JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: The LORD of the STORM JOHN 6:18-20

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word.

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject. I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:18-20

18 And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. 19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. 20 But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.

For a more thorough treatment of this subject, check out the FMF article A DIFFERENT SERMON On ANOTHER MOUNT.

RESILIENT ROOT of the RIGHTEOUS

Olive Trees are truly remarkable in their resilience; living hundreds if not thousands of years, producing nutritional fruit, healthful oils and medicinal leaves well into their maturity, even to the end of their days.

Olive trees can be decimated in branches and trunk, leaving barely nothing to the eye, but as long as the root is left undamaged, its resolved nature to begin growing again perseveres! 

I read PSALM 52 today, and it mentions olive trees in the context of the one who is under the care, supervision and protection of the LORD. Let's check this out:

PSALM 52:1-4

International Standard Version (I usually quote from the ol' KJV, but I really like how this version interprets certain words)

1 Why do you make evil

    the foundation of your boasting, mighty one?

        God’s gracious love never ceases. 

2 Your tongue, like a sharp razor, devises wicked things

    and crafts treachery.

3 You love evil rather than good,

    falsehood rather than speaking uprightly.

4 You love all words that destroy, you deceitful tongue!.

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: A Journey without JESUS? JOHN 6:16-17

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:16-17
16 And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, 17 And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: The PROPHET WHO IS KING JOHN 6:14-15

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:14-15
14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. 15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: FROM FEW to FULFILLED - Part II of II - JOHN 6:10-13

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:10-13
10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

COURSE CORRECT YOUR CHRISTIANITY

Course corrections are periodic adjustments required while in flight. If no corrections are made, the slightest alteration in trajectory could lead the flight path significantly away from the destination.

Consider if a rocket ship was just 1 degree off right after take-off, by the time it entered orbit, it would miss its target by miles.

Course deviations are usually not very blatant; they tend to be subtle; we're just a hair off our correct course. Yet if a considerable amount of time transpires without correction, we find ourselves no where near our intended destination.

What do our sea, air, and space-faring vessels all have in common with sheep? Without guidance, they tend to wander. We have computer programs to monitor our flight paths and provide information that will correct our course.

Sheep have the same thing: but in their case, they're called shepherds. And we are typified in Scripture as sheep; we likewise need a shepherd, only a very GOOD Shepherd, because as much as sheep can wander, we wander further still!

A Word from HAGGAI for the Sixth Year Anniversary of SHINE BRIGHT Church

HAGGAI 2:1-9  

1 In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month [early OCT], came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? 4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: 5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. 6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. 9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: FROM FEW to FULFILLED - Part I of II - JOHN 6:5-9

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:5-9
5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

HOW DO WE ENCOURAGE OURSELVES IN THE LORD?

In these days we have witnessed something unprecedented: we have seen virtually the entire globe on lock down for a virus whose potency is somewhat stronger than some of the most virulent strains of flu. This COVID virus and even more so, the media coverage - some would call it media hype and I'd be hard pressed to argue against that - has caused uncertainty, anxiety, panic and selfish, even violent behavior. Loneliness and neurotic behavior due to isolation as well. 

I believe this event has initiated and will propel into our future a paradigm shift in our world; that is, an event that will cause irrevocable shifts in change of society at large that will become permanent, from which there is no turning back.

9-11 is the best example of this; because of this event that took place in 2001 we have the DHS, TSA, the Patriot Act and a 'War on Terror' - and none of these things have disappeared, they are a part of the fabric of our every day lives.

How will this Corona virus alter our lives in a permanent way remains to be seen, but if I'm reading the terrain correctly, it will mean greater Federal and State oversight of our lives, more control for the sake of our 'protection' (when it's actually more about control than protection) and more restrictions: specifically on the church of Jesus Christ, the details of which for now are unknown.

I think we as Christians are anticipating darker days, and this is in accord with what the Scriptures tell us:

From GENERALS to FOOTSOLDIERS of CHRIST: HEAR, PREPARE, ACT - By Greg Reid

From Greg Reid:
HEAR. PREPARE. ACT.

Listen to the radio broadcast from LOVE FOR THE TRUTH Radio with host Cindy Hartline!

THE CHURCH and COVID19—Gregory Reid(Intrv) The Party’s Over!

Dear Friends,

This will be one of the most important letters I have written in over 45 years. 

*** Please read it carefully, and share it with others. ***

We could have never imagined that we would have experienced what we are going through right now. And even as I write this, the future of all this is not clear.
Regardless, this is a moment for the church of Jesus to listen, to learn, to take action. The party is over. The games have to stop. We have to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying in this moment and respond to His directives. More is at stake than we can know.
As new believers in the 1970’s, we were so excited about the fact that Jesus was coming back! We cut our teeth on The Late Great Planet Earth, and Larry Norman’s I Wish We’d All Been Ready. Some went out and got married in the “rapture rush” before He returned.

All these years have passed. And although He has not yet returned, and many have abandoned that hope, I have not. In fact, I believe we are at the precipice of the fulfillment of all things.
Even if we are not, we as the church are now forced to face some harsh realities. The first one is that everything can change overnight.
We certainly got a taste of that during 9/11. But this is more serious, and its consequences may be more long-term and require our prayer and our attention in an unprecedented way.

The RIGHT "RIGHT STUFF"

The new and the former generation of astronauts - all of them with "the right stuff" - it began with Mercury, then Gemini and then Apollo program and it continues to this day. Astronauts fly routinely - if you can call it that - into space these days, but when initial trials commenced to launch a man into orbit, beyond the atmosphere of the planet, it was anything but routine. It began with a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin who fired from a Soviet launch pad into space well over a year before I was born: 
"On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes."

America was not about to be outdone by the Soviet Union and so 'the space race' commenced! But before an American made space capsule could find itself in the celestial domain, a certain kind of man had to be found, and made into something that never existed before: an astronaut, a 'star trekker', a man with 'the right stuff'. 

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: JESUS KNOWS ALREADY - JOHN 6:1-6

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 6:1-6
After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: UNBELIEF - JOHN 5:44-47

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 

I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 5:44-47 
44 How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

SUFFERING & TRIALS: The Purpose of Pain

Pain. It's something we all try to avoid; vast quantities of pharmaceuticals are massed produced so that we can avoid it, in all of it's terrible and tiresome shades

C.S. Lewis did an amazing job dealing with the issue of pain in the world with his first published work, The PROBLEM of PAIN in which he deals with the issue of suffering, and if GOD is All-powerful and good, then why is there suffering in this world?
We dealt with the problem of evil in a TTUF article entitled EVIL - This Strange Predicament. 

Human beings seem to know intuitively that pain is not merely undesirable but is on some fundamental level, plain wrong; that it's something that shouldn't exist (but does, thus the high degree of frustration, doubt and even anger that we feel that results from this effrontery). 

JEWELS From The GOSPEL Of JOHN: NO LOVE LIFE - JOHN 5:40-43

The following is a series of short exhortations, brief commentary and writings to convey thoughtful meditation on God's Word. 
I have chosen the Gospel of John as the subject.  I pray that these will be a blessing and an edification for the saints.

JOHN 5:40-43
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

THOSE DEVILISH DETOURS

I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons, and I recall when one character wanted to pull a fast one on another, they would take a detour sign that was meant to keep people off a closed road that ended abruptly at a cliff face and turn it away from the safe road towards this danger.

Satan does this same thing; the LORD intends for us to walk the "old paths" (JERE 6:16) - the safe paths of blessing and safety by following Him and His truth, wisdom and grace, but the devil will do all he can to detour us away from these pathways of peace and life (PSALM 16:11), these roads of righteousness; to lead us away from them and into peril and ruin instead.

And he is very subtle about his methods, using all of his wiles and craftiness to dissuade us from the LORD and His ways and bring us to danger and destruction. So what are some of these detours?