John 8:42-47

John 8:42-47 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

In Christ's first appearance during the Feast of Tabernacles in the temple courts in chapter seven, we read his continued references to his relationship with Father God, such as: My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me. I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me (John 7:16, 28-29, & 33) We have watched Jesus lay the foundation that the Holy Spirit would use following his death and resurrection to remind people of what He said and the reliability of his words. In today's passage, his picks up this same theme that his message is not his own: I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Yet He goes much farther with these strong words of admonition and warning: The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God--words that that must have echoed through the temple courts that day with the power and authority of the voice of God.

The Jewish elite and religious leaders hated Jesus and wanted him dead, seeing him as a threat to their position. Jesus angered even the common people by this point, and they called him demon-possessed just moments before when they heard him speak angrily against them as He questioned their position as children of their spiritual father Abraham, emphatically saying their spirit was not God's spirit. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. (John 8:23-44) Since Satan is a thief, a murderer, and the father of lies, if he is their father, then his words are their words, their language. The more they followed after him, the more they became like him: hurting not healing, lying instead of speaking truth, destroying rather than building up, condemning not vindicating and redeeming. The devil seeks to shame, defeat, and weigh people down with guilt over their past for their own sins and the sins done against them. Jesus came not to condemn and to destroy but to save the world. Jesus reveals God's love even for his enemies, those who despised and rejected him: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17

God is speaking today: as we read the Word, pray, seek godly counsel, and sit in his presence, worshipping him. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27) Two thousand years separate us from Jesus' physical presence on Earth; yet through the indwelling Spirit of God, we have the Comforter within, writing God's will upon our hearts and putting his thoughts in our minds as we listen to his still small voice--just as strong and powerful as it was two thousand years ago in the Temple Courts of Jerusalem. God speaks to us through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit any time we stop to listen. The reality of a Christian life is that God is alive in us: our lives are his, hid with Christ in God who comforts us, covers us. He is the balm of Gilead: healer of broken bodies, wounded souls, and bruised spirits. He makes life worth living. His voice in us is not one of criticism or destruction: does not criticize, destroy, point out faults or set out to hurt people. Jesus did not condemn--He laid down his life as a ransom for ALL, saying, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34) God's spirit resonates love, encouragement, freedom, victory, redemption, transformation, hope, power, joy, peace, lovingkindness, long suffering, patience, goodness, mercy, and much more. He says, "Son, daughter: I am with you; I will never, never leave you." Such words comfort our hearts in a barren, hostile, and alien land: a land of sickness and death. HE gives us, his ambassadors, the bread of life and living water, to feed us and to meet the needs of others on the journey. This is GOOD NEWS: CHRIST HAS COME, PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN!

John 8:35-41

John 8:35-41 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.” “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.”

Fully aware that the Jewish leaders and religious elite sought to silence, imprison, and kill him, Jesus boldly proclaims that their murderous hatred emmanates from their father the Devil, not from Abraham. Had Abraham--faithful and true follower of God--been their father, they would not be standing before Jesus with hearts of stone, willing to break the sixth commandment of God: "You shall not murder." Jesus correctly and righteously reminds them, Abraham did not do such things. Jesus knew what everyone within the sound of his words knew that day, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3) Had Abraham stood among that group, listening to Jesus: Abraham would not have passed judgment on Christ; he would not have sought to kill him.

Yesterday's breakfast spoke of the basic sinful nature of man--the carnal mind that rebelliously sets itself up against God. Soon after the fall in the Garden, we read this account in Genesis: GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. What a profound picture of humankind gone astray: each to his or her own way to fulfill selfish ambitions and fleshly desires. On the other hand, we see God holding out his mercy, love, and favor: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

As believers, we do not want to consider that we harbor murder in our hearts; yet we slay people with our words and actions. We cause someone to die a little or a lot when we share our "constructive" criticism, express negative thoughts, become overly defensive at the slightest honest observation or comment, and refuse to allow others an opinion that differs from our own superior insight. Are we ready to love the unlovely unconditionally, care when it costs time we do not have without strings attached, support without hope of reciprocity or even any thanks? Will we believe the best in people and overlook their faults rather than tossing their shortcomings in their faces when we feel threatened ourselves? Words are more dangerous weapons than sticks and stones: they wound, destroy, and kill a person's spirit. Christians should not be in the hurting or slaying business. Yet many a baby Christian has fled the sheepfold under attack from the biting criticism of the elder brothers and sisters who tried to fix him or her all at once rather that rejoicing and praying confidently in the Spirit, saying, "We know that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

Our conversations will uplift, enlighten and edify when we speak well of others and express concern over difficult situations. How short would our prayers be if we stopped grousing about our own needs and quit listing the faults of others under the guise of prayer? What would happen if we concentrated on the broken, the sick, the lost, and the dying? What if we became more circumspect about our role as ambassadors of Christ, checked the words that fly from our lips in irritation, made a simple apology: "I am so sorry I hurt you. Please forgive me?" What if we quit defending our ground: "Well, you know how difficult you are when you yell and demand you own way and it makes me so upset I can't control myself. You make me so mad! But I really am sorry. . ." That is not an apology. What if we thought on the good things of the Lord? How different would our homes be if Christ had center stage: if love was now and not later? Maybe we just have a tin ear, a deaf ear, to our own voices, don't realize how we sound. Perhaps we think we express marvelous and thoughtful insights into people's lives, when they actually hear complaints and criticisms dressed up in sweet sounding voices. Jesus said, For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (Matthew 13:15) Those hearing Jesus that day had tin ears, could not decipher his words as from the Father, for they complained, criticized, and hurt others to the point they no longer heard words of love from the Father's heart. GOD IS LOVE; Christ reveals that love in us and through us; may He shine forth that love in us today.

John 8:30-34

John 8:30-34 Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Romans 3:21-25 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

Human beings, even believers, sometimes appear unaware of our fallen state, that we are not self-made people. We reflect our genetic make-up, political indoctrination, culture, intellectual development, inter-personal experiences, work, societal relationships, and the like. We are not born a blank slate; writing appears on our wall: some beautiful and praiseworthy, some distracting, destructive, and difficult to bear. Yet in our philosophies, values, precepts, choices, and decisions, we tend to think we live in a vacuum, that thoughts and ideas come to us through the air by osmosis because we are so brilliant and all-knowing that truth permeates our minds and our thinking as we sub-consciously and consciously assimilate knowledge and wisdom sufficient to make it through lives on our own or with "a little help from God."

We think we intrinsically and purposefully know exactly what is right and what is wrong. No one tells us what to do. Surely none of those slick TV commercials, newspapers ads, or life coach gurus influence us. Our parents perhaps had a little to do with it; however, we don't buy the houses we live in, drive the cars we drive, purchase the appliances we use, select the clothes or shoes we wear, prefer a certain pieces of furniture, stand in line for the latest expensive electronic gadgets, or vacation at the newest hot spots to keep the kids entertained because anyone else influenced us to do so. No, we make our own choices because we are just smart, capable, and wise. We are not influenced by society. "I look hot in these five inch Prada heels that break down my feet, and this Versace gown is better than the rest," the woman all dolled up says. "So what if other men ogle me?" "I waited a long time for this BMW, and I need this Armani suit and Dior shoes as a business expense to attract customers," the husband says. "And we work soooo hard: WE EARNED THIS."

We are slaves to all this and more, but Jesus was talking about us being slaves to Adam's fallen nature. The paragraph above exaggerates a bit, of course, but not much. The attitude of the heart is what counts. We can shop at Fred Meyers or Goodwill and have the same "me first" thinking dominate our walking about selves. Adam and Eve broke faith with God's Word, with his divine nature, and lost his protection when they disobeyed him by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve's decision to eat of the forbidden fruit ushered in self-will and self-absorbtion: the idea that man would not live as God had planned. As Jesus said when tempted by the devil: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4) The Bible calls the unredeemed spirit of man flesh or the spirit of Adam because it is the old man, the unregenerate human being who chooses to reject God's safe harbor and to leave his safety, to go out into the world saying, "Watch me, I can do this on my own."

Without surrender to the cross, this carnally minded spirit rules every human being, enslaving us to captivity, willful disobedience, and sin. We suffer from the sins done unto us and the sins we do unto others. Jeremiah said, My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. They turn to their

own ways: seeking their own pasture, treading where God does not want them to tread, and drinking water that does not slake their thirst. (50:6) Such stubborn activity generates mistakes, pain, and sin. Jesus prayed, Let your will be done, Father, on Earth as it is in Heaven. The Bible says, all have sinned, missed the mark of the glory of God. When we intentionally follow our own nature by willfully disobeying his perfect will, we fall short of God's glory. Christ willingly surrendered his all, loved passionately and lavishly. How can we do less? Choosing to do God's will helps us become servants of the Lord and servants of others. We will not automatically reject the

dominion of self-rule, self-knowledge, and self-aggrandizement to

take up the cross just because we become Christians. Servanthood is an act of the will, a faith choice in response to a grace gift. Jesus spoke truth, the Bible teaches truth, and the Holy Spirit illuminates the truth. Truth set us free, but God will never force freedom upon anyone. Brothers and sisters, soldiers in the army of the Most High, may we choose to walk in the truth of his glorious light and life today. Walk in Jesus: THE TRUTH, THE WAY, AND THE LIGHT!

John 8:27-30

John 8:27-30 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.

Jesus born as a babe born in the manger died for our sins that we might live forever with him. The only begotten Son of God left the splendor of heaven, willingly emptying himself to live as a man, tempted in all ways as we are yet without sin that He might offer his life as a ransom for all. While we were yet sinning and going our own way, as nails pierced his hands, He uttered not a word against us. He looked to his Father, saying, "Hold not this sin against them, for they know not what they do." When He said, It is finished, his words echoed through the ages to the beginning of time, releasing the captives and setting at liberty those who were bound for all eternity. He bridged the great chasm separating God and man by paying a price that cost God all He had. The Holy One, the Spotless Lamb left Heaven, and the light shineth in darkness and the Word that was with God became flesh and dwelt among us. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. (See John chapter 1) This is the incomprehensible, amazing, glorious, inexplicable, unmerited grace of Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. This is the plan people failed to comprehend in Christ's time on Earth and continue to belittle, to underestimate, and to view as insufficient to this very day.

Yet as he stood before the people that day, presenting himself before those who did not understand, He firmly declared without hesitation:

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” With the fire of the Spirit resonating in his words and the testimony of a true servant ringing clearly,

as he spoke, many put their faith in him. Jesus walked to the cross with his eyes fixed obediently upon his Father's eyes.

HIS SOLE DESIRE REMAINED TO PLEASE THE FATHER--Not my will but yours be done. He promised the people, "When they lift me up on the cross, I will be known as I am known: you will see me as I am. The scales will drop from your eyes when I am revealed as the Son of God. You will see, you will remember my words."

We walk on shifting sands. If we walk trusting in ourselves or looking to people to meet our needs, seeking fulfillment in earthly possessions or experiences, we will be discouraged, depressed, even bitter and resentful at times. Situations change, our hopes and plans do not always turn out as we dreamed or expected. People we think we can count on let us down, disappoint us, or have their own problems. Relatives, associates, and even other believers break promises, misunderstand us, or just plain take advantage of us according to how we view things. Disasters, catastrophes, trials, sicknesses, accidents, financial reversals, foolish mistakes, carelessness, and errors of judgment cause us pain, Sorrow, suffering, anxiety, and frustrations seem to pile up until they would overwhelm us if we try to carry them on our own. We may feel like the psalmist: Problems far too big for me to solve are piled higher than my head. Meanwhile, my sins, too many to count, have caught up with me, and I'm ashamed to look up. (Psalm 40:12)

But we have the victory over every one of those tribulations through the mercy and the grace of the Lord because our lives are hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) Jesus came to do the Father's will, to provide that place of safely. His single-minded obedience resulted in a place of sufficiency for us. He will return someday for his bride, a bride without spot or wrinkle, washed in his blood, cleansed and made holy, separate unto himself. But we need to turn aside and to seek him, to love him and to adore him--worship him wholly and unequivocally. We will not fail; we will not sink in a pit if we rejoice jubilantly in all things and keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and the crown if righteous that awaits us and does not fade away. Christ went to the cross; He keeps his promise; his words are true. Isaiah saw The Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1) Jesus Messiah is speaking with authority now: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Worthy is the Lamb! Put your faith in him TODAY!

John 8:15-26

John 8:15-26 “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

Those who come to the breakfast table daily realize you have sought in vain for even a whiff of coffee or plain toast and jam, certainly no bacon and eggs since March 14th, and fixings were a little on again off again before that for several months. Well, it's true. Life is hard sometimes, and then all of the sudden when you least expect it, it gets a lot harder. Two weeks ago, Dad was down with a bad lower back problem, so I, Mom, took over for a while, despite ongoing health issues and a few new challenges. This week a new bug joined the existing infection and resulted in pneumonia, leaving no choice but bed rest, and another chance to trust the Lord and to thank him for his faithfulness, goodness, mercy, and grace.

In any and all situations, we can joyfully declare that Jesus is Lord: He is who He said He was in the temple courts. We can arise as soon as possible, turn back to the book of John, at the next verse in sequence, and say, "Yes, the Father who sent the Son is reliable; the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit is reliable. We have learned throughout our lives to give thanks always to God, for He is faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. (1 Thessalonians 5:18, Psalm 111:7) No matter where we are or what is going on, we are known of him, and He is nigh us, with us, in us. He is Lord of all! (Mentioned 8 times in the NIV) Yet that choice is always ours to believe, to acknowledge that hope, to accept that reality, and to hold it deep in our hearts and rest in the comfort and knowledge of his loving kindness and tender mercy. He knows our names. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Jeremiah wrote this so well, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart . . . (Jeremiah 1:5)

When you are undone, when you feel hopeless, when your thoughts center on you and your needs, when you lose sight of Jesus and his Word, when you stop singing praises and praying for the needs of others; listen to the still small voice of the Lord. God is always speaking, but we do not always listen. Paul was constantly reminding the church to get up, put on their armor and stand fast like soldiers of the cross. He said, in a hundred different ways in all his writings, we are not like the rest of men, who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13) Dad and I want to encourage you with the same hope that Paul held in his heart, the hope that Christ was enough, always enough, that because Christ gave himself up for us and shed his blood and sent the Comforter, we are more than conquerors through him and all things are possible to those who believe. We pray the prayer he prayed for the church at Thessalonica: May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thessalonians 3:13) I also want to share a poem God gave me yesterday morning that encouraged our hearts and lifted our spirits.

Grace Comes

Grace comes freely

Unexpectedly

From the heart and soul

Flowing gentle rain

Covers the terrain

Hovering above beckoning

As soft summer clouds

Powerful as a hurricane

A jubilant whirlwind

Yet soft as a mother’s caress

Warm sunrays sparkling

In the day and in the night

Grace enfolds and seals

Spots intruders from afar

Whispers I’m here,

Not going anywhere,

Not now, not ever

Steps forward, not back

I’ll lie down beside you

Wrap my love around you

Enfold all of you

The whole of your parts

I’ll listen while you sleep

In terror and in laughing

Smiling, rejoicing, singing, dancing,

Touching, moving, healing, hoping, rising,

Caring, believing, watching, laughing, freeing,

Redeeming, staying, expecting, holding, everlasting,

A whisper of hope, an eternal promise: Grace Comes!

Jacqueline M. Bursch

March 18, 2011

John 8:21-24

John 8:21-24 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins.”

Today we see Christ attempting to penetrate the darkness of hard hearts. Earlier we read: I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come. You are of this world; I am not of this world. (John 7:33-34 He was saying as long as you live according to the fleshly patterns this world and the desires of your hearts, the realm of your natural senses, you will not know me. Now He hammers away again at this idea: Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away. . . Where I go, you cannot come." We will see those exact four words three additional times in John: I AM GOING AWAY! (14:28, 16:7) There is a controlled yet extreme urgency in the voice of the Lamb of God: listen to me: All you know about is what you can touch, hear, breathe, see, and embrace while you walk this earth. Come to me and partake of me: the bread of life, the living water. Find me while I may be found: touch, listen, breathe, embrace. If you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins.

Old Testament prophets and New Testament writers often used metaphors as did Christ to depict spiritual realities. The Spirit seems to try to reach people at a deeper level of consciousness. Isaiah wrote: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

God wants us to realize our

hope is not in reforming our personhood or our humanness: our hope is in Jesus Christ the divine and Holy One. We are totally reliant upon his rescue operation. Outside of him and his death on the cross, we are of this world because we have all inherited Adam and Eve's DNA, the sinful nature and inclination to do wrong continually. We question God's authority. Even after we are Christians, we stray and want to stretch the limits, like naughty, rebellious children raised by law rather than grace, we take our eyes off Jesus, become distracted easily and become rule breakers. Did God really say, Don't eat of that tree? Can't I have just a little bite? Is a little bit of infidelity wrong? A white lie isn't a real lie, is it? I'm not gossiping; that's a prayer request. While the cat's away, the mice will play. . .

Paul, an Apostle called on the road to Damascus, took Christ's words to the Gentile world through the power of the Holy Spirit. He said what Jesus said: Do not live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:2-5) Oh, that we might purpose in our hearts to obey the words of Christ, to realize this world is not our permanent dwelling place. There are victories to be won in his name. Yet even Paul used figurative language. His race analogy appears seven times in his writings such as these passages: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1) Let us run the race today with perseverance even if it is a low crawl. God will help us. He calls us daughters and sons. You call him Abba, Father. Beloved of God, run to him and for him.

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John 8:19-20

John 8:19-20 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.

John's record of Christ's interactions with the people and the Jewish leaders during the Feast of Tabernacles shows Jesus revealing their lack of understanding. He spoke plainly: You have no idea where I come from or where I am going; You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one; and now, You do not know me or my Father; If you knew me, you would know my Father also. I have read the Bible through twice as an exercise, but my most profitable read was when Cliff and I read the New Testament together when our oldest daughter was two, noting the words of Jesus and the verses on love. We looked at the Word not as pastors, teachers, relatives, friends had taught it to us with private interpretations and doctrinal distinctions. As we read it anew and afresh, we knew God loved us and we were supposed to treat other, including our children, as we wanted to be treated. Secondly, we noticed that even when Jesus spoke in parables, his words held such clarity that even a child could understand them. Human beings with our artifices, pretenses, defensiveness, explanations, excuses, historical perspectives, analysis, and exegetical or homiletical studies make the Word hard; but Jesus spoke simple truths: You do not know me and you do not know my Father. As we see in John, if they did not get it the first time or the second time, which they probably didn't, He said it again.

During the 20 years I worked as an educational consultant, conducting yearly evaluations of student writing skills for school districts in Washington/Oregon, I did some research on the need to over-teach a skill. People must learn and re-learn. Then to retain a skill, we must practice and practice again. We need to hear a new concept approximately three times before it begins to take residence in our brains. It is like the modern jargon of walking our talk or a much older concept of practicing the presence of Jesus. Jesus understood this reality in the crowd; hence his redundancy in pointing out that they did not know who He was. We see this repetition in Paul's brief letter To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi where he used the word rejoice nine times, twice in two short verses: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4) Some of you knew and loved my good friend, Carol Hund. I met her when Cliff and I were youth leaders at Calvary Temple in Auburn (now Northwest Family Church), and I was her Sunday school teacher. I saw her hunger for Jesus as we studied grace in Galatians. She had a difficult home life and a dear widowed neighbor lady with several children and a hard life of her own led Carol to Jesus and brought her to church. Carol and I kept in touch through the years and became close friends at the time of the birth of her son until her passing from cancer a few years ago.

I miss this woman of faith so much and would love to just sit with her now. She believed the Word--all of it. She did not analyze, ponder, doubt, or say, "Did God really mean that?" No, she declared, "God said . . . ," and that settled everything for her. But when we first renewed our relationship and she attended Bible studies and classes Cliff and I taught, she meekly observed, "You know, Jacqueline, your teaching seems a little repetitive at times." Soon after, I received a loving note essentially saying, "Oh Jacqueline, please forgive me. I am reading the Word on my own now. Of course your teaching is repetitive. The Bible says the same things over and over. Jesus says, I am the light of the world, take up the cross, and follow me. Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, die to yourself, and rejoice in the Lord. The Holy Spirit has to tell me the same things over and over because we are leaky buckets [Hund translation for we have this treasure in earthen vessels], and we have to get refilled every day." She was so right. Listen to Jesus today. If you seek him today, He can be found, and you will know him. Listen to the Holy Spirit's voice, and you will grow in the Lord and die to your old self. You will greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. (1 Peter 1:6) The Spirit says: Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. (Revelation 12:12)

This Sunday night at 6:00 pm, we have a Worship and Praise Service at Evergreen Four Square Church in Auburn, where our son Doug from Live from Seattle with Doug Bursch on KGNW 820 is our pastor. This is a joint service with Life Spring Four Square Church in Edgewood where our youngest son Dan is associate pastor and worship leader with help from wife Mary. You would enjoy this evening of singing, prayer, and great contemporary Christian music. Our daughter Christine is our worship leader--hubby Joel assists her, and sons Joseph, Josh, and Jesiah join in on Sunday mornings on various instruments. (Grammy Bursch is even allowed to sing once a month to give the grey hairs a voice.) God is so good; He's so good to us.

Evergreen Foursquare Church

2407 M Street S.E.

Auburn, WA 98002