Happy Easter to each of you! We said that to our checker at the grocery store here at Seabrook Island, South Carolina, and she wished us a happy visit from the Easter bunny. We thanked her and with a nice smile on my face, I pointed my finger upward and mentioned the One who is Risen from the dead! And she smiled back agreeing and affirming that that’s her hope for Easter Sunday, hope in the Risen Jesus Christ! So, leaving the poor old Easter bunny aside, not eating any more chocolate than I have to, not cracking too many festively colored eggs, not combing the stores tomorrow for half-price baskets and Peeps and all that other stuff that make the holiday fun but hidden as to the real meaning. If the ungodly in our society can’t kill the holiday (‘holy day’), at least they’ll make it fun! Not to be a party-pooper, all these things are good times especially when shared with children. Just don’t stop there. Get back to the basics–of what it’s all about. Jesus has been crucified, he died and was buried. But now…and this is huge…now He is ALIVE!, He can be seen, He can even walk through locked doors. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Victory in Jesus! Look back at Matthew 28:6 and did you notice what the angel told the two women at Jesus’ tomb–“He is not here; He has risen, just as He said’. ‘Just as He said’–did you hear those Easter words? In other words, Jesus means what He says. He’s a man of His word. What He says you can count on. Take Him at His word. What was the angel referring to that Jesus had said? One place in particular is Matthew 16: 21–‘From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Just as He said…now here’s a challenge to you and me–to put His Word into our hearts, to hear His Word as we encounter all the ups-and-downs of life, for Jesus to help us just when we think that death has won out. NO, He is risen,Just as He said! And where can we hear His word? To put securely into our minds and hearts for when we need them most? You know where…it’s still the greatest story ever told! The Bible…God’s Word…For all it’s Worth…in our hearts and minds. And it’s the Living Word of not just anybody but of God Himself! Happy Easter…Just as He said!
Author Archives: revjaf
WHOSE FRIEND ANYWAY? Read John 15:9-17
‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’…and what a great, old hymn. I love to sing it and whistle it too–much to my poor wife’s consternation! Reading this section of John 15, you can hear the love and the joy and the friendship in the marrow of Jesus’ words to His followers, to those in His day, and also to us today. ‘You are my friends…’ (verse 14) and ‘…I have called you friends…'(verse 15)–read those verses and put your name in the place of the personal pronoun. You…by name…are God’s friend, the personal friend of Jesus, the Risen Lord! Can you let that sink in a bit this Easter weekend? Meditate upon it. Say the words slowly. Feel their meaning. Stop…and ponder. As I was reflecting of these verses, and especially on the thought of Jesus being my friend, another thought entered my mind. Jesus said that ‘you are my friends’…not, I am your friend. Now, certainly He is our friend, the best one of all, ever. Of course He is. But, I was thinking about another way of looking at that–how am I a friend of Jesus? Oh, I love the idea that He loves me, that He’s my friend but what about how I can love Him… how I can be a friend of His? What pleases Him? Frankly, I’d rather have it the other way around, on the receiving end of all those goodies from God!! But that kind of friendship is way too one-sided, and we all know what that feels like to be with a so-called friend who can only talk about themselves, who shows no interest in us, who monopolizes conversations and can turn any comment to their own advantage in one-upmanship and self-centeredness waiting for you to take a breath so they can jump right in to tell their better story! You know what I mean. You have someone clearly in mind, and hopefully that’s not you or me–especially me! But, am I that way with God? And how about you? Always asking and begging in prayer, always talking about ourselves, not sharing Him with others, not speaking up about an issue when we know how God feels about it, not praising or thanking or just sitting quietly with His Bible in our laps listening to Him speak to us. That’s what a real friend would do…all those things and many more that you can think of as well. Be a friend to Jesus…be a friend today. “What a Friend Jesus Has in (your name)”!
PROTECTION FROM THE LORD Read Job 16
I know it’s a lot to ask you to read today, but it’s worth it! Poor Job is just having the worst time in his entire life. We know that, don’t we? And even his friends turn out to be ‘miserable comforters are you all! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you…’ (Job 16:2-3). With all that’s happening to him, all the losses, all the pain, all the unanswered questions, yet at the end of chapter 16 he affirms his hope beyond hope that he has an advocate, an intercessor, someone to help him who is now helpless, one who pleads with God on his behalf. And we, who are believers, know who that is…Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord! Like St. Paul said, ‘…Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us'(Romans 8:34). Yes, our Advocate is speaking out for us, He’s on our side, He loves us and all in this world, especially those who trust in Him alone. There’s another precious word in this book of Job. Did you notice it…the very last word of verse 21? He calls us ‘friend’. What a wonderful word…Jesus is our friend. Someone who sticks with us even when every reason has been given to just leave us in the lurch, and tell us to take a hike. He won’t do that. When we turn our backs, He doesn’t. When God seems so far away, maybe it’s not Him whose walked away. Maybe we should turn around and see Him right there next to us. Those footprints in the sand carrying us like a shepherd with a lamb or more appropriately a child cradled in the arms of the loving parent. So, as Easter arrives once again, as we remember that Jesus suffered and died for us, that He endured terrible losses for us, that He’d do it all again just for you and me, remember the word used here…he’s our friend. And such a friend like no other…anywhere, ever. Just like Jesus Himself said in John 15:15–‘…I have called you friends…’Thank you, Friend, thank you…
JUST BEING WITH JESUS Read again Acts 4:12-13 and Deuteronomy 28:14
Just being with Jesus, just being next to Him, sitting at His feet like His friend Mary did(Luke 10:39), just listening to Him. Just that simple act of humility elevated the disciples and apostles from the ordinary to the extraordinary. And it was so noticeable, even and especially to their enemies. That’s what it says in Acts chapter 4–for what the religious leaders saw was not what kind of car they drove, or the size diamond on their fingers, or how much money they had to give if their names were recognized and attached to the gift, or anything else except their ‘courage’, the Bible says. These ordinary people became fearless after being with Jesus especially after His resurrection from the dead. They now knew personally that death was not the final word. Could kill the body but no the soul. Never. Jesus had told them, He demonstrated it and came to each with His hands wide open for inspection. Peter, who had denied Jesus 3 times, now was courageous and bold, and not ever to be denied his faith in the risen Christ. Peter speaks up and is noticeably different from the cowering, weak-kneed denier that he was at Jesus’ trials just days and weeks before. When we believe in Jesus and welcome Him into our hearts and lives, He gives us His Holy Spirit who begins a work of courageous change within each of us. All this just from being around Him, ‘these men had been with Jesus’. Let me challenge you ( and myself) to spend time with Him, in His Word, the Bible. Not like you have to, or out of compulsion or fear or to make browney points, but because you want to spend time with your Lord. For the past 25 years I’ve read the Bible through, from cover to cover, in each year. Not for sermon material (as I used to early in my ministry) or just to say I did it, but to spend time with my Lord. Listening to Him. I’ve been a Christian now for 50 years, having accepted Him when I was 16 listening to a Christian radio program. And I’ve read the Bible through 25 times. But that means many years and not so precious ignoring the Bible or just maybe a hit- and- miss reading, a couple Psalms if they were short ones like Psalm 117 (see, I still remember!), but avoiding the tough books like Revelation or the long lists of Chronicles. But a friend challenged me to read the Bible on a daily basis…so that by the end of the year I would read it in its entirety. Gradually it grew out of being just a habit into a big part of my daily life as a Christian…spending time with my Lord in His Word. And it has been such a blessing! Just like He promised. John 15:7–‘If you remain in Me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish…’ Hey, stay in His Word, the Word in Us, and He’ll give us new dreams, dreams that come true. May I be that friend to thank you for spending time with your Lord. And to spend more…and more…for He has so much to give each of us. ‘…ordinary men…they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
ORDINARY…EXTRAORDINARY! Read Acts 4:12-13
Here’s one of my favorite Scriptures in the entire Bible. However, I say that lots and lots, so don’t tell me I said that before when next week I come up with another of my all-time Bible favorites and then another one the next day! Anyway, in Acts 4 Peter and John, two of the main apostles, are in big trouble. The religious leaders thought they had done away with this Jesus, and wanted no more talk of His resurrection from the dead or of Him or of anything about Him. Dead and buried, over and out. Just forget it. Shut your mouth, apostles. Or else– what happened to your leader, well, guess what? You’re next, unless you just keep quiet. Enough, already, of this Jesus. Well, that would make me take stock for sure. I could be next on the cross. And so could you. What should we do? Acts 4:12 says it all—if there’s only one way out and someone doesn’t want others to know about it for some selfish or perverse reason, and a fire breaks out, you just shout out where the exit is. Who cares what someone else thinks. Or your grandchild runs out into the street at a hospital ‘quiet zone’ and a truck is coming toward him, you do what comes natural—you cry out, run out, do anything to save that precious child and the ‘quiet zone’ will just have to deal with it. And that’s what the apostles did–they spoke out and up and could do nothing less. Jesus is the only way of salvation, every other path leads to nowhere and no good. ‘No one else…no other name given…’ How did they know this? No seminary grad’s among them. None of them had their Master of Divinity from Princeton, none graduated from a famous Bible school. Verse 13 says that the religious leaders could see the apostles’ boldness but that they were ‘unschooled, ordinary men’. Just common, run-of-the-mill people. No silver spoon in their mouths, no special perks of birth among any of them. Really, somewhat a motley crew–a tax-collector (loved then as much as now!), a terrorist (Zealot), fishermen, and a bunch of unknowns. Just your ordinary Joe. Like the guy next door. But that’s when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. When the precious arises above the common. For as the religious leaders also ‘ took note that these men had been with Jesus’. Sure, they were just people like you and me. But what set them apart was that they had been with Jesus, had known the Risen Lord, had accepted Him into their lives so that the ordinary now was extraordinary. I think without Jesus my life would be bleak at best. The abandonment of polio at age 2 would have been so traumatic that I would be an emotional cripple, and professionally money would have been the sole game. What a waste! How much more God had in store for me. And for you. He has a plan for our lives. Sometimes it’s hard to see. But that’s faith, folks. Time to step up and believe Him. He’ll take that ordinary and reshape it into something extraordinary…for Him, for others. That’s a life worth living! Agree?
MORE ABOUT THAT SCENT OF WATER Read John 4:1-26
We are experiencing not just that scent of water (from Job 14:9) but a down-pour with wind and possibly thunder and lightning later in the day. No, we’re not in the Pacific Northwest where rain and wind are quite normal for a good part of the year (and about May ‘good’ no longer seems to be an appropriate word to use!) but on Seabrook Island, South Carolina. This is beautiful low-country, lots of water everywhere. No drought this year. The wetlands are full. Abundance of water that was not the experience of where either Job or Jesus lived. There it was desert. Parched, hot much of the year, brown and thirsty with plants, trees and people appreciative of even a ‘scent of water’. When my wife and I were in Jordan 2 years ago, we traveled by foot from where the bus parked into the fabulous ancient city of Petra. It was 120 degrees that day. That’s right, you read it! We carried a lot of water with us, or so we thought. Petra is not just what you see in the pictures of what is called the ‘Treasury’ building. That structure is a couple miles in from the parking lot and at the beginning of miles and miles of ancient ruins that just are dazzling in beauty, and puzzlement at how anyone could ever do what they did with the tools available thousands of years ago now. Almost too amazing to put into words. The good thing was that we were there for about 5 hours giving us lots of time to roam about and explore on our own after we ditched our slow-poke travel guide! The bad thing was that there was lots of time to almost die of an unbelievable heat and thirst. Our ‘lot of water’ was grossly inadequate. Even as much as we drank it never quenched , and it was just horribly hot in the mouth as well. Finally, getting back to a local hotel for lunch I never drank so much ice-cold water in my life. Seemed like gallons and gallons. Couldn’t stop drinking that water, which tasted so good. And, then, when we got back to our stateroom on our cruise ship, we ordered ice that came in a 5 gallon tub! You can see why even a ‘scent of water’ would mean so much. And, for this woman at the well, to hear of ‘living water’ from the only One who could provide it…water for life and eternity. What a blessing. What a gift. What a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. This week, in preparation for Easter Sunday, let’s think of the refreshment God gives us so abundantly in His Only Son, Jesus the Christ, who suffered and died on the cross just for you and me and all who seek Him to know Him. He gives us much more than a scent…He gives and gives and gives until our garden is well-watered indeed!
THAT SCENT OF…WATER! Read Job 14:7-9
Walking through the Mount of Olives, you realize how very old the trees are. Gnarled, twisted, stunted and dead-looking–that’s what my wife and I saw while walking slowly through the Garden of Gethsemene at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Looking up at a very close distance is the city of Jerusalem, less than a mile away at most. Can you imagine–basically, the same vista Jesus and His disciples had those many years ago now. On that Mount of Olives, standing and gazing up at the olive trees, you wonder: ‘are they alive’? They don’t appear to be. But upon a closer look you can see, from the sides, from under the soil, from somewhere you wouldn’t necessarily expect, there’s new shoots, new growth, new life coming. As from Job chapter 14 where poor-old Job is describing an old, cut-down tree(maybe like himself?) that seems hopeless and yet, and yet, ‘new shoots will not fail’. And then, ‘its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.” I love that phrase Job uses–‘yet at the scent of water…’ Just the hint of water, a mist of moisture and new life and growth will begin again. Just a slight increase in humidity and miracles happen. Made me think of the little bit I have to offer God in His hands can still do so much. As a little boy I loved the vinyl record I had with this song on it–“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” I would play it over and over again and sing along with it if no one was around to hear me. Only had a little light, only a small amount of water and yet…in Jesus’ hands could light up a whole room! We’ll talk more about this and an encounter with a woman who needed water…and got a lot more, from Jesus! You just have a ‘little light’? Don’t feel you can do much for God? So insignificant a person? Passed your prime? Think again…”Yet at the scent of water…” In Jesus’ hands…well, the skies the limit!
PALM SUNDAY FOUNDATIONS Read Matthew 21:1-17
If you’ve read Matthew 21 with me today, you know what happened on the 1st Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem from the nearby town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives riding a donkey with lots of enthusiastic and hopeful people casting palm branches and clothing down on the dusty street to make His way clear—‘here comes our Messiah, who will save us’! They shout that Hebrew word ‘Hosanna’, which means ‘save us’. He’s the Savior we’ve been waiting for…He’s the promised Messiah, promised by God Himself. Yes,’ Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!’ But, I have a question for you–how did they know that Jesus was their Messiah? Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David? You know how…just as we do. We know Him through His Word, the Bible. The foundations for Palm Sunday are found in the Old Testament. They are found in the Bible. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is built solidly on God’s Spoken and Written Word. In those 17 verses from Matthew 21 there are quotes from all over the Old Testament…from Zechariah, from the Psalms, from Isaiah, from Jeremiah and then again from the collection of Psalms. All that happened the Sunday that we call Palm Sunday, all the events, were recognized as an echo from the Old Testament that they knew so well. Like when you feel that you’ve been somewhere before, a familiarity that begs for recognition…such was that Sunday. I wonder if life is so confusing for us, even as believers, because we have so little of the Bible in us. The tools are there for the taking, but the using of them is so rare. Palm Sunday only made sense because God said in many places through many prophets, through many books and letters and true encounters that He was sending His Savior into a needy world, into our desperate lives. ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.’ Upon Jesus…upon His Word…your Bible! The foundation for all our life but now and forever!
BACK TO JOB 11
I remember as a young teenager a very popular song by a group called the Monotones entitled ‘Who Wrote the Book of Love?” Catchy song you can still see them perform from way back when on YouTube, if you like. Reading in Acts chapter 3 and verse 15 the Apostle Peter calls Jesus ‘the author of life’. Even before writing the book about love, Jesus authored the first chapter on life itself. He wrote the book of life in all its wonder and beauty and majesty and wildness and awesomeness. He didn’t just read the book, He wrote it. He didn’t just do the research, He created it all. Since He wrote the book of life, our lives should center in Him, in what interests Him, in what gives joy to Him. After all, He wrote the book of life. Now, what about Job you ask…well, read chapter 11: 13-19 and hear the advice of one of Job’s dear(!) friends. Job who is faced with life falling apart…Job who wishes his life had never happened…Job,whose fabled patience has frazzled and shred…Job who is seeking answers only to find more questions…Job’s friend named Zophar tells him 18 times that ‘you’ and ‘your’ need to shape up. Shape up…or your life will ship out, Job. When life goes south on you, when troubles are your next door neighbor, it is so easy to look to and at ourselves, either in blame or in shame for all the messes we’re in. ‘You…you…you’. Shouldn’t it rather be to the author of like we turn? Shouldn’t it be Hosanna, save us, to the One Savior of All? Should our gaze be in the mirror of life, reflecting ourselves to ourselves? Not much help there. Look to the author Himself, Jesus, God’s Only Son? He wrote the book of…LIFE!
HOPE IS ON THE HORIZON! Read Job 11
Hope is on the horizon…Easter is coming! Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! How we need to look higher than the depths our society has fallen into. The muck and mire of decaying culture all around us. Money…money…money and power hungry people chasing after more of the same. Really, how boring. And hopeless. And empty. So, let me encourage you (as I say to myself)to lift up your eyes to the Lord, to read His Word the Bible, to spend time in prayer, to fellowship with His people, to listen and sing His music, to support those in need of physical and spiritual help–as the Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40). Now, Peter is clearly not saying that you can save yourself. In verse 38, he urges his listeners to repent–to turn around–and be baptized–to confess faith in Jesus to others– for from Jesus alone comes forgiveness and God’s Holy Spirit to believers. He says in verse 41–“Those who accepted his message…”–those who believed, those who received, those who accepted the gift of God’s love, those who welcomed Jesus into their hearts and lives; they have escaped this corrupt generation. Peter’s showing them the way out. Hope is on the horizon. Not just hope in hope itself or hope for hope’s sake. But hope in Jesus Christ. He’s risen! He’s alive! He’s coming again! And He’ll usher in the New Heavens and New Earth that only can come through Him. As we approach Easter, first we must go through Good Friday with His death on the cross, His time in that dark and dank tomb of death. Dark and dank, muck and mire…only to be transformed into light and freshness, newness and clean three days later. Won’t heaven be wonderful! Keep looking up…above the horizon to Jesus, The Living Son Of God, our Savior and Lord of All Who Believe! Amen? Next time, we’ll get into Job 11! Ok?
Reflections out of time 