John

John 16: Tell all the truth but tell it slant

January 20, 2020 — Leave a comment

I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.

Metaphor

Similes, As If’s and like’s

Make the medicine go down

Movies art

Poetry

Make suffering and realties

Digestible and gentle

Candy coated like gardens of Eden

Hold the stories and feelings we understand

Growing and pruning truth in its core

What if Jesus is a metaphor?

What if the words we take to be so inherently true

Are true in the sense that they point to truth

But within itself are malleable and allow for shifts

According to where the light hits

And the time of day

And season of life

Flexible allows for faith

Flexible holds a God that has inherent worth

A God who is unafraid of your doubt and anger

I want the truth

Straight and slanted

John 15: You’re doing good when you’re being stripped

January 19, 2020 — Leave a comment

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

How do you know you’re bearing fruit? When you’re getting pruned! When you’re being stripped. When you’re feeling exposed. When you’re getting smaller but more focused. You’re bearing fruit when it hurts. When you’re in the process. When you’re growing out of your old clothes and still trying to find new clothes to wear.

You bear fruit not in the stagnant. You bear fruit when you’re not thinking about the fruit, but just trying to stay alive and attached. You bear fruit not when you notice it, but when others see you remaining in the fire.

How do you know you’re bearing fruit? When it feels like you’ve got more to bear. Persevere. Stay the path. That’s bearing fruit.

John 13: Out of everything we serve

January 15, 2020 — Leave a comment

Jesus knowing that God had given everything to him, gets on his knees to wash his disciples feet. His act of service flows from abundance, from knowing that he lacks nothing and from knowing his cup has everything. His act of service is not to get anything or to prove anything. It is simply out of abundance and love.

What motivates us to serve? What motivates us to give? Is it out of knowing that we already have everything or is it out of trying to get something?

You ever get that icky feeling when someone tries to help you. Like you owe them something? You ever get that icky feeling when you try to help? And you have a slight, maybe minuscule feeling of bitterness when your service isn’t acknowledged? Our service and generosity MUST flow from an inner abundance and fullness so that all we do is not to get, but simply to exist. Without the inner abundance and security, everything we do has a disclaimer or a need.

What areas of your life do you feel lack? How can God fill those so we don’t attempt to be the filled by those in this world?

John 12: “Evangelism”

January 14, 2020 — Leave a comment

He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their heart,

lest they see with their eyes,

and understand with their heart, and turn,

and I would heal them.

There is a gentleness in God’s constant, hard pursuit of us. He doesn’t push his way in or sneak through the back. Like a shepherd who knows his sheep, he simply walks through the door. He doesn’t push his way in when we are closing ourselves. He doesn’t plead and beg for us to believe. God simply presents, and comes back and presents and waits patiently for us. Even when all the signs and words and every thing of this world points to him, he doesn’t make a glaring neon sign to draw attention. God simply is. He simply trusts. She simply waits with open arms.

Yet why is our evangelism nowadays so brutal and offensive? Why do we insist on pushing our way through closed doors, making it more about OUR WORK rather than the people we seemingly love?

Can we carry into our love and pursuit for others, gentleness, faith & patience? It is not US who can open any hearts or eyes. It is GOD. Our job is to simply draw attention, draw out curiosity and then point it all back to Jesus.