Graves' This and That

Jesus, His disciples, and a larger crowd are leaving Jericho.  A blind beggar is seated by the side of the road.  He has heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and he shouts  out to Jesus and the crowd, " Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  He has spoken a full sentence of theology!  Even when he is told to be quiet, he shouts louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"   (In Mark 10, the blind man is called Bartimaeus, and in the record of Luke 18, he is not named.)  Jesus speaks to those with Him to "Call him".  They, the disciples or the crowd, call back to him, "He's calling you."  Note his actions, he throws his cloak aside, jumps to his feet, and came to Him.  Being the astute and All-Knowing God-Man, Jesus inquires, "What do you want me to do for you?"  His reply, "Rabbi, I want to see."  Then, Jesus directs him to go for his faith has healed him.  Bartimaeus is given his sight and follows Jesus as He is ...

When I was in the classroom as the educator/facilitator i never thought that the results of 1 out of 10 was the data I wanted when reviewing test grades or assessing understanding of an objective to have been taught.  That seemed like negative data which meant, I was going to be reteaching again and maybe again. (I well remember when I introduced "long division" which blew most of the students' brain circuits, and the time period allotted, had failed to take into account that these fourth graders did not know their multiplication math facts so to proceed into division was going to be a challenge, and it was.)  1/10 is not always the best data! Can we put a value on the results of 1 who does understand and perform well?    As I was reading Luke 17, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem.  He was traveling along the border of Samaria and Galilee.  As He entered a village, there were 10 men who met Him...10 men who had the hellish disease of leprosy.  Even t...

  In Luke 12, Jesus is warning you and me about the sin of worry as we are distracted by so many cares, concerns, and maybe needs.  In Luke 12:29, " And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them."  The NIV uses do not set your heart, while the old KJV says, do not seek after.  The suggestion is: do not focus on, aim for, or pursue after. I wonder...how do I set my heart?  Do I set it very casually and just throw whatever upon it like I am putting a fast throw together meal on the table? Do I protect and guard my heart with what I see, hear, or speak? Or do I set my heart with purpose and intentionality for what I understand may be God's "meal"/purpose for me today?  Sometimes, I set my table so casually and carelessly with the distractions that want to press against me, and then I use all the "plastic tools and plastic plates",...

  Perception is the process of becoming aware through the senses, it can be a mental impression, it is to regard something or to understand something.   Sunday in my Bible Fellowship Class, we were sharing about our perceptions.  I understand that perceptions are interpreted through my senses, but as I mulled on the topic, the Holy Spirit and Dick brought to my mind that perceptions are also usually interpreted through not only the five senses, but my emotions which may prompt the senses to interpret the perception.  The real question:  Is perception real or is it how my emotions interpret it?  Is my perception Truth, that which is aligned with the Word of God?  I have had to admit that what I have as an opinion or emotion about what I have seen, heard, felt, smelled, and touched can be tainted.  I encountered  two opportunities which have to do with relationships yesterday, and I had to confess that I have interpreted the relationsh...

John 9 is the story of the healing of the blind beggar.  Not only is it a marvelous story of the miraculous healing of the man as he is given his sight, but a sad story of the religious of whom Jesus said, "For judgment, I have come into this world, so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind ." The religious have seen the miracle, even though it has taken place on a Sabbath, and they interview the man and his parents for their stories and understanding. I find it so thrilling that the healed man speaks so articulately and logically with the religious in their "interview" with him.  His statement, " Now that is remarkable!  You don't know where HE comes from, yet HE opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners.  He listens to the godly man who does His will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing." What truth he has spoken to the religious wh...

Last night, I got to attend a  "Pink Out" for first responders, fire and police, who have succumb to the ravages of cancer.  I stood on the 50 yard line with Kelly, David's wife, and another mate of a responder who had died.  So many emotions grabbed hold of my heart.  I obviously was never in a home-coming court or played football, so the 50 yard line and the center of the field was kind of a "sacred" place for this Mom to be.  David loved football as did my other two sons and their Dad and I logged some years watching and applauding them as they played their hearts out.  I loved watching the Color Guard of First Responders present the flags.  The band playing the Star Spangled Banner for the background of my thoughts of joy and sadness.  As my emotions welled up, I was grateful to honor David, who had a servant heart for people in need and did not run from a fire but toward the fires.  I honor him for fighting hard and not running from the ...

  Presently, I am reading in Matthew 17 and Mark 9.  These two chapters chronicle many of the same events, so the chronological program that I am reading includes these two together. I am always taken by comments that seem so casually spoken and may not have significant import, and yet they do.  For instance, " Everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness , how can you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."  Mark 9:49-50  Eons before refrigeration, salt was used as a preservative.  The Roman soldier had to purchase salt to place on his rations for preservation, and the cost of the salt was taken from his salary.  The Latin word for salt is sal, hence the English word, salary.  Salt was the symbol of lasting agreement and it was used to ratify a compact between parties. It was also emblematic of purity.  Every sacrifice that was offered in worship was sa...

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 110:105.  The light and the lamp to the ancient Hebrew of King David's psalm was a hand-held clay pot like bowl.  I guess maybe the size of the bowl might determine whether it was a light or a lamp.  Conjecture only!  The author seems to be saying that God's Word is a lamp which brightens or sheds light on an up close object, in this case a path, as he walks along the way. The he adds the second description of the Word of God also being a lamp which can brighten or light the path further down the way.   I confess that there are but a few times that I have been totally stumped and could not "see" or "know" the next step. Do I EVER hate those times! I align those times  akin to what I have "felt" in the "silence of heaven". I understand there is a major difference in the feeling of "silence from heaven" because of disobedience on my part, and "silen...

  As a classroom educator, I always appreciate and have appreciated the student who is willing to ASK for help, ASK a pertinent question, or ASK an occasional random question....at least asking is taking place!  Wanting information! As I look at the parables in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it seems that MOST of the miracles of healings occurred because of the initiative of the person who was ill or a friend who brought the person to Jesus.  In most cases, the person ASKS to be made well. My focus is not on healing, but the action of ASKING.   Several thoughts come to mind: 1.  We are reminded in Matthew 7:7-8, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."  (Sounds like a promise to me!) 2.  ASKING might suggest that I am willing to humble myself under God's mighty hand, knowing that He ...

It was too interesting as I read Matthew 11:12 today.  Jesus has been praising John the Baptist (Baptizer) who was a prophet and the  "Elijah" who was to come to earth.  He was to be the "Elijah" preparing the kingdom for the coming of the Lord Jesus.  As I read verse 12, I pondered for sure and grabbed some commentarial comments for a fuller understanding.  " From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men will lay hold of it." The comments were varied and I am going to list some of my thoughts as I read: 1. The reason the word forcefully advancing is used also the word, violent, is the action of a person being quickened, coming alive, who has been steeped and dead in sin. That is certainly a transaction!  2.  Salvation is really a "death to self life" and death fights hard against losing control of the self. 3.  One commentator suggested that the forceful men were sinners, ...

I love reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The lessons taught are reminders of our Mighty Lord God, Jesus, who is able and the miracles that He performed, and then to review that man in the New Testament is still corrupt of himself as he was 2,000 years earlier even with his sophistication and knowledge.  How desperately, we needed Calvary, the empty tomb, and the ascension of the Lord Jesus to transform us from self-destruction to salvation.  Of course, our salvation is all about a personal relationship with Christ Jesus and making that personal choice to receive all of His actions that have brought deliverance and healing from the penalty and the power of sin.  In Luke 7, a woman 'who had lived a sinful life" came to where Jesus was dining with Simon, the Pharisee.  She brought an expensive jar of perfume and washed Jesus feet with her tears. dried His feet with her hair, and drenched His feet in the perfume.  Of course, the Pharisee is cri...

  In Mark 2, I was introduced to four men who were extremely desperate to get to Jesus.  Jesus has come into a home in Capernaum and because Jesus has become known as a "miracle worker and teaching with great authority", He is surrounded by crowds wherever He goes.  He is preaching in the home and people are even crowded outside the home listening to him. The four men have carried a paralyzed man on a mat hoping to get him to Jesus.  Now deterred by their mission at hand, they carry the man to the roof, lift the thatched roof and lower the man on his mat down to the feet of Jesus.  That is extreme determination!   Jesus' response when He sees their faith, He speaks to the crippled man that his sins are forgiven.  The religious teachers of the law have several clueless remarks and make them aloud.  No problem...because He knows what is in their hearts, He has no problem speaking to them about their thoughts.  Just wondering, does it daw...

    In reading the Bible, chronologically, the author of the program combines several chapters, like the gospels of Matthew-John, because the incidents are often replicated with a few more or a few less details.  Today in reading of chapters 2-4 of John, I again, am halted by incidents, phrases, or sentences that grab my attention and cause some mulling (thinking about).  Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast and many people have seen the miraculous works/signs that He has done.  As a result, many people "believed in His name."  Remember that John often uses the term, signs, because the miracles are "sign-posts" pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the promised and long awaited Messiah.  The sentence which has caught my attention, " But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men.  He did not need man's testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man." John 2:24-25. The word, know, ginosko, was use...

  As I perused the daily newspaper, I see the headline, "City grieves as investigators seek motive behind shooting" in Las Vegas.  My very simple explanation, EVIL.  " But mark this:  There will be terrible times in the last  days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy;  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them." 2 Timothy 3:1-5  We have been warned with descriptions of what these last days, years, will look and feel like.  Are we at this point of evil yet?  I take note reading Luke 4-5 that twice it was recorded that Jesus went out to a solitary place to pray and another records that HE often withdrew to lonely places to pray.  Ch...

  My reading plan has taken me to Matthew 3, Luke 3, and Mark 1 to intro the ministries of John the Baptizer, Jesus' baptism, and Jesus' ministry.  Mark took a lot of his information from Simon Peter whom he followed during his ministry.  He will minister to Paul later in Acts and his imprisonments. He was a cousin of Barnabas who ministered with Paul also.  Mark's message was to show that Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God was the Suffering Servant with the good news of the gospel.  Mark is thought to be the earliest writing.  He wrote during the years that Nero was "fiddling" and burning Christians in Rome in the 60's A. D.  Action Jackson was an action hero figure toy years ago, and when I think of Mark, I think of him as "Action Jackson Mark"  fast-paced and moving to get his message across to a Gentile audience.  I grabbed a wonderful and encouraging sentence from Mark 1:35 about our Lord, " Very early in the morning, while it was still...

  As I have expressed so many times, I do not wait well. I have felt that I may be unusual in my waiting with impatience at times. But as I am on the highways, I can tell that waiting is NOT on the mind of some of the drivers about me with the loud horns, international signs, and the bullying techniques. I wait lest well in my prayer requests.  I forget that Almighty God is NOT just dealing with me in my circumstance. He has a plan and a purpose and it may be for loved ones, friends, or extended family about me.  Just imagine:  HIS plan just could be greater! In reading Luke 2, I caught a phrase, which I could certainly identify: From Gideon to Zechariah, " Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has be heard."  Ole Zech and Liz had been married for ages and they are elderly. Can't you see Liz reminding God that her reproductive clock is ticking and winding down? Their original request had lonnnng ago come before the Lord God.  Bareness was an embarrassi...