History:
- 1525: Martin Luther marries Katharine von Bora in violation of the rules requiring celibacy of priests
- 1805: Meriwether Lewis reaches the Great Falls of the Missouri River
- 1922: Longest recorded hiccups attack begins and lasts 68 years—Charles Osborne dies 11 months after the attack stops
- 1944: First German V-1 bomb hits London
- 1920: Post Office rules children may not be sent by parcel post
- 1966: Miranda v. Arizona establishes what we call the Miranda rights for any accused
- 1967: Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court
- 1971: NY Times publishes the Pentagon Papers
- Born: Red Grange, William Butler Yeats, Martha Washington, Tim Allen
- Died: Alexander the Great, Benny Goodman, Tim Russert, Chuck Noll
Thought:
My Sunday School class is completing a study of the chronological life of Christ combining all the gospel accounts and attempting to place them in a relative sequence. We began this study in early 2020 and except for this Spring when we have coordinated with our pastor’s sermons in Acts, the life of Christ has been our weekly focus. I am convinced I should repeat this study personally from time to time—other portions of the Bible are important, but if I really want to know Jesus, the Gospels are my first resource. Moses and David, Isaiah and Daniel, Ezekiel and Micah, Paul and Peter and James all tell us key points about the life of Christ, but reading what He did and what He said are so very important. So you may be getting some thoughts about this most important life in history in the days ahead.
I could start where Matthew and Luke begin—with a genealogy. Or with the coming of John the Baptist. I could skip to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as Mark does. But this morning I am reading John 1. The first 14 verses of this Gospel are powerful reminders to me that Jesus earthly manifestation may have begun with the incarnation, but that is not where His story began. Can you still remember the first time you saw Star Wars—the scroll is unrolled and we read, “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.” John 1:1 begins unrolling the scroll to tell us that Jesus is God—He was there in the beginning. He was with God [the Trinity], and He was God. So when God says to Moses “I Am,” Jesus is saying I am—a word He completes in the 7 “I ams” of John’s Gospel.
Have you ever considered how important that first verse of John is—Jesus is God. He is not a good man, a great teacher, a learned rabbi, a miracle worker. He is not someone who walked with God, talked to God and obeyed God. He is God—eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, love, grace, mercy—He cannot lie. He is perfect. So when Jesus later says to us, I and My Father are one or if you have seen Me you have seen the Father, He is confirming what John tells us in this verse. When Paul says all things were created by Him and for Him and all things exist and are sustained by Him—we understand Genesis when Moses writes, "and God said let there be light and there was light." Jesus is the word of God—the word of God created, the word of God sustains, the word of God endures. the word of God came and is coming again.
The Jesus who died for you and me is God who created you and me. The Maker dying for the creation. Jesus who walks with me is the God who walked with Adam and Eve before the fall. Jesus who loves me was the God to whom Isaiah said—here am I Lord, send me. So when Jesus says go into all the world and make disciples, we respond, here am I Lord send me.
Now think abut any other religion or sect that makes claims of divinity. Were any of them there in the beginning? No! Did any of them create all things [1:3]. No! Are any of them givers of life and light [1:4-5]. No!
Now how does that change the way I face today. Jesus is God. Jesus lives in me in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to guide my day today. God wants to help me walk through today with joy, peace and hope. And if I allow Him who knows all my past, all my present and all my future to guide me today—where do you think I will end the day—exactly where God wants me to be. So I pray with open ears, I watch with open eyes, so that when he speaks and leads, I can follow. This means He gets to choose where I go and what I say. He gets to direct my thoughts and ideas—but when He does—I end the day exactly where God wants me to be and I have done exactly what He wanted me to do today.
Confession—I have a problem doing that! I struggle to listen, I struggle to see with His eyes. And even when I hear and see, I sometimes fight the guidance system. Makes me think of the GPS in my Toyota. I put in the address where I want to end up. It plots a course for me—but sometimes I look at that course and say—I know a better/shorter way. I did that recently going to my granddaughter’s track meet. Why is the GPS taking me this way? I looked at the map on line. I found a better way. So I turn to go my way only to discover road construction and a detour. I am the same way with Jesus—I know better than God, so I get off His path and follow my own only to find road construction, dead ends, detours. His way may look longer—but His ways are not our ways. His Way is the only way.
Today, read just these first 5 verses of John 1. Jesus is God and He loves you.
Blessings
Larry
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