t work or make their clothing,
yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
28 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers
that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow,
he will certainly care for you.
Why do you have so little faith?
29 “And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink.
Don’t worry about such things.
30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world,
but your Father already knows your needs.
31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,
and he will give you everything you need.
32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock.
For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
33 “Sell your possessions
and give to those in need.
This will store up treasure for you in heaven!
And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes.
Your treasure will be safe;
no thief can steal it
and no moth can destroy it.
34 Wherever your treasure is,
there the desires of your heart will also be.
