Phil Ressler

Jesus wept. John 11:35

It is the shortest verse of the Bible. It is the one verse that no one has an excuse for not memorizing.

Jesus’ good friend Lazarus dies. He comes to Bethany where Lazarus had lived and was buried. When Jesus arrives on the scene he sees the friends and family are gathered together in sorrow at their loss. At this sight it says Jesus was deeply troubled in spirit. He asks them where Lazarus had been laid. The people tell him to come and see. It is then at that moment the text makes note how Jesus wept.

I had read this story hundreds of times, but as I read it today, something stood out for me that I had not noticed before. I had always worked with the assumption that Jesus wept over the loss of the his good friend Lazarus. But as I read the text today I questioned that assumption.

Here is the deal. Jesus message on earth was a message of faith. Jesus healed the sick, he gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, fed the 5000, and calmed the wind and the waves. Jesus walked with the power and authority of God and even had the authority to raise the dead. Jesus already new he would raise Lazarus from the dead. It wasn’t Lazarus Jesus was concerned about.

As I read this text one more time, it was clear that Jesus was more grieved over the people’s lack of faith than anything else. We see many other examples where he lamented his disciples’ disbelief. There are many more times when he was anguished to be so stubbornly rejected by the religious leaders as being the Messiah from God.

The real reason Jesus was moved to tears was because he was witnessing in the flesh the consequence of sin. It was so very clear when he saw the sorrow of the people around him. The consequence of sin was evident. It was not pretty. The beautiful and wonderful creation of God had become so marred and ugly. But this was the very purpose for which he came into the world – to bring reconciliation and restoration to that which was broken.

This passage is often used to point out Jesus’ humanness. But even more than that I believe it shows us the heart of God. It grieves our Lord for us to live in the consequence of our sin and rebellion. But it is good to know that God is so moved that he takes action. It would have been so very bad for us if God had been apathetic towards our condition. But he wasn’t. He wept. He was grieved. He was so moved that he would give his one and only Son to die on the cross. Now whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Here is what you need to know. As grieved as you may be over the circumstances or the tragedies you experience, God is even more grieved. He is not apathetic to your cause. He is a God of action. He will respond and bring restoration. Trust in him!

Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. John 6:68-69

I remember these words growing up in church. Every Sunday we would sing them right before the gospel lesson was read. These words of Peter are straight forward. Lord to whom else shall we go to? To whom else shall we turn. Jesus offers to us, what no one else has to offer.

Yet, too often we turn to Jesus as our last resort than our number one option. Jesus is viewed as someone we can cry out to in times of trouble. He will help us in our time of greatest need. Certainly, he promises he will help us in time of need, but he wants to be more than our last resort.

Living in a place of so much affluence, it becomes easy to place our dependence on so many other things than Jesus. We see promises of hope in advertising and media. Cures to whatever ails us can so easily be found with just the click of the mouse. But for all the hope that these “shinny things” provide us, we discover their gloss soon begins to fade. We discover we may find a temporary happiness, but miss out on a more lasting joy.

We also turn to other people. In the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5, Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well. The man’s response was that he had no one to help carry him into the water to be healed. This man saw himself as a victim of other people’s lack of compassion. And that was exactly the problem! He was relying upon others to make him better. He blamed his situation on their response.

We are not that much different. Someone sins against us. They let us down in a big way. We are angry and upset at the person. Bitterness grows in our heart. We won’t let go. We fail to forgive them for the hurt that they brought into our lives. We say, “look at what he did to me. It’s all his fault.”

When this happens we are transferring lordship over to this other person. We are allowing them to dictate our attitude. We are giving them control. We let this other person determine our response rather than Jesus.

Who do you turn to? Do you turn to things? Do you turn to other people? Or do you turn to Jesus? Placing our hope in anything less than Jesus will lead to frustration and disappointment. Jesus wants to be our number one option so he doesn’t need to be our last resort.

“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Proverbs 14:31 NIV

When we look at the Scriptures, we see God has a special place in his heart for the poor. This world is filled with much hurt and much poverty. Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us.

In America, no matter how poor we are, we are blessed beyond measure. Because we have been given so much, we have a calling to help those who are in need.

I am so glad to be a part of a church that has a heart for the poor. 10% of Lord of Life’s income goes to ministries around the world, many of which work with those who are impoverished.

From June 13-26, Lord of Life will be once again be serving as a collection site for earthquake relief supplies for Haiti. You can find a list of all the supplies being collected by following this link. We will also need volunteers to serve. So keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks to find out how you can help.

Included with his email are pictures of from a recent mission trip in which John Peterson, a Lord of Life member, participated in with Lutheran Church Charities in Haiti. These pictures portray the incredible things that can happen when God’s people are faithful to his calling. These pictures are of a girl who was brought to them and from all appearances was dead. The team began to work over her and pray over her and it was not long later the girl was awake and smiling. We praise Jesus for this healing.

God has given us so many opportunities to make a difference. Start by doing what is necessary. Then do what is possible. And soon you will be doing what is impossible. Thank you Lord of Life for being a blessing to so many others.

The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. Proverbs 13:14

Learning has always been something exciting for me. I think I am even more excited to learn today than I ever was as a student in school. I find myself ever more curious about this world God has given us.

We all have room to grow and to learn. It doesn’t matter how old we are. Success or failure is birthed out of our attitude towards learning. The moment we stop learning is the moment we stop growing and our ability to make a difference is greatly diminished? The moment we stop learning is the moment we get stuck where we are at.

Maybe you know someone who has stopped learning. Words used to identify people who have stopped learning are words like stubborn and know-it-all. These are not words we want to be identified by.

So are you teachable? Are you learning? Are you growing? No matter how you answered those questions, I would encourage you towards the following.

#1 Renew your commitment to learn. This might mean learning a new skill. It might be learning to play a musical instrument, learning to a program on the computer, or learning to communicate better with your spouse. There are always new challenges to master that will help to keep you humble. Open a book. Take a class at the community college. Sign up for a Bible Study at Church. Sign up for dancing lessons. The possibilities are endless.

#2 Renew your commitment to relearn. This is similar to the first, but this is more about mastering the skills we already have. Open yourself up to relearn in an area you already consider yourself an expert. It is said that the average job will require learning 20% new knowledge every year. So if you never learn anything new, you would be 100% less effective in 5 years. It is said the knowledge in the tech industry doubles every 18 months. The moral of the story is we constantly need to be learning. If you find yourself easily threatened by other’s achievement, chances are your pride is closing the door on new possibilities, then you are stuck thinking you already know everything you need to know.

Don’t take anything for granted. As long as we are on this earth we still have not arrived.

The big story in the news has been the eruption of the volcano in Iceland. It has disrupted air traffic around the globe. For all of our modern advances we still are at the mercy of God and his creation.

Check out these incredible pics of the volcano: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skarpi/

It looks like creation all over.

People who despise advice are asking for trouble; those who respect a command will succeed. Proverbs 13:13

Do you seek wisdom or sympathy? Sympathy is often much easier received than wisdom. Wisdom is not always what we want to hear, but we will soak up the sympathy. Sympathy tickles our ears and fits our fancy.

In 2 Timothy 4:3 it says a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Do you have someone who will speak truth into your life even if the truth is not really what you want to hear? Sometimes we need a word of encouragement, but sometimes we need a word of conviction.

Lord, help me listen to those who would speak truth into my life. I pray you would put others filled with your wisdom to guide me along your path. I pray Lord you would put people in my life to tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear. And give me ears to listen. Amen.

Is Jesus #1 in your life? I hope not! Yes, you heard me right. Jesus doesn’t want to be number one, he wants to be the only one.

When God gives Moses the 10 Commandments he says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) Now it might be easy to misinterpret that verse. He says you shall have no other gods before me, but what about after him?

The next verse clears up the matter. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the from of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (Exodus 20:4) Did you catch that? You shall not make an idol in the form of anything!

Imagine being getting married and the groom stands up to share his vows with his wife and he says, “Darling, I will love with all I have got. I will love you as my number one. I will put you before Sally, Mary, and Esther. They will be two, three, and four, but you will be my number one.” If the groom stood up to say that, he wouldn’t be standing very long.

Jesus doesn’t want to be our number one, he wants to be our only one!

We are quick to say “Yes, yes! Lord Jesus, you are my Lord. You are my everything.”

But then we get in our car. We turn on K-Love. We are singing along with Chris Tomlin and David Crowder at the top of our voice. We feel the passion in our heart for Jesus. What a great day he has given us.

Then that driver pulls out in front of us. He cuts us off. We slam on our brakes. We think to ourselves, “That !@#$%! Who does he think he is? Doesn’t he know I am in a hurry? What is his problem?”

Do you see what happened? We allowed the situation to occupy our mind and our thoughts. In that moment Jesus’ lordship in our life is replaced by the situation. We have allowed the situation to determine our attitude rather than Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t want to be your number one, he wants to be your only one. Give him the lordship of every situation! Don’t let the devil determine your attitude. As the Bible say, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Say, “Jesus is my Lord and he loves me. I will not let anything or anyone else determine my attitude.”

The answer is yes. We need both right doctrine and right living. There are numerous examples in the Bible where the church battles heresy. Yet, when we look at the Bible it has so much more to say about right living than it does about right doctrine.

In Titus 2 the Apostle Paul writes, “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” Paul acknowledges doctrine is important. It is the first thing he mentions in this chapter. But as we go on to read the rest of the chapter he takes an interesting turn. Listen to what he says in verse two:

“Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”

What Paul is doing here is connecting right doctrine with right living. They go hand in hand. He goes on to address older women, younger women, and younger men. then we come to verse 11 where he says:

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It is teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age . . .”

We spend a lot of time protecting doctrine in the church, but I wonder if we are spending our time wisely. Do we have a bigger issue with false teaching or a bigger issue with moral failing? Yes, there are certainly false teachers out there, but I know many more Christians that struggle with moral failings than I know Christians who struggle with false teachings.

As a pastor of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, I am glad to be a part of a church body that is so well grounded in its theology. But right doctrine does not guarantee right living. Better teaching does not mean better living. If better doctrine meant an end to conflict, then we would have done away with conflict long ago.

When we are called to Christ, we need to know he wants more than just our minds, he wants our hearts too.

Work hard and become a leader, be lazy and become a slave. Proverbs 12:24

This verse was part of my morning devotions today. I read it a couple of times. The part that struck me was the first two words “work hard.” I asked the question of myself, “What does it mean to work hard?” It might not be what we think of at first.

Work hard does not necessarily mean physical labor. Work hard does not necessarily mean putting in long hours. Yet, these are likely the first things that pop into our head.

This is what “work hard” means for me. First it means to avoid distraction. It is easy to be distracted from our work and from what we really need to be doing. How many busy days have you looked back upon and asked, “what did I accomplish?” Working hard means to be focused. It means that any given moment we are doing what is important. This is not necessarily the thing that feels urgent.

A second thing it means for me is to go the extra step. This is closely related to avoiding distraction. We often want to go the extra step, but don’t have time to do so, because we were not successful in avoiding distraction. It’s not just washing the car, but taking the little extra care to polish. It is the polish that stands out. It is that extra little shine that makes it stand out. We can apply this to all the opportunities where we serve. Do we put the extra little polish on the places we serve?

This leads to a third thing. Working hard is about serving. Jesus would say that whoever wants to be great, must become a servant. He would say of himself that he came not to be served, but to serve. The big twist here is that a leader is a servant. A leader is working hard, not for themselves, but for others. Working hard is about putting others first. This is hard to do. Because we want to stand at the front of the line.

So what do you think? What does it mean to you to work hard?

Remember playing follow the leader as a child. When we played that game we all wanted to be the leader. The object of this game was simple. You did what the person at the front of the line did. Everyone behind would follow.

Maybe our days of playing the game of follow the leader are over, but everyday we engage in the process of following leaders. And some of the lessons we learned back in when we were playing the game in preschool are still beneficial to us today.

1) Beware the person who always wants to lead. It really makes the game no fun for anyone else. It is deflating to know that you will always be stuck at the back of the line. The person who always wants to lead is not there to make sure everyone else has a good experience, but to ensure that he or she as an individual has a good experience even to the detriment of others.

2) Share the leadership. Everyone has different ideas. And everyone leads in a bit different way. By sharing the leadership experience you will have a much richer and diverse experience. Everyone will be better off. Horizons will be expanded and new adventures will take place. I find this in Bible Study all the time. I often find myself as the teacher, but I find that others have insights into the Scriptures that I would have never seen on my own. If I am always dominating the conversation, our group would miss out on some of those wonderful insights.

3) The best leaders are the best followers. There are many reasons for this. Maybe the biggest reason is that the best followers come with a humble heart. They keep in perspective the challenges of those who are following. And ultimately, the best leaders are those who are the best followers of Jesus Christ. If we are not following him, we will be ill equipped to lead anyone. Not every follower will make a great leader, but every great leader will be a great follower.

In the end, if you are a leader, remember it is not about you. The greatest compliment that can be given to any leader is when they can step aside and others will fill the gap and not miss a beat because you have “leadered the followers.” In other words you have raised followers up to be leaders.