Lord, Heal Our Land

Dear Weekly Readers!

May the Peace of the Lord be with you today. Tomorrow, September 11th, is a day that my country remembers all too well.  This is the day our country was attacked by terrorists.  I remember that in the immediate aftermath of this horrible event, many of our churches filled up with people who prayed and sang!  The entire country was drawn closer to God.

Now, however, our country has sadly once again turned away from God and is again in large part turned to the unimportant things in a greater measure, forgetting to worship God.

Lord, please heal our land.  We appreciate this verse in your Holy Word. 2 Chronicles 7:14:  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  Lord, allow this to happen in the USA!

The scripture we will look at today is in Mark Chapter 8:29:  But whom say ye that I am?

Jesus asked this question after being told that the people in the town of Caesarea Philippi said that He was John the Baptist, or Elias, or one of the prophets.

Have you wondered why they may have thought this was who Jesus was?  Do you think it could have been that they saw or knew of the great things performed by all these men, and then also by Jesus?  They were able to see Jesus as a great man, who could do all these miracles and wonderful things.

Of course we know that Jesus was such.  However, Jesus was so much more than this.  Jesus was Christ, the Saviour of the World.

Today also, so many people are willing to accept Jesus as a great man, as one who did many big things.  They will even say He was a great prophet, and any number of other things. Man is so willing to go for miracles, to look for signs, to desire from God all the good things to help them through this life.  How about the life after?  Are men as interested in being ready for eternity?  Sadly, so many are not. 

In Mark chapter 8, verse 31, we see Jesus beginning to teach His disciples that He will suffer, be rejected, and be killed.  He also said He will rise again on the third day.  This kind of talk was too much for even Peter to bear.  He rebuked Jesus.

Why would Peter do this?  Do you think that this is the reaction that the flesh has to the cross of Jesus Christ?  The flesh is more than willing to accept the good things, the gifts from God, all those things for this body and for this life.

The Cross of Jesus Christ however, that is what is rejected of men.  "The carnal mind is at enmity with God," the scriptures tell us.  Man has such a hard time being able to believe in Jesus Christ the suffering, dying, victorious Saviour.
 
Oh, never let us, nor the Christian church turn from the cross of Christ Jesus.  Rather let us be like Paul as quoted in Galatians 6:14:  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Jesus then said to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan."  

Let us not forget the Cross of Jesus.  Here Satan, with the help of the flesh of Peter, was hoping to stop Jesus from dying for the sins of man.  Satan is always looking to deceive and to divert our eyes from the most important matters.

Jesus did go to that cross.  He brought all of Peter’s sins there, He brought all of our sins there, and they were nailed to the cross with Jesus.  Jesus is the Christ.  The Cross is where the price was paid for our atonement.


The rest of this chapter speaks about us taking up our cross and following Jesus.  We must deny ourselves, be willing to put Christ first in our lives.  We must be willing to follow Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes unto the Father but by Him.

Let us follow Jesus today, never turning away from the glorious work on the cross. Daily let us look to Jesus!  1 Corinthians 15:31:  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

We know and understand from scripture:  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Romans 6:8.

Now, whom do you say that Christ is?  Your answer to this question is known in heaven above!  God knows all things!

May God Bless your week!   John R.

Some Biblical Passages to Ponder

Dear Weekly Readers!  

Please read and meditate upon the scripture and thoughts laid out for us today by a guest Pastor.  

May God Bless your week!    John R.

SOME BIBLICAL PASSAGES TO PONDER

The 13^th chapter of St. John’s Gospel is packed with several powerful incidents.  What stands out at the beginning of this chapter is the depth of Christ’s love.  We read:  “Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end."  Not for one second of time did Jesus ever cease to love his own. 

The depth of this love glistens in verses 3-5:  “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.  After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.”  This King of the Universe who has been given authority to do anything he desires, humbles himself to wash the disciples’ feet! 

Has it ever dawned on you that Jesus washed Judas’ feet, too; all the time knowing that he was going to betray him.  Jesus never stopped loving Judas!  Even in Gethsemane’s Garden when Judas led the Roman soldiers to take Jesus, our Lord called him “friend” (See Mt. 26:50).  Jesus knew Judas would betray him (Read vs. 21).  When we read that Jesus “became troubled in spirit”, the meaning of this phrase is describing “the agony of love”.  Just to say it was so difficult for our Lord that he was in agony over it.  His heart of love was breaking for Judas.  Would to God we could all love others like this! 

Today whenever we sin, we grieve our Lord because He lives within us by His Spirit.  He feels the pain we do to ourselves when we stray from Him, but he never stops loving us.  Anyone who is cast into hell on the day of judgment can never blame God.  If we harden our hearts to God’s love, we suffer now because of it, and we will suffer eternally, if we do not repent and return to Him.  God is more ready to forgive than we are ready to admit our sin.

Having told the Twelve of this awful fact of Judas’ betrayal, “the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake” (vs. 22). (People always reclined on mats lying on their side with their bodies extended away from the table while being propped up on their left elbow and reaching for the food on the table with their right hand.)  Reading vs. 23-26, we can picture John with his back toward Jesus, his head being on the Savior’s breast.  Peter would be lying on his side behind the back of Jesus.  Quite likely when Jesus spoke of a betrayal, John lifted his face towards Jesus, and in doing so Peter could get John’s attention to ask the Lord who was going to betray him.  Jesus told John, (vs. 26), but he  was the only one of the other ten who knew. 

We read in Lk. 22:14-16  when the hour had come to eat this Passover, he said unto them, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” This was, truly, our Lord’s Last Supper, and to comfort the puzzled and sorrowful disciples, Jesus drops this hint of an absolutely incredible future.  He was going to eat a Passover with them again.  This Passover would be such a glorious one it would be “out of this world”, metaphorically to be sure but, also, literally.

This would be a Passover of all Passovers.  The Passover the Jews and, even, Christ and his disciples celebrated, going all the way back to the first one, looked back to the deliverance from Egyptian bondage and, most certainly, from death wherever the blood of the lamb had been applied to the entrance to each house.  The Passover Christ would eat with his disciples in the future can be identified, I believe, with the marriage supper of the Lamb.

This new supper will commemorate not only the deliverance from death but, more importantly and meaningfully, the inauguration of eternal life when our soul and spirit will be reunited with our new bodies that will never decline, diminish, or deteriorate.  It will be a glorious feast of deliverance from living in this world to living in the eternal realm of a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness will be the mode of life for everyone who has been washed of their sins in the blood of the Lamb.