Thoughts From the Bible

Read  John 12: 4-6 -  “But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray Him, said, (5) ‘That perfume was worth a year’s wages.  It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.’ (6) Not that he cared for the poor; he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.”    There is so much to learn in these 3 verses.  First, we must be careful who we put in charge of money or other key resources.  Those individuals need to prove themselves and they need to have someone or some others they are accountable to.  In this case, Judas was not accountable.   Second, Judas’ motivation was wrong.  His conversation to give the money to the poor was a smoke screen.  He wanted to get his hands on more resources.  His motivation was not pure. Those are practical actions or things that can be challenged.   We need to also know we have a responsibility to pray for thos...

Read  John 12: 1-3   This is another one of those passages that so many preachers like to use to show how we should deeply love Jesus.  It was not uncommon in the time of Jesus for people who have been walking a good distance to arrive at someone’s house and one of the women would wash their feet.  Martha was doing this, but she used the best she had for Jesus.     Verse 3, “Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping His feet with her hair.   It is hard for us humans to always put our best foot forward, but we need to be very aware we need to be working to do our absolute best for Jesus.  We need to work to acquire Martha’s attitude and perspective on things.  We need to consciously work at it so much that it becomes reflexive to us.  We don’t even think, we simply act and react as Martha would.  We need to continually love Jesus at that le...

Read  John 11: 45-57 -   The name of Jesus still has the power it had when Jesus was alive and meeting the spiritual needs of people.  To many, they readily see He is the Son of God.  To others, He is a threat.  The Jewish leadership were very threatened by Jesus and were prepared to literally do whatever it took to eliminate Him.  The Roman appointed High Priest, Caiaphas, was not going to give up his position and power.  The fear of Rome taking over Jerusalem was an excuse to eliminate a perceived threat.   So many things change in people when the name of Jesus is brought into the conversation.  We need to not be afraid to use the name of Jesus in our conversations and be proud to use the name of Jesus whenever necessary.  Jesus came to give us a path to an eternal life in Him and we need to not be hesitant to make sure people know that.

Read John 11: 27-44-  The raising of Lazarus from the grave is one of the most well-known events in the Bible. One thing I don’t recall anyone mentioning related to the event is what Jesus did before He commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave.   In verse 41 it says, “So they rolled the stone aside.  The Jesus looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, thank you for hearing me. (42) You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so they will believe you sent Me.’”  Jesus knew He was about to do something that would be a huge event in the people’s lives, and it would be a significant event in His ministry.  Before He did anything, He prayed.  Jesus prayed God would bless His actions.  If Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are one, would Jesus be praying to Himself? I’m not prepared to get into the theology involved with that.   I do know we need to make a note to make sure we pray before any situatio...

  Read  John 11: 17-26-  This whole section about raising Lazarus from the dead has many lessons for us and in this short section there is one of the defining statements Jesus made regarding who He is and what is at stake in believing in Him.  Verse 25, “Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they died like everyone else, will live again.  (26) They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.  Do you believe this, Martha?’”   These kinds of statements would rock the people of that time.  They would either be awestruck or see Jesus as blasphemous.  These are very bold words.  The real challenge for the people of that time and the real challenge for us, can we believe these words of Jesus?   By faith in Him, can we believe we will have eternal life and a life in Christ? Jesus even asked Martha if she believed it?  Our ...

Read John 11: 16 Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go, too; and die with Jesus.’”  I pulled out one verse because we don’t know the tense in which it was spoken.  We don’t know if Thomas meant this sarcastically or whether it was a statement of commitment to following Jesus, whatever the cost.  Jesus and the disciples had recently left the Bethany area because of threats of some to kill Jesus, now they were going back to the same area.  We want to believe Thomas was fully committed to Jesus, but it is a rare person who will knowingly walk into their own death.  We need to acknowledge there are people who have given their lives for the cause of Christ, and we need to respect those individual’s memories.  Their commitments were solid.  Is my commitment as strong as theirs?

Read John 11: 12-15-   This conversation of clarity with the disciples was very important.  I think Jesus was creating a solid foundation of faith for the disciples.  This episode of raising Lazarus from the death would be startling to everyone but Jesus let the disciples know this even was to harden their faith in Him.  In verse 14 Jesus is frank with the disciples, “Then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. (15) And for your sake, I am glad I wasn’t there, because this will give you another opportunity to believe in me.” We need to accept the resurrection of Lazarus just as if we were there ourselves.  We need to adopt the faith of the disciples and work to advance the belief in Jesus Christ.  We must accept these admonitions of Jesus and His many actions and know His main goal was to be a sacrifice for our sins.  We need to really allow the overall message of Christ to come into our lives and accept what Christ did and know that it was done for u...

Read  John 11: 8-11-   I think there is a lot to consider in the whole story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.     There is the actual act of defying death.     There is the timing of the resurrection of Lazarus.     There is the location where all of this happened.     There is the potential impact on the Romans.     There is also a section early in the story where I think Jesus gives us some indication about how He is able to help us when we need it, whether we know it or not.     Take these verses, “(9) Jesus replied, ‘There are twelve hours of daylight every day.     As long as it is light people can walk safely.     They can see because they have the light of this world. (10) Only at night is there danger of stumbling because there is no light.”  There are those people who opened say they do not have a need for religion or for God because they can take care of the things of life jus...

Read John 11: 1-7 -  This short story within Chapter 11 is a description of how Jesus wants us to be available to add to His Kingdom.  Moses was used to guide Israel.  David served as a King over God’s chosen people.  In quite a dramatic nature, Lazarus was used to show the power of God, through Jesus.  This is a very dramatic scene for sure where Lazarus actually dies and is placed in a tomb and is there for several days.  As Jesus tells the disciples in verse 4, and as we should know in our own lives, “But when Jesus heard about it, He said, ‘Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.  No, it is for the glory of God. I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this.”  We may be asked to serve in some dramatic ways so others will see the power of Jesus.  Are we prepared for that type of calling?

Read John 1 0 : 34-42 -  Jesus continued to let the people know who He actually was.  No different from today, some believed, and others did not.  The people seemed to really need to see the miraculous acts of Jesus to hear His message.  It also appears there were those who had to look back at what they had seen and heard and at that point they believed in Jesus.  In verse 41 it says, “John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” (42) And many who were there believed in Jesus.”    It is very good for us to look back and review what we have read in the Bible or seen in the lives or other people or the events in our own lives.  When we take the take to look back in twenty-twenty hindsight, many times we can see how God directed our paths or had other people come into our lives to help us or help others.  Taking time to remember different situations is not something w...

Read   John 10: 24- 33 -  People are crazy.  Jesus had just healed a blind man, but the people are ready to stone Jesus to death because He said the following that Jesus said, “… for my Father has given them to me, and He is more powerful than anyone else.  No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  The Father and I are one.  Once again, the people picked up stones to kill Him.  Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works.  For which one are you going to stone me? They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”    Blasphemy today doesn’t mean nearly as much as it meant in Jesus’ time.  Jesus was equating Himself to be one with God the Father.  That would be a lot for the first century Jewish community to buy.  They talked of a messiah, they studied and believed there woul...

Read John 10: 22-30-  I wonder if the people during Christ’s time were just so confused by their own ideas of what the Messiah would look like and what Jesus looked like.  They continued to ask Him if He was the Messiah and He told them, “Jesus replied, I have already told you, and you don’t believe me.  The proof is in the work I do in my Father’s name.”   We live in a time when the things we think we are seeing may not actually exist at all.  Artificial Intelligence is doing things we could not imagine being done too many years ago.  There is a phrase that people use sometimes and that is, “Don’t believe everything you hear and believe only in half of what you see.” Well, that holds true today.  Jesus was in front of the people, and they could see it all firsthand and recorded all of it firsthand, yet they still wondered.   We are skeptical people but if we seriously look at what is recorded about Jesus and what He said while here on e...

Read John 10: 17-21-  People will talk.  We see that today more than ever in history.  Everyone has an opinion about most things also.  It appears that may have also been the case when Jesus was talking to the people.  Some believed.  Remarkably, some did not believe even though they had the testimony of the man who was no longer blind.  In those days, faith was a significant part of deciding to follow Jesus or not.  Faith remains key in following Jesus today.  Some people had the following perspective of Jesus in verse 21, “Others said, ‘This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”   If we stop and take a minute to look around, we can see the hand of God.  Not only in nature but in the progression of humanity over time.  This stuff cannot happen randomly as some desperately want to believe.  Everything works together so well.  How can that be random? Also, if we l...