John 1:46 Philip said to him, "Come and see."

"First, secure your own oxygen mask." This directive is familiar to anyone who travels on commercial airplanes. In the event of an emergency ("a sudden loss of cabin pressure"), we're told that an oxygen mask for each person will drop from the overhead control panel. In such an anxious moment, parents might focus on preserving the life of elderly parents seated next to them.

Such kindness might be instinctive, but it isn't wise. If we pass out from a lack of oxygen, our helpless seatmates won't survive. "First, secure your own oxygen mask."

That's what Philip does. Jesus - the One whom Moses and the prophets announced - found Philip and said, "Follow Me" (John 1:43). Philip then finds Nathaniel. But Nathaniel doesn't think anything good can come out of Nazareth. Philip responds, "Come and see" (John 1:46).

"First, secure your own oxygen mask." If we don't, we downplay our Savior's most alarming details. An innocent man died so we don't have to. His heart started beating again on the third day. When we don't breathe in the oxygen of the Gospel, we forget its freshness, its utter and unexplainable joy. I invite you to breathe in Christ's spiritual oxygen. Christ chose you. Christ found you. Christ loves you. Christ forgives you, and Christ pardons you. Our response to the world? "Come and see!!!!!!!"
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:32 I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him.

In Genesis 6, the sons of God marry the daughters of men. God then says, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years" (v.3). While still active throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit's full presence left.

One day, though, John tells us that the Holy Spirit, flying like a dove, spotted a man standing in the Jordan River, a man who committed no sin and in whose mouth was no deceit - Jesus. The dove descended on Jesus. John tells us the Spirit remained on Him.

After His sacrificial death and mighty resurrection, Jesus breathes on His disciples and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). After His ascension, Christ sends the Spirit from heaven, fulfilling Joel's words, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17); Joel 2:28).

Dr. Reed Lessing writes, "The Holy Spirit departed from people because of evil intentions and sinful rebellion. In Jesus, however, because the Spirit remains, the Savior now pours out the Holy Spirit through the Father's appointed Means of Grace - Holy Baptism, the Gospel, and the Lord's Supper. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives and dwells in our hearts. Indeed, we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The curse of Genesis 6 is undone, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, is back. Thanks be to God!"
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:29  Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

In the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, you will find a stunning painting. The seventeenth-century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran painted it from 1635 to 1640. He called it Agnus Dei - Latin for Lamb of God..

The painting depicts a wooly merino lamb lying on its side. All four of its feet are bound together above the fetlock with two strands of a cord. The lamb is looking down, past its pink nose, at a gray slab.

The painting's black background serves to highlight the lamb's white wool. Here is a lamb that is perfect, sinless, and without defect. The dark background, though, does something else. It also makes clear why the lamb was slaughtered. Sin. Your sin. My sin. The entire world's dark, ugly, shameful sin.

The knot around the lamb's feet is out of sight, indicating that he can't be freed. He must be slaughtered. His blood alone sets us free from guilt and shame, death and hell.

As Christ the Lamb hung on the cross, blood was finally all He had. His disciples had run away. His garments had been gambled away. Even His Father had turned away. Blood was all Jesus had, but the blood of Jesus is all we need. The blood of Jesus is all we need!!! We are forgiven and free. Behold, the Lamb!

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:18  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.

Howard Rutledge was an American fighter pilot. The North Vietnamese shot him down and took him captive in 1965. Then his captors threw Rutledge in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, into the building called (by the Americans) Heartbreak Hotel.

We all know what it feels like to be imprisoned by our sin in the Heartbreak Hotel of our own making. The problem for us, though, is that at first it didn't look like Heartbreak Hotel. It looked like the Promised Land! It even was the Promised Land - at least for a while. The moral indiscretion? "No, big deal!" That financial dishonesty? "No gig deal!" That small, little lie? "No big deal!" Eventually, though, "no big deal" became a really big deal!

 I've got bad news for you. We can't fight our way out of our prison of sin. We can't think our way out, buy our way out, or educate our way out.

We're not permanently stuck, however, in our sin, languishing in our Heartbreak Hotel.

The tokens of Christ's Passion make known to us the loving heart of our heavenly Father. The whip, thirty pieces of silver, dice, nails, and spear point to one overwhelming fact. The Father doesn't recoil, run, or retreat at the sight of our ufly prison. He comes to save us.

One day, Howard Rutledge saw a glimmer of light dawning through the bottom of his prison door. He knew God would set him free. For us, that light dawning is Christ's Easter victory.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:16 For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

I remember when my son was in High School. He dedicated every ounce of his strength to one goal - making the basketball team. Then the day came when the coach posted the list of who made the team. The process left him with the understanding that to get anything in life, he would have to sacrifice, sweat, and give it all he has - and then some.

We are pros at performance. God is a pro at grace. From God's fullness, He gives us - unworthy sinners- not just grace. Grace upon grace!

There are other options than grace. We might try salvation by sincerity. "It doesn't matter what you believe, just as long as you're sincere." Yet we've all been sincerely wrong about a lot of things! Then there's salvation by subtraction. If being saved wasn't doing anything then everyone in nursing homes would be saved. You don't do a lot in those places. Or how about salvation by service? Do good. Be nice. Help people. None of this works. We will never generate enough sincerity, subtraction, or service.

Remember The Little Engine That Could? I think I can, I think I can." Grace isn't for the little engine that could. Grace is for the little engine that couldn't. Grace is for the little engine that turned out to be a massive train wreck! God's magnificent grace in Christ's cleansing blood is His gift to you!

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:12  But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

Between 1854 and 1929, over 250,000 children in crowded cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were placed on trains and shipped west, across the United States. These trains would stop for viewings. Potential parents would ask questions, evaluate health, and even examine the children's teeth. If chosen, the children had a home. If not, they got back on the train - the orphan train.

I wish I could tell you that the fathers then went looking for their children, that they got their life together and headed west to find what they had lost. I'd love to describe the moments when these children heard their father say, "It's me. I came for you!" But I can't. Few of these fathers ever came looking for their children.

Do you sometimes feel like you're stuck on an orphan train? that you've sinned one time too many? that God has a limit on grace? That might be how you feel. But feelings are not facts. These are the facts: your Father in heaven comes looking for you! When we believe in the Savior, we become His children.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before You, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

A husband and wife were awoken in the middle of the night by their little boy. Half-awake and almost hysterical, he threw his arms around his parents and refused to let go. He had experienced a nightmare. As he told his parents what he had dreamed, they quickly realized that bits and pieces of his bad dream were from a movie they had watched before bed. The vivid pictures he had seen right before going to sleep had stayed with him and continued as he slept.

The couple decided that screen time would no longer happen right before bed. The director of their Sunday School program encouraged them to use bedtime as a family devotion time in which they would share about their day, read Scripture, and pray together. There was no promise that this would prevent nightmares going forward, but what the couple discovered was that their children went to bed with their parents' voices in their head, not an actor's. Rather than ingesting sarcastic words from teenage characters, their children went to bed having had God's Word poured over them. Best of all, the last thought of their day was of their Savior, Jesus, through whom they have direct access to God.

While God's people benefit from praying to Him at all times of day, evening prayers bless the hearts and minds of God's children of all ages and provide for them comfort and peace as they close their eyes to sleep. There is no better comfort than that.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,