Cross My Heart Ministry

Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
John 4:6b

Surely I’ve read this passage many times over the years. But somewhere between pondering Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3 and moving on to His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4, I completely missed this little phrase.

Jesus was tired.

Do you, like me, find it reassuring and comforting to know we serve a God who knows what this journey in this life is like? Jesus knows what it means to be weary. We serve a God who not only hears us and loves us, but who has been there.

When our Lydia was diagnosed with Type 1 (Juvenile) diabetes, we spent several days at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. After being moved from ICU to the floor, we began climbing the steep learning curve to figure out our new “normal.” Keeping Lydia alive depended on us knowing how to check blood sugar, calculate carbs, and administer the correct dosage of insulin. Stressful would be an understatement to sum up those days. As the nurse who was training us left the room one afternoon, my little emaciated 11-year-old (who had at that point not pondered a career path or college major) bolted upright in bed and said, “I’m going to be a nurse when I grow up – the person helping a kid figure this out needs to know what this feels like!”

We serve a God who knows what living in this world feels like.

We serve a great God – one who left His throne of perfection and majesty and peace and came to a world filled with pain and hurt, a world of tired bodies and trying people.

We can be grateful that we pray to a God who knows what being tired – and being rejected, being criticized, being misunderstood, misrepresented, unappreciated, unacknowledged, disrespected, disregarded (and any other word beginning with mis, un, or dis you can think of). He experienced it.

He is not only the God of up there — Beloved, He is the God of down here. He knows what THIS feels like.

The woman of God knows Jesus understands.

Here’s this week’s teaching lecture from John 4:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-of-john-chapter-4lesson-4/

[Photo attribution: http://fxmedcenters.com ]

He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30

In John Chapter 3, John the Baptist uses the analogy of a wedding to explain his devotion to Jesus. He describes His Savior as the bridegroom and compares himself to a guest at the wedding – having complete joy when he sees his friend.

I love John’s wedding analogy! We all know the wedding is all about the happy couple – no one goes to a wedding to draw attention to self. John describes the friend as “full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.”

We can hear his voice, as we read His Word. We can sense Him speaking to our hearts as we press in before Him in prayer.

Do you know this joy? John says, “That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” This is confirmation of our identity in Christ when we yield the reigns of our life to Him. It’s what Jesus described to Nicodemus earlier in this chapter as being “born again.”

Continuing with the wedding analogy means the “wedding day” is our “born again” day – we receive a new identity in Christ. What comes next is the living in this new identity. That part of our story is not a moment in time, but a continual, joyful (and sometimes painful) journey. It’s one of becoming less…as our desire more and more is to have Jesus become more. Our desire is to make much of Him — to yield, follow, listen, obey, and be transformed. For those who don’t know Jesus, this sounds legalistic, confining, and unnerving. To the follower of Jesus, it is joy unspeakable.

If you are a follower of Christ, how are you allowing Him to work in you and through you? Have you given Him authority over your thought life? Have you checked in with Him on your schedule for today? Do the words on your tongue reflect the change to your heart?

Have you decided to make much of Him today? Are you intentionally praying for more Jesus and less you?

My hubby traveled to Russia on a mission trip in 1993 and brought home a set of Russian nesting dolls. As you open each one, a smaller replica is inside and each gets smaller and smaller. Perhaps this is a great picture of our journey with Jesus. We begin thinking pretty highly of ourselves, but as we walk with Him, we begin to shrink. Our desire becomes more and more to make much of Him and not ourselves.

He must become greater, I must become less.

Are you seeing these changes in yourself? Are you sensing a shift in your thought life and your desires? Is God transforming you through His Word and His Spirit?

I Peter 1:23 says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Is the spirit of God using the Word of God to bring daily transformation in your life?

If you are not a follower of Christ, would you consider your need for Him? Perhaps like Nicodemus (whose story is found earlier in John Chapter 3) you need to come to Jesus with your questions. He will provide answers. I’m praying today is the day you are “born again” –the day you choose to acknowledge that your sin means you need a Savior, the day you can say with John (and with me), “That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”

Here’s the link to this week’s teaching lecture:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-of-john-chapter-3lesson-3/

{Photo attribution: http://legomenon.com/russian-matryoshka-nesting-dolls-meaning.html }

When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
John 2:3

 Even in the first century, weddings were a big deal. The festivities would go on for not just hours, but for days. And to run out of wine would be a major social faux pas – a hugely embarrassing social blunder — so when Jesus’ mother Mary sees the problem, she decides to act.

How do you and I solve problems? What do you do when something comes up that needs resolved? Phone a friend? Make a Facebook post inviting comments? Visit the self-help section at Barnes & Noble? Do a Google search? Join a support group or seek professional counseling?

Nothing wrong with any of those options, but – as a follower of Christ – shouldn’t prayer be a first response?

Mary simply brings the issue to Jesus – the essence of prayer.

She didn’t tell him what to do or how to do it. She simply laid the problem before him.

She didn’t hang around to make sure Jesus followed through, she didn’t try to oversee how it was done, and she didn’t give specifics on white or red wine. She simply placed it before him and then she stepped back in confident faith and trust.

Mary has modeled for us what it looks like to bring our concerns, problems, and burdens to the one who can fix it all.

(And, incidentally, perhaps prayer was a lifestyle choice for Mary. It’s interesting to note that the last time Mary is referenced in scripture is Acts 1:14, where we find her joining with the disciples and other early believers – men and women – where they “all joined together constantly in prayer.”)

We know prayer is important, we believe in it, and would all raise our hands high if asked, “Who is for prayer?” But if a follow-up question asked if you and I have prayed regularly and consistently in the last month or week…or this morning….I think we would all probably agree there is room for improvement.

William Carey, British missionary to India, had this to say about prayer:
Prayer – secret, fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness.

We may KNOW prayer works in our heads, but do we BELIEVE in our hearts that it is powerful and effective? Believing (and not just knowing) will result in ACTION.

Prayer may or may not change our situation, but it will often change us. And, if we believe William Carey, it will grow us in godliness.

Can we grow in our prayer life? Is it possible to learn to pray? I think it is.

Luke 11:1 says, One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (emphasis added)

Two key points can be gleaned from this verse:

1. Jesus Himself prayed to the Father. If the holy, perfect, sinless Son of God felt it important to pull away and pray, then surely, prayer is important for us.
2. Prayer can be learned. The disciples said, teach us to pray.

Would you ask Him for an opportunity this week to lay it before Him?

• The “it” might be your calendar that has too little white space.
• The “it’ might be your checkbook that has too few zeroes.
• The “it” might be a too low white blood count number or a too high cholesterol number.

It might be relational, financial, mental, physical, or emotional. it might involve a co-worker or a family member or a ministry partner. It might just be you — your own personal character flaw or besetting sin that needs corrected. But whatever or whoever, would you turn to Jesus and trust Him with the outcome?

We can do what Mary did – “here’s the problem Jesus — They have no more wine.”

“Here’s my calendar Jesus – I have no more time.”

“Here’s my blood work Jesus – here’s my checkbook Jesus…here’s my marriage, my child, my whatever.”

Would you give your whatever to Jesus and then wait in expectation — in confident faith – to see what He does.

The child of God brings her burden to Jesus.

Here’s the link to the teaching this week covering John 2:
http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-of-john-chapter-2lesson-2/

(Photo attribution:  videoblocks.com)

“I am the voice of one calling in the desert…’Make straight the way for the Lord.’”  John 1:23b

The Gospel of John introduces John the Baptist early in chapter 1:

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.”
John 1:6

(By the way, if you find it confusing to distinguish between John and John the Baptist as you read the book of John, just know that if the character is referred to by name – John – it will always be John the Baptist. The author of the text never refers to himself by name, but only as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”)

Both Mark and Matthew provide some interesting details in their gospels about John the Baptist, revealing he wore clothing made of camel’s hair, a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

Reading those words prompts an image of Phil Robertson in my mind’s eye. (I can’t know for sure, but I think Phil would be honored to be compared to John the Baptist!)

Regardless of what he looked like, John the Baptist clearly knew his mission for coming: “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ’Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

John the Baptist knew who he was … and he knew who he wasn’t. When asked if he was the Christ, he responded, “I am not…”

Then he was asked, “Who are you?”

His answer reveals he clearly knew where he was to serve (the desert) and he knew his assignment, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”

How would you describe the desert? Dry, desolate, empty, lonely? Surely, that would describe the heart condition of many people in this world — people who desperately need the hope and purpose that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

John knew his job was to “make straight the way” — to smooth out the proverbial (or maybe even literal) wrinkles that trip folks up on their journey to find Jesus. Perhaps to move away the barriers to belief or eliminate the excuses and explanations that trip folks up.

Maybe it’s even our own behaviors and lifestyle choices that bring those wrinkles. That’s a sobering thought. Are folks looking at our lives as Christ-followers and seeing hypocrisy or a lack of love and compassion? Are they seeing a walk that doesn’t match up with the talk? Do those looking on see a watered-down faith that fails to translate to action? Does my life point others to Him? Does my life make others curious about Him? Do my words, attitudes, actions, and behaviors make others want to know more – prod them to ask, “Why do you do what you do?”

How can our choices smooth out some wrinkles in the desert today?

{Here’s the link to the full teaching lecture for John 2:
http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-of-john-chapter-1lesson-1/ }

Mary Kay Beard grew up on a farm in Alabama. She learned to shoot a gun while rabbit hunting with her brothers. But as she got older, she took a greater interest in firearms, becoming an expert in everything from a .22 to a .357 Magnum.

As a young woman, she married a man that she met on a blind date, only to discover months later that he had a secret life; he was an expert safecracker. He taught Mary Kay everything he knew. Soon, the newspapers were referring to the shotgun-wielding Mary Kay as the “Bonnie Parker of Alabama” for a string of robberies that landed her on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Arrested in June of 1972, at age 27, she quickly collected 11 federal indictments and 35 charges against her.

She was convicted of grand larceny and armed robbery. She would spend a total of six Christmases behind bars.

Mary Kay came to terms with Christ through volunteers who visited her in prison and a Gideon’s Bible in her cell.

God’s Word changed her heart. God used His Word to begin an amazing transformation of a broken, bitter criminal into a beautiful woman of faith and service.

God used His Word to change Mary Kay Beard into a woman of God. She would go on to found Angel Tree, a powerful ministry of Prison Fellowship – used to bring love and hope to children of the incarcerated.

Mary Kay Beard was sitting in an Alabama prison cell. She pulled out the Gideon Bible she had at first shoved away. As she thumbed through the pages, her eyes fell upon these two seemingly obscure verses hidden in the book of Ezekiel:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees
and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 36:26-27

Like Mary Kay, we, too, need God to soften our stony hearts…make us tender to Him….and then move us to embrace the working of His Spirit. We need Him to give us both the “want to” and the “ability to” follow Him and to live by the truth of His Word.

As we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, you and I will be changed from the inside out. It’s an inside job and according to Mary Kay Beard, every bank robber knows that’s the best kind!

The woman of God is transformed by the Word of God.

He did it for Mary Kay Beard and He can do it for you and me, too.

Are you ready to be transformed? Would you pray that you are – that He would give you the desire – the “want to” — to be transformed by His Word?

If you are ready to embrace all He has for you — ready to ask the Spirit of God to take the Word of God and begin/continue/jumpstart your transformation, I want to invite you to join us in the weeks ahead as we journey through the Gospel of John.  Each week I’ll make a blog post from my teaching the previous Thursday at First Baptist Church in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.  (If you are local, come on and join us in person!)

Otherwise, you can read along with us, or go deeper by downloading the daily study from Joy of Living here:

http://joyofliving.org/product/gospel-of-john-adult-study-english/

I’ll also be posting the link to the weekly teaching lecture on the FBC site.  Here’s the introduction:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-of-john-introduction-1441423049/