Emails to God

10 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! ² But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

⁶ Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, ⁷ so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. ¹⁰ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. ¹² A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. ¹³ The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, ¹⁵ just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷ “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. ¹⁸ No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

¹⁹ When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. ²⁰ Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” ²¹ Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

John 10:1-21

Dear God, once again, this story gets taken out of context because of a chapter break. It actually appears to be a continuation of his conversation with the Pharisees in chapter 9 after they had gotten made at him for healing the blind man on the Sabbath. And once again I’m going to say that if I had been there I don’t think I would have believed.

One thing I like about John’s telling of the story is that Jesus is not a benign character. As C.S. Lewis put it, we are left with only one of three opinions about who Jesus was: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord.

John’s thesis for the book is in the opening verses of the book:

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
² He existed in the beginning with God.
³ God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created,
    and his life brought light to everyone.
⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.

⁶ God sent a man, John the Baptist, ⁷ to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸ John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. ⁹ The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. ¹¹ He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. ¹² But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³ They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

¹⁴ So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

John 1:1-14

If I don’t believe these first 14 verses then my only choices are that he is a liar or a lunatic, but he cannot be Lord. But if I believe the first 14 verses then Lord is the only option.

So why do I believe these first 14 verses now, but I wouldn’t have believed them then? Well, there are a few reasons that I think are fairly objective, although I know I am influenced by what I’ve been taught over my lifetime.

• This story has endured even though Christians have failed to live up to it.
• It stands to reason you would reach out to us and proactively find a way to reconcile us to yourself.
• When I follow you and let the Spirit work in me my life is better.
• I’ve literally experienced you miraculously answering prayer.
• But the most objective one that I think I can argue is that none of Jesus’s disciples recanted their testimony that Jesus rose again from the dead. They went through a lot of suffering for a lie with no upside for them if they were lying about it.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, you are my shepherd. I am dumb as a sheep, but I will follow you. I can do that. But please help me to do that. Love others through me. Help me to love you with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and love my neighbor as myself. Give me this day my daily bread. Forgive me, and help me to forgive others. Come into this world through my life and the life of the Church body. And please help me through my temptations.

For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever,

Amen

8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

¹² Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

¹³ The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴ Jesus told them, “These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. ¹⁵ You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. ¹⁶ And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. ¹⁸ I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”

¹⁹ “Where is your father?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” ²⁰ Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come.

John 8:1-20

Dear God, I’m trying to do my best lately to take stories and put them in their context. For example, today’s verse of the day from Bible Gateway was John 8:12:  Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” What we miss is what has the Pharisees to whom he is speaking at the moment upset is that he just made them look like fools over the woman caught in adultery. His last words to the woman are what he said right before he said this. Jesus was bringing light. He wasn’t excusing sin, but he was forgiving it. He wasn’t condoning it, but he was having mercy on it. And then he turns and reminds everyone that they are walking in darkness, but if they follow him they can walk in the light. It’s all part of the same story.

Again, I’ll admit that if I had been there I don’t think I would have even come close to believing that Jesus is the Messiah. And even though I know errant teaching has crept into what I think I know about scripture, I am grateful to at least have this foundation, flawed as it might be, to lean on and build on. Jesus goes on to claim things about himself that I wouldn’t have believed in the moment. It was too fantastic. But now it all makes sense.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, as I get ready to head into this day, I am going to have a lot of opportunities to love people and have mercy. I am also going to have opportunities to encourage them to you and to a higher standard. To go and sin no more. But first, let that start with me. I am sorry for my sin. I am sorry for the multiple areas I fail you. I am sorry for my thoughts and my words. For what I have done and what I have failed to do. Help me to carry the humility of that repentance into my day as I then encourage others to let go of their sin, turn from their ways, and embrace your mercy and a relationship with you.

I pray all of this under your authority,

Amen

²² The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. ²³ Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. ²⁵ They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man^[f] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

³⁰ They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? ³¹ After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^[g]”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. ³⁷ However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

⁴¹ Then the people^[h] began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. ⁴⁴ For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. ⁴⁵ As it is written in the Scriptures,^[i] ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)

⁴⁷ “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ Yes, I am the bread of life! ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. ⁵⁰ Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

⁵² Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

⁵³ So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. ⁵⁴ But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”

⁵⁹ He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰ Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”

⁶¹ Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? ⁶³ The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”

⁶⁶ At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. ⁶⁷ Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

⁶⁸ Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹ We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.^[j]”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you, but one is a devil.” ⁷¹ He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would later betray him.

John 6:22-71

Dear God, I was sitting in church this morning and the pastor was talking about how weird the Christmas story is. All of your decisions were peculiar. After he would tell us a different part of the story he would make us repeat, “Wow, that is so weird!” What I was sitting there thinking was, “Wow, if I had been there I’d never have believed any of this.”

So as I read this passage this evening (which John 6:35 was the verse of the day for Bible Gateway), can’t help but think that I would be one of the bad examples in this story. I’d have wanted a sign. I’d have been weirded out about eating the flesh. I’d have walked away, IF I had been attracted in the first place. Frankly, I’m the kind who probably wouldn’t have sought out Jesus in the first place if I had been there 2,000 years ago.

Honestly, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. For the small fraction of people who were there when you were on earth it would have been a bad thing, but for the rest of us I think it’s a good thing. I’m not looking for more than you. I’m not looking for someone who will claim to add something to my relationship with you that I don’t already have. I consider myself fortunate to have been introduced to you as an eight-year-old child and raised from there in a church. I’m grateful for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes conferences I’ve been to. I’m grateful for the people you put in my life like Henry Parish (the tennis coach who got me involved in FCA). I’m grateful for the youth minister who came to my church my senior year–right when I had a significant shift in my relationship with you. I’m grateful for the woman you introduced me to when I was 19 who would later become my wife and stretch me intellectually and theologically. I am grateful for the opportunity to work at a Christian music and book publisher which gave me access to all kinds of Christian music and reading/study materials. I am grateful for Laity Lodge, the adult retreat center where I got inspired over 23 years ago to start doing these prayer journals. I am grateful for Gary Thomas and the Sacred Marriage book that he wrote which gave me a new paradigm for loving my wife and accepting your formation of my life through her. I am grateful for the children you gave me, who have stretched me, formed me, and taught me to be more sacrificial. I am also grateful for how you have revealed at least a little of your perfect love for me through my imperfect love for them (So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. – Matthew 7:11). I am grateful for you giving me work to do in nonprofits so that I have learned more about people who are marginalized and live on the edges of our society. I am grateful that you have taught me to be aware that there is so much I don’t know and to accept that instead of being defensive and fighting against it. I am grateful for the friends you have given to me. I am grateful for what you have taught me through my parents–both the good examples they gave me and the bad. I am grateful you taught my wife and me how to give when we had very little and that you made that an important part of our lives. You know, I could go on and on. As I sit here, I am grateful for so much. I haven’t even mentioned how grateful I am for my job, the home I have, the middle-class American lifestyle my wife and I have, our health, or any of that.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I would have ignored you if I had been there 2,000 years ago, but I embrace you now. I am grateful. I am so grateful.

I offer you my worship in Jesus’s name,

Amen