Well…my son told me this morning that I completely skipped over these chapters. I was sure he was wrong since no one else called me out…but seems he was correct, so, I am going to hit them now and then be back on track. (How did he skip these, you might ask? Long and complicated story involving ink colors and not enough coffee). Sorry to be disjointed…even though you may not have noticed…
A couple of observations from the text for me:
- 7:18-23. When John the baptizer had questions about the identity of Jesus as Messiah, Jesus did not give a speech or publish a resume. He fulfilled the Scriptures in the presence of those asking. The Scriptures authenticate authentic messages.
- 7:30. A rejection of baptism (the baptism of repentance-baptism of John) was a rejection of God’s purpose. While believer’s baptism differs somewhat in its meaning and purpose, it is still ordained by God for believers…so to reject it in practice or in form is to reject God’s purpose for you. Baptism is SIGNIFICANT.
- 8:34-39. Real transformation scares people and it can even cause them to reject the transformer as well. We all get comfortable in our sinful lives of self-control. When this man was changed, those who knew Him rejected Him, and Jesus sent Him back to His own village. While others rejected this man’s transformed life, he did not reject Jesus. This is an excellent example of what biblical faith truly is.
- 9:37-43. What some today would call minimal faith, Jesus calls wicked, unbelieving, and perverted. Have we so softened up our definition that we miss the unrelenting intent of the Lord?
Proverbs 27:18 is the takeaway today. “He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who cares for his master will be honored.”
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It made me laugh to see that you had skipped a day. I didn’t notice because I haven’t been following along since we arrived in Japan and was dealing with jet lag and getting settled in. As we were praying about whether or not to join our old church here, which has a lot of challenges right now that I don’t really want to deal with, and not many children or youth, I thought I’d jump back in and read along with you, praying that He would show me his good pleasing and perfect will for us through His living and active word. As I read chapter 10 verses 1 -3, God confirmed to me that He has sent us to that church. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few is an understatement! I thought it was pretty cool that those chapters were the ones you were on when I joined back in. It cracks me up that you happened to mix up the order to do the chapters in the right order for me.
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