Just follow Jesus

This morning, as I held my 6 month old granddaughter, Annie, and thought about her life ahead I was also thinking about the word "discipleship" which our church is emphasizing and integrating in our ministries and programs. It was a tender time to be alone with the Lord and with Annie and the thought that came to me was: "Just follow Jesus". This is the only ambition I need and the central need Annie will have throughout her life. In a sense, everything else flows from this. "Just follow Jesus". Jesus as my one ambition...to know Him better, talk to Him frequently, listen to Him fervently, obey Him faithfully.

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This is my prayer for Annie too. That she will fall in love with the one who formed her and who has wonderful plans to unfold in and through her life!

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Mark 1:17-18 Jesus called out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" And they left their nets at once and followed him.

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Love,

Rob Smith

some won't believe

With all the emphasis in the book of June on "believing" and having faith and trust in Jesus it remains true that many...perhaps most...will not believe...will not have faith...will not trust in Jesus. This was the case when Jesus lived on earth. Despite working miracles; healing the sick and even raising the dead...some would not believe that Jesus was the son of God. Why was that and why is it today that some won't believe. Two reasons surface in John, chapter 10 and chapter 12. In chapter 10 we learn that Jesus is like a shepherd who calls his sheep and some will hear his voice and respond and others will not. In chapter 12 we learn that God actually has hardened the hearts of some so that they cannot recognize Jesus for who he is.

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John 10:3-4 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice....verse 14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me"

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John 12:37 But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him...verse 40 (quoting the prophet Isaiah) "The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts- so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me, and have me heal them." 41 Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he said this.

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Do you hear Jesus' voice calling?

Rob Smith

What are you expecting?

During Jesus' ministry, many people who were attracted and fascinated by him expected Him to take over as king...sort of a "New David" to lead the nation of Israel back to prominence and throw off the Roman occupiers. Jesus walked away from the crowds when they sought to go in this direction. He knew that they didn't need a national king...they needed a personal savior. The king is the champion of the nation and the many, but the savior is the rescuer of the individual. These days we still look for a king who will restore our nations to prominence. We look for our answers to come from our government and we define the great issues as those between large groups of people and between nations. But we still need a savior first and foremost. We are not primarily a nation and we are not foremost a crowd or a culture...we are each individuals who live and walk before the God who made us and we need restoration. We need a rescue. We need a Savior. The dynamic of victory was not and is not to come through the sword or the instruments a nation would employ to conquer or impose its will. The dynamic of victory comes on the personal level through the miracle of "belief"...belief in the One who came under orders from Heaven to love, to lead and to leave it all behind to purchase our forgiveness. Victory comes as we believe in that Savior and are restored to our Maker!

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John 6:15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

John 6:29 Jesus told them, "Thkis is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

finite and infinite

As I get older I am more aware of the shortness of this life. As I am in the loop of emails from classmates from my alma mater I am hearing of different ones dying already and I realize that this is the order of life. We are all heading for that destiny, where this life and all its seasons comes to a close. Truly our time on earth is brief with a beginning and an end. And as one who has been born again through faith in Jesus Christ I know that this life is a gateway for the life that never ends. So the motivation to live in the "forever" dimension is becoming stronger. The grip of this life is fading. The things it offers will end with this life and they lose their appeal. Growing in urgency is the desire to live in such a way that others will hear, see and have the opportunity to respond to the eternal invitation to also let go of the "self-grip" and grasp the extended hand of Jesus to come and join Him. He left Heaven to rescue us. Living in our midst as both man and God He identified with this turbulent life in the flesh and then He paved the way back to Heaven for us, if we will believe that only in Him do we find what we need to live. As this life is fading with our diminished strength and as we see that we will ultimately exit this stage we grow in our longing for the life without end and for others to come to this knowledge as well.

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John 5:³⁷ And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, ³⁸ and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

³⁹ "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

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Come to Him here...live with Him in the life that will never end!

Rob Smith

flowers on clearance

Last week Shirley and I were at Lowe's looking at plants. Shirley likes to check out the dollar clearance rack whenever we stop in. There was a new multilevel cart full of petunias there. As I walked near the rack I was embraced with a musky fragrance wafting off the trays. These petunias were an assortment of red, white and blue in petal color and I was struck by the simple beauty that these flowers on clearance projected through the channels of sight and smell. My thoughts turned to the Creator and how He fashioned living things that some would call discount items but that were made to be objects of humble beauty...

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Luke 12:28 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

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blessings,

Rob Smith

living in a house of cards

You can build a house of cards but it is fragile and easily toppled. I am reading through (actually listening to) the book of John as I exercise in the morning. The chapters are long and full of stories, teachings by Jesus, and lessons. Although the audience and the culture that Jesus was addressing was Jewish, the lessons apply across time and cultures. This morning a thought emerged from chapter 5. Jesus has healed a man who has been crippled for decades, but he has done this on the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders have decided that healing people was "work" and shouldn't be performed on the Sabbath. On its face this seems an absurd rule to anyone with common sense. But we live in a world of manmade rules today and many of these have questionable wisdom. It seems that we will surround ourselves with some kind of structure to function within. Either that structure will have its basis in what God says, or what men say. Sometimes, as with the Pharisees, men will make rules and that try to put the stamp of God on them. But, as Jesus showed, there will come times of direct conflict when the ways of man and the ways of God are at cross purpose. In fact, the culture of man may roll along just fine it would appear until God directly intervenes. It is a good self-question to ask if we are allowing the Lord to build His house for our lives, or whether we are allowing the culture of man to be our framework. The Pharisees did not accept Jesus for who He was because their allegiance was to their manmade framework. It is good to challenge our allegiance as well! See what Jesus has to say to the Pharisees in chapter 7:

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John 7:18 "Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

"I am the Messiah"

I listened to the early chapters of the Gospel of John yesterday and one of the things that stood out to me was how clear Jesus made his identity. He wasn't just "a good man", "a great teacher", "an example of morality". See how he answered the following question from the Samarian woman in chapter 4l verses 24,25: "The woman said, 'I know the Messiah is coming-the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.' Then Jesus told her, 'I am the Messiah!"

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Earlier, during his conversation with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, after Jesus explained the necessity to be 'born again' to see life everlasting, he provided this credential in verse 13: No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.and just to make sure there was no doubt about who the 'Son of Man' was, Jesus identified him in verses 14 and 15 as the one who would be lifted up on a pole so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

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In John, chapter 5, Jesus makes it clear that is the Son of God and listen to this amazing promise from verse 24: "I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life."

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Jesus made it clear who he was, where he came from, who sent him, and what authority he had. He also made clear how we ought to respond!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

the Jesus gap

I knew all weekend that this would be a busy week but I pushed the long list of "to do" items to the back of my mind and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. But, as it always does, Monday showed up this morning. My mind became anxious as I considered a challenging list of things that need to get completed this week at work. I remembered the lesson from our Minibible College class yesterday from Psalms..."when we feel overwhelmed we need to pray...listen for the Lord's response...consider the right course of action...carry through and trust Him". And then I had something of a revelation. Of course there is too much for me to do in my own strength! There is a "Jesus gap" in my life that only He can fill. My life is set up in such a way that I am not supposed to be able to "do it all" in my own strength. So I yielded my anxiety to Him and asked Him to fill the gap that I cannot fill. I haven't been to work yet but He is already giving me ideas about how to prioritize the work. I am trusting Him to fill my mind with insight as the day and the week unfold. It will be a team effort this week, and Jesus is the captain of the team!

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John 14:²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

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blessings,

Rob Smith