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Showing posts from April, 2015

Names

“The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah' (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas' (which, when translated, is Peter).  John 1:41-42 I've had a few nicknames over the years. When I was young, my friends tagged me with the name "Weeser". I have no idea why I was given that name nor do I have any idea what it means. Honestly, I'm not even sure if that's the correct spelling. In my late high school and early college years, I was "T-ster" or simply "T" for short. Those were simply taken from my first initial. Apparently, this practice of giving nicknames wasn't new with my friends or yours. Jesus did it too. "Hey Simon, I'm calling you Cephas." The Greek version of this name, Peter, may be more familiar to us. Both of them mean the same thing ... Rock. That's

Faith

“The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' He (Jesus) replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." Luke 17:5-6 The apostles were distracted by the "more" disease. It's a condition, with which, all of us at one time or another have been afflicted. All I need is more help, more money, more freedom, more power, more control, more time, more love and then everything will be better. The myth of the "more" has brought down many good people.  In our verses for the day, Jesus was attempting to reorient the focus of the apostles' thinking. One commentator observed that the amount of faith is secondary to its quality and its focus. Honestly, how much faith, if directed towards the omnipotent God is really necessary? According to Jesus, a little living seed is all that is needed.  A seed is meant to be planted. So is faith. Plan

Denial

“And I (Jesus) assure you of this: If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I, the Son of Man, will openly acknowledge that person in the presence of God's angels. But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before God's angels."  Luke 12:8-9 "Nope, it wasn't me. ... Me either!" Nobody ever seems to know. Dents, scratches, and scuffs just appear out of thin air and cover all of our vehicles. It's truly amazing. One of the many wonders of the world I'm sure. I have a sneaking suspicion that the car gremlins have probably shown up in your garage as well. Denial seems to be the order of the day. No indisputable video evidence? Well, it sure wasn't me... In our verses for today, Jesus spoke to the issue of denial. The specific focus was acknowledgement. According to Webster's dictionary, "To give evidence of recognizing." I like that. A person who gives evidence of recognizing Jesus here on earth, he will give