Blogging will be rather sporadic as we are
selling the house and moving.
MORNING
Psalm
120
B1
What
does this mean?
C1 Deliver me from my lying lips and more
likely those who lie about me/us.
C2 Compare Jeremiah: Jeremiah 20:10 NLT I
have heard the many rumors about me. They call me "The Man Who
Lives in Terror." They threaten, "If you say anything, we
will report it." Even my old friends are watching me, waiting
for a fatal slip. "He will trap himself," they say, "and
then we will get our revenge on him."
C3 For many people the solution for a problem
is murder.
B2
How
do I apply this to my life?
C1
Turn to God for help.
C2 Know the truth.
C3 People will lie about us, and it hurts.
C4 Revenge is not for believers. Reporting a
crime is not revenge.
EVENING
John
8
B1
What
does this mean?
C1
Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery
D1
Some do not consider this to be genuinely Scripture, but for
what it’s worth, Wilbur Pickering commenting on this verse: ...But
why was the story omitted? Leading church father and theologian,
Augustine (about A.D. 430), answers: “Certain persons of little
faith, or rather enemies of the true faith, fearing, I suppose, lest
their wives should be given impunity in sinning, removed from their
manuscripts the Lord’s acts of forgiveness toward the adulteress,
as if He who said ‘sin no more’ had granted permission to sin.”
(See Augustine, “Adulterous Marriages” [2.7] trans. by Charles T.
Huegelmeyer, in Saint Augustine: Treatises on Marriage and Other
Subjects [New York: Fathers of the Church, 1955], p. 107.) [I took
this material on Augustine from Living Water: The Gospel of
John—Logos 21 Version, Absolutely Free Incorporated, p. 74.]
D2 Note how Jesus is desiring the crowd to
acknowledge their own sins. The woman’s sins are now known, but the
crowd was hiding their own sins. Sins can be committed in thoughts,
desires, words, and deeds.
D3
From verse 4 it almost seems that this case was set up. Also note:
Leviticus 20:10 NLT If
a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the man and the
woman who have committed adultery must be put to death.
D4
Note Jesus adhering to the Law (2 witnesses needed) and His mercy. He
also warns her not to sin anymore so acknowledging her actions to be
sinful. Deuteronomy
17:6 NIV On
the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to
death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one
witness.
C2
Pharisees Accuse Jesus of Having No Witnesses
D1
The
Pharisees are correct about needing witnesses, but note how they
reject Jesus’s witnesses.
D2
Verse 18, if nothing else see
2 Peter 1:17-18.
C3
Jesus Identifies Himself as God
E1
Because
the Jews could never get their minds above earthly things, they could
never accept Jesus' claim that he came from God. By rejecting him
they lost all chance of having their sins forgiven. They would die in
their sins and thereby be excluded from heaven, the place to which
Jesus would return after his death and resurrection (John 8:21-26).
E2 Most of the people still did not
understand how Jesus could be the Son of God, but one day in the near
future they would have clear proof. They would see Jesus die on the
cross, but then, by the power of God, rise from the dead. This would
be an unmistakable demonstration of the unity between the Father and
the Son (John 8:27-29). Some who heard Jesus speak did not wait for
the events he spoke of, but put their faith in him immediately (John
8:30).
D2 In reading the various witnesses from the 4
Gospels, we see a clearer picture of who Jesus is. Also, many
prophets have spoken of Him.
C4 Jesus Exposes the People’s Sins
D1
The
Scriptures are the only source of 100% truth.
D2
Sin
is addictive. It is the natural state of humans to be sinners.
E1
Romans 3:23 EMTV for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
E2 If our sin is not exposed, we will continue
to believe that we are good people and are doing more good than evil.
We must face the truth.
D3
The actions
of Abraham
are his believing God and how this believing is seen in the actions
and decisions in his life.
D4
Barclay
(be aware!) writes: Jesus'
closeknit indictment goes on. He asks "Why do you not understand
what I am saying?" The answer is terrible—not
that they are intellectually stupid, but that they are spiritually
deaf. They refuse to hear and they refuse to understand. A man can
stop his ears to any warning; if he goes on doing that long enough,
he becomes spiritually deaf. In the last analysis, a man will only
hear what he wishes to hear; and if for long enough he attunes his
ears to his own desires and to the wrong voices, in the end he will
be unable to tune in at all to the wavelength of God. That is what
the Jews had done.
D5 Verse 44 shows one reason people reject
Christ Jesus. It is their love of sinful pleasures.
D6 Verse 46, Abraham did believe.
C5 Jesus Is the Great I AM
D1
I
AM is the identity, character, and name of God.
D2
Passing through their midst, that is, they could not seize Him,
should show them something special about Jesus.
B2
How
do I apply this to my life? As
noted above.
I
hope
to have a devotional every day on John’s
Gospel starting with the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel.
This
is
the way I do my devotions. You may notice grammatical and spelling
errors. It is my hope you will also start or continue in your daily
reading and thinking about
the Scriptures. I do this Monday through Friday. It is a 3 year plan
of reading and thinking on 1 chapter in the Old Testament, which
takes 3 years, and reading and thinking on 1 chapter in the New
Testament once a year for a total of 3 times. So, I read through the
Old Testament 1 time and the New Testament 3 times over a period of 3
years. I
do this Monday through Friday and use Saturday and Sunday for other
devotions.
