Author: Larry Soape

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-21 (day four)

We have the advantage over the disciples.  We get to see the picture of the resurrection after centuries of the story being told.  Verse 9 says, “For as yet they did not understand the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the dead.”  If we go back to Luke 24:45…after Jesus was meeting with the disciples, post-resurrection…it says, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”  As believers, we also have the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Scriptures.

Imagine someone today who has no knowledge of Scripture at all…how strange it must sound to hear of a man who rose from the dead.  Without the Scripture being explained through a relationship with Christ, how can they understand? They cannot understand apart from faith or the drawing of the Holy Spirit.  It is a work only God can do.  When you see someone who understands that Jesus rose from the dead, you can know that God is at work.  Let’s join Him!

Re:Verse passage – John 19:1-30 (day four)

“It is finished!”  These words seem to close a very sad event, but it is a wide-reaching statement.  God had a plan for the redemption of man from the beginning of time.  The prophets foretold the work of Christ for centuries before it happened.  Jesus’ assignment from the Father had been to live a sinless life and die for the sins of man on the cross.  When Jesus said, “it is finished”, He meant all of it…He had completed everything that He was supposed to do!  Even down to the sour wine at the end, Jesus was perfectly obedient.

When we walk in obedience, are we careful to walk in full obedience?  Do we do everything God asks us to do or do we go for just a majority?  Are we just concerned with tipping the scales toward obedience and calling it good?  Jesus’ life was a life of obedience, growing out of a deep love.  It was actually a celebration when He said “it is finished!”  Will you be able to say that at the end?

Re:Verse passage – John 14:15-31 (day four)

There is a direct correlation between obedience and love.  Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  Over the course of ‘disciple training’, Jesus taught the disciples many truths…how would they ever remember it all?  God, the Father, took care of that…He would send the Spirit of Truth to remind them and explain the truths Jesus had taught.  One of the fruits of the Spirit was true peace.  Peace would follow obedience to God’s commands.  Love brings obedience, obedience brings peace, and the Spirit brings an abiding relationship.

Love is the basic ingredient for this abiding relationship.  If you are having trouble with obedience or if there is no peace in your life, or if your prayers seem to be mundane at best, maybe there has been a shift from God in your heart.  There are symptoms of a heart that is shifted from God.  Go back to the basics…Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me?”

Re:Verse passage – John 13: 1-17 (day four)

Simon Peter had a lot to say…more than was recorded in John 13.  Chapter 13 is the beginning of an intimate time of teaching from Jesus to His closest disciples, all on the night prior to His arrest.  As Jesus began to wash the feet of the disciples, Peter refused to let Him wash his feet. He was demonstrating the prideful response of one who believed he could be cleaned on his own. He did not need Jesus’ help.  There was another message Peter was communicating.  When he rejected Jesus’ example of humbly serving others…not wanting Jesus to wash his feet…he was rejecting the thought that he must do the same.  If he approved Jesus serving others, Peter would be forced to practice it himself.

Don’t we often do the same?  Have you ever “adjusted” what Scripture said so it matched up with what you wanted to believe?  Be on guard that you not take a scripture out of context or read something into a scripture that is only truth in your imagination.  Rightly divide the Word of Truth…

Re:Verse passage – John 12:20-37, 42-50 (day four)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could always say what Jesus said in verse 45?  “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.”  When people looked at us, we would hope that they would see Jesus…His character, His love, His obedience.  What can we do to insure that we are giving a clear and accurate picture of Christ to others?

We must first be familiar with the character of Christ.  This comes from spending time with Him…in Scripture, in prayer, in meditation, in practice.  If we don’t know the character of Christ, there is no way we can accurately paint a picture of it with our lives.  To intimately know Christ takes time.  If we want to have a firm, expansive knowledge of Scripture 10 years from now, we need to be deeply invested in study and daily practice now!  Many of the spiritual giants we read about now, got that way after a lifetime of faithful living.

Colossians 1 says, “I ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

Re:Verse passage – John 9:1-7, 13-41 (day four)

This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  I love it when the former blind man reveals his spiritual insight to the Pharisees who were completely blind to the truth.  Rather than listen to this second-class beggar in his newfound spiritual wisdom, they reviled him for trying to teach them…the spiritual giants of Israel.

Actually, this story is very sad.  I love the irony of how God exalts the humble, but it is sad that the Pharisees just didn’t get it.  They were so set in their self-exalted wisdom and their grasp of power and influence, they could not understand the God whom they proclaimed to serve.

We can celebrate the victory of the lowly beggar, but we don’t want to do so at the cost of celebrating the darkness of the Pharisees.  May God give us His eyes to see the lost as He sees them.  May we grieve over their lostness and ask God to use us to lead them to the light!

Re:Verse reading–John 6:52-69 (day four) 

I am grateful for all of my English teachers I had growing up that taught me well.  They taught me about the figure of speech called a metaphor.  A metaphor is a word or phrase that is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.  The Jews must not have understood about metaphors.  Jesus used them often and they never understood what He was talking about.  They wanted to apply the literal meaning to it and then reacted to their misinterpretation.  Jesus will talk about the need to stay in Him in John 15 when He says to abide in Him.  He uses the metaphor of the vine and branches, but does not mean to become a literal vine or branch.

Jesus gives a clue to their lack of understanding in verse 65.  “…no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”  Understanding of God’s Word is dependent on our faith response to God’s drawing.  Having a relationship with God and having the Holy Spirit is like having the secret code breaker manual built in.  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life…”

Re:Verse passage – John 5:1-24 (day four)

Why did Jesus choose the veteran invalid to be healed?  38 years is a long time to be sick.  A long tenure of illness often times breeds a sense of hopelessness for ever being well again.  Jesus asked the lame man if he wanted to be made well.  There was no expectation of the man that Jesus was about to heal him.  He appears to know very little about Jesus and did not even know his name when questioned by the Jews. Surely there were others on the porticoes trying to be healed, yet we only have a record of this one man being healed.  The only explanation for his healing is the sovereign grace of God.

In verse 19, Jesus says that He can only do what He sees the Father doing.  Jesus acts in like manner to the Father.  It was the choice of God the Father to heal this lame man.  Not because he was more worthy…not because he had pleaded with the Lord…not because he demonstrated great faith…it was God’s sovereign choice.  This miracle was one more sign of the integral relationship between God and Christ.  Does your life demonstrate that type of relationship with God?

Re:Verse reading–John 4:4-30, 39-42 (day four)

In our family, we call it CTS…Change the Subject.  When the conversation starts going a direction you don’t want to go in, you discreetly CTS.  (We always get caught, but we keep trying!)  The Samaritan woman tried it too.  Jesus’ questions about her husbands were not comfortable.  The conversation was getting too personal…let’s CTS!  Jesus was not put off track…He kept the focus of the dialogue on the woman and her relationship with God through Christ.  His persistence resulted in much fruit.

Stay the course…do not be deterred.  When sharing Christ with an unbeliever, don’t be distracted by questions or comments meant to CTS.  It’s the hard questions, that we often avoid, that may lead to the most introspection and result in the most beneficial life change.  Jesus gave us the example of keeping the important things the important thing.  Keep your focus when sharing the gospel.  You never know…a whole city might come to know Christ!

Re:Verse reading–John 3:1-21 (day four)

It is probably the best known verse in the Bible…John 3:16.  Many of us memorized it as a child and have repeated it many times since.  John 3:16 is such a simple verse, yet it contains the very essence of the gospel.  It was out of God’s vast love that salvation was offered to us…not because of any merit or deed that man had done.  It is a gift of grace.  God loves us…how can we not return that love?

What is our motivation when we do a good deed?  Is it out of an obligation or strict obedience to a command?  Is it out of an ulterior motive for personal gain?  Following God’s example, we can be guided by love.  By spending extended time with God…by reading His Word daily…and through time invested in prayer, we can know the heart of God…a heart of love! His love is (or should be) the only genuine motivator in our lives.   Let God’s overflowing love direct your every path.