The Presence of God

As I was praying this morning, I got that feeling I sometimes get when I’m really into a prayer. The feeling of Jesus wrapping His arms around me, comforting me and letting me know that He hears me. As I was reflecting on that feeling throughout the day, I remembered something I said a couple of weeks ago. I was teaching on grace in discipleship training and made the comment about how when we are worshipping as we should sometimes you can feel Jesus standing behind you with His hand on your shoulder and it was interesting looking out and seeing some people nodding their heads knowingly and others that didn’t quite understand what I meant by that. I had a teacher while encouraging us to use expository preaching say that we should not go back to our study trying to figure out what to preach on next Sunday while waiting for something “spooky” to happen. I mentioned that to a friend and he said “spooky, like the Holy Spirit?”

I said that’s what I thought. So why do we find it so hard to believe that Jesus is still alive and there next to us giving us His word and presence.

I got to wondering why is it that sometimes it feels as if Jesus is right there in the middle of worship and sometimes he isn’t. As I thought about it the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus came to mind. (Luke 24:13-33) Here are two disciples, men who know Jesus, walking along discussing Jesus and all of a sudden Jesus shows up to discuss Himself with them. And they did not recognize Him! The very object of their discussion and they did not know He was there talking to them. Vs. 16 says there eyes were kept from recognizing Him. He even hints to them He is there in vs. 25 “You foolish people – how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”

These men did not realize their guest was Jesus until He prayed and then they thought to themselves how stupid can we be did not our hearts burn within us as we discussed (worshipped) with Him vs.32 . Even Mary Magdalene in John 20:14-16 did not realize that it was Jesus she spoke to. So why did Mary and these two men not realize that Jesus was present with them.

Because they did not expect Him to be! “You foolish people – how slow of heart to believe…” When we worship or pray do we truly expect Jesus to make Himself known to us. Most of the time we don’t, so when He does it surprises us. But it shouldn’t. We should always expect Jesus to make Himself known. After all that is what we are worshipping for. So why would He not be there. It’s funny to hear a pastor talking and they want to say they heard the voice of God, but they are scared that everyone will think they are crazy.

We tell people to pray and ask God to answer them, but if they tell us God spoke to them and answered. We ask “are you sure you heard God?” We don’t believe that God truly answered them. Let’s not be like the men walking with Jesus to Emmaus and missing out on the presence of God because they doubted. Let us go forward knowing that we will feel the presence of God.
MSW

As Jesus Sees

August is here! Time for children to head off to school and time for our revival, plus this year there will be a revival for the youth. Another busy month where it’s easy to get caught up in all we have going on and forget about others. So what can we do to prepare ourselves for this busy month?
First the most important thing we can do is pray. Before we can pray we need to prepare ourselves for prayer. Start by taking a minute a looking at people the way God looks at them. Think back through your day. Think of everyone you have met today. How did you see them?
What do you know about them? What problems are they having? What good things do they have going on in their life? Often I’m so busy with my life that I forget to take a minute and look at people as Jesus would.
When Jesus sat down at the well(John 4:6-29) with the Samarian woman He didn’t look at her like the Jews or even his own disciple did. The Samarians were hated by the Jews. The Samarians worshipped God but they also worshipped idols. In the apocryphal book of Sirach we can see in the words of a Jew exactly how they felt about the Samarians. Sirach 50:25-26 There be two manner of nations which my heart abhorreth, and the third is no nation: They that sit upon the mountain of Samaria, and they that dwell among the Philistines, and that foolish people that dwell in Sichem.
Plus this woman had multiple adulterous affairs; a good Jew would never defile himself by speaking to her. But Jesus looked past all this and spoke and asked for water. Jesus spoke kindly and lovingly to her. Jesus told her that He was the deliverer. Thanks to Jesus not looking at her with condemnation and hate she came to know Jesus and brought others to Him. This is how we should look at God’s people. With love!

MSW

To Know Him

I was reading through Genesis today in the NKJV and I came to 18:19. The verse just seemed to jump out at me and speak. It says, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and household in the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and Justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."
God knew Abraham so that he could spread the word. God expected Abraham to teach his children and his household, those that are around him everyday, that there is a Lord and savior, and this Lord is going to watch over and take care of His children.
This verse applies to us today as much as it did to Abraham 4,000 years ago. When Jesus is revealed to us, He doesn’t want us to keep it a secret. He wants us to go out and proclaim it loudly. He wants us to tell everyone around us that there is a Lord and savior that can truly change your life. After Andrew met Jesus the first thing he did was go and tell (John1:41). When they were standing amongst a crowd of 5,000 Andrew jumped up, grabbed a kid and said, "come here I want to show you something amazing. (John 6:9) Watch what this guy can do with that fish you have there. Oh, by the way His name is Jesus."
We should be like Andrew, get to know the people around us and when God gives us an opening say, “Hey kid, watch what this guy can do for you.” “Oh, by the way did you know that he died on a cross so that you may live. Yeah let me tell you about that.”
MSW

The Way, The Truth, The Life: Part 3

This is the third of three post.

Part 3
I am the way and the truth and the life
The life

In the beginning God created the heavens and earth and on the sixth day God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, (Genesis 1:26)

(Genesis 1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Since we have been discussing the Trinity I want to take a second to stop and look at these two verses. Right here at the very beginning of the first book of the bible, first chapter, God reveals to us the trinity. In the Beginning we have God, Genesis 1:2 we have the Spirit. Then Genesis 1:26 we have Jesus. In vs1 God says let Us make in Our image. Then vs27 says in God’s image. To me this first book demonstrates the Trinity as clear as can be.


John 3:16 KJV “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 5:26 “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.”

John 6:33 “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Revelation 11:11 “But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.”

Notice all of these verses have God giving Life. Life is given by God. God is the orchestrator of life and we are granted eternal Spiritual life by God through the Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

I am the way and the truth and the life
Jesus is the way to the truth that the Holy Spirit brings to give us eternal life by and with God.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. I John 5:7 KJV

The Way, The Truth, The Life: Part Two

This is the second post of three. The first is here if you haven’t read it yet.


Part two
I am the way and the truth

The truth
During the trial of Jesus, Pilate asks Jesus “What is truth”

John uses the word truth 26 times in his Gospel compared to
Matthew who uses it once
Luke who uses it once and
Mark who uses it twice
John then uses the word truth 20 more times in his Epistles. Obviously John wanted us to see what the truth was.

Webster tells us that truth is sincerity in action, character, and utterance

Scripture tells us that our sinful mind is hostile to God (Romans 8:7)

Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Genesis 8:21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

How can we be sincere in action, character, and utterance if our every desire is evil?

John 1:17 “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Christ gives us that truth! Through Christ we can walk in truth and light. (1 John 1:7; 3 John 1:4) But how does He do that? How does Christ turn our every evil desire truth and sincerity?

John 4:23 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
We worship in spirit and truth! What is this spirit and truth we worship in?

The Spirit of Truth
(John 14:15-17) “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”

The truth is the Holy Spirit and the message it proclaims. This Spirit of truth comes through Jesus Christ, and we are to worship in this Spirit of truth. For through this truth we will be set free from sin and the damnation that sin brings.

John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The Way,The Truth,The Life

I was preparing a lesson the other day from John 14:6 and it went in a direction I wasn’t expecting so I thought I’d share it. It seems I have seen the Trinity represented in several things I have studied lately and it also appeared to me that it was represented in John 14:6
It was suggested that instead of this being one edited for length post I post it in a series.

I want to start out by looking at where we are at before discussing the verses in John 14. Jesus has already entered Jerusalem and is at the last supper. He washes the disciples feet and informs them that one of them will betray him Judas leaves the room. Jesus tells His disciples that where He is going they cannot go. He tells Peter that he will deny Him. Jesus tells them that He is going to prepare a place for them and that they know the way to where He is going. Thomas asks how they can know the way, when they don’t know where he is going. During this dialogue Phillip asks Jesus to show them the Father.
Jesus replies to Philipp that anyone who has seen me has seen the father. Then Jesus asks “Don’t you know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

John 14:5-7
"Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

John 14:9 b
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
It is easy to see the father and the son in this dialogue but upon a closer inspection its easy to see the Father, Son, and Spirit.

First Let’s look at the statement I am the way. The way to what? The way to Heaven? Simply put, yes! But there is much more to be found in that phrase.
When Jacob was at Bethel he had a dream of a ladder. (Genesis 28:10-15) And this Ladder went up to Heaven. The angels ascended and descended on it. Jacob’s ladder is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the mediator! He is the way that all God’s blessings come to us and that our prayers make it to the Father. He is the way that we make it to heaven.

1 John 5:11-12
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
This eternal life is in His Son. It is through Jesus Christ that we find our way to eternal life.


In Leviticus Chapter 4 God’s word tells us of the Sin offering. When someone sins they are to bring their offering which must be without defect. The Priest after sprinkling the blood will burn the offering. Now Listen to the last part of v35 “In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.”
In this way the Priest will make atonement. This Way! But that is no longer the way. We have Jesus as our Priest, and as our Lamb, and as our way.

The blood of these lambs and bulls and Goats was not what caused forgiveness for these people. It was the Faith they showed God by Obeying Him.

(Hebrews 10:4) “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
The offering did not take away their sins. It was just a way to make them realize they were sinners. It was a way to make them realize they needed forgiveness and that forgiveness could only be granted by God.

(Hebrews 10:14) “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Jesus is our perfect lamb and our one sacrifice. Through Him we have found a way to heaven and God.