Lost post.

A wonderful thing happened to me just recently. I read John chapter 7, which really hit home for me, and then I get online start to write up my blog on it, ran out of time to finish it, so I figured I would save it and finish it later. Yeah, not happening. I log back in to finish it up, can’t find it. Its completely gone. I am not a happy camper. I will continue to search or just rewrite it.

!!!! This just in!!!! I found it!!!! It was saved under manage on my dashboard. Whew!!! I was just looking for it in my regular dashboard. D’OH!

John 6

The list of miracles Jesus performs just keep growing in this chapter. Some of the more well known miracles happen here. The feeding of the 5000, and of course Jesus walking on water! Now I am not sure how anyone else feels but if I were to witness these things firsthand, there would be absolutely no doubt in my mind who Jesus was. Yet as we continue to read in this chapter, some of Jesus’ disciples start to question Him. ” This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” And shortly thereafter, some of them leave. But Jesus knew who believed and who didn’t and he also knew there was one among the twelve still remaining who would betray him.

Key verse: At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the twelve and asked, “Are you going to leave, too?”

The disciples who left were complaining, they were saying things like Oh man, this is too hard, and how can anyone accept or believe this? And Jesus turned to the remaining disciples and asked if they were going to leave too. Basically what it boils down to is, either you accept Jesus or you reject him. There is no ” I accept him BUT….” Someone else once said, “walk on left side of road, safe, walk on right side of road, safe, walk in middle of road….squished like grape!” ( Oh man, I think I’m going to Hell. I just quoted the Bible and The Karate Kid in one blog. Now that’s just wrong!) As we grow in our faith, some of his teachings and words hit really close to home, and make us examine ourselves on a deeper level, and this can be a very hard thing to do. Some people just turn away because it is too hard, or it is too difficult to understand.

My prayer: Lord, as I grow in my faith and delve into your word, please help me to understand what it is your words are teaching me, to give me the wisdom to apply it in my life, and the strength to be able to face my shortcomings. To grow, to change, and to be a better disciple and example to others. Amen.

John 5

The man at the well in Bethesda.

When Jesus returns to Jerusalem, he sees a man lying by the pool. Now when Jesus sees him He knows how long he had been ill and been laying by the pool for a chance to be healed by the waters. He can’t get into the pool himself, and no one will come to help him when the water is stirred up. It seems to be pretty hopeless for this man. Until Jesus came and healed him. Right then, he got up a was able to walk.

Key Verse: Jesus told him, Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!

In the entire time this man was beside the pool looking and waiting for an attempt to be healed, he was never able to get in the pool. And no one ever bothered to help this man. It all seemed pretty hopeless, but that is where Jesus came in to his life, much like our own lives. We all have things in our lives that paralyze us, or just make us feel completely trapped and hopeless at times, but God is there to help us to overcome these things. He may even have a plan for us to use our experience to help others through the same things, and to also spread God’s glory. And that is a very comforting thing.

My prayer: Lord, I have been through some really rough patches in my life and at times they have seemed pretty hopeless, and I am incredibly thankful that you were in my life to help me get through them. I know that there are a lot of people around that are also going through a time in their lives that also seem pretty hopeless, I pray that they come and seek You out, and that can know that it’s not as hopeless as it may seem. That through you all things are possible. Amen.

John 4

This is the chapter we find Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well. This in and of itself is a big deal since at this time, Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans. Even His disciples, when they returned, were astonished He was talking to her. So it is no surprise that the Samaritan woman was completely taken aback that Jesus was even talking to her. Jesus during this conversation with the Samaritan woman, talks about the Living Water that He offers. “People are soon thirsty again after drinking this water. “But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.” He tells her to go and get her husband, but she tells Him that she has no husband, but He already knows this and continues on and goes into detail about her life. Eventually revealing to her that He is the Messiah. After this conversation with Jesus, she truly comes to realize who he is and just drops everything and goes to bring more people and shout to anyone she can about Jesus. Which brings me to what, to me, is the key verse.

Key verse: “Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.” Jesus made this point just by talking to the Samaritan woman. Just by the fact that when his disciples returned and were surprised He was talking to her, makes me think that they may not have talked to her about Jesus. Just because of who she was. Christians at times make excuses as to why we don’t talk to people about Christ. Things like, “I don’t really know what to say”, or ” What if I don’t have all the answers”, or “What will they think of me” or even “They are not ready to to believe”. Jesus makes it very clear that there are people all around us just waiting to hear God’s word, that is the harvest just waiting to be reaped.

My prayer: Lord, I know I sometimes fall into this category of making excuses, where the opportunity to talk about You comes up, but I think of a dozen reasons to keep my mouth shut. I pray that each time this opportunity arises, I grab it and do my best to share Christ with others. I pray that not just for me, but for anyone who struggles with this that they may find the strength and the means to spread Your word and Your glory to others who are just waiting to hear about You. They are all around us, we just need to reap the harvest. Amen.

John 3

Let me just start off by noting that there is a whole lot going on in this chapter. From the beginning you have Nicodemus, a Pharisee, seeking Jesus out himself. Now Pharisees were the ruling council back then and rather jealous of Jesus since he challenged their views and really undermined their authority. So Nicodemus seeking out Jesus is quite a huge thing. And after speaking to Jesus, Nicodemus later became convinced Jesus was the Messiah and actually would speak up on His behalf. This is also where you get the verse everyone knows, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that any who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Now it would be easy to say that this is the key verse in this chapter, Well, it really is, but I would like to dig a little deeper into this one. Jesus goes on to talk about those who refuse to believe in him, or just reject Him outright, and the reasons why they do this. And it really does shed some light into why this happens.

Key Verse (for me anyway): Jesus says, Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hated the light because they want to sin in the darkness.They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. A lot of people don’t want God’s light shining on their lives for what it may reveal. And that they do not want to be changed. These same people are threatened by our desire to do what is right by God, since it just may expose the darkness in their own lives.

My prayer: Lord, I strive everyday to do what is right, to be more Christlike in my actions and words, and my daily life. I pray that I can be a better example, rather Living Proof ,to those I come into contact with on a daily basis and that by witnessing my example they might come to seek You out much like Nicodemus did. And in so doing come to know you, and believe in you.

John 2

Key verse: All right, Jesus replied, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

My Reflections: Now the Jewish leaders, completely freaked out thinking He was talking about their Temple, which had been around for about 500 years, and had taken many years just to build. But he was really talking about Himself . This is Jesus basically telling everyone what was going to happen and what He was going to do. He was describing His death and resurrection! Now later on, after His resurrection, His disciples would remember these words and those words would become the greatest proof that Christ was God.

My Prayer: Lord, as I read through John, I see people who are prejudiced against you, approach you with disbelief, but as soon as they see your glory, and your truth, they are forever changed! I pray that, as leaders, we can guide more people to come to see your glory just like these people here did, and in turn be forever changed.

Absence

I must say this has been an extremely busy month for me. I have missed out on several Fridays this month and it doesn’t look to get any better for a couple more weeks. It just seems that everything that needs to get done apparently needs to get done on a Friday night!

The weekend of Jan. 13th, that was the weekend I went through my E.M.T. refresher course so that I can get recertified as an E.M.T. (My certification expired Jan. 1st, I kinda had to get it done.) So I thought, great, one Friday, not the end of the world, but, still, I do miss LP when I am not there no matter what I am doing. I can’t wait to be there next Friday! ummmm…. yeah, apparently that wasn’t going to happen either.

I get a call that following Monday that there was to be an officers meeting on , of course, Friday night! Ok, make that 2 weeks in a row. Not the end of the world again, I will just be back next Friday. (Man do I miss LP, and all the people!)

Sigh, two days later I get an e-mail, apparently we are trying out a new bass player for the CT Christian Academy Sweetheart banquet and private auction. Guess which day….FRIDAY!!!!! UGHHHH, am I ever going to able to get back to LP again?!?!?! Ok, we’ll get this tryout done and then I can go back to Friday night LP. Right?

WRONG!!!!!!

Now we are going to have practices the next TWO Fridays until the banquet. I know I miss a lot when I miss one Friday night, but now I will be missing 6! I will be at LP however on the First Sunday of the month, and then, following the Feb. 9th banquet, from there on out. I look forward to it!

John 1

Read: John 1

Key Verse: Nazareth! exclaimed Nathanael. Can anything good come from there?

Just come see for yourself. Philip said
Mr Reflections: When Nathanael first heard Jesus was from Nazareth, he responded with a very derisive question. He obviously had some sort of issue about anyone coming from Nazareth, but when Philip told him to come and see he did. And when he did, he met Jesus and Jesus said to him that He could see Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip found him. And right there he got over his obvious prejudice and became a disciple. WOW!

My prayer: Lord, I know there are a people like Nathanael who have prejudices against anything to do with You. I pray that you use me and let me be like Philip to just lead people to You so that they can come to know You. Just get them to “come and see”.

Leaders night out!

Ok, since I have been getting a lot of flak for not having a blog and not posting on it, here it goes.

The sad truth of the matter is I really do not have a whole lot of time to organize and write down my thoughts, and they probably would not be an interesting read anyway.

All that nonsense aside, I must comment on the last couple of nights. First was the leaders dinner and evening out together. I must send out a huge thank you for the dinner to Mike, it was really awesome and much appreciated. It was great to hang out with the other LP leaders outside of LP. It’s something I hope we get to do more often. (Especially if Mike is buying!) After the dinner we all went to Wallingford for some indoor cart racing. Man was that a blast! We all had 8 minutes (which did seem like forever) around the track after a short briefing on driving the cars and what the flags mean and Zzzzzz…. let’s just race!!!! Donny ended up blowing everyone away around the track, (way to go Donny!) with Mike right behind him and myself right behind Mike. Not bad for an old man! Big thanks for the photographers taking our pictures as well, since we will all have something to remember it with now. But after all the racing and the food, it was really great just to fellowship with the other leaders. Rob you were really missed.

Tonight, however, was another Friday night at LP and it was really amazing!!! The message was unbelievable and it was awesome to watch God work in the hearts of the LP students. It was a really moving evening. I am not sure I can look at Christmas quite the same way. For me personally, Christmas hasn’t really been about presents for quite a while, but never took it into consideration about His presence. It really does smack you right between the eyes don’t it? Afterwards quite a few of us went out for a late night “snack”. (Ok dinner) I got to hang out with some of the leaders again, (although sadly, Mike was NOT buying this time.) plus we were able to hang out with some of the students, past and present. Great times catching up with those that have graduated from LP and getting to know present students even better.

Well, I better end this incoherent rambling as it is getting rather late. (See, this is why I don’t blog.) For those of you who made it to the end of this(WOW, you really must be bored!)……I know this will be a couple of minutes of your life you will never get back!

Go Seagulls!!!

~Ò¿Ó~ <– Do that on a Mac!