God Is Just Like Jesus

I love this one because we see that Peter wants to control Jesus for his own goals and expectations! This is so important to see this so that we can understand that we are doing the same thing with Jesus (often) and that we aren't the only ones. Peter and the disciples wanted to control God as much as we do and probably even more!
However, the wonder of this situation is that Jesus, although with significant intensity, doesn't reject Peter even for this sin but uses it as sharp correction to train Peter and the other disciples to get out of the "drivers seat" and follow Him!
Once again we see the theme that the most intense events of Jesus' clean anger, intensity and fierceness have nothing to do with Him rejecting the disciples or condemning them, but He is intensely training them to prepare them for the future and to lead the church through the persecution of the Romans and the Jews!
If we can get our image of God more clear and healthy we can see more clearly that everything God/Jesus does is for our good and the good of our people and world!

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This event with Jesus crushing the furious storm on the Sea of Galilee and His intense challenge to the disciples was the first time I began to see that I had misinterpreted Jesus' intensity and fierceness. I thought (in my more broken and warped image of God) that He was frustrated and angry with the disciples and taking it out on them.
Some years (or a decade) later I figured out that Jesus knew He would soon die. He knew the disciples would have to lead the church and face the Roman persecution and the vicious attacks of the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees. This event with the storm was all about Jesus intensely training the disciples to not give into their emotions and fears but to develop a steel like strength to keep their eyes and trust on Jesus.
Jesus wasn't rejecting them or trying to push them away. No, He was continuing to train them up like an Olympic Coach to be ready to compete in the life and death arena of Israel in the 1st Century!
Jesus is 100% good, 100% of the time. Everything that He does is for our good, the good of our children and our families and the good of the world!

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This one is almost comical given the amazingly holy moment of Jesus' earthly disguise being put aside for a moment and the disciples actually being able to see and perceive a little bit of Jesus' true identity, power and divinity. During this Peter offers to make Jesus, Moses and Elijah each a dirt hut or shelter out of branches. It's hilarious ... and quite sober at the same time!
Once again the truly amazing thing is that Jesus, as powerful and eternal as He is, doesn't criticize Peter or put him down for his offer, but merely dials down the revelation of His glory and power and then instructs Peter (and James & John) to get up and not to tell anyone what they have seen and experienced until after Jesus has sacrificed Himself for the people.

It's so great that Jesus doesn't get moody or upset that Peter barges in the middle of His conversation with Moses and Elijah. Jesus works with Peter (and all of us) in our immaturity, our foolishness, our impatience and our sin to grow us up in goodness!

If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father, God - John 14:9

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In this episode we can clearly see the sin of the disciples. James & John are offended with the Samaritans who will not offer hospitality to Jesus for food for an over night stay so they suggest burning down the entire village with a lightening bolt! It is a fit of anger and rage and is blatantly sinful. James and John are probably thinking of Elijah in I Kings 18 where he confronts the 450 prophets of Baal and God provides a lightening bolt to prove to everyone that Yahweh is the good God over Baal. (Remember I Kings 23 says that those who worship the Canaanite gods would burn some of their children in the fire and offer temple prostitutes to the people as they came to worship these gods.)
However, James and John fail to realize that the Samaritans are just regular people and are not the prophets or leaders of Baal worship. So their anger is completely misplaced and sinful.
Once again Jesus' goodness is revealed through His intensity and fierceness combined with His ability to reason. He sternly rebukes James and John and then instructs them that they don't even know what kind of people they are or they should be, because Jesus came not to destroy people but to save people!
Jesus always has to train anyone who would follow Him to become a leader or a pastor. Often his intensity or fierceness is to do just that. Therefore, even Jesus' "clean" anger is good for us as His followers and makes us care for people better!

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I love this episode because we see 1 of the 12 Disciples that are the closest followers of Jesus struggle with Doubt!

Many people wrestle with feelings of doubt and lack of belief in Jesus/God. And sometimes people get under condemnation about it or feel like they aren't good enough. We need to get away from those feelings and look at how Jesus responded to Thomas and his doubt.

When Thomas was failing to believe Jesus words that He would rise from the dead, Jesus appears and He doesn't reject Thomas or criticize him or get moody with him. Jesus directly instructs Thomas and challenges him to touch His hands and feet and to "believe."

When we remove the fear of rejection by Jesus (or God) we can "receive" the correction or challenge like we would from a great Soccer or Football Coach and grow from it rather than being depressed by it.

And this is exactly what Jesus wants. Jesus doesn't want Thomas feeling bad and pulling back. He wants Thomas to receive the correction and lean in and trust Jesus deeper.

Most of our parenting is so messed up that we don't realize that "the goal of discipline is never to feel bad, but to change and grow." However, so much of our culture has elements of dysfunction and immaturity in it - we really think (or feel) that the goal of Parenting is that the child would "feel bad." That rarely brings good growth. We want the emphasis on changing for the better not on feeling bad.

Watch Jesus. He challenges and corrects the disciples so that they will turn, change and grow. Jesus isn't interested in us feeling bad or getting under condemnation, but He is completely interested in us repenting (changing) and growing in goodness!

Once again, Jesus is totally Emotionally Healthy. He is awesome and wants the best for each and every one of us!

And.... God is Just like Jesus - "If you have seen Me [Jesus], you have seen the Father [God}" - John 14:9

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Strangely, this is a great passage for learning more about Jesus' emotional health and consequently understanding God's healthy emotions.

Right in the middle of Jesus receiving the little children and babies, the disciples decide that this isn't the best use of Jesus' time or that He is too important for this or kind of thing... and they start running off the parents and kids. And guess what, Jesus get's hot!

Now, make no mistake, Jesus never get's angry in an unclean or dysfunctional way. In fact, if you want to grow in clean anger or healthy anger do an extensive study of Jesus when He is angry or intense or fierce. Jesus' anger is most often motivated by His compassion and results in protection of someone.

And this is what we find here. Jesus' compassion for the little children and the parents motivates His clean anger and He confronts the well meaning disciples and tells them to leave the people alone! And the text says He is "indignant." That word means He is really intense and fierce.

We see that His anger results in the protection of the children and the parents! They feel it is ok to come close to the great Prophet (who actually is God in human form) and that Jesus actually "likes" them and enjoys them.

The disciples also learn that Jesus is completely opposite of a self-righteous Pharisee who despises the everyday people. They find out that Jesus deeply cares about people and enjoys them.

Additionally a 2nd point is that Jesus, once again, is training His disciples for leading the church after He has been killed. Leaders naturally oppress people. It's just human nature. You can see it all through human history. Jesus' clean anger corrects His followers to reveal that God cares about all the little people as well as the so called "important" people. God is just like Jesus and He enjoys the parents, the children and the babies.

So, Jesus' intensity, fierceness and clean anger are so good to study because we develop healthy anger about injustice just as He does and we know what to do with our anger and what not to do with our anger!

Enjoy!

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you like an episode or you have suggestions how to improve an episode.

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This is an absolutely beautiful event in Jesus' life where parents are bringing children and babies to Jesus to touch them and bless them! And Jesus does! In fact as you read the text in Mark 10 (and also about the 1 child in Matt 18) you can see that Jesus tenderly takes the children in His arms and holds them as He prays for them. Jesus enjoys the children and interestingly they come to Him. Don't you wonder what His attitude, eyes and face conveyed to these little girls and guys?

And please note... the little children aren't running to self-righteous hardened Pharisees or Sadducees. Not really.

The children, the everyday people and even those most susceptible to rejection and condemnation like the Tax Collectors and the prostitutes come to Jesus and eat with Him and enjoy Him. Jesus doesn't compromise on the truth with them but also knows how to interact and enjoy people, sins and all! Because no one is perfect and without sin - especially not the religious people like the Pharisees (conservatives) and the Sadducees (liberals) - even though they pretend they aren't morally perfect. They aren't - they are just self-righteous accusers who judge others constantly.

And get this... God is just like Jesus! Shocking isn't it - but read John 14:9 or Colossians 1:15 or 2 Corinthians 4:4. God enjoys and calls imperfect people to Himself, just like Jesus does!

Can you imagine God holding the little children in His eternal arms?

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you like an episode or you have suggestions how to improve an episode.

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This is a great event of Jesus' life. I know, I say that every time, but it is! Here we have an excellent event where Peter is worrying about his own sacrifices to follow Jesus compared to this rich guy Jesus has just talked to.

It is possible that Peter is sinning in self-pity and feeling sorry for himself. I don't know about you but this is one of my least favorite sins to admit. Right? Just feeling sorry for myself and then justifying my sin about how I act out.

Regardless, Peter says basically, "We have left everything to follow you Jesus, what will there be for us?"

And Jesus doesn't act like a Pharisee or Holiness Preacher and kick Peter around and accuse him of sin and selfishness. Jesus doesn't condemn Peter to tell him he isn't doing enough or reject Peter.

Jesus basically encourages Jesus and tells him that it will all be worth it. Jesus, once again, challenges Peter but builds him up to be the man of God he is called to be.

Jesus is quite wonderful!

And God is just like Jesus - 2 Cor 4:4

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This episode is one of the best for truly understanding what Jesus is saying and getting rid of our old works-based image of God that is mostly rooted in condemnation, fear, rejection and generally just feeling like we "aren't good enough."

Peter has a huge success and actually gets out of the boat and truly walks on water towards Jesus! It is amazing! Note, the other 11 disciples are NOT getting out of the boat ; )

However on the way to Jesus, Peter takes his eyes of Jesus, because of the roaring waves and begins to sink.

Does Jesus lecture Peter as he is going down? Does Jesus criticize Peter for failure or not doing enough? No! No! Not at all. Jesus "immediately" reaches out and rescues Peter.

We often mis-interpret Jesus next words to Peter as finding fault with him, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" However we usually interpret this sentence out of our condemnation mindset (read,  "the flesh" from Romans 8 - the old mindset) or our shame or our "we aren't enough" mindset.

But since Jesus didn't reject Peter for huge sins like denying Jesus in public or trying to control Jesus (see Day 12) then Jesus isn't rejecting Peter here. And Jesus isn't even criticizing Peter or shaming him. Jesus is basically saying, "You don't have to doubt. Next time I want you to keep your eyes on Me the whole time and I want you to go the entire distance!"

Jesus is basically "coaching Peter up" to be the best athlete (follower) that Peter can be.

And since you see Jesus, you also see what God is like. (John 14:9, Hebrews 1:3)

God isn't rejecting you or shaming you when you fail. He isn't saying you aren't doing enough. God is challenging you to stay connected to Him so that you can go the entire distance during the storms of your life. God is coaching you up to make you stronger to be able to care about your people!

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you like an episode or you have suggestions how to improve an episode.

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This is the continuation of the "Who Is the Greatest" argument which is blatant sin in the disciples lives. At this point James and John actually get their mom in on the argument and try to get her to manipulate Jesus to give them the greatest honor of human history. They want to sit at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus the God-man when He enters human history to assess the nations and review peoples hearts one by one.

If Jesus was anything like me, or anything like a religious Pharisee or a harsh Pastor, he would come down on James and John for their ruthless arrogance and self-seeking motives pretty hard. But Jesus isn't like you or I.

Jesus doesn't get angry and he doesn't get moody. Jesus doesn't sideline James and John and ignore them or demote them. In fact, I kind of think He likes getting the issues and sin out on the table, under the light so that He can work with them and us.

When the other 10 disciples hear about James and John's request to Jesus they were furious and indignant. I think they were afraid that James and John got to Jesus first and knowing Jesus, they feared He would give them exactly what they asked! Ha!

Instead of criticizing James and John or yelling at them for being self-focused and narcissistic, He calmly reasons with them and explains to them that He wants them to be great, but they are called to serve others to become great rather than trying to grab all the recognition and glory.

This is an amazing example of Jesus dealing with blatant sin (pride). And He does it by instruction James and John and reasoning with them calmly.

If you see Jesus, you have seen God the Father (John 14:9). Therefore, when you sin and fail, can you image God speaking to you calmly and talking you through your sin so that you can change and grow in goodness?

Because that is often what He is doing.

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you like an episode or you have suggestions how to improve an episode.

Resources:

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Concept Video: https://youtu.be/Hi6kknKWjCw

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFy1XIDN1N-Poe9Xj_VrggQ