Monday, August 27, 2012

450

"Jesus Christ is the strongest, grandest, most fascinating personality to ever grace the earth, but a careless messenger with a wrong method, can reduce all His Magnificance to sheer boredom...and, it's a sin to bore a kid with the Gospel..." from Jim Rayburn's Diaries of Jim Rayburn

Friday, August 24, 2012

449

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses you would believe in me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? - John 5:45-47

What do you set your hopes on?

What you set your hopes on accuses you. It condemns you and will only give you what it can but nothing more and therefore will leave you empty, hollow, unfulfilled and insecure.


Thursday, August 23, 2012

448

Just reading John 7 this morning. It's a scene straight out of your book. Jesus displays shrewdness at its best..."the right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right." It takes his time then shows up, avoids those planning to kill him, and furthers his Father's purpose.

Thanks for the insight, Rick. Wouldn't have seen it without your book. 

ned

and check out "Shrewd" by Rick Lawrence

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

447

John 5:39-40 "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

There is a quantum leap between knowing about Jesus and placing your life in his hands.

Friday, August 17, 2012

446

John 5:21 "The Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it."

If you read these words to say - the Son only gives life to those that please him - then there may not be a more depressing verse in Scripture...

BUT, if these words are not saying that - they are saying this: it gives the Son pleasure to give us life - it is for this reason he came - to give life...and there is nothing holding him back from this desire - in fact, it is his royal pleasure!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

445

John 5:19 "Whatever the Father does the Son also does, for the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does."

By the Son we know the Father.
- the Father gives life.
- the Son gives life.
- the Father does not judge.
- He has entrusted all judgement to the Son.
- the Father is to be honored.
- the Son is to be honored and will glorify the Father.


Monday, August 13, 2012

444


I love this...

In the dream I was being pulled down a whitewater rapid that was a thrashing and torrential river. I was thinking, I am going to die.  I was aware of being full of fear. In my thrashing about, trying to stay afloat, my wrist hit something.... I assumed it was a branch in the water. I grabbed it. It turned out to be a "pool ladder" handle sticking way out into the river from the bank. I pulled myself in, exhausted. I looked back at the river thinking,That was lucky - for sure I would have died. Then I woke up. Adrenalin was pulsing through me, and my heart was literally pounding. So I just for up (three thirty in the morning) and came to church to "keep the Lord company." While I was thinking about this dream I heard, by faith, "What did you think of the dream?" I thought, It was fortunate that the ladder handle was there and I was able to get out and save my life. The Lord said, by faith, "What if I told you the river was Me?" That stunned me at first. Then I said, "I am willing, and will, jump back in... willingly and gladly... Bring it on. If it's You, I want all of You that You will give me. I trust You for wherever you take me. I'm going to trust and enjoy the ride." And I jumped back into the River. 

- bob krulish

excerpt taken from Shrewd by Rick Lawrence

Friday, August 10, 2012

443

John 4:27-42

The Samaritan woman is John's first example of evangelism. What does she do? (1) She tells people her experience. (2) She brings people to Jesus. (3) She gets out of the way so people can have their own first hand knowledge. "We have heard for ourselves. Now we know that this man is the Savior"


Thursday, August 9, 2012

442

John 4:27-42 "my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

the Samaritans were ready to believe. They believed first because of the woman's testimony. Then they believed because of their own experience. Jesus stayed with these outsiders, these inconvenient neighbors, for two days. I love that. I love that you loved these people. Your food was to be with the unloved.  You love spending time with the likes of me!


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

441

John 4:27-38 "my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work"

It brings to mind Deut 8:3 "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

Bread might fill our stomachs. But it's God who fills our hearts. He is the filler of our Being. Doing his will, taking in his word - these are the food for our souls...




Tuesday, August 7, 2012

440

John 4:1-15

Then thing that strikes me this morning is that you were tired from your journey. Perhaps even more physically tired than your disciples. Were you out of shape? I find this difficult to believe. I have in mind that you were a type of superman. I'd like to have a savior who could beat me in a race, someone who would have to slow down for me to keep up. What if it was the other way around? What if I had to slow down to your pace? What if that is your invitation? "Friend, you're running too fast, sit down here with me at the well where I can offer you something truly life giving."


Monday, August 6, 2012

439

John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

For us, everything, our very life, depends on this one thing: what we do with Jesus. Do we place our life in his hands? Or do we place our lives in our own? That is the key decision we have to make in this life. If you have been trusting your own devices and ready to try something else - put your faith in Jesus. I can help you if you need help.


Friday, August 3, 2012

438

John 3:34 "God gives the Spirit without limit."

verse 35 "The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands."

In two verses, we get the first clear reference to the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit. There is no limit to what God has given to the Spirit. God has placed everything into the Son's hands. Father, Son, and Spirit fully God, fully sharing the power, authority, and blessing amongst one another...then offering this life to us...

verse 36 "whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

More on this later...

Thursday, August 2, 2012

437

John 6 "gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."

Jesus gives offers us more than enough. But it's like a fine meal. It's delicious. It's succulent. It's more than you could ever ask for or imagine...but it's the dinner conversation he's after...the relationship. In a few days, no matter how wonderful that meal was, you're going to be hungry again. Does it mean Jesus  doesn't love you? Does it mean what you had a few days ago wasn't real? No! It means it's time to eat again. To hunger and thirst for that meal, that relationship - that is what Jesus is after. He provides more than we could want, but he offers his everlasting supply in portions, so we will need to return over and over and over again.



Wednesday, August 1, 2012

436


Here's a dangerous, crazy thought from an otherwise sober (and very eminent) biologist, Bernd Heinrich. He's thinking about moths and butterflies, and how they radically change shape as they grow, from little wormy, caterpillar critters to airborne beauties. Why, he wondered, do these flying animals begin their lives as wingless, crawling worms? Baby ducks have wings. Baby bats have wings. Why not baby butterflies?
His answer — and I'm quoting him here — knocked me silly.
"[T]he radical change that occurs," he says, "does indeed arguably involve death followed by reincarnation."
Angels playing to a caterpillar.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
What?
So he says it again: "[T]he adult forms of these insects are actually new organisms."
I'm sorry. Maybe I didn't hear that right ...
"In effect, the animal is a chimera, an amalgam of two, where the first one lives and dies ... and then the other emerges."
What he's saying is, while a moth appears to be one animal, with a wormy start and a flying finish, it's actually two animals — two in one! We start with a baby caterpillar that lives a full life and then dies, dissolves. There's a pause. Then a new animal, the moth, springs to life, from the same cells, reincarnated.
According to this theory, long, long ago, two very different animals, one destined to be wormy, the other destined to take wing, accidently mated, and somehow their genes learned to live side-by-side in their descendants. But their genes never really integrated. They are sharing a DNA molecule like two folks sharing a car, except half way through the trip, one driver dissolves and up pops his totally different successor. Driver No. 2 emerges from the body of driver No. 1.
Really?
When this theory was first proposed (not by Bernd, but by an English zoologist), eminent scientists scoffed.
Said Duke biologist Fred Nijhout, this idea fits better in "The National Enquirer than the National Academy (of Sciences)." Said paleontologist Conrad Labandiera, "You must be kidding!"
But Donald Williamson, a zoologist from the University of Liverpool in England, wasn't kidding. And if Bernd Heinrich is now warming to this notion, it's time to take a closer look at Death And Resurrection in insects.
The Death And Resurrection Cycle?
Many insects begin life as worm-shaped, leggy, tubular thingies that spend lots of time eating. We call them grubs or maggots or caterpillars, and they are programmed by a set of genes that sit in their DNA, spelled out in chemical letters, A, C, T and G.
Caterpillar DNA.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
Notice I've put my "caterpillar" instruction genes on the left side of the DNA. The instructions on the right side are, temporarily, silent.
So the caterpillar grows and grows until one day, it spins itself a silk coverlet (a cocoon) or a harder pupa or chrysalis container that dangles off a twig and it goes ... well, silent.
Cocoon
Robert Krulwich/NPR
This phase is, as Heinrich puts it, "a deathlike intermission." Inside, these caterpillars shrink, shed their skin, their organs dissolve. Their insides turn to mush. Most of their cells die. But lurking in the goo are a few cells (the so-called adult or "imaginal" cells) that at this moment jump into action, reorganize all the free-floating proteins and other nutrients and turn what was once caterpillar into ... here comes the resurrection ... a moth!
Butterfly.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
What's happened, says Heinrich, is that the caterpillar section of the DNA has been turned off, and the butterfly instructions have been turned on.
"[T]here are indeed two very different sets of genetic instructions at work," he writes, and this switch, turning "caterpillar" off, turning "butterfly" on, means that "most of one body dies and the new life is resurrected in a new body."
Two In One
There is no controversy about the mechanics I just described; it's the explanation that's new and controversial. The old view was that over millions of years, animals evolved this habit of switching from one set of instructions to the other. The new view is that this is not one animal gradually changing shape, but rather instructions for two different animals sandwiched together and this change is so radical, says Bernd, "with no continuity from one to the next, that the adult forms of these insets are actually new organisms."
A caterpillar is born and dies; a butterfly is resurrected from its juices.
It's a stunning idea. (But with all kinds of problems: How to explain two very different creatures from different ancient species "mating"? Usually, they can't do that. How do you get DNA to not mix, so that the two creatures stay distinct? How do you define "death"?)
But still, I can't stop thinking about this. If cross-species matings were once possible, who knows what you could die and turn into? Could dandelions dream of becoming spruce trees? Could tadpoles, instead of morphing into frogs, become catfish? This is silly, I know, but radical metamorphoses, from tadpoles to frogs, maggots to flies, grubs to beetles, remain largely mysterious, so new explanations are intriguing, even if they startle. (Especially if they startle.)