John’s tweets for today:

• When we got to Capernaum, the tax men asked Peter if our teacher pays temple taxes. Peter told them “Of course”.
• As soon as we went in the house, Jesus said to Peter “When a king collects tax, who do they get it from? Their sons or others?”
• “The children don’t have to pay the tax, right? But so we don’t upset them, go down to the lake. Pull in the 1st fish that bites…”
• “It will have a coin in its mouth. Use that to pay both my tax and yours”

I love this story.  It’s so funny to me.  Peter is outside and gets asked if Jesus has paid the temple tax.  We learn later in the story that Peter hasn’t paid his own temple tax, but he answers that of course Jesus has paid.  He stand there and lies like a dog!

Jesus takes care of it in the end with a cool miracle of a fish with a coin in its mouth.  Not just any coin, but one of the right amount.

But I just love to think of Peter answering the Jewish rulers, knowing he hadn’t paid his own tax.  Wonder if he was embarrassed when he did go to pay the tax with that coin?

I also think it’s interesting that this story is only found in Matthew.  He was a tax collector before he met Jesus, so I bet he saw the humor in it too.

Bible reference: Matthew 17:24-27

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.

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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

More often than I would like, I find that my heart is just as black and tainted as the hearts of the Pharisees.  Jesus cast a demon from a man, giving him both sight and hearing.  The response from the Pharisees?  He only casts out demons by the prince of demons.

Have you ever questioned the motives of another person’s or organization’s good work, just because you didn’t like that person or group?  I know I have and it’s shameful.  Just because I’m upset with them or don’t like the direction they’re taking things or I feel threatened in some way, I decide that they have no pure motives and their good deed is only meant to manipulate.

Lord Jesus, forgive me and guard me from this attitude.

Bible reference: Matthew 12:22-37

photo credit: Meredith