Washed

Today we mark the Last Supper.

As I ponder this scene, I feel overwhelmed.

There's so much here.

But this morning I felt drawn to one particular moment.

When Jesus washed the feet of His disciples:

John 13:3-11 (ESV) "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."

Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean."

The washing of the feet is filled with symbolism.

*The humility of Jesus

*The example of how we should serve one another as believers

*The reality of faith leading to action

But there's also something else.

In a matter of hours, Jesus will be hanging on a bloody cross.

His shed blood will wash away our sin.

And yet as we walk through this life, the dirt will collect.

That's the way it happens for sinners living in a fallen world.

Even sinners who are forgiven and clean.

The dust still gathers.

The mud collects.

Jesus, I need my feet washed.

1 John 1:9 (ESV) "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Confession doesn't make me forgiven.

Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and His Resurrection from the grave does that.

But it does humble me.

To see the basin fill with dirty water.

My dirt.

The Savior smiles.

I'm beyond words.

By What Authority?

During the last week that Jesus walked the earth as a man, He did many things.

Every event, even the seemingly small ones, took on new meaning.

I've been thinking this morning.

Jesus spent a lot of time in the temple.

Teaching.

Out in the open.

A stationary target for His enemies.

Matthew 21:23 (NKJV) 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?"

More of the same.

John tells us about an earlier time when Jesus was teaching in the temple.

They sent some officers to arrest Him.

John 7:31-32 (NKJV) "And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him."

But it wasn't yet time for that.

John 7:45-49 (NKJV) Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"

Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

The so-called authorities who knew the Old Testament scriptures inside and out missed it.

"Hey... we're the educated ones here. Unless we say he's legit... he's not legit!"

We can be sincere.

And we can be sincerely wrong.

The plan is hatched.

Judas will sell Him out.

Under the cover of darkness.

But the plan of man is really the plan of God.

Isaiah 53:10 (ESV) Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

John 19:10-11 (ESV) So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above."

When true authority meets evil intent take heart, believer.

In some mysterious way it's all a part of the plan.

The Hand

I ran across this picture today and I just couldn't resist sharing it with you.

We talk about God's fingerprints being all over the universe.........


Pretty cool huh?

The story and the picture are courtesy of The Imaginova Corp.,Space.com, & Fox News:

Giant 'Hand' Reaches Across Space

Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows.
So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.

And what a strange scene this one has created.
In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.

The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second — as pulsars do — spewing energy into space that creates the scene.

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.

The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

Poor Little Donkey

The last week of Jesus' earthly life.

How easy it is to let Passion Week come and go without much reflection.

Yesterday we marked Palm Sunday.

The beginning of the last week.

Jesus arriving in Jerusalem amid the shouts and cheers of the people.

How fickle popularity can be.

By the end of the week many were still shouting.

Only this time for his Crucifixion.

He knows all that will happen, of course.

From beginning to end it was all recorded in the prophecies of the Old Testament.

Here's the scene as he arrives:

John 12:12-15 (NKJV) "....a great multitude that had come to the Passover feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!"

Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt."

There's an old story about that donkey Jesus was riding on.

After carrying Jesus through the streets he returned to the barnyard.

The animals were all pressing around him, asking him questions.

"What happened?"

"Tell us everything!!"

"Well," said the donkey, "It was marvelous! I rode into the city and there was a multitude of people there to greet me. They were all shouting and celebrating, putting palm branches down for me to walk on.

Some people even put their clothing down on the road. It was glorious! It was all for ME!

I held my head high and the crowd continued to roar. And then.. this is the really unbelievable part... someone shouted "Let's make him our king!"

Poor little donkey.

He didn't know who he was or who he was carrying.

May we keep this in mind as we lift Jesus up this week.

Do You Look Like Your Dog?

"Hey.... you look just like your dog."

Even if you think your dog is pretty cute, I'm not sure that would be a compliment.

There's people cute.

And then there's dog cute.

Check out the pic and article below.

They're courtesy of http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

DOG OWNERS DO LOOK LIKE THEIR PETS, SAY PSYCHOLOGISTS

Researchers found that members of the public could predict which breed of dog a person would own almost twice as accurately as they should be able to, just by looking at a photograph of their owners.

Volunteers rightly connected poodles, labradors and Staffordshire bull terriers with their masters.

There were a number of physical reasons why owners looks suggested which dog they would have, including what clothes they wore and their build, said Dr Lance Workman, from Bath Spa University.

"There is a little bit of truth in the theory that owners look like their dogs, but if you are of a robust build you will probably have a more robust dog so that you can gets lots of exercise. If you are more slight you may want a poodle as you think that they need less exercise," he said.

Dr Workman, who previously carried out a study which showed that the Birmingham accent was the most hated in Britain, added: "When we tested the dog owners' personalities, we found no strong links between any particular personality trait and choice of dog breed, so any shared qualities are only skin deep."

Many celebrities have been compared to their dogs, including the petite Paris Hilton and her miniscule Chihuahua, Tinkerbell.

But dog lovers should be warned that volunteers also wrongly thought that choice of breed could predict the owners' personality.

Overall, they judged bull terrier owners as less intelligent than the others, while those who had plumped for poodles and labradors were thought to be nicer.

However, personality tests revealed no such differences between the three groups.
Dr Workman added: "What this study shows is that you shouldn't judge a person by their dog, but we all do."

The tests also showed that overall the dog owners were nicer or "more agreeable" than the general population, the only major personality difference the study found.

Psychologists asked 70 people to match 41 dog owners, found through the Kennel Club, to their breeds.

They were correct between 50 and 60 per cent of the time, when chance suggested that they should have a success rate of around 33 per cent.

The volunteers were shown full-length pictures of the owners, mainly photographed in their own homes.

The team behind the study decided to look at Staffordshire bull terriers because the breed has had a lot of negative publicity in recent years, while they were interested to discover if poodles attracted more "sophisticated" owners and labradors were considered to be a "neutral" breed.

The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton.

Proudly Presenting......

I'm not proud of the pride in my life.

It surfaces in good times and bad.

In quiet moments.

In noisy moments.

In subtle and not so subtle ways.

There are so many verses in the Bible that address this sin we all grapple with.

But the bottom line is that even though God hates all sin, pride is the worst.

It's at the top of His "Things I Most Hate List":

Proverbs 6:16-17 (AMP) "These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others]......."

Remember Satan's big fall?

Trace it back to pride:

Isaiah 14:12-14 (NKJV) "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

When we indulge in pride we are opposed by God Himself!

1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) "....... Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

This holds true even for Christians.

God is against us because He is for us.

He wants us to depend on Him alone.

The goal is one of great love.

He'll bring us down.

Down to a place where we'll really learn that He is the Lord.

That's a good place to be.

A place of true joy and satisfaction.

We'll be so content there He may surprise us one day.

1 Peter 5:6 (ESV) "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.."

Funny thing about God's promotions.

When we least want it we may get it.

I think that's the point.

Are We Reading Between The Lines?

It's been a yearly tradition for the past several years.

And it's a perfect fit for a bookworm like me.

This week is Nevada Reading Week.

The goal is to get kids excited about reading.

The schools invite adults to come and read to the kids.

I always love to do it.

Especially because my own child is sitting right beside me.

Today I visited my youngest's 3rd grade class.

I read a short story out of the Encyclopedia Brown series.

Do you remember those?

He's a boy detective.

He cracks the case.

How did he figure that out anyway?

It's fun speculating.

And the answers are in the back of the book.

Gotta love that.

But I can't help but wonder.

Will these kids develop a love of reading in a world with so many other choices?

I think about that with my own kids.

The stakes are high, especially for the Christian parent.

Readers will read God's Word.

The Bible.

And hopefully not just read but camp out on a verse or two.

Giving The Holy Spirit a chance to make the words come alive.

An opportunity to reflect on The Truth.

If you were listening to the show yesterday, you know how many listeners called to join the conversation about how God's Word is playing out in practical ways in their lives.

I really think that's the key.

We need to be telling our kids about our own experiences.

That way, we'll both be on the same page.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (ESV) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. "