Hearing the Word vii

•April 5, 2014 • 1 Comment

John 5:31-47 (CEV)

Witnesses to Jesus

31 If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the truth. 32 But there is someone else who speaks for me, and I know what he says is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. 34 I don’t depend on what people say about me, but I tell you these things so that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while.

36 But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean the things that the Father has given me to do! All of these speak for me and prove that the Father sent me.

37 The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. 38 You have not believed his message, because you refused to have faith in the one he sent.

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

41 I don’t care about human praise, 42 but I do know that none of you love God. 43 I have come with my Father’s authority, and you have not welcomed me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. 44 How could you possibly believe? You like to have your friends praise you, and you don’t care about praise that the only God can give!

45 Don’t think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father. You have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. 46 Moses wrote about me, and if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. 47 But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?

I’m here to speak God’s word,
to say what he wants to say
to you,
each one of you.

I’m here to show God’s ways,
how to live,
to love
as he would.

What you see me do
is what he would do,
what I say
are his words,
my actions
are his.

I’m not bringing something different,
but what God has been trying
to say
and do
all along.
I’m trying to do it in a way you can grasp,
understand
and copy.

I’m here
so that you can learn to live like God,
to see
in a human reality.

I am showing you the way
to fullness of life.

Follow me,
hear my voice,
God’s word.
Let that be your strength,
your support
as you seek
to live God’s way,
to follow his path.

It’s All About You Jesus and I surrender to your ways

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Hearing the Word vi

•April 4, 2014 • 2 Comments

John 5:17-30 (CEV)

17 But Jesus said, “My Father has never stopped working, and that is why I keep on working.” 18 Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said that God was his Father, which made him equal with God.

The Son’s Authority

19 Jesus told the people:

I tell you for certain that the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do. 20 The Father loves the Son and has shown him everything he does. The Father will show him even greater things, and you will be amazed. 21 Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants to.

22 The Father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has made his Son the judge of everyone. 23 The Father wants all people to honor the Son as much as they honor him. When anyone refuses to honor the Son, that is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him. 24 I tell you for certain that everyone who hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has eternal life and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death to life.

25 I tell you for certain that the time will come, and it is already here, when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen to it will live! 26 The Father has the power to give life, and he has given that same power to the Son. 27 And he has given his Son the right to judge everyone, because he is the Son of Man.

28 Don’t be surprised! The time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, 29 and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things will rise to life, but everyone who has done evil things will rise and be condemned.

30 I cannot do anything on my own. The Father sent me, and he is the one who told me how to judge. I judge with fairness, because I obey him, and I don’t just try to please myself.

And Jesus said,
‘My Father’,
his parent,
the one who gave him birth.

He meant God,
that is the one
he called dad;
the one
who had always been working
in the world,
the one who still is.

Children learn so much
from their parents,
how to live,
how to love,
how to be,
how to do;
they watch,
they absorb
and they emulate.

Jesus has seen
what God has done,
he lives the same way
– God’s way,
truly ‘His father’s son’.
He doesn’t live
by his own whims,
or by his own strength,
but by his Father’s,
pulsing through him.

He wants us to discover
God’s ways,
by watching him,
seeing what he does,
and following suit.

Lord,
help me to look at you,
to watch carefully,
to hear your word,
to learn how to live,
how to love,
how to be
and how to do
from you.

You are my role model,
may my life
reflect that.

Jesus Be The Centre of My Life

Posted in bible, calling, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, lent, life, Religion, theology
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Hearing the Word v

•April 3, 2014 • 1 Comment

John 5:1-16 (CEV)

Jesus Heals a Sick Man

5 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival. 2 In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and its name in Hebrew was Bethzatha.

3-4 Many sick, blind, lame, and crippled people were lying close to the pool.

5 Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”

7 The man answered, “Lord, I don’t have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first.”

8 Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.

10 When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, “This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath.”

11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk.”

12 They asked him, “Who is this man that told you to pick up your mat and walk?” 13 But he did not know who Jesus was, and Jesus had left because of the crowd.

14 Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and told him, “You are now well. But don’t sin anymore or something worse might happen to you.” 15 The man left and told the leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. 16 They started making a lot of trouble for Jesus because he did things like this on the Sabbath.

Thirty-eight years,
thirty-eight years
I’ve been like this,
and he asks me
do I want to get better,
do I want to change?

For thirty-eight years
I have been waiting
for someone to help me,
to lift me,
to carry me
to where I need to be.
I have tried,
but been shoved
right
out
of
the
way,
beaten to it
by those more able
to get there.

How I long to be in that pool,
to feel its healing touch,
it’s cleansing,
refreshing power.
Then the pool came to me,
the healing power of this man,
‘Get up,
pick up your mat,
you can walk now’.

And I could!

His presence,
His word,
changed my life,
there and then.
My life was no longer crippled,
he had given me the strength
to walk,
with him.

But some weren’t happy.
they preferred me sat there,
unable to live my life,
held back by my
inability to get up.

They don’t want him freeing people,
lifting people,
helping them to walk
in his way.
He has given me
My life back
and all they care about
is what day it is.

They
are
missing
the
point.

But I heard his word.
I am walking in his strength.
I know
what the point is.

I Walk By Faith

There are many things in life that hold us back.  Do we want to be free of them, will we allow Jesus to touch them and heal them?  Can we move on?  In his strength?  This passage is not just about a lame man being able to walk, not only about physical healing, but so much more.

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, lent, life, love, Religion, theology
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