Blog Posts containing "John"

John 9:1-41 “Open wide the eyes of my soul.” John got grace. Now, all of us got grace in the eyes of the Lord. Our issue is to let grace get us. John got grace spiritually. He also “got” grace rationally; that is, he understood the difference being in or out of grace makes in our life by moving from the rational physical to the conscious spiritual. This chapter is one of the best of his exercises. It is tricky in that for the first thirty nine verses we are talking about physical blindness, then in the last three verses he jumps into writing about spiritual blindness. The purpose is to find out if the reader can make the shift. It is good practice to see if you can get the Grace.  Read more

Jesus is asking the people what did they go out into the wilderness to see in John the Baptist? It was not some prince in a palace. If they did they would be terribly disappointed. They went out to see a prophet. But the question is how do you see a prophet? What do you look for? A prophet of God is not something you see. It is something you feel. You feel they are in the Presence of God and are sharing not their thoughts, but God’s thoughts. This is what a true prophet is. You listen to what is being said because the speaker is in the Presence.  Read more

Background: The Greek word for Transfiguration is meta (to change) morphoo (form). It also is translated transformation in Romans 12:2. The Transfiguration is a good example of the difference between the worldly language of the letter and the godly language of the spirit. The question is, which one makes more sense? When we think in a worldly manner we only have the evidence that is there. When we look at it in a godly way we are looking not only for what is there, but for what is there that should not be there and what is not there that should be there.  Read more

The God News is the difference between the rationality of worldly legalism and the spirituality of Godly grace. Worldly thinks inside the box. Both John and Jesus called the Sadducees and the Pharisees “a brood of vipers”. They were snakes who stayed in their family box, producing others in their kind of legalism. Anything outside the box is impossible. When the Godly spiritual thinks outside the box, all things are possible.  Read more

The Church has a hard time teaching people how to get into the Presence. The Church will teach we must empty ourselves, pray prayers, come to Church to be forgiven and take communion. The Church is like the people who witnessed Zechariahs’ words of praise at the circumcision of John. “Fear came on all who lived around them.” Luke 1:65 They were afraid of what God would do next. They were afraid of how their lives would change. After all, they had learned how to cope in the darkness. The fear of the Church is if people know how to consciously get into the Presence without coming to church they would not come.  Read more

John was the one who proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God who took away the Sin of the World. John did not say "sins" but "Sin". Many miss this New Testament definition of "Sin". "Sin" is missing the mark. It is separation from God. It is the cause of all "sins". Sins are symptoms of this separation. When in the Presence of the Love of God, one does not want to commit "sins". We need to stop spending time on trying to take away the sins of the World. We need to have disciples who know that the Power of being in the Grace Presence is God's way of bringing Peace on the earth.  Read more

Why did the disciples respond immediately when Jesus called them? Rational understanding would say Peter, Andrew, John and James all knew Jesus. It was as if they had grown up together, played in the sand, and worked in the carpenter's shop. Spiritual understanding would say, give me a break! They did not live that close to each other. They may have seen Him afar. But you cannot tell me they immediately left their nets to follow him because they were the "best of friends". Come off of it! There was something else going on there.  Read more