Loving Jesus Style

  Scripture: John 14:6 (ESV) 6 Jesus said to him, “I am . . . the truth, Devotion:           Today we continue to look at John 14:6. Yesterday we covered Jesus as the way to God, and our hope of heaven. Today we look at the second description John uses for Jesus. I have written on truth recently. In that post I contrasted the cultures propensity to lie in contrast to the truth the scripture calls us to. Today I want to explore Jesus as our standard of truth.           It always seems to be easier in this world to find a lie than it is to find the truth. Jesus is, however, the truth. He is not my truth, or your truth or even the churches truth (even churches can and will fall victim to one lie or another. Time and space would fail to be sufficient to document all the lies that the church has believed over the centuries). In fact, Jesus represents all truth everywhere and for all time.           We meet up with lies for the first time in the Garden of Eden. There in the third ch

  Scripture: John 14:5-6 (ESV) 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, . . . Devotion:             It may be apparent that I have not quoted the entire verse. Many of you perhaps have John 14:6 memorized. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the father but through me.” My reason for taking only the way for this discussion is because I fear it gets passed over as we seek truth and eternal life with Jesus. That tiny word odos in the Greek gets trampled underfoot on the way to the seemingly more important words for us. After all, don’t we all know and understand what the word way means here in the gospel. Let us, put all knowledge aside for a minute or two, and consider the meaning of the word way in today’s scripture. Remembering that all scripture is inspired by God even our tiny word “way”             First, let us consider how the word was used by Jesus i

  Obedience Scripture: Philippians 2:7-8 (ESV) . . . [Jesus] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Devotion:           Today, we are going to consider obedience. This term sometimes makes those in our culture bristle at the thought of having to be obedient to anyone. Yet the scripture is full of examples of obedience. Even Jesus was obedient to his earthly parents in Luke 2:51 we find “51 Then [Jesus] went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” If Jesus was obedient to Mary and Joseph (thus obeying the commandment to “honor your father and mother) so, should we be obedient to both our earthly and heavenly parents.           Still our world tells us we don’t need to obey God. We have become a culture disobedient to all authority. We have r

  Self-Control 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)   But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Devotion           What Paul has given us above is a vice list. Consider this day in which we live. Are we not surrounded by people who display these types of behavior every chance they get? But the one trait I would like to pick out of this list is self-control. Why choose that particular vice out of this list for discussion? I believe if we have self-control most of the other vices will go away on their own. For example, it is difficult if not impossible to be brutal and have self-control. In fac

  Has Jesus Called You? Scripture: Mark 1:16-20 (ESV) 16 [Jesus] Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Devotion:           In this scripture, Jesus sees two sets of brothers. These brothers are plying their trade of fishing. He calls them to follow him. Jesus doesn’t promise them fame, fortune, or other material rewards if they follow him. In fact, these brothers will receive nothing but being unknown, poverty, and no material reward at all for their efforts to follow Jesus. Trading their lives

  Welcome to Sunday Evening prayer. Let us begin by praying together selections from Psalm 27: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall, I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? . . .   One thing have I asked of the Lord , that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; . . . I will sing and make melody to the Lord . Hear, O Lord , when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! . . .   Teach me your way, O Lord , and lead me on a level path . . . I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord ; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord ! Let us pray:           O Lord open thou our lips that our voices shall proclaim your praise! O gracious Lord           Pure brightness of our everla

  Scripture John1:6-8 (ESV) 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light. Devotion:           This post seeks to bring us to an understanding of who John the Baptist really was. What was his purpose? How did he help prepare the way for Jesus and the ministry of the kingdom that Jesus was to proclaim?           Luke records the prophesy of John’s birth to his father “14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him kin the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom o

  Scripture: John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, the gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (ESV) Devotion:           The Apostle John writing here in the beginning of his Gospel tells us that if we will receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our lives. The Father will adopt us as sons and daughters of God. This world tries to tell us that we as Christians are somehow not “with it” when it comes to earthly things. However, God has an altogether different view of the people Jesus has gained for him. We are God’s own children chosen out of the world to be special children of God. We are chosen to have a special relationship with God that nothing in this world or out of this world can break.           In our current cultural situation those who follow Christ must live differently than those around us. Because the culture looks down on the fatherhood

  Scripture: Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Devotion: Truth it seems is in deep trouble these days. The media (social and otherwise) is so full of lies, half-truths and outright deception it is hard to know what the truth is anymore. We live in a culture of lies. The devil who according to scripture is “the Father of lies” must be having a field day. He is likely reveling in how he has managed to pollute the world with his lies. It has gotten so bad that some deny even the possibility of knowing the truth. Pontus Pilate’s famous question of Jesus was “What is truth?” this question is right at home in our society today.           How can we know the truth in this post-truth world? We find it extremely hard on a day to day basis to discover the truth. The only way we can determine truth is by comparing what is being said, written, or demonstrated is to use

  Scripture: 3  Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) ESV Devotion:           It seems that new challenges arise almost daily in trying to live a life of faith in Jesus Christ. However, we must remember that we struggle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers as Paul says in Ephesians.           The word “contend” here in the Greek means to struggle intensely. So, we must struggle. We must take up the full armor of God which Paul lays out for us in chapter 6 of Ephesians “ 13  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15  and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of

  Scripture Philippians 1:18b-21 Yes, and I will rejoice, 19  for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20  as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [1] Devotion           The church today has a fear problem. We are intimidated by the world, and it leads to the church hiding its light and salt. We are afraid to speak out on issues for fear of rejection by the world. Paul in our scripture today is a living example of a Christian who is sold out to the message of the gospel and is not afraid of even death. For as he notes “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”           We are called to resist the world, flesh, and the devil by the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our resistance may not lead to our deat

  Scripture 1 John 4:14-21 Good morning to you my brothers and sisters in Christ. I stand before you today to proclaim the wonderful, good news that has been delivered to us as children of the one true and holy God. My name is John Haselton and I hail from a small town in northern Illinois called Rochelle. I graduated from Rochelle Twp. High School, WIU, and with my master’s degree from PTS. I have worked over the years in education, banking and finance, and in ministry being a lay preacher for the PC(USA) in the Blackhawk Presbytery and an ordained elder at Rochelle Presbyterian Church. So, I come before you today preaching the love of God that we just heard from 1 John.         Now some of you may be saying “not another sermon on love. I have heard all this. This is going to be boring.” Well, I have to tell you I would agree with you. A lot has been said on this topic except for one fact. God’s love is never boring. The fact that the One who created everything that has existed, e