Look at the Lamb (Day 14)

Day 14 – Pam

Summary of Chapter 14

Verses 1-4:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

These are good verses for evil days – to remember and commit to memory. Jesus reveals that, somehow, as followers of Christ, we have been given authority over our hearts to not let them be troubled. This isn’t meant to be a robotic attempt to put our heads in the sand, but a faith-based state of heart that we can rest assured in the knowledge that God ‘sees all and knows all’ and has a bigger picture for us one day. This is echoed later in John’s shorter letter,
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Look at the Lamb (Day 13)

Day 13 – Nick

Summary of Chapter 13

Verses 1-17: If you needed any convincing of the importance of the dinner table, (aside from all heart-warming Bisto adverts), just flick back and re-read chapter 12 and then this one, or read Acts and note the centrality of food within a sharing community of prayer – it’s all about the dinner table! But this is no ordinary dinner table; it’s the dinner table for the Last Supper, the last, that is, until we share at the marriage supper of the Lamb when we’ll get to drink the new wine of the new heavens and the new earth in the new City of Jerusalem! (see Rev.19:9).Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 13)”

Look at the Lamb (Day 12)

Day 12 – Nick

Summary of Chapter 12

Verses 1-11: This scene is spectacular! It’s a gospel-scene that requires faith and meditation to fully appreciate because of the threat of familiarity breeding its ugly, callousing contempt in our hearts. There is concentrated wonder for us here but the devil lurks in the shadows to steal, kill and destroy because he knows that wonder is uniquely and inextricably linked to our satisfaction in God and our effectiveness in the world.
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Look at the Lamb (Day 11)

Day 11 – Mairi

Summary of Chapter 11

Verses 1-16: News comes to Jesus that Lazarus, the brother of Mary (the woman who poured ointment on Jesus feet) and Martha, has become ill. Jesus loves this family and, as he takes the disciples to their village, he tells them that Lazarus has died but that his resurrection will be for God’s glory and their belief.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 11)”

Look at the Lamb (Day 10)

Day 10 – Nick

Summary of Chapter 10

Verses 1-21: As the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Jesus’ main focus is for His sheep to find pasture (verse 9) with Him and to be led onwards by Him (verse 4). Good pasture means safe pasture in the context of this passage which starkly contrasts sheep with wolves and Shepherds with hirelings. Hirelings are people who work purely for material reward – the exact opposite of the heartbeat of the Shepherd King.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 10)”

Don’t Be A Ross

Christian Fundamentalism has a bad name because it’s a term that’s often used to stereotypically describe someone who believes in biblical orthodoxy…

…but in a BAAAAAAD way:

Christian Fundamentalists are regularly stereotyped as being inflexible, bigoted, arrogant, unloving, religious and legalistic and perhaps not ‘cool’, ‘street-wise’ or ‘relevant’ any more.

More specifically, at the apex of the negative branding of ‘Christian Fundamentalists’, is the notion that they are controlling and narrow-minded, damaging of ‘free thought’, emergent generations and general ‘freedom of speech’.

I don’t think this is what it means to be a Christian Fundamentalist.Continue reading “Don’t Be A Ross”

Look at the Lamb (Day 9)

Day 9- Olau

Summary of Chapter 9

Verses 1-12: Chapter 8 finishes with Jesus making a staggering claim about his identity (v.58, ‘before Abraham was born, I am’), and the theme of Jesus’ identity continues in Chapter 9. In v. 5, Jesus claims to be the Light of the world, and he illustrates this by literally opening the blinded, darkened eyes of the beggar. Jesus’ unusual method of mixing mud and saliva and asking the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam demonstrates the mystery rather than formula of the power of God to heal.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 9)”

Look at the Lamb (Day 8)

Day 8 – Nick

n.b. Arguably the most inflammatory and offensive Jesus-passage in the entire bible

Summary of Chapter 8

Verses 1-11: In your bible you’ll notice the last/first section of John 7/8 is italicised because the 7:53-8:11 passage wasn’t originally included in the earliest manuscripts though it was still in the original Canon. Suffice to say for the benefits of this on-line study, the passage in question is wholly consistent with the rest of John’s gospel and the wider New Testament writings but it does open up an interesting conversation, if you’re that way inclined, over the Sunday dinner table! Further interesting study could be pursued around pseudepigrapha and the apocrypha by starting here.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 8)”

Look at the Lamb (Day 7)

Day 7 – Nick

So here we are, 1/3rd of the way through John’s eye-witness gospel account of the life of Jesus. If you’re tracking with us, thanks! If you haven’t been, you still can!

*Next Week* we have great guest articles from one of my closest friends Olau Thomassen, my brother-in-law, John Bagg, who heads up WEC International in the UK, and my very wise Mum

When you fill your mind with Jesus, watch what happens!

__________________

Summary of Chapter 7

Verses 1-13: There continues to be a strange paradox between the disciple’s half-hearted devotion to Jesus as their Lord, Teacher and the Messiah of Israel, and their refusal to fully submit to His timing and leadership. Sound familiar? It’s bizarre to me: on the one hand, (when Jesus had given them the option of leaving along with the rest of the deserters), Peter replies with resolve that, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life…’ (6:68), but on the other they were trying to boss Jesus’ schedule, specifically around the imminent Feast of Tabernacles. This theme of spiritual blindness isn’t a motif for one chapter, it’s a theme for the entire book.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 7)”

Look at the Lamb (Day 6)

Day 6 – Katie

Summary of Chapter 6

Verses 1-15: Jesus’ ministry continues and word begins to spread around the people that the man they thought was Joseph’s son was doing wonderful things. People become fixated with Jesus for His miracles and signs and trek miles to see more. Visited day after day by crowds, Jesus continues to show love and patience, even after retreating to a hillside and being followed yet again.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 6)”