The 260 Journey

Day 86

Today's Reading: John 18

I remember a few years ago flying out of a large midwestern city in the middle of bad storms. Planes were still taking off, but passengers were feeling uneasy. I have to tell you, as I waited at my gate, I wasn’t feeling it either, and fear started to hit me.

Then I saw our pilot come to our gate. He was this old, wrinkle-faced man. His uniform bore a lot of gold bars on his coat sleeve, and his bags, covered with stickers, were beat up and falling apart. Did seeing him help the situation and my fear? You bet it did!

What did beat-up bags, gray hair, and a wrinkly face represent? Experience. No doubt he had been in this situation before and up in the air a lot. I did not want to see some wide-eyed young man who was excited about his first flight as he pulled his new bags to the gate. I wanted the old pilot captaining my plane. His experience quelled my fear.

Consider this: what would you think if the pilot got on the loud speaker and said, “This is your pilot, and I am so excited today because this is my first flight. I’ve never been in the air before but I got all A’s on my flight school tests.” I don’t know about you, but I would be looking for the exit door. To be a good pilot, you can't just be book smart. You need something called flight hours. You have to be in the air, not just studying for tests on the ground. You need experience.

There was another Pilate in the Bible who knew some stuff, but did not have the experience of flight hours. And we meet him in today’s reading at the bogus trial of Jesus.

Jesus was standing before Pilate, and Pilate asked Him a question. Pay special attention to Jesus’ epic response:

Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” (John 18:33-34)

Jesus’ question to Pilate’s question was rhetorical. No answer was expected because we know the answer. Jesus’ question was: "are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me?"

What Jesus was saying was, “Are you just repeating information, or have you experienced what you are saying?” Do you just have ground school or did you get in some flight time?

When Pilate asked Jesus about being King of the Jews, he did not know Jesus as King, he was simply repeating something he’d heard. He had no flight time with this King.

What kind of Pilate are you? Did you just hear this and are saying what you heard, or do you know Jesus as King? Have you experienced Jesus as King? Jesus was challenging not only Pilate, He is challenging all of us. Just because we say the right things doesn’t mean we have experienced the right things. Christianity is not just knowing the right stuff but experiencing a relationship with God personally as our King.

A marriage license doesn’t guarantee intimacy and a healthy marriage. You can have a document that says you are married and have no relationship with your spouse. The same is true with the Word of God. You can read the Bible, but that does not guarantee experience. Just because you know the Word of God doesn’t mean you know the God of this Word. Knowing this book is not based on education, but on a relationship with its author.

Pilate said the right words but it got him nowhere. So as you go on the 260 Journey, may you go further than the Pilate of John 18 and become like the pilot who flew my plane out of Gate 34A. One was just repeating what he heard, the other had the experience.

What kind of Pilate are you?

Day 85

Today’s Reading: John 17

John 17 is holy ground. If I were God’s editor, I never would have allowed this chapter in the Bible. It’s sacred, it’s other-world, it’s uncomfortable . . . it’s the prayer closet of Jesus. This is a very solemn chapter, what we call the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

I have thousands of books in my library on so many topics. But to my amazement, I’ve seen only two authors ever venture to take on one of the most incredible chapters, prayers, and words ever penned to mankind and write on them. I am not sure if the two men who did had a lapse of judgment or a leading of the Holy Spirit.

John 17 lets us eavesdrop on what Jesus was praying before He was taken to die on Calvary and we are allowed to hear Him. We are given what seems to be a glimpse into the holy of holies where the Son is talking to the Father.

The Lord’s prayer is very powerful. But it is one thing to be taught something and another to see it modeled. Luke 6 is the teaching; John 17 is the modeling. Prayer is better exemplified than taught.

And in this chapter we are allowed to see how Jesus prayed. I think we can all agree that if anyone knows how to pray, it is Jesus. If there is anyone who is going to have His prayers answered, it is Jesus. The right way to pray is Jesus’ way of praying. If He did not want to be heard, it would not have been recorded. If this prayer was not meant for us to look at, He would not have had His disciples hear it. Since they heard it, and since they recorded it, there must be something for us to learn from it.

Growing up in Long Island, New York, I had the wonderful opportunity to overhear my Russian grandmother pray. She was a great prayer warrior. Many times I would come home from school in the afternoon and hear my grandmother praying in Russian, because she never learned English. She would be in our living room crying and praying in a language I did not know. Sometimes I would listen, but most of the time I would feel as if I should not be there.

There is something powerful about a person pouring out themselves in prayer to God. There is something uncomfortable about listening to someone’s private prayer time. I could not stand there for more than a few minutes before I would have to leave her and God alone. If I felt this way about my grandmother, how much more would I feel about opening the door to John 17 and listening to the private prayer of Jesus and His Father. There is something in me that says I should not be there. I should read the Bible up to John 16 and then go quickly to John 18. But there is something in me that wants to open the door and listen to Jesus. There is something in me that says I should be there and I should listen very carefully.

Let’s open the prayer closet of the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, Jesus, and hear Him pray.

This is the very first verse: “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.’”

I will take the risk that this would not be incorporated as a biblical absolute but as a challenge of focus the next time we pray, that we use John 17 as our model in our prayer time. It says that when Jesus prayed, He lifted up His eyes. This was not just His prayer posture, it was a Jewish posture. No Jew would ever pray as we do today. The first thing we often hear before we pray in a church service is, “Let’s bow our heads.” The words out of our mouths when praying over a meal is, “Let’s bow our heads.” A Jew would never look down when talking to Jehovah. They would see this as dishonoring. A Jew would always lift their eyes.

On a natural level, there is a difference between a person you see with their head bowed down and a head that is lifted up. A bowed head carries with it dejection, self-consciousness, fear of making eye contact. It carries no good thing with it. But a person who walks and talks with head up and eyes lifted seems to have a confidence and certainty to them and their words.

The next time you pray, go John 17 in your prayer time. Lift up your eyes to heaven and realize that you have a living Father who hears you. And if you want to make it even crazier, lift up your eyes and read out loud the prayer of Jesus in John 17.

Day 84

Today’s Reading: John 16

In The Grace Awakening, author and pastor Charles Swindoll used an imaginative illustration for how best we can live: imagine driving on a treacherous mountain road with a cliff on both sides. As you approach a hairpin turn, you must decide which is better: a state-of-the-art hospital with the best doctors in the world at the bottom of the mountain or a giant yellow warning sign before the curve telling you, “Danger! Curve Ahead. Drive slowly”? The answer is obvious: a warning sign.

In John 16, we find Jesus giving His followers a life of warning signs so they don’t end up at the bottom of the mountain in the hospital. The warning sign is called conviction and it’s a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Read with me what Jesus says about it:

I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (John 16:7-11)

When He comes, He will convict.

What is conviction?

It is an inner warning, a big yellow sign that says, “Slow down! This may not be right."

Conviction of the Holy Spirit is the opposite of peace; it’s a disturbance in the soul that can be silenced only by stepping on the brake when coming to the turn. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is what saves us from crashing and burning and needing the hospital at the bottom of the mountain.

The hospital at the bottom of the hill can be a counselor’s office, a pastor’s office, etc. I’m not saying those hospitals can’t fix the damage inflicted, but think of the pain that people could have avoided had they yielded to the Spirit’s conviction.

Most of the times the conviction comes when we are entering into a compromise, an area of sin, a place that will hurt our spiritual lives. People will confuse conviction and condemnation.

Conviction is the feeling that what I was doing was wrong, and with God’s help, I can change. Condemnation is the feeling that I am wrong and I can never measure up. There is no hope of change in condemnation.

Conviction is from God. Conviction is the warning sign on the hairpin turns.

Our job is to yield, like in this story:

During the Great Awakening—a time of revival throughout our country—Jonathan Edwards was leading a prayer meeting in which eight hundred men were in attendance. In the midst of the meeting, a woman sent in a note asking them to pray for her husband. She described him as unloving, prideful, and difficult. Edwards read the message aloud to the men, thinking that perhaps the woman’s husband was present. Then he boldly asked if the man whom he had described would raise his hand, so the whole group could pray for him. Three hundred men raised their hands.

Really, three hundred men yielded to the yellow sign to avoid the hospital. All because they yielded. May we do the same.

Day 83

Today’s Reading: John 15

Today’s reading is a challenge. It’s a second step that Jesus gives to those who choose to follow Him.

During Jesus’ life, He constantly said to those who were ready to start a journey with God to “follow Me.” And for those who accepted the challenge, he gave them a revolutionary second step: “Abide in Me.”

Listen to these challenging words of this new kind of relationship with God:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

What does it mean to abide? The word abide simply means to spend time. Or more specifically, to abide means to give God time (because relationships need time to grow). It isn’t just “come to church” but “come to Me.” God wants time with you.

The day you followed Jesus, you got a taste of God. The day you accept the challenge for what is next, you get a shower (you go from drinking water from a straw to drinking water from a fire hydrant).

You got on the king’s property, now it’s time to enjoy the king’s palace. All of us are given the same amount of time. Those who are successful use it wisely—they abide.

American businessman, Jim Rohn, said it like this, “There are only three colors, ten numbers, and seven notes; it’s what we do with them that’s important.”

What keeps us from abiding?

The cost: time.

The cry: “I don’t have any more time.”

The challenge: It isn’t adding but subtracting.

Louie Giglio, one of the most amazing pastors in the Atlanta area, said, “Whatever you say yes to in life means less for something already there. Make sure your yes is worth the less.”

Here is the bad news: time flies.

Here is the good news: you’re the pilot.

Direct your life correctly.

In John 15, Jesus connected abiding to four amazing benefits. If you take the challenge and choose to go on a journey of abiding, just as you did to follow Jesus, look for these four things to happen:

1. Joy: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). Talk about standing out in your arena of life. Joy is attractive because it’s rare today.

2. Obedience: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). Abiding makes obedience easy and joyful.

3. Answered prayer: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). The thought of praying and seeing it answered is worth the price. I pray, God answers—because of abiding.

The more I’m with God . . . that’s abiding.

The more I talk with Him . . . that’s prayer.

The more prayer gets answered . . . that’s exciting.

As Louis Lallemant said, “A man of prayer will do more in one year than another will do in his whole life.”

4. I’m productive . . . bearing fruit: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). Producing fruit is what a branch is meant to do. Without fruit, it’s just a stick.

“Bearing fruit” in verse 4 means doing what you are meant to do. Branches bear fruit, but not all branches—only the ones connected to the vine. You can’t be connected with God without being effective for God.

Many of us chose salvation, that is we accepted Jesus’ call to “follow Me.” Now it’s time for us to accept Jesus’ second challenge to “abide in Me.” Abiding is not just time with God in heaven, abiding is time with God here on earth.

Day 82

Today’s Reading: John 14

I remember listening to one of my daughters as she was learning to count. When she got to the number eleven, what came next seemed normal to her. Unfortunately, it was wrong: eleventeen, twelveteen, thirteen . . . Why not? Seems logical.

In today’s reading, we see that Jesus had one of those logical moments. It happens in yesterday’s reading: John 13:38. Jesus’ eleventeen moment follows verse 38. It isn’t supposed to, but it does: one comes after thirty-eight.

John 14:1-6 is a popular passage for funerals. In fact, I have read it many times at funerals:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:1-6)

As heavenly as these words are, they were not given for a funeral, they were given to help an arrogant and self-assured disciple named Peter, who was very much alive.

Always remember that the chapter and verse numbers in the Bible were never there when written. They were not added into a printed Bible until around the 1500s by Robert Stephens in the Geneva Bible. That’s why I am not a fan when people try to take the verse number or chapter number and make it part of the message of the text. It just is not there. So if that’s true, Jesus was right, verse 1 comes after verse 38 since there are no chapter divisions.

When Jesus spoke these words in John 14, it was in response to and directly after these final words in John 13: “Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times” (verse 38).

Here is what I love: instead of Jesus leaving it there and letting Peter know that he was about to blow it big time, Jesus gives hope.

Peter says, “I will lay down my life for you."

Jesus says, “You will deny Me three times.”

We all know who’s telling the truth.

The iconic Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937 and was, at the time, the longest suspension bridge ever built. It was also very deadly work. “At the time, the industry standard was that for every million dollars spent, there would be a loss of life,” says the bridge’s spokeswoman, Mary Currie. The bridge’s estimated cost? Thirty-five million dollars. But the structural engineer, Joseph Strauss, concerned for the workers’ safety—as almost two dozen men died in the first half of construction—insisted on placing a safety net under the bridge to catch any workers who accidentally fell. It was a novel idea at the time and cost $130,000. After the net was put in place, no one else died. The safety net made the difference.

In John 14, we see that Peter is about to get his $130,000 safety net when he falls. Jesus essentially tells Peter, “What you say will not happen; what I say will . . . but there is more.” Here’s the safety net: You won’t lose when you fall, you win when you fail. Peter, you will deny Me and not keep your word, but I will keep My word.

What is that word? “I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

This is not heaven, this is restoration. The prepared place was not in the clouds but on a beach in John 21. Jesus was telling Peter that when he walks away from Jesus, he will still have a place. Jesus will receive him and they will be together.

God knows every failure and fall . . . and He has a net. Peter was falling into grace.

Charles Spurgeon said this about God’s grace: “Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.”

No more boasting Peter. I think if Peter was counting, he too would say one comes after thirty-eight. The same is true for us, and I am so glad.