The Devotional

What does Papa “J” Say?

There are a gazillion reasons to scorn the words and actions of the people around me. But there is only one reason to be humble! God's grace is sufficient to keep you, joyful! Proverbs 3:34

Roughly, it is 1973 years since Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for the SIN of the world. His appearing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and His upper room visit with the apostles and disciples was and is the most significant event in all of human history, that One should raise Himself up from the DEAD by His own authority. John 10:17-18. Fifty days later, by His own authority and as He promised, He gave His apostles and disciples a deposit of His Resurrection Life which is called in scripture the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:4-8. “Resurrection Power!” We talk about eternal life, being saved, walking in the Spirit and a host of other expressions that seek to identify our relationship to God. All of these phrases are found in the Word of God, so I am not saying that anything is wrong with the phrases. However, I do see from a casual glance at the church of Jesus Christ, a lack of people abiding in the Power of RESURRECTION LIFE. We talk about the Holy Spirit but we do not do the “Work of the Holy Spirit” John 16:8-15. Could it be that we have taken that ONE TALENT of Resurrection Power and buried it in the backyard of the church? Matthew 25:25 gives insight that 1973 years later, we as a church would say to Jesus upon His return, “I was afraid to live in the Power of Your Resurrection so I hid it in the ground, see what belongs to You is still here!” Now, the question is will God simply look at this as an oversight? Or will there be weeping and gnashing of teeth? Could, this is the sign of the times in which we live. Matthew 24:32-51 through Matthew 25:1-30.

The Gospel of John

John 10:7-11 Truly, truly; Most assuredly; or even as the New International Version puts these words of Jesus; I tell you the Truth! “I Am the Door of the sheep!” I am sure that this is not amazing to God, but I find it amazing that God says; I am telling you the Truth and immediately and without reservation we reject His wonderful Truth and accept the thief, the murderer and destroyer. Then we have the audacity to say to God, We did not know!

1 Corinthians 2:6-9, the apostle Paul is reflecting on Isaiah 64:4 and Isaiah 65:17. His thoughts are to brings us to this one purpose of heart. God is Truth and the Truth is the Wisdom of God. To know Jesus Christ and Him crucified, is to know Him in weakness, this is the best that human wisdom can do! But the faith that God looks for in each of us is faith in the power of His Resurrection. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Jesus is The Truth and The Wisdom of God, He is the Good Shepherd who knows each of His Sheep, personally! He care about you! Say what? He cares about YOU! The Bible, the Word of God expresses this Truth over and over. God cares for you. Romans 5:8; John 3:15 and John 15:13. Don't let the false theology of religion steal the abundant life that Jesus promises. Live in the Power of His resurrection and live abundantly in Him.

The Devotional

What does Papa “J” Say?

The curse of the LORD is conditional and focused on the wicked. Are you wicked? Your fears are real; protect your household! The blessing of the LORD is also conditional, so live justly in your community and Fear the LORD. Awesome difference! Proverbs 3:33

I have a friend who is home with the LORD these days, he used to say that the world is full of “needy people”. I am a person who likes words, some of you must have figured that out by now. Words are like pieces of a puzzle and when you fit them together, up pops a story or an expression. The story describes an event of fiction that parallels truth or it is a story of real truth. Expressions make the story have life, have suspense and give current everyday meaning to the reader. The best story teller ever, is the LORD Jesus Christ. The story of the rich man and Lazarus is a true event in history, both of these men had “needs”. These are the same needs my friend made reference to when he stated that the world is full of needy people. What I would like for us to see this morning is that in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus is explaining an eternal truth that is both a real life truth and a truth of our eternal destiny. Some have argued that this event is strictly a parable and not a true event in history. Let me point out the obvious. Lazarus is a real person, Abraham is a real person. The need of mercy and the cry for help, are real eternal needs. The torment of an unsaved person is an unfulfilled eternal need. The five brothers have real needs. The resurrection of the dead is real. Yet, like my friend and Lazarus God has met all their real needs. Like Lazarus and my friend, our needs are physical, spiritual and eternal. They have been justified, sanctified and glorified by the grace of God. Repent and Jesus will satisfy all your needs too. Romans 8:30

The Gospel of John

John 10:1-6 Another favorite chapter of this gospel. There is only ONE WAY to enter the kingdom of God. Religion has blinded eyes of mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve. You remember how Adam and Eve put together a few leaves from some plant to make clothing to cover their guilty condition. God said NO, I am not pleased with your attempt to temporarily hide you guilt from me. Let ME satisfy your need of hiding your guilt. Genesis 3:21

The religions of the world say, nah! There must be some other way to please God then to kill the innocent animal. What? Did you hear the story of God Himself giving us His Son as a sacrifice that not only takes away our original guilt, but also permanently takes away all the sins that will ever be committed by man? Now, what father would ever do that to his own son? This too must be fiction, or a lie and maybe even the story of someone who has lost their mind.

The thief and the robber are Satan and his religions of good and evil. THERE MUST BE ANOTHER WAY! God says NO! No other way. Those who hear this message come to the door and the doorkeeper opens the door. His voice is a voice of comfort and grace. The hearer enters the door and eternal peace satisfies the need. Follow Me, the voice explains and you follow for you know the voice. Strangers cannot follow simply because they do not know Him and their NEEDS are still very REAL and ETERNAL.

The Devotional

What does Papa “J” Say?

Stands to reason. If you are an oppressive person you will live with unjust and cruel companions. This is a perversion and to God this lifestyle is disgusting. Proverbs 3:31-32 Be upright and the counsel of His integrity will be with you.

Looking back when I enlisted in the Navy, I remember seeing training films of various types of fighting ships. Sort of what a person might expect, should he be placed on one for duty. I did not know it then, but I had an eye for supply and replenishment from the very start. The memories I retained from those films were how things were ordered, brought on board and stored. As time went on many ways of ordering supplies changed, but like any government operation change is slow, especially when the donkey or the elephant are at odds with each other. In my day as a sailor on submarines the normal tour at sea under the water was ninety days plus or minus a few days. About thirty days before the ship was to arrive at homeport the storekeeper would begin the replenishment process; reordering parts and supplies that were used while the ship was deployed. This recovery of parts was critical to ships that had to return to sea within two weeks with a full compliment of food, parts and equipment for another ninety day period. Want to see what I see and how this relates to our current condition of living in an ungodly nation? 2 Chronicles 30:1-27 – King Hezekiah keeps the Passover! He sent a letter to all the peoples of the nation, ordering them to return to the LORD and keep the passover. If you take the time to read through the twenty-seven verses you will see it took a couple of weeks to turn the nation around and back to the LORD. There was great joy in Jerusalem because nothing like this had been done in years. But when repentance takes hold of a nation, men of God will stand up and bless the people and their prayers of rejoicing will reach the throne room of God. REPENT AMERICA and REPLENTISH THE BLESSINGS OF GOD ON OUR NATION. This will only take a couple of weeks and it is TIME!

The Gospel of John

John 9:35-41 The Word of God has a lot to say about physical and spiritual blindness and in many of these portions of scripture it is not the physically blind that have the problem of seeing the glory of God. Mark 8:22-26 we see that the blind man begged to be touched by Jesus so the blind man saw his need, and in verse 26, Jesus tells the man, don't go into town to tell anyone. (In seeing you, they still will not believe).

Spiritual eyesight is unconditional because it is equipped with faith. Faith always has an object. “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Both, this word is important, it even seems a little out of order in the sentence, but this is what Jesus is saying. “You see me with your physical eye and your spiritual eye and I AM He who speaks with you. These two abilities of our natural and super-natural makeup as believers give us the capacity to hear what the Spirit of God is saying.

It is interesting what Jesus says to the Pharisees, His reply to their question, “Are we blind also?” As I see this, Jesus says; “Your witness of this miracle has allowed you to physically see. Your sin is the sin of rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit who calls you to faith, thus your sin of unbelief remains because you do not receive The Faith.”

A Study of PHILEMON

The Relationship of godly people with the newly converted.

Many folks who read this lesson from the blog or email will miss a great deal of context simply because time does not allow me to fill in a lot of the material I will be discussing during our class. If you have questions please let me know I will be glad to answer you via email. Jesse

(DRAFT) Philemon 1:8-16

Goal of the Lesson: The Human need for Friendship

• To help us overcome the feeling of Distress in our lives

• To help us overcome the feeling being Detach from everyone

• To help us overcome the feeling of Disapproval from others

• To help us overcome the feeling of being Deserted by friends and loved ones.

This Lesson will help us: The Heroic call of being a Friend.

• A Friend is someone who is Full of Courage

• A Friend is someone who is Filled with Commitment

• A Friend is someone who is Found to be Consistent

Last week we looked over the bond of friendships with other believers. God also allows us to meet and develop friendships with unbelieving people too. This week we will look at friends that God places in our path. The goals and helps of this lesson are the same. One of the very significant problems we face in life is the problem of getting along with other people.

There are all sorts of people in the world around us and the apostle Paul says this about the people he comes in contact with. “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men”. Acts 24:16 Earlier in Acts 23:1 He makes a similar statement about his conscience. The LORD Jesus is making similar comments about His character when He says to Nicodemus; “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what WE know and you do not receive Our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things.” John 3:11-12, also see John 5:31.

So here is the point! The feelings of Distress, Detachment, Disapproval and Desertion are all conscience related. These can be ongoing realities in our life. We see this with the apostles throughout the epistles. We see this too in the life of Jesus.

But yes, we do often get to the point of throwing in the towel. We say things like. “Please don't leave me alone!” or “I just can't take this any more!” Matthew 26:36-46.

The apostle knew people all over the Mediterranean are. He knew many of the apostles, many preachers of the Word, pastors of churches, laborers and soldiers of the LORD. All you really need to do to know this is to read the Book of Acts. He had friendships, but he suffered greatly with distress, disapproval, disappointment and detachment.

Some of his loneliest moments were spent in prison. The Mamertine Prison in Rome is where he is when a fellow by the name of Onesimus shows up. The prison is known throughout Europe as the dungeon. We in today's world do not understand this definition. It was little more than a cave, a hole in the ground. It was always cold and dank, there was little ventilation. Rats and other creatures were in abundance. Just before his death he asked friend Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:13, 21. The apostle knew that when winter struck the prison the cold would be severe.

Under these conditions the apostle meets Onesimus. Paul knows the man and that he comes from Colosse. Colossians 4:8-9 tells us this. Philemon 1:16 explains to us that he was a slave. Historians estimate there were as many as sixty million slaves in the Roman Empire. The definition of slave was different than our understanding. Many were general laborers, but others were educators, artists and administrators. Some have even classified physicians like Luke, to be a bond servant to Paul.

The slave market is frowned upon by our standards today, a place where one could go and purchase a another person to work for them. Many of the these slaves became permanently attached to their owners. Today we contract people to do work for us. If they are good at what they do we may hire them again, the major difference is that we do not own them as we would a permanent commodity.

For Philemon, Onesimus was a thief, most likely Onesimus would have spent the rest of his life in the Mamertine Prison if it were not for the apostle who himself is under distress, disappointment, discouragement and disapproval. The apostle knows the fate of both himself and Onesimus and Paul is challenged by the Holy Spirit to recall some of the words he had written earlier. Philippians 4:13 and some of the words he heard Jesus speak to him via the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Paul is courageous, he is committed and he is consistent. Having met Onesimus in Colosse it was not hard to strike up conversation. Paul learns what happened to put Onesimus in jail. Then he brings Onesimus to Jesus Christ, they become strong friends.

We will pick this up again next week, but as we conclude we need to remember the challenge of being friends with others. We often want to pick and choose who we will be friends with. Many folks like the popularity of being friends with the educator, the doctor, lawyer and other folks of influence. But God does not call us with a bias bent. He calls us to reach out to the little people. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

The Devotional

What does Papa “J” Say?

Basics! Are you a person of basics? Goodness – The Spirit of God. Giving – The ministry of God. Applying just one lustful thought to goodness and giving removes safety and causes harm to your neighbor. Proverbs 3:27-30

Yesterday I wrote about a song, I purposely left the title of the song out of what I had to say because I was Spiritually motivated to say more about it today. “Bohemian Rhapsody” I feel sure you knew the title of the song, but here is the point. Most of us would just accept the title and move on, but the title sends the same message as the song. In other words Freddie Mercury did his homework, he knew what he was talking about. The problem was that it was too late for him, and he knew it. I believe that this was his attempt to warn others. However, that did not happen either. People and the theater have made a mockery out of the song. The song carries the message of killing a man (this part was left out for our chorus). What he is saying in that part is that he is responsible for killing himself. Bohemian has the following meaning in the Webster Dictionary: A vagabond or wanderer. A writer or artist living an unconventional lifestyle. Rhapsody, the first meaning; A highly emotional utterance or literary composition. The song is truly the work of an artist. What is so vividly sad is that all of that talent in his early years was bent on gratification of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. 1 John 2:15-17. Wasted life and wasted talent! (An alternate title, perhaps?) Your option! You have the freewill to take this to heart or reject it. The world is passing away a process that Freddie already knows As: TRUTH!

The Gospel of John

John 9:13-34 The trial and the excommunication of the guilty and the innocent! Could this event which is recorded by John give us some wisdom about religion. Well first lets take a look at the biblical definition for religion. James 1:26-27. So far, there is no harm or foul by the Pharisees seeking to know what had taken place on the Sabbath Day. Yet, things begin to fall apart. The act of grace by the LORD Jesus to heal the blind man was taken by the Pharisees as breaking the Law of God. But as we know: Grace actually fulfills the Law of God.

Grace is not a human work, Romans 11:1-10. The Law as interpreted by mankind calls for evidence to support or uphold the Law. When he fails to provide an adequate answer, his parents are called to give testimony. “Well, yes he is our son, he was blind, but we have no clue as to how he can now see. Our religion is more important to us, then our sons sight, so please don't kick us out, he is of age! Ask him!” Who is blind of the things of God, here?

Yes, God does not hear unrepentant sinners, but on the other side of this, man does not hear repented sinners, and the religions of man have a standard. The man who received his sight begins to convict the leaders of the religion of the day. “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing”. With their backs to the wall, religion does what it always does when grace prevails. “What? Your a sinner from birth and you are teaching US! Get out and don't come back! Truly there is nothing more awesome than being a sinner saved by Grace and being kicked out of religion! Praise the LORD!