Today's bible passage is once again from John 1. Jesus is collecting his disciples, and they are without question following him.
How amazing is that? Jesus tells them to follow and they just obey. How often do we just obey Jesus' commands. I know that I have on many occasions argued with God about what he wanted me to do, but these guys didn't argue they just dropped everything and followed.
Not only did they just follow, but Philip went and got his brother and told him to follow Jesus too!
We need to be open to whatever Jesus wants of us; we need to be ready to drop everything at a drop of a hat; we need to tell others about Jesus so that they too can follow his ways.
Lets be obedient to his call and share the love of Jesus with everyone. Let's follow him no matter what the cost, he gave everything for us, so why would we not want to give our all to him?
Today I've started John, and must admit I love the first passage...In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God...What a fantastic way to start a gospel.
Right off the bat John is telling us that Jesus is...He wants us to know that Jesus has been and always will be; he was at the very creation of the world! How amazing is that! Jesus who created the world, was there at the earth's conception, came to earth as a man to sort out sin and die for the world.
I think this is brilliant. I don't really need to add anything more. God is an amazing God, and chooses to take the punishment that we deserve. We must thank him; we must praise him; we must love him; we must honour him.
Today is my final day in Luke, it is also Jesus goodbye to his disciples. Things must have been really strange in this meeting. Jesus is there with his friends after being raised from death, and he's talking with them and sharing with them and also eating with them. I can imagine the disciples being a little shell shocked to say the least. They must have gone through a roller coaster of emotions, and little do they know what awaits them in just a short space of time!
Jesus explains things to them, he tells them that what has happened had to happen, he opens their hearts to the 'plan' and before they know it, he is taken back to heaven, back to his rightful place.
The great thing about this passage of scripture is that Jesus is even at this point preparing his disciples for what is coming. He tells them to wait together in Jerusalem as he will be sending "what His Father has promised" Jesus was telling them that they were not going to go into battle alone! He was promising them help from above. We too have the very same promise today. We too can rely on God for help from above to go into battle for him. Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit and we need to realise that the Holy Spirit is as real and as relevant today as he was during the time of the early church.
Let's remember that we are not alone, that the Holy Spirit is here with us to guide us. Let's trust in him today and allow God to work in us and through us in the Power of His Holy Spirit.
I've been thinking today about the fact that I'm ahead of my bible study and so am waiting for it to catch me up. This made me think about my walk with the Lord.
If I try and get ahead of Jesus then things start to go wrong, but if I walk with him side by side, allowing him to guide my paths then everything fits. I'm not saying that I don't have problems, but I know that if I follow his lead then I can't go wrong.
While studying the passages from Luke I've also been reading in Joshua. This links in with my thoughts today, as in the first few chapters of Joshua we find the Israelites entering their new land - the Promised Land. Moses has died and Joshua has taken over the reigns of leadership. With God's instruction and guidance, Joshua lead the Israelite people over the river Jordan and into the land that they are about to settle in. God guides them all the way. Joshua leads them into battle after battle and God helps the Israelite people to defeat their enemies, BUT, only when they are following his lead. When they try and do things their own way and ignore what God has told them, then they loose the battle.
God has a plan and a purpose for all our lives. I believe that when we allow him to be our Shepherd, our guide, that even though we will still have problems, will defeat all our enemies, will win the race, will have the most amazing lives possible.
Today' bible passage once again comes from Luke. I read about the journey to Emmaus. In this part of Luke we see two travellers making their way to Emmaus after seeing their Lord die. They are probably feeling really disappointed and upset at what has happened, and so they are making their way home; they are returning to their old lives. Jesus meets them on their journey and shows them the scriptures as well as the fact that he is ALIVE!
This made me think, about our journey with Jesus. We all have to start our journey somewhere, and thankfully, Jesus meets us all exactly where we are. He doesn't expect us to be perfect or wholesome he just asks us to be open. He doesn't ask us to go to church or even believe in God as he meets us where we are, in our sin and at our worst.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This means that whoever we are and however bad we might be, Jesus loves us and died for us. So wherever you are on your journey, don't worry, as Jesus loves you and died for you. Let him in, ask him to change you, I did and it was the best thing I ever did!
Today I cheated a bit with my bible study. I was only meant to read a small section of Luke chapter 22, but I felt compelled to read the whole Easter story today on Resurrection Day. What an awesome passage of scripture. The death & resurrection of my Saviour.
While the world was having Easter egg hunts and eating chocolate, I and many other Christians were celebrating the fact that Death has been overcome and that we are forgiven!
When Jesus died on the cross, he took the punishment for the sins of the whole world. That means that everything that we've ever done and are going to do was on the shoulders of God. Jesus took our place, he paid the price for sin. AND...then he conquered death, and rose back to life. He made it possible for us all to have communion with God. He made it possible for us to be part of his family. He tore the curtain in two and allowed us access to God himself. Easter is not about eggs, its not about chocolate, its not about shopping, its not about school holidays, its not about spending time with family, its not about doing the garden or washing the car.
Easter is about God coming to earth and humbling himself as a man, being brutally murdered on a cross, being placed in a borrowed tomb, coming back to life and restoring the relationship between God and man. That's what Easter is truly about!
If you don't know Jesus as Lord and Saviour then you can make that decision right now. Jesus died for everyone and so all he asks is that we believe.
When we think of the last supper we immediately think of the communion table. We remember the bread and the wine and what it represents to us as Christians, Jesus body broken for the world and his blood shed for the sins of mankind.
When I tell any story I always try and imagine what it would've been like to be there. I can imagine the mood at the dinner table being very mixed. Firstly, you've got Jesus washing everyone's feet and Peter getting out of his pram about it, you've got some of the disciples trying to work out who is the greatest, plus you've got Judas who is just about to betray Jesus and so is probably on edge, not to mention the fact that Jesus is saying things like, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” & “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
We can learn so much from this scene. Jesus shows his disciples how to be humble and how to serve one another by washing their feet and he tells them that they should do the same - this includes us! When was the last time we humbled ourselves?
Then Jesus has to deal with the dispute of who is the greatest. He explains that to be great you must be the least of all. So many of us want to be great, want to be famous, want to be the best of the best. However Jesus tells us that to be great in the eyes of God means that we must be the person that serves, the person that is the least. When was the last time we put someone else first and not our own agenda?
BUT most of all let's remember that just after this meal Jesus is arrested,tortured and crucified for the sin of the whole world. Jesus knew what was going to happen, and yet he still chose to do it for me and you.
