Bryan Richardson

Action

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14; 4:1-15 (day three)

“I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” If the universe had a beginning, something other than the universe must necessarily exist in order to have made that beginning possible. And that “something other” must necessarily have the ability to decide to initiate the universe. That ability is called will, which means the “something other” is a personal being. If you’ll believe it, the Bible reveals the personal being is God. There is nothing that inherently prevents the spiritual realm from continuing to interact with the physical realm. God interacts with the world. Regularly. Moses saw it, paid attention, acted, led a people out of slavery, and built a nation from which came Jesus Christ. God acts in history now. The Bible tells you specifically how this goes. So read. Heed. Act accordingly.

Big

Re: Verse reading—Exodus 1:8-2:10 (day three)
“The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do.”

The saving of the lives of babies in the midst of a campaign of genocide was dangerous work in the face of the absolute power of the Pharaoh. But these women came to the task with courage and not a little savvy. Did they make it up as they went? They might have felt like it at times. Here’s what we can know: Given the existence of two powers—God and Pharaoh—one of the powers had to give, and the midwives understood that it wouldn’t be God. With that large thought firmly in mind, they proceeded to work out what that would mean for how they lived from day to day. We would do well to think as big.

You

Re: Verse reading–John 21:1-25 (day three)

“Lord, what about him?” We’ll often pursue anything except the hard work of self-leadership. Self-leadership understood in light of our apprenticeship to Jesus is the act of ruthless moral inventory, confession of sin, and training in righteousness. In Psalm 139, we see the proper progression of thought towards self-leadership: “I hate those who hate you, Lord…I count them my enemies.” And then, “Search me, God…know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me…” [Emphasis added] This is a move from external observation to internal yielding. Peter moves in the exact opposite direction. After discussing the need to surrender his spirit to Jesus’s lordship, Peter moves to the far less painful topic of other people. Jesus rebukes him, as he will all of us: You. Follow. Me.

Knowledge

Re: Verse reading–John 20:10-31 (day three)

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” The truth claim that John presents is not one that is testable with litmus paper. We don’t have a test tube for ascertaining the existence of liberty or love or patience—or the existence of historical events like the Civil War or the resurrection of Jesus—and yet we can know the reality of these ideas and occurrences through trustworthy witnesses who have established their credibility in the community of men and women. John says to us: “I saw these things. Hear me out. Listen to what I learned about the person of Jesus—his character, mind, and mission.” Get to know Jesus through these witnesses. By their record you can come to faith. And then you can come to knowledge.

Testimony

Re: Verse reading—John 19:28-42 (day three)
“The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.” The testimony of the church is that the Bible is the written word of God, infallible and trustworthy. But the Bible didn’t just drop in from heaven. Rather, “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” That is to say, it came to us through the eyes, ears, and minds of human beings. It’s for human beings because it’s by human beings. It’s what they heard. It’s what they saw. It’s what they knew. It’s the truth. The glory of the sovereign, triune God’s creative, redemptive work of unspeakable grace got written in a way that human beings can read it and understand it and find salvation through it. The Bible: the mysteries of heaven revealed through a voice we recognize as one of our own. Trust it.

Capable

Re: Verse reading—John 15:1-17 (day three)
“I chose you.” Every action that a person carries out takes place in a world in which God has already acted. Before anyone else loved the world, God loved the world, John tells us (both in his gospel and later on in his first letter), and so when we attempt to love someone, we do not do so alone and unaided, for then it would be impossible for us to love. Rather, we do so as a person who has received love from God, and therefore we can love another person. In the same way, before anyone else believed the human race capable of making something good out of the good universe God placed us in, Jesus believed it. Only with his soul-saving power will that happen, but it will happen. He was the first to declare it so.

Responding

Re: Verse reading–John 14:1-14 (day three)
“…Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” vs 3

Moses made that request before Philip did. God replied to Moses that no one would be able to endure the sight of God’s face; he would see all of God he needed to see by beholding God at a distance, with his face turned away. Jesus replied to Philip that he would see all of God he needed to see by beholding the God the Son. We will not see God on our terms, but on his. But the view that God allows on his terms is enough to build our entire lives on. The question, then, is not, “How much of God have you seen?” but, “How are you responding to however much of himself God has revealed to you?”

Live

Re: Verse reading–John 13:1-17; 31-38 (day three)

“He…began to wash his disciples’ feet.” Jesus saw an opening to love them, and he took it. It is possible that we’ve thought of Jesus as the author of object lessons, and that we have become dulled to recognizing love when we see it. Jesus did not do this in order to teach his disciples a lesson, though it did accomplish that. He did not do this in order to put them in a state of awe that the Lord would be so gracious as to stoop to such a lowly function, though it did strike them with wonder. Jesus did this because he loved them. Love is the way God lives. Therefore, love is the only way to live the eternal kind of life. At some point, we must stop theorizing and start living. Jesus will teach us to live.

Promise

Re: Verse reading–John 11:17-44 (day three)

“This sickness will not end in death.” Jesus fulfilled all the roles of the redemptive work of God among his people: Prophet, Priest, King. But his statement is less a prophecy and more a promise. We will see people die; we will see their bodies stop working, we will have their funerals, and we will live life without them. But they themselves will not have known death. No one who counts on Jesus will ever see death. This pathogen-borne disease will not end in death. This mental illness will not end in death. This congenital problem will not end in death. This accident will not end in death. We will see death come for those we love, but what we understand as death will not end their lives. No one could ever have made this promise but Jesus.

Mind

Re: Verse reading–John 10:1-21 (day three)
“He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?” A not-for-profit organization years ago used the slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” That’s for sure. God gave human beings a mind, and its unused potential is one of the great stewardship failures of a sinful human race. The religious leaders confronting Jesus demonstrated this abdication of responsibility when they refused to engage Jesus on the merits of his claims, and instead resorted to name-calling and diversionary tactics. When you are spiritually bankrupt, that’s all you’ve got. God gave you a mind as well. Jesus says to you, “Follow me.” Do you enter into conversation with the Savior, or do you change the subject?