Mark 1:35

Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! John 14:10-14

Jesus makes an incredible promise here. He says (paraphrasing) that if you believe in Him, you will be able to do even greater things than He, because He is going to the Father. Wow.

We have the potential, according to this promise, to do the things that Jesus did and even greater things are possible.

It all begins with prayer. In v. 13 Jesus says, "You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father."

The prayer is a partnership or collaboration between You, Jesus and the Father.

Imagine the power of prayer when you are collaborating with God the Father.

Credit to Rick Richardson in Reimagining Evangelism.

In John 5:1-9, a story unfolds before us that is powerful, yet leaves us wondering how and why. Let me explain.

After the feast of the Jews, Jesus goes to Jerusalem. While there he comes to a pool. This apparently was not a regular pool, but a special pool where people could get healed. In v.4 it says that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons and "stirred" the water. So after the water is stirred, there is apparently a race to the water. First one in gets healed.

Stop and think about this scene. The magnitude of the moment and the incredible drama taking place. There are hundreds (a multitude) of people gathered around the body of water watching and waiting. The waters are stirred and there's a crazy rush towards the pool. In and you win. Too slow and you lose. Wow.

So along comes Jesus. He walks up to this scene and is heading towards the edge of the pool. But with a multitude of the lame and sick, Jesus likely had to make an awkward step by step path to get there.

This is the part that I've missed every other time I've read these verses. Jesus walked past lots of people. Lots that deserved to be healed. People that needed to be healed. People who were sick, blind, lame and withered. But there is no record of Jesus healing those people.

Jesus, in v.5-9, identifies a single man who had been by the pool for 38 years, heals him and sets him free. In v.8 Jesus says, "Arise, take up your pallet, and walk."

Why did Jesus choose that one man and not the others?

What was the selection criteria Jesus used for healing?

Think about this in terms of today.

Sometimes you hear about someone with cancer or some challenging circumstance. They are about to have major surgery. But right before the operation they take one more x-ray or whatever and all of the sudden the person is cancer free or disease free. The family is praising God for a miracle.

That miracle is the guy that has been sitting there for 38 years. That's the guy that Jesus sets free. But that is not the norm.

On the other hand, most of the time the people we know are the multitudes of the sick, blind, lame and withered that do not get healed. They are the ones who do not realize the miracle of instant healing. I'm not saying that God is not involved. He is sovereign and in control. For unexplainable reasons, the miracle of instant healing does not take place.

This is an incredible story about the randomness to life. We can't explain everything that happens around us. We can't fill in the blanks and know how God works. It would be a scary world if we could, because in essence it would make us God, right?

I'm thankful today that I do not need to fully understand God's love to trust it. I'm thankful that God is sovereign and His love never fails.

What do you think about God's "random" acts of kindness in the book of John?

"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world..." John 18:36

How do we live in this world without being consumed by it?

My best answer today is "I don't know."

What I can tell you emphatically is that God did not call us to stay away from the world. He didn't call us to only be with our Christian friends and to keep our family and children far from anyone other than Christians.

We need to look through Jesus at the world. It is through the lens of Christ we see a hurting world that needs to hear the message of redemption and the message of hope.

God calls us to be in the world. We have opportunities to share our story and our experiences for the betterment of those we meet.

How many non-christians do you see daily? How many of them do you know?

Stay grounded in God's word and pray. Now go!

John 8:12. Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

John Chapter 1 is HUGE. What was I thinking asking us to write for 5 minutes or an hour on 51 verses? It would take quite a bit of time to truly dive into this chapter. I only wish I had the time to adequately speak to the awesomeness and depth of this chapter. But I’ll do my best to make some sense of it as a whole and then go a little deeper into a few verses.

I’ve read it five or six times so far. It is a great read and quite deep. It breaks down into some distinct directions (thank you Matthew Henry for your commentary):

* The presentation of Jesus (1-5)
* Jesus as divine and human natures (6-14)
* John the Baptist and his personal testimony (15-18)
* John and other public testimonies (19-36)
* Other testimonies and the calling of the first disciples (37-51)

The first verse is almost poetic. It flows and brings me back to Genesis 1. They both start with, “In the beginning” and flow very poetically. Genesis 1 uses “God” and John 1 uses “Word.” Very interesting how they seem interchangeable. But John never replaces God with Word, they are side by side almost. The first several verses are very deep and really grab my attention.

As I read John 1, I knew I wouldn’t be able to write about the whole chapter. So I read and re-read and then I became stuck on the following verses.

[b]John 1:11-13. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.[/b]

V. 11 - [em]“…those who were His did not receive Him.[/em]” - He came into the world as a human and the human race rejected Him. God the creator of the heavens and earth was walking among the people and the people wanted nothing to do with Him. Mankind, the nation of Israel whom He came to redeem and gift life to…rejected Him.

V. 12 - He says that some did believe - As “many” as received Him. Mark 10:45 says that Jesus gave His life for “many.” So some did believe and they were given [em]“the right to become children of God.”[/em]

V.13 - The children of God were not:

- [em]“born not of blood”[/em] - The “children of God” were not offered salvation through family inheritance or of anything that their parents had done (born of blood).

- [em]“nor of the will of the flesh[/em]” And not because of anything related to themselves or their flesh. Think about Romans 8:6 where it says the mind set on the flesh is death or 8:8 where it says that those in the flesh cannot please God.

- [em]“nor of the will of man”[/em] So the ones called the “children of God” didn’t do a single thing on their own to “earn” this salvation. Without God’s calling and the work of the Holy Spirit, man cannot choose his eternal destiny.

Father, thank you for picking me up out of a life that was leading to Hell. A life that was without fruit and purpose going no where...fast! I now realize that on my own I was on a path of destruction. I also realize that You called me LONG before I accepted you. I see the places in my past where you longed for me and I rejected you. Forgive me for doubting that my life could be better with You. I’m not a doubter anymore as I realize how much better I am when serving You.

Help me today Lord to be the husband and father that you called me to be. I complicate my life so much by injecting my own flesh and want so desperately to surrender to You more and more each day. If you are willing Jesus...help me to do so today.
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