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Free Daily Bible thoughts by Rev. Stephen Thompson

Daily Bible thoughts 1250: Friday 14th October 2016: John 15: 9-17: Enjoying Jesus’ love.

John 15: 9-17: Enjoying Jesus’ love.(please click for todays passage)

At a superficial glance, it may appear that Jesus is saying that we can earn His love by being obedient to Him. However, the message in these verses is not about earning but enjoying. ‘The Message’ makes this clearer I think:

”Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.”

We cannot earn the love of Jesus by being obedient to His commands; but by such obedience we will enjoy the fullness of His love. Those who walk in disobedience to Him, who trample on their own consciences, will feel a distance in their relationship with Jesus. He still loves them, but they will fail to feel the warm sunshine of His love tanning their souls. We can’t live how we please and enjoy all that Jesus has for us.

A particular command is emphasised here:

”This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends…

…remember the root command: Love one another.”

So many other commands of Jesus are contained in this one. When you boil it all down, the Christian life is about loving God and loving people.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1249: Thursday 13th October 2016: John 15:1-8: The Source of fruitfulness.

 John 15:1-8: The Source of fruitfulness.(please click for todays passage)

”Do not confound work and fruit. There is much work for Christ that is not the fruit of the heavenly Vine.” Andrew Murray.

The ”fruit” we bear as disciples of Christ is to the ”Father’s glory” and by it our identity is revealed (8). It is God’s ambition for us that we should ”bear much fruit” (5, 8); and let us not forget the vital, yet painful, contribution of the pruning knife in the production of a greater crop (2b). We may not like this truth, but if honest, surely we will say that it feels like we grew the most when times were hardest.

The key to fruit-bearing is to ”remain” in Jesus (4, 5, 6, 7), and for Him to ”remain” in you. Notice the repetition of this word. It is the continuous, living connection with Jesus ”the true vine” (1) that is indispensable.

The ”fruit” produced on the Vine is linked to the nature of the tree. A vine produces grapes – not apples, oranges or pears. And the fruit of a life in Christ will be a Christ-like life.

”…apart from me you can do nothing.” (5b). The deep, inward apprehension of this truth will transform your prayer life. It will fill prayer meetings. Prayerless people and prayerless churches probably just don’t get this. It certainly looks and feels that way. Recognition of our utter helplessness apart from Christ will bring us to our knees and keep us on our knees. There are many things we can do without prayer, and many of them may appear spectacular and impressive. (I guess the Tower of Babel did!) But we cannot glorify God in the production of much and lasting ”fruit”.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, please keep my heart in closest contact with you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1248: Wednesday 12th October 2016: John 15:1-8: The cleansing Word.

 John 15:1-8: The cleansing Word.(please click for todays passage)

”You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (3).

”Cleansing her by the washing with water through the word…” (Ephesians 5:26).

I had a very dear friend; a Scotsman called John, who came back to solid faith in Jesus during the time I was living in Morecambe, and helping to plant a church in Lancaster.John had spent years in ‘the wilderness.’ So he was now playing catch up. He became a keen Christian and avidly read the Bible. It was exciting to spend time with John and converse with him. We spent hours together talking about the things of God. He lived in the Scriptures, and was profoundly drawn to Paul’s letter to the ‘Romans’. But by now his memory was not what it had been, although he was still  physically strong and active. He bemoaned the fact that he wasn’t retaining much of what he read. ”But, I suppose,” he said to me, ”it’s like water going through a sieve. It cleanses as it goes.”

Jesus’ Word is a cleansing Word.

It is also a clarifying Word (7). 

How do you know what to pray? How can you know that your prayers will be answered? The Bible itself will clarify things for you. In Timothy Keller’s excellent book on prayer, he emphasises the great tradition going back to the reformers, that encourages prayer to arise from meditation on Scripture. Pray the Bible. Take what you are reading and reflecting upon, and turn it into prayer.

The ‘rails’ for prayer are laid down in God’s Word. It is up to us to travel on them.

PRAYER: Lord, I don’t want to get ‘derailed’!

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Daily Bible thoughts 1242: Tuesday 4th October 2016: John 13:31-38: The power of love.

 John 13:31-38: The power of love.(please click for todays passage)

When Judas ”went out” (30), Jesus knew it was time for Him to die (31, 32). He knew that this treacherous ‘follower’ would trigger the events leading to His arrest and sufferings.

When Judas ”went out…it was night” (30). But it was the time for Jesus to shine with supreme glory. This is what we see in the Cross – the glory of God.

In the light of His soon departure, Jesus spoke so tenderly, kindly and gently to His beloved disciples (33). ”My children…” Let’s be careful how we handle precious people. Who can say what pain lies behind each carefully constructed facade? Probably everyone carries some wounds. In fact, cross out the ‘probably’. Hurt and tears are universal realities. May God help us to be gentle.

How did Jesus want His disciples to conduct themselves after His leaving (34, 35)? He wanted them to be a loving community. Don’t miss the importance of these words.

See the evangelistic power of love. People are hungry for true love, and the more perfectly it is expressed (even in an imperfect world) the more people will be drawn to it. It is known that in the pagan world in which Christianity took root, there were those who were saying, ‘See how these Christians love one another.’ What a testimony.

But we are far from perfect. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves (36-38). We mean well, but we often find that our fine-sounding words and good intentions go up in flames when we’re in the furnace. The Lord is never taken by surprise. He knows what is in us; what we are really made of. We are not yet ‘finished articles’, so humility is called for.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I ask that our church community will be a powerful and vivid advert for life in the Kingdom of God.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1240: Friday 30th September 2016: John 13:6-11: Dirty feet.

 John 13:6-11: Dirty feet.(please click for todays passage)

You have to smile at Peter, don’t you? I know that in smiling at him we are regularly smiling at ourselves, but I have to admit he makes me smile. You see the contours of a real, larger than life character appearing on the page. The Biblical portrait of Peter bursts out in vivid, flawed realism.

Initially, Peter was resistant to having his feet washed by Jesus (6, 8a). It didn’t seem fitting and proper to let the Master be the slave in these circumstances. He wasn’t having that.

Jesus’ words of reply (7) to Peter’s initial shocked question (6) apply to many circumstances in life. I remember someone sending a bereavement card to my family after my mum died in her early 50’s. It made reference to this verse. Life throws up many mysteries.

After Jesus had corrected Peter’s faulty thinking (8b), typically the disciple was enthusiastically ‘all or nothing ‘ in his response; wanting to do the right thing: ”Then…not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” (9). But  in the East in those days, a person might bathe in the morning. When they arrived at a home where they were visiting they wouldn’t need a bath. It’s just that their feet would have got dusty and dirty on those hot, dry roads (10a). Jesus reminded Peter about this.

When someone becomes a Christian they ‘have a bath’, you might say. They are thoroughly washed and cleansed by Jesus. But on this Christian ‘walk’ our ‘feet’ get dirty. They need regular washing. We must learn to ‘keep short accounts’ with God (1 John 1;6-10). We are truly grateful for the once-for-all bath, but we will keep offering our ‘feet’ to Jesus for His cleansing work: ”…what we need day by day is the regular washing of those parts of ourselves, our personalities and bodies, which get dusty and dirty. When Peter objects to Jesus washing him, this reflects his objection (in Mark 8.32 and elsewhere) to Jesus going to the cross. Neither he nor the others have yet understood what it is that Jesus has to do, and why.” (Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone’,pp.45, 46.)

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Daily Bible thoughts 1239: Thursday 29th September 2016: John 13:1-5; 12a: The drama of salvation.

 John 13:1-5; 12a: The drama of salvation.(please click for todays passage)

Many years ago, I read in a book by the leading evangelical Anglican rector, John Stott, that there is a strong parallel with Philippians 2:5-11 at this point in John 13. Jesus ”got up from the meal”, just as He got up from His heavenly throne. He ”took off his outer clothing”, just as He divested Himself of His heavenly glory. Then He ”wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.” This reminds us how Jesus, the second Person of the Godhead, ”emptied himself”; He made himself of ”no reputation”. He took ”the very nature of a servant” and ”humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” He did all this to wash our souls, to cleanse us from sin. ”This is our God, the servant King.” This is what God is like, and ‘He calls us now to follow him; to bring our lives as a daily offering, of service to the                        servant King’ (12-17).

So the drama of salvation is beautifully painted in this breathtaking scene, including His exaltation to the highest place (12/ Philippians 2:9-11).

If we cannot marvel at these truths, I wonder if anything will ever cause us to wonder. But we must go beyond standing and staring at the glory. This has to make a difference in our daily lives and relationships (12-17). We are called by Jesus to emulate Jesus, and we need to believe that anything He asks of us He will also enable. Such a life may seem beyond you. In fact, if you feel that, you probably do have some understanding of what the Master is requiring. But you also need to be sure that He will equip you to follow in His steps.

Whatever the truth you are being shown, it is in the doing of it that you will find the blessing (17).

”So let us learn how to serve, and in our lives enthrone him; each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving.’ Graham Kendrick.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1238: Wednesday 28th September 2016: John 13:2, 10,11: One step ahead.

John 13:2, 10, 11: One step ahead.(please click here for todays passage)

It is impossible to make sense of the evil in the world without reference to that malevolent personality we call the devil. He is not merely an influence; a force for badness. He is a real, intelligent being who can ‘prompt’ people to do wrong (2). Even though he is unseen, his presence cannot be always hidden.

”The devil had already put the idea of betraying him into the heart of Judas…” (Tom Wright). 

Wright says Judas allowed ”the devil’s whispered suggestion to gain a foothold in his imagination…notice how evil creeps in between the cracks at the very moment when love is going to the limit.” ‘John for everyone’, p.45.

You may be aware of ‘ideas’ planted in your heart by the arch-imposter – things you are thinking and feeling that you know to be wrong. Don’t play with them. Don’t toy with them. Declare war on them in the Name of Jesus. Nail them to the cross. Do it to them before they do it to you! Don’t allow sinful thoughts to nest in your soul and hatch their poisonous eggs.

Take heart though. Whatever Satan plans to do, Jesus is one step ahead of him. He knows what is going to happen, and what He permits He uses for His glory.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me when I see things inside me I should not tolerate. Enable me to be ruthless in identifying and rooting out those ‘seeds’ planted by the evil one.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1237: Tuesday 27th September 2016: John 13:1: Endless love.

John 13:1: Endless love.(please click for todays passage)

”There is no creature, regardless of its apparent insignificance, that fails to show us something of God’s goodness.” Thomas a Kempis.

Nothing takes Jesus by surprise. It is significant when we read that ”It was just before the Passover Feast.” Jesus was about to die as the ultimate ”Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). His death was no accident. As we have seen many times in this gospel, the Father was in control. All Jesus’ movements, in life and death, were according to a Divine timetable. His dying was a deliberate act of sacrifice. The climax of His ministry was not a simple, straightforward tragedy, however it appears on the surface. It was a leaving of ”this world” to ”go to the Father”. Death is like this for every believer. It’s the ultimate house move. It’s moving home.                                                                                                                       There are many things we can say about the cross. In addition to being able to assert that:

  • it is significant (full of Old Testament sacrificial resonance); and that
  • It is under God’s sovereign governance;

We can also say:

  • it shows God’s heart. A preacher said, ”We talk about wearing the heart on the sleeve; God wore His heart on a cross. Calvary displays ”the full extent” of Jesus’ love.

I like the translation that says: ”Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” That challenges me like this: ‘Do I have a love that goes the distance with people?’ It’s easy to give up on difficult people and allow distance to grow between you. But this is not the way of Jesus.

”It must become a spiritual discipline to look for the good in people buried beneath the pettiness, resentments, and ambitions that irritate us about each other.” From ‘Subterranean’ by Dan White Jr.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please help me to love like you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 1236: Monday 26th September 2016: John 12:37-50: Stubborn blindness.

John 12:37-50: Stubborn blindness.(please click for todays passage)

”Jesus is the window into God.” Michael Green.

John makes a remarkable statement about Isaiah (41), but it is even more a staggering assertion about Christ. It probably refers to the vision of God’s glory the prophet saw, recorded in chapter 6 of the book that bears his name. John says that in fact he ”saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.” To see Jesus, is to see the Father (44, 45; 14:9).

I find it helpful, in looking at verses 37-41, to see that it first says ”they…would not believe in him” (37) before it says ”they could not believe” (39). There are ‘none so blind as those who will not see.’ You can’t see if you won’t see, and in the previous section Jesus had warned about making the most of ”the light” while they still had it (35, 36). There can come a time when our hearts are so hardened that we cannot repent, and ultimately all must face judgment (48). 

Yet again though, Jesus was not met with wall to wall spiritual blindness (42). There were ”many even among the leaders” who believed. However, it was a response without backbone. Something was lacking. As Bishop J.C. Ryle said, a soldier is not ashamed of his uniform.

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