Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Talk about raising the bar!  At the almost 11th hour of Jesus' life He drops a bomb of LOVE.  A LOVE-BOMB .  Love has been in the relationship of God to man and man to man since time started.  So it is nothing new, except for one thing:  Now you are supposed to love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU . So how high is that bar?  Steadfast. Sacrificial. Til the end. Unto death if necessary. So hig...

Jesus is troubled in spirit .  I wonder why?  Part of it is that Jesus himself is going into a BUZZSAW of the passion , the suffering, the abandonment, the beatings, and the crucifixion .  WHEN Jesus is troubled, unsettled in spirit, the Scripture TELLS US WHY.  It is because that one of you is going to betray me. So who exactly is Jesus troubled for, Judas or Himself ?  I have always assumed Hims...

Today I try to make an argument AGAINST washing other's feet.  Specifically, I don't want to be involved in any unclean, warty, smelly, deformed, degenerated or ugly feet.  Give me the beautiful, the swift, and the easy feet.  Are there such things? I'll start with arguments of ignorance, we'll see how the Lord does against my protests.  You can guess who has the better case. H...

It is always a good thing to be "stuck" on a bible passage.  That usually means good stuff is coming.  It means that treasures are going to be unearthed by the sweat employed in getting un-stuck. My being stuck today revolves around JUDAS . What was this bad guy doing there at the last supper and at the foot washing?  We are in a tender moment of intimacy of last minute instructions of J...

Who are my people ?:  people in the church, people outside the church.  No problem there. Who are my people's PARTS? :  Now wait just a minute.  Their FEET?  Their nasty bits? Their overworked, over-dirtied, and probably more stinky than I might like parts? What are my duties ?: Wash. Humility. more Humility. Serve.  Bow.  Get on the floor.  Just try washing a foot sometime.  The floor will b...

In 2001 Kiefer Sutherland began to play Jack Bauer, a fictional protagonist that has 24 hours to stop some epic evil plot. The series went on for 10 years, had a reprise, and a movie.  Similarly, our study today begins with the first minutes of the most important 24 hour period in all of history.  You could argue for a couple of other periods, but you get my point.  We've been wondering about...

We recall the last US combat death of World War II:  Charles Havlat.  A cease fire had been declared 9 minutes before, but word hadn't quite got to the front lines yet. Similarly, we'll meet today the last SIN-TAKING lamb in history.  All the sin-taking after this moment was not from a lamb, but from the Lamb of God.   It is Thursday morning of the Great Week.  Jesus is likely still in B...

Today is the 365th episode of Be With Me.  A Year of daily 7 minute segments that seek to find and revel in the Lord Himself .  We call it wonder. I'm grateful today for faithful listeners .  I'm even more grateful today for not so faithful listeners.  We learn today that the Lord's mercy is new every morning HERE .  My wonder today is to how that will continue.  I think that the Lo...

Poetically, 30 pieces of Silver was the price paid for the life of a slave .  (Ex 21:32) Jesus was initially priced as a slave .  Likely, it was meant as an adequate amount enough that the thief Judas would be interested, but poetically disrespectfully low enough to insult Jesus . But then after Judas has a change of his assessment in Mt 27:9 he brings the money back and throws it in the temple.  ...

There is a PLOT agains Jesus.  There are secret meetings, secret thoughts, and secret payments.  The disciples are surprised.  The Chief Priests think they are surprising Jesus.  No, Jesus knew all along that Judas was not a believer.  Jesus knew there was a devil among the 12 who would betray Him. (John 6:64, 70) In fact, Jesus has been waiting for this moment since Noah got off the boat.  There,...

When you get to "Stand before the Son of Man" in heaven, here's my advice:  Just fall down. Just bow down.  Who can stand before His glory, judgment, wrath, redemptive goodness, sovereignty, etc?  You get the picture.  Just bow down when that moment comes. In the meantime, the passage today tells us what we should be doing in the meantime.  Some are cautionary items.  Finally, He te...

The tree I am looking at right now will pass away and everything like it.  Why?  It is tainted by the fall.  Broken.  Impaired.  We are going to get a whole new set of sky and land that isn't contaminated when this is all over.  Look around you, every person and every thing is stained by the fall...except for ONE THING. God's Word.  Was perfect. Is Perfect. Will be perfect.  No need to d...

Today's message about the end of the world as we know it just charmed me.  Everything is hitting the fan:  nature is going crazy. Powers of heaven are shaken. Signs in sun moon and stars. earth is in distress. No surprise that people are freaking out.  Perplexity.  Fainting.  Foreboding. And then it happens:  Jesus Comes Back.  Just like He said He would.  On a cloud with His GLORY being disp...

Before Jesus leaves the earth, He spends a considerable amount of time clarifying His COMING BACK.  This is in a substantial piece of Scriptural Real Estate called the Olivet Discourse.  It teaches, warns and reassures about His return and about all the craziness that is going to happen. Yup.  Just crazy.  Woes in the World.  Woes for Christians.   Woes in the family.  The details are a little sca...

When is "small" MORE THAN "large?" We have to do the Lord's crazy math to figure this out.  We probably have to see as God sees, and judge as God judges. We look at "the Widow's Mite" story.  There is more here than meets the eye.  Jesus knows all kinds of things that a casual observer wouldn't know.  Right from the start, He seems to be observing with...

Jesus loves ' Jerusalem' , and all that she represents.  He says He loves her like a CHICKEN .  He is funny like that.  He l oves us like we are under His wing.   It is beautiful.  He flutters over us. He fusses over us. We are finishing a long diatribe against the Pharisees and it has been a journey worth taking.  We are humbled.  We are listening.  We are censured. Today, we confront a...

My first thought today was, " Man, I'm glad I'm not like the Pharisees!"   Ironically, this of course makes me just like the ....wait for it...Pharisees.  Oooops.  Jesus goes off on the Pharisees for the entire chapter 23 in Matthew.  Every verse.  So, my second thought for today is, " I wonder what is in there for ME ." It must be in the Bible for a reason. Join me i...

The entire chapter of Matthew 23 is a rant about what God does NOT LIKE about the Pharisees.  So we get a real treasure.  By contrast, we find out what He DOES LIKE.   The Lord values some things that the Pharisees are doing a terrible job of.  He is letting them know their failures, and we can glean the Lord's prioritie s.  We find out what the Lord GIVES WEIGHT to. The Lord loves His Kingdo...

The Gospel writer Matthew has something to say.  He's gonna GO OFF on the Scribes and Pharisees for an entire chapter.  But first...you'll never believe this...he says to OBEY THEM.  Yup, PRACTICE AND OBSERVE the good stuff:  their OFFICE, their fidelity to the OT and the scriptures.   But wait, there's more:  Watch their LIVES.  We don't want comic book characters of what spir...

What are the CREDENTIALS of a Messiah?  How do you answer this?  What AUTHORITY to you use as paramount? You can see the Pharisees in today's passage all eagerly raising their hands to answer Jesus' question.  They all 'KNEW' the pat answer.  Whose son is the Messiah?  Easy answer:  DAVID's son. So far so good.  But who is greater?  Who is more important? David or his son?...

Today a spiritual concept is physically related to DISTANCE .   Jesus tells an inquirer that he is NOT FAR from the Kingdom.  This is a big deal.  For Jesus, the Kingdom is everything.  The Kingdom is what He came to bring.  So, being CLOSE to it is very exciting. For those of you who want CLOSURE today you are not going to get it.  We end the story with this scribe being NOT FAR.  We DON'T f...

You shall LOVE. Most important command in the OT gives the object:  God Himself.  TaDa!  You get to be in relationship with HIM.  Wowser. 2nd most important command in the OT gives the same command YOU SHALL LOVE but a different object:  PEOPLE. neighbors. the least. the greatest. the foreigners. the poor. the rich. the handicapped externally. the handicapped internally. those who you are even fig...

The Old Testament is full of treasures .  There are diamonds there.  Some are on the surface. Some you gotta dig a little.  (Salute to David Mathis' Habits Of Grace) There is one commandment that is #1.  It is the Hope Diamond of the Old Testament.  Wouldn't you like to know what it is?  So did an Old-Testament-lover during the last week of Jesus' life.  So, HE ASKED.  So what if we...

It is Tuesday of the Great Week and Jesus does not suffer the foolishness of the Sadducees.  They come to Him to trap Him with a trick question about the resurrection. His response? YOU ARE WRONG (about the resurrection, about marriage, about angels)....Yikes, could this be more clear? and then Jesus tells them WHY. BECAUSE YOU KNOW NEITHER THE SCRIPTURES now this is interesting because two second...

Do you know exactly what's on a U.S. Quarter ?  I tried this exercise this morning and failed miserably.  So, I suggest you reach into your pocket and try the same thing.  You will also fail miserably.  Jesus asks His listeners to look at coins in a new way .  He asks us to look at our obligation to the government in a new way.  He asks us to look at our obligation to the LORD in a new way. ...