Your One Question For Jesus

Matthew 22:36-38 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied:" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.

The government is in a shut down mode. The debt ceiling needs to be raised or the USA will default on it's debt. Global economic chaos is in the offing. We stand in the midst of this self created grave situation and wonder where is God in all this?

Jesus has an interesting dialogue going with the Sadducees and Pharisees in Matthew 22. Each time one group tries to trip Jesus up with a question, His answers leave them stunned.  Try as they might to test The Lord, they come up short each and every time. their attempts to catch Jesus in a snare of human logic are so pitiful in comparison to the knowledge of The Lord. Which brings me to ask a question of myself and for you to ask yourself. What question would I ask Jesus if I had the opportunity to ask Him face to face?

The possible questions to ask are limitless when you stop to think about it. They could range from "Why did You wither the fig tree? all the way to "Did you ever have second thoughts about who you called to be disciples?" Really, there are a ton of possible questions to ask. Then seriously, what would you or I ask that we cannot already glean from Scriptures? We know what are His directions for us. We are told to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength. We are told to love one another as we love ourselves. In John 13:34 He tells us to "Love one another. as I have loved you, so you must love one another." This kind of love is a love that transcends mortal love, it is a complete and everlasting love. And finally we are commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  If we are worried about making it to heaven we already know it is by grace we are saved, through faith (Ephesians 2:8). I guess all the big questions have answers we can read for ourselves. So what ever we ask is going to seem pretty trivial in nature. So, spending a lot of time pondering this is not really time well spent.

But still, knowing the answers to the big questions have been given I still a have one to ask. Maybe you guessed it giving my love for the water. "Jesus, what was it like to walk on water?" It may be a stupid question to ask, but when the important ones have answers already out there, that is what you get from this simple minded person. Be glad that we already have His thoughts and words in Scriptures to guide us when we have questions. May your time reading the Word of God be blessed.

PRAYER: Father of all creation, You have given us Your Word to guide us, comfort us, and sustain us. We have this Word in times of plenty and times of little. We have comfort when we seek comfort. And when we doubt You are near, we have only to look at what You have given us in scripture to find You are next to us always. Thank you for loving us when we do not deserve Your love. And thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ for it is in His name that we offer this prayer, Amen.

Discerned Only Through The Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accent the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. When I look at the photo above and try to discern the path to the open water I am somewhat confused. Between the reflection of the sky upon the water, and a slight glare in facing the rising add up. Oh and one last thing, I am not familiar with the location. But I have to admit, from the beauty of the location in the picture, I really wish I was familiar with that place. The first snow of the year really has me yearning for warmer climates! Have your ever considered how at times in you life the words of the Bible just do not carry the same weight in your heart as at other times? By this I mean at times when we read a passage we can be moved by the beauty of the words, or the words may bring a deep emotional response because of their reflection on a particle point in our lives. It's almost as if God were looking over our shoulder and pointed us to a specific verse that was dead-on perfect for where we are at that time in our lives. Often we discount the work of the Spirit in our lives and in our faith. The Holy Spirit, a full part of the Triune God, brings to faith needed to the table. The Spirit that filled the lives and souls at Pentecost (see Acts 2) is fully resident within us. When we just go through the motions of reading, studying or praying we get what we offer. We miss so very much of what the Lord would have us see and learn. Yet when we fully let the Spirit drive and focus on our studies, reading or prayer there is an infinitesimal message waiting for us to grasp it. The 1 Corinthians 2:14 passage applies not just to the unbelievers, it also applies to you and I. When we shut out the Spirit, we are lessened in our ability to grasp and comprehend. The person without the Spirit does not accent the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  The possibilities are limitless when we put the Spirit in charge and set aside ourselves. Friends of the Risen Savior, take the time to place the world on hold, earnestly pray, focus, and let the Spirit fill your lives. PRAYER: Father we ofttimes will place the world ahead of you in our lives and worship. We try to carve out time to be with you in heart and soul. And that time is just so inadequate. The demands of our lives call us to minimize what should really be maximized. Our excuse is that we have little time, but promise to make it quality time. Forgive us Lord. And help us to see the truth that we avoid. Fill us with Your Spirit and help us to overcome what the world would have us seek. We ask this in the name of Your Son who is our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

He Sent His One And Only

1 John 4: 9&10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Wildland fires are burning in much of Idaho right now. Acres upon acres of timber, grassland, junipers and sagebrush are aflame. For those who have lived in the west for any period of time, it is just a part of summer that we know and accept. Granted, we accept it grudgingly but our ability to control this part of reality is marginal at best. Dry thunderstorms (low precipitation cells for the weather people out there) are not uncommon. Lightning hits dry fuel and we have what we have.

I recently saw posted on Twitter a series of images of a wildland fire area in central Idaho. The devastation to the landscape is total. Wildlife killed and displaced is a reality. Evacuations are taking place in many areas where homes and businesses are threatened. Our local airport is an aerial tanker base where single engine attack tankers, multi-engine tankers and a huge DC-10 tanker are flying missions into harms way. They fly to drop fire retardant chemicals to stem the advance of the fire and to provide safety for those on the ground fighting the fires. This is a dangerous occupation. Flying planes into mountainous terrain where thermals created by fires cause turbulence you and I are seldom if ever exposed to in our own airline flights. Occasionally the best laid plans go awry and there is a fatal crash. That is the nature of the fire fighting flying business, and part and parcel of the element of risk involved. Sometimes there is a sacrifice that is paid by one person on behalf of another. No one wants this to happen, but it does.

God sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. These words from 1 John 4:9 give me pause. I am not always worthy by my own actions of the sacrifice that was made by Christ. I have not always loved God. In fact at times I have been down right mad at God. But through it all, He never stopped loving me. He knew how screwed I could be. He knows how screwed up you can be. It just does not matter because His love is so complete and unconditional that He sent His Son to the cross for you and I. Jesus suffered the humiliation of becoming human, suffered the cross and sacrificed His life for you and I. He paid a price we could not pay. When a pilot of one of the wildland fire attack planes sits down in the cockpit he knows he will most likely safely return. And the pilot also knows there is some small chance that may not happen. For Christ, that was not the case. He knew He was going to die. And the most important thing is He knew He would be resurrected by His Father. The same holds true for you and I. We know we will die, and we also know that we too will join Jesus on that all important day. Death is not the end, and death in sin does not have the final say for us in Christ. Death has no sting and death has no victory in Christ. It's all because we are loved by God. Verses 9&10 of 1 John 4 wraps it up pretty nicely. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  I am forever grateful that I am loved by God. I hope and pray that you embrace this same love today and everyday in your life. We can simply rely on His love and His grace.

PRAYER: Lord, we give You thanks for Your unending love. You loved us even before we were conceived and You love us in spite of our selves. Your Son paid the price in His sacrifice for our sins that we could not pay. For that we give thanks. And Father we ask for Your blessings for all that go into harms way fighting fires in our land today. Give them the strength and courage to do what they must do. And let them feel Your love when they are in fear. These things we boldly ask for in the name of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.