On the Beach with Jesus

While strolling down the beach early in the day, it was calm and peaceful.  The constant lapping of the waves soothes the soul.  Thoughts of Jesus preparing breakfast on the beach for seven of His apostles played over in my mind.

He greatly blessed their nets with multiple fish. 

He met the need of their hunger by feeding them. 

Next He would question Peter.

Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” – Jesus knew the answer before asking.  Some have suggested maybe to counter the three times Peter had denied Him.  Jesus saw the benefit for Peter to verbalize his devotion to the LORD. 

Three times Peter confirmed His love for Jesus.  Jesus responded to him with statements concerning the care of His flock.  Jesus actions and instructions reassured Peter he had been forgiven and was ready to serve in His name.

In our lifetime, Jesus presents the same questions of devotion to each of us. 

Do you love Me? 

Love your neighbor as yourself & keep my commands.

Will you choose to serve in My kingdom?

Serve one another in love.

Will you share the good news of the gospel?

 Go & make disciples of all nations-baptizing and teaching them.

John 13:35

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

 if you love one another.

John 14:15

 If you love me, keep my commands.

John 15:12

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:17

This is my command: Love each other.

1 John 4:21

And he has given us this command:

Anyone who loves God must also 

love their brother and sister.

A children’s song speaks of “peace like a river, joy like a fountain, love like the ocean.”  Is our love like the ocean?  Deep, constant and powerful.

Majestic, Almighty God,

How magnificent are the creations of Your Hand.  Thank you for the beauty you fashioned throughout the world, it refreshes the soul.  The peace we find in Your Son, Jesus, restores our hope.  Reshape our hearts with the power of Your truth & love like the power of winds & waves reshape the shoreline.  Thank You, Father, for the grace and goodness You extend to us over and over.

In the name of Your Son, Jesus - Amen

Mischelle Oliver, Stephenville

Sin's Forgiveness...and Consequences

“Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house…The Lord has taken away your sin.  You are not going to die.  But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:10, 13, 14.)

Sin’s wages are high. They are deadly. (Romans 6:23.)  “…when it is full-grown, (sin) gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15.)  Nor is there any bargaining with the price that sin extorts for its fleeting pleasures.  King David learned this painful reality in the aftermath of his taking another man’s wife to bed with him.

David was a man after God’s own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14.)  But Satan gained entrance into, and control over, David’s heart through lust, greed, and power.  Does this sound familiar?  As a result, Bathsheba’s purity was stained, her husband, Uriah, was murdered at David’s order, and the king’s heart was hardened in denial for a year – while his enemies held God’s holy name in contempt.  During this time David’s heart was in agony from the guilt he would not acknowledge, nor confess.  Such is painfully described in a number of his psalms “of penitence”.  (E.g. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.)

After Bathsheba bears David’s “love child” (?), The Lord sends his prophet Nathan to confront David. (2 Samuel 12:1ff.)  Finally the king sees from God’s perspective, the evil he has done.  “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’”. (v. 13.)  There is no more denial.  There is no blaming of others.  There is no equivocation.  “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I s said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5.)

God “forgave the guilt” of David’s sin.  Still, “the sword” of painful consequences never departed from David’s house.  His son dies.  A son rapes a daughter, and is killed by another son, who then seeks to assassinate David his father in an attempt to seize his throne.  That son dies, hanging from a tree, during battle. (2 Samuel 11-18.)

Sin’s guilt will destroy. Sin’s consequences will torture.  Only God, by the merit of his Son’s atoning death, can forgive the guilt, and add his mercy as we deal with the consequences.  This is a painful, but life-preserving, lesson.  David, having learned from his agonizing sins, offers God’s blessed assurance through the apostle Paul’s inspired commentary:

“Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’”(Romans 4:4-8.)

                And that is GOOD NEWS!

Ted Kell

Brownwood, Texas

Sharing with Urgency

"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you would take them out of the world but that you would protect them from the evil one . . . As you have sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world." 

--John 17.13-18

This verse is really simple to me. Often, we as Christians desire to hide ourselves away from the world, for fear of being "corrupted" or influenced to be like the world. Perhaps we're afraid of what we don't know. Some of us are afraid of what we do know. Some of us don't want to get off the couch. Some of us anticipate uncomfortable moments. Some of us deeply fear rejection. Well, Jesus said a prayer for us, specifically for disciples, about that. He clearly asked God not to take us out of the world. So why do we try to take ourselves out of it? 

Sure, there are places we probably shouldn't go and things we probably shouldn't see because there isn't a "space" for goodness to flourish there. However, we also aren't called to hide in our church buildings and homes and "pray" for all those faceless people out there who don't know Jesus and hope that maybe they'll happen to wander into the auditorium on a Sunday morning. That's called negligence. 

Admittedly, I also spend most of my time in places doing things that relate specifically to my needs or the needs of people who I already know and love. I really do get it; we're all busy, we have our own lives and people to take care of, and we have our own stresses and issues and problems to deal with. But part of our calling is in having the time to go out into the world, no matter how uncomfortable or scary that may be.

Going out into the world doesn't mean going about my daily business and praying that, in the midst of it, I'll bump into someone who needs to hear the gospel. I think it's easy to say "I'm praying about this" or "I'm praying for them" and then feel released from any actual responsibility in the process of evangelism. No, only "hoping" or "praying" to "be led" to those who need the gospel is irresponsible. I believe that prayer is an essential part of the process, but you could literally walk up to any person, anywhere, anytime, ask them their name and how their day is going, get to know them, and share the gospel. It's a choice that you get to make.

Evangelism is not a game of chance or a mystic maze where you wait for just the right moment in which the Holy Spirit "leads" or "guides" or "directs" you to just the right person who needs to hear the gospel right at that perfect moment. That's actually an easy way out of mustering up the courage and making the choice to walk up to someone you don't know at all, getting to know them, and sharing the joy that you know and have with them. 

Jesus wanted us to be in the world. Being of the world is a choice. And sharing the gospel is a responsibility that we can't shirk. 

Father,
Give us the courage to share the gospel freely, kindly, lovingly, without passing judgment, and with urgency.
In the name of Jesus, who calls us to these purposes, amen. 

Erin Daugherty, Abilene, TX