God’s timing was perfect with Jesus – so it is with us!

1. At the wedding in Cana, when His mom came to Him after the wine had run out:
“Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (Jn.2:4).
2. During the Passover preparations when His disciples asked where He wanted them to make the preparations:
[He said,] “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”
3. When the Feast of Booths in Judea was at hand and He went about in Galilee having refused to go because the Jews were seeking to kill him, His own brothers counseled Him go that He might “show [himself] to the world”:
[Jesus said to them,] “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here . . . you go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come” (Jn. 7:6 & 8).
4. After going to the Mount of Olives, Jesus early in the morning taught once again in the temple:
“These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come” (Jn. 8:20).
5. During the feast before the Passover, after His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, after Philip and Andrew informed Jesus of the Greeks who were seeking Him:
[And Jesus answered them.] “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (Jn. 12:23).
6. “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn. 13:1).
7. After instructing His disciples during the Last Supper in the upper room:
[When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,] “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, [since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him]” (Jn. 17:1 [&2]).

Latest Musings

Through my neurological immune-system disease Dermatomyositis the Lord is rooting out my heart idols of materialism, hedonism, Pharisaism, procrastination, and ministryism. Instead, God is teaching me to love the eternal pleasure in being heart-connected to Himself and others while being faithful every moment with what He’s given me to do. I’m understanding that less is more in everything except my relationship with God: better stuff but not as much of it, less relationships but emphasizing more intimacy and quality with those I have, doing less so as to do my best at all, giving more often than taking, sharing rather than hording, loving rather than lusting, enjoying rather than stressing, thanking over wanting, honoring over disrespecting, serving over expecting, communication over assuming, learning over lethargy.

The Gospel is becoming more central to my everyday thinking as I’m learning to value realness in life, personality, and faith. Becoming more like Jesus is solely the bi-product of daily struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan within my soul. As I become more aware of my own capacity for evil, the simple truth that Jesus loves even me becomes my lifeline and comfort-giving joy. I can serve God out of thankfulness because I’m an utterly sinful wreak apart from Jesus’ love for me! All glory to the infinite God Almighty for entering finite time and solving mankind’s rebellious heart condition. He loves us in spite of ourselves and we can love each other only because He has shown us how through the example of Jesus. I realize my need for God as my personal Lord more today than when I first believed in Jesus: praise Him for this continued proof of His work on me!

Are you fearful or confident, my friend, in where you’ll spend your existence after death? Jesus is the only way to knowing God. Scripture reminds us that: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Do you adore the light that God has given to humanity in Jesus? Or are you afraid of God’s light and won’t come to Jesus because He exposes the darkness in your heart? The Gospel means that Jesus redeems dreadful sinners like you and me. This will either energize your life with purpose and significance or paralyze it in fear or indifference. Ultimately, whether you believe the truth in the end does not matter, for God will judge according to it on the last day regardless. As the hymn writer said so well: “Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art! I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart!”