Jan 23
-
kimlanman added a text contribution King / John 18:28-40The King. The King who defeats what holds us by being abused by us and painfully bearing all that is wrong and hateful and selfish and base in us. The King who doesn't have to defend himself because he doesn't need to prove anything to really be the King - that's just something He is. The King that sees what He's going to face and is still willing to turn a conversation to give Pilate a chance to see in the light and put his faith in Him. The King that the leaders reject for… Read more »
Jan 16
-
kimlanman added a text contribution In the Story / John 18:15-27The juxtaposition of Jesus and Peter are strking. We can't help but feel that Jesus is taking on the world on our behalf and we aren't any help. And yet he does it. He does all he does for us and in spite of us. The point isn't that Peter should have done something so Jesus didn't have to face what was happening. The point is that there are all kinds of ways of standing in opposition to what Jesus is doing. Opposition to him can look like Caiaphas or Annas trying to get hi… Read more »
Jan 9
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Time to Act / John 18:1-14There comes a time when preparation is complete, praying has created readiness and it is time to trust the hand of God and act. And so Jesus enters into death in order to bring life, into suffering in order to bring healing. John highlights different events not in the other Gospels. John's purpose in writing and creativity makes us have to pay attention. He doesn't do anything without it meaning something. Even though the prayer and the sweat as drops of blood are important and the str… Read more »
Dec 21
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Enter in / John 16:24-33Each season of the with-God life is another opportunity to enter in to the fullness of the relationship and power made available to us with God by Christ and take responsibility for a life lived. It wasn't that they hadn't prayed or hadn't done great ministry. It was that they had only begun. They were just beginning to tap into the way Jesus prayed, the way Jesus knew the Father. It was becoming available and these words of Jesus are a call to enter in. it won't always be ea… Read more »
Dec 12
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Faith, not sightOur faith is based on Jesus: who he is, what he's done, what is his and what good he will yet do. It becomes difficult to will that confidence in him when that faith is based totally on something we believe about him and his plans and not about what we see or our assumptions about what is reality. What is reality anyway? Is it something that comes from our wisdom or judgment? Or is reality what God is planning or creating? Sorry for the obvious. But I have to state the obvious to give my fa… Read more »
Oct 10
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Served to Become a Servant / John 13:1-17At first glance it would appear that Jesus doesn't understand the way forward. Or maybe our world doesn't have a clue. Because if we take our cue from Jesus we would have enough confidence in our relationship with God to have nothing to prove and be able to look something less that we think of an authority figure. But the way forward isn't putting someone down or lifting ourselves up so that someone might follow us. It is serving and loving and lifting because the way forward is t… Read more »
Oct 3
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Our Life for His / John 12:26-50It is a dangerous thing to try to tell God what His law is teaching. We must go through life asking, "Lord, what is it you mean and what are you doing?" One of the most dangerous things we say is, "It just makes sense that God would…" 'Just' & 'makes sense' are not what we need. What we need is revelation and all God is bringing. God is accomplishing His redemptive purposes for the world. Lifted up, accomplishing for us what we cannot. Drawing us, help… Read more »
Sep 26
-
kimlanman added a text contribution His Life for Ours / John 12:12-25The various responses to Jesus are strikingly different. Praise, accepting him as King, worshiping Him as God the Messiah on the one hand. Looking for ways to kill Him on the other. Rejection & thinking the worst of Him are not a lot different. And the there are those, the Greeks in this text, who just want to see Him. Jesus answer seems odd until you realize how it is He offers Himself, and how it is we follow Him. There is a whole lot of giving and receiving involved. Because He gives Hi… Read more »
Sep 19
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Lavish Love / John 12:1-11What is an appropriate expression of love and adoration? We struggle with it even with gifts for our loved ones or food for the hungry. But when it comes to Jesus, it becomes even more difficult. It could be appropriate to host a dinner and honor him and serve him and give him some needed recovery/refreshing time. Mary's love was so deep, whether it was that He had forgiven her or that He had taken her on as a disciple ("sat at his feet" at an earlier dinner at their home). We don… Read more »
Sep 13
-
kimlanman added a text contribution One for All / John 11:45-57God-signs. What is a person to do with them? We could be driven by pride. "I was there. I saw the real deal." As if that makes us something more than a bystander. We could try to turn it to our benefit. "Surely people would want to come and learn the new principles we have now." We could respond in fear, driven by what it might do to our position and control. "We could lose what little power and privilege we have if this continues," was the response of the religious… Read more »
Aug 31
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Leading us to faith / John 11:1-16The Lord led his disciples into situations that didn't seem wise to them. Heading right into the hands of those who would do him harm seemed like less than a wise strategy. Waiting till the man dies doesn't seem like an effective strategy for being of help. It seems that we would realize that we should be slow to say, "The Lord would never want us to, " or "It only makes sense that what the Lord would want is…" When has it ever made sense? And why do we think that t… Read more »
Aug 23
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The Voice of LIfe/John10:22-42Why is it that someone always wants Jesus, or Christians to prove something? Maybe because we are all like that to some extent. We want things to be so obvious we don't have to accept it by faith. But we want to say, "prove it" even more when we are trying not to accept what is right in front of our eyes and we have heard and understood but don't want to have to give up any control to the truth of the way things are and who deserves our life. There are all kinds of reasons to… Read more »
Aug 15
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The One Deserving/John10:1-21Jesus is the One who deserves every bit of our allegiance and love and service and delight. It is He who made us. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Not only does He deserve our giving ourselves totally and completely to Him, but He is the only one that it is worth it for us to belong to. People get confused in thinking that because God blesses everyone to some extent (sun rises on evil and good…) that the decision to walk with Christ is one way to find a kind of good life, but there a… Read more »
Aug 9
-
kimlanman added a text contribution So the Works of God might be DisplayedIsn't it odd how much we concern ourselves with people we think of as "sinful" so that we can decide whether they deserve their bad situation or their rejection from society. I don't know why we don't see all people as opportunities for God's glory to be evidenced in his grace. Every situation is a chance for God's rule to come in such a way that people experience the good God had in mind. As long as we stay stuck in the questions of the disciples or the attitu… Read more »
Jul 30
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The Journey UpwardIt is amazing to think that the source of joy and gladness are not from the things we seek to produce such experiences. A great meal, a rush of pleasure, a problem free day seem like just the ticket. But the truth of the matter is that real gladness and joy are experienced most fully and ecstatically in those who make it their practice to offer gratitude to God. Gratitude turns into an awareness of the goodness of God. When the vision of God's goodness is expressed we find ourselves beyond… Read more »
Jul 27
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The Validating WitnessThere are so many things we don't see, at least not clearly. We see and don't know what we're seeing. Just today as I was journaling I realized (God showed me) how self-centered and prideful my view has been that thought I deserved something different or more than I had. And that lack of seeing clearly led me to act more harshly, even though I thought of myself as grace-filled and understanding and on people's side. It makes me wonder how many more things I don't reall… Read more »
Jul 23
-
Some words are more than just beautiful words of prayer or insightful words of life with God. Some words, like these words, almost immediately flow from our own hearts and are filled with yearning, with desire for all that is good, for all that is God. I must have God or even the good thing is no longer good, apart from having Him, from belonging to Him, from being in conversation with Him, from pleasing Him, there is nothing that is "good enough" to please or truly be good to us. Ther… Read more »
Jul 1
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The Obedience of Love / Romans 13Good attitudes and hearts full of love are not exempt from obeying authorities and treating people with the respect they deserve. Respect authorities, be faithful to your wife, don't take what isn't yours are all a piece of the same thing, live a life of love. We don't have a lot of time to learn this friends. Wake up, live the life that is really life. Honor God, do good, please God and bless this lost world. Read more »
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Choosing the Bread / John 6:53-71Feeding on Jesus, accepting what he has done for us and entering into life with him is only a beginning point. Hard to grasp and live out as it is, what is that compared to seeing him ascend to heaven where he was before. These are the early, first steps of spiritual beginnings. Yet there are those who don't take the steps. We have to respond to the Father who enables us to come to Jesus, we have to have the life that comes from listening and asking and trusting him, until we can say - ther… Read more »
Jun 27
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Jesus: the real deal / John 6:15-58How hard it must be to provide for people what they need and not what they don't need. It's hard with our kids. It's harder with people who have great need or hunger. We sometimes give something that I'm afraid is more about our conscience than it is about them or their needs. We give something, but we don't always give hope. Jesus avoided the temptation to do what he didn't come to do. It was a good thing. It was what everyone wanted, or at least they thought they… Read more »
Jun 25
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Relinquishment / Matthew 26:36-46One of the most striking pieces of Jesus life is that He asked the Father for something that he didn't receive. Isn't there another way? Is there no less costly or less painful way to redeem mankind? If our Lord had to learn how to lay down his own will and accept another will, the will of the Father, then surely it is one of the main lessons we have to learn. Foster says that in the beginning our will is in struggle with God's will. We beg. We pout. We demand. We expect God to pe… Read more »
Jun 20
-
kimlanman added a text contribution God at work / John 6:1-14God is among us. He has come. Who He is and what He does is definitely God activity. John doesn't want us to miss how much Jesus is God or how much he is able to care for those who will turn to Him. In so many ways Jesus changes what it means to know God and develop spiritually. Being religious seems like a completely different experience than we see in the people hanging out with Jesus. Religion is trying, and remembering. The Jewish religion centered around festivals that remembered some… Read more »
Jun 17
-
kimlanman added a text contribution The full of love, going full tilt, completely faithful life / Romans 12:9-21People who get really good at something, whether it is Micheal Jordan or Tiger Woods, or whoever, can do amazing things because they keep working on the basics. Nothing works without the basics firmly in place. After the discussion of a life that belongs fully to God by offering, by commitment, by using what God has given for His Kingdom and His glory, it's a good time to review the basics. Life with God doesn't work if we forget the main things. it strikes me as I read this amazing li… Read more »
Jun 14
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Getting It Right / John 5:30-47To say Jesus got it right is a ridiculous understatement. But it is important for us to say nonetheless. If we become willing to say that he got life right and faith right and perspective on God and the world right and what we're here to do right, then we both trust him and imitate him. He spoke only truth from the Father and so he got it right. The Father validated him and so he got it right. Actually John validated him too, but that was only mentioned because it would have meaning to his… Read more »
Jun 11
-
kimlanman added a text contribution Psalm 139 / Prayer of ExamenTime spent considering our life and what we have noticed of God at work is time well spent. We do more than see into ourselves more deeply, even though we do that. We see God in our lives and God at work in the world. It leads us to remember the works of our God. We remember God promising to bless the world through his people. We remember God saving his people who would do the blessing by taking them out of slavery and granting them a promised land. We remember God maintaining his relationship t… Read more »