Day 1 with Jesus before He goes to the cross

Good morning family, 

Today marks the beginning of passion week.  That means today is the start of Jesus's last days before he went to die a tortuous death in order to save us from eternal death!  

Last night i had another brief vision of dying and waking up in a desert with barren beams that looked like an attempt to build something, but abandoned.  As far as I knew and could see all there was was dry, hot, and sandy desert before me.  There was no real direction to go, no purpose, no hope of something more than the desert, no Savior, and no one that loved me.  It was an eternity of vast nothingness and unquenchable fear-stricken loneliness.  It was forever desert and forever alone...and all the mental discomfort that went hand in hand with that.  It was death and Hell for me.   I felt it so real, and fear filled me with stark realization that this could totally happen to me because I have no control over what happens when I die.  Death is a looming mystery that we must acknowledge is completely out of our ability.

All power and control belongs to God and to God alone.  None of us can guarantee that we can safely procure our eternity after death.  That is why we must see Jesus for what He did.  He secured our eternity from eternal Hell to eternal Heaven.  Now we can walk with God's sent Son in these last days to hopefully better understand what God did to give us assurance of salvation.  

Let's walk with Him together in our hearts.  

Observe our Savior and His words, His actions, and the plan of God in His obedience.  

I invite you to the city of Bethany, come sit at the table to eat with Jesus and Lazarus (a man raised from the dead!), and Martha will serve us a home-cooked meal.  

“Six days before the Passover, 

Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, 

the one Jesus had raised from the dead. 

So they gave a dinner for Him there; 

Martha was serving them, 

and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 

Then Mary took a pound of fragrant oil — pure and expensive nard — anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped His feet with her hair. 

So the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

(Do you smell it?  Imagine watching Mary come in and pour out $6,000 worth of the most expensive perfume from Neiman Marcus all over Jesus dirty feet!  300 denarii is about $6k in US dollars.  And then to kneel down and wipe it with her hair...a mixture of dirt and expensive oil on feet. 

The actual perfume was called “spikenard” and in Hebrew is called Nard meaning “light.” 

A fitting perfume for the One who is Light.  (1 John 1:5)

$6k!  For feet!  And we are watching this happen and it probably shocks us as the expensive aroma hits our nostrils with a powerful presence, but then directs our hearts to really see that this man with us is truly worth every bit of what Mary has just poured out....everyone but one guy.) 

Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him), said, “Why wasn’t this fragrant oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? ” 

He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it. 

(The contrast of Mary and Judas is like light and dark for us as we watch his speech against her actions.  His speech turns our hearts from the worthiness of Christ to the money.  Mary made us look at Christ by her money, but Judas made us look away by it.)

Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; 

she has kept it for the day of My burial. 

For you always have the poor with you, 

but you do not always have Me.”

John 12:1-8 

This last bit is spoken for us to hear.  

The food that Martha has made for us is maybe getting cold.  Martha is standing by the doorway of the kitchen peering into the dining room.  Lazarus on our left at the head of the table is silent, Judas is indifferent on our right and Mary knelt next to Jesus across from us.  The Son of God has just been anointed for burial.  In a few more days we will see Jesus killed, and Mary has prepared us for this as a reminder that it is He whom we serve and not our money.  Judas and Mary make one thing clear by their attitudes: their view of Jesus. 

Let's carefully look at Jesus today from our spot at the table. 

Jmegrey

Task and Ability

Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, 

and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

(1 John 1:5) 

This morning I had a vision of God going to the core of my being and finding the scared little girl covered in soot and darkness and the instant He hugged me I transformed into light.  

So I prayed...

Search me O God, and try my thoughts, know me!  See if there are any offensive ways in me and lead me in Your way everlasting! 

I heard the words:  Passions and desires

Are my passions and my desires aimed in having You? 

This morning I just wanted to jump straight into my reading for my quiz today.  I didn't want to spend an hour with You, because my prize was getting what I needed to get done, done. 

My prize is my to do list. 

My idols are Task and Ability. 

Father, I need Your help! 

I don't want to be enslaved to Task and Ability!  

I want to be Your slave because You are the only Good and True Master who not only I am called to serve but am called into adoption as Your child!  

Task and Ability only seek to destroy, steal, and kill me!  Yet why do I follow their orders?

There is disorder in me God. 

Task and Ability say that in order to be worth any standing value I have to prove myself to myself and to You and to others. 

But You say in order to be worth all standing value I must put off my flesh and put on Christ. 

So then I stand looking at Task and Ability versus Christ.  

Christ looks weak and incapable, while Task and Ability look strong and shiny! 

But my eyes see only what my mind has been taught to know, so I need a knowledge that is higher than mine to give me new eyes to see and a new understanding of what things mean.

I need a renewed perspective. 

The law shows that this and this will mean this, yet Your new law says that Christ has finished fulfilling the requirements of the Law--which I myself could never do!  Therefore to live and move and breathe and have my being in Christ is the only way to expose Task and Ability for the frauds they are!  

They tempt me to believe that I could fulfill something to be someone!  But in the end I find by experience after experience that I cannot be anything but broken apart from the grace You give me in Christ.  

“I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 

But if you are led by the Spirit, 

you are not under the law.  (Task and Ability do not teach you how to live anymore)

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. 

I tell you about these things in advance — as I told you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. 

Against such things there is no law. (Not even Task and Ability could offer something better than these or deny their exceeding value!)

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Galatians 5:16-24 

Our bodies have passions and desires that direct our attention to what the body aims for. 

Our daily lives will either result in sexual immorality, fits of rage, disunity, and the like

Or in love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith, gentleness and self control. 

This is the truth whether your perspective believes it or not, the Word of God is explicit about revealing where our passions and desires must be put off in order for His to be put on. 

What are your passions and desires aimed at today?  Prayerfully bring them to God and you will be humbled (by your emotions against God) that you cannot change on your own.  You need help because you are not enough to change you.  Those who ask, seek, and knock will be answered.  

Bring your need. 

Love you guys. 

When what you don't see is actually Jesus

Good morning family of faith,

This morning I woke up so angry which lead me to prayer to find out I was actually afraid.  And God gave me this passage:

"When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified.
“It’s a ghost! ” they said, and cried out in fear.
Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
“Come! ” He said.
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.
And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me! ”
Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭14:26-31‬ ‭

If you saw a figure in your room late at night, would you be scared?  I would.  What if that figure was Jesus?  Dang.  I thought about this some more and realized that there are some fears I have that could be Jesus.

But first, before I know it's Jesus I fear it to be something that isn't Jesus.  Something bad.  Something scary.  Something like death or pain.  Something I don't want!  Like a ghost in my room!
But what if it was Jesus?
When Jesus walks by on the water the disciples don't know that it's Jesus at first.  They just see something with their eyes and they think it's a ghost!  They're going by what they see,
until they hear Jesus say
"Have courage!  It is I!"

Courage.

It's what we need when we are scared. Without courage we can't change the course of our thoughts/action to think or do any differently.
Fear cripples us into running away or avoiding something.  But courage will keep us from running or hiding.

And like Peter I find myself in his shoes quite often asking God for something to help me believe it's really Him!
That I can go towards the thing I feared because it's really Jesus in front of me!  But it don't look like Jesus!
All I feel from what I see is fear.

Courage is what i need to not run away from what looks threatening, but this courage comes from faith in Jesus.

When Peter stepped out and walked on the water he started off with His eyes on Jesus but he shifted his eyes and saw the wind and now it wasn't just the ghost-like figure that scared him but the situation was maddening!  The wind looked threatening!
Peter was defying the natural laws of gravity!  Peter was doing something that he had no mental control over.  The capacity to make sense of his situation was gone and now he looked at that- the wind- instead of Jesus and he began to sink!
He cried out to Jesus to save him, and Jesus immediately reached for Peter and said:
"I got you"? No.
Did He say "what's wrong with you?"  No.
Did He say "you suck at life". No.

Jesus said
"you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Jesus is doing something with Peter.  He's teaching Peter how to live without fear.

Fear of what he sees or fear of the inability to make sense of things.  He's teaching Peter how to live by faith which results in less doubt and more belief in Jesus.  He diagnosed Peter's issue: "little faith"
And questions Peter to think about the "why."  The why for Peter was the winds.

This was a reminder for me that I needed to read because I woke up angry, finding out that I was afraid.  Afraid of what I saw and what I thought because of it.  The winds of doubt looked overwhelming.  And i cried out to Jesus.

If you start to drown He will catch you, but remember it's not about survival.  It's about faith in Jesus.  We are being given opportunities to take courage today.
The thing you tried to run from or avoid out of fear (fear of rejection, fear of death, fear of being treated like trash) is all the wind you see in a threatening situation.
But keep your eyes on Jesus not on the winds, because only Jesus has the power to give you everything you need.

Love you all,
Jmegrey

For me it somehow always boils back down to this basic truth

Hello family,

Here was my heart this morning as I prayed:
I confess that I am barely hanging on to Jesus with a shred of hope.  I'm beaten down.

I feel like giving up but I know that's not what I want.  I need a fresh start.
Lord, I need a fresh start.
I confess I'm arrogant about school.  I feel like I know it all now.  That my opinions are gold and my perspective is most unflawed.
I confess I'm just trying to look good on paper now- losing the substance of my learning.  Help.
--
Then God reminded me of the most basic truth to live by every single day:

Repay others according to what Christ has given you.

“In this, love is perfected with us ...for we are as He is in this world.”
1 John 4:17

Walking with God, knowing Him more, being with Him happens most in the way we love and repay others, especially those who we feel don't deserve to be treated with our love.

The other day I felt injustice rise inside of me because of a schoolmate who was rude to me that God wanted me to serve!  I was like why would I serve someone who doesn't deserve it?  I was like "No God, I can't do that, it's not fair and it's not right...I can't lay down my time, my money, and my effort for someone who treats me like nothing."  That's when God gently reminded me of keeping my eyes on Jesus not on what I see in the world.

“Love consists in this:
not that we loved God,
but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Dear friends,
if God loved us in this way,
we also must love one another.”
1 John 4:10-11

It was hard at first because what I see and what I feel so strongly screams "this ain't right!"  But when I focus my heart and mind on Jesus I see a different scale of justice.  I'm suddenly the servant in the parable who has just been set free from 10,000 years worth of debt...looking at someone who owes me 1 month's worth.
If I only look at this person then justice demands I don't give them anything  and that they owe me instead! But when I remember where I just came from, having been canceled a much larger debt...and being told by the King to do the same for others...I see why Jesus says that His one command is for us to love others the way He loved us.
To repay others according to what Christ gave us.
Because we will forget who we are because of Christ if we fail to practice living and loving as He did everyday.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

 “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world."
(Jesus died for everyone's sins so that not only are you free but the person who hurts you is free by that same freedom!  So to demand justice from them is to remove Jesus.)
"This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
(The more we love the world the less we experience the love of the Father in our hearts)
For everything that belongs to the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle — is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

So now, little children,
remain in Him,
so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
1 John 2:2-3, 15-17, 28

Repay others not according to what they deserve, but according to what Christ deserves.  Please be humbled that He is always with us to lead us into this truth.

“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,”
1 John 3:11

“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.”
1 John 3:16

God Almighty wants to spend quality time with you!  And He does it through you loving others that don't deserve it because that's how He loved you.  We don't see God, but we experience His love most when we love others.

“No one has ever seen God.
If we love one another,
God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.”
1 John 4:12

So all this time my heart was focused on me, my grades, my time, my future, ....but I needed the reminder that God is in control man.
All He asks of us in the process of living is to love whoever comes across our day today.
Everything else is a distraction to steal, kill, and destroy you.  This is basic gospel truth 101.  Let's pray for each other to live in the light of truth.

We are going to make a ton of mistakes, and Jesus took care of that.  Our lives are not in fear of messing up anymore, because we have Jesus.  Our lives are now about sharing the good news of Jesus.  I once heard a quote that said something like people won't remember what you did, and they won't remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.

When you experience the love of the Father how does it make you feel?  That is our calling in life.  To give others what God has given us....the saving presence and love of Jesus.


Love you guys.

Don't do today alone

Good morning forever and ever family,

Let's acknowledge the realness of being people with limits in need of a limitless power.

My prayer for you and for me is that we seek to be filled with such power from the Holy Spirit through our asking God for it.  Because without it we have our limits.

“For, in fact,
in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,
assembled together against Your holy Servant
Jesus,
whom You anointed,
to do whatever Your hand
and Your plan
had predestined to take place.
And now, Lord, consider their threats,
and grant that Your slaves
may speak Your message
with complete boldness,

When they had prayed,
the place where they were assembled
was shaken,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak God’s message
with boldness.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4:27-29, 31‬ ‭

I love re-reading about God's control and genius throughout it all when they point out that even the rejection, insults, and wounds experienced by Jesus had "to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place."

The apostles needed to remember this because they were experiencing similar situations, but instead of needing the threats to stop, they knew they just needed to remember WHO they worked for so they could have even MORE boldness in representing!

We might interpret our bad, boring or painful circumstances as God being against us or as God being cruel or not fun because Satan is ready to use your feelings and your pride to tempt you to choose to believe a lie.  He uses people, feelings, unexpected situations and failures to make us believe a lie about God.  Because it is our beliefs and attitudes, that come from our thoughts, that will lead us either to follow God or to follow Satan.  We are constantly in a war and there is no middle ground.

Be aware of your circumstances and trust that this is God in action FOR YOU, then pray for the Holy Spirit to make every thought captive to what Jesus revealed about God..."destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Are you battling the devil by yourself?  You will always always always lose.  Because Satan is stronger, smarter and more tactful than you.  This is about the power of the Holy Spirit.  It's the battle inside, where the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us, that we battle the father of lies.
That's why we pray to filled like the apostles did.

It is a hugely humble reminder that without the Spirit's power you will be defeated.  Pray until your heart has acknowledged that truth, that you cannot do today on your own.

Here's a link about how to make every thought captive to Christ:   http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-do-i-take-my-thoughts-captive
Love you guys,
Jmegrey

Put on Christ

You know when you can't seem to find something to wear that you'd feel good in?  You look at what you put on and it's just whatever (compared to days when you feel great about your outfit of the day).
But alas, you need wear SOMETHING.

What if everyday you put on the best clothes because you could?  Would you?

"for you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3:26‬ ‭

“For as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ
have put on Christ like a garment.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3:27‬ ‭

Are you wearing clothes today?

Paul gives this analogy of "putting on Christ like a piece of clothing" because our identity is now Christ.  Not that we are another "god," but that we are in Christ who is God so that we have everything Christ was given when He was on earth.  So what did Christ have that is ours too when we put Him on like a shirt?  The receiving of Christ is like putting on a shirt (pretty simple and easy), but the result of putting Christ on as opposed to a shirt is that Christ is more than fabric, He's alive and powerful! The result of putting on a shirt is that you are now clothed in a shirt.  That's about as far as a shirt can work for you.
The result of putting on Christ results in:

Relationship.  Being able to relate to God as His child.  Having a filial relationship with God that Christ had with God.  Not SIMILAR TO the one they had, but the EXACT SAME one.  Father & Son.  That as Christ was the Son of God, we are now sons and daughters of God.

Perfection. Jesus had no sin in Him.  He was perfect.  So when He swallowed all our sins on the cross in His perfect self, He removed our sins (all of them) and gave us what He had: His sinless perfection.  The exchange was completely and fully made finished.

The Holy Spirit (aka: God).  Jesus always had the Spirit of God with Him.  Leading Him, protecting Him, providing for Him, empowering Him, and Communing (or talking and hanging out) with Him.  They were inseparable--the Father's love was never away from Jesus, but through the presence of the Holy Spirit that love was always in action for Jesus.

Future glory.  Though the life of Christ on earth is not exactly something defined as awesome, it is looking at the final result that matters more than the process.  Jesus lived pretty minimally on earth.  He didn't have nice clothes, a big house, or even a good reputation with the people who did have good reputations.  Through years of serving others (which included working as a carpenter) and suffering the disapproval by the very people he was serving--He gave it all He had...literally until His very last breath.  And God raised Him up after 3 days after His last breath and for the rest of eternity gave Him EVERYTHING: glory, joy, riches, comfort, love, power, you name it ...it now all belongs to Jesus.

So then,
when we put on Christ today...recognize who you have put on and what that means.
Live as you truly are: a child of God. Through faith.

Otherwise you'll have access to the very best without even taking hold of it!

When we put on Christ we put on Christ!
He represents in every way!

All four of those results above are always at work in our hearts against the lies of the enemy.  When we put on Christ we put on the identity of a child of God.  There is no fear of anything or anyone but of God when we wear Christ like a garment.  It might sound too good to be true, but allow for God's love and grace to sink deep into your objections and be free for what Christ died to set you free from!  Don't make the death of Christ for nothing in your life, but live into what He has made available to those who will take hold of it!  Just like putting on a shirt, we take hold of the gospel by putting on Christ today.

Relationship, perfection, the Holy Spirit, and future glory are all ours in Christ, have you decided to put Him on today and all throughout the day?  Walk by faith and not by sight.

Love you guys.

From one always in need of Christ,
Jmegrey

Slow down...observe.

Good morning family,
If you haven't taken time to spend with God I hope you can prayerfully and intentional read through this and be with God for however long it takes you to finish reading it.

Remember this truth today, that our Father in Heaven, who is Almighty God, acts for those who wait for Him.
In other words,
He will not delay according to His perfect timing and your perfection.
He is a God who acts for those who wait for Him.

Slow down.

Take time.

If you think you don't have time, then you're gravely mistaken.  Time is the same for everyone.  Every minute you go through, is the same minute everyone else goes through.  But it's in how we use our time that is different from person to person.  Time is a gift from God that we are called to steward for His purposes.  And He says to wait for Him, meaning take Him into your time until you really believe He is with you.  Personally, this usually takes me an hour if I'm really trying to focus on Him for that hour.


You can have a good day WITH God, or He will have a good day WITHOUT you.  Better to join in the One who created joy and pleasures forever!

Stand in the Presence of God.

"No eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him”
(Isaiah 64:4).

A REMINDER about our goal and vision today:

“Not that I have already reached the goal
or am already fully mature,
BUT! I make every effort to take hold of it
because
I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

(A way to experience the transforming power of Christ is to begin living a transformed life even if you don't reach your goal in your timing.  When your heart begins the effort, God WILL complete it.)

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

(Drop all the unnecessary thoughts about what happened in the past that makes you a failure or a liar, drop the past and go today!  Part of walking in your calling is also receiving grace everyday which means full pardon and full blessings ahead!)

Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

(Meaning, don't worry how much or little the other person knows or is doing, you just do your part because it is God who will reveal what you need to know step-by-step.  You have all the knowledge you need in this moment to follow God, but all the knowledge you have is not all the knowledge there is...so be humble/thankful in the amount you have!  God has given this to you, and He will give you more as He sees fit.)

In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

(What you know now is enough, so live by it until God reveals more.)

Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.

(Who can you observe as an example of Christ?  Are they like the apostle Paul in some ways, more or less?
If someone observed you, would they find attributes of Paul in you too.
Paul was an example of a sinner following Christ, and the New Testament is full of his letters so you can get to know him pretty well.
It's helpful to observe how much of Paul's example we see in other believers as well as in ourselves, since he's probably the closest thing to what we should expect as we follow Christ.
Don't just choose anyone as an example of what a Christian is!  That's unwise.  Choose Paul, and anyone who looks like Paul in your life, because he said it in God's Word.  Paul was not perfect, but get to know him more and you will find a more accurate standard for how you should expect your own walk to be like.)

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3:12-19

Breathe in truth as you steward your time, your thoughts, your priorities, and your money for the One to whom it all belongs to.

Love you guys.