Category: Jesus Moments

When the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  John 20:19

The disciples are hopeless.  They had grown to love Jesus.  He said he was King, but they watched as he was arrested, condemned to death, and then crucified.  The disciples had never faced a more desperate moment.  Now they meet to comfort one another in their shared loss.  To add to the grief they are experiencing over their Lord’s death, they also fear for their own lives.  So, they meet in secret.  The doors are locked.  Voices are hushed.  Anxiety and tension have peaked.  At that moment, Jesus enters the room that is off-limits to all others.  There is no obstacle that can prevent him from appearing.  He is God.

I understand the disciples well in this passage.  Do you?  I know what it is like to be locked away in fear.  When life took a series of bad turns in the 90’s, I retreated into a silent world and shut most everyone else out.  Not because I wanted to be antisocial but because the pain rendered me speechless.  The story was too long to tell, too cobwebbed to articulate, and the ability to interact through everyday chitchat was absent.  I became an emotional recluse and felt that I was destined to live a very long time in isolation.  I didn’t know how to connect with God either and felt that even that was improbable.

I experienced a deep healing of God over the course of three years.  At the end of that, Daughters of Promise was born in 2000.  My fear of people subsided in the arms of Jesus.  I learned to live in spacious places where my story became part of the collective story of the redeemed.  Life is still mixed, as yours is mixed, with joy and tears.  When searing pain marks my path, I find myself once again in the room with Jesus’s disciples who teeter on the edge of despair.  Our longing causes us to be still, look up, and wait for the breath of our Savior upon our cheek.

Since our son died just 5 weeks ago, I have felt His presence many times.  While there are understandably dark moments of grief, the indwelling presence of God is the rock which keeps our family steadfast.  Our feet have not slipped into unbelief because we are being carried by the wind of the Spirit – propelling us just above the storm.  Your prayers and many cards of encouragement have been part of His sustaining grace.

I don’t know if you are hiding today.  Perhaps your heart is sealed away in a tomb of disillusionment and fear.  Maybe you’re keeping your entire world on the other side of the door but you fear that even God cannot reach you.  He can!  He’s with me in the most challenging of times after a child’s suicide.  I want to shout ~ Yes, He calls our names and says, “I’m here.  Peace be with you.”

Help each of us call out to You so we can feel the healing of Your presence.  In that secret place, do spiritual surgery on our souls.  Amen

You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16:16

It seems that Jesus needs to get away from the crowds so he takes His disciples and walks a day’s walk north of the Sea of Galilee. When they get there, Jesus asks His disciples who people say He is. They reveal that the most popular answer was that He is John the Baptist – raised from the dead. Others say ~ Elijah. “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks. Peter answers that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus then blesses Peter ~ something rabbis do when a student gives the right answers to important questions.

One of the differences between Jesus and every other Rabbi-teacher is that Jesus can sense the heart behind the answer. He knows whether Peter is giving lip service to impress Him or if Peter’s whole heart is engaged as he makes the proclamation.

Jesus read people’s hearts then and He still does it today. As I teach the scriptures, as I sing the worship songs, or as I answer questions in a class, Jesus – who sits at God’s right hand – can tell if I’m going through the motions for reasons other than divine affection. How easy it is to try to fool people when my heart isn’t in it. Knowing the right answers can often get someone far but not far at all with Jesus if the heart is darkened.

It’s painful to be fooled, isn’t it?

• Perhaps your search committee asked all the right questions of a prospective pastoral candidate. He was impressive in his answers. Time revealed a deeply flawed character, however.
• Perhaps you asked your would-be spouse where he/she stood with Jesus. The right answer was given and it appeared sincere. When memories of standing at an altar were dimmed, so was any remnant of their faith.

Time reveals the fidelity of faith. It certainly did for Peter. The other eleven disciples could not tell for certain if Peter was caught up in the emotion of the moment or if his faith would carry him through a lifetime of hardship. As it turned out, Peter would end well. He was no charlatan. He was also not someone who was power hungry. Persecution has its way of weeding out all pretenders. Peter ran the race and finished upside on a cross.

You said to let my yes be yes and my no be no. Forgive me when I say one thing but really feel another way entirely. Amen

I will never walk alone for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.  Psalm 26:3

Everyone wonders what their future will hold.  Good times or hard times?  Healthy or unhealthy?  Married or unmarried?  Financially secure or living with meager provision?  Surrounded by those who love us or mostly alone?  We aren’t granted a clear picture of tomorrow but any of us who know God as our Father can know for certain one thing about our future.  In spite of uncertainty, David says that God’s love is ever before us.  Perfect Love is always and forever in our tomorrows.

If times are good, God will join me in my celebration.  If times are difficult, He will offer open arms.  If times are rewarding, He will still remind me that heaven will be better because He will be there.  If times are tragic, He will assure me that this time of tears is short in comparison to an eternity of joy.

Picture a groom, on his knees proposing, and he says in a deep and meaningful tone, “Spend your life with me.  I can’t promise you that it will always be easy but however it unfolds, I promise to be there with you and love you.”  It’s exactly what she needs.  Love.  Companionship.  Commitment.  And for any who have not known this in their human experience, Jesus is the Bridegroom who offers what is supremely better than that.  A perfect love without the imperfection of the flesh within mortal marriages.  There is perfect companionship as the groom knows His bride completely.  And there is  perfect faithfulness as this Groom never backs away.  No matter how well or how poorly the bride loves, His love is constant and true.

Your love is here now.  Your love has always sustained me.  Your love waits for me in all my tomorrows.  You are timeless and I can rest that You have traveled ahead of me.  I’m so comforted.  Amen

Jesus, seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reason in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; ‘who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:6-7

The scribes in this story are right. Claiming to forgive sins is a big deal and no one can do it except God but they didn’t recognize their Yahweh in the face of His Son, Jesus. People will do anything to wash themselves of nagging guilt. Most refuse to run to Jesus because their own pride convinces them that they have the power to do something about it. Never has this self-sufficiency been more twisted than with the ancient practice of choosing a sin-eater within a community.

Still in existence within rural Appalachia, this ritual originated in southern England. A sin-eater was selected from among the most despised of society. Their calling would ostracize them for life. Their role was, 1.) to live in obscurity, 2.) to appear at the home of a deceased person at the time of the funeral, 3.) perch themselves at the border of the property and wait for the casket to emerge from the house, and 4.) perform the ritual of eating bread and drinking wine. All of the sins of the deceased would be transferred to the bread/wine and enter the sin eater’s body. They were believed to be the new ‘dwelling place’ of the dead’s iniquity.

Before meeting Jesus, the hymn writer, William Cowper, succumbed to a deep depression from the weight of his own guilt. While living in a mental institution, he was known to keep washing his hands and lamenting, “My guilt, my guilt. What can wash it away?” After his conversion and having looked to Jesus to wash away his sins, he wrote, “Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy.” Within weeks, he wrote the words to the hymn, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners cleansed beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”

There is only one sin-eater. Jesus. He became the despised, was shunned by His people, and took on the sins of the damned. He was the sacrifice for any who will apply His blood to their iniquity. Today, we do not need to wallow in guilt nor employ a scapegoat to bear our sins. Jesus did it – and then He said, “It is finished.” 

Nagging guilt need never plague me. You are a God of closure. I repent, you forgive, and it is finished. Amen

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening, and he lifted up his eyes and saw and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebeccah lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac, she fell off the camel. Genesis 24:62-63 

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important on this day as resting in Your Word and Your presence. I don’t want to miss you. Amen

Jesus became troubled in spirit and testified, “Truly, truly, I tell you, one of you will betray Me.” The disciples began to look at one another, perplexed as to which of them He meant. John 13:21-22

The atmosphere at the Lord’s Supper grew tense. Jesus announced that one of the twelve would betray Him. In that pregnant moment, I do not believe that each wondered which of his brothers had done such a thing. I believe a dark cloud came over each of them personally as they feared it might be them.  I believe they knew some of their own weaknesses.  After all, they had been with Jesus for three years to see the stark contrast between holiness and sinfulness.

Three years is a long time to travel with someone. Their relationship with Him was intimate. What they expected Him to do, He rarely did. What they anticipated He might say, He rarely said.  Whom they didn’t expected Him to heal, He did.  When they expected Him to honor sacred Jewish traditions, He surprised them by doing the opposite.  They had had plenty of time to understand their own sinfulness in light of the contrast.  They knew pretty quickly that they fell short of God’s glory – resident in Christ.

For Judas, the bait was money. His love for riches challenged fidelity. But for any one of the disciples, there might have been another temptation to hit home and cause them to walk away.

It is imperative that I know my own weaknesses well. Self-indulgent introspection doesn’t reveal them. Only the mirror of the Word of God does. I must let the Word judge my heart. I must accept what God shows me, and then I must allow God to start changing what I love too much that could threaten our relationship. Yes, I could easily be a Judas. I have had Judas moments.

I have known the bitter gall of failure. I have drunk the wine of self-hatred. I have questioned God’s radical forgiveness. But grace won. Failure, repentance, and forgiveness are great teachers. I remember from where I’ve fallen and, because of the grace of God, He will empower me to finish the race well and avoid a Judas kind of detour.

I don’t love others unconditionally without Your help. I can only love YOU unconditionally by Your grace, too. Challenge me and my affections. Amen

Last night was the night for dreams.  This was one of them.

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There was a gathering at church.  There were a few who believed that God was going to do something powerful in the meeting.  They saw hints of glory, the stirrings of something holy, but their expectations were dormant so nothing ever manifested.  People mingled normally, hugged each other and said how long it had been since they’d seen one another and before long, the scheduled time for the meeting to end was upon them.  For the few who had hoped for God’s presence, it felt like the time had been a waste.  People had gotten dressed up, came a distance, spent the time, made refreshments, brought gifts to one another, but if the point was meeting together with God’s Spirit, the time proved empty.  The people were so used to a dry outcome that the majority didn’t even register disappointment.

The emcee looked around for someone to close in prayer.  Then it happened.  A servant, with a heart alive to God, opened her mouth with an imploring, passionate plea for the Spirit of God to touch people’s hearts.  Need after need was verbalized and the possibilities of what would happen if God came to breathe on each one was born.  The desperation for such a move of God was acknowledged.  The desire for a miraculous outcome was painted with words and then time stood still as the Spirit of God began to stir the hearts of God’s people.  The tease of heaven entered the room.  Normal disappeared.  Extraordinary came into view and no one knew where God would take them.

How many meet together without an expectation of glory?  How many know, and quote, the verse of God being in the midst of two or three but rarely anticipate anything out of the ordinary?  How many have stopped hoping to see God?  How many have never felt Him, or heard Him, nor seen what happens when His Spirit takes over the room?

Someone needs to step up to pray; some dreamer who is in touch with heaven’s possibilities, some quiet saint who knows God and what He can do, some experienced child of God who understands people and sees their desperate need and steps forth to set the stage in prayer.   Fresh fire needs to fall.  Who will rise up to shatter the form of godliness  with petitions for the real thing?

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.  Acts 11:15

Everyone who comes to me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like. Luke 6:47

There is a saying, “he’s a house of cards.” A person who appears strong can really be someone who crumbles when the right storm comes. We just can’t see beneath his intimidating exterior. If you’re old enough, you could tell numerous real-life stories about those whom you once feared but who were revealed for the weak people they really are.

Jesus goes on in this Luke passage to reveal that there are those who have built their life on sand. When the wind comes, their house blows over because they fashioned a foundation outside of Christ. Like ~

• Someone who controls others in the need to feel powerful.
• Someone who rules with fear in order to be feared.
• Someone who hides from emotional engagement in order to avoid vulnerability.
• Someone who bullies others in a an attempt to feel powerful.
• Someone who pretends to know everything for fear of being wrong.

If you have been the victim of someone who appeared strong, perhaps even scary, you know how long it took for you to realize that there was weakness underneath the façade. When you finally took your stand in Christ, you saw them morph into the person they really were.

As I write this, I am listening to the news about the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Heartbreaking! A recent poll shows that 60% of our people believe that our world is unraveling. Yes, God is clear about the message of foundations and that upon which we build. Whether a person, or even a nation, any infrastructure that fails to be God-centered will crumble.

A house built on sand can look pretty impressive for a while but in the end, inevitable storms will test the bedrock.

In whom do we have our trust? Anyone other than you is a house of cards, Lord. Give me wisdom as I take stock of my own foundation and as I assess whom I fear. You are my Light and my Salvation. Whom shall I fear? Amen

“They will put you out of the synagogue, in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.” John 16:2

Jesus is a considerate leader. Following him holds few surprises for he tells us ahead of time what we will be facing. Unlike the many leaders who woo others to follow and then spring the unexpected, Jesus is up front. He tells us to count the cost with our eyes open. The disciples were warned that the message they held so dearly in their hearts would be received poorly, mostly by the religious people. His words were prophetic as all the disciples would be martyred except for John.

It’s disconcerting that those who professed to know God were often the real enemies of the Gospel. Satan’s agenda has been accomplished through the ages by many who claimed to be doing it in God’s name. The atrocities of holy wars throughout history, and the current atrocities in our own headlines, will continue to fill our history books.

You may not be facing death because of your faith. Not yet. However, you still may know what it feels like to be the outcast in a place of worship. You are enduring the fires of criticism and you are suffering under a label of apostasy. Those who zealously claim to be connected to God reject the tender but powerful working of God in you. Jesus gives the reason for this painful reality. He says, “These thing they will do because they have not known the Father or me.”

If your character is being assassinated and you have been called an enemy of God, may you rise out of your pit of self-doubt. Every trailblazer’s faith for the Son of God will do two things. 1.) It will cause lukewarm, intellectual faith to squirm. 2.) It will also cause those who believe they know God, but don’t, to take up a sword. These are kingdom truths and we who follow the blood trail of our spiritual ancestors need to adjust our expectations and learn to separate others acceptance from God’s favor.

Your disciples are my brothers, Lord. If they were controversial, I am too. Strengthen me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Matthew 6:13

We are engaged in a battle with the enemy of our souls.  Temptations abound.  Condemning thoughts threaten our peace.  Doubts erode our confidence in Abba.  Fear cripples our faith.  Anger undermines our belief in God’s justice.

This is a global war, not a solitary one.  Forgetting that, I can fail to disclose my struggles to my spiritual sisters. I can begin to think that something is wrong with me if I battle temptation, fear, anger, and doubt.  I can easily view myself as someone who disappoints God.  I can assume others are more advanced spiritually.  I can be inclined to feel a sense of shame over the things that plague me.

This perception is untrue.  We are all in the same predicament.  Spiritual power to resist our enemy and achieve victory is collectively ours if we bare our burdens to one another with discretion.  We’re family.  The same royal blood courses through our spiritual veins.  War has been declared on us simply because of Whom we belong to.  We need to be vulnerable with each other.  We can stand firm as long as we stand together.

You will come against arrows of opposition today.  They may be numerous, causing you to believe that the power behind them is formidable.  But you do not fight alone.  I link my arm with yours.  We sing a song of deliverance.  The song is contagious, for as our voices are heard, more daughters begin to learn this song of hope.  There is strength in numbers.  The battle is transformed from a senseless massacre to an overwhelming victory.

Together with my sisters, Lord, we create a daunting line of defense.  Amen