He Dwells Among Us

Today's Reading: John 1:1-14

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." John 1:14

I don't know what astounds you about the story of Jesus. Maybe it is the virgin birth, the miracles, the crucifixion or the resurrection. Maybe it's that He could be fully human...and fully divine. Or that He could live a sinless life on this earth.

John opens his book by giving us a picture of Jesus. That He is the very Word of God...was with God in the beginning...and in fact, is God. He was involved in creation. He is the light of the world shining in the darkness. He was not received by those He came to love and save. But those who did receive Him were given the chance to become children of God.

And then comes verse 14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

That is astounding.

That Jesus would allow Father to rip open a hole in the heavens and that He would walk through in order to save us leaves me breathless. Jesus willingly left Father and His home in heaven, became a human, and walked on this earth...a place that some days seems hardly bearable to us humans, let alone to the divine Son.

Let that sit on you today as you celebrate the life of our Savior.

- Holly Barrett

Remain In

Today's Reading: John 15:5-14

I have a lot of trees in my yard and every time we have a storm or the wind blows the least little bit, there are limbs of all sizes blown to the ground. They often land in the driveway too and while some are small enough to run over, this morning I had to go move a big ole three-pronged limb so I could go to work. I'm amazed that there are that many limbs to be cast off my trees. You would think at some point, there wouldn't be any left to drop off or the ones that are left would be big enough and strong enough to stay attached to the tree.

But apparently not.

Today's reading reminded me of those limbs. Verse six says, "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." 


Thrown away. Withered. Thrown into the fire. Burned. Not good. 

The correlation was immediately apparent to me. The branches that land in my yard and driveway are not, for whatever reason, remaining in their trees strongly enough to keep from being blown to the ground. Jesus tells us that we are just like that. If we don't remain in Him, we will not be strong enough to keep from being blown away either. 

I don't know about you but the idea of being thrown away and withered does not sound appealing. At all.


So how do we remain in Him? Verse seven tells us that His words need to remain in us and verse nine says we need to remain in His love. Those are the keys for my life - staying in God's word and being obedient. God's word has to be so embedded in me that obedience is just becomes second nature. What about you? Are you in God's word daily? And are you doing what it says? 

And the result of that according to Jesus is that we will bear much fruit, we will glorify the Father, and we will remain in the Father's love. 


The alternative is that we loosen our grip and risk losing a limb to the next strong wind that comes along. Where would you prefer to remain?

- Holly Barrett

Holy Ground

Today's Reading: Exodus 3:1-15

I love this story in Exodus about Moses' calling to lead the Israelites. For a lonely encounter in the desert, it is full of danger (a burning bush, really?), mystery (who's voice is that?), and action (go where? to do what?). A veritable plethora of things that leave you scratching your head.

But what has always intrigued me the most about this encounter is God's command to Moses to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. What was it about the holiness of that place that required the removal of one's shoes? 

It seems to me that the shoes simply represented the things that were not holy in Moses' life. Shoes often track in dirt and mud...God's holiness can not co-exist with the dirt and mud of our lives. Shoes were part of the tools of Moses' trade as a shepherd...God was planning to provide Moses all that he would need to meet this new calling. And shoes are relied upon to keep our feet safe...what God was calling Moses to do was not going to be safe.

So in order to walk into the presence of the holy God, Moses had to remove the shoes that represented the things he would have to leave behind. His old life and any sin in it, anything he would normally rely on other than God, and the safety of the life he was living as a shepherd. Walking away from those things would qualify Moses to meet the call of leader of the Israelite nation.

Moses of course asked who should he say sent him all the way to Egypt to rescue the Israelites. And God told Moses to tell them, "I AM sent you." Couched in this question, I believe Moses was really asking, "Who is it that is calling me into holiness?" And the answer is the same - the great I AM. God Almighty. God, who is, and was, and always will be.

So what is the I AM calling you to leave behind in order to walk in His holiness? And are you willing to take off those "shoes" to answer His call?

- Holly Barrett

God is Our Refuge

Today's Reading: Psalm 46

Where do you run to when you are in trouble? Some of us run to things that are harmful to us. Some of us run to the people we love. Some of us run to nowhere in particular...just away. Where to run to has been a struggle at different times in my life. Maybe it is even sometimes a struggle now. But I hope as I grow in Christ, that my automatic instinct will be to run to Him.

Last week I was at a conference at The Cove and Lisa Harper quoted the entire 139th Psalm to us. And I was so struck by the questions in the middle of the Psalm where David asks,

Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

It dawned on me that no matter where I choose to run, I can't outrun God. He is always there. He longs to be our refuge, our ever-present help in trouble.

Psalm 46: 10 encourages us to be still and know that He is God. Being still is just not my forte. I know I need to and sometimes I just force myself to. But it's still not the most comfortable way for me to know God. Running to Him in times of trouble is the way I've gotten to know Him best. How grateful I am that I can't outrun Him, and that He will always be there as my Refuge.

- Holly Barrett

The Solid Rock of Information

Today's Reading: Acts 17:10-12

On the night before Halloween in 1938 Orson Welles aired his production “Invasion from Mars,” adapted from H. G. Wells book “War of the Worlds,” on the Columbia Broadcasting System’s dramatic radio show “Mercury Theatre on the Air.”

Using the then familiar and trusted format of important radio news bulletins interrupting live performances, his performers enthralled the nation with the “news” of an invasion from another planet. The lack of commercial interruptions accommodated by the show’s “sustained sponsorship” status added to the impression that the drama was “real” information coming to the listeners live.

Understandably, many tuning in after the show’s introductory disclaimers believed that the world and their lives would be forever changed that night.

Had they heard this broadcast, what might the Bereans have done with that information?

Who are the Bereans? Are they from another planet (other than Mars)? No. Although they were aliens or foreigners, they were from another time, about 2000 years ago, citizens of the Greek town of Berea.

In Acts 17 we read about the Jews who lived in Berea. The mention is brief, but significant, because the apostle Paul was struck by both their willingness to listen to what he had to share about Jesus being the long awaited, rejected, killed and then resurrected Messiah, and their daily diligence in verifying what he shared. Their means of verification was similar to what is done today to “vet” any news that might impact our lives - they turned to the most trusted of sources, the long honored Scriptures from Moses and the prophets.

Their gracious and studious diligence impressed Paul, and paid off. Unlike some of those with whom Paul had shared for weeks in nearby Thessalonica who were ultimately led by their feelings and not the facts, many of the Bereans, after checking out his claims, accepted them for what they were - truth - and responded to those facts with an informed, faith-based response.

Today we are swamped with easily accessed “information” that may seem as authoritative as the Martian invasion “report” on CBS did almost 75 years ago. Much of it has no direct impact on our world or our life. But when it might, we would be wise to be as welcoming and suspicious of life-altering information as those Bereans of old, vetting it in the context of trusted sources, including age-old ones which will allow seemingly safe assumptions to be verified and dependable.

Life is based on and lived out on something - either the shifting sands of opinion and assumption or the rock of information deemed solid by a routine practice of inquiry and conclusion. The results can be far reaching and have a positive affect on one’s own life and many others, as well.

“As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”

 - gary hixson

What do you see in the mirror?

Today's Reading: James 1:22-25

Our women's Monday night Bible study recently finished Beth Moore's new study on the book of James. On the day that we covered these verses in James, she had us make up an acronym for WORDS to help us remember these verses and the lesson that may be particular to each of us. Mine was the following:

W - we
O - obey
R - rather than
D - deceive
S - self

That is the crux of the whole matter to me. I can choose to obey the words of God. The words that give liberty and freedom. The words that offer hope and life. The words that bring blessing.

Or I can live with self-deception. I can look in the mirror each day and then go about life forgetting what I look like. Choosing to stay bound to what I think I look like...what I think I am...what my past tells me I should still be.

When I look at it like that, obedience seems pretty simple. "Do not merely listen to the word...do what it says."

- Holly Barrett

Your First Love

Today's Reading: II Timothy 3:14-17

All of us have a relationship with the scriptures. They could be our constant companion, a strange new friend, or at times, a distant stranger. 

Like any good relationship, our connection with the scriptures starts with more than a little mystery, but as time goes by, the mystery can begin to fade. What was once new and exciting and vital for living can become common, expected or even boring. Even our deepest and most important relationships can fade over time when neglected, and the same is true for the scriptures. 

During the years of walking through faith, we fall in and out of love with the Word. Often, after a period of wandering away from their companionship, we return to find them still the same - consistent, enduring, a deep well of knowledge. What we once neglected to the point of abandonment is once again new and fresh. As with any relationship, quality time together can never be replaced. Our time with scriptures is easier at some times than others. 

This week, examine your relationship with the scriptures. Wherever you are in your relationship with the scriptures, whether you are madly in love or sadly estranged; keep fighting for your time together. Even in the dry and distant times, keep searching for the mystery and excitement you once knew, and you will surely get reacquainted with your first love.

- Brett Loftis

Lord, You Know I Love You

Today's Reading: John 21

Earlier in the evening Jesus had appeared to the Disciples when they were behind locked doors. I can’t begin to imagine what was going through their minds for all of the events from the last few days. And now Jesus is standing right in front of them.

Can you imagine the joy Peter felt at seeing the Savior? Or the shame he felt at the same time for denying Jesus three times the night he was arrested? I wonder if he was ashamed for not being there when Jesus spoke his last words and died.

When Jesus left them, some of the disciples went to the one place where they felt the most at home: the Sea of Galilee and a fishing boat. They had fished all night and verses 4 and 5 say “At dawn the disciples saw Jesus standing on the beach, but they couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Friends, have you caught any fish?” At their reply of no he instructed them to “throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will get plenty of fish?”  Verse 7 says, “Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

After they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Each time Simon Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” The third time Jesus asked him, Peter replied, “Lord, you know everything. You know I love you.”

I think we all relate to Peter, because Peter often spoke before he thought and said or did things that he wished he could take back. Have you ever been in that spot, said something you would like to take back or do something you would like to undo? If so, no worries, just repeat Peter’s words, “Lord, you know everything, You know I love you.”

- Kathy Bannister

Peace!

Today's Reading: John 20:19-30

Locked doors. 
Knocking knees.
Nervous looks.

It doesn’t sound like a party anyone would want to attend. Yet here were the disciples, gathering in the wake of the greatest loss of their lives:  Jesus was dead. Their rabbi and mentor had been tortured and murdered and there was nothing they could do about it. They could only feel helpless and hopeless.

So what did they do? They gathered as they always had to pray and console one another.

Then Jesus arrives… without using the door! It’s almost an off-handed miracle. They had barricaded themselves and all of a sudden Jesus is there joining the party. And what is the message that he needed to bring to this nervous, frightened group of doubting believers?

"Peace be with you!"

Of course! This was the Shalom greeting that they had exchanged so many times. It is the relative equivalent to our “Hello” or “God bless ya!” But it carried so much more meaning on this night. Peace was in extremely short supply since Christ’s betrayal and crucifixion. The disciples had no way of knowing what was next on the Sanhedrin’s agenda. They were just waiting for the next sandal to drop. After all, if they could get to Jesus, they could get to any of them. Would it be Peter? Would it be John? What a way to live.

So Christ lets his first words to them after his resurrection be the gift they needed: Peace. It means more than the absence of conflict. It is the quality we all seek in our lives. It is the gentle hand of God on our shoulder reassuring us that He is there, that we are not alone. It is the comfort that comes from knowing this crazy world will not have the last word. God is on his throne and he is faithful.

“Peace be with you.” It didn’t mean that there would be no more challenges and no more heartaches. But it did mean that God would be with them as they walked through those dark times. I wonder if that was what Paul had in mind when he penned these words to the Philippians “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

May the resurrected Christ give you the peace you need this week!

- Jeff Walling

Resurrection Day

Today's Reading: John 20:1-18

It is Resurrection Day.

Let the magnitude of that sink in for just a moment. Sit with it and think about what all that means to us.

Since we celebrate communion together each week as a church, I sometimes fear that the miraculous becomes just a little mundane. But Easter Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Far from being mundane, that fact should probably bring us all to our knees!

I love John's account of Resurrection morning when Mary Magdalene was at the tomb and realized that Jesus was gone. She runs back to tell the apostles and they return to the tomb with her. They actually went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths lying there and believed that Jesus had risen. And so they went back to their homes (verse 10).

Wait, what? Jesus is risen and they went back to their homes? I'm not sure what I would have done but I don't think going home would have topped the list.

What was Mary Magdalene's response? She stood outside the tomb crying (verse 11). She was alone and frightened. They had just placed Jesus in the tomb on Friday and now His body was gone. She didn't know what to do next but it is clear that she didn't want to leave the last place where she had seen Jesus.

Do you ever feel that way? Something unexpected has happened and you just don't know what to do next. You thought you were walking in God's will...you felt confident that you had heard His voice leading you in a specific direction. But things keep popping up that make you wonder. And nothing is turning out quite like you expected.

Perhaps at those times, we all need to follow Mary Magdalene's example and return to the last place where we know we heard from God. What was the scripture He gave you? What was the confirming circumstance that occurred? Go back there and wait. Just like Mary, there may be tears. There may be fear. There may be uncertainty. But Jesus didn't leave Mary hanging long in her uncertainty and anguish. While she was waiting, He appears and calls her by name.

I don't know where you are waiting to hear from God...or how long you have been waiting. But if we are willing to go back to where we first heard Him speak into our situation, He will show up for us too.

It might just be a Resurrection Day all our own.

- Holly Barrett

The Father of All

Today's Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22

God is father of ALL. Even as your physical father was father of All your brothers and sisters(including those adopted), once you were in the family you had a father.

Through Christ and the cross we ALL, everyone , have the opportunity to be children of God and have a father that loves, protects, and provides our needs. God is the father of ALL.  As good as our physical father may have been, there is no comparison as to the goodness of God as our father. A father that loves so much He was not only willing,  but planned , to have His only Son sacrificed  for us--That we may be His child, and that He may be our FATHER.

What blessings we have to be in the family of God and to have a loving, powerful God as our FATHER. And that is just on earth. Can you imagine the blessings for eternity!!! God is our FATHER, for now and always!!

- Charles Dowdy

Treated As Sons

Today's Reading: Hebrews 12:5-11

No one likes to be disciplined. But it is a part of life. If you love the person you are disciplining as God loves us, they will eventually understand...hopefully. If discipline is looked at a protection for the love you have for that individual rather than as a rule, it is much easier to accept and submit to (but that is a hard lesson for us to learn).

As mothers and fathers, we discipline our children to keep them safe from harm and so they learn the rules of a household or for life in general. No matter where you are in life, there are always disciplines you have to adhere to...whether it is from God, your family, a teacher, or a boss.

Some disciplines are harder than others. Not just on the person being disciplined but also on the ones having to stand steadfast. If the discipline is done in a loving but firm manner, it can help the person learn a life lesson and understand why the discipline is being given. It usually teaches in a way that will be remembered longer and more positively, like tough love.

When my husband and I had to stand firm with our granddaughter and tell her she could not bring her newborn twins to our home when released from the hospital, she thought we would change our minds in time. When she saw that we were standing together and were firm in the where we knew the spirit of God was leading us, she became very angry. Now that time has passed, she has seen how this was the best thing we could have ever done for her and the twins. It was helpful to all of us to know the adoptive family and the life they would be given, not only in this life but more importantly in the life they would gain from being raised in a home where God is the center of everything. We were interacting with the twins on a daily basis while they were in the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) because we knew they needed the bonding, attention and love in order to thrive until their forever family could be with them. We wanted the twins to know they were loved and to feel some of the love God has for them through us. This made the discipline for our granddaughter just as hard on us as it was for her.

Our biggest comfort was leaning on God, growing closer to Him, and seeing Him work every day in ways that we had never seen before. God's discipline and love was shown by the peace we gained knowing that we were disciplining our granddaughter in the way He would want, by the prayers that were offered for everyone concerned, and through the support that we received from our church family.

- Cynthia Monk 

True Righteousness

Today's Reading: Matthew 7:7-12

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." (NLT)

"Like father, like son!" Have you ever watched a little boy with his father? They like to try to be just like “good ole Dad.” For the most part that is good, but sometimes it is to the father’s chagrin that one of his sons imitates some bad habit. Yet, Dads can relax. It has now become very common in our culture for their children to take a path different than their father as they get older. Instead of trying to emulate him, they strive to "find themselves," "gain independence," or "assert their own person-hood." For the most part, kids will still obey Dad's commands. They will listen carefully and try not to violate what he says, but they no longer have a goal of trying to imitate Dad. They do what is necessary but no longer pay him much attention beyond that.

In many ways that is a picture of the nature of true righteousness as opposed to self righteousness. True righteousness comes from the heart and expresses itself in striving to be like our heavenly Father. We want to follow the example Jesus has set for us in both attitude and actions. Self righteousness examines the commands of the Father very closely in order to do the minimum needed to satisfy the Father’s instructions, but does not go beyond that. Self righteousness analyzes the commands of the Father in order to fulfill obligations. True righteousness examines the Father Himself in order to be like Him.

Those who are truly righteous also recognize their own weakness and rely on the Father’s righteousness to help, just like children helping their father carry something heavy. The father is the one providing all the strength needed to carry the object, but they grasp hold simply to be involved. The truly righteous want to be involved in what God is doing. They know that God is the one providing the strength and doing the real work, but they grab hold wanting to be part of His work. They rely on God’s strength to accomplish the task. The self righteous redefines the task until the bucket is small enough for them to carry on their own. This takes on a form of godliness, but it is void of strength and power.

The Sermon on the Mount strips away the pretense of the self righteous and brings the standard of God’s righteousness back to the level of human impossibility. To live as a child of God you have to be a child of God. It is humanly impossible for anyone to live on his own power and have the kind of life Jesus describes throughout this sermon. It is impossible to have the characteristics Jesus teaches here in the Beatitudes. We do not have within ourselves enough wisdom, strength or will power to live righteously. We must live it according to God's wisdom, in His strength in simple obedience to Him. God knows our weakness and desires to help us overcome that weakness. He tells us what He wants us to do; then, what He will do.*

In these passages, Jesus shows us the virtue of perseverance and its application in prayer. Our motivation to persist in our service to God is the desire to draw near to Him for what He has done for us. Consider the amount of time the disciples, and even Jesus spent in prayer. Now, consider how much more we need to pray; then, compare it with how much time you actually spend in prayer. The Christian life does not run on auto pilot. It needs persistence. The Christian life needs-constant, navigational, GPS-like resetting. It also needs hands-on steering. In order to line up our lives with His plan and will, we have to be willing and able to surrender to His concerns. We do this through knowing His Word and praying. And we don’t do so alone. We need our other brothers and sisters to walk along side us for encouragement and to pick us up when we are weak.

Our prayers to the Father are not like a vending machine where we can pick what we want, and what we want to do. Rather, it is aligning our mindset with His. This passage has led many people to think that God is a divine genie who will give us what we seek, what we want if we just have enough faith. But, that is plainly not the message this passage gives to us. Yes, we are to seek, we are to knock; we are to be persistent with our prayers. But, we are not to seek just to help our selfish concerns. Prayer is seeking the Lord-ship of Christ because He is in control, not just because of a friendship with Him. Prayer is the instrument for seeking how to get His Will done, not our will.

This passage needs not to be memorized as much as it is needed to be functional! It calls for commitment, and is something to be accomplished! God desires that we be in close relationship to Him, not merely seeking what we can get. He will give us what we need, and much more! If you only seek what you think you want, you will never have a clue what maturity and surrender mean. The bread and the fish examples show that even evil men are good to their children. But, God is even better.

Our motives, obedience, and persevering in prayer will be the key! Be in love with Him. Seek His presence, like a child does his father, and be persistent in your prayers. If you fear you will ask Him for the wrong thing, remember, we all do that. As you draw closer to Him, you will learn the right things to ask. Prayer is about persistence and learning!**

_______________
*Scott Harris, Grace Bible Church, Sermon December 6, 1992
**Dr. Richard J. Krejcir; “Into Thy Word”; “Keep Asking!”

- Charlie Long