Category: Bible (Page 22 of 348)

I’ve helped set up for, and clean up after, reunions and weddings and funerals. Big events require preparation of pull off, and as seamless as they may appear, at lot of hustle goes on behind the scenes.

Jesus attended a wedding where the wine ran short. His mother urged him to do something. Jesus sent the servants to fill enormous jars with water, then draw some out and take it to the master of the wedding banquet. I love this next part of the story:

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The host praised the bridegroom for saving the best wine for last. The party continued on, guests oblivious to the miracle they drank. But the servants knew. They glanced at one another and tried not to stare at Jesus. The hired help were the first to glimpse the remarkable nature of Jesus.

Everyone at the celebration experienced the goodness of Jesus as they enjoyed their wine. The Lord blessed them without their knowledge or appreciation. Many people enjoy the good things of this world without understanding that every single one emerges from the hand of God.

Masters may miss this point, but servants see the truth.

John 2 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Kate Townsend

I write about God a lot, and I work for an organization dedicated to spreading good news about Jesus around the world. I see evidence of the Lord’s activity all around me, but I’ve never actually seen God in the flesh.

None of us have, actually. John wrote, No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Jesus came in flesh like ours so he could be seen and touched. No so with God the Father.

The prophet Ezekiel experienced a vision of God, who appeared out of a tornado with lightning and brilliance. Surrounded by spectacular creatures, Ezekiel described a figure of a man, consisting of glowing metal and fire, emerging like a rainbow in the clouds, radiant and hopeful.

But Ezekiel did not see God himself. He wrote, This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Ezekiel viewed only a representation of God’s glory. A facsimile, a glimpse of a shadow. Even so, whatever he saw drove Ezekiel to the ground. His legs gave out. A hint of splendidness overwhelmed him. A trace of the real thing would have obliterated Ezekiel, like standing below a nuclear device detonated overhead.

The magnificence of a shadow points me to the awe-inspiring nature of God. Then, understanding that Jesus dwelt among us so that I might approach this previously unapproachable God, directs me to his goodness and desire that I might come to know him.

John 1 & Ezekiel 1 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Luis Graterol

We spent time with our almost two-year old granddaughter a few weeks ago. She loves going to the playground where she follows bigger kids around and tries to do what they do. If they go down a slide, she goes down. If they climb back up the slide she wants to climb back up. If one drinks from a puddle she bends over to take a sip. She mimics the older kids.

Paul urged the church members in Corinth to mimic him. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

The word imitate comes from the same root word of mimic. Paul encouraged these young followers of Jesus to copy his ways. So how were they to imitate Paul?

In the preceding verses Paul described his missionary experiences. We are fools for Christ… We are weak, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Not sure I want to mimic that lifestyle. But Paul speaks to humility, to trusting God despite circumstances and how others mistreat us, to continue to pursue the Lord as we go through life.

Paul was one of the big kids on the playground. Not because he was tougher or richer or more intimidating, but because he humbly followed the Lord through every challenge in life. That’s a person worth imitating.

1 Corinthians 4 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Sigmund

I must have been driving too slow, because I glanced in my rear view mirror and the car behind me sat on my bumper. At the first opportunity the driver flew by with a glance of disapproval, the speed limit a mere suggestion. But I get it, somedays my hurry exceeds my politeness, and I mutter under my breath about slow drivers.

I often think the Lord is too slow. Too slow to meet needs, too slow to ease pain, too slow to stop evil, and too slow to help me understand it all. It’s an age-old question—God, why are you so slow? The Apostle Peter wrote to a church struggling with the same question, helping us peer into the heart of God:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

The Lord may seem slow to me, but God works with a different calendar. If a thousand years are like a day, then the American Revolution occurred a few hours ago. Yesterday was the Dark Ages. Who knows what this evening will bring?

The Lord’s slowness feels like a lack of concern, or even inattentiveness. But God, not bound by my time, works on a schedule determined by tides of repentance and perishing. The Lord will indeed return like a thief, with heavens destroyed and the earth laid bare. But on his timetable.

The Lord wants all to turn toward him, so he waits. And the world holds its breath, a new heaven and new earth delayed only by the compassion of God.

2 Peter 3 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Tahamie Farooqui