Truth

There are many who say truth is relative.  If one does not accept God, His Word, or His Son then it is true that truth is indeed relative.  If God is not the measure of truth, then there is no one truth. If truth is measured by man, there are as many truths as there are men.  One is just as valid as another. 

Ignoring God and His Truth does not diminish either.  The only one diminished is the one that chooses his or her own way.  

If one believes in God, His Word, and His Son then for that person there is one Truth for all men.  This becomes the measure of the one who calls himself or herself a Christian.  If you don’t believe Christ then you are not a Christian.  If you don’t believe what He taught and follow His commandments you are not a Christian.  If that is the case, calling yourself a Christian is a self deception and can only cause confusion for those who are earnestly seeking the Truth.  Your truth should invoke a name that reflects more closely your belief and its source.  There are many to choose from and it is in vogue to create your own version.  

God has provided the way to find Him.  Any other path taken is as useful and useless as another.  This is what the Bible says, the Word of God.  It is the Lord Jesus Who calls out in truth and love: 

Come to Me

It Is Finished

John 19:30

30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

NIV

 These are the last recorded words of our Savior.  His first words recorded in Matthew give insight and meaning to the words that were spoken with His last breath as a man.  The sacrifice of His life was complete, but what Jesus really meant here is that the mission given Him by the Father was accomplished.  That was His Father’s business He spoke of as a child.  

The shedding of His blood freed you and me from the judgment of our sins.  Victory over death would come with His resurrection.  

 Victory is ours when we accept this gift and believe in Him.  It could be done in no other way.  He alone can lead us from our Egypt.  His resurrection has parted the sea. 

It is finished

There Is No Other Savior

Isa 43:10-11

10 You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me and remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.

11 I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.

AMP 

There is one God

Working in and through us

Who came in the form of man

In His Son Jesus

That we would know

The One True God

The way of salvation

For there is no other Savior

First Recorded Words Of Jesus

Luke 2:49 (NKJV) ⁴⁹ And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"

After bringing Jesus to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover, Mary and Joseph left Him behind by oversight as they made their journey back home.  Realizing that he was not with them, they frantically began searching for Him, finding Him in the temple.  When Mary said they had looked all over for Him, Jesus asked why they didn’t realize He would be in the temple, there about His Father’s business. 

That business was about saving the world.  His ministry and revelation was for that purpose. That is why He came.  His life would be given for that end. 

He continues that work in and through those who believe and accept Him.  He reveals Himself to us and to those around us.  We are part of the plan, the business of God.  We are to be like Him.  

The Path To Satisfaction

Matt 5:6 

6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

ESV

 Pitied are those who are unaware of their lack of righteousness.  The hunger and thirst remain, but not knowing how to satisfy that hunger or quench that thirst, they attempt to fill that emptiness with things which will not satisfy.  In this way they find themselves always grasping at the next thing in the hope that peace will be found at last.  

That peace is elusive for those who walk blindly in circles.  If you don’t know the way, you can’t get there from here. Jesus provides that way.  He is the living water and the bread from heaven.  Accepting and following Him is the only path to satisfaction.  

Blessed Are The Meek

Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

ESV 

Meek does not mean weak in the earthly sense.  This meekness is from one who understands that in the sight of God we have no room to boast.  It is only in His grace and love that we find our true worth.  While some may perceive this as weakness, this meekness is a sign of the peace and love from within that we are able to share with others. We become children of God, heirs to all His blessings.  A restored earth is part of that heritage and reward.  

Those that are not meek, who glory in their own exploits and abilities, which care not for the things of God and seek their own way, are like a wisp of smoke in the wind.  The arrogant are like a passing noise that is soon forgotten.  Our best efforts are like a parade of children in a moment of play.  Anyone who takes advantage of another rather than sharing the love of God will find that anything gained will be lost in the end.  The meek are strong in Christ, yet it is in our understanding of our weakness that His strength is found. Gentleness, kindness, self-control, and patience reflect a better way. 

The meek are blessed by God and all things will be given to them.  It has already been accomplished.

Listen To The One

John 3:11-12 (MSG)
¹¹ Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions.
¹² If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?

Jesus continues to speak with Nicodemus.  Consider carefully what Jesus says.  Here is the Son of God saying that His testimony is based on experience.  He was with God from the beginning.  He was the Word of creation.  He is the only one that came from heaven.  The source of truth only speaks the truth.  If we are to believe anyone or anything, He should be the first thing. All else comes from Him.

That truth is revealed in a language we can understand.  How better can we relate to God than if He came into the world as one of us?  He speaks of things we can’t see using the language of the things we can see.  

Nicodemus is struggling.  We all do.  Believing is easy, yet hard work.  Faith is about letting go, but we are prone to hold on to what we know and mistrust things we don’t know.  It is about overcoming fear and doubt enough to take that first step into the kingdom of God.  Faith also is about the steps that follow, but He is with us after that first step.  His strength and power will take us to a place beyond our wildest imagination.    

There Is No Other Savior

Isa 43:10-11
10 You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me and remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.
AMP

There is one God
Working in and through us
Who came in the form of man
In His Son Jesus
That we would know
The One True God
The way of salvation
For there is no other Savior

He Fills Us

He fills us
The Divine glory
As we make room for Him
Pouring ourselves out
He pours in
We become weaker in our poverty
And grow stronger in His riches
The more we are diluted in the man
The purer we become in the spirit
To His glory
He fills us

Those Who Mourn

Matt 5:4
4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
ESV

It is they who mourn for their offense to God
For sins arising from rebellion and ignorance
Who come to understand the breadth and depth
Of the love that calls out and searches for us

It is they who have been wounded in this life
Battered by hardship, abuse, loss

They shall be comforted
He shall wipe away all tears
He will right all wrong
He will fill the heart with gladness
And restore all those who come to Him

Poor In Spirit

Matt 5:3
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
ESV

The poor in spirit are anything other than poor for they are heirs to the true riches that come from God. Leaving behind trust in the spirit of man and of self, they yield to the Spirit of God. The kingdom opens at once and eternal blessings without end are given to these who lift their hearts to the Lord.

Blessed are those who gain the kingdom of heaven
For they become children of God by His Spirit

He Opened His Mouth

Matt 5:1-2
5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
ESV

The One whose words brought forth creation
Giving light where there was no light
Form where there was no form
And blessed all that He made

He opened His mouth again
But in the form of man
To speak of man truly blessed
The mouth of the Lord has spoken it
So it is and will come to pass

We are among those in the crowds
You and I

The Word Became Flesh

John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
NIV

Long ago and not so long ago, Jesus came for us taking on the form of man. He was like us and yet not like us. There is and has been no one else like Him, for He came from the Father, full of grace and truth. It is He that shows us the way to the Father for He is one with the Father. He lived without sinning and enables us to break the shackles of sin’s domination.

The incarnation continues today. Instead of among us, He makes His dwelling within us through the Holy Spirit. The grace and truth of Jesus is imparted to us. Christ takes on our flesh as we become part of His body in His church. We become the temple of God. Our worship is the sacrifice of praise arising from our joy in the Lord, spirit with Spirit.

John testifies that they have seen His glory. May it be that His glory continues to be seen through our lives.

May my thoughts and actions glorify You today

He Has Made Him Known

John 1:15-18
15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'" 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
NIV

The revelation of God comes through these two, Moses and Jesus. God gives to Moses the law which instructed man about God and provided a way for fallen man to relate to the Holy God. But it was a mere shadow that pointed to the coming of His Son, who provided fulfillment of the law and its intent. He was the exact representation of God. The shadow, which was the law, was cast by the light of Jesus. This is what the prophets of old saw in the distance. He is the light that has come into the world, full of grace and truth which comes from God.

No one has ever seen God because of the sin which plagues us. We would not be able to come into His Holy presence and live. Because we were not able to come to Him, He came to us. It is through Jesus that we are able to know God.

He has made Him known
And has overcome that which separates
He is as close as the word on the tongue

True Belief

John 2:23-25 (NIV)
²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.
²⁴ But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.
²⁵ He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Jesus had no illusions about men, yet He came to give His life for us all anyway. He knows us better than we know ourselves.

Perhaps He did not trust them because they did not believe in the right way, or for the right reason. They saw the miracles He performed and said isn’t this wonderful? The true miracle sought by Jesus is a changed heart. He knows the sad state of the human heart without God. Believing in Jesus without a repentant heart does not bring us into relationship with Him. To one like this Jesus will say “I don’t know you” at the wedding feast. It doesn’t matter how many times you used His name in word or deed, you won’t be right with God if your heart is not right. Even the demons believe in His name, and know Him to be the Son of God.

If we turn to Him with a repentant heart
He will come and abide within
His presence will bring us into life
He will entrust Himself
To all that trust in Him

Miraculous Sign

John 2:18-22 (NIV)
¹⁸ Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
¹⁹ Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
²⁰ The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"
²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

They sought a sign from Jesus. During the course of His ministry He would do many things that would be proof of His authority. None of them served to convince the majority of them.

Jesus replies with one particular sign that will be given as proof of being the Son of God. In another place, Jesus says that only the sign of Jonah will be given. In another place He says that many would not believe even if He was raised from the grave.

And that is how it came to pass. His life on earth was brought to an end at the hands of the very people He came to save. The power of God brought Him back, a fact that was confirmed by many witnesses. He overcame death, but it was not enough for some to believe.

Some dismiss all of this as foolishness. But the foolishness of God will overcome the so called wisdom of the world. The world will fade away but the Word of God will endure.

The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples after His death. He brought to remembrance the words spoken by Jesus and opened their eyes to the truth of Scripture. He does the same for us today. That reality is just as fresh today as it was back then. The Spirit was given to man in a way that had not been realized before. This was made possible by the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Our sin was erased. We now have the opportunity to enter into the presence of God. We can’t begin to appreciate the fullness of this miracle.

Zeal

John 2:14-17 (NIV)
¹⁴ In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

We are prone to drift from the things of God. If we are not careful about little accommodations and “improvements” over time, we can find ourselves quite distant from our starting place before we know it. This is what happened here. The beauty and reverence of the temple became marred with the common things of man. They had lost the true sense of the Holy and traded it for the business of the marketplace. Instead of a place to leave behind the things of man and to enter into the things of God, they brought the house of God into the commonplace. Their actions reflected the heart.

It is for the heart Jesus comes. His zeal is for us. We are the house that consumes Him. His zeal is such that He gave His life that we would be with Him. He desires that everyone would come, that not one would be lost.

The Best Is Yet To Come

John 2:1-11 (NIV)
¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there,
² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
³ When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
⁴ "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."
⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
⁷ Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
⁸ Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so,
⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
¹⁰ and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Jesus takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. In John’s gospel this is the first miracle He performs. He takes the water of ceremony and turns it into fine wine. The ceremonial acts of cleansing were only a foreshadow of the cleansing Jesus would bring. He came to bring fulfillment of God’s plan.

He likewise turned judgment into grace. This is a much greater miracle than the mere turning of water into wine. He turned death into life through His dying and rising again. From the water of creation comes the wine of the kingdom.

The wine of new life is available for all, who like the disciples, put their faith in Him. One only has to reach out and sip from the cup He offers. And the best is yet to come.

Old Story, Same Question

The account of Cain and Able foreshadows of the slaying of Jesus. Cain, the older brother, does not obey and please the Lord with his offerings. Able, the younger brother, does obey and please the Lord. In anger and resentment, Cain kills Able.

God chose Israel, the nation, as His Son. He told them how to live and what was necessary for life. They were to show the world the glory of God. They did not follow the way of the Lord.

God sent His Son Jesus to Israel. Jesus did obey and told Israel what was needed for life, speaking the very words of God. This angered the leadership. This was an affront to their authority and pride. They plotted and killed Jesus.

But Jesus rose from the grave by the grace and power of God to bring true life to all. What man meant for evil God used to save the world.

God told Cain that he would be accepted if he would do right. Jesus tells us the same thing, giving us the power and grace for salvation. All we have to do is say yes and follow Him. We know what Cain did. What are you going to do?

So It Is

John 3:8-9
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
NIV

The Spirit is a mystery for those not born of the Spirit. You can’t see it coming and you don’t see it going, but like the wind, one may be aware of its passing. With the wind leaves may dance in trees above or there may be a whistle around the corner of the house. It may be a soft breeze felt on the face in the cool of the evening. With the Spirit it may be in receiving an act of kindness from a stranger or something that works out despite the fact there was no way it would.

It may be found in the strangest places, in something or someone unexpected. It can enter a heart suddenly and by surprise. An unexplained peace may warm the heart, catching one unaware.

The Spirit can speak to us through any part of creation, imparting a knowing beyond any reasoning and understanding beyond explanation.

The one born of the Spirit knows where the Spirit comes from and moves with the Spirit, made alive by grace and truth. Don’t just listen to the sound and wonder why is it so. Be part of that sound and of those whom it can be said: “So it is…”

Born Again

John 3:3-6
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
NIV

In the beginning God’s Spirit hovered over the waters of the earth. Creation was born. In these last days His Spirit hovered over Mary and from her came Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man. He was both.

In Jesus, flesh and Spirit came together in a way that had not happened before. A new man was born, made possible by the grace of God. Through Him, our fallen flesh is made alive by the life that comes from God. We rise above that disobedience of the first man and are restored by the obedience of the second man when we choose to believe in Jesus.

Water and Spirit can represent the revelations in the Old and New Testaments. God is being revealed in both. Both point to Christ. The Old Testament brings God into view and how we are to live in relation to this knowledge, through the cleansing water of repentance. It also shows us how we are unable to adhere to the requirements of our Holy God on our own. The New Testament brings forth the fulfillment of those requirements through the grace of His Son and the giving of His Spirit. Through His Spirit we are reborn to be sons and daughters of God.

Nicodemus asks a question that anyone might ask who only looks the world through the lens of his own eyes, from a scientific, piecemeal point of view. “How can this be?” Flesh can only see flesh. The Spirit enters us and a new creature is born. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God can only be seen by those born again, and that is how it is.

Give us eyes of the Spirit