Anointing

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us. But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth. I don’t write to you because you don’t know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? Isn’t it the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, what you heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in relationship to the Son and in the Father. This is the promise that he himself gave us: eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are attempting to deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains on you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you the truth. But since his anointing teaches you about all things (it’s true and not a lie), remain in relationship to him just as he taught you. And now, little children, remain in relationship to Jesus, so that when he appears we can have confidence and not be ashamed in front of him when he comes. (1 John 2:18-28, CEB)

If you have the son you have the father and the spirit and are anointed.

If you are a part of the anointed you can not lie.

Those who claim a lie is truth and do not tell the truth are not a part of Christ.

We are called as anointed people of God to proclaim truth and not lie.

Anyone who lies is not part of the Truth.

Loving People. Loving God.

Genuine

Brothers and sisters, we have confidence that we can enter the holy of holies by means of Jesus’ blood, through a new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, which is his body, and we have a great high priest over God’s house. Therefore, let’s draw near with a genuine heart with the certainty that our faith gives us, since our hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies are washed with pure water. Let’s hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, because the one who made the promises is reliable. And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:19-25, CEB)

Let’s draw near with a genuine heart, with the certainty our faith gives us.

We have been made clean from the evil conscience and our bodies washed. We are clean and we can be certain in that.

Allow God’s mercy and grace to flow over your life and give you certainty and love to share with all creation.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Preparation

Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who joined him at the table. Then Mary took an extraordinary amount, almost three-quarters of a pound, of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, then wiped his feet dry with her hair. The house was filled with the aroma of the perfume. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), complained, “This perfume was worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would take what was in it.) Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone. This perfume was to be used in preparation for my burial, and this is how she has used it. You will always have the poor among you, but you won’t always have me.” (John 12:1-8, CEB)

You will always have the poor with you. Does this mean we should not be concerned about poor people? No it means we should not be concerned about treasures and use them to make the poor less poor. Or to at least make the poor more like the rest of us.

We quibble over minutia and people are dying, and yet we can’t take any of our resources with us.

If you have enough to end world hunger and you don’t you do not show God’s love regardless of what you say. If you have enough resources to feed the world and take care of medical issues and you hoard your wealth you are not following God and doing what God has commanded us to do.

Love without limit.

Loving People. Loving God.

One

Therefore, many of the Jews who came with Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called together the council and said, “What are we going to do? This man is doing many miraculous signs! If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our people.” One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! You don’t see that it is better for you that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed.” He didn’t say this on his own. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would soon die for the nation— and not only for the nation. Jesus would also die so that God’s children scattered everywhere would be gathered together as one. From that day on they plotted to kill him. Therefore, Jesus was no longer active in public ministry among the Jewish leaders. Instead, he left Jerusalem and went to a place near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. It was almost time for the Jewish Passover, and many people went from the countryside up to Jerusalem to purify themselves through ritual washing before the Passover. They were looking for Jesus. As they spoke to each other in the temple, they said, “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will he?” The chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should report it, so they could arrest him. (John 11:45-57, CEB)

The needs of the many out way the needs of the one.

It is better for one to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed. And yet it was the religious powers that condemned Jesus to death. This is not the Jews. This is power. They were losing their power and instead of following the prophet God had sent, the church did as it did through out the Hebrew Scriptures. They killed the prophet.

Jesus didn’t come to die. Jesus came to show us how to live and power corrupted and took over. Jesus came to show us love, grace, mercy, and hope and those in power saw him as a threat that needed to be eliminated.

Do not love power. Love God and God’s People.

Loving People. Loving God.

Sorrow

I think it is also necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. He is my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier; and he is your representative who serves my needs. He misses you all, and he was upset because you heard he was sick. In fact, he was so sick that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him—and not just on him but also on me, because his death would have caused me great sorrow. Therefore, I am sending him immediately so that when you see him again you can be glad and I won’t worry. So welcome him in the Lord with great joy and show great respect for people like him. He risked his life and almost died for the work of Christ, and he did this to make up for the help you couldn’t give me. So then, my brothers and sisters, be glad in the Lord. It’s no trouble for me to repeat the same things to you because they will help keep you on track. (Philippians 2:25—3:1, CEB)

Paul shows sorrow over losing a fellow workers in the Gospel.

We can be joyful and yet be filled with sorrow.

Be glad in the Lord even when things may not be going your way because God is always with us. God is always working in and through all things to make a way for love to be made known and seen and felt in the world.

Your sorrow will be a moment in time, but the joy of the Lord will be forever.

Loving People. Loving God.

Character

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to see you soon so that I may be encouraged by hearing about you. I have no one like him. He is a person who genuinely cares about your well-being. All the others put their own business ahead of Jesus Christ’s business. You know his character, how he labors with me for the gospel like a son works with his father. So he is the one that I hope to send as soon as I find out how things turn out here for me. I trust in the Lord that I also will visit you soon. (Philippians 2:19-24, CEB)

Character is the way the heart looks at the world. The things we do when no one is looking. Integrity is another way to see this.

We need to be people of upstanding moral character and love without boundaries.

God calls us to show love to the world. And people of character do this even when they will not get anything in return.

Are we a people of character?

Loving People. Loving God.

Eat

When the apostles returned, they described for Jesus what they had done. Taking them with him, Jesus withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds figured it out, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about God’s kingdom, and healed those who were sick. When the day was almost over, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can go to the nearby villages and countryside and find lodging and food, because we are in a deserted place.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” But they said, “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.” (They said this because about five thousand men were present.) Jesus said to his disciples, “Seat them in groups of about fifty.” They did so, and everyone was seated. He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. Everyone ate until they were full, and the disciples filled twelve baskets with the leftovers. (Luke 9:10-17, CEB)

The disciples came to Jesus with a problem, and Jesus gave them a chance to d something about it. But in their minds there wasn’t sufficient resources to handle the problem. Jesus showed them otherwise.

We see things from our human perspective. We have this and this is how far that will go. We have issues seeing beyond the human side of things.

Jesus saw the resources and asked God to help.

When we step aside and ask God for help we will always be amazed at what happens. Be a conduit for the love of God to flow in and through the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

Fool

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Favored are those who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.” He said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said, “Don’t do that! I’m a servant just like you and your brothers and sisters who hold firmly to the witness of Jesus. Worship God! The witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy!” (Revelation 19:9-10, CEB)

We need to not worship each other and be a fool, but worship God and God alone.

Do not look at your siblings in Christ as better than you or people who should be worshipped. But as fellow workers in the field.

Don’t be a fool.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Smoke

After this I heard what sounded like a huge crowd in heaven. They said,
“Hallelujah! The salvation and glory and power of our God!
His judgments are true and just,
    because he judged the great prostitute,
        who ruined the earth by her whoring,
    and he exacted the penalty for the blood of his servants
        from her hand.”
Then they said a second time,
“Hallelujah! Smoke goes up from her forever and always.”
The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who is seated on the throne, and they said, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
Then a voice went out from the throne and said,
“Praise our God, all you his servants,
        and you who fear him, both small and great.”
And I heard something that sounded like a huge crowd, like rushing water and powerful thunder. They said,
“Hallelujah! The Lord our God, the Almighty,
        exercised his royal power!
Let us rejoice and celebrate, and give him the glory,
    for the wedding day of the Lamb has come,
        and his bride has made herself ready.
She was given fine, pure white linen to wear,
    for the fine linen is the saints’ acts of justice.” (Revelation 19:1-8, CEB)

Not sure how we are supposed to read this passage during Lent. It has Hallelujah in it several times.

But it is a scene of worship. Centered around the throne, with the 24 elders and the four living creatures and all of those from the crowd, gathered in the smoke around the throne worshipping God.

It will be a thing to witness like we have never seen.

This is why the vision of revelation is hard to understand because the coming Kingdom is something we will not understand until we are a part of it.

Worship of God for ever. Sounds great to me, the rest can be seen later,

Love Like God.

Loving People. Loving God.

Loving

All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the inheritance.’ Then the father divided his estate between them. Soon afterward, the younger son gathered everything together and took a trip to a land far away. There, he wasted his wealth through extravagant living. “When he had used up his resources, a severe food shortage arose in that country and he began to be in need. He hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from what the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, but I’m starving to death! I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Take me on as one of your hired hands.” ’ So he got up and went to his father. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion. His father ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Fetch the fattened calf and slaughter it. We must celebrate with feasting because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field. Coming in from the field, he approached the house and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant replied, ‘Your brother has arrived, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received his son back safe and sound.’ Then the older son was furious and didn’t want to enter in, but his father came out and begged him. He answered his father, ‘Look, I’ve served you all these years, and I never disobeyed your instruction. Yet you’ve never given me as much as a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ Then his father said, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, CEB)

This is the story you probably grew up knowing as the Prodigal Son.

A son that goes to his father, proclaims him dead and requests his share of the estate. Goes of and squanders the money on prostitutes and parties and winds up feeding pigs.

Is that the story though?

The son spent the money on extravagant living. Nothing about prostitutes or parties. Extravagant Living could be eating out or buying things he wanted but didn’t need. I want a new Xbox, or a new laptop so I’m getting it. But I don’t need them, that’s Extravagant. We assume a lot about this because the older brother assumes a lot about what happened. One person’s rendition of the story does not make the whole story. And is the story about the son?

The story begins, ”A certain man had two sons.” The story is about a man, who has two sons. The story is about the Father. Who gives his sons what they ask, even when it may not be the best thing for them and then spends their time looking for the son who had wandered away. The Story is about the love of a father that never ends regardless of how the children act.

The story is about God and how we will always be loved by a father that wants us to be home and celebrates us when we are and worries about us when we wander away.

The story is not the prodigal son, but the loving father. The father that will do anything to make sure the children know they are loved.

Love like the father.

Loving People. Loving God.