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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Only Our Feet

Read John 13:1-17

In Bible times the streets and roads were dusty and dirty.  It was common for people to pick up dirt and mud on their feet and so, when they came inside a house they had to take off their sandals and wash their feet.  Well-to-do households would have a servant wash the feet of the guests.  In this passage of scripture we find Jesus taking the role of a servant and washing His disciples' feet.  Peter took offense and said, "No, you will never wash my feet!"  Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."  then Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and head as well!"  Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean."

True followers of Christ have been washed in the blood of Christ.  They are clean.  We are righteous in Jesus Christ.  But we pick up stuff every day that cakes dirt on us that must be washed off.  We go out into the world, whether to work, school,  marketplace,sports, movies, tv, or just general talk with people we see.  We hear words and see situations that are un-Christ-like.   We see and hear behavior that can damage us and later our testimony.  We are still clean--we are saved by Christ's blood.  We need our feet washed metaphorically so we can be clean, to feel clean, and to be a good witness for our Lord.  For, out in the world, we hear and see things that, if left on our heart are going to make us ineffective.    In those situations we have a need to allow Jesus to wash our feet.

The Bible says that we can be holy and pure when washed by the water of the word.(Eph. 5:26)  The daily reading of scripture along with meditating on it can wash us clean of the filth we pick up as we go through the dusty and muddy road of life.  We are clean, but not all of us.   As we read His word, Jesus will wash away all those thoughts and attitudes that try to drag us down and damage our christian walk.  "Thy word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."


Saturday, June 2, 2012

Jesus Has Something To Say

Jesus was having dinner with a Pharisee named Simon.  An immoral woman came in with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume.  "Then she knelt behind him at his feed, weeping.  Her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them off with her hair.  Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them."(Luke 7) Simon was indignant, thinking that Jesus should not let a sinner touch him.  "Then Jesus answered his thoughts, 'Simon...I have something to say to you.'" 

So often people sit in church services thinking all kinds of thoughts.  Some people are looking at others and wondering why such sinful people can came to church an act so religious.  Some are thinking about what's for dinner or who will win the game that day.  All those kinds of thoughts and many others are either anti-God thoughts or non-God thoughts.  They take us away from an opportunity to truly worship the risen Savior.  They rob us of our chance to hear from God and grow in Christ.

I can just hear Jesus saying to so many of us as we sit in church thinking thoughts other than God-thoughts or even as we go through life ignoring God's command to pray without ceasing, "I have something to say to you."  Christ wants to speak to us and guide our lives.  Corporate worship is one of those great times to hear from God, through the singing, the praying, the scripture reading, the sermon or just a still small voice.  I think most of us know of our need to hear from Christ but we are unaware that He actually wants to say something to us. 

In the story of dinner at Simon the Pharisee's house Jesus' word is that the more we understand God's forgiveness, the more we will love and worship Him.  The sinful woman expressed her faith in Jesus by loving Him.  Even as we pour ourselves out to Him in love, we are opening up ourselves to hear another word from Him and grow in our faith.  "Faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."(Rom. 8:17)  Jesus answers our wondering thoughts and says,   "I have something to say to you!.