Devotional and Bible

Jesus was really not having a great time.  For one thing, ministry had been intense lately.  There had been huge crowds, teaching, healing, people challenging Him.  And things weren’t getting better.

For one thing, His family had come to see Him.  That normally wouldn’t be a bad thing, of course, but it’s quite possible that they were just bugging Him to come home.  You know,”C’mon, Jesus.  You’re neglecting your home town with all this travel around the country.  Charity begins at home, you know.”  And Jesus did return home.

But when He began teaching in His home town, people just laughed and said,”Wait a second – this is Jesus, that son of Joseph the carpenter!  You mean he is claiming to be a prophet?  My brother grew up just down the street from him.  He’s just an ordinary guy.  Where does he get off claiming to be someone great?!”  There was a lot of unbelief in Nazareth, and Jesus didn’t do many miracles there.

Then the family troubles got worse.  His cousin, who had been arrested, was beheaded.  The news reached Jesus, and He finally knew He just had to get away from it all.  He called together His closest friends, and they decided to get away from the crowds and go on a retreat.  But as they headed for their camp site, they realized they were being followed.  By the time they arrived, another huge crowd of people had formed, clamouring for Jesus to speak to them and heal them and teach them.

After the exhausting weeks, the family trouble and rejection, the family tragedy, the last thing Jesus needed was to have His privacy invaded by this crowd.  But Jesus had compassion.  He did begin to teach and heal.  But then things started to go wrong again.

In their excitement to follow Jesus, the people hadn’t even thought ahead enough to bring enough food.  The healthy ones would soon be sick if they didn’t get something to eat.  Perhaps fights were starting to break out.  They rummaged around and all they could find were 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  But the bread and fish were brought to Jesus.  And miraculously, He fed everyone, with food to spare.  There were well over 5000 people in the crowd.

As our pastor told this story on Sunday, I thought of the other people on my team that will be in Mexico later this month.  Some of them have not been having a great time either.  Too much work to do, exams, personal tragedy, family problems – it’s all been there.  And I know that while we’re together in Mexico there will be times when we’re just to tired to give, we just don’t want to see another person or try another fumbled Spanish phrase.

But this passage gives us the answers.  First, don’t forget to have compassion.  Don’t just see him or her as another person, don’t just see the crowd, see them all through the eyes of Jesus.  Second, bring what little you have to Jesus, and see what He can do with it.  He can forgive, heal, give strength, and multiply what little we have.

Great things can happen, when we put our lives into the hands of Jesus…

Today is Canada Day.  Canada is 138 years old.  Three things have been going through my mind – two things out of Canada, and one from and American.

Let’s start with the American.  Nashville songwriter Gary Driskell wrote these words a few years ago, a great reminder of Who is really in charge:

Second, our own nation anthem.  Especially the 4th stanza of the English version by Judge Robert Stanley Weir:

Last but not least, the national motto of Canada, A mari usque ad mare (from sea to sea).  Back in 1867 the Fathers of Confederation were discussing what the name of the new country would be.  Not coming to a conclusion,

they retired for the night.  Some of them used the extra time to pray, including Sir Samuel Tilley.  As he prayed he came to Psalm 72:8,”He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”  The Psalm speaks of Israel’s king and looks forward to the eternal King, Jesus.

The new country was named, of course, the Dominion of Canada.

Interestingly, as we drove near the Kootenay National Park boundary we saw the plaque quoting other words from this Psalm.  This quote was used at the entrance to the park as early as 1920:  The mountains shall bring peace to the people.  This is from verse 5, and may be symbolic of Jesus’ reign of peace, where people can expect their leaders to dispense laws of peace and justice.

So why not take the time to read Psalm 72 as you celebrate Canada Day today?  And take the time to remember the eternal Ruler of this and every country.

My finger really is getting better (the original story is here).  I think I may even get most of the feeling back.  There’s still some weird pain in there but nothing too bad.  It’s amazing how the body can heal itself.

I found it interesting dealing with two kinds of problems in one finger – first, pain (some of it was pretty painful), and then – no feeling at all.  The odd thing was that I think I would rather have the pain than the numbness.  Some of you have had far worse numbness and pain than me, but I’ve haven’t lost feeling anywhere in my body for such a length of time.  It’s very disorienting.  Something could be sawing into your finger, and you’d never know it.  When I tried playing the guitar, either the finger hurt and I didn’t feel anything – and it was hard to tell what the guitar strings were doing to my skin.  I never knew that the lack of feeling could be so troublesome!

It got me thinking about sin.  There are really two problems when it comes to sin.  First, over emphasizing it, in comparison to the forgiveness of Jesus.  There comes a time when we have to stand at the foot of the cross and realize that our sin has fallen away, and it’s time to continue our journey.  Guilt after we’ve repented and been forgiven is false guilt.  Punishing ourselves is ignoring the fact that Someone was already punished for us.

But perhaps even more frightening than false guilt is a complete lack of guilt, even before we come to the Lord.  Every one of us at times gets so callous that we don’t even recognize the horrible darkness that we’re in.  These are the blind spots – but not just annoying blind spots – deadly ones.

May God give us the grace to be tender – to see and recognize the terrible things we’ve done.  And then may He give us the grace to repent and seek forgiveness, and know that our sin is forever gone thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice.

I’ve been meditating on the Psalms lately, and this is one passage that struck me yesterday, from Psalm 7:  Oh LORD My God, if I have done this:  If there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, or have plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue and overtake me; yes, let him trample my life to the earth, and lay my honour in the dust.

There are many passages like this in the Psalms, where David comes to God with so much confidence when he’s in trouble.  It’s obvious that he doesn’t just ignore God until he’s in trouble.  He is constantly talking to God, looking for guidance, looking for direction.  There’s no emergency confessions that need to be done when he needs help – it’s all been dealt with.  He knows that he’s right with God.  Why do we so often wait until we’re in trouble to talk to God?  If He really is God, we should know that He’s at our side every day.  Keep the bond strong, let’s let Him be a part of our everyday lives.