Category Archives: John

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Almost Famous

“Thou Shalt Become Famous” is not One of the Ten Commandments

“Thou shalt become famous” is not one of the Ten Commandments. “Blessed are the spiritual celebrities, for they shall draw much attention” was not one of the Beatitudes Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. “Feed my sheep so the flock can grow into a mega-ministry” was not the charge Jesus gave his disciples. Those who make it into God’s Hall of Faith are those who never seek fame, but only to make Jesus famous.

The Journey: John 7:2-4

Soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!”

“Thou shalt become famous” is not one of the Ten Commandments. “Blessed are the spiritual celebrities, for they shall draw much attention” was not one of the Beatitudes Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. “Feed my sheep so the flock can grow into a mega-ministry” was not the charge Jesus gave his disciples.

Yet the all-consuming desire for fame and the gravitational pull of celebrity is stronger today among Christian leaders than ever before. Jesus’ brothers would have made a great PR team, but they don’t hold a candle to today’s image conscious ministries. All you have to do is tune in to Christian television, turn on Christian radio, walk into a Christian bookstore, or surf just about anything Christian and you will be immediately impressed with the swelling ranks of those who have attained Christian rock star status. In this day and age, to make it to the “bigs”, all you’ve got to do is sell a book, have your own show—or get on one, be the spiritual authority all the media quotes when there is breaking news, have your own blog—replete with adoring readers (yikes!)—and do whatever you can to get your name, and your mug, out there where the folks can discover just what a gift you are to humankind.

That doesn’t sound too much like Jesus, does it! He resisted any and every attempt to become famous, catapult to power, get rich and build a crowd of raving fans. In fact, he did just about everything you shouldn’t do to build a successful ministry. He avoided attention—if it was for wrong motives. He said very hard things to would be followers. He insulted the religious movers and shakers. He hung out with the wrong people. He championed causes no one on their way to the top would touch with a ten-foot pole. He grew his band of followers down to 11 guys who were mostly religious rejects. And he got himself killed—crucified as a common criminal. Oh—and he changed the world!

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a new crop of spiritual leaders who didn’t give a fig about fame and celebrity dominate the Christian scene today? Well, turn off your TV—and the radio. Forget about the cover of the latest edition of “Jesus Weekly” and quit reading all those pastor-blogs (except for one). Get in your car and take a drive out to a small town some Sunday, walk into a little country church and you are likely to find a simple shepherd who isn’t very famous—and won’t ever be—except with God. He, or she, simply loves God, and the flock—and one day, when the dust settles and we all stand before God, that faithful pastor will receive a standing ovation from the Great Cloud of Witnesses.

They never sought fame—they only wanted to make Jesus famous!

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
~Emily Dickinson

This week, memorize this Mark 10:45,“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many,” then better you, live it out.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, since your Son came to serve, not to be served, make me like him. Give me the heart of a servant. And use me to make Jesus famous.
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Let Jesus Show Through You

The Cost of Discipleship Is Nothing Less Than All of You

Jesus doesn’t want star-struck fans, he wants fully devoted disciples. That is why, to paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even though your salvation is free, discipleship will cost you everything, even your life.

The Journey: John 6:53-56

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

The crowds had been pretty impressed with Jesus—and why not? He had healed their sick, he had fed their multitudes—5,000 of them were treated to a full meal when he miraculously multiplied a couple of sardines and five loaves of bread—and he had even walked on their water—literally traipsing across the Sea of Galilee. So you can see why they wanted to hang around Jesus. Who wouldn’t?

But Jesus didn’t want star-struck fans, he wanted fully devoted disciples. So, in essence, he said, “Whatever your reason for following me up ‘til now, let me take you to a deeper, more satisfying experience, and you can only do that by taking my life fully into your own.” Oh, he didn’t say it quite that innocuously; he got pretty graphic and told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to be his disciples. And when the adoring crowds heard Jesus lay down the demands of discipleship in that way, they were shocked—and turned off. The New English Bible translates John 6:60 this way: “This is more that we can stomach. Why listen to such words.”

Why were they so upset? Was it because they found Jesus’ word so revolting? Was it because they didn’t understand what he was saying? No, it was because they knew all too well what he was asking of them. He was calling them to accept him as God’s Son, the true bread of life, the only one who could truly satisfy their spiritual hunger and quench their thirst for God, both now and for all eternity. Jesus was calling them radically to commit their lives totally to him, promising that if they did, then, and only then, would their deepest longings and innermost needs be fully met in him.

Jesus’ call to radical discipleship, using those provocative terms, would not have been unfamiliar to them. When a leader in that era called for unreserved commitment, he would demand that his followers “eat his flesh and drink his blood”. So the reason the crowd was upset and abandoned Jesus at hearing this was because they knew exactly what Jesus was asking: Nothing less than total commitment and full surrender.

Interestingly, Jesus used two different words in two different Greek tenses for “eating his flesh.” In John 6:53, the word “eat” meant to eat once and for all—a specific act at a moment in time that produced continuing effects into the future. He was speaking of the act of salvation—a specific moment in time when you give your life over to Christ and are born again. Salvation occurs at a moment in time, but it produces effects that continue throughout life and clear into eternity. The second word for “eat” in John 6:54 referred to a continuous act of daily and voraciously taking life-giving, soul-satisfying nourishment into one’s life. Jesus was referring not to salvation, but to the daily walk of discipleship.

In both cases, to “eat and drink of him” means to so thoroughly absorb Jesus that every fiber of who you are and every aspect of how you live is fundamentally and profoundly affected. And when he is invited and allowed to so fully and completely take over your life that way, something wonderful will happen: Jesus begins to show through.

That reminds me of the story of a little girl who turned to her mother on their way home from church and said, “Mommy, the pastor’s sermon confused me.” The mother said, “Why was that?” The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” The mother replied, “Yes, honey!” Then the little girl said, “And he also said that God lives in us. Is that true, mommy?” The mother again said, “Yes, that’s true, too.” Upon hearing that, the girl said, “Well, mommy, if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

That is what happens when you take Jesus so thoroughly and fundamentally in to your life—both at salvation and in your daily walk as his disciple. He begins to show through, and that is a good thing! If he is not showing through, it is likely that you are lacking in good spiritual nutrition, and, in the words of your Lord, you need to go back and “eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.”

“Salvation is free … but discipleship will cost you your life.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I want to absorb your Son’s life so fully into mine that he shows through me. So on this day, I offer myself to you; fully take me over.

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Saying Grace

Simply Giving Thanks Before Meals is One of Your Greatest Acts of Worship

“Then Jesus took the loaves, and gave thanks to God.” We don’t know exactly what Jesus said in his prayer, but it was likely short and sweet. He acknowledged God in that moment, drawing attention to the Heavenly Provider and reminding both himself and those who were within earshot of his dependence on and gratitude to Father God. That is something you and I can do too, each time we sit down (or drive through) for a meal. We can give thanks. As redundant and useless and perfunctory as it may seem, there is power in this simple act. If Jesus, who didn’t have to, did, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

The Journey: John 6:11

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.

This easy-to-overlook verse is sandwiched between two of Jesus’ outstanding miracles—the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two small fish, and the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. Not only that, at the end of this lengthy chapter is some of the heaviest theology that Jesus would ever lay on his would-be followers. It was so demanding and confrontational, in fact, that his followers called it a “hard saying,” and many of them quit following him from that point on.

With so much important stuff going on in this chapter, it would be easy to miss the fact that Jesus stopped to give thanks before a meal. Think about that for a moment: Why would Jesus do that? In a sense, wasn’t he really saying grace to himself? What purpose did this serve?

To begin with, I think Jesus was truly grateful to his Father for this provision of resources by which the miraculous feeding could occur. I think Jesus was authentically thankful that his Father had authorized the use of Divine power and was about to yet again authenticate the Messianic ministry and mission of the Son. I think the Second Person of the eternal Trinity was a fundamentally grateful being. It was just who Jesus was; the organic overflow of his Divine nature.

Not only that, Jesus was modeling for us the appropriateness and power of gratitude. He was reminding us by his actions that it doesn’t hurt to stop and express thanksgiving to God, and one of the simplest and recurring ways to enter into gratitude is to say a simple “thank you” before each meal.

We don’t know exactly what Jesus said in his prayer, but it was likely short and sweet. John simply says he “gave thanks”. He acknowledged God in that moment, drawing attention to the Heavenly Provider and reminding both himself and those who were within earshot of his dependence on and gratitude to Father God.

That is something you and I can do too, each time we sit down (or drive through) for a meal. We can give thanks. As redundant and useless and perfunctory as it may seem, there is power in this simple act. C.S. Lewis said it well,

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”

If Jesus, who didn’t have to offer thanks before a meal, did, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

Before every meal this week, say grace. Pause, think about it, then offer up to your gracious Heavenly Father the gratitude that is in your heart for all the good things he has provided.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, thank you for the daily bread which you have supplied. This is just one of the many good and perfect gifts that have come down from you. Today, yet again, in the food that I eat, you have reminded me that you are a good Father who without fail takes care of me.
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Bible Worship

Love of Scripture without Love of God

Knowing the Bible isn’t enough. Satan knows the Bible as well as anyone. He can quote it at will. Daily reading and Scripture memory aren’t enough. Nicodemus had that down pat, yet he didn’t know what it meant to be born again. Going to a church that teaches the Word verse-by-verse isn’t enough. There are people in those churches who are lost and don’t even know it. Hearing, reading, and believing the Bible aren’t enough. Believing in Jesus is.

The Journey: John 5:39-40

You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

I can think of no simpler yet more powerful practice for greater spiritual growth and intimacy with God than daily Bible study. The truth is, if you don’t have a regular quiet time with God—which would include not only reading, but meditation and prayer as well—you will fail to thrive spiritually. It is as simple as that.

Yet Bible reading, journaling and Scripture memory alone aren’t enough. In fact, there is a very real danger lurking in the practice of daily quiet time that will lead to even greater distance from God than not reading at all: Love of Scripture without love of God. That is what we might call bibliolatry.

Bibliolatry occurs when we acquire biblical knowledge without spiritual discernment; when our study of the Word is not commensurate to our obedience of the Word; when our love for Scripture exceeds our love for God, and correspondingly, love for our fellow man; when pride in our practice of Bible reading leads to a false sense of righteousness; and when the spiritual discipline of quiet time becomes a work of law rather than an offering of grace. When that occurs, in effect, we are worshiping the Bible rather than the God of the Bible.

There are far too many “Christians” who read the Bible little, if at all. That is an unfortunate blight on the modern church. Yet there is another segment of believers, much smaller, but in deeper spiritual danger, who have been lulled into a sort of spiritual smugness because they fancy themselves as “people of the Word” or because, as they happily proclaim, the church they attend really “teaches” the Word.

Knowing the Bible isn’t enough. Satan knows the Bible as well as anyone. He can quote it at will. Daily reading and Scripture memory aren’t enough. Nicodemus (see John 3) had that down pat. Going to a church that teaches the Word verse-by-verse isn’t enough. There are people in those churches who are lost and don’t even know it. Hearing, reading, and believing the Bible aren’t enough. Believing in Jesus is. Jesus said, “Whoever believes the Son has eternal life.” (John 3:36) Phillips Brooks said,

Christ is the Word of God. It is not in certain texts written in the New Testament, valuable as they are; it is not in certain words which Jesus spoke, vast as is their preciousness; it is in the Word, which Jesus is, that the great manifestation of God is made.

The goal of Bible study is not to grain greater knowledge of Scripture, or to grow spiritually, or to simply be able to check off that item on your daily list of things to do. It is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. By “knowing”, I am not referring to an intellectual event, but the intimate exchange of one’s life with the Almighty whereby love is deepened, obedience is practiced, and faith is expanded.

That is when searching the Scripture leads to eternal life.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, may my study of your Word always lead me to greater intimacy, obedience and love. May I not simply grow more knowledgeable of the Bible—may I grow more knowledgeable of you.
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How God’s Power Operates

Divine Transformation Requires Human Cooperation

Whether it’s healing, deliverance or salvation, God’s power, to be experienced, always demands our response. That response is called faith. As William Barclay said, “The power of God never dispenses with the effort of man.” In other words, divine power is released to have its full effect in our lives when our will engages God’s work. Now to be clear, our will doesn’t create God’s power, it just opens the spigot for that power to flow. So risk bending your will to God’s work; perhaps today it will create conditions for Divine power to turn your malady into a miracle.

The Journey: John 5:3-8

A great number of disabled people used to lie at the Pool of Bethesda—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The pool of Bethesda was where sick people—the infirmed, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed—would wait for the water to stir. There was a belief that when the water was moved, either by a natural phenomenon or by some sort of act of God, the sick and lame could experience curative powers if only they could get into the water.

One paralyzed man had waited thirty-eight years to get into the water at just the right moment, but in all those years, he had never been able to get into the pool at just the right time. Now Jesus knew he had been there a long time holding out for healing, yet in verse 6, he asks, “Do you want to get well?” The guy is paralyzed—for four decades he’s totally dependent on others—and Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed. Really! Doesn’t that seem a bit insensitive of Jesus?

But it’s not at all insensitive. Jesus’ one desire was restoring lost sheep to the Good Shepherd’s care—so insensitivity this can’t be. Obviously, there is more here than meets the eye: this is about how Divine power operates. Whether it’s healing, deliverance or salvation, God’s power, to be experienced, always demands our response. That response is called faith. So any time Jesus acts “harshly”, he’s just doing what’s needed to move a person to respond to God in faith.

In this story, we see that pattern: Jesus sparks the man’s faith by asking if he really wants healing. It could have been that the guy had grown accustomed to his condition, strange as that may sound. Think about it: others took care of him, so a healing would mess with that nice convenience: He would now have to work for a living, he would need to care for himself, and he would now be expected to contribute to society.

But his response was quick and certain. Yeah, he wanted to be healed; he was ready for the change, and all that change would require in his life.

Being ready for change—and willing to cooperate in it—is critical to God’s work in us, since Divine transformation won’t happen without human cooperation. The pre-condition for your miracle is willingness to abandon whatever paralysis has grown up around your need by taking that risky step of faith:

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5: 8-9)

William Barclay said, “The power of God never dispenses with the effort of man.” In asking the lame man to “get up”, Jesus was saying, “grab your will, reject your paralysis and exercise your faith to cooperate with God’s work.” Divine power is released to have its full effect in our lives when our will engages God’s work.

Now to be clear, our will doesn’t create God’s power, it just opens the spigot for that power to flow. “Get up” was what catalyzed the human faith needed to activate Divine power in the lame man. And as he bent his will to accommodate Jesus’ command, power happened—and so did one of the outstanding miracles of the Bible.

So what does that mean for you today? How about this: Risk bending your will to God’s work; perhaps today it will create conditions for Divine power to turn your malady into a miracle.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I want to be whole. So I bend my will to your work. Now I ask that you would release your power through this prayer of faith to do in me what I cannot do for myself. Heal me! Deliver me! Save me to the uttermost!
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Designer Deity Syndrome

Beware of Made to Order Worship

As Newsweek Magazine said of many modern American worshipers, “They’ve developed a pick and choose Christianity in which individuals take what they want and pass over what does not fit their spiritual goals…” That is what we might call, “designer god syndrome.” They want to worship a god made in their image, to their specifications. But nothing could be further from the “spirit and truth” worshiper that Jesus said God the Father is seeking. When it comes to God, and the way you worship him, you need to start saying, “God, what do you want?” Me too! As Jack Hayford says, “Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped,” not vice versa.

The Journey: 4:21-24

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

This Samaritan woman that Jesus encountered at the well of Sychar was suffering from what I call “designer deity syndrome”. This was a fairly common syndrome among worshipers not only in Jesus’ day, but in ours as well. It occurs when we attempt to come to God on our terms rather than his; when we make worship more about us, and what we like, than about God, and what he likes; when, in effect, we recreate God in our image rather than approaching him as beings created in his image.

That was the problem with the worship of the Samaritans. They had corrupted worship to fit their own needs to the point Jesus said, “You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship.” (John 4:22, NLT) They had become Burger King worshipers. Do you remember the old Burger King advertisement? “Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us. Have it your way.”

That little jingle is fitting for what we modern day “Samaritans” are doing with our experience of worship. We love a customized church experience. We expect worship services to be tailor-made just for us. We expect the praise, programs and preaching to satisfy our preferences. We want church designed to meet our needs, music tuned to our exact tastes, preachers crafted to our specifications, messages that mesmerize, and a made to order God—a “Burger King God” who says, “Have it your way”.

Some time ago, Los Angeles Magazine ran an article called “God For Sale”. The author said, “It is no surprise that when today’s affluent young professionals return to church they want to do it only on their own terms. But what is amazing is how far the churches are going to oblige them.” Newsweek Magazine added, “They’ve developed a pick and choose Christianity in which individuals take what they want and pass over what does not fit their spiritual goals…” That’s “designer god syndrome”.

Nothing can be further from the “spirit and truth” worshiper of verse 24 that Jesus said God the Father is seeking. When it comes to God, and the way you worship him, you need to start saying, “Have it your way”. Me too! As Jack Hayford says, “Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped.”

If you will learn what it means to do that, you will drink water from an altogether different kind of well—and you will never thirst again, as Jesus told the Samaritans in John 4:14,

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Honestly evaluate your worship expectations. Do you approach worship asking God how he prefers your worship? Or do you tell God, albeit in not so many words, “this is how I want it”? If it is the latter, a little repentance is in order.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, in my life and in my worship, I want what you want. I want you to have it your way. I want to be numbered among those who are the kind of worshipers you are seeking—a true spirit and truth worshiper.
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You Complete Me

That Can Only Be True of God

It is typical that in our age we go from experience to experience, job to job, purchase to purchase and relationship to relationship, hoping that that next great thing will be what finally brings us fulfillment. But here’s the deal: If you are looking to a thing, or job, or another person to fulfill you, you are putting an expectation on something or someone that they cannot meet. When you live in that kind of pattern, your life will end up as one long, futile attempt to find completion. Only God can satisfy the deepest desires of your being.

The Journey: 4:16-18

“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.”

An entire book could be written about this story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar. For instance, a whole chapter could be written from this story just about the inclusiveness of the Kingdom of God as Jesus invites a despised outsider to be a fully participating kingdom insider. Another chapter could lay out a master blueprint for starting spiritual conversations with anyone from an authentic seeker to a theological weirdo. Jesus was absolutely masterful in connecting with this woman in a current need she had and then taking her to a place spiritually that she wasn’t expecting. And of course, several chapters could present a compelling theology of worship from what Jesus says just in these few verses—a much needed theological reset to what is tantamount to idolatrous worship that has infected too much of the church in western culture today.

But at the end of the day, what you will find is that any encounter with Jesus doesn’t simply warm your heart to the Kingdom of God or perfect your evangelistic technique or inform your theology or just cram more spiritual information into your head, it touches the true condition of your heart. That is what happened to the woman at the well.

This sinful Samaritan sister is like a lot of people in our society today, even in our churches, who are attempting makeovers, not only of the physical kind, but of the whole-life kind. Like this lady, so many people are profoundly unhappy, dissatisfied, empty on the inside and are trying to reset their lives by filling that missing void. But any makeover effort that isn’t God-initiated, God-empowered, and God-focused, is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

In this woman’s case, she’d gone from man to man, hoping the next would be better—but each relationship left her increasingly dissatisfied, damaged and desperate. What Jesus was telling her was that she didn’t need a man to complete her, she didn’t need just a “relationship makeover”, she needed a new “water source” (John 4:13-15, NLT)—she needed a brand new life.

This woman is really a mirror of our age. We go from experience to experience, job to job, purchase to purchase and relationship to relationship, hoping that that next great thing will be what finally brings us fulfillment. But here’s the deal: If you are looking to a thing, or job, or another person to fulfill you, you are putting an expectation on something or someone that they cannot meet. When you live in that kind of pattern, your life will end up as one long, futile attempt to find completion.

Remember the gushy line from the movie that all the romantics swooned over: “You complete me”? That sounds so romantic that it has to be true. It’s not! It is one of the Enemy’s great deceptions. What Jesus was saying to this Samaritan woman—and by extension, to you and me—is that only God can complete you. When you come to God for completion, then those unrealistic expectations that you have placed on position, possessions and people will be removed, and only then can you drink the living water and never thirst again. C.S. Lewis said,

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now…. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.

The bottom line to this story—and to your life and mine—is simply this: We find real completion only in God.

Honestly evaluate your expectations of possession, position and people. Are you looking to them as your primary source of happiness and fulfillment? If you are, bring those misplaced expectations to God, and ask him to fulfill the desires of your heart. He has promised to do just that! (Psalm 37:4-5)

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, you and only you complete me. You are what I most want, and you are what I most need. Deliver me from the false hopes I put in people, events and things, and cause a passion to burn in me for you only.