The 260 Journey

Day 80

Today’s Reading: John 12

A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. It goes something like this:

“Deep down, I know you are shallow.”

“One thing I know—that I know nothing.”

“I am nobody.”

“He’s a wise fool.”

It’s putting opposite words in a sentence together that don’t seem to work.

These are silly paradoxes that have no bearing on anything of eternal importance. But in today’s reading, we run right into a very strange paradox that has great eternal consequences. Consider this statement with its contradiction:

Many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. (John 12:42-43)

This is a serious paradox: “Many even of the rulers believed in Him, but . . . they were not confessing Him.”

Is that even possible? Believing without confessing. Can you be a paradoxical saint? When I was reading John 12, I was excited to see that the rulers believed in Him. People of influence realizing that this was the Messiah. But my excitement was short lived when I hit the paradox, separated by a comma.

Confessing is a big part of belief, or should I say, it’s a big partner with belief. Listen to how Paul put it:

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)

Believe and confess are a big part of salvation. Think of these important words from Jesus, recorded in Matthew 10:32-33: “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven.”

These rulers decided to rewrite the script. This paradox seems serious. And verse 43 gives us the eye-opening “why” behind the paradox: they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

Has wanting to please people silenced you from going public about your belief in God? When you know that people in your circle are Jesus antagonistic or church haters, do you keep quiet to please them? Do you shut your mouth on truth so as not to rock the boat? Does their open mouth contradict my belief and keep my mouth shut?

If these are true of us, we are paradoxical believers. And we know the source of it. It is a love issue—and it exposes what we love most. Do we love the approval of people or the approval of God? The answer to this question will determine if we will be paradoxical, or in other words, a believer but not a confessor.

It’s dangerous to believe without confessing, because it exposes something about us. Can that really happen? It did happen and the result was catastrophic. Ready for this? James 2:19 tells us that “you can believe all you want that there is one true God, that’s wonderful! But even the demons know this and tremble with fear before him, yet they’re unchanged—they remain demons” (TPT).

We can have the right belief in God and still be unchanged. Our belief should not lead us to church only, but on a journey to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls. I think the lack of confessing is from loving the wrong thing. They loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

When I recognize that I have a problem going public about my relationship with God, it’s at that point that I don’t pray for boldness but for God to help me to love Him more.

Love goes public. Love shouts it out. When I fell in love with my now-wife, Cindy, I wanted everyone to know who I discovered. Way before smart phones with thousands of pictures, we used to carry an actual photo of the one we loved. I wanted people to see her, but how would I get a photo? One day I saw a photo of her in a newspaper from a deal she made for a bank and I cut it out. I carried that black-and-white newspaper clipping folded up in my wallet everywhere. And when people asked me if I had a picture, I would tell them, “Do I have a picture? Look at this.” And I would proceed to unfold it. I was confessing because I was in love.

Love tells!

When there is no telling, we may have a love issue. Or it may be that we love the wrong thing.

When we believe in Jesus, we start a journey of love not a journey of knowledge.

C.S. Lewis tells of an old author who asked, “Is it easy to love God?"

“It is easy,” the other man replied, “to those who do it.”

Christianity is not easy for those who love church, love being moral, love the atmosphere. When you fall deeply in love, you want to please the one you are in love with. Love makes confession easy.

Day 79

Today’s Reading: John 11

Has God ever been confusing to you? Have you ever asked Him, “What are You doing? I don’t understand?”

Our 260 Journey brings us to John 11 and to one of those moments. It’s the story of Lazarus—a man who went from health to sickness and from sickness to death. And here is where the confusion starts. This all happened with Jesus close enough to prevent his death but doesn’t.

What makes it confusing are two things Jesus does from the outset.

Let’s read the story:

A certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. (John 11:1-6)

Here is where Jesus becomes confusing: we are told very clearly that Lazarus is sick, and Jesus loves him. There is something in us that thinks if Jesus loves us then we have a “get out of jail” free card from pain. Nothing could be further from the truth.

C. S. Lewis was once asked, “Why do the righteous suffer?” To which he replied, “They’re the only ones who can handle it.”

The second confusing moment with Jesus happens when He hears about the sickness. If you love someone, and they are in desperate need, you rush to them. Not Jesus. The Bible says when He heard Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days longer. What? Seriously? No movement, Jesus?

It frustrates us when Jesus moves too slow. We want Jesus’ hand, but we don’t want His calendar.

I always remember in one of my frustration moments how an old church mother in Detroit reminded me of the old adage, “He may not come when you want Him, but He’s always right on time.” And in John 11, Jesus is going to be right on time. What is on time? Four days later and not till Lazarus stinks.

Why? Jesus says that it’s so His glory can be seen. Glory is what makes God famous and stand out.

Let me take you to the tomb and why Jesus waited:

Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” (John 11:38-39)

It would have been easier for Jesus to come to sick Lazarus not to stinky-and-dead Lazarus. And here is where I want you to see as the confusion starts to get clarity:

When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. (John 11:43-45)

When Jesus doesn’t come when you call Him, something bigger is about to happen.

What was Jesus showing them? A resurrection is better than a healing. His message to Mary and Martha was this: If I heal your brother, three people will feel good. If I resurrect your brother, many will believe. We learn from this story too that there is a divine strategy in unanswered prayer.

The account of Jesus not healing Lazarus is proof that unanswered prayer may well mean that God has something better in mind for us than we ourselves had. There are times that God waits till something stinks before He shows up. Because Lazarus was resurrected instead of being healed, many saw the glory of God and believed.

Our prayers are for our well-being when God sees bigger. That day a dead man was resurrected instead of a sick man healed so a bunch of people could be resurrected.

So when your prayer is not immediately answered and you are dealing with delay, don’t doubt that He loves you. He may just be saying, “It just doesn’t stink yet."

Day 78

Today’s Reading: John 10

Jesus is called Shepherd three times in the New Testament. And each time, a special adjective is put in front of the word to show His role in their lives.

In John 10:11, Jesus is called the Good Shepherd, with the emphasis of laying down His life for the sheep.

In Hebrews 13:20, Jesus is called the Great Shepherd, with the emphasis on His resurrection and how He accomplishes His purposes through His sheep.

And in 1 Peter 5:4, He is called the Chief Shepherd, which stresses His second coming and His reward to the under-shepherds.

As the Good Shepherd, He dies for the sheep. As the Great Shepherd, He rises from the dead. As the Chief Shepherd, He returns to reward His people.

Today we’re studying the Good Shepherd. Before I tell you about the Good Shepherd, though, we have to realize our role as sheep. That is how the Bible describes all of us: “We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way” (Isaiah 53:6, MSG).

Notice the emphasis on the word all. That means all of us are included, no one excluded. We are all sheep. While sheep is not a flattering term, it is appropriate.

Have you ever noticed that no colleges or universities use sheep as their mascot? They always choose something vicious, majestic, or strong. The Louisiana State University Tigers, University of Michigan Wolverines, or Kentucky Wildcats. No one uses sheep. Alabama Sheep, UCLA Sheep? Doesn’t even sound right. Why? Because of who sheep are.

Sheep are easily frightened; they are defenseless and they are highly dependent. They need guidance and protection. It may not be complimentary to be a sheep, but it is comforting to know we have a Good Shepherd, and that changes everything.

Listen to Jesus’ words: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

John 10 is about the relationship between the Good Shepherd and the needy sheep. Sheep have no chance unless they have a shepherd, and not just a shepherd but a Good Shepherd.

Always remember, we never graduate from being a sheep the older we get in Jesus. We always need the Shepherd. We always need Him!

The chief enemy of the sheep is the wolf. Sheep have no defense mechanism except for the shepherd. And here is what is so important: sheep are only as strong as the shepherd. If the shepherd fails, they fail.

The wolf scatters the sheep. Why? So he can isolate them away from the shepherd. If he can get them away from the shepherd, then he can devour them. He scatters, isolates, and then has the helpless, defenseless sheep to himself.

Here’s how Jesus put it:

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him.

I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. (John 10:11-14, MSG)

Sheep are known by their shepherd. They are known in two ways: sheep know their name and they know the voice of their shepherd who calls it.

So as sheep, we have one job: stay close to the Shepherd and when we do, we are within ear shot of His voice. He is our protection. He is our provider.

An Australian man was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. He adamantly denied the accusation, claiming it was one of his own that had been missing for days. When the case went to court, the judge heard the arguments but was unsure how to decide the matter. Finally, he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. He ordered that the accuser go outside the room and call the animal. The sheep’s only response was to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then told the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man did so, the sheep ran toward the door and that voice. He recognized the familiar sound of his master. “His sheep knows him,” the judge said and dismissed the case.

Our Shepherd calls us each day. Let’s follow His voice.

Day 77

Today’s Reading: John 9

"Amazing Grace” is considered to be one of the greatest hymns of all time, sung by Christians and non-Christians alike. It transcends religious boundaries. The hymn’s popularity would have surprised its composer, John Newton. The circumstances that inspired him to write the hymn more than two hundred years ago were amazing.

Newton was just a boy when he set sail as a sailor on his father’s ship. As he grew older, his life became one filled with debauchery. His duties on the ship included capturing West Africans and taking them to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. Slavery’s unspeakable horrors did not seem to bother Newton and he soon worked his way to becoming the captain of his own slave ship.

But in 1748, after many years transferring slaves, while voyaging from Africa to England, God’s grace intervened. An awful storm arose, so furious that the waves threatened to capsize the ship. Unable to control the situation, Newton went to his cabin and searched for a book to take his mind off his fear. He picked up Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ, a classic Christian devotional. Though the ocean and the storm eventually calmed, the experience changed him.

Even still Newton continued serving as captain of his slave ship for several more years. He tried to justify his continued work by improving the conditions on the ship and even by offering religious services for his crew. But over time he finally realized that there was nothing he could do to justify what was so clearly abhorrent to God. He left the slave trade and became a powerful abolitionist. He also became an ordained minister as well as a prolific songwriter, penning hundreds of hymns, including “Amazing Grace.”

One of the lines from that hymn comes from today’s story in John 9. It is the healing of a blind man much like John Newton’s spiritual blindness—except this man was healed physically and spiritually. And all of John 9 is devoted to his story. The climax of this blind man’s experience happened when he responded to the religious leaders who were trying to get him to discredit Jesus—the One who had just opened his eyes with a miracle. The man’s response was memorable and hymn worthy: “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (verse 25).

Those are not Newton’s words but words fresh from the lips of a miracle man.

I love the two words in this response: “One thing I do know.” One thing means he was focused.

It doesn’t occur much in the Bible but when it does, it removes the peripheral and puts what matters in the crosshairs. One thing . . . those are highly potent and targeted words.

Here are a few other one things in the Bible:

David’s one thing . . .
Here’s the one thing I crave from God, the one thing I seek above all else: I want the privilege of living with him every moment in his house, finding the sweet loveliness of his face, filled with awe, delighting in his glory and grace. I want to live my life so close to him that he takes pleasure in my every prayer. (Psalm 27:4, TPT)

Mary’s one thing . . .
The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.” (Luke 10:41-42, TPT)

Paul’s one thing . . .
I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us. (Philippians 3:13-14, TLB)

David, Mary, and Paul are one thing people. And now the John 9 blind man joins the one thing team.

And the blind man’s one thing is simple: talk is cheap. He essentially was saying to the religious of his day: If your theological debates on the person of Jesus don’t set people free, I’m going with the guy you are arguing about. While you use your mouth, I get to use my eyes. If all your talking does not open up blind eyes, then I’m not interested.

While men are parsing words and discussing concepts, I want to think like this blind man—that if Jesus is opening eyes, that’s good enough for me. He may not do it like I’m used to, but if people see, then His way is best. I’m not sure about spit and mud, but who can argue with open eyes.

Here is one thing for me and the other religious guys of John 9: just shut up and praise God. Unless your debates on theology help blind eyes see again, I’ll go with the unorthodox spit and mud while you try to continue on with your orthodoxy debates.

Not long before John Newton died at the age of eighty-two, he said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!”

That’s a good thing to remember if you have to remember something. That’s one thing more than one thing, but those are two pretty good things to remember.

Day 76

Today’s Reading: John 8

In Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World, renowned English writer, Dorothy Sayers, aimed some powerful words at religious people who have watered down the Son of God and made Jesus accommodating:

The people who hanged Christ never accused Him of being a bore; on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with the atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him “meek and mild,” and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.

As we have seen throughout our 260 Journey so far, Jesus is anything but those things. Four times in today’s reading, Jesus refers to Himself by using a common Old Testament title used only for God: I AM (see verses 12, 24, 28, and 58). That’s why this chapter opens with the religious wanting to stone a woman caught in adultery and end with them wanting to stone Jesus. Look at the ending of the chapter with me:

The Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:57-59)

By Jesus using that phrase for Himself, He clearly meant for them to understand that He was saying that He was God. And the religious were not having it—thus the stones. They needed the stones to “declaw” the Lion of Judah and make Him a manageable kitty cat, as Sayers said.

Consider this revelation U2’s lead singer Bono offered: “Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God . . . has left the building.” Or to say it another way . . . religion is what is left when God leaves the room. That is the truth!

Many years ago, a woman entered a Häagen-Dazs store in Kansas City to buy an ice-cream cone. After she’d ordered she turned and found herself staring directly into the face of Paul Newman, the famous actor who was in town filming Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. He smiled and said hello. His blue eyes were even bluer in person, which made her knees buckle. She finished paying and quickly walked out of the store. When she’d regained her composure, however, she realized she didn’t have her cone, so she turned to go back in and met Newman who was coming out.

“Are you looking for your ice cream?” he asked her.

Unable to utter a word, she simply nodded.

“You put it in your purse with your change.”

When was the last time the presence of God made you forget what was going on around you? Made you forget the dishes? Made you forget the ballgame? Made you forget the bank account? Made you forget . . . where you put your ice cream cone?

Christian writer Donald McCullough writes on how cavalier we treat the privilege of standing in God’s presence Sunday after Sunday: “Reverence and awe have often been replaced by the yawn of familiarity. The consuming fire has been domesticated into a candle flame, adding a bit of religious atmosphere, perhaps, but no heat, no blinding light, no power for purification.”

Author Annie Dillard echoes the sentiment:

Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should latch us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.

And in John 8 when the religious heard this man speak about Himself by using the Old Testament term for being God—I AM—four times, no one thought of strapping in and putting on a crash helmet because they were talking to God. They just decided to try to stone Him. But that didn’t work, so they crucified Him. Crucified the Great I AM.

We must be careful that we do not try to do the same. As Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “Nobody can do so much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life.” May that not be you and me.