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Wednesday In The Word...John 7:32-36...Where I Go

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Today's Wednesday in the Word is John chapter 7 and verses 32 through 36, which read,
v.32 - The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him.
Jesus has quietly came into the Feast of Booths and made His way into the temple to start preaching and teaching.  What is ruffling the authorities feathers are the words that Jesus is using to explain the close relationship between Himself and His Father, Father God.  The crowd is in a state of confusion to this man named Jesus who the authorities wanted killed but He is here speaking openly in the temple.  
The chief priests were mainly made up of the sect called the Sadducees who didn't believe in the bodily resurrection at the end of days.  The Pharisees did and therefore these two groups didn't usually associate with one another but now they had a common enemy.  The officers called here would have been the Temple Guard which were the security system …
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Monday Reflections...Holy Week 2019

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We have made it to Holy Week 2019.  I find it helpful to lay out the days of this week to remember what Jesus was doing as He was heading to the cross and the resurrection from grave.  

I have said this before but www.gotquestions.org is a great resource to gather information from the Bible.  Just type your question in the search bar and away you go to Bible answers from the Bible.  I assembled the summaries below from this online resource. 

Sunday - yesterday - Palm Sunday - the 10th day of Nisan - the first day of the week - lamb selection day - Jesus enters Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey to fulfill the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9 - He receives the praise of the people saying "Hosanna!"

Monday - today - Holy Monday - the 11th day of Nisan - Jesus cleanses the temple - Jesus curses the fig tree

Tuesday - Holy Tuesday - the 12th day of Nisan - Jesus challenges the religious authorities - Jesus commends the sacrificial gift of the widow giving her all - Jesus delivers the …
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Palm Sunday 2019 WLPO Radio Broadcast - #98

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Palm Sunday 2019 and also episode #98 of Down To The River.
Today I read for us the passage dealing with Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem and set us up for a holy week that includes the testing, the Passover, the betrayal, the trial, the cross, and the grave.  Jesus will enter Jerusalem to the cheers of the people saying "Hosanna!" but he will exit to many chanting "Crucify Him!"
I pray that you will have a great holy week that will include a Good Friday observance and a Resurrection Sunday celebration.  The resurrection is so important because Romans chapter 10 and verses 8b and 9 say,...


This is the message of faith that we proclaim: If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
We see a two fold response of us to what was accomplished on the cross.  We confess and we believe.  We confess that there is no other lord than the Lord Jesus Christ.  We believe that God physically r…
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Friday focus...waiting, waiting, & waiting

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Waiting, don't you hate it at times?

Waiting in the waiting room to see the doctor.Waiting in traffic (recent experience in Chicago).Waiting on the runway.Waiting in line (recent experience at a grocery store in downtown Chicago).Waiting for the other person to stop talking.Waiting for the results (a real experience for a cancer survivor after each CT scan).Waiting for the timer to ding.Waiting for the other shoe to drop.Waiting in line for the use of the bathroom.

Maybe you could add a few more to my list.

This was the topic of the devotional given at the Interim Pastor Ministries training in Chicago this week.  I had the pleasure of going through the course again, writing down a ton of notes and meeting others in the field.  The presenter was an IPM interim pastor from Colorado Springs, Colorado named Rick Foster.  His excellent website is:  www.interimpastor.org

The verse drawn to was Psalms chapter 39 and verse 7, which reads,


"Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.…
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Wednesday in the Word...John 7:25-31 says...

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Wednesday in the Word is John chapter 7 and verses 25 through 31, which read,
v.25-27 - So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Is this not the man whom they were seeking to kill?  Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him.  The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?  However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from."
Jesus has quietly come into the Festival of Booths in the city of Jerusalem.  He has made His way to the temple not to perform some miracle but to teach openly about who He is.  The information is getting around that the religious leaders want Jesus killed.  The crowd is now confused.  "If they want Jesus killed, why aren't they doing something about it?  He is right here in the temple.  Maybe this is just all talk?  Maybe the religious leaders are not sure and this could be the Messiah and not just some crazy man talking about God like He really…
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Monday Reflections...words (terms) matter

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For the life of this one given the spiritual gift of pastoring to equip the saints especially in the area of pastoring/shepherding one another, sometimes I have early mornings when my sleep is done.  My mind is full and I just need to succumb to rising and starting my day.  This physical day greets me with an unseasonably warm morning after a glorious day with God's family assembled in Oglesby, Illinois.

Yesterday included the preaching of a sermon that was very important to me.   I left a denominational system that I was a part of for 28 years to serve in a non-denominational church for the last 4 1/2 years.  I went from church polity set for me from a common book of Discipline spread across all the churches of the denomination to a statement in the 125 year constitution of this church that reads,

"This church is independent, self-governing and is not affiliated with any denominational group."
There is no one higher up that is going to figure this out for you.  You need to …
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Sunday radio broadcast on WLPO...Church government

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I am delivering a sermon this morning that will probably be about 40 minutes long.  How do I know?  Because I have poured over this message many times and I was really curious how long I was passionately talking about the topic of church leadership.  It is a sermon timely needed for our congregation but it is also a sermon that I needed to prepare for personally so I can carry it wherever I go.  

The Bible gives us so much material on this topic.  Why have we strayed from what is written and created structures that look like the world rather than the family of God?  This is definitely the most intense look I have given to church leadership primarily because I came from a denomination that had it all figured out for you.  Being a part of an independent church has helped me to look deep into the Scriptures and formulate from them why we do what we do.

One line from my sermon is,


"Our continuing effort to understand  and implement Biblical standards."
I guess my Monday Reflections m…
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