John’s tweets for today:

• Coming down the mountain from that amazing experience of seeing Jesus w/ Moses & Elijah. Another crowd is waiting for Jesus.
• A man brought his son to the other disciples.  He wanted them to drive an evil spirit out of the boy, but they couldn’t.
• The man said the demon made the boy mute & throws him to the ground so he writhes & foams at the mouth.
• Jesus is upset that they couldn’t drive out the demon. He called us unbelieving generation & wondered how long he’d have to put up w/ us.
• They brought the boy to Jesus. He was having a seizure, writhing on the ground. Jesus asked the dad how long this has been going on.
• The dad said since boy was very little, the demon has even tried to throw him in the fire or river to kill him.
• “If you can do anything, please help him.” Jesus told the man “There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.”
• The man said “I want to believe. Help me w/ my doubts.”
• A crowd is running up to see it all now. Jesus commands the demon to get out. It left w/ lots of screaming & thrashing.
• Now the boy looks dead, pale. The people think he’s dead but Jesus takes his hand & he’s getting up!
• Later, the other disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t drive out the demon. He said it takes prayer to get rid of that kind.

There’s so much going on in this scene.  Jesus is coming down from the mountain with Peter, James and John.  They had just seen Jesus transfigured before their eyes.  The disciples who didn’t go with them are trying to cast a demon out of a boy.  They have evidently been able to do this before, but this time it isn’t working.

The boy’s father wants to believe Jesus can help his son, but he’s having trouble.  And no wonder.  The boy is writhing on the ground and a crowd is gathering.  It would be hard to believe with all of that swirling around, especially since the disciples have already tried to cast out the demon unsuccessfully.

The father asks for Jesus to help him believe.  I think this must be one of the most powerful prayers we can pray.  When the darkness swirls around us, we only need to ask Jesus for his help in believing that He can do what He says He can do.

Our situation may not turn out the way we hope or imagine.  But we can know that God will never leave us and He is always more powerful than any situation we may face.  And if we have trouble believing that, He will help us believe.

Bible reference: Mark 9:14-29

John’s tweets for today:

• This crowd’s been w/ us 3 days now in Decapolis & they’re getting hungry. Jesus says his heart is breaking for them.
• He can’t send them home b/c it’s too far to go w/out food. We told him there’s no where to buy food out here.

• We’ve only got 7 loaves of bread & a few fish, but Jesus asked us to have everyone sit down on the ground.
• He’s praying over the bread and fish, just like he did the other time. There must be 4000 people here. Let’s see how far this goes.
• Everyone ate their fill and we collected 7 sacks of leftovers! Jesus sent the people home, full and satisfied.
• We’re in the boat after feeding all those people, heading back across the lake. Nobody packed lunch & nobody wants to take the blame.

• Jesus heard us bickering about no bread. He asked us why we don’t get it yet, reminding us of 5 loaves for 5000, 7 loaves for 4000.
• Everything Jesus does is so far outside of what I expect or understand.

It amazes me that the disciples have watched Jesus take care of them and many others, and yet they still wonder where they will get their lunch.

At the same time, I realize that I’m just like the disciples in this.  God has cared for me over and over and yet I still worry and wonder how it will all work out.

Trusting can be so hard sometimes.

Bible reference: Matthew 15:32-38, Matthew 16:5-12, Mark 8:1-21

John’s Tweets for Today

• We’ve left Tyre and are now in Decapolis. Some people brought a man who never could hear or speak & asked Jesus to heal him.
• Jesus took the man aside. He’s putting his fingers in man’s ears & put spit on man’s tongue. He prayed, groaned and commanded “Open up!”
• The man is talking plainly and he can hear us! Jesus told the man & his friends not to tell anyone, but they’re amazed & can’t stop telling.

I think it’s interesting how Jesus heals differently in different situations.  It makes me wonder if it really did take some physical energy from him.  This time he actually groans in prayer and then commands the man’s ears to open.

The story from yesterday, with the woman who follows him into the house in Tyre and asks him to heal her daughter also makes me wonder if it cost Jesus something to heal people.  He seems tired to me in that story.  Of course, I have no way of knowing if he really was tired, but he did enter the house in secret, not wanting anyone to know he was there.

And the story of the woman touching his robe, when he could feel the healing power go out of him also makes me wonder.  Even in that large, pressing crowd he knew someone had touched him.  Was it because he felt it physically?

Is there more to Jesus’ healing than just a “magic” word, a quick command?  What do you think?

Bible Reference: Mark 7:31-37

John’s tweets for today.

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1.  We’re in a house in Tyre. Jesus didn’t think he’d be found, but he was wrong. A Greek woman came right in & is kneeling at Jesus’ feet.

2.  The woman is begging Jesus to help her disturbed daughter. He said “Stand in line. Children get fed first, then dogs if there’s any left.”

3.  The woman still didn’t leave, but told Jesus “Even dogs get to eat scraps dropped under the table.”

4.  Jesus is impressed by her faith. He told her to go home, that the demon had left her daughter.

I don’t understand this story.  What Jesus first says to the woman doesn’t  meet up with my view of Jesus.  Which, of course means my view is incomplete.

It seems like he’s being mean to her.  Or toying with her.  Neither of which is anything I’d ever picture Jesus doing.  In the end, he does heal the woman’s daughter and he’s impressed by her faith.

What do you think of this story?

Bible reference: Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30

photo credit: AmazonCARES

John’s Twitter Stream Today

- Getting out of the boat at Gennesaret, the people are gathering already, bringing the sick.

- They asked to touch Jesus’ clothes and everyone who touches him is healed.

- The crowd Jesus fed yesterday has come in boats looking for him. Jesus told them “You’re not looking for me because you saw God in the miracle…”

- “…You’re looking for me because I filled your stomachs for free. Don’t waste energy chasing food that rots…”

- “Work for food that nourishes true life, food the Son of Man provides.” The crowd asked “What do we have to do to get in on God’s work?”

- Jesus told them, “The work of God is to trust in the one he sent.”

- The crowd wants to see a miracle so they’ll believe in Jesus, something like the manna God sent to our ancestors.

- Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, my Father gives you true bread from heaven. Bread of God came from heaven & gives life to the world.

- “I’m the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will never go hungry or thirsty. But you’ve seen me & still don’t believe.”

- “Everyone the Father gives me will come to me & I won’t drive them away, but hold onto them.”

- “I haven’t come from heaven to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.”

- “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and trusts him will have real, eternal life.”

So often – too often – I go to God to get something from Him, instead of to know Him better.

Bible Reference: Matthew 14:34-36, Mark 6:53-56, John 6:22-59

photo credit: Mr. Kris

Do you ever wish you were different?  I do.  I wish I were more impulsive and quick to take action, like Peter.

As soon as Peter heard Jesus’ voice, he was out of the boat.  John and the others stood by and watched.  Peter actually walked on the water.

And yeah, he sank too.  But I bet he never forgot the feel of Jesus taking his hand and helping him out of the icy water and back into the boat.  I bet Peter never forgot the look on Jesus’ face as he sat in the boat with him, the wind blowing cold across his wet skin.

The other disciples were spectators but Peter participated.  He lived it out, lived it all.  I know this is John’s story, John’s perspective in the tweets.  But right now I admire Peter.

Bible reference: Matthew 14: 24-33, Mark 6:47:52, John 6:16-21

photo credit: IMISSMYJUNO

I just finished reading Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It’s a fantastic book about writing a good story with your life.  And how God always has the best story planned for us.  Miller talks about characters and settings and scenes in our lives and intentionally using them to write a good life story.

This Bible story of Jesus feeding 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple fish makes me think of the props in our lives.  Sometimes in a story, a seemingly insignificant object can turn a whole story.  Like a pair of ruby slippers or a wardrobe in an unused room, or a single penny found on a sidewalk that’s being turned into a million dollars of food for the hungry.  Or a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.

Pay attention!  God may use one of the props in your life to write a good story.

Bible Reference: Matthew 14:15-21, Mark 6:35-44, Luke 9: 12-17, John 6:4-13

photo credit: hoyasmeg

It would be so easy to read through this story and pass it off as spiritual – meaning didn’t really happen, doesn’t happen, story-in-a-book.  Jesus is walking through a crowd and knows someone touches him.  He knows healing power has gone out from him.  Then he raises a dead girl back to life.

Easy to read past it and not catch the human part of the story.  The parts that show us it’s all real.  But slow down and take it all in for a minute.  These other-worldly events really did happen.

A crowd pressed in on Jesus as he was walking.  Not unusual at all.  It is unusual that he stopped and refused to go further until he found out who touched him.  I think his disciples thought he was a bit crazy for this, until a woman confesses that she was the one who touched his robe.

Don’t miss the scene at Jairus’ house.  His daughter is dead.  The people at the house are weeping.  Jairus’ wife is overcome with grief.  The girl’s body lay on the bed.  A very human scene.  All too real.  But Jesus touching the girl and telling her to get up is just as real.  The girl’s response of rising up from the dead, getting up from the bed is just as human.

A human response to a divine touch.  Real, tangible, true.

Bible reference: Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56

photo credit: josef.stuefer

The scene is so rich in this story.  A deranged, naked man falls at the feet of Jesus.

A herd of pigs runs off a cliff and drowns in the sea, driven by demons.

Jesus sets the man free of the mob of demons that has tormented him.  He gives him back a clear mind.

But the miracle isn’t complete until it’s cloaked in the ordinary.  Someone found clothes for the man and removed the fragments of chain hanging from his ankles and wrists.  If the townspeople had come back to see him naked and in his right mind I don’t know that it would have made as big an impression on them.

But the man was “dressed and in his right mind”.  The miracle was cloaked in the ordinary.

Bible reference: Matthew 8:24-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39

photo credit: Jsome1

So the disciples are in boat, tossed about on the waves during a storm.  Jesus is sleeping through it all.

I don’t know what they thought Jesus was going to do when they woke him up.  I suspect they just wanted him to help them keep the boat from sinking.  Or maybe they just wanted to wake him up so he would be aware of the fact they were all about to drown.

I don’t think they ever thought he would speak directly to the wind and waves.  Who does that?  Have you ever heard anyone speak to the weather and tell it what to do?  I haven’t.

And the wind and waves obeyed him.  And Jesus acted like it was all normal.  He doesn’t understand why the disciples don’t trust him yet.

It’s more than their minds could absorb.  Even after everything they’ve seen Jesus do, they can’t wrap their minds around Who He really is.

Bible reference:  Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25

photo credit: Irargerich