Bearing Fruit; February 25, 2019

Posted on February 28, 2019 by jgarrott

John 15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

This whole passage is so incredibly rich that after reading it I had to just sit for a few minutes, asking what I was to write on. Andrae Crouch’s song, My Tribute, came to mind. “How can I give thanks for the things that you’ve done for me?” It goes on to say, “The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude.” I very much feel that way as I read, really anywhere in the Upper Room Discourse and the Pastoral Prayer that follows. Specifically thinking of this verse, every person is concerned about their life having meaning, about leaving a legacy, if you will. The thing is, God wants us to do exactly that, and Jesus tells us how. In verses 4 and 5 Jesus makes no bones about how we are helpless/worthless apart from Him, but even in verse 5 He promises that if we remain in Him, we will be fruitful. That is the context of this verse. Disciples aren’t particularly significant apart from the master they follow. We have the ultimate Master, and we must never forget it. One of the fundamental attributes of God is glory, and here Jesus tells us that when we bear fruit as His disciples, it gives God glory. The more you think about that, the more mind-blowing it is. God wants us to bear fruit, for our sake and for His own. We need to trust Him with that.

This is of great relevance for me, because I have passed 70 and I minister in Japan, a place notorious for sparse fruit from Christian ministry. Just in the past couple of weeks I’ve been given various opportunities to touch people as a representative of Christ, and the responses haven’t been bad. I need to remember that God is even more desirous of my being fruitful than I am! My task is to abide in Christ and allow Him to abide in me, because Jesus cannot be unfruitful. I am to be careful to make the most of every opportunity, (Colossians 4:5) so that the seed of the Word may be planted in every bit of soil that is ready for it. I’m not a good judge of the readiness of the soil, but the Holy Spirit is, and I’ve got to listen to Him. If I will be faithful in that, planting and watering, God will provide the fruit, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. There is so much going on all around me that I have a definite impulse to run and hide, particularly with the cold I have at the moment. Help me not run from any situation into which You lead me, but rather be fully obedient as a disciple of Christ Jesus my Lord. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Blessings of Obedience; February 24, 2019

Posted on February 27, 2019 by jgarrott

John 14:23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

The Bible uses all sorts of words to mean much the same thing. That is particularly evident in Psalm 119, which mentions the Word in practically every verse, but uses a number of different terms to do so. Here, where the NIV says “obey my teaching,” the Japanese says, “keep my words.” (That’s as in, “keeping the rules.”) Actually, this verse repeats the content of verse 15 and adds more, and it all brings to mind 13:17. “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” We know full well that “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) However, there are blessings to obedience, and we put ourselves in real danger if we forget that. Nothing could be a greater blessing than what Jesus says here: the Father and the Son make their home with those who love Jesus and obey Him. That’s what the Holy Spirit is all about, which Jesus talks about throughout this section. It’s not that we “earn” the presence of God by His Spirit, it’s that we get rid of the things that hinder His manifestation in and through us. Many people think of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in terms of spiritual gifts, but they are actually secondary. God pours His Spirit out so that Christ may be formed in us, (Galatians 4:19) as we are transformed into His likeness. (2 Corinthians 3:18) I don’t think we really grasp what a big deal it really is that God would make His home with us. If we really did, I think we would do anything to allow it to happen.

I’m talking to myself here. It’s been many years since I realized I needed to make James 1:22 the theme verse of my life: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” I have been a poster boy for knowing the Bible without putting it into practice. It’s not that I’ve done a lot of stuff that the world would consider bad, it’s just that I’ve been familiar with the Bible from infancy and yet haven’t applied it consistently. By the grace of God I have grown, spiritually speaking, and I’m understanding better and better what a magnificent thing Jesus is promising here. I want it to be fulfilled in my life! Realizing how long it has taken me to get to this point, I should have patience and empathy with those who aren’t there yet, as well as admiration and appreciation for those who have already surpassed me. I desire the manifest presence of God in every one of our church gatherings, so for that I need to be a walking repository of that presence. This is in no way to abdicate my responsibility for consistent faithfulness; exactly the opposite, in fact. It is as I am faithfully obedient that God will manifest Himself through me, for His glory and the salvation of many.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. Thank You for the various ways You have used me over the past week. I pray that today also I would be fully welcoming and yielded to You, so that I may speak Your words and touch with Your hands, for the blessing of all and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Trusting God; February 23, 2019

Posted on February 26, 2019 by jgarrott

John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

I have preached many times on various parts of this first half of John 14, and verse 6 is one that I quote frequently, but at this moment I feel the Lord is speaking this first verse to me. We let our hearts be troubled by all sorts of things. The term used in the Japanese translation carries the feeling of stirred up, noisy, or very busy. What could be more applicable to the day we live in? The world around us is moving at a furious pace, and we find ourselves empathizing, at least, with the title of a Broadway hit of a few decades ago: Stop the World! I Want to Get Off! And that’s just life in general. Each of us has specific circumstances that put us into our own private storm. That’s why it’s so important that Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled/frantic.” Our wills have a great deal to do with it. We can’t control our circumstances much of the time, but we do have authority over our response to those circumstances, and that is what Jesus is talking about. The answer is faith/trust. I think the NIV translators were wise to use “trust” here rather than “believe,” because trust is very immediate and active, whereas believe can be abstract and theoretical. The answer to life’s storms isn’t philosophy, but rather an active commitment to the Lord who is above and greater than the storm. We don’t know about tomorrow, as the old Southern Gospel song says, but if we know Who holds the future and know that our hand is in His, then we can have peace regardless of our circumstances.

The reason the Lord spoke this to me right now is that my schedule is totally packed for the next month. We leave for America in less than two weeks, and there are lots of things to be done before then, including two graduations of schools where I teach and a host of other things. Then, the trip to the US covers four states and dozens of people, including the wedding of a granddaughter. It would be very much of a stretch to call it a vacation! Just this week we have had a memorial service at the request of the family of someone who died a year ago, and then a good friend died and we have been majorly involved in that. This is major training in trusting in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! However, God is more than worthy of our trust, and all that we are going through is absolutely no problem for Him. I will be performing two weddings today, and tomorrow after the service we have a farewell party for a church member who is moving to Kyrgyzstan, and then more things each day after that. I have to choose not to let my heart be troubled! Choice made, I can rest, relax, and rejoice in my Lord, as He told me to do many years ago. He is able, and that’s enough.

Father, thank You for this Word this morning. Thank You that we’ve been able to allow some Rehabilitation College students study here over the past two weeks for their National Board Exam on Sunday. They have their own internal storm right now! I pray that each of them, and especially the one who is a member here, would choose to trust You and allow You to quiet their storm and enable them to do their best, and even beyond their own ability. May they, and we, be drawn to You by our storms, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Love of Jesus; February 22, 2019

Posted on February 26, 2019 by jgarrott

John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus said He was giving His disciples a new commandment, but He Himself had quoted Leviticus 19:18 and said that loving your neighbor was the 2nd greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37-40) So what was new about it? The very next sentence gives the difference: “As I have loved you.” Jesus’ love for us His disciples is beyond anything that is possible for us without the help of God. That’s why God chose Greek as the language of the New Testament. Just as the Inuit language has many different words for snow, Greek has four words that can be translated “love,” ranging from storge, meaning simply to like something, all the way to agape, the unconditional, selfless love Jesus is talking about here. Hebrew, English, Japanese, and every other language in my awareness lack such distinctions. Because we can’t generate agape on our own, it stands to reason that demonstrating it proves that we are indeed Jesus’ disciples. I’ll never forget the time I was with my mother in a park in Fukuoka that has a huge bronze statue of Nichiren, the founder of a sect of Japanese Buddhism. A young man spotted us and made a beeline for us. He was a member of Sokagakkai, a militant offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism, and he figured my mother was a missionary. (My father would probably have been too imposing for him to approach!) When he got to us, after confirming that my mother was indeed a missionary, he immediately went on the attack, saying that Christianity required things that were impossible, while Sokagakkai did no such thing. He particularly took offense at the command to love our enemies, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. (That command is famous in Japan, by the way.) He said that Christianity had to be a lie, because loving your enemies was impossible. My mother countered with the story of an American couple who came to Japan right after WWII to track down the person who had murdered their son, who had been a POW. By the time they found the murderer, they had learned that he was a young teenager who had been conscripted as a prison guard but had lost all his family in Hiroshima, and in blind rage and grief shot the American who was closest at hand. The American couple ended up adopting the young man who had killed their own son, choosing to love him as God loves us. The Sokagakkai young man had no answer to that story. God indeed enables everything He asks of us, if we will trust Him enough to allow Him to do so.

This of course challenges me as much as it does anyone else. I am no more capable of loving my enemies on my own than I am of turning myself into a duck. The longer I walk with Christ the more I appreciate His love for me, which makes me realize that the bar of “as I have loved you” is even higher than I had thought. However, nothing is too difficult for God, even expressing His love through me! I have been given opportunities recently to love people who have acted as my enemies, and it has been shockingly easy. That gives me a deep awareness that it’s not me, but Christ in me. We are currently ministering to a lady who has just lost her husband, and she has commented that just hearing my voice over the phone makes her cry, because of the gentleness she perceives. That isn’t anything I have generated, either intentionally or otherwise. My prayer is that God’s love through Cathy and me would draw this woman to Him, so that she may perceive that love directly. Sometimes recognizing that we are disciples of Jesus may make people run away from us or even hate us, but at the very least we will have made them aware of Him, and that can give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to touch their heart.

Father, I am sharply aware of my imperfections. Thank You for using me anyway. I pray particularly that as I go to the crematorium today on behalf of the widow, as Cathy stays with her at the home, that Your love through us may indeed draw her, and her siblings, to You for their salvation. Thank You. Praise God!

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Doing Truth; February 21, 2019

Posted on February 23, 2019 by jgarrott

John 13:17 “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

The entire Upper Room Discourse, from the beginning of this chapter through Jesus’ pastoral prayer in chapter 17, is incredibly rich in every way. It is worthy of a lifetime of meditation and preaching. However, we are all too prone to deceive ourselves, just as James said. (James 1:22) Here, after the first little bit of the whole Discourse, Jesus gives a word of caution that applies to everything He taught. Just knowing truth isn’t enough; it has to be applied. Knowing truth is important, but by itself it isn’t enough; we have to act on it. I will never forget something I heard from my Systematic Theology professor, Dr. John Kiwiet. He was a young man in Holland when the Nazis invaded, and he was quickly conscripted for a labor camp. He managed to escape, and spent the rest of the war dodging German bullets and American bombs. He told us that one time during that period he saw a church officer literally knock women and children down in his haste to get into a bomb shelter, and John Kiwiet realized that if our theology doesn’t affect the way we live, it is meaningless. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying here. God’s truth isn’t a talisman to carry around, a “good luck charm” to protect us simply by being there. Rather, “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) We act like it’s dead, to be put in a museum, but treated like that, it’s essentially worthless. It’s when we take it into our hearts to apply it that we are blessed.

This is a major truth that I have experienced from both sides. Growing up steeped in the Bible, I’ve known a lot about it for as long as I can remember. I read through the Bible (RSV) the first time before I was 10. However, I didn’t have a coach to help me apply what I knew in my head. My parents were very busy as missionaries, and they assumed that since I “knew” all this stuff, I was handling it correctly. Not so. I became a textbook illustration of a famous statement by Paul: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Corinthians 8:1) Spiritual pride was a huge snare for me. God brought me up short about that when I was 24, and I repented in tears. However, that didn’t mean I was instantly transformed into a “doer of the Word.” As someone with Teacher gifting, I have a strong tendency to feel, on an emotional level, that simply knowing stuff is enough, so all I need to do as a preacher is transmit information. Again, not so. I am trying to be a coach now for those around me, walking out God’s Word with them, rather than lecturing them about it. Lecturing is much easier for me! However, I’ve got to remember that the ultimate accolade that I desire is “Well done, good and faithful servant,” (Matthew 25:21 and 23) not, “well said.” I’m gifted with words and I delight in them, but I’ve got to live them out for them to have meaning.

Father, thank You for this powerful Word. Help me indeed live it out! Thank You also for answering my prayer about what to speak on next month when I will be at the church I pastored years ago before coming to Omura. May I be Your agent in all things, both in word and in deed, (Colossians 3:17) for the sake of the Body of Christ and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Light of Life; February 20, 2019

Posted on February 22, 2019 by jgarrott

John 12:36 “Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.”

There is almost a pun here, because in the Old testament light is conflated with life. Psalms is loaded with verses that do exactly that. Then we have Jesus’ statements that He is the light of the world, (John 8:12) and that He is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) John pulled it all together by stating, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) I believe that Jesus was saying that while we are alive (have light) we need to trust Him (the Light) so that we may become His children indeed. Jesus’ statements about light obviously made a deep impression on John, and he wrote about it further in 1 John 1. This is also closely connected with that best-known of all Bible verses, John 3:16, because verse 19 of that chapter says, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” It all boils down to this: if we run from the light, we lose, period. While we have opportunity, we need to run to the light, to receive the eternal salvation God has for us.

This is intensely meaningful for me right now, because I’ll be seeing someone this morning who is dying, physically speaking, but he still has the opportunity to receive the eternal life that God has prepared for him. He’s been stubborn to this point, deceived by the devil, and this is something of a last chance for him. I cannot force him to receive the light, but I must make the offer clear to him yet again. It is not too late for God! I don’t know that I will be able to gauge his response accurately, since he is currently unable to speak, but God knows his heart. I need to be fully sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit in this, because I have neither wisdom nor power to do it, but God wants his soul for eternity, and I believe I’m to be instrumental in that.

Father, Thank You for this Word this morning. I love that man, though in some ways I hardly know him. You love him far more, and You know him perfectly, even the parts that he has thought disqualified him from receiving Your salvation. I pray that Your Spirit would prepare his heart for what he will hear through me this morning, so that he may go from death to life indeed, for his eternal blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Faith; February 19, 2019

Posted on February 22, 2019 by jgarrott

John 11:40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

This was without question spoken in great love and gentleness, but in line with many other scriptures it challenges us to our core. We understand so little about faith! Mark 11:24 comes to mind. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This isn’t imagination or wishful thinking, it’s placing ourselves and our circumstances in God’s hands with the conviction that He is not only omniscient and omnipotent, He is also love itself. When we fail to walk in that assurance we often miss a great deal. I honestly don’t understand why or how it all works, but God acts on behalf of those who trust Him. It’s not that He doesn’t love all of us, or that He isn’t gracious to all of us, but rather that faith lines us up with the flow of His Spirit and power. Part of it is that without faith, we often don’t recognize what God is doing and so don’t see it, even though it is happening. I think everyone can look back over their lives and recognize times and places where God was working but they didn’t understand it while it was going on. I have always understood something God said to Jeremiah that way: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no-one lives.” (Jeremiah 17:5-6) That passage is expressly talking about faith, because the very next verse talks about “the man who trusts in the Lord.” If we want to see the good things God has for us, we need to trust Him for them before they are evident to the natural eye.

This is extremely applicable to me right now. Well over a year ago the Lord gave my wife the idea of producing a CD to help those struggling with thoughts of suicide. The list of songs and their order came to her immediately, but we’ve never produced a CD before, and there were many unanswered questions. Things kind of bumped along for about a year, at times going so slowly that I wondered if this would ever be realized, and then just this month it was like the fuel caught fire in the rocket, and things are happening so fast that it is almost scary. There are still many unanswered questions, both in the area of who is to perform which songs and the very practical matter of where the money is to come from, but the truth of this statement by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus is coming home to us big time! In the process of all that is going on with that, we are also seeing fruit from our years of ministry here in Omura. We need to keep trusting, knowing that we will indeed see the glory of God.

Father, thank You for this Word of confirmation for what we’re already seeing You do. The pace of things, particularly from now through our trip to the US next month, is such as to wear us out just thinking about it. Thank You for pointing out that You have provided sufficient time for each thing. Help us trust You without getting lazy or taking things for granted, recognizing Your cues and doing things on Your schedule so that Your will may be done as You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Eternal Life; February 18, 2019

Posted on February 21, 2019 by jgarrott

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

What a joy it is to be able to use this passage in the funeral of a believer! This passage has strengthened and encouraged countless believers down through the centuries, giving them boldness to face both disease and martyrdom. As Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess sang, “Death ain’t no big deal.” In terms of inevitability we speak of “death and taxes,” but mankind has never liked to face that reality. Atheists insist that this passage and others like it are pure fantasy, wishful thinking in the face of the unknown. The thing is, it’s not as unknown as they claim. In recent years there have been studies done of what are called “near death experiences,” where people are clinically dead but resuscitate, with or without medical help. A significant subset of such people have memories of what it was like, and there is remarkable agreement. Most of the reports are from those who went to heaven (or at least the outer courts thereof) but there are some reports of people who went to hell. I’m not as familiar with those, but such people are adamant that no one ever wants to go there, or have anyone they love go there. It seems that Jesus’ story of a different Lazarus than this one is remarkably accurate! (Luke 16:19-31) The funeral of a believer should be markedly different from that of an unbeliever. A Catholic priest once told me that funerals were his most powerful tool for evangelism, because the hope of eternal life that they expressed was in such sharp contrast to Buddhist funerals. That is particularly significant when Japanese Buddhism is focused on death and ancestor worship. Believers in Christ have an advantage available to no one else, because “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

This is particularly close to home for me for many reasons. Not only have I conducted funerals for believers and non-believers, my own wife is one of those who has been to heaven and come back. The process of death might seem a little scary, and nobody likes suffering, but what is on the other side of physical death is attractive beyond description. That is NOT to say that I am suicidal! Actually, I live in the awareness that my eternal life has already begun, and I am to participate fully in this part of it just as I am to participate in what lies beyond. Right now I am ministering to someone who is physically dying. The doctors are frankly not quite sure why he’s still here. However, to my knowledge he hasn’t yet yielded himself to Christ in faith, and I believe God’s giving him every chance. He is not able to respond verbally at this point, but there is every reason to believe he hears and understands what is said to him, and I am to keep speaking the truth to him in love, for his sake and for the sake of his wife, who is distraught. I am to speak this passage to him and give him the chance to lay hold of it, for his eternal salvation.

Father, thank You for this clear word of what I am to do. I ask for clear guidance and anointing as I follow through, for the salvation of that man and hopefully many others, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Listening to God; February 17, 2019

Posted on February 21, 2019 by jgarrott

John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

I like the way the Japanese expresses this verse. “My sheep distinguish my voice.” I’m preaching this morning on discernment, so this is very relevant. I think every Christian has experienced hearing things that just didn’t sound right. The devil is a master deceiver, but when we are committed to Christ in loving obedience, he can’t fool us long. When that falls apart it is almost always because of pride. We are never more in danger of falling than when we think we can stand on our own! (1 Corinthians 10:12) “Practice makes perfect” in a lot of things, and listening to God is no exception. I think the first step is to become familiar with the Bible, because God is never going to contradict Himself. That’s the easiest way to recognize lying voices. It’s just like bankers don’t study counterfeit bills to be able to recognize them, they study real bills to be able to discern deviations immediately. When we think we’re hearing God, the thing to do is to obey immediately. Sometimes it may seem like a little thing, or even a silly thing, but God trains us with such things so that we will have assurance when He tells us big things. The point is to follow Jesus in everything, because He will lead us to green pastures and beside still waters. (Psalm 23)

This is what I tell others all the time, but I’ve got to keep watch over myself, lest I think that because I know and can teach this truth I’m always living it out. That can be a major snare for teachers! God has used various little things to train me to listen to Him. Lane changes when driving are a case in point. When I am humbly listening to Him, He will tell me when to change lanes for a minimum of frustration and delay. When I try to figure out which lane is moving faster and adjust to things on my own, whichever lane I change to promptly encounters such things as cross-lane turners. Just yesterday I was considering changing lanes, from the outside to the inside, and I felt a check in my soul, so I stayed in the outside lane. In no time the inside lane had a cross-traffic turner, and stopped completely. I could not have seen or predicted that on my own, but God knew what was going to happen, and He let me know. Right now I have a friend in terminal condition in ICU, and I had to call an ambulance at 2:00 this morning for my wife, who was having severe back pain, probably generated by her Parkinson’s Disease. In both situations I have to listen to the Lord, just as I do for this morning’s worship service. The glorious thing is that God’s got it covered, so all I have to do is seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and listen obediently.

Father, thank You for Your grace. Thank You that the diagnosis at the hospital this morning was muscle pain, rather than anything more life-threatening. I do ask You for complete relief from that pain, and I ask for wisdom in how we cooperate with Your health for us both, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Experiential Faith; February 16, 2019

Posted on February 20, 2019 by jgarrott

John 9:25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

I have always loved this story, and though the reading stopped with this verse, I read to the end of the chapter. We have no record, but I would not be in the least surprised if this man were one of the 120 present in the Upper Room at Pentecost. I have no doubt that he was a firm believer to end of his days on earth, and I’ll be able to talk with him in heaven. (No language barriers there!) As has been said, the person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument. The very fact that he was being grilled by the Pharisees confirmed and solidified his faith. He may well have heard stories about Jesus before this encounter, but this was the first time to actually meet Him, and still by verse 27 he is already describing himself as a disciple. There is no question that he had a transforming experience. I can’t imagine what it was like to have been born blind physically and suddenly be able to see, but countless people have experienced this spiritually. Paul speaks of that spiritual experience as a veil being removed. (2 Corinthians 3:14-18) That happens when someone repents and believes, just as Jesus said. (Mark 1:15) The devil will come quickly and try to convince us that was an illusion, and sadly, some people are deceived. However, when we hang onto our experience of Jesus, just as this man born blind did, we cannot be shaken.

This is an important thing for me to remember, because as someone with Teacher gifting, I tend to come down on the side of the argument, feeling that facts trump experience. I tend to spout truth at people and expect them to change, and get discouraged when they seldom do. That doesn’t make the things I say any less true, it just shows that such things have to happen on a deeper level. One of the strongest believers in this church is that way not because of theological training, but because they have experienced God lifting them out of debilitating clinical depression. They believe God can do anything, and their faith is contagious. I cannot generate genuine spiritual experiences for others, but I can be available for the Holy Spirit to use me in doing so. I’m grateful that I was involved in that believer’s recovery from depression, for example. There are no “tricks of the trade,” just faithful obedience. I am to be consistent in speaking the truth in love, but be careful to walk alongside people rather than talking at them. My focus must be on application of truth, for myself and for others, rather than simply acquiring knowledge. The man born blind had very little knowledge of Jesus, but what he knew, he applied 100%, even though it led to his being thrown out. (verse 34)

Father, thank You for this story. As Jesus said in verse 3, it certainly displays Your work. Help me likewise be a demonstration of Your grace, love, and power, so that more and more people may experience You themselves, and so repent and believe for their salvation. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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