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Through the Word in 2020 #155 – Nov. 16 – “Them”

November 16th, 2020
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After reading God’s judgments upon Egypt, Israel and others in Ezekiel 32-34:10, I am grateful for the refreshing of Psalm 134. Turning my eyes upward to “bless the Lord.” I need that.

Then seeing the way Jesus’ was so completely misunderstood and how even His brothers failed to believe in Him, I am grateful for the counsel of Jude 17-23. For Jude – one of those very same brothers of Jesus but now converted – counsels us on how dangerous it is to be more concerned with the failures and sins of “them” – than the sins of “us.”

A few words on that today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Jude is another very diminutive but powerful book. Like 3 John or Philemon, it too is more like a postcard. But it is addressing some major issues in its tiny package.

Jude starts his note by telling his readers he really was intending to write to them in order to round out their understanding of salvation as a whole. Help them get some foundations cemented. But apparently having been informed that this group was facing some particular issues, he shifted to exhorting them to get into the fight, engage in the struggle of preserving “the Faith”. It seems some wanted to modify the basics. And he is warning them that what they had already received in the Gospel, was a once and for all time thing. It needed to be defended against innovators.

A timely warning for us too.

Then, after warning them about those who creep into Christianity trying to bring in all sorts of modifications and new things, and how these were foreknown by God and will suffer severe punishment for leading God’s people astray, he unpacks his strategic response. How they can best react.

This is where Jude’s counsel by the Holy Spirit takes an unexpected turn.

You would have thought he would tell his readers what to do about “THEM”. The bad guys. Instead, he expounds on what to do about “US.” You see the biggest dangers spiritually aren’t the ones we face from “them”, but from ourselves. Especially in sinful responses to other’s sins.

If there is anything to be gleaned from the highly charged political and social atmosphere in America right now – it is how much all sides are consumed with the sins of “THEM.” And barely invested in dealing with “US.” With self. With me.

So what does Jude tell them to do about these hidden reefs, self-satisfying shepherds, who are waterless clouds swept along by winds? The fruitless trees who are twice dead, uprooted and casting up the foam of their shame for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever?
1. Remember God told you these would show up. Don’t be shocked and dismayed.
2. Build yourself up in the most holy faith. Keep growing in Christ. In Biblical truth.
3. Pray in the Holy Spirit – in concert with God’s agenda.
4. Keep yourself anchored in the love of God manifested in the Cross.
5. Keep looking for and anticipating Christ’s return.
6. Have mercy on those who get sidetracked.
7. Keep preaching a Gospel of salvation from God’s judgment.
8. Show mercy on those who fall, hating their sin but rescuing them.
In other words, be about the basics – and the health of your own soul and the good of Christ’s Church.

Don’t get all bound up with “them.”

It reminds me of that pivotal moment when after the resurrection Jesus told Peter he was not going to die pleasantly. When Peter turned and pointing to John said: “what about him?” Jesus said, “what is that to you? – follow me.”

Beloved, stop being invested in the “thems” of this world and follow Christ. That is the single best thing you can do in response.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #154 – Nov. 13 / A Fly on The Wall

November 13th, 2020

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Have you ever wanted to be the proverbial fly on the wall in order to hear some conversation you weren’t privy to? I sure have. I mean can you imagine the discussion between Adam and Eve right after the Fall? “What’s this – the woman you gave me stuff?” What Lazarus said to his 2 sisters after Jesus raised him from the dead? Or what it was like when Mary first broke the news to Joseph that she was supernaturally pregnant? You might have needed a chainsaw to cut the air in that room.

One verse piques my interest that way today in John 6:22-71, which along with Ezekiel 28:25-31:18 and Jude 1-16 form today’s readings.

I’m Reid Ferguson. And this, is Through the Word in 2020.

If you are not paying attention, what might be overlooked as an off-handed observation in John 6:23 might just get by you. Referring back to vs. 11 when Jesus prayed before breaking the loaves and fishes and feeding the 5,000 – we see that Jesus’ prayer was a prayer of thanks. The text says “and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.” No big deal – it seems. But then John makes a point of noting in vs. 23 not just that Jesus fed the crowd – which was miraculous and you would have thought was most important – but that He fed them “after the Lord had given thanks.”

What was so striking to John about the way Jesus gave thanks in that moment, that he felt he needed to include it here? We may never know. But it must have made quite the impression on John. Otherwise, why mention it at all? Wasn’t the miracle of multiplying the bread and the fish the main point? Apparently not. And apparently, we don’t need to know it. It is enough to know that He did give thanks.

And it is just here that I am reminded that the ongoing ministry of Jesus to His saints is not something we get to observe. But it is no less important because our eyes are veiled from it.

Romans 8:34 reminds us that Christ is the one who died – in our place. And more than that, He was raised and is right now at the right hand of God. And even more than that – He is there interceding, praying, for us. And while I wish I could be a fly on the wall of God’s Throne Room to hear those prayers, like in our passage – it is enough for us to know it is going on. What must those prayers and intercession be like?

Let me remind you today Christian that your Savior, the one who came and lived and died in your place on the Cross – His work didn’t stop in the miracle of His resurrection. It continues constantly in the Heavenlies. And if no one else in all the world knows your sorrow, your fears, your needs, cares and concerns, He does. And He prays for you. He talks to the Father about you. About everything that impacts you. About every detail of your life. And that just as He prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail in the troubled days ahead – so He prays for you.

You beloved, will reach the Celestial shore. And navigate all the stormy oceans between here and there. You’ll survive all of the savage attacks of the evil one, and will rise above your indwelling sin – because, and only because He prays for you. But know this well – He DOES pray for you. And if you could hear it, it would be as important to you as every other miraculous thing He has done on your behalf.

John wants us to know that even what we can’t hear – is worth remembering is nonetheless true.

What an amazing Christ we serve.

God willing, we’ll be back Monday.
Through the Word in 2020 #153 – Nov. 12 / A Glimpse of the Unseen

November 12th, 2020

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Scripture is not one dimensional. By that I mean that sometimes, what is happening in one place or to one person, is connected to other places and other people as well. We get some sense of how that works in today’s reading of Ezekiel 26-28:24 and the oracle of God against the Prince of Tyre.

We see it too in John 6:1-21 where some people thought they could just take Jesus and make Him the literal King of Israel, when there was so much more going on behind the scenes.

Those passages we’ll consider briefly today on Through the Word in 2020. And I hope you’re reading along with us, and enjoying 2 John 12-3 John 4, and Psalm 133.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

No doubt you have done some tough plowing in getting through some of Ezekiel so far. It is not an easy read. And not a little gloomy. After all, when God judges, it isn’t pretty. And Ezekiel helps us understand we ought not to take His judgments lightly.

It also reminds us that He is at work among the nations. He is not just working in individuals. He is working on a global scale and with geo-political forces. In all of these pronouncements against Tyre, Sidon, Ammon, Moab, etc., we see that they are to be devastated along with Judah.

And here is the multi-dimensional reality: One event is happening to Judah, but it is also happening to these others nations, and yet very different reasons are behind it and very different things are being accomplished.

Judah is being punished for her apostacy. The others for their complicity in Israel’s fall, and their rejoicing and hoping to profit by her devastation. Do not assume the same thing is going on in each even tho they are related and intertwined.

Of special note is the portion aimed at the Prince of Tyre. A head of state of a foreign nation. And while some of the language simply indicates that this man – whoever he was at the time, was pretty puffed up by his nation’s economic success and his own acumen – the language takes a strange turn. Suddenly we read of his being “the anointed cherub” and having been in Eden. And what is being opened up for us, though in a very slight manner, is that behind this human head of state, there was some sort of demonic influence. While we cannot unpack that fully here – the point is that you and I need to know this is often the case with political leaders, here and abroad.

When Ephesians 2:2 tells us that all of us before coming to Christ were subject to the direct influence of Satan, that isn’t poetic hyperbole. There are unseen evil powers about in the world influencing and inciting mankind to evil acts. To live unrestrained in the depths of our fallenness. And when we see the rise of the likes of an Adolf Hitler, a Pol Pot or a Stalin, we need to take note that more than just human evil is afoot.

In our own nation, it was not without demonic influence that the legalization of the slaughter of the babies in abortion came to be. And why it is so rabidly pursued by many in power.

Unseen evil forces are at work.

But don’t forget that in the Ezekiel portion, God’s judgment on that reality will be carried out in time as well. We will not be subject to such horrors permanently. God WILL judge in due time.

And thus we are incited as never before to truly plead: “Come quickly Lord Jesus.” Let your kingdom come, so that your will may be done in this earth, even the same way it is in Heaven.

This is to pray the heart, mind and will of God.

And He will do it. Praise His glorious name!

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #152 – Nov. 11 / 3 Quick Things

November 11th, 2020

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There’s a joke around our assembly, that anything the Apostle Paul can say in 10 words, I can say in 1,000. Well, jokes often find their root in some truth. Guess I’ll have to own that one.

We have 3 readings before us today, Ezekiel 24:15-25:17; John 5:30-47 and then just a snippet of 2 John vss. 2-3.

In fact, the entire book or letter of 1st John contains only 245 words in the original. A mere post card. But don’t let its compact size fool you. There’s vital stuff in those few words. And I’ll try to unpack some of it in less than a 1,000 words today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Christians are often gullible folk. It’s one of the interesting byproducts of coming to salvation, but still damaged by the remnants of indwelling sin. Jesus warned us about the tendency when He prepared the Disciples for their first preaching tour. “Behold” – pay attention – “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” In other words, don’t be naive. But don’t be hardened and bite back either.

Once we’ve come to the saving knowledge of Christ, we begin to see people as less still under the influence of Satan, the World and the Flesh. We tend to think they’ve got similar motives to ourselves – forgetting that our motives are new, and granted by the Spirit. Those still outside of Christ cannot think and feel as we do. And we need to be careful that we don’t get sucked in by thinking they want to do what is right the way the Spirit has now inclined us to.

And so it is John warns his readers in this short letter to watch out for 3 things which can trip the gullible Christian up. Deceivers will not only attack the Church from the outside, some are right in our midst already. We need expect them, and, to be prepared to detect them. But how will we know them?

There are 3 tell-tale signs to look for.

1. They will deny that Jesus Christ is God who has come in human flesh. They might claim to be “Christians” – but they will waffle on the incarnation. They will proclaim to own and follow Jesus, while at the same time denying He is actually God. Don’t get taken in.

2. They will not be content to remain with sound Biblical teaching, but will pervert it, or bring in their own invented ideas. They won’t “abide in the teaching of Christ” as vs. 8 says. They’ll have new insights or revelations that will move you from the principles of Bible interpretation, and set your eyes on things the Word never said. They will have secret knowledge they’ll say you need too.

3. They will not be characterized by a love of God’s people. It won’t be long before their private agendas will surface. And their chief concern will not be to point you over and over back to Jesus, but to something else. As though Salvation in Christ itself is just the means to some other end – rather than being conformed to the image of Christ. They will use the Church and God’s people as the means to gain power, money, recognition and even sex. We must beware.

And so John, as a faithful minister of God’s Word, gently and concisely gives us the tools to keep us from getting caught unawares. This is how a good Shepherd works. This, in the Shadow of the Great Shepherd of our souls – who has made sure we are well provided for.

That’s just 613 words. God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #151 – Nov. 10 / Our Testifying God

November 10th, 2020

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There are a lot of folk around today claiming to tell us what God is saying, right now. The implication being that what He has said in His Word is somehow deficient for the things we face in our place and time. That God needs to give us something more up-to-date. More relevant. Perhaps keeping more in step with the flow of culture.

What seems to be missing in that line of thinking is that God Himself lives outside of time. He is not bound by our place and time. And that what He has spoken already has eternal relevance, for it speaks past the things which so easily catch our eye – to the things of transcendent importance.

Reading the Messianic promise of Psalm 132; the dark pronouncements on Israel’s sin in Ezekiel 20:1-24:14; the self-revelation of Jesus in John 5:18-29 and then the testimony of God in 1 John 5:6-21 – all work to make us relevant to what God is about – not trying to make Him relevant to us. And in righting that upside understanding, He gives us His context for life.

This is Through the Word in 2020. I’m Reid Ferguson.

The place where our minds most commonly go when we hear the word “testimony”, is to a court of law. Rightly so. When someone is on trial for any cause, witnesses are called to give testimony as to what they know first hand regarding the case before them. And their witness, their testimony must be germane to this case.

It is a curious use of words then that in 1 John 5:9, God Himself is said to give testimony. What could possibly be so important that God must bear witness to something? Indeed, it should prod us to consider God’s testimony about things the most important things to be known. That should be self-evident. So what is it that is just so important?

Simply this: Who Jesus is.

Nothing in all the cosmos is more important for an individual, for the entire human race and all of creation to know aright – than who Jesus really is. And here, we’re told that God’s testimony regarding Jesus comes to us in 3 ways: “For there are 3 that testify” (vs. 7) which vs. 9 summarizes as “the testimony of God.” The Spirit, the water and the blood. 3 things which when taken together establish once and for all the identity, the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

How so?

The Water: Jesus came in the likeness of sinful man, and as a man was baptized in identification with us. The testimony of the incarnation in the waters of baptism.

The Blood: And this same Jesus died for us on the Cross. Fulfilling all of the Old testament types and shadows which pointed to a substitutionary sacrifice for sins. Jesus was numbered among us in baptism, though He came from Heaven. And in that union, died, taking the wrath of God against our sins in Himself. Shedding His own blood on our behalf.

The Spirit: The Spirit testified to this in raising Him from the dead. As Rom. 1:4 says Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And by which Spirit being poured out on us and indwelling us, we know beyond any shadow of a doubt who He is.

This, God finds the most important thing of all to give testimony about. And in the light of it, how everything else around us pales in comparison. So the question is – do you believe Him? For: “Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Nothing, is more eternally and perpetually relevant than that.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #150 – Nov. 9 / Justice

November 9th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

Justice. It’s a word we hear a lot these days. Though usually prefaced by a word like “social” first – “social justice.”

Webster’s defines justice as “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.” Of course, all of that implies there is some standard against which we can judge what is just and what is not. And every society builds its laws around its own understanding of right and wrong. Sometimes that understanding is informed by God’s Word, and sometimes not.

Not surprisingly then, God’s Word has a lot to say about justice – especially from God’s point of view. And out of our 3 readings today, John 4:46-5:17; 1 John 5:1-5 – it is Ezekiel 16-19 where justice gets some pretty interesting treatment.

I’m Reid Ferguson, and we’ll explore justice just a bit today on Through the Word in 2020.

God and God’s people had a controversy about justice.

God said, if an evil guy repents and walks with God, he’ll be treated accordingly and if a righteousness guy goes off the tracks and starts doing evil – his previous good doesn’t count. They thought God wasn’t just.

Where the Israelites erred was on 2 counts: a. They were measuring justice by how they thought things ought to work rather than the way God said it is to work. b. They set up their own standard, and didn’t like it that God got to impose His.

Now it doesn’t take a lot of looking to see that our human justice systems have their problems.

In some places, justice is for sale. And justice can be perverted for all kinds of reasons: Racial prejudice, backdoor bribes, people with status getting off easy, high paid and high powered attorneys cutting deals – you name it. But this much is sure – however justice among men may fail, God’s justice cannot.

There is a day of reckoning where there will be utter impartiality as one stands before the God who knows all and cannot be influenced by any outside power. He will judge each and every one of us – no matter how we may have escaped that justice in this life. His rules. His standards. His justice. For all.

And this is why the Gospel is so important. For God is so just, that He cannot let any sin or sinner go unaddressed. So how can there be salvation for any? As Ps. 130:3 says: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”

The answer? The satisfaction of God’s justice against sin, punished – really and truly. But in His system, against His willing Son, on behalf of all those who put their trust in Him. Justice carried out, and yet grace and mercy provided.

You and I my friend will one day stand before Him. We will have to give an answer for every wrong inclination, desire, act, word, deed and thought. And there will be a just judgment for all of them.

The only helpful plea in that day will be: “But Jesus already died in my place – and I am His!”

If you know that to be true and have cast yourself upon His mercy in trusting Jesus’ substitutionary death on your account – justice was carried out at Calvary. It is finished.

If not – you will have to face the eternal justice your sin deserves yourself.

This is God’s system.

Based upon His standard of perfect holiness.

It is miraculous.

And available to all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ.

Now that is good news indeed.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #149 – Nov. 6 / Spirit and Truth

November 6th, 2020

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Jesus meeting the woman at the well of Samaria is one of the most beloved of the Gospel accounts. And with good reason. Jesus deals gently and yet forthrightly with this woman. He confronts her sin, but not so as to condemn her, but to deliver her. In His weariness we see His humanity, and know He knows our weariness too. In His thirst He shows His humility, asking for a drink of water. And in His conversation, He makes one of the most profound Spiritual revelations we need to grasp.

We’ll talk about that a bit today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

If you’ve kept up your reading, you know today we are in Psalm 131, Ezekiel 12-15; 1 John 4:7-21 and John 4:1-45.

While it is usually thought that Samaritans had that name because they lived in Samaria, in fact the name most likely derives from a Hebrew word meaning something like “law-keepers.” Religiously, they only held to the Torah – the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament. And considered themselves more Biblically accurate than the Jews. After the Babylonian exile, they opposed the rebuilding of the Temple. They worshiped on Mt. Gerizim where Moses pronounced blessings on Israel. Hostilities between the Jews and the Samarians ran high.

So when the woman asks Jesus about who is more accurate in worship, it is not surprising. This was part of their identity. But Jesus turns the conversation. She believed she lived among the more Biblically accurate. But at the same time, she was living a lifestyle condemned by the very Torah she was so proud to own.

But then He shifts even more. He says the Jews actually are more Biblically accurate – but in both cases, the question isn’t mere theology – it is “Spirit AND truth.”

Similar to Paul’s assertion on Mars Hill, that they worshipped an “unknown god.” They had a form of worship, but they did not truly know this God nor His purposes or plans. The Samaritans had a truncated Judaism all their own. The Jews had a more accurate religion. But any religion apart from that moving from the types and shadows – no matter how accurate – to the substance, is still without merit.

We need accuracy, truth, yes, but apart from the Spirit of God Himself, we are just accurate dead men. So even if she became more Biblically accurate in rites, rituals, etc. and accepted the whole Old Testament and Temple worship, she would still be lost. Because all of these point to Christ. And apart from Him, accuracy means nothing.

The contrast here in “Spirit and Truth” is between mere accuracy (doctrinal) and life in God – obtaining the substance.

The substance is not the Law of Moses. It is Christ Himself. It is salvation though faith in His atoning sacrifice.

And that will produce a new well of living water within, which will lead to a life not rooted in “getting it right”, dotting every theological “I” and crossing every doctrinal “T” – but beholding, trusting and serving Christ.

I pray you know the truth today – that no religion can reconcile you to God – no matter how accurate. Only Christ can do that. And that He is the One who gives you of His own Spirit, that you might walk in truth, and in concert with that truth.

All of the Bible is written so as to reveal and lead you to Him. For in Him alone is eternal life.

God willing, we’ll be back Monday.
Through the Word in 2020 #147 – Nov. 4 / Divine Reluctance

November 4th, 2020

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The Father would rather that we, as His children, not need discipline.

As Lamentations 3:33 reminds us, “He does not afflict from His heart.” He takes no pleasure in our afflictions. He stands ready to forgive. Indeed He only afflicts that we might return and enjoy the abundance of His steadfast love. The “abundance” we are prevented from having while we remain in our sin.

It isn’t that our God does not love us, but that we cannot enjoy the freedom and depth and sweetness and the unfettered love that comes with nothing remaining between us to separate.

He does not afflict willingly. He does so, when He does, only out of love. Not because He has begun to love less.

John 2:13-22; 1 John 2:18-27; and Lamentations 3-Ezekiel 1 fill our reading list today. And the mystery of God’s Divine Reluctance to afflict His children when they obstinately remain in their sin – is on full display.

I’m Reid Ferguson, and this is Through the Word in 2020.

The unique structure of Lamentations points to the unique message it contains. Penned most likely by Jeremiah as he lamented over the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, it is full of grief. And yet, in the dead center of the book – when contemplating the horrors of what their sin had brought them to – we read this: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

How can he say that at this moment? Because knows vs. 33: “He does not afflict from His heart.”

Like any loving parent, but in infinite perfection – our God will discipline us at times. But there is a divine reluctance to do so. And He only does it with our perfect good in His heart. Never out of spite, raw anger, or anything like what so infects and contaminates our human efforts at discipline.

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord
No ill attends Thy dealing
Who with each wound in life afflicts
Yet plots my sick soul’s healing

In faithfulness and charity
Thy kind hand works in blessing
Allowing, crafting, crushing more
Thine Image sorely pressing

A softer will I plead O Lord
‘Tis not Your work which harms me
The cold and hardness of my heart
Is what in pain alarms me

Break me, melt me, mold me fully
Spare not each needed turning
Apply the fire of perfect love
Thy loving, cleansing, burning

Till pliable, and yielded up
And stripped of sin’s resistance
The vessel made emerges wrought
Of Love’s divine persistence

O Faithful Lord and Master mine
Make me to show Thy glory
The work of Christ’s redeeming love
Will be my endless story

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord
No ill attends Thy dealing
Who with each wound in life afflicts
Yet plots my sick soul’s healing

Think on that today Christian.

It is why your sin is so uncomfortable.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 – Special Election Day Edition

November 3rd, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

As we head into this election day, in the midst of a nation, and a Church tossed by upset, concern, confusion and uncertainty, 3 passages of Scripture come to mind. I pray they are useful for you today. They are God’s Word.

The 1st is a letter God asked Jeremiah to send to the Jewish exiles in Babylon in Jer. 29.

The substance of the letter was to give them comfort and direction in the most uncertain of circumstances. And somewhat like ourselves, they were in exile. We are too, until Christ comes. This world, is not our home.

What did God say? Pursue life as normally as possible in the strange circumstances where you are. And especially: “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Babylon had its own pagan values and its own anti-God ways. But God’s people were there. And we too are to want the best for this nation, and to be praying for it and our lost neighbors in times when it might seem like we are in captivity to a broken, godless system. Not to rail against it, but pray for it. And trust our God to bless us and THEM! In it.

The 2nd passage is Eph. 5:18, and it’s closing admonition to be “filled with the Spirit.” More literally – to be about the business of being filled with the Spirit, always.

Never is the need to live under the Spirit’s influence more evident than in such confusing and odd times as these. Never is the need to live lives fully under the Spirit’s influence as an evidence of who we are in Christ to the world – more pressing.

Hear again what such Spirit fullness is like lived out. That in the midst of all we face and experience today – because Christ in on His throne and we are His – we are to be a people of joy; of peace – peaceful and promoting peace; longsuffering with others – saved and unsaved – irrespective of political party or affiliation; responding to all in kindness – even those who misunderstand or mistreat us; remaining good and upright in all we do; faithful in trusting our Lord; gentle, even toward the rancorous; and self-controlled in the face of chaos.

Be being filled today Christian. Stun the world. We must be Spirit filled, even on election day. No matter who prevails in the polls. Christ has not ceased to reign.

Lastly, Psalm 121:1-2: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

I spoke with a health-care professional this week who had been researching the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. He noted that the second wave was worse than the first. And that the basic run of the outbreak lasted 2 years.

Certainly we live in a day of great advancement in medicine over those days.

We hope and pray for vaccines and other measures to stem our current crisis.

But no matter what, should it end sooner rather than later, or take an unexpected turn for the worse – with all that such a turn might bring – our hope is not in elections, medicines, governmental measures, experts in various fields or economic recovery – it is in the Lord. The one who made the heavens and the earth. The one who sent His Son to die for our sins. The one who has promised never to leave us or forsake us, even to the very end of this age. The one who promises the resurrection.

Keep your eyes fixed on Him Beloved. Walk in that peace that truly defies the understanding of the World as they observe our Spirit filled temperament and attitude. Make them jealous for such peace and security – that they too might seek our Christ.

Pray for the welfare of America.

Be – being filled with the Spirit.

Look to the Lord – and no help on earth in all of the uncertainty of the days ahead.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #145 – Nov. 2 / The Glory of Jesus at Cana

November 2nd, 2020

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If you’d like to join us in our journey reading all the way through the Bible this year, drop me a line at reid.ferguson@gmail.com, and I’ll be glad to email back a copy of the reading plan we are using.

One of the tendencies we have, is to take a Bible passage and sort of appropriate it for our own ends, without considering why it was written in the first place.

Out of our 4 passages today, Jeremiah 52-Lamentations 2; Psalm 129; 1 John 2:7-17 and John 1:43-2:12 – none is more subject to that use than is the account of Jesus at the wedding in Cana. It’s almost universally used at weddings. And usually in the context of showing how God approves of and blesses them.

Now it is true that marriage is a gift from God. He instituted it. That part of His plan for human flourishing is located in the sanctity of monogamous marriage between one man and one woman. It’s indisputable Biblically. But is that what this passage is really all about?

I’m Reid Ferguson and we’ll dive into that a bit today on Through the Word in 2020.

If we are careful readers, often, texts like this one, provide their own rationale for being written. In this case, it’s located in vs. 11. Turning the water into wine was “the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.”

Don’t miss that last part. What what He doing in this event? Manifesting, making known His glory. The question is how? And at least 4 ways seem to come to the surface.

First, in the miracle of the wine itself, He made Himself known as all powerful. No such thing had ever been done before, or since. Gallons of simple drinking water were instantaneously and without fanfare turned into wine. Who could do such a thing? None but the Almighty God.

Second, was His willingness to be entreated, even when it seemed out of place. He was approachable. A demonstration of the appellation given to Him from Isaiah 7 – Immanuel, God WITH us. Not God afar, way off in Heaven. God among us. God, approachable in Jesus Christ. What a glorious revelation. And, it’s a graphic demonstration of James’ teaching that often, the case is, we have not, because we ask not. He is far more willing to be entreated, than we are to even ask.

Third, note the glory of His humility. He had complete disregard for who got the credit. The “master of the feast” would be a trusted friend, whose job it was to arrange everything for the party. He took the credit. And Jesus didn’t bat an eye. He is meek and lowly. Humble. Do not miss the glory of His humbleness.

And lastly, only the servants knew what had really happened. To them, He was revealed. He delights to make Himself known to nobodies. The prideful and the arrogant miss it when God manifests Himself. Because they are too busy looking at themselves, and how others regard them. But to those who know their poverty of soul and station – who have no eye on self – who know they are in need, He makes Himself known as the One who can and will provide the deepest need of their souls. And will meet them in the cares of everyday life as well.

What a glorious Savior.

All powerful. Approachable. Humble and graciously condescending to lowliest of men.

This first of His signs was stunning indeed. And almost all of them – missed it.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.