Category: theology

Jesus prayed constantly.

He woke early in the morning to pray and would go off by himself to pray more. He references prayer often and casually, as if it ought to be considered a normal thing. And, for Jesus it was normal.

In the desert, while being tempted, Jesus fasted as a form of more intense prayer.

When the demon possessed boy could not be freed from the demon—not even by Jesus’s disciples—Jesus drove out the demon, even then through convulsions. Jesus had given the disciples authority, so they assumed they would be able to drive out the demon.

When the disciples asked why they could not drive out the demon, Jesus said that some demons only come out by prayer and fasting. This refers to people with a lifestyle of prayer and fasting, not merely praying and fasting one time for that one demon. This is obvious because Jesus neither prayed nor fasted when he drove out the demon and his disciples knew exactly what he meant. Prayer and fasting were an evident part of Jesus’s life, his disciples knew this well because they had to go looking for him while was praying. They even asked him how to pray because they knew he knew.

One does not develop a lifestyle of prayer by memorizing pre-written “prayers”. Such prayer is like a conversation. As a human, son, brother, and friend, Jesus is not praying in some mysterious way that other humans can’t. The way Jesus prays was the same way we all can pray, which was why he taught us to pray.

When Jesus taught prayer in his Sermon on the Mount, he said not to act impressive or pious, but to be simple and pray for daily bread, forgiveness of sin, deliverance from evil, and to bring Heaven to Earth.

Jesus grants us his authority, but we only walk in it by prayer.

Prayer is not a show, it is a conversation with God. Everyone has a direct phone line to God, you included. The more you talk on that phone line and the more you listen, the more you will understand Jesus because the more you will be like Jesus.

Matthew 6:1-15; 14:23; 17:14-21, Mark 1:35-37; 9:14-29, Luke 4:1-2; 6:12; 11:1-4; 18:7; 22:31-32, John 17, Hebrews 5:7

Jesus never game money to the poor. Of course, he recommended it, but not as a solution to poverty.

A rich man wanted to have a great place in the Kingdom and Jesus said, “Liquidate everything, give it all to the poor, and follow me as my disciple.” Giving it all to the poor would have been the most honest way to dispose of his assets so he would be free to follow Jesus.

When Judas wanted to sell perfume poured out on Jesus’s feet and give the money to the poor, it was actually so he could embezzle some of the money for himself. Jesus’s rebuttal to Judas’ “greedy charity” was that poverty would never be eliminated.

Jesus that whatever we do to the poor we also do to him, which will come back to us for reward or punishment at the Great Judgment. In this, Jesus describes clothing, food, and water, not dolling out great sums of money to be spent on anything.

In Moses’s Law, God tells Israel’s farmers to leave the corners of their fields unharvested and to not comb over the fields a second time—but to leave this extra for the widow, the fatherless children, and the foreigner. This was God’s plan for social justice, to be a little sloppy, to be charitable with the poor, to return a cloak left for deposit by the end of the day, to pay the poor and foreigners by the end of every day, and to never twist laws to make them complex and unfair for the poor or the foreigners. If Israel would obey this, there would be no poor among them.

Jesus’s compassion campaign is ingenious! It provides a social structure where everyone works and no one slips through the cracks. His plan was strategized in his wisdom as a merchant, administrator, judge, and king.

When Jesus healed people it was from compassion. After Jesus’s left, his disciples didn’t give money to the poor—they gave them much more: healing.

Even when religious leaders condemned healing on the Sabbath, Jesus didn’t care. Miracles demonstrate some power, but Jesus healed people because healing was part of his great campaign of compassion.

Exodus 22:25-27, Deuteronomy 10:18-19; 15:1-6; 24:14-22, Matthew 10:42; 25:31-46, Mark 9:41, John 12:1-6, Acts 3:1-10

Jesus was not only sinless, not only a prayer warrior, teacher, and miracle worker; Jesus was a master craftsman.

With humanity’s nature of continuous learning, Jesus would not have been the perfect sacrifice as the Lamb of God who took sin from the whole world unless he had also mastered a skill of some kind. The religious leaders of his day did not merely sacrifice some common man, and not only the Son of God; they sacrificed an accomplished artisan.

Jesus was a master, not only of life and people, but also of trade.

David and Joseph both ascended to their place of rule at about the age of thirty. Likewise, Jesus began his public ministry at the age of thirty.

There is nothing magical about this age thirty, but it often makes sense on many levels. Tech leaders, such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, had great trouble in their mid and late twenties because they had not been through enough practice and natural life difficulties to prepare them for the wolf pit of piloting a large company. Joseph, David, and Jesus did not have this problem.

There is some value in pondering the implications of Jesus being a carpenter. God the Creator grows the trees as part of “creation”; man cuts the wood as part of “procreation”. Jesus worked with his hands closely to nature. One legend tells that Jesus made yokes for oxen and would feel the animals with his hand so he could cut them to fit. This has some plausibility from Scripture since Jesus used the yoke as an illustration, “Take my yoke upon you,” and Paul later talked about being “equally yoked”. Either way, yokes would not have been the only wood Jesus ever crafted.

Yokes, as well as other “building” terminology, in the New Testament occur in the context of Jesus the carpenter.

Beyond carpentry illustrations, Jesus had a trade; he himself had a skill. He is “preparing a place” for us in Eternity as a carpenter.

Jesus the master carpenter is also the perfect administrator, setting yet another example for us to work and learn and improve skills that make effective and qualified leaders, servants, and friends.

Matthew 11:29-30; 13:55, Mark 6:3; 14:58, John 2:18-22; 14:1-4, 2 Corinthians 6:14

Jesus’s crucifixion was the greatest game changer in all history, Eternity past and future.

He was the perfect human sacrifice, completely completing every part of every sacrificial Law from Moses. He was and is the literal Lamb of God. Because of Jesus’s death on the Cross, Moses’s sacrificial Law has been completed and fulfilled so that no sacrifices are ever necessary, ever again. His sacrifice is applied to anyone merely by believing that it is real and sufficient.

Jesus sacrifice was a human sacrifice, but it had much more power than any other human sacrifice. For those who have engaged in human sacrifices, Jesus’s self-sacrifice at the Cross is sufficient to break their bonds with the Devil, to completely forgive their evil, and to give them all the power and permissions available to anyone who believes in Jesus as the Messiah from God the Father.

The power of Jesus’s sacrifice was demonstrated in his resurrection from the grave. No one brought Jesus back to life; he brought himself back. In his crucifixion and completion of Moses’s sacrificial Law, death permanently lost its grip on humanity. Now, Jesus holds the grip on the grave.

Paul prayed to know Jesus in his suffering so that he could understand God more and to attain resurrection from the dead, just like Jesus. Paul also said that he should never hope to boast about anything except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Of all the accomplishments in this world, the greatest work in any of our lives is the redemptive work of Jesus at the Cross to bring new life in our own lives.

Jesus did miracles in his first lifetime on Earth. He also delegated the power of miracles to his disciples. He could do this because he had the Holy Spirit living inside of him. That was possible because Jesus was sinless and because he is the Son of God. In the Old Testament, some people had the power of the Holy Spirit, but it came and went at God’s will.

But, when Jesus finished his work at the Cross, the Temple curtain ripped and God’s Holy Spirit became permanently available to all who believe in Jesus the Crucified.

Matthew 27:51, Luke 10:17-20, John 14, Galatians 6:14, Philippians 3:7-11, Hebrews 10

Jesus’s work at the Cross was a work as our substitute for sin. The reason we do not need to suffer Eternity in the Lake of Fire is because Jesus took that pain and punishment upon himself.

No one compelled Jesus to do this. The Father “commanded” it and Jesus “obeyed”. But, in this relationship that Jesus, the Son of God, is one in the Father, Jesus “commanded” his own crucifixion as much as the Father did, and the Father “obeyed” the will of the Son as much as the Son obeyed the Father did. They were in complete agreement without negotiation or compromise. For the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for that matter, there simply was no other option.

God would stop at nothing to redeem the human race which He created in His Image. We are so valuable to Him, so precious and beloved, that the Cross was nothing compared to the great joy and happiness that God has merely in enjoying us living with Him forever.

Jesus’s pain at the Cross was foreseen. The question has been asked in human history, “If God is good and knew Adam would sin, why would He create humans in the first place, knowing that they would choose Eternal damnation?”

But, this question is in error. Adam’s sin and millions of humans rejecting Jesus as their Substitute for Eternal damnation were not the only events that God foresaw before Creation. God also foresaw His Son—the Word of God made flesh—suffering at the Cross, and the Word of God nonetheless chose to speak Earth and the rest of Creation into being anyway. The proper question is: Why would such a God with foresight create a world knowing He would suffer so? The answer is: unimaginable love.

God Almighty will let none boast above Him. The Infinite, Eternal Son, during those Infinite hours of flogging, beating, and crucifixion, experienced the full weight of God’s Eternal wrath upon Himself. He suffered more than all souls Eternally combined. For Jesus’s work, he is perfectly just and fair in condemning any soul to a lesser pain for rejecting such a free and accessible gift as our Substitute.

Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:17, Mark 10:45, John 3:16-21; 10:11; 15:13, Romans 5:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 2:20; 3:13,  Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:18, 1 John 4:10, Revelation 5

The nails did not hold Jesus to the Cross, his love for us did and nothing could have taken him down. He could have crawled down anytime he wanted—he could have flown down, or transformed himself into more splendid glory than Peter, James, and John saw upon the mount.

Jesus has such great power because he has such great love, not vice versa.

Don’t make the mistake of waiting to have strength before you learn to love. God will not give you power until you can love people with the small power you have—when you could smack or claw your enemies, but you don’t—when you could retaliate against your friends for small offenses, but you forgive and use your powers to bolster the friendship.

Calming the waves, feeding five thousand, walking on water, feeding another four thousand, being transfigured in his glory, even the resurrection—Jesus did these things, yet the greatest was love and love came before them all.

Jesus was like a supernatural batter charged to the max. When the bleeding woman touched him, her wound of twelve years was instantly healed. Jesus felt “power” discharge from his body and asked, “Who touched me?” He meant, “Who touched me in faith?” because many people were physically touching him, but someone touching him with a purpose and faith to receive his superpower resulted in his superpower having a place to go where it would achieve that purpose.

About the start of the twenty-first century, there had been teaching that miracles do not happen today. This micro-sect of so-called “Christianity” was short-lived. Even in the mid 1800s, Christians would teach new Christians to “tarry”, to wait for “the joy of the Lord”, receiving “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and God’s power with it.

That kind of “godliness without power” also feared emotional experiences while praying and singing worship to Jesus. It opposed Jesus’s spiritual superpower. Not having “power”, it faded when miracles returned.

Non-Christian “chi energy control” reorganizes what little power we already have. Through Holy Spirit baptism, Jesus plugs us into his power, supercharging us for all the same miracles—and greater—with superpower from the Creator God’s Holy Spirit Himself.

Matthew 8:23-27; 14:13-33; 15:32-39; 17:1-13; 26:52-54, Mark 4:35-41; 16:1-8, Luke 8:22-56, John 14:12-14, Acts 1:4-8, 1 Corinthians 13, 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:1-5

As the Son of the God of Means, Jesus is an administrator. He sent out his twelve and his seventy disciples to teach his message and heal the sick. His disciples baptized in his name.

Jesus is not a bureaucrat, requiring hierarchical communication and approval as a bureaucrat does; he is an administrator who delegates. Bureaucrats can’t tell the difference; Jesus’s administrators can.

The hired hand does not care for the sheep. Jesus is the shepherd, we are his sheep, and he raises up his own shepherds—directly, not through bureaucracy—who have it in their hearts to care for the sheep like their own. Never let any “leader” tell you what Jesus can’t direct and empower you to do. Cooperate with people, answer to Jesus.

In the Old Testament, Nathan the prophet confronted King David and David heeded because David knew God’s authority. All the more, under Jesus, he sends people with no position of bureaucracy—but with Jesus’s authority—into our lives and it is Jesus we heed when we heed them, Jesus we reject when we reject them. Jesus sends all people for this at times, even you. No authority exists without passing through Jesus’s hands.

As the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus appoints and raises, deposes and lowers, anyone he wants in any position of government. While a nation and a society choose their moral and immoral paths in life, Jesus moves the voters at the election booth. Sometimes Jesus will stir voters, but they must answer his call to have Jesus’s preferred outcome. If Jesus doesn’t want someone to lead a democracy, that person stands no chance.

We do what we will, yet God will work even through an unrighteous judge. Jesus separates the sheep from the goats by letting them separate themselves. Even the Devil is God’s devil and all things work according to Jesus’s good purposes in his grand, brilliant strategy of giving justice with choice to all people.

A master at hiring and firing, capable of calling our hearts, Jesus does not lead and guide us externally nor by force; he leads us from within our unctions—the work of Jesus the Excellent Administrator.

2 Samuel 12:1-15, Matthew 28:16-20, Luke 10:1-20; 18:1-8, John 4:2, Ephesians 4:11, Revelation 19:16