Thoughts From the Bible

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: 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: 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 6: 22-59-       There is so much in this section of the book.   I think verses 22 through 27 address the motivation of the people.   As a way of immediately getting their attention, He calls them out.   (26) Jesus replied, “The truth is, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you saw the miraculous sign.” That tells me the people were looking for a free lunch.   It maybe they were extremely poor and did not know where their next meal was coming.   It maybe they were just looking for free food because they didn’t have anything better to do.   Who knows? Jesus knew what they did need to hear though.   (27) But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food.   Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Son of Man, can give you. For God the Father has sent me for that very purpose.”        There are times when people want t...

Read John 6: 1-15 -  Jesus did something with Philip that day that we all should notice and try to repeat.   Jesus is the Son of God.   Jesus knew what was going to happen, so He used it as a teaching opportunity. Jesus challenged Philip’s faith while at the same time He was showing the other disciples they would have more to talk about.   Verse 11- "Then Jesus took, the loaves, gave thanks to God, and passed them out to the people. Afterward, He did the same with the fish.  And they all ate until they were full."   All 5000 plus of them.   Jesus wanted the disciples to see a process.   See a situation, pray about it and then act on it with whatever you have.   Jesus handles the rest.   That is a simple process we should all incorporate into our lives.

  Read  John 5: 19-24 -  Jesus boldly told the Jewish leadership who He was.   He didn’t disguise His message.   It was clear.   Jesus also stated some conditions they needed to know about Him and His Father. “(22) And the Father leaves all judgment to His Son. (23) so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.   But if you refuse to honor the Son, then you are certainly not honoring the Father who sent Him. When people in society talk about spiritual matters, they like to use the word “faith” or “spiritual belief” or other generalized words or phrases, all designed to not raise any anxieties.   When those few do use the name of Jesus, the whole conversation changes.   It changed conversation over 2000 years ago and it really changes conversation today.   A person goes from someone who has a “strong faith” to someone more radical who freely uses the name of Jesus.   It’s okay to use the name of Mohammed.  ...

  John 3: 1-21- This is the total message of the Bible.   If anyone wants to know what they must do to have eternal spiritual life, it is given by Jesus in this passage.   The most impactful verses of this passage are verses 14 through 18.   John 3: 16 is the most quoted verse in the Bible, as it should be, but the verses surrounding it are very important and add to the impact of verse 16.   Jesus spells it out plainly for Nicodemus and for us.     Verse 14, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. (16) For God the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. (18) Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because h...