Dear Friends

Posted by The Bible In Your Hand on September 21, 2018
Posted in: Christian, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , .

Dear Friends,

It has been nearly two months since the last post was submitted to The Bible in Your Hand. It has truly been a blessed time and very busy time. Let me explain.

In the middle of May, I was invited to be a guest speaker at a church roughly forty miles from the church I am serving in. This is not unusual for I have been asked to speak in several area churches. What made this unusual is the Pastor of that church was present and waiting for me at the door when I got there. He and I had never met before and it was indeed a pleasure to get to know him.

A few weeks before I spoke at the above church, Kim Larsen who is a contributor to The Bible in Your Hand and I were talking. During the conversation Kim mentioned that she was praying that my wife and I would move to Northfield. I laughed and responded, “Sorry Kim, that will never happen. Why, why would you want us to move to Northfield?” Kim responded, “There is a church planted there. They are needing extra help and you would be a perfect fit for that church.”

“Sure Kim, you keep on praying, it’s not going to happen. Then I had the sermon and the Pastor was there. Afterword and Kim, her husband my wife and I sat around the table at Fellowship Dinner. We were really enjoying the company, when Pastor Birai sat down and started asking all kinds of questions It was 15 or 20 minutes into he conversation when He suddenly said, “I would like you to come and preach at the Northfield church. If they like you, and they will, I want you to come and be the Associate Pastor in the district making Northfield your primary area of focus.

Now, Kim had not told anyone of her prayer, not even Pastor Birai. She and her husband were just as shocked as my wife and I are.

To make a long story short, the last two months have been very busy, wrapping up things in our previous church and starting at the new church in Northfield.
God often moves in mysterious way, we just need to be open to His leading.

It should also be noted, that Kim and her husband Palmer have at the same time become much more involved in their local church. This has made it difficult for her to find time to contribute to “The Bible In Your Hand.”

I am not completely sure how all this will work out and would really like to continue posting to the website, but it will be more sporadic for a while. Hopefully within the next few weeks there will be the opportunity to begin posting on a regular basis.

Blessings,

Pastor Lester

Twelve Baskets

Posted by The Bible In Your Hand on August 3, 2018
Posted in: Christian, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , .

miracle-feeding-5000Twelve Baskets

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His sings which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

7 Philip Answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”

10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they fathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves and which left over by those who had eaten. 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is come into the world.

Despite the way John wrote the opening statement it was actually quite sometime between Christ’s appearance before the Sanhedrin and the feeding of the 5000. In fact, nearly a year had past since Christ had been in Jerusalem, healed the cripple beside the pool of Bethesda and testified before the Sanhedrin that He was indeed the Messiah.

The people were again traveling toward Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. But there was a great multitude the followed Jesus. They followed because of the signs which He performed in healing the sick.

While John took some time to show Christ’s work among the Judeans, he virtually skips over a year of work in Galilee. John takes the time to set up the time frame by references the feasts and Jesus attendance at each of them.

It is also interesting to note that in John, chapter 5 brings to a close the Judean ministry and chapter six does the same for his public ministry in Galilee.

John as he does so often throughout his book, gives testimony or evidence to Jesus being the true Messiah. As John gives us evidence of Christ being the Messiah, he also traces the major steps by which the Jews both in Judea and Galilee turn against Christ and eventually rejected Him.

Perhaps the sketchiness of John’s coverage of the Galilean ministry is the fact that John wrote his gospel after Matthew, Mark and Luke had written theirs. Perhaps he felt that the Galilean ministry was sufficiently covered in the other gospels.

It is probable that the feeding of the 5000 happened on a grassy hill or mountain near the see of Galilee and near the town of Bethsaida.   The other gospels make it clear that the area was uninhabited, yet still near to Bethsaida.

In the fifth verse, John uses the word Come in the literal sense that while the crowd was still coming Jesus asked of Philip, how they were going to feed this crowd of people.

Jesus Himself raised the question of food when the crowd first appeared, and several hours later, Philip and the other disciples still had not found a solution to the question. Their response was to send the people away.

Perhaps the reason Jesus mentioned Philip specifically is that He was from Bethsaida, the people knew him therefore he might have been able to come up with a good response to the question posed on how to feed them all.

But Jesus had a deeper meaning for asking Philip this question. The question was intended to test Philip’s faith. The disciple’s pessimistic reply as to the impossibility of feeding the thousands of people present only made Jesus’ solution to the problem all the more impressive. By first drawing from his own estimate of the situation, Jesus was able, by his miracle, to make even greater impact on the mind of Philip than would otherwise have been possible.

For you see, Jesus knew what he would do.

Christ knows what He is doing in our lives too. That is why he often asks us the tough question and places us in uncomfortable situations. It is to test our faith and to see if we will rely on Him in everything. Jesus knew what he would do that day, and He knows what he would do in the lives of each of us, if we open our heart to Him and by faith accept Him into our hearts.

Even The Scriptures Testifies of Me

Posted by The Bible In Your Hand on August 2, 2018
Posted in: Christian, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , .

Jesus before SanhedrinEven The Scripture Testifies of Me

39 “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from only God? 45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you – Moses in whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

I have read these passages of Christ before the Sanhedrin many times but failed to see the stinging rebuke given by Christ. The opening line of verse thirty-nine says, “You search the Scriptures.” There are two ways to take this passage. The first being stated exactly as written. “You search the Scriptures.” This implication is that they search the Scriptures believing that the Scriptures will give them eternal life.

Perhaps the harsher way of looking at this is more accurate. Hey you, go search the Scriptures. By searching you believe you will find eternal life. But instead of finding eternal life, you will find that they testify of Me!

As Christ stated before Nicodemus and the woman at the well, the only way to salvation is through Christ Jesus of which I am He. The scriptures on their own will not give us eternal life, it is only through Christ Jesus and a personal relationship with him that we will find salvation. The scriptures only testify, bear witness by the testimony of two witnesses of who I am.

Yes you are correct, at the time Christ spoke these words there was but one Testament, the Old Testament. But yet there was still two witness contained in the one Testament. They being the law, and the prophets, having all Testified that Jesus is the Messiah.

But Christ ends the statement by saying, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

You see the law in and of itself assures no man of eternal life. Yet according to the Jews and their own writings, by Rabi Hillel of the 1st Century BCE (BC) “One who has acquired unto himself the words of Torah, has acquired for himself the life of the world to come.” (Mishnah Aboth 2, 7, Soncino ed. Of the Talmud, p. 17). Jesus here makes use of this belief to remind the Jews that the Scriptures in which they thought to find eternal life were the very writings that testified of Him.

Christ continues, yet despite all the evidence presented by the witnesses and their testimony you will are not willing to come to Me. For it is only by coming to Me that you will have life.

I do not receive or seek honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. Why would Jesus say this? Because when one has the love of God in them, they are not seeking the approval of their fellow men. Because you seek the approval of others, I have come in the name of My Father, but you do not receive Me for you feel there is no need within you.

You seek honor from one another, yet fail to seek honor that comes from the only God? Because you do not seek the approval of God, do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. Why? Because there is one whom you honor and respect. That would be Moses, and in Moses you trust. But if you really believed in Moses, then you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe even his writings, how will you believe in Me.

John cuts off the narrative of Christ before the Sanhedrin. It is like he left it open ended, but finishes with a startling question. “If you do not believe in the scriptures, how will you believe in My words?”

This should all cause us to ponder. How often have we cut out a portion of scripture because it made us uncomfortable? How often have we failed to listen to the Holy Spirit as He leads us into the path of righteousness because it requires us to change? To the listeners of Christ before the Sanhedrin, these same questions were being asked, and to each of us, Christ asks the same. Who will you follow?