Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Paralysis is an impressive, visible, dramatic, overwhelming problem.  Jesus says that it is not the REAL Primary problem.  What could be more debilitating? More lasting? You almost don't want to know the answer.  You almost don't want to hear what comes next.  Why can't we just leave the "elephant in the room" unseen and unmentioned, just like always.  Jesus just won'...

4 friends from another town carry a paralytic to Capernaum to get to Jesus.  It is too crowded to get close, so they REMOVED THE ROOF. Of a house. Of a house THEY DIDN'T OWN.  Of a house who they didn't know the owner. They come with problem-solving, commitment, friendship, community and one more: FAITH.  They share a faith. This is a charge to Christian Fellowship.  This is shared purpo...

Jesus gets desolate to be intimate, close and in conversation with the Father.  Then people come "from every quarter" to inject themselves into that desolate place.  On one hand we too have to 'defend' the desolation and get thoughtful, quiet and alone. On the other hand, Jesus FILLS the desolation.  The leper comes and has a real need.  It is physical, it is spiritual, it is e...

Jesus chose PRAYER when He had the world to Himself.  He could have chosen anything.  Why choose prayer?  Because the tasks ahead for His day made the prayer part NECESSARY.  He got desolate, so He could be CLOSE He got alone, so He could be INTIMATE He got quiet, so He could be in CONVERSATION He got ready, so He could be on PURPOSE. His day was of such difficulty and complexity, His morning pray...

What would you do if you had the world to yourself?  More specifically, what DO YOU DO when you have the world to yourself?  Almost everybody answers this question everyday, when they get out of bed. Jesus is human and gets tired and needs to sleep.  But then, with the early morning, He sets and enacts His priorities by getting desolate.  The disciples are going to be getting up and disturbing Him...

Everybody gets healed in Capernaum.  Everybody.  The doctors get put out of business there.  This fulfills a prophesy in Isaiah: He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.  Apparently, these are physical, spiritual, and I think emotional too. God is doing the heavy lifting, but people are bringing the sick.  Even for Peter's mother-in-law, it says that they "appealed to Him on her beha...

The people of Capernaum, at least initially, have a pretty good effort towards having a spiritual encounter.  They are first AMAZED, then they WONDER, then THEY THINK for a while, then the LISTEN, then they QUESTION, then they RECOUNT what they have experienced.  Finally, they work for the FAME of Jesus.  I'm calling that a step towards worship. This is an above-average touch with the Almight...

Jesus comes to SAVE.  But not to save everybody.  We find today a whole group of beings that have missed the salvation train.  They are the unclean spirits, the demons. They are volitional beings whose die has already been cast.  They appear to be not affected by death, but are under the ultimate authority and ultimate destruction of Jesus.   In His short ministry, Jesus has already included in Hi...

Everybody is amazed at Jesus' AUTHORITY in His teaching.  That is, expounding the truths of the SCRIPTURES.  It all makes perfect sense, because He is the ultimate AUTHOR of all those truths, and HE WAS THERE.  So Jesus knows both the description of the event in writing, but also with His primary experience.  That is, He is an eye-witness, a participant, and the main character of all the Old...

I will make you FISHERS of men.  That is, you are going to HUNT them and I am going to help. What does it take to be a good fisherman?  First, Know you are doing it.  This is a universal call to all.  If you have been CAUGHT, then you are a CATCHER.  Everybody.  For many today, this will be a loud call to GET BUSY. Second, value it.  These are souls that we are talking about, not just fish. Third,...

Repentance is a lot of things.  It is ancient.  It is universal.  It is for salvation.  It is necessary.  It is inconvenient.  It is hard.  It is grievous.  It is all over the Bible. What struck me today is what repentance is NOT:  That is, it is NOT IN THE FUTURE. For example, if you poke your head into a church today, it is full of the REPENTED and the REPENTING.  It is just a part of our walk w...

What would your city give to have an Amazon Fulfillment Center call your city home?  Tens of millions of dollars is the answer.  What would your city give to have Jesus come and live there? Be careful here, there are benefits, but there is also some increased responsibility.  With increased revelation and exposure is increased answerability.  Nazareth, said no, we don't want Jesus here.  In f...

If you have ever heard something about God and felt RAGE or WRATH well up within you, you are in good company.  You are not the first in the company of most of humanity.  There is all kinds of stuff about God where our first reaction is that I don't like it.  But too, you are also likely in the company of God Himself.  It probably means that God is near. God was near to the Nazarenes literall...

The Hometown folks of Jesus are filled with WRATH and want to throw Him off of a cliff because of...wait for it...a story about a WIDOW. Unfortunately, she is not one of us.  She demonstrates God's activity and favor to a people group that is not US.  This widow is outside the borders of Israel geographically, racially, and religiously.  But she is not outside the purview of God.  She is not...

By the end of this encounter with Jesus, His hometown crowd wanted to throw Him off of a cliff to kill Him.  It starts all sunny, but this goes bad in a hurry. Really bad. Jesus has been elsewhere in the region doing healings.  Certainly when He gets to His hometown, He'll give us as least as much as them.  It's Joseph's kid.  He OWES it to us. Reading the Old Testament in Synagogue...

There are PAIN POINTS of this life that cause us to give Jesus a try.  For the man with a child near death it was his hardest thing. Jesus challenges him by asking for BELIEF before the rainbow; Faith before the miracle.  And he DOES believe BEFORE seeing.  I think everybody will believe AFTER seeing someday.  Every knee is going to bow eventually. So why bow now?  Relationship with God.  Being at...

Jesus tells the disciples to wake up and uses food as a marker for it.  He wants them to open their eyes to what is happening on an evangelical plane.  People are ready to be brought in the kingdom.  People are ready to start being prepared to be brought into the kingdom.  Some can be harvested.  Some can be planted. This should be such a frequent process, that between now and their next meal, the...

There is a Cracker Jack SURPRISE in every verse today.  That Jesus reveals the big secret to the Samaritan Woman The disciples are surprised Jesus would talk to a woman That she leaves her water jar (her key to water for the "living water" trade) That her testimony of, "He told me everyone I ever slept with" actually WORKS That MANY Samaritans believe based on her testimony Tha...

The fact that Jesus reveals Himself to the Samaritan Woman should give everyone of us some comfort.  She wasn't even seeking God.  Even worse, she thought she already possessed Him; already knew Him.  The bad news was she was wrong in many categories.  And further, she was boldly confident in her knucklehood.   So here is the whammy:  Jesus picks her, specifically, to reveal Himself to.  Of a...

We think maybe that 'we'll never find God.'  He's like a needle in a haystack.  He's unfindable.  He's unknowable.  I can never triangulate with the unknowable. That is not the God of the Bible.  Surprisingly we find out that the God of the Bible has all along been seeking US.  He's showed up.  He has been pursuing all along.  That is, the "Needle-in-the-Hay...

In the context of offering a relationship with Himself (living water and right worship) Jesus interrupts the flow of the conversation and basically says, "Let's talk about your sex life!" He uses the sexual history of our spunky Samaritan Woman to expose her need for this living water. Of all the encounters with people, I cannot think of another similar event where Jesus went right...

God has a pool of people that He seeks to worship Him.  They are either a little wrong, medium wrong, or severely wrong.  Just to emphasize the point, we meet the Samaritan Woman.  Two big points:  She is very very very wrong in her religious practice and thinking.  The second is that God is basically saying, "You are EXACTLY the kind of worshiper that I want for my kingdom." What a kind...

The Samaritan woman is feisty, full of life, curiosity, and questions.  She'd be fun at a cocktail party.  She is also wrong in just about everything she says and thinks and accuses God of.  But that is OK.  Jesus has a divine appointment with her. (You know it is a divine appointment because of this fact:  Jesus sends 12 guys to the grocery store, so he can be alone with his initial interact...

If you only KNEW what God has been up to.  He's been preparing a gift.  It is preplanned, thought out and is ready to be delivered.  You however, have been oblivious.  You'll be surprised about all that went into the GIFT.  You'll be humbled as to the cost and the preparation. The woman at the well, the Samaritan woman receives this gift for us.  Spiritual people have LONGED for thi...

Jesus steps into a spiritual wound that is 750 years old.  And, my favorite, He is WEARY. It is noon and this semi-outcast has to draw water in the heat of the day.  So, there is a big wound.  There is personal weariness.  Similarly, we get a choice when we have a wound and a weariness. Do we just give up?  Do we engage.  Do we entrust and recommit to serve?  Of Course, Jesus gets it right with th...