United In Love and Faith (Page 26)

Colossians 3:2 (NIV) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  How easily can you discern the source of your thoughts? How quickly do you act on your impulses? Have you learned the importance of delayed gratification? In our quick fix and easy-access culture we tend to overlook the importance of this discipline. The Holy Spirit makes use of delays to groom our hearts and He wants to teach us important truths in that can only be learned…

Mark 10:28 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  James and John wanted to sit at seats of honor on the right and left of Jesus when He came into His glory. They were captivated by the grandeur of ministry; but Jesus pointed out a timeless truth. They did not understand the sacrifices, the dying to self, and the personal cross…

I Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  This describes the work of the ministry so well. Some folks need to be urged to move on in their faith and not be distracted or settled into life comforts that lead to relinquishment of service. Others need to be exhorted to identify their gifts and to step forward boldly without shrinking back to accomplish God’s purposes…

Isaiah 42:3 (NIV) He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. (The Message: He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and He won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but He’ll steadily and firmly set things right. We serve a God who cares about people and wants to mend their broken hearts. When people become so bruised by difficult life experiences, it is often difficult for them to trust anymore. They won’t risk the…

Numbers 21:4b (KJV) …and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. The long trek toward the Promised Land took the Children out of Egypt and through difficult terrain that made them weary. Some made it worse by exaggerating the difficulties and problems. When a person is battling disease or the loss of a love one or relational heartaches of any kind, what they don’t need is someone at their side who exaggerates the problems and…

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign Lord has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. (RSV – that I might know how to sustain with a word him that is weary). Gary Chapman’s book, “The Five Love Languages” unpacks what it means to supply words of affirmation to people as one way of expressing love. The Bible refines the concept even…

I Samuel 20:16 So Jonathan made a solemn pact with David saying, “May the Lord destroy all your enemies!” And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.  David and Jonathan were the best of friends; and their covenant commitment to care for one another’s families (whoever survived) signaled the deepest kind of friendship. Jonathan saw David as a hero worthy of respect, and David saw Jonathan as trustworthy and dedicated.…

I Samuel 18:14 In everything (David) did he had great success because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. As David gained influence, Saul’s influence decreased. Saul became jealous, then fearful of David. Those emotions hardened to implacable enmity. Ultimately, David was forced to flee for his life. David faced a jolting change in status (chapters 21-30) from a respected military hero to a lone fugitive. Yet today the whole…

I Samuel 17:45-46 David replied (to Goliath)…”You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies—Today the Lord will conquer you…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. The story of David and Goliath has resounded loudly down through the centuries wherever the Gospel has gone. It teaches us that great faith enables us to meet any challenge with courage, even in…

I Samuel 12:23 As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right. The prophet Samuel’s commitment to never stop praying for the people must be our commitment as well. Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons for those who follow Jesus Christ. It can turn enemies into friends. It not only changes things, it changes us. When we can…

I Samuel 10:6   (Samuel to Saul)  At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person. Saul had a good beginning. He was humble (9:21). God changed his heart (10:6, 9) and was with him (v. 7). The Spirit of God came upon him (v. 10) to enable him. He was modest (v. 21-23), silent in opposition (v. 26-27), and little in…

I Samuel 8:19-20 But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. “We want to be like the nations around us…” When the nation of Israel requested a king, it was tantamount to the rejection of God’s throne rights. In trying to be like the nations around them they were saying “yes” to the world and its expectations and “no” to holiness and divine calling. Samuel was clear about where this…

John 21:16b (NLT) “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said. Jesus had come to save the “sheep” at the cost of His own life (John 10:15). He asked Peter to take up the task. “Feed” (vs. 15, 17) means to supply with food, or to take to pasture. “Tend” (vs. 16) includes all the care a shepherd would give to his sheep. Both lambs and sheep, whether small or grown, would be the object of Peter’s new mission in…

John  21:16b  (NLT) “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know that I love you.”   Jesus sought to prove Peter’s innermost purpose in following Him. “The desire for personal success, eminence, achievement, reward, or even the relatively unselfish motive of doing something for needy humanity was not enough. Only a complete love for Christ would be sufficient to carry Peter and his fellow disciples through the careers which awaited them.” Peter’s response was sincere. He had learned that he could not…

John 21:15 (The Message) After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  How many times have you heard Jesus say these words to you? What things gain ground unexpectedly in your life, making it necessary for the Lord to question your wholeheartedness? How easy is it for you to honestly and humbly respond? It happens in different stages of life. Somehow we get busy and Jesus asks for a fresh…

John 21:12 (NLT) “Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said. The invitation to eat was “a call to the resumption of that fellowship which His death had broken.” The fact that He ate with them would strengthen the conviction that He was really with them. Later Peter referred to it in his preaching (Acts 10:41). Jesus wanted them to know that personal contact with Him was possible after the resurrection. When we face a near death experience or a…

John 21:3 (NLT) (Jesus) called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” The disciples responded to the overwhelming perplexities of the happenings in Jerusalem by withdrawing to Galilee and engaging in the rugged joy of hard work. The danger was that they might forget the life into which Jesus had called them: I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). So Jesus appeared on the shore and repeated a familiar miracle (Luke 5:1-11). John instantly recognized what had happened,…

John 21:3 (The Message) Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.” The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night.   With all the blur of their last week in Jerusalem still fresh in their memories, the disciples withdrew into Galilee. It had been a trying and confusing period of their lives. Before He had died, Jesus had taught them more than their immature spiritual state could assimilate.…

John 20:27b (original translation) Become not unbelieving, but believing. “Belief in a risen Christ made a mourner into a missionary, a penitent into a preacher, the bereaved friend into an apostle of love, a timid and shrinking coterie of disciples into the fearless heralds of a new movement, and a doubter into a confessor…faith can rise no higher than when it avows Jesus of Nazareth to be its Lord and God.”  Worship Him today.

Acts 4:33  (NLT) The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.   “The disciples as a group were oppressed by the emotion of fear. Primarily they dreaded the Jewish rulers, who had sent Jesus to His death and might be willing to deal with them in similar fashion. They had not left Jerusalem, perhaps because they felt that remaining quietly in the city would make them less conspicuous than…

John 20:8-9 (The Message) Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead. “John, the disciple who leaned on Jesus’ breast at the last supper, and who regarded Him as his best friend, was left desolate after the crucifixion. Though he had not the bitterness of regret that Pater did, the…

John 20:3-4a (The Message) Peter and (John) left immediately for the tomb. They ran… “Peter was not given great prominence in the account, but the little said of him is significant. He ran to the tomb; and it is safe to say that he would not have run unless he had a deep concern for Jesus. The last reference to him prior to the 20th chapter was the denial, though repentance followed quickly upon his failure. It was, however, too…

John 20:1 (NLT) Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. “Mary was the picture of frustrated devotion. In his gospel, John emphasized Her love for Jesus. She was apparently the leader of the women who went to the tomb to anoint the body early on the first day of the week. Mary’s agitation over finding the stone rolled away, her…

John 20:25 (The Message) But Thomas… was not with (the other disciples) when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side.”   Thomas was naturally pessimistic. He was a living demonstration of the power of Jesus to dispel doubt. Remarkably, Jesus submitted to the very test that…

John 14:16 (NIV) And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever… “The provision for the disciples’ future included a new dynamic: the Holy Spirit. He would be their advocate—to make the reality of God convincing to all men in the same way that Jesus did to his disciples. He would provide a fellowship with God even closer than they had experienced in the physical presence of Jesus.” Open up to…

John 14:15  (NLT) If you love me, obey my commandments.   “Having assured the disciples that He was not deserting them but rather going before to prepare a place for them, Jesus proceeded to ask for their obedience.” Does the Lord have your whole heart? If so, you will obey Him. Love is the new motive for our lives; obedience to Him is the new standard for our activity.

John 14:7 (The Message) If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well… Philip interrupted Jesus. He wanted to see the Father as plainly as he could see Jesus. “Metaphysical distinctions and theological explanations meant comparatively little to him. He was slow to apprehend anything of an abstract nature; He was a practical man–not indifferent to spiritual truth, just baffled by it.” The human longing for a tangible God lies at the root of all idolatry. Man…

John 14:5 (The Message) Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?“ Thomas flatly contradicted Jesus. His was a false step in reasoning. “Solutions to human problems are never found in skepticism, but rather in the affirmation of faith. Jesus responded with a positive declaration on which Thomas could base his thinking: I am the way, the truth, and the life (v. 6). It is one of the greatest…

John 14:1 (NLT) “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” As Jesus began His critical teaching to prepare His disciples for the coming challenge to their faith, various disciples interrupted with their questions. Like little children interrupting a parent who is trying desperately to teach them something for life-threatening situations, Jesus replies, and then reverts to His original line of thought. If we believe that a personal God exists, who is the redeemer…

John 13:31 (NLT) As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into His glory”… The departure of Judas was a relief to Jesus because as long as Judas was there in the room Jesus could not talk freely about the important topics on His mind. “Judas had no understanding of His motives and mission. The other disciples were equally ignorant of Jesus’ real purpose, as their questions later…

John 13:33 (NIV) “My children, I will be with you only a little longer.” Jesus’ farewell address to His disciples begins in 13:31 and ends in 16:33. The conversation begins at the Last Supper and ends in the Garden of Gethsemane. He talked as they walked through the darkened streets of Jerusalem to the gates through which they passed over to the Mount of Olives.  It was a conscious effort on Jesus’ part to give the disciples final instructions. Notice…

John 13:37  (NIV) Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus’ farewell address to His disciples was interrupted by several of the disciples who were anxious and concerned as they began to sense the serious tone of Christ’s words. Their minds could not accept the reality that Jesus was leaving them. And Peter totally overestimated his true spiritual capacity. Jesus responded to Peter’s interruption with truth. God is faithful to…

John 13:34-35 (NLT) So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Jesus introduced a whole new spiritual paradigm. The Old Covenant (Old Testament) was embedded in rules and regulations that enabled a relationship with God. The New Covenant (New Testament) would be implanted in hearts of flesh. Obedience to God…

John 13:31 (NLT) As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into His glory… “The presence of Judas among the Twelve was a hindrance to further revelation on the part of Jesus. As long as Judas was in the group Jesus could not speak to them as a spiritual unity.  You are clean, but not all (v. 10) showed the disunity which Jesus recognized.” Once Judas left the…