Do You Now Believe? This is another in the series of questions that Jesus asked. The context is that Jesus has just shared the Passover feast, what we now refer to as the Last Supper, with his disciples. He is nearing the time of his crucifixion, and he is intensely pouring into his disciples telling them everything they need to know to understand what is going to happen to him and what they can expect.

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” ³¹“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. ³³ I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:29-33)

I am currently participating in the Beth Moore Bible Study “Believing God.” This is my second time through, and it’s having just as powerful an effect on me as the first time. It’s one thing to believe in something, but it is altogether another to believe something. I believe in eating healthy, but I don’t always do it. I believe in the benefits of physical activity, but I don’t always follow through. I believe in being generous, kind, patient (you get the idea), but, well, you know. In fact, my pastor said in his sermon last Sunday, “Just because we believe in soap doesn’t mean we won’t die dirty.” We just don’t always act on our beliefs. Our calling as believers is to do more than believe in Jesus. Our calling is to demonstrate our belief by following through on those beliefs.

What does it mean to believe Jesus?

• For a start, it means following through on those daily commitments like prayer and studying my Bible when I’d rather be sleeping.
• It means being open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and acting on His direction—maybe to check on a neighbor when I would rather be watching TV.
• It means tithing when I’d rather use that money to buy some new clothes for me or my family.
• It may mean going on that mission trip when I’d rather be using that time for a vacation.
• It may mean taking a leap of faith to work for a faith-focused ministry rather than a higher paying job in the for-profit world.
• It does mean being grateful even when our health is failing or the bills keep piling up.
• It means being kind to someone who is treating us rudely or unfairly.
• It means forgiving those who have harmed us in any way, when I’d much rather nurse that grudge.

I don’t know exactly what it means for you, but I know that the Holy Spirit will guide us if we ask; and I know that if we follow through on the little things, the Holy Spirit will continue to make His will known. And I know that if we continue to ignore Him, our hearts will finally become unable to hear Him, and what a sad day that would be.

God promises us…., but we must believe; we must act on our belief.

Jesus asked “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).  Brothers and Sisters, I am praying that He will find us faithful right here at Nashville Rescue Mission, as well as in your families, your neighborhoods, your churches, and your schools.

In Christ,

Judy

Do You Love Me? Another in our series of questions that Jesus asked; this is a question that Jesus put to Peter. Here’s the background:

Jesus had been crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. In the meantime, Peter had gone back to his old job as a fisherman. John MacArthur says in The MacArthur New Testament Commentary* that “Peter, impatient at Jesus’ delay in meeting the disciples and beleaguered by his own failures, had impulsively decided to return to being a fisherman” (John 21:3). 

The resurrected Jesus meets up with the disciples one morning while they were out fishing. He is on the shore and has prepared a fire to cook some fish for breakfast. “Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead” (John 21:12-14).

Jesus then turns to Peter, who had denied knowing him three times prior to the crucifixion, and asks him three times “Do you love me?”  MacArthur points out the different forms of the verb “love” used by Jesus and Peter. The first two times, Jesus uses a higher form of the verb that implies total commitment. Peter’s reply each time, as well as Jesus on the third time, uses a lower form of the verb that implies affection but falls short of actual commitment. Peter is probably unwilling to make rash claims like he did before, like “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”  Instead, he acknowledges Jesus’ omniscience in saying, “You know that I love you” (John 21:15-17).

First, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him more than these. “These” must refer to the trappings of the fisherman life that Peter had resumed. Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, he had challenged Peter to be a fisher of men rather than of fish, and he was calling Peter back to this commitment. Each time he asks Peter “Do you love me” and each time that Peter responds with “You know that I love you,” Jesus then responds with a call for Peter to be a pastor and shepherd of Jesus’ flock. He tells Peter that it won’t be easy and that he won’t always have his own way. Then he said to Peter, “Follow me.”

One of the first things that impressed me about our ministry here at Nashville Rescue Mission is that we are a place of second (and more) chances because God is the God of second (and more) chances. By this, I do not mean that it’s a second chance for us to try harder, to be better. I am referring to a second chance to receive grace. Jesus reached out to Peter. For every one of Peter’s denials, Jesus lovingly showed Peter grace with an opportunity to respond to that grace. I am quite sure that most of my own personal growth in discipleship has come from the painful process of my failing and then being lovingly restored by my Savior. Maybe yours, too? And our experience certainly helps us to be more empathetic with the people around us when they fail.

Recognizing the grace that has been shown to each of us, we strive to show grace to those we serve. This doesn’t mean that we don’t require accountability and don’t impose consequences, but it does mean that we are quick to forgive and accept with a goal of reconciliation and recovery and restoration. That’s why it is difficult to calculate the Mission’s “success rate” at any given time because we know that for each of us, our walk is a journey with peaks and valleys and diversions, and it’s mostly impossible to determine when any of us have finally arrived until the day Jesus finally takes us home. Thank God for grace, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The other thing to remember is that along with Jesus’ gift of grace to us is a call to follow Him, using the gifts He has given each one of us. As Peter himself wrote later on in his ministry: “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:1–3).

And the Apostle Paul (himself a trophy of God’s grace) wrote in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Two of the greatest men in the New Testament, Peter and Paul, testify so powerfully to what Christ can do in the heart of a sinful creature. There’s hope for you, hope for me, and hope for all those we serve.

In Christ,

Judy

*https://www.gty.org/library/bibleqnas-library/QA0304/simon-peter-do-you-love-me

Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour? Does this not stab you in right the heart? Here is Jesus facing the most difficult time in his life. Yes, he’s known all along this was to be his destiny; however, it’s now at hand. In his humanness, he is not looking forward to the pain and humiliation.  Most of all, he is dreading being abandoned by his Father. He has invested the last three years into developing the men who will carry forward the Gospel message when he goes back to his Father. He has taught them, he has shown them love. He has developed relationships with them stronger than any of their family ties. Or so he thought. Now he has taken them with him to pray over the events to come in the next few hours. He is agonizing so much that drops of blood are seeping out of his pores. And Peter, James, and John have fallen asleep. (Matthew 26:36-46)

How could they have let their friend and Savior down at his time of great need?

What I see as their greatest failure is the failure of the disciples to participate with Jesus in his time of preparation, and the failure of the disciples to pray for their own strength and courage to provide support during Jesus’ ordeal. Instead they slept; they kept a low profile in fear of what might happen to themselves; and most hurtful, Peter even denied knowing Christ.

What if we could say at the end of our lives that we had been constant prayer warriors for our loved ones, for our country, for our church, for our leaders and pastors, for our neighborhoods, for those in need? What if we could say at the end of our lives that we had earnestly walked and talked with Jesus, walked and talked with our brothers and sisters in Christ, during our time here on earth?  What if we could say that we had been mighty participants in the battle rather than merely spectators (or asleep)?

Jesus must be saddened by our weakness, but he is certainly not surprised. And if he is saddened, I think it is for the fact that he knows we will be ultimately disappointed in ourselves when we look back at our failures, our omissions. This is where the phrase occurs, graciously spoken by Jesus, and that we have all sheepishly used as an excuse at one time or another: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” It is a true statement, but it need not define us. Let’s wake up; let’s pray for the desire, strength, and endurance to watch, walk, and work with Jesus in the hours and days to come.

In Christ,

Judy