Afternoon Hour

Instead of trying to explain in detail just why he wanted Nathanael to meet this new friend of his, Phillip briefly told Nathanael what he had recently come to believe about this fellow. Nathanael was having none of it: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” he asked. Phillip merely said, “Come and see for yourself.”

Each of us, like this Israelite, has to arrive at his or her own personal belief about the Lord – borrowed faith, like any other borrowed object, needs to be returned to its rightful owner. Only when I chuck the fake out of my life can I pursue my own convictions concerning the Son of God.

Nathanael consented to meet this man called Jesus, and as soon as he had an eye full and an ear full of him, he formed his own opinion, which was: “You are the Son of God – the King of Israel!”

Actually this is a picture of how we should introduce another to Jesus. Love the Lord and the lost enough to testify about our own faith when able to do so, and invite that person to look more closely at this Jesus. Not everyone will “Come and see for yourself.” Nothing we can do about refusals – can’t force living water down anyone’s throat. However, we can pray for those refusing hearts to be opened, and continue inviting anyone who will listen to “Come and see.”

Morning Hour

People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4) NLT.

Never will physical bread sustain our spiritual person. Obvious fact. Yet, many times food is more importance to us than the manna from above: Scripture, the sword of God’s Spirit. Perhaps that’s one reason so little fasting is found among the people of God.

Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days and nights. I can’t begin to imagine his physical hunger! Yet the tempter was severely wrong if he thought to ensnare Jesus at a moment when his need for bread out-shouted his need to love his Father with all his soul, spirit, mind and strength. Though his body had to be dehydrated and weak, the spirit of our Lord evidently had never been more pumped: muscular, alert, ready and vigorous. Spiritual robustness is not dependent on a well-rounded meal.

I want to be like Jesus – to reach the point where my spiritual hunger pangs are ten thousand times more demanding than the whining of my flesh – where holy hunger overrides and drowns out every other hunger of this life.

LORD, grant me this desire!

I tried to do a favor for a friend one fine summer day. The friend had recently moved from my neighborhood, and asked me to deliver a request to the lady now living in the house she’d vacated. So I walked down the quiet street and rang the doorbell. I fidgeted around the porch – seemed to be taking a very long time for her to answer the door. I heard shuffling noises for a long time before the lady cracked the door slightly. No wonder she was so long answering the bell; she wore a cast the length of her leg!

After asking about her accident and expressing my sympathy, I made my request of her to forward some mail to my friend. I had the address handy and was just going to hand it to her when she with a frown, had a mini explosion.

“Well, I’m getting really tired of forwarding all t his mail to her! What she needs to do is get her address change in to the post office.”

I stood there with my mouth open. Then my loyalty to my friend kicked in and I said, “Just forget it!” and wheeled around and marched home. Very mature reaction.

I called my friend to tattle on the woman, and was quite surprised to hear her dissolve in laughter after my tale of woe. When she could talk, she commenced to explain some things about the lady’s situation. The more she talked the smaller I shrunk.

“I’ve already visited with her on the phone this morning. You saw the poor woman has a broken leg? Well, this morning she took a tumble down her basement stairs. After getting herself back together (with no additional broken bones, thank goodness), a stomach bug attacked her with a vengeance – diarrhea and everything else - and right at the time you were ringing the doorbell, she was cleaning herself up. She hadn’t made it to the bathroom in time.”

“Oh,” I replied.

I hate to admit this, but I didn’t rush back to her house to apologize, and beg to let me fix supper for her. That lady hobbled up the street to my house and apologized to me, saying she really admired my loyalty to my friend. I have been humbled and chastised very few times as thoroughly as I was that day by the Lord. Burning with shame, I asked her forgiveness and offered to help her however I could. We parted friends.

Would I react in the same way today, nearly 25 years later? O, I pray not!! I pray the Spirit has done much, much work in me in the intervening years.

This poem describes how I want to be:

UNDERSTANDING
by Lee Avery

Once I might have been angered, ah, but now,
I know too much of living and its toll –
I’ve seen the little cares that fret the soul,
And tear the tender heart, and line the brow.
And so I understand the reason why
You strike at me with little darts of words-
They are a flock of tiny, cornered birds,
Frightened, and yet too desperate to fly.
Your very bitterness but masks your need,
Your secret shyness is the silent root
That sends, unbidden, such sarcastic fruit;
Beneath that blunting shield your heart must bleed.
And I, whom you would seek to slay by tongue,
But pity those cold lips that should have sung.

The Morning Hour

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it (John 1:5).

The darkness tried and failed many times and in many ways to smother, discredit and/or discourage the Light of the world:
~ Through King Herod and his horrendous command to slaughter Jewish babies -
~ By cornering Jesus in the wilderness and trying to bribe him into aborting his mission -
~ By using those willing snakes, the Pharisees, to accuse and spread slander about (1)the circumstances of his birth - (2)Jesus' close associations with tax collectors and prostitutes - (3) his claims of divinity and authority, and (4) Jesus' awesome power to heal and cast out demons.
~ By inspiring a crowd to try and force the Lord to be king (the Romans would surely have killed him for such treachery) -
~ By the widespread rejection of the Jewish people -
~ By the disbelieving hometown folks attempting to kill him -
~ By the skepticism of his own mother and brothers -
~ By the shallow requests of some who wanted to be entertained by a sideshow of miracles when they were totally uninterested in his message as God on earth -
~ Through the frustrating denseness of his own disciples -
~ Through the black betrayal of one of his followers -

But ...
He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son (John 1:14) and,
When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven (Hebrews 1:3).

The darkness can never extinguish the Light!!

Did He?

The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him (John 1:1-3).

When Jesus spoke of the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish that swallowed Jonah, he knew each of these wonders as well as he knew the palm of his own hand. I wonder, did he recall the moment when he and his Father designed the graceful curve of the lily blooms, or witnessed a sparrow’s first flight into the sky, or how they equipped the fish to breathe in water?

As he sipped the fruit of the grape, did he remember instructing its vine to climb and encircle anything in its path? In enjoying a cloudless azure sky did he rejoice in remembering how they stretched it in place? If weeds choked his path, was his heart grieved once again at the foolishness of Adam and Eve? When the famished Jesus ate warm bread was he very glad they had thought of yeast?

Gazing in love upon the disciples, was the Lord thrilled that man and woman were on their to-do list that day? Did he think otherwise when the Pharisees stood like tombs to frustrate his purpose?

Did Jesus ever even fleetingly think about trading places with his creation, John the Baptist?

Whenever the Messiah talked with a pregnant women, would she have been blown away to know that this Jesus was responsible for every delicate inner part of the tiny babe within her? And that he had also knit her together in her mother’s womb?

Our Mighty God – how awesome you are!!!

The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone … He came into the very world he created. John 1:4, 10

The cashier at a flea market found me a little humorous when I shopped there recently. The sad part is that I wasn't trying to be funny. After wandering around and gathering up a few items, I returned to the front to stash them until I was ready to check out. Someone else already had a cache going, so I maneuvered my treasures in front of said cache, commenting to myself, "Well, those aren't mine, now are they?" I ask you, should an observer have seen anything laughable about that? Evidently the cashier did, because she snickered aloud. I smiled at her, thinking as I did she was a trifle strange. Later while I waited in line, I innocently asked, "Can I get the type receipt that lists each item by name?" She looked at uncomprehendingly. I'll need to provide a little background information before my request makes sense. In a previous transaction at this establishment, the checker told me to ask for the detailed receipt before she began tapping on the buttons; otherwise you'd end up with an anemic 4th cousin listing only the prices and total. So ... because I needed the detailed one for tax purposes, I intended to obey instructions. The uncomprehending one raised her perfectly penciled brows way high and responded, "Do you mean a cash-register receipt? We always give a receipt." I assured her I was aware they gave receipts every time. "But I was told if I wanted the type listing items by name, I'd have to tell the cashier ahead of time." She now furrowed her brow, looked confused momentarily, then in an extremely patiend tone repeated, slowly this time-"We always give receipts." I had started to sweat, so I dropped the matter. I also dropped my purse, tucked insecurely under an arm, a moment later as I began writing the check. Every last thing in there spilled out - careening, cartwheeling, crashing and splatting on the concrete floor. My cell phone disassembled itself into what looked like myriads of tiny pieces flying in every direction. I was really sweating now. A kind lady hurried over, stooped down and retrieved my phone's back from underneath the counter. It's a wonder she didn't find me under there too. After scraping up and dumping everything back into that idiot handbag, I finished scribbling the check and handed it to the clerk. I would not have been surprised if she had doubled over in uncontrollable giggles, but, glory be, she resembled a Puritan preacher. With a flourish she presented the RECEIPT, eyeing me closely. Every last thing I had bought was listed by name in a beautiful font. Okay, okay, I had longed for this piece of paper; why, then, did I feel as though I'd just lost a boxing match? Mumbling "thanks" I slunk off with sacks dangling from every digit and both forearms, trying to graciously exit that torture chamber. Thanking the Lord for automatic car-door openers, I clicked and clicked as I drew near my vehicle. "I must not have heard it unlock," I surmised. In the next breath, "Good grief!! Now my hearing is going too!" I tugged on the handle. Unyielding. Click, click, click - violently now - then pulled again. The door defiantly held itself tightly closed. As frustration mounted even higher and heat waves danced on the pavement, I carefully plunked down each sack of individually named items. As I did so, a glance at the car icon on the opener niggled my brain: something looked odd ... Oh great! The wrong keys! Leaning down to dig in my bag, I finally located the van keys. Straightening up impatiently, I promptly smacked the top of my head on the side mirror. My glasses flew off, and with them any good will I had toward humans and/or inanimate objects left me as well. I glared around murderously, daring anyone to admit they'd witnessed my final performance of the day. God has promised we'll be fruitful in old age (Pro. 92:14); however, it looks as if my fruit is going to take the form of making others laugh. I could do worse I guess.

A little bit of kindness

Kindness is never out of place or inappropriate. Laughter can be ill-timed. A smile may be inadvisable in certain situations. Silence may need to be substituted for speaking sometimes. But kindness offered in love is always welcome and fitting. Kindness isn’t merely an emotion, or an action of the facial muscles – it’s a luscious, good-to-the-core fruit the Holy Spirit produces in and brings forth out of us to benefit others. This fruit is never bitter, never in bad taste, and never considered a faux pas when given to another. The only mistake one can make with kindness is to withhold it.