Jesus Christ is the Resurrection! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 11:25-26,

"I [Jesus] am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

The resurrection is the event where all people who have ever lived will be brought back to life before God's great white throne judgment. There will actually be two resurrections: the first resurrection will be for all who will inherit eternal life, the second for all who will be cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur, Revelation 21:8.

We read of the resurrection in Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection." The second resurrection is called "the second death" in that same verse, where we are told it will have no power over those who share in the first resurrection.

I can't help but note that Jesus said he was the resurrection, in reference to the eternal life all will share in who participate in the first resurrection. "I [Jesus] am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.

I don't read of any Mohammed in the Scriptures. There is no resurrection there. I don't read of any pope or Joseph Smith: Jesus is the Resurrection! I don't read of any ecclesiastical organization: Jesus is the Resurrection! I don't read of any Southern Baptist Convention, no Missouri Synod: Jesus is the Resurrection! No PTL network in the Scriptures: Jesus is the Resurrection! No Buddha, no Confucius, no Ellen G. White: Jesus is the Resurrection! No Democrats and no Republicans: Jesus is the resurrection!

The only hope any of mankind has following death is Jesus Christ. All who embrace him in faith will share in the resurrection of life - eternal life - God's "river of delights"! See Psalm 36:8. Pleasures at the right hand of God for an eternity! See Psalm 16:11. It is in the resurrection of life all sin, all corruption, all hardship, all death, mourning, crying, pain and infirmity will be left behind! No need to lock the doors any more! No need of medical science or pharmaceuticals! The curse we currently all live under will be removed!

All this through the Son of God, our redemption to eternal life in the resurrection! Jesus Christ is the Resurrection!

"Do you believe this?"

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
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Did Jesus Claim to be God? What do the Scriptures Say? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 10:33,

"'We are not stoning you for any good work,' they replied, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'"

On occasion I have heard that Jesus never claimed to be God. It is somewhat perplexing to hear this as the Scriptures are very clear on this matter. Here Jesus' opponents picked up stones to stone Jesus for blasphemy for the very cause that he was claiming to be God. Another episode of this kind of thing is seen in John 5:18, "For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God."

John's gospel begins with the great statement affirming the deity of Jesus Christ, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. John made clear we would understand that the "Word" was Jesus Christ and is God, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14.

Paul in his letter to the church in Rome could not have been clearer, "Theirs [the Jew's] are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah [Jesus Christ], who is God over all, forever praised! Amen."

In Hebrews 1:8-9, where the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 45:6-7, we read, "But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.'" Here we see God the Father enthroning God the Son.

Where Luke's gospel presents us with Jesus Christ as "the Son of Man", John's gospel presents us with Jesus Christ as "the Son of God". Both, however affirm the duel nature of Jesus Christ as being at once a person who is fully God and fully man. Theologians love ridiculous terminology (have sympathy though, look at what they attempt to articulate!), and, they call this duel nature of Jesus Christ as "the theo-anthropic person (God-man) in hypostatic (the substance or essential nature of an individual) union."

Paul tell us how we enter into eternal life, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." When we declare "Jesus is Lord", we affirm our understanding that Jesus Christ is "God over all" and therefore the Lord of our lives.

As I say, for those of us who read our Bibles, it is somewhat perplexing for anyone to suggest Jesus Christ never claimed to be God or that the Scriptures are not clear on this point. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Jesus Christ is God over all!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Blind Religious Leaders - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 9:16,

"This man [Jesus] is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."

This was the statement made by the Pharisees when Jesus healed a man born blind. The Pharisees had become so entrenched in their development of law-keeping, they became unable to see spiritual realities before their eyes.

Where the man Jesus healed was born blind, these Pharisees had made themselves blind to the things of God. They were quite certain they had the "inside scoop" on God as they were the religious elites of the day, but they had merely blinded themselves to spiritual realities in a way they were simply unable to see, to perceive God's Messiah in their midst.

How about the spiritual elites of our day? Have you ever suspected that so many in the religious community might not recognize Jesus Christ were he to visit us today? I don't know about you, but I have no faith in these "religious leaders" - I have faith in Jesus Christ. I don't go to "religious leaders" to find out about the things of God - I go to my Bible. I don't seek truth from "religious leaders" - I seek truth from the Lord himself. I don't have hope in any ability a "religious leader" might have to aid in my spiritual life - I look to the Lord and welcome the Holy Spirit to do his work in my life. I don't have any expectation of the future that "religious leaders" might provide - my hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a presage of my own resurrection to eternal life.

How about you?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Darkness Penetrated by Light! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 8:12,

"I [Jesus] am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

As Jesus spoke to the people, he told them he was the One who brings relief to a real problem the world has... a problem the world often fails to appreciate. The world exists and persists in a darkness. Not a physical darkness, but a spiritual darkness.

This darkness represents the world's estrangement from its Creator due to mankind's sinful rebellion against him. The world knows of its darkness. All the world's religions are based on the broken nature of mankind as a result of this darkness. We are all aware, in spite of the delusions created by notions of "evolution" that a cosmic struggle is in play where mankind continues to grope about in this darkness seeking answers and solutions to its corruption. Answers and solutions that will never be found outside of Jesus Christ.

Industrialization, technological innovation, the affluence of today's advanced nations, while bringing an illusion of relief from this spiritual darkness, have no impact on the grip of this darkness: mankind is just as screwed up today as ever... limping along in its darkness. "They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them." 1 John 2:11b.

The penetrating light of Jesus Christ into this darkness is what brings such a dramatic impact to his coming! "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2. Through him individuals can and do find their way out of this great darkness that dominates mankind. It comes by embracing Jesus Christ in faith.

"I  am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." How wonderful to be delivered from the spiritual darkness that has blinded us all! How wonderful to be brought into the light of his family! Only from here can we have a clear perspective of the spiritual realities that shape and form this age we live in, while also providing us a view of what is to come in the next.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Why Do So Many Reject Jesus Christ? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my heart and mind in John 7:52,

"Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a
prophet does not come out of Galilee."

This was the response of the Pharisees to one of their own, Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a believer and the one Jesus spoke to earlier, when he
uttered the famous passage, "For God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.", John 3:16.

Nicodemus had challenged his fellow Pharisees to hear Jesus out before
condemning him. We see the Pharisees engaging in finely parsing the
Scriptures, looking for any reason to reject Jesus. The scuttlebutt
among the crowd at the temple courts was, "How can the Messiah come
from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from
David's descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?"
John 7:41-42. Their observation came from Micah's prophecy, "But you,
Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose
origins are from of old, from ancient times." Mich 5:2.

What the crowd was unaware of, as well as the Pharisees, was that
although Jesus had lived in Galilee, he was born in Bethlehem.

My thought this morning is that people will look for anything and
everything to reject Jesus Christ. Any seeming contradiction, anything
possibly unknown is enough for so many to reject Jesus Christ out of
hand. The reason for this was told by Jesus himself to Nicodemus, when
he went to visit him on that night, "This is the verdict: Light has
come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light,
and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be
exposed." John 3:19-20.

Here is the reality: many people prefer to cling to their sin rather
than turning from it to embrace Jesus Christ in faith. Theologians and
scholars with their cold and stale pursuit to discredit the
Scriptures, mockers and scoffers, charlatans who peddle a different
"Jesus" to gain a flock to fleece, etc. These all have one common
element. They have all chosen to cling to their sins, and pursue any
possible explanation of why Jesus was not who he said he was and
didn't do what he came to do.

Just as the Pharisees in Jesus day... nothing has changed in the last
two millennia. Any possible reason to reject Jesus Christ will do in
order for many to cling to their sin. You might think most would jump
at the chance of eternal life... how powerful is that hold sin has on
so many!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send
me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are
receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just
respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Jesus: the Great Mastermind - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 4:1-3,

"Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee."

I am somewhat fascinated to read of the strategy Jesus employed during his public ministry the last three years of his life.

When Jesus found out the Pharisees had learned he was gaining in influence and was developing a greater following than John the Baptist, he left Judah and went back up to Galilee. It is clear Jesus was not afraid of the Pharisees, as he boldly confronted them in fascinating ways on a number of occasions. Rather, his move to Galilee had a tactical purpose.

Jesus employed strategies culminating in a multifaceted outcome that would serve his purpose. We read his primary purpose was to effect a substitutionary atonement for the sins of all mankind,  "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Additionally, he employed fulfilled prophecy and utilized miracles to establish his bona fides - demonstrating veracity of his teachings and establishing who he was.

He was not here simply to establish a big following or to be mistaken as some kind of military leader (as the judges were in Gideon's day.) John made the following observation, "After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, 'Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.' Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself." Jesus came to die on a cross, not to assume the throne in Jerusalem (not at this time... he will assume it yet in the future.)

Jesus' comings and goings were dictated by his design to manipulate outcomes and the achievement of all he set himself to do while here. Notice this fascinating account by John, "After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to him, 'Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.'" John 7:1-4.

Jesus determined his sacrificial death be by his design, not the design of the Jewish leaders. So, he moved in a way to accommodate that. Although his half-brothers were merely taunting Jesus, they pointed out that if Jesus wanted to make a name for himself, he needed to show up at various events for the exposure. His response to his brothers was, "You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come." John 7:8.

Strategy, manipulation, bringing about his desired outcomes, were employed by the greatest mastermind the world has known.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

A Simple Statement About Eternal Life - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in John 3:36,

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them."

This statement of John the Baptist to his disciples packs a lot of theology into one sentence. From it I learn:

1. Eternal life for any one of us comes by embracing Jesus Christ in faith, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life". It doesn't come by being a do-gooder - it is only offered us on the basis of faith.

2. I note that those of us who have done so own eternal life right now - not later. The one who believes in the Son "has" eternal life, not "will have". Yes, we will die physically, but we will join the Lord in heaven upon our deaths and then be raised up with our resurrected bodies on Resurrection Day. We enjoy our eternal life right now!

3. Our eternal destination is entirely up to us - our choice, "whoever rejects the Son will not see life." God has given us cognitive abilities to understand his invitation to us, and he has given us a free will to decide for ourselves whether we want to cling to our sin or turn from our sin to embrace Jesus in faith. "Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." John 3:19-20.

4. All mankind stands before God as his judge, "God's wrath remains on him". He finds each and every one of us guilty. "All have sinned..." Romans 3:23. All we have to do to go to hell after this life is nothing. We all stand condemned before him because we have all sinned. This is the default spiritual reality and eternal destination we enter into this life with.

5. Judgment day will be a day of tremendous remorse for those who turn their backs on God's offer of eternal life. Those who reject Jesus Christ "will not see life for God's wrath remains on them." God has a keen sense of justice. All sins will have to be paid for. Jesus Christ has already paid for them all, but that payment is only available to the accounts of those who have embrace Jesus Christ in faith. Jesus hung on that miserable cross to pay for all the sins of everyone who has ever lived. Those who reject Jesus Christ will have to pay for their own sins themselves.

In the original Greek, the gospel of John reads like a child's primer. It is the book many Biblical Greek intro classes begin with due to the simple vocabulary and sentences employed. However, nothing contains such deep theological insight as the writings of John! And, what we do find in John's gospel is simply breath-taking!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com