Thoughts From the Bible

John 10: 17-18- “The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again.  (18) No one can take my life from me.  I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want and also the power to take it again.  For my Father has given me this command.”   This shows the omnipotence of Jesus Christ.  Christ has the power to allow Himself to be killed and the power to raise Himself from the dead.  It is so difficult to imagine from a human perspective how this could even begin to happen.  What is even more difficult to understand is that Jesus would do this act that is totally incomprehensible so I could be forgiven of my many sins.  That is a hard one to wrap my mind around.

Read  John 10: 11- 16-   These Jewish people understood the responsibilities and behaviors associated with being a shepherd. Jesus was telling the people He knew who His followers were and would protect them.   Here’s the even greater part.   In verse 16 Jesus says, “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold.  I must bring them also.  They will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.”   Jesus was saying very plainly He was not leaving anyone out.   Some of the Jewish leaders were not so keen on including others, especially the Gentiles, but they would have to grow into Jesus’ message that was meant for all people, not just a few.

John 10: 1-10 -  Verses 4 through 5 says, “After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of the, and they follow him because they recognize his voice. (5) They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t recognize his voice.”   This is all the lesson we need for one day.   Do we know the voice of Jesus? Are we listening for the voice of Jesus in our everyday activities?  Have we listened enough to Jesus to know His voice separate from other voices.   If we had a friend earlier in our lives and we had not seen them in a while. When we talk to them after several years, we recognize that friend’s voice.  Are we that close to Jesus to easily recognize His voice.  This could be the only lesson we need for the next week.  This is one of those core lessons we should be striving for each and every day. 

Read John 9: 34- 41-  For Jesus, it was time to confront the Jewish leadership.  I would expect He was not happy because of how the leaders had treated the no-longer blind man.  Jesus challenged those who could see whether they were actually seeing spiritually.  The confrontation in verses 40 and 41, “Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard Him and asked, ‘Are you saying we’re blind?’ ‘If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,’ Jesus replied. ‘But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.’”    I think Jesus is wanting us to spend more time trying to see spiritually.  He wants us to practice the act of spiritual seeing so we can be better prepared to serve in situations He wants us.  In so doing, we avoid the problem of pride the Pharisees were steeped in.   

  Read  John 9: 12-34-  This passage in John is like a scene in a movie.   A miracle happens but the Jewish leadership don’t want to believe it.   I think that is the key response in this scene.   They didn’t want to believe Jesus could actually make a blind man see.   The leaders saw a threat.   It was interesting it took the no-longer blind man teaching the Jewish leaders when he said in verse 31, “God doesn’t listen to sinners, but He is ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will.   (32) Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. (33) If this man were not from God, He couldn’t do it.”   God will listen to sinners if they are calling out to Him and recognizing Him for who He is.   The no-longer blind man knew what this story was about, and the Jewish leaders did not want to accept what it was all about.   Jesus changes everything in every situation.   We need to make...

  Read  John 9: 6-11-  It wasn’t enough for Jesus to tell the people He was the Light of the world.   It wasn’t enough for Him to tell them He came from the Father in Heaven.   Jesus knew the people needed to see signs and wonders in order to believe.   Because Jesus didn’t arrive as some grand and glorious figure with much pomp and circumstance, He knew they needed signs and wonders.   Jesus’ motivations at this time in His life were many and probably more than I can conjure up.   It was time for people to see exactly who He was.   It was time for Jesus to teach the disciples more about the nature of God, about what was right before God and what was tradition for man.   It was time for this blind man to see again.    The blind man who was no longer blind served a purpose for Jesus.   Jesus did more than serve a purpose for the no-longer blind man.   People today are very quickly losing faith in things they cannot see...

Read  John 9: 1-5-  Who can we blame? That is so much a part of society who can we blame when things go wrong.   Surely it is someone’s fault when something bad happens and those people, whoever they are, need to pay.   It appears the first century citizens were not a lot different.   They asked Jesus the honest question, is the man blind because of something he did or something his parents did? Jesus told them it was no one’s fault.   He did tell them He would use the man’s disability to show the power of God.    Do we take that approach when something bad happens.   Do we work to use our weaknesses for God? Not usually is the honest answer. The real lesson I see in this is not so much using our shortcomings as well as our talents for God, but we need to know the clock is ticking.    Jesus will return and our opportunities to share the goodness of God will be finished. Verses 4 and 5 give us direction, “We must quickly carry out th...

Read John 8: 48-59-  Jesus says, (50) “And though I have no wish to glorify myself, God is going to glorify me.  He is the true judge.  (51) I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!”   Jesus was trying to show Himself to the people and the people were having a hard time adjusting their thinking that the person standing before them was the Messiah.   They didn’t even think He was old enough to be the Messiah. The people expected something different and not what they were seeing in Jesus.   Instead of listening to Him, they were looking to argue with Him.    Do we do that? This is a perfect example of how listening and allowing the words of Christ to sink into us rather than looking for argument.   Does that mean we should not question certain things? No, but we should look at Jesus’ words and His principles as our building blocks for life and then question those things people may present that may fall outside of what ...

Read  John 8: 42-47-  Jesus tells the people “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I have come to you from God.   I am not here on My own, but He sent me.” The people were struggling with Jesus’ message of who He was.   They were not listening to him gladly because they had so much tradition, life experiences, and other’s expectations standing between them and Jesus’ simple message.   We have to guard against that ourselves.   Denominational traditions, expectations of other people, our own history of sin, and wanting to justify our decisions can all be things that stand between us and what Jesus is specifically trying to show us.   Jesus has boiled things down to a rather simple state for the people, if you believe in God then you have to believe in Me.   We struggle sometimes with wanting to make things more complicated than they should be.   We have to know this requires faith on our part.   As we continue to learn of ...

Read  John 8: 31-41 -  Jesus is trying to get two things across to the people.   First, there is a difference between their heavenly Father and their earthly father.   Jesus told the people His message was not finding a place in their hearts, and they insisted on listening to the spiritual message with an earthly heart.  Jesus was also letting them know continuing in sinful activities created a bondage to them emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.   The people took Jesus’ words of them being free from sin as being physically free and at that time they were free from the bondage of another country or ruler.   Jesus wanted the people to see sin as a bondage on them also.    “Jesus replied, ‘I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave of sin.’   There are human desires we must fight to avoid allowing desires that are sins to dig into our souls and become attached.   Jesus tells us the closer to Him we are, the harder for those des...

Read John 8: 21-30-  Jesus was obviously very different from anyone the people had heard teach and His message was slow to penetrate their world of understanding.  One could imagine the people were actually in a 2000-year-old mindset going back to the time of Moses.  They were still living directly from those scriptures and had established an entire nation of people on Moses’ writings.  Now they are slapped in the face by someone who says they are God’s Son.  How would we respond today?  I would guess most would dismiss His claims and others would think Jesus to be totally crazy, worth of institutionalization.  The people could not understand how one person could claim to be the light of life.  Jesus did give them a rather large hint of how they would know exactly who He was in verse 28, “So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am He.’”    I think ...

Read John 8: 12-18 -  Go back to verses 14 and 15, “Jesus told them, ‘These claims are valid even though I make them about myself.   For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. (15) You judge me with all your human limitations, but I am not judging anyone.’” Jesus is showing the Jewish leadership He is the Messiah.   He wasn’t exactly what the Jewish leaders were looking for in a Messiah, so they were challenging Him.   Jesus pointed out they were judging Him based on their own human limitations.   We need to read this again.    Jesus knew the information and knowledge the leaders had was limited and He told them so.   We need to understand we don’t always have all the information we need in order to make decisions or to judge someone and their behavior or intentions.   I think that is probably even more of a problem today because so much information can be manufactured and lying is not a problem for ...

Read  John 8: 12-   Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world.   If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”  How does this work?   Knowing God’s principles helps us to see the light Jesus is referring.   Accepting Jesus also provides us guidance through the Holy Spirit.   When we have that sense of right and wrong, that is the Holy Spirit giving us guidance in the different events in our lives.   When we are in a situation and don’t know what we should do, the Holy Spirit will give us thoughts on what is correct.   As we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will stop us in certain sections of the Bible and make those passages more real to us.   This is the type of guidance Jesus was trying to tell the people about the light He was providing to them.   We need to spend time with Him to fully appreciate the light He brings to our everyday worlds.

Read John 8: 1-11-   This is a second look at the same passage as yesterday.   I think there is another lesson in this section for me.   To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said in verses 10 and 11, “Then Jesus stood up again and said her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?  ‘No Lord’, she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”   Jesus didn’t say, “It’s okay, I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” He said he didn’t condemn her for her actions, but He also said, don’t do it anymore.   We have a lot of people putting their sins on display and expecting everyone to say it’s okay and that’s it.   That’s not what Jesus said.   He told the woman to stop her sinful activities. Jesus showed us we need to be understanding of people and know they are human and too many of us succumb to our temptations.   He also tells us to stop it.   That doesn’t mean Jesus is some form of “phobic” because He is not...

Read  John 8:1-8-   This section of the Bible is not found in early Greek manuscripts,  so this section is not always seen as part of the Bible. I am including it since it is included in the New Living Bible, and I see it as another example of a Godly principle.  The Jewish leaders are still after Jesus.   They do not realize how everything is on Jesus’ time and not their time.   The Jewish leaders are attempting to trap Jesus but, seeing that is impossible, Jesus uses the opportunity to show them the principle of compassion.   We may not agree with the actions of the woman caught in adultery but what do we do with that? Jesus showed us.   The Jewish law said the woman should be stoned.   Jesus told them to go ahead and do. Verse 7, “They kept demanding an answer, so He stood up again and said, ‘Alright, stone her.   But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!’” That basically eliminated everyone, and they knew it. ...

Read  John 7: 40-52-  It is very interesting to see how the people seemed to recognize Jesus for who He was, but the Pharisees did not want to even give Him a hearing as Nicodemus pointed out. The other thing interesting is that the Pharisees did not realize Jesus was from the lineage of David and was from Bethlehem.   Jesus made Himself known to the people and to the Jewish leadership in a way no other man had ever been known before.   He more than stood out from the group of religious people, He stood separately.   His teaching was a revelation to the people who earnestly listened to Him.  We need to take a minute and view Jesus as He is and not who we necessarily want Him to be.   We cannot do that without reading what has been written in the Bible and how all of that applies to our lives.   Yes, we live in a complicated world.   Jesus’ principles still apply to the situations.   It does require us to read and study what He has given ...

  Read John 7: 37-39 -  Jesus not only made Himself known at the height of the festival, but He made a tremendous introduction. Jesus let the people know of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit would continue to bring spiritual life to people.   One thought about the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual life is that Jesus and the Holy Spirit bring life, not just spiritual life. We have to see all of the things that occur in our lives as part of the life Jesus and the Holy Spirit provides to us.    We have to acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit as freely as we acknowledge Jesus and God and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.  It makes them uncomfortable because they have not chosen to allow Jesus to be the main part of their lives.  This is a short passage in the Gospel of John, but it is huge in what Jesus was declaring.  We need to make sure we don’t undervalue that declaration.      

Read  John 7: 31-36-  The dichotomy in this passage is interesting.   One set of opinions focused on Jesus as the Messiah saying, “What do you expect from the Messiah? Jesus has done so much!” Then you have the Temple leadership sending Temple guards to arrest Jesus.   The Jewish leadership went on to show their confusion about Jesus when they could not understand what Jesus said when He said He would be returning to the One who sent Him. Could it have been the Temple leadership was so threatened by Jesus and so afraid their positions of power might be at risk, they didn’t want to see clearly who Jesus was.   Their selfishness and insecurity in the face of someone they had never experienced was more than they could comprehend.    This is one of those situations when we need to be careful to not make Jesus’ life on earth any more complicated than it was.   Jesus came simply to redeem all of us.   Jesus knew the insecurity of the Jewish leaders...

Read  John 7: 25-30-   In this passage is another lesson for us.   Don’t make too many assumptions. The Jewish people listening to Jesus assumed he was not the Messiah because Jesus did not simply appear to them.   They knew he was from Nazareth. They assumed Jesus the Messiah would come to them almost magically based on their traditions, not on fact. The Jewish leaders assumed Jesus was there to take their jobs.   They were threatened by Jesus not because of what He did to them but because His teaching was far superior to what they were capable of providing to the people and because He had publicly corrected them.    Jesus knew their conversations.   In verse 28, “ Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from.  But I’m not here on my own.  The One who sent me is true, and you don’t know Him.  (29) But I know Him because I come from Him, and He sent me to you.”   We need to take Jesus at His word.   We do not need to a...

Read John 7: 16-18-   Verse 18 is a verse everyone who wants to share Jesus’ message has to be very careful about, “ Those who present their own ideas are looking for praise for themselves, but those who seek to honor the One who sent them are good and genuine.”   I am writing thoughts down about what I read in the scriptures.  All I have to bring to the table is many decades of being a Christian.  I don’t have theological degrees although I have listened to untold numbers of Bible teaching, classes, and sermons.  My emphasis is to find one thing about Jesus to dwell on for each day.  I’m not necessarily looking for anything knew but in this approach to reading the Bible, I find so many things that have never stuck with me before.  That is one reason why I am reading the Bible so slowly now.  After reading through the whole Bible one chapter at a time, I am now reading the Bible one small section at a time because I want to find those things that ...

Read  John 7: 20-24 -  We need to be very careful about our hypocrisy.   We all have places in our lives where we have hypocrisy, and we don’t fully recognize it.   Jesus showed the Jewish leaders just how big their hypocrisy was, and He did it so everyone would be able to see the difference.   Not only did Jesus confront their hypocrisy, but He also showed them how their legalism concerning the Sabbath was misplaced.   Helping someone else in great need was more important than a set of “dos and don’ts” created by man.    There are those who will want to stretch this whole idea of defying legalism to boundaries they want to create for themselves to accommodate their life choices.   God is the one setting the boundaries, not man.   We need to keep that in mind when we are looking for ways to justify our sins or abominations.

  Read John 7: 14-19 -        Jesus decided His time to be seen was in the Temple during the Feast.   He began to teach, and the  Jewish religious leaders were amazed He knew so much having not been to their seminary.   How can that be?   Jesus began to teach them how God’s ideas were greater than any ideas they may come up with.   Jesus was teaching them to focus on God and His principles and not be enamored by trying to come up with stuff no one had heard before.          Jesus also challenged the leadership when He confronted them about their desire to see Jesus put to death.  Verse 19 says, "None of you obeys the law of Moses! In fact, you are trying to kill me."  This confrontation was in public and put the Jewish leadership in a tough position.  The thought this brings to me is that we need to be very careful in criticism and to make sure we know all of God’s principles.  So many times, ...

Read John 7: 10-13-   People talk.  In these days, people are very quick to talk and express their opinions.  People are very free with their criticisms also.  Our social media makes it very easy to put your opinions out for all to see.  Those living in Israel when Jesus was beginning His ministry had their opinions, but they were also very cautious about expressing those opinions.  The people feared repercussions from the Jewish leadership, so they were very cautious about expressing their opinions if they did not fit with that of the Jewish leadership.   We have to be prepared to speak of Jesus when the situations present themselves.  That is sometimes uncomfortable for some, but we have to be prepared to support and promote Jesus even if it’s just how we live our lives.   

Read John 7: 1-8-  Jesus knew directly what He was dealing with as He entered His time of public ministry. Verse 7 says, “ The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of sin and evil.” In some ways, Christianity is in conflict with itself today.  There are those who have melded themselves to Jesus’ message of love in the New Testament to the point of disregarding any other sins people may have in their everyday lives.  These Christians want to accept everyone just as they are and not mention their lifestyle sins which are very public.  Their message is, “We are just here to love everyone”.  A nice message with no Christian principles attached to it.   We all sin.  We all have things in our lives that Jesus compels us to get rid of.  We are to work at staying away from those sins and repent when we fall short. No where in the Bible or in anything we have recorded that Jesus said does it allo...

  Read  John 7: 1-8-  “ For even His brothers didn’t believe in Him, ” was written in verse 5. How can that be?     Jesus’ brothers grew up with Him.     They knew Him well.     Was it a brothers’ jealousy of Jesus that drove them to the point of not wanting to believe their brother was the Messiah? As a sibling, it must have been hard competing with a brother who knew no sin.     I also wonder if Mary, Jesus’ mother, told the boys when they were older everything surrounding the birth of Jesus. Whatever the motivation behind the brothers not believing in their brother, Jesus, it was something they would have to deal with at one time or another.     Regardless of what our personal histories are, we have to deal with Jesus one way or another. There are a large number of people who do not believe and the percentages of those who don’t believe are growing based on surveys done.   Jesus was there for his brothers no differ...