JESUS SPEAKING

                “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.  There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true.  You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.  Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.  He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.  But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me.” (John 5: 31-34.)

 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                In God’s law if a man was to be blamed for a crime he had to have at least two other men there to testify against him.  The witnesses were a firm way of establishing truth and still are today.  The more witnesses the better.  Any man who is his own witness isn’t able to establish the truth of a matter concerning himself, because he might simply be lying.  John the Baptist was a prophet who testified that Jesus was the messiah, even directing his followers to follow him.  John baptized Jesus, but before the baptism, John recognized that he was unworthy, and instead decided to insist that Jesus baptize him.  Jesus, for some reason chose to proceed with the baptism.  During the baptism, God spoke and said from heaven “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Now we have John the Baptist, and God Himself testifying of Jesus.  We also have prophecy that was written before Jesus arrived describing what the messiah will look like, and Jesus fits the descriptions to ‘a-tee.’  So the Holy Spirit which inspired the prophets and the writers of the Old Testament, had testified of Jesus as well.  One scripture says, “my hands and my feet have been pierced” revealing the manner in which the messiah would die hundreds of years before any cultures were even practicing crucifixion.  Finally, the lame were walking, the blind were healed, the deaf could hear, and the dead were being raised by Jesus; all of these events were being witnessed by thousands of people.  And Jesus himself continually predicted his completed work on the cross before he was taken to be crucified; this work is the greatest of all testimonies.

                Throughout history there have been many who have attempted to claim they were messengers of God.  The eternal God of the universe endows His messengers with the ability to accomplish the kinds of works that He himself does.  There have been many false prophets, but Jesus on the other hand, is a different story entirely.  One man, after being healed of blindness that had plagued him since the day of his birth was being questioned about his condition by the religious leaders who were looking for any way to discount what Jesus had done.  He replied to their repeated questioning by saying, “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.  If this man were not from God he could do nothing” (John 9: 32-33.)

                Today, God has not asked us to have a faith in some rumor, myth, or wives tale that has been changed and handed down throughout the generations.  There is more than sufficient testimony to establish the truth of who Jesus is, and what he has been doing in the lives of people still to this day.  Go to any church and ask them to present those whose lives have been transformed by Jesus, and you’ll see miracle after miracle; testimony after testimony of the dead being raised to life again; of drug addicts becoming family men, of women stuck in lives of sexual promiscuity regaining the purity that God had originally destined for them; of atheists who believe in nothing and search for truth, coming to find the truth and turn from searching for anything but God Himself.  May we all continue to trust in him, and to believe the testimonies of the thousands, and of the millions of people who have had their lives transformed by the work of His Holy Spirit.  

                “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You now and we ask and pray that You will strengthen us in our faith, and open up our eyes and our hearts to the miracles that are taking place all around us.  Father we thank You for Your Son, and for His message; we thank You that we can know You, and we thank You for making a way for us to fellowship once again with You.  We love You, we thank You, and we praise You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

JESUS SPEAKING

                Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s (Peter’s), and asked him to put out a little from the land.  And he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.  When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

                But Simon (Peter) answered and said to him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at your word I will let down the net.”  And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.  So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

                When Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5: 3-8.)

 INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                The disciples had just finished fishing and had caught nothing; they were cleaning their nets for the day.  Jesus tells Peter to push out one last time and drop the net.  Peter doesn’t want to, but he obeys Jesus and once more put’s out to sea.  The result is a catch that no one could have ever imagined, and we see Peter’s understanding of who Jesus is and what he can do, drastically transformed.  He is humbled and falls down to esteem the Lord.

                Peter is able to witness a miracle because he chose to listen to Jesus, and chose not to allow his experience as a fisherman, or his own intellect or reasoning to compete for his obedience to God.  Peter did not expect his boat to nearly sink because of the weight of the catch.  Peter did not push out in to that sea because he was hoping to catch any fish at all; he pushed out in to that sea because he was being obedient to Jesus Christ.

                None of us woke up this morning to discover that our car wouldn’t start (at least I hope not.)  The mere idea would never have popped in to our heads because we all automatically expect them to run.  The same is true of the light switches we will use today, and the alarm clocks, and the telephones, and anything else we rely upon for our daily activity.  We trust them.  To me it is interesting, that we can trust a small cell phone, a computer, even our own instincts and abilities, but when it comes to trusting Jesus Christ we need to constant convince ourselves he will or is working in our lives.  Peter was a doubter because he was relying on his own knowledge and understanding, and forgot about the power of God.  How can a person rely upon their’ own power, and remain obedient and reliant upon God’s power?

                Today, we need to lose our own understanding and replace it with a trust in Jesus Christ.  We need to let go of what we are trying to do under our own ability and power and allow God’s power to work in our lives.  As we have learned from this scripture, the first thing that needs to be done is we must trust in God, even when it doesn’t make sense to us.  Then we must be obedient to what God is calling us to do.  Is there some area of your life where you are trying to control something; to gain a desired result on your own rather than relying upon God; you might be seeking love and attempting to gain it in worldly ways.  You might be seeking a career, and you find yourself using the tactics of those who do not know God to get ahead.  The situation is different for all of us, but the message and the solution are the same.  God has called us to do what he is asking, and often times, relying on him is difficult, because we must stop relying on ourselves.  May we all choose to rely upon Him.

                “Lord Heavenly Father, help us all to discontinue our attempts to control our own lives and help us to give them completely over to You.  Jesus we want so desperately to be obedient, so please help us with this.  Holy Spirit, give us the trust we need to witness the miracles that You want to do in our lives.  Please reveal to us where we need to trust You fully and completely.  We love You Father, we thank You, and we trust You, and we ask all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.