John 14:1-14 Some Assurances For A Troubled Heart

My commentary noted the troubled hearts of the disciples at Jesus’ announcement that He was going and that they could not follow right then, and then it set about explaining how Jesus calmed those troubled hearts, mentioning “six wonderful assurances to lay hold of … and thus enjoy untroubled hearts.”  Three of them are included in what I read today:

1)       You are going to Heaven – He gave a clear promise of His return for His people in verse 3.  Thomas then wanted to know “where He was going and how he himself would get there.  The Lord made it clear that He was going to the Father, and that He was the only way to the Father… Jesus did not simply teach the way or point the way; He is the way …Our Lord’s statement (in verse 6) wipes away any other proposed way to heaven – good works, religious ceremonies, costly gifts, etc.  There is only one way, and that way is Jesus Christ.

2)      You know the Father Right Now – My commentary spoke of different levels of knowing and intends to describe them in the next section I’ll read, but said “when Jesus said that knowing Him and seeing Him was the same as knowing and seeing the Father, He was claiming to be God.”

3)      You Have The Privilege of Prayer – “One of the best remedies for a troubled heart is prayer.  However, if God is going to answer our prayers and give us peace in our hearts, there are certain conditions that we must meet.  We must pray in faith .. Both love and obedience are part of effective prayer. ‘If I regard [see and approve] iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.’ (Psalm 66:18).  We must pray in Christ’s name – “means to ask what Jesus would ask, what would please Him, and what would bring Him glory by furthering His work … Any request that does not glorify God’s name should not be asked in His name.”  We must pray in loving obedience – “When you love someone, you honor his or her name, and you would never use that name in a demeaning manner.”

Father, when my heart is troubled, remind me of where I’m going, and that my Savior – Your Son – is the only way to You.  Thank You for allowing me to approach You in prayer and for hearing my prayers when I pray them in faith and obedience.  Help me to know what pleases You and what will bring glory to You so that I pray in Your will.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 13 -- What He KNEW

Wish I’d had more time to write this morning!  So much great stuff here!  God zeroed me in on the words “knew” and “know” this morning.

“Jesus knew that it was time for him to leave this world and go back to the Father … Jesus knew that the Father had given Him power over everything and that He had come from God and was going back to God … ‘I know those I have chosen.’”

It just really hit me how He must have longed to be with his Father again.  Some 33 years had passed since He’d seen home – the throne-room of Heaven.  But He so loved His Father that He’d remained on that heavenly timetable and now knew that He was on countdown to departure.  It was bittersweet in that He knew suffering must come before His glory was once again revealed and magnified by what He’d do.  And He knew that His father would get even more glory from what Jesus was about to endure, and it would be well-deserved for the offer of salvation He was extending to the world.

Knowing the destination is near quickens the heart.

Father, I’m so thankful for what You’ve allowed me to know about You and Your Son, and I so look forward to the day when my faith will become sight.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 12:20-50 A Message Worth Hearing

Jesus was closing out His public ministry before He was to die on the cross.  He likened His death to the process a seed goes through to become a plant.  My commentary noted these spiritual truths:  “There can be no glory without suffering, no fruitful life without death, no victory without surrender.  Of itself, a seed is weak and useless, but when it is planted, it dies and becomes fruitful.  There is both beauty and bounty when a seed dies and fulfills its purpose … the only way it can achieve its goal is by being planted.  God’s children are like seeds.  They are small and insignificant, but they have life in them, God’s life.  However, that life can never be fulfilled unless we yield ourselves to God and permit Him to plant us.  We must die to self so that we may live unto God.”

God also spoke to me about the quote from Isaiah in verse 40.  My commentary said, “When a person starts to resist the light, something begins to change within him, and he comes to the place where he cannot believe.  There is judicial blindness that God permits to come over the eyes of people who do not take the truth seriously.”  How important it is, then, that we help those we love to see their spiritual blindness developing, in order that we may help prevent it from taking over their lives.

Father, I know that I struggled with judicial blindness for a time as I chose to move away from You.  How I wish that someone had been there to tell me what I was doing.  Don’t let me fail to say what I need to say to others.  In the same vein, help me to show them the incredible truth You revealed here about the fruitfulness of dying to self, and the blessings it brings.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 12:1-19 Seeing With His Eyes

A week before His death, Jesus returned from Galilee to Bethany, just 2 miles from Jerusalem, to share an intimate meal with those He loved.  Martha, as usual, ministered by preparing and serving the meal.  Mary, in her own act of worship, anointed Jesus’ feet with very expensive perfume and wiped His feet clean with her hair (a woman’s glory according to Scripture).  Judas hated that the value of the perfume was lost by her act.  He wanted the money the perfume would have brought if sold, for he often stole from the funds he was charged with keeping.  Even some of the other disciples agreed that the poor could have been fed with the funds.  Knowing what was coming, though, Jesus praised her for anointing Him for burial.

Lazarus was there, too, and many had come to see him – hearing that he’d been raised from the dead by Jesus.  “So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus, too.  Because of Lazarus, many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus,” Scripture says.  They were making plans to kill a man that God had raised from the dead!

The next day, “the only public demonstration that our Lord allowed while He was on earth” occurred, my commentary said.  “His purpose was to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 … It was part of His obedience to the Father’s will … They proclaimed Him the ‘King of Israel’.  But while they were doing this, Jesus was weeping!” my commentary said.  In Luke 19, Jesus foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of her people, and at what would have been the high point in the life of any normal man, He wept in sorrow.

The Jewish leaders, watching the procession, “were quite sure that Jesus had won the day … How little they really understood the mind and heart of the Master!  What they did not realize was that Jesus was ‘forcing their hand’ so that the Sanhedrin would act during the feast.  The Lamb of God had to give His life  when the Passover lambs were being slain,” my commentary explained.

Father, as usual we humans don’t see things with Your eyes.  We complain about worship, we assign wrong motives, and we only see things in light of how they affect us.  Enable my mind and heart to see what You see instead.  Give me Your eyes.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 11 -- Four Things To Consider

The story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus is familiar, but I loved some things my commentary pointed out that we might not often consider:

1)       Jesus had sent word back to the sisters that He was coming.  It appears that Lazarus must have died before the messenger returned to them.  “Jesus was urging them to believe His word no matter how discouraging the circumstances might appear.”

2)      Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying, even from a great distance.  “God’s love for His own is not a pampering love; it is a perfecting love … We must never think that love and suffering  are incompatible.  Certainly they unite in Jesus Christ.”

3)      Jesus wept.  “Our Lord’s response was to groan within and ‘be moved with indignation.’ At what was He indignant?  At the ravages of sin in the world that He had created.”

4)      After seeing Lazarus brought back to life after four days in the grave, some of the witnesses “went to the religious leaders and reported what had happened … These informers were so near the kingdom, yet there is no evidence that they believed.  If the heart will not yield to truth, then the grace of God cannot bring salvation.”

Father, thank You for reminding me just last week that I trust You, no matter the circumstances, knowing that You are in complete control of my life, and that nothing surprises You and nothing confounds You.  You use it all to glorify Yourself!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 10:22-42 He SAID It!

About two and a half months passed between verse 21 and verse 22, my commentary said.  It was now December and the Feast of Hanukkah was underway.  The Jewish leaders surrounded Jesus in the Temple, demanding that He clearly tell them whether or not He was the Christ.  He said, “I told you already, but you did not believe.”  The reason?  “You are not My sheep.”  Jesus knew that the men surrounding Him had not been chosen by God to be saved!

My commentary discussed this mystery:  “ …why they did not understand His words or grasp the significance of His works:  they were not His sheep.  From the human standpoint, we become His sheep by believing, but from the divine standpoint, we believe because we are His sheep.  There is a mystery here that we cannot fathom or explain … God has His sheep and He knows who they are.  They will hear His voice and respond.  The lost sinner who hears God’s Word knows nothing about divine election.  He hears only that he may receive the gift of eternal life by trusting the Savior.  When he trusts the Savior, he becomes a member of God’s family and a sheep in the flock.  Then he learns that he was ‘chosen in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world’ … In the Bible, divine election and human responsibility are perfectly balanced, and what God has joined together, we must not put asunder.”

It went on to show us our security as God’s sheep – “We have eternal life, and that cannot be conditional and still be eternal.  Second, this life is a gift, not something that we earn or merit.  If we were not saved by our good works, but by His grace, then we cannot be lost by our bad works.” 

So did He give them the plain answer they were seeking?  In verse 30, He said, “The Father and I are one.”  You can tell that they knew that He was saying that He is God, because they considered such a confession to be blasphemy, and they immediately picked up stones to kill Him.

Why did they not instead immediately believe?  He’d already told them.  “You are NOT My sheep.”  They had not been predestined by God to be saved, so they could not and would not believe.

Father, how that thrills my heart!  You tell us here that we cannot believe unless You preordained it.  And I believe, so that means that before the foundation of the world, You chose me, warts and all, to be Your child.  Thank You for that gift, Father, and thank You for making it possible through Your Son.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 10:1-21 NOW I See It!

It’s pretty easy to see how the people became confused by Jesus’ words here.  For us, this very Middle-Eastern imagery is even tougher to fathom, but my commentary really fleshed it out.

First, it said to keep in mind that “this sermon grew out of our Lord’s confrontation with the Jewish leaders, following the excommunication of the beggar.”  The man born blind who was healed on the Sabbath was kicked out of Judaism.

The sheepfold was usually a large rock-walled enclosure where one or more flocks of sheep were kept during the night.  A porter slept in the gateway to keep the sheep in.  In the morning, the shepherd would come and call out to his flock and only his sheep would come at the sound of his voice and follow him out to pasture. 

It continued:  “Jesus made it clear that the fold is the nation of Israel (v. 16).  The Gentiles are the other sheep not of the fold of Israel.”

Jesus describes Himself as the Door.  “He is the Door of the sheepfold and makes it possible for the sheep to leave the fold (the religion of Judaism) and to enter His flock.  The Pharisees threw the beggar out of the synagogue, but Jesus led him out of Judaism and into the flock of God!  But the Shepherd does not stop with leading the sheep out; He also leads them in.  They become a part of the ‘one flock’ (not ‘fold’), which is His church.”

Jesus then contrasted Himself as the Good Shepherd with the hireling shepherd (the Pharisees) who was only concerned about himself and not his sheep.  As the Good Shepherd, He died for the sheep, He knows His sheep, He brings other sheep into the flock, and He takes up His life again (resurrection) after giving His life for His sheep.

This explanation certainly helped me to understand His words at the first of this chapter.

Father, thank You for caring enough for Your sheep to not simply lead us, but also to help us know You and Your Son better.  In these verses, Jesus says, “And My sheep know Me, as I know the Father.”  That’s what I continue to want to do, Father – to know You more.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 9 -- So Who's Really Blind?

Seeing a man they all knew had been born blind, the disciples asked (clearly expecting Jesus to know the correct answer), “Whose sin caused this?”  They’d been raised in a society where physical impairments were seen as punishments from God.  Jesus said, “This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.”  Only God would know that, and it was so contrary to public belief!  If the man had heard their conversation, I imagine his entire perspective might have changed instantly!

Jesus spat on the ground, stirred in some dirt, and placed the mixture on the man’s eyes.  These actions, to the Pharisees, would be work, and it was the Sabbath.  He then told him to go wash it all off in a pool.  Keep in mind that he’d not yet seen Jesus – only heard His voice.

Healing someone born blind had never happened before.  Rather than being amazed, the Pharisees were incensed.  It didn’t fit their rules.  They started an investigation, not to declare it a miracle, but to trap Jesus!  “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

The man’s parents, afraid of the Pharisees, evaded their inquiries.  The son, however pretty much told them to stuff it.  He wasn’t going to let rule-following get in the way of God-worshiping.

Amazingly, the Pharisees told him, “You should give God the glory by telling the truth.”  And he did, just as Jesus told the disciples that this was the reason for his blindness.

Father, please keep me from ever trying to get in the way of what You are doing.  If I’ve allowed myself to be blinded spiritually, open my eyes and show me what You’re doing.  I don’t want to be like these men.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 8:31-59 Made Me Think Of A Movie I Just Saw

Jesus said, “If you continue to obey My teaching, you are truly My followers.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

They didn’t like what He was implying:  that they were slaves to something or to someone.  In fact, they denied that the Israelites had ever been slaves, even though their country was occupied by the Roman army as they were speaking!  But Jesus had other, more important, slavery in mind.  “Everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin.”  The literal translation is, “Whosoever keeps on practicing sin is a slave to sin.”

I was reminded of a scene from the new movie Jack Ryan:  Shadow Recruit where Jack is in military rehab learning to walk again following a helicopter crash.  Having just fallen again during rehab, he makes a deal with his doctor that he will get back up and finish if she will get him two pain pills.  She gets them (he starts trying to walk again, too), but she asks him to wait 2 minutes before taking them.  “Why?” he asks.  “To prove to yourself that you can.”  She didn’t want him to become enslaved to the pain pills.

Those who don’t truly know God and accept His teachings and His Son’s sacrifice for their sins cannot see their own enslavement.  My commentary said, “The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize.  He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave.  The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and to Satan.  They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free.

Father, I have to admit that the title for this section in my Bible – “Freedom From Sin” – sure catches my attention.  Who wouldn’t want to be forever free from the effects of sin and the temptations to sin?  How wonderful to live with no regrets, no shame, no feelings of hypocrisy, and no sadness over disappointing the One who loves us so?  I know that this side of heaven my flesh will fail me, but I don’t have to practice sin, for Your Spirit is inside me, helping me to say no and to live victoriously.  Thank You for always offering me a way out.  Help me not to be too stupid to take it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 8:12-30 Jesus Talking About Himself

My commentary said that during the Feast of Tabernacles, “a huge candelabra was lighted in the Temple at night to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel in their wilderness journey.”  Jesus was speaking just after this feast concluded, so He quite possibly was using this imagery as a type of Himself.  “I am the light of the world.  The person who follows Me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”  Following Him meant believing in Him and trusting Him, and the results are life and light for the believer, according to my commentary.

Unbelievers prefer the darkness and walk in darkness because they do not know God and they do not want God knowing what they are doing, although nothing can be hidden from Him. 

In the following section, Jesus plainly spoke of His divinity:  “I am from above … I don’t belong to this world.”  There were several “I am” references in here, lots of references to the Father, reminders that He would be lifted up, as well as His assurances that the Father had sent him.  But what spoke volumes to me were His words about His relationship with His Father:  “I say only what the Father has taught Me.  The One who sent Me is with Me.  I always do what is pleasing to Him, so He has not left Me alone.”

We have to have a relationship that close to Christ as well.  As my commentary said, “We either walk in the light and have eternal life, or walk in the darkness and experience eternal death.”

Father God, keep me close to You.  Help me to do what is pleasing to You.  Stoke up our relationship.  Help me to let others see Your Son living through me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 8:1-11 Convicting The Judges

Just enough of this story is untold to pique our curiosity.  A woman caught in the very act of adultery  -- how did they manage to find her in the first place?  And where was the man?  It does take two.

The setting is the “court of the women” on the Temple grounds.  “All the people” had come to hear Jesus teach after the Feast of Tabernacles concluded.  The poor woman, certainly in deep shame, was dragged by the Pharisees right into the middle of all this – to be put on display and used by the Pharisees in yet another attempt to discredit Jesus!  They wanted Him between a rock and a hard place.

“The law of Moses commands that we stone to death every woman who does this.  What do You say we should do?”  they asked Him.  It’s important to see where they were at fault before trying to answer the question.  They’d conveniently altered “the law of Moses”.  It didn’t say just “every woman”.  Both participants were to be stoned.  They were violating the law by not bringing in the man as well!

Their plan was to catch Jesus no matter which way He answered.  If He said, “No, don’t stone her,” then they had Him for openly breaking the law of Moses.  If He agreed with them, He’d likely lose most of His following, who valued His message of grace and forgiveness.  Jesus used Jewish law to solve the problem.  It required the accusers to throw the first stones.  He simply said, “Anyone here who has never sinned can cast the first stone at her.”

Of course, He was the only one there qualified to do so.  He’d just forced them to examine their own hearts.  He’d made it clear that adultery could take place in the heart without taking place in the bed.  No doubt those accusers who’d caught her in the act had also harbored quite impure thoughts over the scene while arresting her!

Knowing that they’d be branded as hypocrites, the older men dropped their stones and walked away.  Seeing what was happening, the younger men were also convicted and gave up.  Soon it was only the woman and Jesus.

He asked her, “Has no one judged you guilty?”  “No one, sir,” she humbly replied.  Knowing that the Pharisees had judged themselves guilty by the fact that they’d left, Jesus forgave her but also commanded her not to sin again.

My commentary said we have to be careful not to “misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was easy on sin  … For Jesus to forgive this woman meant that He had to one day die for her sins.  Forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap.”

It also reminded us, “We must be condemned by the law before we can be cleansed by God’s grace.  Law and grace do not compete with each other.  They complement each other … There must be conviction before there can be conversion.”

Father, I am such a sinner, but thankfully I am forgiven and cleansed.  Thank You for offering Your Son to die for my sins.  Help me not to “condemn Him again” by adding to the large list that shows what You’ve forgiven me of already.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 7:37-53 They Just Don't Get It

It was the final day of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles – the day when the priests would march seven times around the altar chanting Psalms 118:25, according to my commentary, which reads, “Please Lord, save us!  Please Lord, give us success!”  During the other six days, those priests had dipped water from the Pool of Saloam and poured it out, as a reminder of God providing water during the wilderness trek.

Standing right in front of them was the Son of God and they didn’t even know it.  In response to this chant, He answered, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink.  If anyone believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow out form that person’s heart, as the Scripture says,”  He was talking about the Holy Spirit.

The Temple guards had been sent to arrest Him, yet watching all of this, they returned empty-handed, saying, “The words He says are greater than the words of any other person who has ever spoken!”

The leaders and Pharisees condemned them as fools.  Only Nicodemus was brave enough to say, “Our law does not judge a man without hearing him and knowing what he has done.”  They hopped on his words, saying, “Are you from Galilee, too?  Study the Scriptures and you will learn that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

All Nicodemus had to say was, “Jonah did.”  Of course, if they’d bothered to ask, they’d have discovered Jesus’ birthplace was Bethlehem of Judea.  But they didn’t want to hear that.

Father,  Satan does his best to put blinders on us.   He wants to hide inconvenient truths from us that would point us back to You.  One way he does so is by making us proud of our intelligence to the point that he makes us feel that we’re above all that.  But pride goes before a fall.  Keep us humble and willing to hear more from You each day.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 7:1-36 More Distrust

Having just lost a multitude of followers, Jesus also was being cautious by staying in the region of Galilee, because in Judea the Jews were wanting to kill Him.  How strange then for his own half-brothers to say, “You should leave here and go to Judea!”  They were sarcastic in their words, trying to goad Him into revealing His supposed divinity in much the same manner that Satan suggested during the temptations in the wilderness.  “Even Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him.”  How that must have hurt for Him own family not to be believers!

Jesus did attend the Feast of Tabernacles, but on God’s timetable, and He hid Himself from the crowds until He began openly teaching in the Temple.  Again, people were amazed at what He knew.  Once again He acknowledged in words they understood that He is indeed God:  “I was sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know.  But I know Him, because I am FROM HIM and He sent Me.”  He’d just revealed that He had pre-existed in Heaven before His birth on earth, and this stoked the crowd and the Jewish leaders against Him.  They sent Temple guards in an attempt to arrest Him.

There was something important in there, and my commentary mentioned it:  “He was not suggesting a shallow taste test but rather the deep personal commitment of the person to truth.  The Jews depended on education and authorities and received their doctrine secondhand, but Jesus insisted that we experience the authority of truth personally.  The Jewish leaders were attempting to kill Jesus, yet at the same time they claimed to understand God’s truth and obey it.  This proves that an enlightened and educated mind is no guarantee of a pure heart or a sanctified will … Satan offered Adam and Eve knowledge, but it was knowledge based on disobedience.  Jesus offered knowledge as a result of obedience:  first the yoke of responsibility, then the joy of knowing God’s truth…”

Father, help me to find Your truth as I search for it.  Remind me that it comes from obedience to Your Word and a deep personal commitment to truth.  Don’t let me think that an enlightened and educated mind is all that is needed to find it.  I’ve made that mistake before.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 6 -- It's Not Over Yet

Jesus said to the crowds, “The words I told you are spirit and they give life.  But some of you don’t believe.  (Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would turn against him.)  That is the reason I said, ‘If the Father does not bring a person to Me, that one cannot come.’”

The next verse was telling – “After Jesus said this, many of His followers left Him and stopped following Him.”

Was Jesus surprised?  No.  He knows men’s hearts.  Was He heartbroken?  He turned and then asked His disciples, “Do you want to leave, too?”

I don’t know the answer, but I know how it feels when You’ve poured yourself into someone you love and tried your best to explain God’s goodness and love for them, only to watch them turn away from that love.  But Jesus was on a divine timetable.  He knew His mission and He knew that His Father would draw those to Him that He had chosen.  It wasn’t hopeless yet.

Father, give me the same calm assurance that Jesus displayed in the face of what we would consider disappointing circumstances.  After all, You are God, and You will draw to Yourself those You wish to have with You for eternity.  It’s not over yet!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 5:30-47 Some Of Jesus' Most Important Words?

“I can do nothing alone.  I judge only the way I am told, so My judgment is fair.  I don’t try to please Myself, but I try to please the One who sent Me.”

His total dependence upon God the Father and His singular devotion to His mission on earth really come out here.  He sets Himself aside for use by the Father, even unto death.

The Jews were always demanding signs or witnesses before they would believe.  John the Baptist was one witness, He said.  The miracles He performed were another, and the Scriptures were a third witness – all that was needed according to the Law to validate His ministry.

Jesus plainly told them what was wrong with their hearts – they didn’t have God’s love in them, they were trying to get praise for themselves, and although they revered Moses, they didn’t really believe what He said about Christ, either.  “They were religious and self-righteous, but they were not saved,” my commentary said.

Father, I know it’s not enough to have just head-knowledge about You and Your Son.  Besides believing with our minds, our wills must be submitted to You and our hearts must be filled with Your love or else we are not saved.  Please reveal this to those You place in my path and allow me to show them what You’ve shown me over the years.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 5:1-29 All About God's Sovereignty

Out of all the people suffering and waiting for healing at the pool at Bethesda, Jesus picked out one man to bestow grace upon.  The man had done nothing to deserve healing, and many others were not healed.  He didn’t even know Who’d healed him until later.  There’s no evidence that he even became a Christian as a result.  To me this points us to the sovereignty of God, Who can do what He pleases for whom He pleases.  “Unlike the healed blind man in John 9, this man was not excommunicated,” my commentary said regarding his later discussions with Jewish authorities.  To the religious leaders, his only sin appeared to be carrying his mat on the Sabbath, when he’d never been able to walk before!  Yet Jesus had healed him.  “It’s possible to experience an exciting miracle and still not be saved and go to heaven!” my commentary added.

Jesus claimed here to be equal with God by calling Him “My Father”.  He spoke of being equal in His works, equal in executing judgment, equal in having honor, and He claimed to have authority to raise the dead.  Jews attribute that power only to God, so they’d see this as a claim of divinity as well.

Father, thank You for speaking of Your sovereignty today.  You are the Almighty and Holy God and You can choose to do anything and we cannot dispute it.  Help me therefore not to question anything You decide to do, for that is Your prerogative.  Let me be satisfied with just knowing that You chose to save me, with no merit of my own to deserve it, simply because of Your grace and mercy.  Lead me to use that knowledge to remain humble, to want to know You more, and to help others to come to saving faith in You and Your Son.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 4:43-54 A Progression In Faith

Jesus returned to Cana where He’d turned the water into wine at the wedding feast.  Only this time, He was approached by an officer of the king, who had traveled the twenty miles from Capernaum to find Jesus and beg Him to heal his dying son.  According to my commentary, the text indicates that he kept imploring Jesus to travel with him to Capernaum, because his son was on death’s door.  Seeing his faith, Jesus simply told him, “Go.  Your son will live.”

My commentary trace an interesting progression in the man’s faith:

“He began with crisis faith.  He was about to lose his son and he had no other recourse but the Lord Jesus Christ … The nobleman’s crisis faith became confident faith:  he believed the Word and had peace in his heart.  He was even able to delay [overnight]  his trip home, knowing that the boy was out of danger.  His confident faith became confirmed faith.  Indeed, the boy had been completely healed!  And the healing took place at the very time when Jesus spoke the Word.  It was this fact that made a believer out of the nobleman and his household.  He believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and he shared this faith with his family.  He had contagious faith and shared his experience with others.”

Father, I thank You for making these same changes to my faith over the years.  I’ve come to know that I can always trust You to do Your very best for me.  You’ve confirmed my faith so many times, and I pray that my faith is now contagious, so that others will see You through me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 4:1-42 The Appointment

Jesus had a divine appointment to meet the Samaritan woman at the well.  My commentary described her as having shallow soil spiritually, by the fact that she wanted the living water He described, but she didn’t understand what it was.  “The only way to prepare the soil of the heart for the seed is to plow it up with conviction.  That was why Jesus told her to go get her husband.  He forced her to admit her sin.  There can be no conversion without conviction.  There must first be conviction and repentance, and then there can be saving faith.  Jesus had aroused her mind and stirred her emotions, but He also had to touch her conscience, and that meant dealing with her sin.”

She tried to detour the conversation rather than talk about her sin, as we all would.  But as He kept talking to her, eventually she said, “I know that Messiah is coming.”  That’s when He made His startling announcement:  “I am He – I, the One talking to you.”

That’s all she needed, and she set off for the very town the disciples had just returned from.  They’d only bought their meal there, but she went back there to witness and evangelize.

After she left for town, Jesus told the disciples that “doing the Father’s will – in this case, leading the woman to salvation – was true nourishment for His soul,” my commentary said.  It continued, “Seek your life’s nourishment in your life’s work.  The will of God ought to be a source of strength and satisfaction to the child of God … If what we are doing tears us down instead of builds us up, then we may well question whether it is the will of God for us … It takes faith to sow the seed, and we must do it even when the circumstances look discouraging … There is no competition in the Lord’s harvest.  Each of us has an assigned task and we are all a part of each other’s labors … Those who sow may not see the harvest, but those who reap will see it and give thanks for the faithful labors of the sowers.”

Father, help me to know what You would have me doing.  I want to be pursuing Your will and Your plan for my life and nothing else.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 3:23-36 Not About John

John had to explain to his followers why it wasn’t a competition between Jesus and him.  Jesus was the One John was to announce to the world.  Jesus was the bridegroom and John was only the best man.  Jesus was also a witness to the truth, and John listed several reasons that He was, according to my commentary:

1)       He came from heaven.  He was the only messenger who could claim that.

2)      Since He did come from heaven, everything He said, He’d seen and heard from the Father.

3)      God sent Him, gave him the Word and the Spirit, and gave Him all things.  He was therefore AUTHORIZED by God.

4)      We might escape the wrath of God through a living, learning, and loving relationship with Christ.

My commentary also said, “We must never forget the cost of those blessings.  For us to be born into God’s family, Jesus Christ had to die.  For us to enter into the loving relationship of salvation, He had to endure the hatred and condemnation of men.  He had to be lifted up on the cross so that we might experience forgiveness and eternal life.  May we never take this for granted!  He must increase, but I must decrease!”

Father, I want to be doing what You will me to be doing, at Your direction and in Your timing.  Please keep me ever mindful that it is never a competition with others.  I am simply to lift up Your Son.  Help me to magnify Christ through my words and actions, and never let it be about me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford