Devotional and Bible

I got another good Bible question by email, so I thought I’d share the answer with you.  The basic question was, why is it that Jesus says in John 8:15 that He doesn’t judge anyone, when all through the Gospels He seems to be doing a lot of judging?  Here’s my answer, see what you think (note – you may need to click a link to see the rest of the answer.  It’s a long one, so I’m using the blog’s extended text feature):

Great question!  There has been a great deal of confusion over the concept of “judging” in the Bible, since there are a number of passages dealing with it.  And it’s actually a very important concept.

For it to all make sense, we must understand that there are different meanings for the word “judge”.  In fact, there are times when different words are used in the Greek (the original language of the New Testament).  Here are some possible meanings of the words, then we’ll come back to our passages.  We’ll do this by contrasting different types of judging:

A while ago I received a question about marriage in Heaven.  I’m posting my answer, slightly edited, for your comments.  What do you think?

When we’re talking about marriage in Heaven, we should probably start with Jesus’ clear teaching on the topic.  In Matthew 22, the Sadducees came to Jesus with what they thought was a trick question.

So this would seem to be something that couples can look forward to.  As you work on your relationship, you’re not working on something that will be ripped away when you die.  You’re working on something that will last forever in Christ.  Our relationships really do have an eternal value, beyond what we can imagine.  And that should make today, and the way we treat each other each hour, more important than ever!

One thing that good movie directors have learned to do is to blend together the past, present and future of a story.  Flashbacks are woven into the story, and you don’t always know where you are.  Of course, in a good movie it will make sense eventually.  But you get a sense of how it all ties together.

I guess I’ve never thought of the apostle Peter as an artist, and I don’t know if he would make a good movie director or not.  But it’s with amazing skill that he weaves together the past, present and future when he writes to the “pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia”.  In 1Peter 1:3-9 you can sense a current and flow of time.  Nothing is restricted to the present moment.  The past, present and future must all be “present” in the believer’s life.

In the past God brought us to life, through Jesus’ resurrection.  But that is what transforms our past and future.  Today we have a living hope of the

future – we will get an inheritance that can’t be destroyed.  We hope in the full revelation of the salvation, which began in the past and is complete only in the future.

Today, we are being kept through God’s power, through faith.  It is that faith that is proven through the trials we face.  Because of the hope and faith we love the Lord Jesus, who we believe in even though his visible work on earth is in the past.  We rejoice, because we are already in the process of receiving our salvation.  And in the future, everyone will

look back at the love and joy we had, and see it as evidence of the true faith we had.

In the 1994 finale of Star Trek:  The Next Generation, Captain Picard finds himself jumping from the present, to the future, to the past.  He must get the crews in all eras working together to save the world.  They have different roles to play, but must focus on a common goal.

Perhaps we sometimes try to keep the past present and future too separate in our lives.  We make our new birth an event of the past which doesn’t impact us today.  We relegate “heaven” to a vague future.  But we can learn from Peter.

Read the passage, and notice the flow in the language.  We are receiving the result of our faith.  We are being kept.  Our salvation is ready to be revealed.  It’s not so much that we have to try to be happy right now.  We are in a process of believing – of rejoicing – of a growing love relationship with Jesus.  It’s alive, moving, simple, and complex.  It’s time we brought the past present and future together and felt the rushing joy of God’s salvation, in spite of the hardships of today.  He is ever present.

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.