Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
Many distractions. Too many. I need to learn from the horses to just flick them away like they do bothersome flies. Automatically. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and though I don’t have a tail, LORD help me focus on the good portion.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” Psalm 2:1-6
“See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” Matthew 24:4-8
The Apostle Peter, in his first letter to those Believers sojourning among the nations, tells us to look forward, despite of trials, to the revelation of Jesus Christ. He writes of the revelation of Jesus several times in the first section of his letter.
Jesus tells us that many substitute saviors will come before Jesus is bodily revealed to us. Luke shows us Jesus ascending into Heaven and the disciples “gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ ” (Acts 1:10,11)
There used to be a game show on TV, “What’s My Line,” in which contestants question three people on a panel. One was the real person, the other two imposters. At the end of the show, the show’s host would say, “Will the real so and so please stand up!”
Are we going to know Jesus when He comes?
A favorite event of mine is he two disciples walking down an old Roman road to toward their town. A man comes up by them and they talk as they walk. Only when the man is invited to eat with the disciples, only when the man breaks bread, do the disciples realize they were talking to the resurrected Jesus. (Luke 24:13-25)
Apostle Paul helps us in our life as we face trials and potential deceptions. In his letter to the Ephesian Believers, he shows us that we need armor in this battle. Spiritual Armor. GOD’s Armor. (Eph 6) This armor he describes isn’t optional. No soldier would fail to put on his armor. Make no mistake: we are soldier in a spiritual battle. The victory is assured. But the battles have, are, and will continue to rage. Put on the armor.
As Jesus continued his discourse on the Mount of Olives, he said that the deceptions are “to lead [people] astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24)
In his letter to the Thessalonian Believers, Apostle Paul is also encouraging, for the “coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for:
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. (1)”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:23-25
The Apostle Peter has told us we are exiles and sojourners on Earth. Where ever we’ve come from, or where ever we are staying, this place isn’t our real home. Don’t look back. Look ahead. We are to look ahead to a time when we will see Jesus face to face. The Revelation of Jesus our Messiah. That’s where our true Home is, though we aren’t there yet, and we don’t remember having been there. Being with Jesus is Home.
The apostle said there’ll be a few bumps, maybe a whole lot of bumps, in the path to that Forever Home. He also said, “Rejoice!” We are to rejoice despite the difficulties, regardless of the length of the journey. We rejoice even if our sojourn on Earth seems too brief. No matter how long we stay on Earth, in bodies of flesh and bone, it is like the flower that blooms and dies in a single day. Eternity is like infinity, pretty hard to wrap our minds around.
Furthermore, we are instructed by the apostle: “preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (v13)
One of the biggest issues today is the lack of hope, or at least perceived hope. Technological “advances” are overwhelming. Employment isn’t secure. Conflict seems pandemic. Prices rise and rise, seemingly endlessly. People are angry all the time, ever where. There are too many problems, few if any solutions. And summer isn’t in full swing yet; riot season awaits us. Feels like chaos reigns.
Believe not the lies. Our GOD reigns! Walk by faith, not by the way or the sight of the nations, its governments, and social media “influencers” and fear mongers. We are called to set our hope on Jesus Messiah.
Greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
It’s a rush, the firefighter told me, “One foot in the black; one foot in the green.” Her crew was the Heber Hot Shots, off the “A Bar S,” the Apache – Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona.
Apostle Peter might have appreciated this sentiment. Contrary to our modern view of various trails, he said “Greatly Rejoice.” Look at it as a rush. Look beyond the immediate trail to what lies beyond it. As Christians we are going to have things that come against us that just aren’t pleasant. We’re not tip toeing through the tulips. We are walking through a swap. There are pleasant places and green pastures to lay our heads. Yes. But there are valleys in shadows that simply feel like death.
It builds our character. It builds our faith.
The wonderful result is “praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
“According to his great mercy, [GOD] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in Heaven for you. . .” 1 Peter 1:3,4
While the Tibetans sojourn in India, they long for a home that is on Earth. In the picture, I am parked in front a cafe and Sinclair gas station in Tucumcari, NM. The Paradise Cafe. In the background is the burned remnant of an old “motor” hotel. It’s located on Route 66, which is currently having its 100th Anniversary. Historic Route 66. Like the cafe and motel, it lays mostly in disrepair, useless and overgrown, bypassed by other, faster highways and interstates.
We, as Believers in Messiah, as Children of the Most High GOD, are sojourners on Earth. We aren’t at home here. We aren’t suppose to be. And though we’ve not been to this home for which we long, Apostle Peter tells us that we’ve been “born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven.” (v 3.4)
The Apostle also says that we “by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (v 5)
We have a Home! Thank You Jesus!
He says, too, that we are to rejoice, though we “have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
So we’re on a sort of backpacking trip. We’re taking in the sights, walking the trail. Tripping over roots, stones, our own boots. Drinking thirst-quenching water from streams (okay, we use a filter to collect the water), eating some bread we’ve brought along. Our map, our only true map, is the Bible, the Word of GOD. We rejoice for He knows where we are and how to get us where we are to go. We thank GOD and say “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a Light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
GOD’s Word shows us where we are and where we go. Hallelujah!
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. Revelation 1:1
GOD gives Jesus a message for His servants through an angel to John. John faithfully records what he sees. A blessing is promised to all who read, hear, and obey because the time is near. (Berean Bible Comment)
Jesus’s Apostle John wrote (v9,10): “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of GOD and my testimony about Jesus. On the LORD’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. . .”
Patmos is a small, rocky island in the Aegean Sea. According to commentary in the Berean Bible, “Roman records show it was used for political exiles,” and that “archaeology reveals first-century marble quarries on Patmos; exilees often labored in them.”
It’s the LORD’s day!
Apostle John doesn’t mince his words when, in his salutation, he clearly states from whom his letter comes: “Grace and peace to you from. . . Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
The Apostle is about to report events that might well require one of those movie warnings that caution, “The following may be disturbing, containing violence, etc.” But the exiled Apostle doesn’t wait until the end of his letter to give the GOOD NEWS, for he proclaims up front (1:7), “Behold, He [JESUS] is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him,” which references the prophecies of Daniel (7:13) and Zechariah (12:10).
JESUS RETURNS. Think, The Return of the King. This is the same Jesus that was put on trial for no crime except an offended religious leadership and Roman appeasement. Found guilty though innocent, Jesus was abused, ridiculed, hung on a Roman cross until dead. Jesus’s dead body was laid in a tomb until He arose, alive in his flesh body, to be seen by and spoken to by many people, for 40 days.
But wait, there’s more!
Luke reports Jesus’s disciples were gathered with Jesus, and “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ ” (Luke 1:9-11)
Here am I, LORD! I await You. I long for You. I watch for You. You are The King of the universe. I await Your return. I want to be staring in utter rapture, gazing into Heaven, watching You come. Maran Ata! Come LORD!
“To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion” 1 Peter 1:1
Every so often I can’t step over some word as I read. This time, on a rerun of Apostle Peter’s letters, it was exile. I know what the Dispersion is, but felt I just must look further into it. Ponder it.
According to Pastor Alexander Maclaren, Scotch minister in that latter half of the 19th Century, the letter was written to “sojourners of the Dispersion,” and was meant “not to the Jew, but to the whole body of Christian people, who, whatever may be their outward circumstances, are, in the deepest sense, in the foundations of their life, if they be Christ’s, ‘strangers of the Dispersion.’
For me, the take away from Pastor Maclaren’s Expository is that we, like those to whom the Apostle wrote, are sojourners on Earth. As such, We don’t fit well on Earth, “by reason of the contrariety between the foundation of our lives, and the foundation of the lives of the men round us; therefore, we stand lonely in the midst of crowds, and as strangers in the ordered communities of the world.”
Let us ever so remain as those sojourners: set apart, which is holy, and righteous in our Savior Jesus.
The photo was taken while on a camping trip along the Oregon Coast, 2018. The sun setting into the Pacific Ocean reminds me just how many years I lived on the Pacific Coast of California and how going there always felt like home. But that isn’t my real home, is it?
And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
Philippians 3:9
Apostle Paul has described all the reasons he could boast in who he is: all his Earthly attainments, in meeting the requirements of the Torah, in his righteousness under the Law. He then confesses, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (v.8)
Here’s scriptures that encourage us in living in the Righteousness of Messiah–notes made while sitting on the deck, as this Blessed Georgia Springtime becomes a Blessed Summertime.
God’s rule over the universe is grounded in justice and righteousness (Psalm 89:14).
Because God is just, He demands that mankind, created in His image, also display justice (Micah 6:8).
Scripture is full of commands that humans act justly. This includes acting on behalf of those whose rights are being denied and those who are powerless to defend themselves:
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17, ESV).
“Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3, ESV).
“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:3–4).
“I can do all things through the Messiah who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13; Eph. 3:16)
Yeshua said, “Without Me you can do nothing…” (John 15:5).
Note: The image is suppose to be crossed sword and pen, representing The Word and Writing. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our pens are not mightier than His Sword.
Jonah’s Song 