John 10 - The Blind Man and The Lost Sheep

 

I’ve been reading through John 10 recently. I find it such an interesting chapter, especially because it’s clearly talking about the man healed of blindness in John 9, but few commentators say anything about this.

What did the blind man have to do to meet Christ? What did he have to do to earn it? Nothing. He sat there with his problem and Jesus came and rescued him… Then the religious people were bent on making him their disciples instead of Jesus’s disciple. In John 10 Jesus spends a great deal of time explaining why this happened to the pharisees.

A couple interesting things stuck out to me here…

• The pharisees weren’t interested really in going out and finding lost sheep. They had the attitude that sheep would come to them.

• The blind man instantly followed Jesus, and knew something wasn’t right about how the Pharisees were doing things. He didn’t join them but rather went back out on the street. How many people are genuine followers of Jesus but they don’t fit the church mold and have decided to stay on the streets?

• Jesus chose the blind man, but it was the blind man’s choice to stand up to the Pharisees. Jesus almost always initiates - our decision is what we’ll do with that… and this unlikely witness was the strongest one in the gospel against the pharisees!

• Jesus made his entire ministry about the One. The one person, the one woman, the one blind man… He treated everyone individually and “calls them by name”. The Pharisees thought in general and were making decisions for the crowd, often worrying what the crowd thought.

Post Cyclone

Wow. Another opportunity to trust in God. Cyclone worship is at another level because you are literally being confronted with the reality of your tiny-ness in the middle of extreme power.

I am pretty discouraged about the church rebuilding efforts after the last cyclone. Several of the churches fell down or had disastrous problems.

 

There is so much flooding everywhere. I can only imagine how bad it is in the districts!

This is day 3 without power, but what a difference it makes to have a house! We are safe and our belongings are safe. God has been with us yet again.

I have to say though, the amount of stress I have been under is catching up to me. I thought things were bad before the cyclone - they've become almost unbearable now. The stress has gone up to the point where my ribs are getting thrown out and back pain is constant.

 

I need rest. I need shalom peace.

 

God is our refuge and strength,

always ready in times of trouble.

So we will not fear when earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the most High.

-Psalm 46:1-4

 

My Thoughts on Covenants

 

 Psalms 89: Covenant.

 A covenant is a sealed contract, written by God. Sometimes it’s conditional, other times it’s unconditional and requires nothing of us. When God gives us a covenant, it will absolutely be challenged. We need to see how God is bringing it to fruition and see what we can do to partner with Him. We need to trust that He will do His part. But even if we don’t, He’ll follow through.

Covenants are very special things. Not everyone has things that God tells them in the form of a promise. But when He does tell you something, you can guarantee it’s important and that it will be tested.

We need to be like Abraham, who in the face of God giving Him a covenant of blessing on Him and his descendants, Abraham was able to still fully trust in God to the point of offering the best land up for Lot’s flocks and offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. He knew Covenant did not depend on him at all.

What has God promised us? Has He been faithful in the past with those same situations? Am I trusting Him now to still come through? What is holding me back? What are ways I can trust Him more in my life and ministry?

 

 

Hands-on Knowledge

“If you love me, you will obey my commands. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31b-32

When I was in college, I had a chemistry class. The chapter happened to be on chemical reactions and there was the formula for touch explosive there, along with information about the chemical reaction that caused the explosion. I called my brother, who was an avid fan of explosives and said,

“Dude, I know how to make touch explosive”.

His response? “It’s easier in deer hunting season.”

“Huh?” I thought… “What does he mean by that?”

He went on, “Yeah, the hardest to get chemical is then at Walmart, because people use it to cover their scent when hunting. Oh, and don’t make too much of it at one time, otherwise it can set itself off on the toaster oven and scare your roommate half to death.”

Who really knew touch explosive? Sure, I had read about it in a textbook and 100% of what I learned was factual, but I didn’t really understand it. I didn’t have the experience my brother had. I think that’s like a lot of believers today. There’s an understanding of God and a deep understanding of scripture, but nothing replaces that experiential practice of living out the word of God.

We want to know the truth before we act. We want God to convince us that what He’s told us to do is right, but Jesus said it doesn’t work like that… It’s only after you obey that you’ll understand. When you read a scripture, are you looking for more head knowledge? Are you looking for scriptures that say what you already believe? Or are you looking for answers for how to live? 

When you read about Abraham being told to sacrifice Isaac, are you glad He hasn’t asked you to do that, or do you search yourself for the things he is asking you to give up? The real power of the Gospel isn’t found in the words, but in the application and the obedience. We can say we know Christ like I thought when I read that formula in a textbook, or we can really get to know him, daily, with all of the reality and pain that entails.

My health has been deteriorating over the past couple weeks and I realized that my workload was the #1 thing I could do to fix it. There was really no way around the fact that I was doing too much stuff. The past two weeks, I have spent quite a bit of time telling people no. I have called to cancel a couple key contracts, including the one that was keeping our family financially afloat. It was good money but the stress and always-on hours inevitably occurred during my quiet time or on vacation. Carla has complained that many vacations had been ruined by it, and I struggled to delegate it. A phone call could be in multiple languages from multiple countries about anything from networking to system analysis to a crashed server, and unlike our website business, it was 100% on my shoulders. I knew it was bad when she said she would support me cutting the contract even if it meant moving into a smaller house or getting by without a personal car, but thank God for that kind of support.

I am again in a place where I need faith, again in a place where I am waiting for the Lord to break through. But instead of dreading that place, I think we should all greatly desire it. After all, when things are going well, I end up spending less time with God, and my prayers aren’t as fervent!