John 8:12-59 is so full of information it would take a large manuscript to fully do it justice. In these passages Jesus reveals many things about Himself. He calls Himself the Light of the World though not of this world; that He did nothing except what the Father instructed Him to do; that His father is God and their father (referring to the crowd) is the devil. He tells them that the truth would set them free, that who the Son sets free is free indeed, and that no one who believes on Him would die. He calls Himself I AM, the very name God the Father called Himself at the burning bush with Moses. To the crowd these were a mouthful of blasphemes and makes them so angry they actually try to stone Him.

What’s also abundantly clear in these passages is Jesus’ foreknowledge of His death. He knew His time was nearly up and He was desperate to make the people understand, to have them come into the Light, to be set free, to know the Truth and thus escape eternal damnation. He’s still trying to do that today, to make people understand, to bring them out of darkness into His marvelous light. But the tables are reversed. It’s our time that is nearly up. We don’t know from one minute to the next when that time will come, but we know that our life is but a vapor that quickly passes. Anyone over fifty understands this all too well.

The best thing we can do with what’s left of our time is to examine these claims of Jesus. To prayerfully study them and ask God to give us revelation knowledge so we can take them to heart. Time is running out for all of us. We need to settle these issues before it’s too late.

Until next time,

Sylvia

A man on the road sees Jesus and tells Him, “Lord I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57). That’s a tall promise. Did he really mean it? Did he fully understand what that entailed? I don’t think so, because Jesus says to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head,” indicating there is a price, the least of which could mean giving up our creature comforts.

Then to another man Jesus says, “follow me” (Luke 9:59). At once the man makes excuses. “Let me first go and bury my father.” Was his father dying? We don’t know, but more than likely what the man was saying was, “once my father passes away, then I’ll be free to follow you.” That could mean seconds or years. But it certainly means that for this man, it was inconvenient to follow Jesus just then. And what does Jesus say to him? “Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”

Then a third man says to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord, and become your disciple but let me first say good-bye to those at my home.” Jesus’ response left no room for doubt as to how He felt about this. “No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back to the thing behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Oh my! What a smack-down!

What does it all mean? Does it infer that Jesus doesn’t care about what’s going on in our lives? No, of course not. But it does tell us that Jesus understands that following Him is inconvenient, and because it is, we can’t wait for the “right time.” Rather, once we are called, once the Holy Spirit draws us, we are to allow ourselves to be inconvenienced by God. What’s more, we are to understand that the road will probably be hard. Perhaps we’ll even loose the fellowship and love of our family and friends because they won’t understand. It could mean loss of material things, too. 

The Apostle Paul said he counted all the things he had lost for the sake of Christ as “dung” (Philippians 3:8). That’s “poop” in modern day language. And we should look at this the say way. To do less, to hold onto the things of this world, our possessions, our creature comforts, even the people in our lives at the expense of God, makes us, in Jesus’ words, “unfit” for the kingdom of God.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Right after Jesus reveals that the secret of greatness is tied up with becoming child-like and a servant, He tells his disciples that anyone who receives these child-like believers also receives Him. And then this dire warning: and whoever causes one of these child-like believers to stumble and sin is in big trouble. In fact it would be “better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Then Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 18:7 (Amplified) “Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong!” and “woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!”

This is pretty serious stuff. From it we understand that there will be a day of reckoning; that all those influencers who peddle evil and smut and perversion (we need not look any further than the entertainment industry), and entice to do evil, will be held accountable and have to answer for it, and it’s not going to be pretty. But we are accountable, too. Our actions, the way we live our lives, the things we say, can also cause people to stumble and we need to take it seriously.

Jesus said it would be better to cut off our hand or foot or pluck out our eye if they cause us to transgress rather than to be thrown into “everlasting fire.” Yes, there is an “everlasting fire,” and it’s called hell. And what Jesus was advocating was not to literally cut off our body parts, but to remove ourselves from sinful situations and stop participating in sin. The Bible tells us that hell was created for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Sadly, there will be many others residing there, and that fact breaks the heart of God for He wishes that none should perish.

For our part we have to stop winking at sin, stop pretending that the things that go on around us doesn’t matter, when in fact they are polluting the whole world. And in our own lives we need to call our sin what it is, “sin.” We have to stop acting like what we do doesn’t matter. It does. Will this make us stand out like sore thumbs? Be chided? Ridiculed? Shunned? Maybe. Probably. But now that’s the thing that doesn’t matter.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Sometimes only one or two of the gospels have a particular story. But this story about the apostles obsessing over their egos is in three of them: Matthew 18:1-4, Mark 9:33-35, and Luke 9:46-48. In the Amplified Luke tells that an actual controversy arose during which they argued over “which of them might be the greatest surpassing the others in excellence, worth and authority.” Really? Excellence, worth and authority? Here they were squabbling over their own positions, their “pecking order” as it were, and all the while the Creator of the Universe, the King of Glory, the living God was among them, eating the dust of the road, wearing coarse homespun, sleeping on the hard ground, giving himself away to anyone who asks, being touched by lepers and prostitutes alike, not worrying one bit about His position or seeking to exalt Himself.

And aren’t we still doing the same thing today? Here we are in the midst of God’s presence, His love, the move of His Holy Spirit, and we worry about our importance, what rung of the ladder we stand on. I suppose pride will always be part of the human condition and will need to be put under subjection. But here’s the thing, like John the Baptist who said, “I must decrease and He (speaking about Jesus) must increase,” the more we decrease, the more secure we actually become and the less need we have of proving ourselves, proving we are worth something.

But what of those who really want to become great? There is a secret to greatness, you know. And Jesus revealed it in these chapters. It’s a stunner and flies in the face of worldly wisdom. And the secret is this: we must become like little children, trusting Him, believing Him, relying on Him. And then the clincher: “For he who is least and lowliest among you all—he is the one who is truly great.” For God, greatness is attached to lowliness, to a servant’s heart, to one who is humble and who trusts Him. Today there are so many looking to promote themselves, to become noticed, to make “something” of themselves, when all the while God is saying we already are something and can be even greater in His eyes if we but follow His example of humility and service and faithfulness.

I think when we get to heaven and God pulls out His honor roll of those greatest in His kingdom, we’re going to be surprised over how many names are on it of people we have never heard of, people who led quiet, ordinary lives, lives submitted to our King, and lived out in holiness and humility. And the wonderful thing is that we can be among them if we care to apply God’s secret.

Until next time,

Sylvia Bambola

Ok, I admit this story bugs me. John 8:1-11 relays how the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle of the temple court as they exposed her sin, but their secret motive was to trick Jesus in some way. It’s so wrong on many levels. First, where was the man? Why didn’t they bring him, too? No one can commit adultery alone. So, not only did these so called “holy” men seem to be protecting the offending member of their own sex, they were using the holy law of Moses to further their own agenda of destroying Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “This woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now the Law of Moses commands that such shall be stoned to death. But what do you say?”

They didn’t fool Jesus one bit. Instead of engaging them in useless dialogue, He bends down and begins writing “on the ground with His finger” and after awhile says, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And what do you know? One by one they left. The Amplified says they were “conscience-stricken.” And they left in a strange order: from the oldest to the youngest. I suppose because those who were older had more experience with sin. Finally, the court was empty and the plot to trick Jesus, foiled.

But how did Jesus handled the woman? Adultery is a serious offense in the sight of God. Did He stone her? He was the only one without sin in that entire place, the only one who had the right to do it. But no. Instead He said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?” and “she answered, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.”

Oh what a wonderful Savior we have! How kind and tender He is to us. We are all sinners. And while the world, that is full of its own sins, seeks to throw stones—to humiliate, to accuse—Jesus’ heart desires to restore us, to love us, to bring us into His fullness. And at no one does the hypocritical world love to throw stones more than believers. “How can you call yourself a Christian after you did (fill in the blank)? Yes, we must deal with our sins, confess them and endeavor to “sin no more.” And then God is faithful and just to forgive us (1John 1:9). What’s more, He’ll never throw our sins back in our face, or rehash them over and over again. Rather, our sins, after they are confessed and forgiven, will never be remembered again. 

I like to think that that woman went on to live a full life in the Lord, transformed by His love, perhaps the only real love she had ever experienced. And the wonderful thing is so can we all.

Until next time,

Sylvia

All His radical pronouncements made Jesus a marked man. A death sentence now hung over his head (John 7:1-53). It was inevitable. So when the Feast of Tabernacles draws near and his unbelieving kin, his natural brothers, tell Him to go into Judea, Jesus answers with, “My time is not yet come.” Like so often is the case, His words have a double meaning. He is proclaiming that it’s not yet time to lay down His life as the lamb of sacrifice nor is it time to become King, and tabernacle with man. So He stayed behind in Galilee. That is until the middle of Tabernacles when He went to Jerusalem secretly then began teaching in the Temple. 

But His teachings only managed to arouse more scorn and controversy. “He deceives the people!” some say. While others claim He’s “possessed by a demon.” To which Jesus responds, “My teaching is not My own, but His Who sent Me.” Then on the final and most important day of the feast (of Tabernacles) Jesus stands and cries in a loud voice, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!” (John 7:37) A discussion breaks out as the crowd wonders if Jesus could really be the Messiah. “No one knows where the Messiah will come from,” some claim, showing their lack of knowledge of God’s word. Others who know the scriptures say, “Does the Messiah come out of Galilee? Does not the scripture tell us that the Christ (Messiah) will come from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” But it appears their knowledge is useless for they can’t apply it to Jesus. They had not taken the time to really learn Who He was. For one thing, if they had they would have known Jesus didn’t come from Galilee. And, thankfully, there’s a third group who openly proclaims, “This is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One!” All were Jews, but very different spiritually. And don’t you know we have these same three groups in our Church today? First there are those who have little real knowledge of God’s word. Then comes the “religious types” who know the Bible but fail to apply it to their lives, to live it. And finally, those who know God’s word and follow it.   

Ok, what about the Feast of Tabernacles? What do those two references about that feast in John 7:1-53 tell us? First off, the Feast of Tabernacle is the last of seven feasts of Israel, or feasts of the Lord. These seven feasts provide a picture of prophetic events spanning the seven thousand years which many Bible scholars believe encompass all of human history. In the middle of the seven feasts or feast number four, is Pentecost. Jesus’ appearing in the middle of the “feast” is a foreshadowing of Pentecost and the new dispensation of grace. It literally speaks of His soon coming death and the appearance of the Holy Spirit who would herald an entirely new eon, a new era. Grace would replace law. And when Jesus rose up and proclaimed Himself living water on the “final day” He was also referring to the Holy Spirit who would come at Pentecost. It’s no accident that this took place on the last day or Great Day, the culmination of Beit HaShoevah, the ritual of the water pouring where the high priest passed through the Water Gate with his golden pitcher to collect water from the pool of Siloam then used it to cleanse the Temple altar. Jesus was soon to cleanse humanity by pouring out His blood upon God’s heavenly altar and herald in the Age of Grace where the Holy Spirit would be “living water,” the ultimate living water, for all those who thirst after righteousness.

But here’s the best part. Jesus is no longer saying “my time is not yet come.” He has fulfilled part of the prophecy of the Feast of Tabernacles. His blood has cleansed the heavenly altar and His Holy Spirit is the very fountain of living water. We can all experience Jesus as both our lamb sacrifice and as our living water through the Holy Spirit. And even though Jesus has yet to appear on earth as King, and tabernacle with us physically—that will occur during the millennial reign—He will tabernacle with each of us individually if we ask Him. So His time has come. And it’s the right time for all three groups. The right time to truly learn God’s word; the right time to apply it, to live it; and the right time to tabernacle with Jesus, and make Him King over our lives.

Until next time,

Sylvia

When Jesus finally gets around to declaring His actual mission it sends His disciples into a tailspin (Matthew 16:21-28; Mark 9:31-32; Luke 9:44-45). What was this talk of suffering? Of death?  Of rising on the third day? Wasn’t Jesus the Messiah? The Anointed One? The One who would deliver them from the heel of Rome? The Bible tells us His disciples were afraid to question Him further or talk to Him about it. All except Peter, that is. He charges in with, “God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You!” It garnered Jesus’ immediate rebuke of, “Get behind Me, Satan!” Jesus’ road was to be the unfathomable path of God that required sacrifice and suffering and ended in death, not the easy path of man who sought to avoid them all.

There is only one Savior, and His name is Jesus. His sacrifice can never and needs never to be duplicated. However, a few verses down in Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus declares our own mission. It too is one of sacrifice and death. “If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is tough. What person likes to deny himself? We are a culture bent on self-gratification. And taking up a cross? The thought is downright repugnant. After all, a cross is an instrument of death.  But both are necessary if we are to fulfill our mission. Like Jesus, our mission is death, but a different kind of death. Ours is to be a death to selfishness, self interests, self aggrandizing. In short, death to all forms of “self.” And replaced with what? Christ, of course. His interests, His glory, His honor, His kingdom.

It’s so easy to say, so easy to write about, but so hard to do, and downright impossible without the Holy Spirit. Even so, a lifetime of cross-carrying is hardly enough. I fear parts of self will always be alive and well until we cross over into glory and then we will be wonderfully changed into the very likeness of Jesus. But I also fear that the desire to deny self and carry our cross is rapidly disappearing in our churches. Instead of preaching this hard word, too many preach the doctrine of self-worth, self-fulfillment, self-awareness. Self, self, self. Didn’t Jesus say, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33)? When we truly follow the Lord He fills us with worth, with peace, with joy. And when we delight in Him He will even give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4).

Jesus knew how difficult His words about self-denial and cross-carrying would be to accept. He knew how much they cut against our natural grain. That’s why He added in verse 24 (Amplified) “whoever is bent on saving his temporal life, his comfort and security here shall lose it (eternal life) and whoever loses his life, his comfort and security here for My sake shall find it (everlasting life).”

Is it because the modern day church has shirked its mission of dying to self and being conformed to the image of Christ that so many in the world find it irrelevant? Something to think about.

Until next time,

Sylvia

After Jesus and His three disciples come down from the mount of transfiguration, they are met by a large crowd. It’s obvious that a lively discussion has been taking place, and when Jesus asks what it’s about, a man shouts that his son, his only son, was tormented by an evil spirit that constantly threw him to the ground and bruised and convulsed him (Mark 9: 14-29; Luke 9:37-43). Then the man goes on to say that he had begged the disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t. Jesus’ response reeks of frustration. “Oh faithless and perverse generation,” He says, “how long do I have to put up with you?” That word “faithless” in Greek is apistos and means a heathen, untrustworthy. And the word “perverse” is diastrepho and means to distort, corrupt, misinterpret, to turn back again to former ways. Then, in a few words, Jesus rebukes the demon spirit and heals the boy. When all the commotion dies down, the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t deliver the boy. The answer: it required prayer and fasting.

The first thing that struck me was this boy was an only child, an only son. What a contrast to this scene and the one before it on the mount of transfiguration when God proclaimed Jesus His Beloved Son then issued the command to “hear Him” to listen to Him! (Mark 9:7). And how vastly different were the two sons: the Son of God and the son of man. While Jesus is clothed in glory and power and majesty, we, the sons of men are constantly brought low by Satan and the trials of life, often bruised, reduced to trembling, and impotent in the face of our adversary. It is the common condition of man. Yet all the while we have God’s Word, the promise of His indwelling spirit if we but believe, and all the power that that represents. So why is so much of our generation faithless, heathen in heart, and more willing to cling to their old ways, choosing to wallow in the dirt rather than believe God? And why do so many in the church twist, misrepresent, and downright corrupt God’s Word until it is an impotent thing?

There is a cautionary aspect to the above passages. Jesus laments how much longer He will have to put up with unbelief and the disobedience it inspires.  The meaning is clear. It will not always be so. Jesus will not always suffer unbelief, rejection of His person, or disobedience to His word. There will come a time when His mercy, His dispensation of grace will come to an end and it’s called the Tribulation. There is also a cautionary word for believers. If we want to have total victory over Satan in our lives we must spend time with God. We must pray and worship and seek His face. And rather than feasting on the things of this world we must feast on the things of God.  If we do we will build ourselves up spiritually, thus enabling the Holy Spirit to empower us, to make us fit warriors able to face every trial of life. And instead of being flattened and brought low, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Until next time,

Sylvia

One can only imagine what the transfiguration of Jesus was like (Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36). That word “transfigured” in Greek is metamorfoo and means transformed. Jesus was literally transformed! To be sure it was a remarkable event that both astonished and terrified Peter, John, and James, the three apostles who were there. The setting is a high mountain. Suddenly, Jesus is changed! He actually glows in His blinding white raiment. The Amplified describes Jesus’ garments as “flashing with the brilliance of lightening.” And if that weren’t enough, Moses and Elijah appear and begin speaking with Jesus. But what exactly did they talk about? Well, nothing less than Jesus’ approaching death in Jerusalem.

Peter, ever impetuous, immediately suggests they build three booths. The Bible says he suggests this because he doesn’t know what else to say. Peter is apparently dumbfounded and seems to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. But it’s interesting that his words are recorded since I’m sure it’s not the only time Peter has spoken rash words which were never recorded.

The next thing that happens is the appearance of a cloud that overshadows them all and a voice coming from the cloud saying, “this is my beloved Son: hear him.” It’s the same voice and the same pronouncement John the Baptist heard after baptizing Jesus in the Jordan. Then the cloud lifts, Moses and Elijah disappear, and Jesus resumes His former appearance, then commands His three disciples not to tell anyone what they saw until “the Son of man were risen from the dead.” Now the apostles are really confused and keep asking each other what “rising from the dead should mean.” It will be much later before they understand it all.

Oh, there is so much to glean from these passages!  The “high mountain” where this entire scenario takes place is believed by many to be Mount Tabor, but some believe it’s Mount Hermon. I think the latter choice is the most reasonable since it is five times higher than Mt. Tabor and since Mt. Hermon is the place many Bible scholars believe Satan and his fallen angels descended to earth. What better place for the transfiguration to occur since it is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ second coming? It is the place where the three apostles get a glimpse of Jesus as God, Conqueror and King. It is the place where lawgiver (Moses), prophet (Elijah), and Messiah (Jesus) meet to discuss the reclaiming of fallen earth by the approaching death of Jesus, and through the shedding of His blood gain our freedom from Satan’s control! In essence Jesus was proclaiming Satan’s defeat on the very spot where Satan began his conquest of earth! And it is Jesus who both fulfills the law and the prophets. And many Bible scholars believe that it is Moses and Elijah who are the two witnesses of Revelation who will announce the coming of Jesus’ kingdom during the Tribulation.

And I don’t think Peter’s statement was foolish either. Though he may not have understood what he was saying, I believe his words were recorded for a reason. The three booths he wanted to build speak of the Feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths), the feast that symbolizes the time when God will tabernacle with His people forever. This only occurs after the tribulation, when Jesus sets up his earthly kingdom and resides in the Temple of Jerusalem. Considering all of the above, I see the transfiguration as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ return in glory at the end of this present age. And what a wonderful sight it will be!

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

Until next time,

Sylvia

Soon after the miracle of the loaves and fishes Jesus, in John 6:25-65, when talking to the     multitudes, began making fantastic claims about Himself. It’s not the first time. He’s already said in John 5:19-30 that He was the Son of God, that He “gives life to whomever He wills” and that the judgment of sinners was in His hands. Now He claims He’s the Bread of Life, that He’s come from heaven and only He has seen the Father, that the Bread is His flesh which He will give for the life of the world and that no one could have any life without eating it or drinking His blood, and that whoever does and believes on Him will have eternal life and He will raise him from the dead at the last day.

Well, this was just too much. Even many of His own disciples found His words too offensive and stopped following Him that day. It was inevitable if one understands the Jewish mindset. Blood was sacred. Leviticus 17:11 says that the life of the flesh was in the blood. And it was the blood that made atonement for the soul. It was forbidden to drink blood. In fact, blood was reserved exclusively for God. Now Jesus was telling them they must drink His blood and eat His flesh. Did He really want them to violate the law? Not at all. What He was actually saying was so wonderful they just couldn’t grasp it right then. Jesus, as the Word made flesh (John 1:14), was telling the people that if they believed on Him and ingested His life-giving words and appropriated the saving merit of His blood they would have eternal life. And not only that, but that His life, the very life of God, would indwell them. It was simply too amazing to be believed!

But as amazing as it is, those claims are still valid today.  Think of it! Eternal life! Forever with our precious Lord in a world without sin, sickness, pain, sadness. A world filled with love and joy. And all we have to do is believe and receive. It’s so amazing and so easy. No wonder many still can’t believe it.

Until next time,

Sylvia