1 Corinthians 8 -- No, I DON'T Have The Right

“Be careful that your freedom does not cause those who are weak in faith to fall into sin … This weak believer, for whom Christ died, is ruined because of your knowledge.  When you sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ like this and cause them to do what they feel is wrong, you are also sinning against Christ.”

“It’s my right!” we can angrily cry out.  “There’s nothing wrong with doing that!  I’m a Christian.  I know!”  Paul was having to address a problem with these relatively new Christians who were now unshackled from worry about their former lifestyle of idol worship.  Yes, they were correct that what they were proposing was not forbidden, but there was a hitch – and it involved new Christians whose faith was not yet strong, who still had qualms about doing some of the things they’d formerly done that were merely matters of moral indifference.

Romans 14:23 contains a general rule for all of us, and I use it a lot.  “Anything done without believing it is right is a sin.”  So if we can’t find a prohibition about it in the Bible, God tells us to use our consciences, guided by the Holy Spirit, as our basis for making decisions.

We may not think something is wrong, while another Christian might disagree.  When they therefore see us doing it, rather than deciding that it is not forbidden, they instead think, “Well, if he can sin, I suppose that I can, too.”  In effect, our exercise of our rights has just caused another to sin.  Although we may feel that this is an unfair judging of our own actions, Jesus mentioned several things that ought to give us pause.  He said that we’d better watch out if we cause one of the little ones to sin.  It would be better if we were thrown overboard with a huge stone tied around our neck.  He also said that anything done to the least of these His brethren was also done to Him.  While we usually take that to mean things done in charity or love, it equally applies to causing them to sin, so we’re effectively sinning against Him – a grave error.

My commentary says that we must not only consider what effect such an action would have on ourselves, but even more importantly, what effect it would have on others.

Father, I thank You for the liberty You’ve given me through the death of Your Son for my sins.  In my freedom, help me to exhibit the love of Christ for those who have not yet grasped that freedom.  May I love You enough that I will be willing to forego something if, in doing it, another Christian brother will feel that I am sinning.  For having that knowledge, it would be a sin to do anything I do not absolutely believe is right.  Help me to love my Christian brothers more than my freedom.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 7 -- To Marry Or Not? What To Consider

I noticed that Paul repeatedly sees that self-control is a huge issue for unmarried believers, and he prefers that we not change our status (single or married) once we become believers.  Paul was single, and he was wanting each believer to be able to devote their lives in service to God.  I sensed that he was almost weighing things on a balance scale – weighing the ability to commit more time to God against natural God-given sexual desires and the struggles we have because of them.

Since marriage was instituted by God, Paul had no problem with singles marrying.  He simply realized that when a single becomes a Christian, his or her affections to God will increase.  Someday, if a potential spouse comes along, he understood that not just time, but affections would have to be divided between God and that future spouse.  I think he understood that we would feel the struggle of that “cleaving”.  Relationships require time, and if only 24 hours are available each day, you can do the math.

I’ve wondered about all this myself.  However, I’ve watched as God led me to adopt my two boys, and my duties as a father have become great time consumers.  While I have seen some reduction in my availability for Christian service, I do feel that I am much closer to God than I was before becoming a father.  God seems to have designed all this so that it would be improving my relationship with Him while “tweaking” my service to Him.

If we put God in control and seek His guidance, also asking Him for grace to lead the single life, everything Paul says here falls right into place and God is glorified.  Our one thing to watch is that issue of self-control.  If the gauge ever gets into the yellow or red zones, it’s possible that we’d do better married with less time for Him than allowing ourselves to fall into sin that might wreck both our relationship with Him and our witness.

Father, I trust You.  Direct me in this area of my life as You also directed me to my sons.  You know best.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 6 -- This Body Isn't Mine!

The last half of this chapter fits in nicely with the True Love Waits Bible study I’ve been teaching that finishes this weekend.  Starting in verse 12, Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians of their God-given freedom, but also he gives them some divine wisdom:  “All things are not good for me to do” and “I will not let anything make me its slave.”

It’s awfully tempting to want to cry, “Hey, no harm, no foul!” with some sexual things, but Paul says still it’s not good for us and we run the risk of becoming slaves to it.  He also mentions that some things are perfectly lawful for the believer and yet their value is temporary.  About verse 13, my commentary says, “They should not be given an undue place in the life of the believer.  Don’t live as if the greatest thing in life is to gratify your appetites.”  And he’s not talking only about food there.

That verse also says, “The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is FOR the body.”  I hadn’t really caught that before, and my commentary said, “This means that the Lord is interested in our bodies, their welfare, and their proper use.  God wants our bodies to be presented to Him a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable … Without the Lord, the body can never attain its true dignity and its immortal destiny.”

I also read that, because He is going to one day raise us up, His interest in our bodies does not end at the time of death.  “We will not be disembodied spirits in eternity.  Rather, our spirit and soul will be reunited with our glorified body, thus to enjoy the glories of heaven forever.”

Because Jesus bought me by bearing my sins on the cross, I do not have permission or authority to use my body any way I choose.  I can no longer think of my body as my own.  It is His now.  If I try to use it the way I desire, I’m being a thief.  It must only be used to glorify God.

Father, in the eyes of the world, our bodies are our own and no holds are barred.  What a selfish mentality.  Yet this sin infection often tempts us all to do just that.  When You see me trying to do that, show me the cross in my mind.  Point out those blood-stained timbers and remind me that His blood bought me.  I am not my own.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 5 -- What We Dread, We Often Fail To Do

Paul tells the Corinthian Christians in no uncertain terms that there is real danger in allowing a Christian who habitually practices a sin that is publicly known to remain in fellowship with the church.  There are several reasons for dealing with such a member, according to my commentary:

1)       The church cannot retain its holy character in the eyes of the world.

2)      The Holy Spirit will be grieved, and His work will be hindered.

3)      The church might become proud of its tolerance.

4)      The church might become more interested in numbers than in holiness.

Paul wants them to understand that they were not sufficiently shocked by sin.

Also, it wasn’t just sexual sin that Paul felt was deserving of this discipline.  On the same level, he put greed, theft, idolatry, verbal abuse, drunkenness, and cheating others. 

They were to put such members out of the fellowship.  “This discipline of believers is always calculated to bring about their restoration to fellowship with the Lord.  Excommunication is never an end in itself, but always a means to an end,” my commentary said.

Paul uses what to them would have been a vivid picture of sin:  yeast in a batch of dough.  “If they tolerate a little moral sin in the church, it will soon grow and expand until the whole fellowship is seriously affected.  Righteous, godly discipline is necessary in order to maintain the character of the church.”  In this illustration, Paul reminded them of how, “on the first day of the Passover feast, a Jew was required to remove all leaven from his house.  He went to the kneading trough and scraped it clean.  He scrubbed the place where the leaven was kept till not a trace remained.  He searched the house with a lamp to make sure that none had been overlooked,” my commentary added.  WOW!  If we would all only do that in our own lives with our sin, there’d be no need to exercise godly discipline in the church.

Paul lets us know that “we are not to judge men’s motives because we are not competent for that type of judgment.  But the word of God is equally clear that we are to judge known sin in the assembly of God so as to maintain its reputation for holiness and so as to restore the offending brother to fellowship with the Lord.”

When and if a believer must ever be removed from fellowship, a public announcement is called for, made in genuine sorrow and humiliation and should be followed by continual prayer for the spiritual restoration of the wanderer, according to my commentary.

Father, I pray that our church – particularly its members – will deal gently but firmly, and in a private way, whenever sin like this if first discovered, in order to restore one of Your children to fellowship.  I pray that we will never be proud of our tolerance, and that we will not fail to love a member enough to confront early on, so that we may prevent these drastic steps from ever being needed.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 4 -- What I Am NOT

Paul saw something happening with the Corinthians that didn’t make him feel particularly proud.  It was almost an air of elitism.  “Who says you are better than others?  What do you have that was not given to you?”

They seem to have forgotten (or perhaps they may have never learned) that they were and most likely still were sinners saved by grace.  They’d decided to start reigning while on earth rather than waiting for Christ to return first.  Paul wanted them to look at the apostles as an example.  They would then see none of that arrogance in the apostles.  Only humility and a strong desire to be a servant of Christ.

Just as these people might witness a certain level of snobbery in the lives of earthly monarchs they might chance to encounter, Paul was seeing it happen in the lives of Christians, and this was far from what Christ preached and lived.  He made Himself the servant of all – dying for us.  Through their actions, however, people weren’t getting pointed to Christ.  The focus was on themselves.  They weren’t allowing God to get the glory.

Father, in this world I am nothing without You and without the sacrifice Your Son made for me on that cross.  None of my natural abilities, which are nothing other than gifts from You, would even be worthy of mention when compared with what Jesus did for me.  Please help me to remember that I am nothing without You.  Everything I have, You gave me.  I am Yours.  Guide me to what You want me to be doing.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 3 -- A Definition Of "Spiritual"

Paul knocked the props out from under a lot of people in the Corinthian church (and all over the world down through the centuries) who thought they were being super spiritual.  He said, “You are still not spiritual, because there is jealousy and quarreling among you, and this shows that you are not spiritual.”

The sidebar in my Bible on this chapter was from The Best Of Tozer by Warren Wiersbe, and he quotes:  “True spirituality manifests itself in certain desires:

1)       The desire to be holy rather than happy … The truly spiritual man knows that God will give abundance of joy after we have become able to receive it without injury to our soul;

2)      A Christian is spiritual when he sees everything from God’s viewpoint.  The ability to weigh all things in the divine scale and place the same value upon them as God does is the mark of a Spirit-filled life;

3)      The desire to see others advance at his expense is another mark of a spiritual man.  He wants to see other Christians above him and is happy when they are promoted and he is overlooked….”

His overarching comment was that growing spiritually requires that we look to Christ for our identity.  We cannot base our identity on any person other than Him.

Father God, those are tough measures, and they take a lifetime with You to become an integral part of us.  Yet how much better it would be to learn them early on, so that we could have the remainder of our lives on earth to practice such spiritual living!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 2 -- What We Never Imagined - Right Here, Right Now

Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 here – “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”  Isaiah wasn’t talking about heaven, according to my commentary, for Paul was talking about God’s wisdom and “the deep secrets of God,” and the fact that God has now shown them to us through the Spirit.  Since we haven’t seen heaven, that seems to say Isaiah wasn’t talking about it.

What we can’t imagine as natural men is God’s plan that began before the world was created to save men from hell.  Paul says that it’s impossible for a person to even conceive of these thoughts without the help of the Holy Spirit.  It’s only when the Spirit opens the mind of Christ within us that those deep truths are revealed to us.

But even that is not enough.  It takes illumination by the Holy Spirit to shine the light of truth on those revealed words, unlocking our spirits to be able to understand them.

I can remember hearing the word “grace” used so often in church and yet I could not comprehend what it meant.  It was one of those “church words”.  It was only after the Holy Spirit’s revelation that I was able to understand that grace was “getting what we don’t deserve from God”.  But the Spirit didn’t stop there.  He illuminated in my life many incredible instances of God’s providing grace to me – not just once, but daily.  It was humbling to discover.

A good illustration would be radio waves.  They are at any moment blasting through the air all around us, yet we are totally unaware of them.  Science could lead us to be able to detect them with a radio wave meter, for instance.  That would be revelation – to become aware that they are there when before we didn’t know.  But then we could utilize AM, FM, satellite, or short-wave radio, say, or even a cell phone to understand the information conveyed through those waves.  Before Marconi, no one had ever imagined what could be sent across the air by radio or even television.

In the same way, before we receive the Holy Spirit, we cannot imagine what God has prepared for us – His great truths that He reveals to us through the Holy Spirit to help us know Him.  To the unbeliever, it is all foolishness.  We’d call someone foolish who refused to believe in radio waves as well!

Father, I remember how foolish I felt when You finally opened my heart to Your truths and I saw all that I had been missing.  Your truths are hidden from the unbelieving world.  Thanks for sharing them with me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 1 -- Name-droppers And Wisdom-chasers

It sounds like they’d become name-droppers and wisdom-chasers, and Paul knew that these kinds of activities didn’t focus people on Christ – they were distractions.  As to the name-dropping, I thought he hit the nail on the head when, using his own name, he said, “Did Paul die on the cross for you?  NO!”  The gospel is not about ordinary men.  It’s about Christ.  And when a cult of personality begins to build up around someone, alarm bells should begin ringing.

As to the wisdom-chasers, the Greeks were known for intellectual hobnobbing.  They’d made intelligence the end-all-be-all of their existence.  That’s elevating man and not God.  Isaiah had written centuries before a promise from God:  “I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom; I will make the wise men unable to understand.”  Whether we like it or not, that’s something we need!

I fell into that very trap and all it did was lead me to think that I knew better than God.  What a foolish idiot I’d become!  He did in fact make me unable to understand UNTIL I was willing and able to admit to him that He knew everything and I didn’t.  And if the intellectuals start to feel that the gospel is foolishness, they are missing the point entirely that “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has CALLED.”  What a shame it would be to let our self-ascribed intelligence hinder us from knowing God.  One thing I’ve discovered over the years is that God most often uses the unexpected and the least likely to get His will accomplished.  He does this for one purpose – to insure that we see that it’s Him at work and not any mere human.

Father, You had to take what I thought I knew and turn it upside down just to show me how wrong-headed my thinking had become.  My college environment had become fertile ground for “intellectual growth”, which amounted really to nothing more than human pride.  I really understood nothing until I began to understand You.  And I’m thankful that in Your Word You say, “And this is eternal life – to know YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  I can’t think of a better way to spend eternity!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 21 -- Another Chance

I sure like what Max Lucado said about this chapter in his book He Still Moves Stones.  Peter and the other disciples were fishing on the Sea of Galilee, and early one morning after a night of catching nothing, Jesus calls to them from shore, directing them to cast the net to the other side of the boat.  John and Peter both recognize that it’s Jesus giving the directions:

“Peter plunges into the water, swims to the shore, and stumbles out wet and shivering and stands in front of the friend he betrayed …

For one of the few times in his life, Peter is silent.  What words would suffice?  The moment is too holy for words …

What do you say at a moment such as this?  It’s just you and God.  You and God both know what you did.  And neither of you is proud of it.  What do you do?

You might consider doing what Peter did.  Stand in God’s presence … Stand in His sight.  Stand still and wait.  Sometimes that’s all a soul can do.

Too repentant to speak, but too hopeful to leave – we just stand.  Stand amazed. 

He has come back.  He invites you to try again.  This time, with Him.”

Father, I cannot thank You enough for giving me grace and forgiveness.  Over the years, I’ve presented my biggest failures to You, trusting in Your promises, and again and again You have restored me and healed me, forgiven me and forgotten my sins.  Then You’ve asked me to try again, this time with You.  I couldn’t ask for a better friend!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 20 -- One Key Word ...

Early on Sunday morning, John and Peter ran to the empty tomb after hearing Mary’s report.  Yet it wasn’t totally empty.  There was evidence in there – strips of linen lying there, and the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head, now neatly folded and set aside.  This wasn’t the scene of a grave desecration.  This didn’t indicate that a body had been stolen.  It was a scene of peace and order.  John said that he saw it and believed.

Mary believed, especially when she heard the risen Christ call her name.  Then a large group of the disciples believed when suddenly Jesus appeared among them in a locked room.

Thomas hadn’t been there on that occasion, but when Jesus did the same thing again and quoted Thomas’ own doubting words back to him, he too believed as Jesus told him, “Stop being an unbeliever and believe.”

John later wrote, “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  Then, by believing, you may have life in His name.”

Father, I doubted like Thomas once.  Thank You for helping me to believe by calling my name out as You did Mary’s.  Thank You for helping me to know that Jesus is Your Son – the Messiah of the world.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 19 -- From A Quite Different Point Of View

As I read of the beating and crucifixion of Jesus, my mind recalled scenes from the movie The Passion Of The Christ and also scenes from our church’s Easter pageant Living Pictures.  For many years I was cast in the role of Christ, carrying the cross in, being “nailed” to it and being lifted up.  I can remember seeing the looks on the faces of people in the audience whom I did not know, and hearing the sobs coming from men and women alike. 

But something I read this morning really got to me like nothing has before:  “When Jesus say His mother … He said, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  Joseph wasn’t there.  Legend has it that he had already died before Jesus’ public ministry began.  Scriptures tell us nothing.  Both Jesus’ adopted father, Joseph, and His actual Father, God, must have been watching the scene from heaven.  So in my case, rather than seeing myself on the cross, as I so often remember in those pageants, I suddenly was struck with the thought of my firstborn son on that cross.  I thought of the agony in my soul of seeing him beaten and tortured, knowing the pain he would have been enduring, and being totally unable to help him.  My soul was filled with agony and grief.  Such hurt that would have been for Joseph and Mary, had he been there in the flesh.  My heart broke just thinking about it.

Father, I cannot imagine what it must have been like for You to have held back and watched as Your Son was murdered by men.  How Your heart must have broken, even knowing that You would raise Him up again!  I cannot fathom the love You had for me that would cause You to allow this to happen so that my sins could be forgiven.  I don’t know that I could have done it, Father.  But thank You anyway!  What my sins cost You, Father, and Your Son!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 18 -- More Like Them Than We Know?

Once the Jewish leadership had arrested Jesus, they began to question Him in a nighttime court hearing, yet they’d been unable to produce credible witnesses against Him.  Jesus pointed this out to them, firmly stating that everything He’d said and every teaching event had occurred in public, in the synagogues, and in the Temple.  Surely they could find witnesses!  Yet none had come forth.

It was the Friday of Passover.  The Jewish leaders hauled him to the Roman governor’s residence.  “They would not go inside the palace, because they did not want to make themselves unclean,” it says in verse 28.  It’s amazing that Pilate was not so offended by the remark that he didn’t slam the door in their faces.

My commentary really brings this all out:  “It did not seem to bother them that they were plotting the death of the Son of God.  It would have been a tragedy for them to enter a Gentile house, but murder was a mere trifle.  Augustine was astounded by their upside-down way of thinking – that they would feel defiled by someone else’s dwelling and not by their own crime – “the blood of an innocent brother.”

It quoted Bishop Hall:  “Woe unto you priests, scribes, elders, hypocrites!  Can there be any roof so unclean as that of your own breasts?  Not Pilate’s walls, but your own hearts, are impure … Do you long to be stained with blood – with the blood of God?  And do you fear to be defiled with the touch of Pilate’s pavement? … Pilate has more cause to fear, lest his walls should be defiled with the presence of such prodigious monsters of iniquity.”

Someone else said, “Nothing is more common that for persons overzealous about rituals to be remiss about morals.”

They were majoring on the minors and so blinded by ambition that they never considered that they were plotting the murder of an innocent man.

We rail against their hypocrisy, only to run full force into the wall of our own sin.  All sin is rebellion against God, and mine is no different than theirs.  I could therefore substitute my name into this chapter just as easily.  Then let me talk about myself.

Father, forgive me.  That’s the one thing that separates me from them.  I admit that I sin, and because I have believed in Your Son, I can ask for and receive forgiveness and forgetfulness from You.  I am unworthy of such grace, but I gladly accept it.  Thank You for removing my sin as far as the east is from the west – one scared hand to another.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 17 -- You and I are IN the Bible!

What an incredible privilege we have, being privy to this incredibly personal prayer from Jesus to our Father – hearing Him speak about us to God.

He described the eternal life He had given us – “that people know you, the only true God, and that they know Jesus Christ, the One You sent.”  And by using the word Christ in His name, He is openly declaring Himself to be the Messiah!

In verse 10, where Jesus prays, “All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine,” my commentary noted how easy it would be to say the first part, but also how impossible it would be for us to mean the second part.  It was only because Jesus was equal with God that He could say it and mean it.

Jesus prayed this for us:  “I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the Evil One.”  My commentary said that He wasn’t praying for escape, but preservation for us.

Verse 20 is incredibly special:  “I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who WILL believe in Me because of their teaching.”  WOW!  Jesus specifically prayed for me AND my sons all those centuries ago!  He also established residence in us in verse 23:  “I will be IN them and You will be in Me so that they will be completely one.  Then the world will know that: 

1)       You sent Me, and

2)       That You loved them just as much as You loved Me

Father, it’s beyond my ability to conceive that You would or could love me just as much as You loved Your Son, Jesus Christ.  He is infinitely worthy of Your love and I am not.  Yet You choose to do it anyway.  AMAZING LOVE, Father!  Amazing love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 16 -- Part Of What's Happening In Egypt Now?

Something in verses 2-4 caught my attention this morning.  I’ve been listening to all the stuff coming out of Egypt and other countries in that region.  These verses had an ominous ring to them.  Jesus said:

“Yes, the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering serve to God.  They will do this because they have NOT known the Father AND they have not know Me.  I have told you these things now so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you.”

I think it’s vitally important to understand one particular thing in there – they will be offering service to God BUT they do not know Him or Christ.  So the “God” they are offering service to is either not the same God we serve, or they have so thoroughly misunderstood Him that it’s as if they don’t know Him.  Jesus also says that they have not known HIM at all.  That would be apparent by their failure to obey His command to love their neighbors as themselves.  In Egypt and other countries in that region, that is certainly not happening right now.

Father, I pray for those who have misunderstood somewhere along the way or who have never known You.  They see You (or some other god) as a God of vengeance and conquest rather than the God of love that You are.  Please convict them of their lack of knowledge of You and Your nature.  Show them who You really are, Father, and how You want them to live.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 15 -- What's Going On Inside A Branch On A Vine?

Gardening for food is so much different than gardening for looks.  Over the years I’ve seen little scraggly fruit trees in the yards of several friends, and I’ve wondered why they didn’t dig the little things up and instead plant trees that would produce better shad and that would look better.  What I’d been failing to account for was the bounty that those trees produced.  These friends knew that there was joy in what was received from those less-than-lovely trees.  I think that gives me a hint of what Jesus was mentioning here.

Christianity is not about looks or perceptions.  Appearances mean nothing.  Jesus clearly says that He finds no usefulness in a branch that fails to produce fruit.  The primary reason for His attitude, I believe, is that lack of fruit is a symptom of lack of connection to Him – vital connection.  He tells us to remain in His love, receiving on a constant basis His encouragement, support, and yes, even His challenges to produce.  He tells us that to do that, we have to obey His commands.  Someone not doing this is not being a good witness for Him either.  The type of fruit He wants us to produce is “fruit that will last.”  What kind is that?  Fruit that will live after us and produce after us – souls added to the kingdom.

There’s a huge benefit from doing that, too.  He describes himself as the vine and us as the branches.  Branches that are producing much fruit have an incredible amount of sap from the vine flowing through them.  They become bigger and better conduits of that sap.  In the same way, fruitbearing causes our own lives to be bigger and better conduits of His love, enriching not only others, but our own lives in the process.

Father, that’s the only way to live.  Open up every spiritual artery and vein in me.  Let me feel Your love coursing through me on its way to those You are growing through me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 14 -- He Said It Multiple Times ....

Anytime something is repeated multiple times in the Bible, we can know it is important.  I found that happening simply within this one chapter:

In v 15:  “If you love Me, you will obey My commands.”

In v 21:  “Those who know My commands and obey them are the ones who love Me.”

In v 23:  “If people love Me, they will obey my teaching.  My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make Our home with them.”

In v 24:  Those who do not love Me do not obey My teachings.”

So where does that put us if there is, say one teaching of Christ that we can’t, won’t or don’t desire to obey?  It seems to mean that we love ourselves and our sin more than we love our Savior, at least on that one thing.

What do we do when we know that is occurring?  I can only come up with ne answer.  We have to deny ourselves in that area, as though we are on a diet.  Yes, I sure want it, but I can’t have it.  One thing we have to really watch out for is not allowing ourselves to feel that we’re being shortchanged, for that will quickly breed resentment.  Instead, we have to handle it much like we would a food allergy – knowing that no matter how badly we want it, it will be very detrimental to us to get it.  And that takes a shift in mindset.  Jesus becomes our Great Physician to our spirit.  He knows what we can’t handle.  And He works to get it through our thick skulls and through our rebellious spirits.

Father, please keep me from ever thinking that I know better than You what’s best for me.  Keep me from selfishly wanting what You know I definitely don’t need.  Instead, point me to Your best for me, and cause me to believe that it is, despite my protests.  For You do know best, Father, and I don’t.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 13 -- What Jesus Knew -- Good Later

Several times I found myself encountering the phrase “Jesus knew …” in this chapter, so I began to take note.

“Jesus knew that it was time for Him to leave this world and go back to the Father.  He had always loved those who were His own in the world and He loved them all the way to the end … Jesus knew that the Father had given Him power over everything and that He had come from God and was going back to God.”  As He began to wash His disciples’ feet, Peter protested.  Jesus said, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later.”  He also said, “I know those I have chosen.” 

I tried to think about what that would have been like:  Knowing You were about to leave and that it would be awhile before you would see your friends again.  That happened to me last summer.  We’d traveled back to Ukraine and had just spent five wonderful days with my oldest son’s best friend from his orphanage days and with his brother.  I’d come to love his friend as a son over the years as I’d first just met him in the orphanage and then spent time with him on subsequent visits.  I knew the goodbyes would be tough.

As we strolled through a small roadside collection of tent merchants that all together contained less merchandise that one convenience store in America, his friend spotted a new toothbrush and toothpaste, and he asked me in Russian if he could have them.  Toothpaste!  Of course I said yes!  Then I also pointed out several other toiletries and bought them for him.  I’ll never forget that smile and his expressions of appreciation and thanks. 

I texted a friend back in America, saying, “Please be praying for me today.  I have to tell this boy goodbye today.  The last time I did, it was really hard, and I feel those same emotions stirring again.”  His text back to me meant everything.  He reminded me of what a praise band leader had said in introducing a song once:  “It’s not goodbye, but good-later!”

Jesus knew better than I that it truly would be good-later.  Not only would He see His disciples again after the resurrection, but also when He saw them in heaven.

Not knowing whether Josh’s friend was truly a Christian or simply exposed to the almost-obligatory orthodox religion in Ukraine, I sat him down when we returned to the hotel and gave him a copy of Experiencing God, printed in Russian, that I’d brought with me as a just-in-case item.  Through our translator, I told him what it was about and what it had meant to me.  And that regardless of what happened on this earth, I wanted us to be able to say, “Good later and not just goodbye.

Jesus later said, “I give you a new command.  Love each other.  You must love each other as I have loved you.”  That’s what I was doing, and what I must keep doing.

Father, that day put new urgency into my heart about planting the seeds that will insure that I will never be saying goodbye to someone – only good later.  Thank You for allowing us the hope of seeing those we love again someday with You and Your Son in heaven.  No more goodbyes.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 12 -- Not Going Their Way

God pointed me to the Pharisees today.  Verses 9-11 told of the large crowd of Jews that had come from Jerusalem to Bethany to see both Jesus and Lazarus. “So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus, too.  Because of Lazarus, many of the Jews were leaving THEM and believing in JESUS.”

My commentary said about Lazarus, “One would think he had committed high treason by being raised from the dead!  It was nothing over which he had control, and yet they considered him worthy of death.”  What really struck me was that they were making plans to murder a man whom God had just raised from the dead!  How totally off-base they’d gotten!

It was all about them and their perceived power.  They were the spiritual leaders of Israel.  No one else, including Jesus, would take them where they did not want to go, and it had to be their idea as well.  They couldn’t be seen as followers, only leaders.

In verse 19, it says, “So the Pharisees said to each other, ‘You can see that nothing is going right for us.  Look!  The whole world is following Him.’ “  Nothing is going right for us speaks of their selfishness and conceit.

The Pharisees wanted to rule.  The people, like so many today, were only interested in change.  They hardly cared what that change would mean, except when it came to Jesus.  Verse 37 says, “Though Jesus had done many miracles in front of the people, they still did not believe in Him.”  And that was the opposite of what the Pharisees perceived.

How difficult this must have been for Jesus.  He’d come to die for us to save us from our sins.  Yet the religious leaders wanted to kill him, and the vast majority of the crowds were only interested in the sensational, not wanting to believe.  My commentary said they wanted a king to rule over them, but they did not want to repent.

Father, I don’t want to be like those Pharisees, wanting to be ruling anyone at any cost.  I don’t want to be like the crowd, just wanting a king and not wanting to repent.  I simply want my Savior to show me how to live the kind of life that honors You and gives You glory.  Help me to do that every day.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 11 -- What Do I Prefer?

Two miles east of Jerusalem, Lazarus had become sick and died.  Jesus had intentionally waited until he’d died before heading to his home, because the people would see a greater miracle than just a healing.  They would see the resurrection of a man who’d been in the grave for four days!

Many Jews had come from Jerusalem to mourn and comfort his sisters, so quite a crowd was on hand when Jesus called out in a loud voice for Lazarus to come out of his grave.  What was the reaction?  “Many of the Jews, who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.”  Many???  Why not all???  They’d just witnessed Jesus’ greatest miracle up to that time!  My commentary said, “The effect of a miracle on a person’s life depends on his moral condition.  If one’s heart is evil, rebellious, and unbelieving, he will not believe even though he were to see one raised from the dead.”

So what did they do?  They headed straight back to Jerusalem to tattle to the Pharisees.  For a group of men that had developed hundreds of rules in order that they could scrupulously claim to have followed the law of Moses to the letter, this had to be unsettling.  After all, they had no protocols for times when the dead were raised!  In their obsessive-compulsive world, this would create a paperwork mess.  How does one unrecord a death certificate when a death had in fact occurred?  They couldn’t issue a new birth certificate.  What about the cemetery plot?  Etc., etc.  This was just too messy!

They asked each other, “What should we do?  This man is doing many miracles! [Note that they just provided court-ready evidence from expert witnesses that the miracles were in fact real and occurring.]  If we LET Him CONTINUE doing these things everyone will believe in Him. [That’s a bad thing?]  Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.  [It happened anyway in 70 A.D. – not because they accepted Him but because they rejected Him.]  …. That day they started planning to kill Jesus.”

Again, my commentary hit the nail on the head:  “They did not want to believe because they preferred their sins to the Savior.”

Father, I don’t want to ever do that.  I feel the same misery at times that Paul felt – betrayed by a fleshly body infected with sin.  “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do?” He had asked.  I don’t want to prefer anything over You.  Help me to recognize times when I’m beginning to do that, so that with Your strength I can nip it in the bud, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 10 -- Total Satisfaction ... Total Love

Jesus took on the Pharisees again here, cementing His role as Messiah.  While it’s great to see Him put them in their place, it’s even better to hear what He’s saying to each believer about His relationship to them:

“He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out … He goes ahead of them, and they follow Him because they know His voice … I am the door, and the person who enters through Me WILL be saved and will be able to come in and go out and find pasture [total satisfaction] … I came to give life – life in all its fullness.  I am  the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep … I know My sheep, as the Father knows Me [total knowledge].  And My sheep know Me, as I know the Father [nothing hidden or held back in the relationship].  I give My life for the sheep [total dedication] … My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never die, and no one can steal them out of My hand.  My Father gave My sheep to Me.  He is greater than all, and no person can steal My sheep out of My Father’s hand [total protection].  The Father and I are one.”

You can’t buy an insurance policy like that!  I’ve heard it said that because of this protection, a believer is immortal on this earth until his work is done.  We need not fear death.  Then, we enter into eternal life with the One who loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.  What an existence!

Father, thank You for taking this sheep and turning him over to Your Son for training and safekeeping.  I know that I am in His hand and in Your hand as well.  My eternity is secure.  I love You!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford