Focusing on Twelve

Here is a photo of the Haeussler Clan at Nana Pat's a few years ago. It's amazing how fast the kids grow (I use to roll my eyes when adults would say that when I kid.) But heck, look at Alyssa Haeussler in the photo, now she is a big time High Schooler about to make her second mission trip to Cambodia! Look at little Trinity now a star citizen at her elementary school! JD is now a basketball stud! My little Daniel, sitting on Mommy's lap, and he just finished his second wrestling season with a 9-5 record! I sure am proud of our family!

Now on to our study...... we'll look at the final verses in John Chapter 2. John Chpt. 2: 23 and 24..."Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he know what was in man".

This passage shows that Jesus' bold acts at the time were drawing attention to himself. The buzz was out about the amazing things Jesus was doing and the bold confrontations to the power structure. He was probably doing what many people desired for decades, he "called-out" the corruption everyone knew about. It is interesting to me that Jesus was not really focused on pouring his earthly ministry into the masses of people at the time. God had a bigger plan. Instead of reaching the thousands, he chose to reach billions over time through very few. Jesus poured his life and teaching into only 12 disciples, who would expand God's Kingdom through the help of the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. These disciples would chronicle Jesus' teachings in order to pass on this precious message to people over time. Jesus' life is so well documented for us to learn and enjoy in the Bible thousands of years later. Jesus' focus on the disciples, not the masses of people was such a blessing to us today. God's plan was so much larger than anyone thought.

Often times we take for granted the masterful planning God accomplished and is continuing. We can see the life of Jesus so clearly today. The Bible is a precious work and we can be thankful God choose to pour his teaching into a chosen 12 as opposed to a message to masses of people that would get diluted and corrupted.

"Dear Jesus, thank you for your focused teaching. Your Word is a masterpiece. Amen"

Trust and Follow

My younger daughter Denae and I are training to ride our bicycles across California (Yuma Az. to Carlsbad, CA) over spring break with a YMCA group. We decided to dedicate the ride to Peggy and have "Peggy Victory" emblazoned on our helmets. It is a tribute to: the way she lived; her faith in Jesus; and her abundant life in heaven. Here is a picture of Denae with her helmet.

Moving forward with our study, I just focused on the next verse in John ..chpt. 2 verse 22..."Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said."

This verse stands alone to me. It is a statement about the future for the disciples. Some of the people at the time thought Jesus was "off-his-rocker" as I said in the prior post. But, they mis-judged the factual statements that came to fruition some time later. Jesus was teaching those following Him, while at the sametime impacting the core of the Jewish Culture. (see v. 13 to 20) While the disciples heard what Jesus said to the temple authority about destroying the temple, they were probably confused. But as time passed, when Jesus was crucified and was raised again from the dead, the scene at the temple all came back to them. It became reality, not some odd statement.

This made me think that the Bible is often times about signs and wonders. It is not a set of tangible blue prints. It is the Creator working through His Word, the Holy Spirit and our faithful spirit to reveal truth. With all of these things in motion, God will continuously reveal parts of His plan. If we have a faithless, unwilling spirit then God's Way will be very frustrating, confusing and unclear. It is important for us to seek God on a regular basis, ask Him in our prayer to reveal truth to us. Let Him know that we are willing to step out and be led by Him. Seek His help in exposing those things in our lives that might keep us from how He would like us to live. The disciples watched that uncomfortable scene when Jesus confronted the powerful temple authority with some statements that are unclear. However, they STUCK WITH IT, they continued to follow Jesus and great truths were revealed to them.

We need to stick with it. Take for example the Peggy's passing. It still is really incomprehensible to me why she is gone. Gone from her husband and young children. Now look at the people who have really been impacted the most, her family: Larry; Lexi; Trinity and Josh. It is unclear to them why Peggy had to go, but the Wolf Family is an inspiration, they are faithful to Jesus and will see it through. Their faith is being stregthened by all of this. We need to continue to turn the page of each day of our lives to see what adventure God has in store for us. Yes, there will be set-backs, uncomfortable times and times of triumph, but in the end if God is central, we can be in peace that we are in the middle of His plan.

"Dear Lord, please continue to show us Your plan, let us be patient when things are confusing, let us trust and follow. Amen"

Meeting the Power Brokers

Moms on watch...Here is a great photo of Peggy 'on watch' of her kids swimming at Nana Pat's house. Swimming is going-on to the right of the photo. Pat (mom), sister in law's Traci(my brother Jeff's wife) and Lori(me bride) are in the background. Good times!

Just a brief update on the Wolf family. They are doing well, but need your continued prayers. All the kids are in school and Larry's niece is there helping with mid-week coordination with the kids. Larry recently had a work trip to Dallas. That was a time for Larry to continue to seek refuge in the Lord, while he continues to grieve the loss of his wife. It was tough for the kids, particularly Lexie, when Larry went on the trip. Much of the dust has settled from November and December and they are getting to some normalcy. Larry has been out surfing with Keith and is looking forward to the tamer waves of spring and summer. Trinity just celebrated her birthday with family and friends. Larry and the kids need continued prayer while they gets their family life into a normalized routine and while they seek the Lord in this phase of life without Peggy.

So, just like Peggy would do in a disciplined fashion, let's move forward in our study of God's Word.

The next block of verses to focus on is John 2:18 to 22...with particular focus on verses 18 and 19.." So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show us, since You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.""

Now let's explore these two verses. Picture the circumstance, Jesus just made a scene. Jesus was talking to the guys who were in some sort of authority over the temple or an area at the temple. They wanted to understand why there was so much commotion. This is pivotal, because this is one of Jesus' first public confrontations with the "Jewish Power Structure". Not to go to deep here, but here are somethings to consider:

1.) God Almighty created some strict rules regarding temple protocol in the Old Testament of the Bible, through His interface with Moses.
2.) God put man in charge of this process.
3.) Man conducted this protocol and tradition for centuries.
4.) Gradually the traditions and process became warped in order to manipulated the crowd (as opposed to SERVING the crowd).
5.) Jesus shows up (God Almighty in human form) and is enraged!

So here we are in a bit of a stand-off. The corrupt power brokers of the time are asking Jesus....who gave you the authority to turn these tables over and disrupt our system.

Jesus COULD have given them His resume..like this.. "Hello, let me introduce myself. I am the Lord Almighty, the Messiah. I created the heavens and the Earth out of nothing. I've created all that is seen and unseen, in fact I created YOU! I created the rules for this Temple that you have corrupted! I decided to come in human form to be at your level to confront you and show you how to live!" But............. Jesus didn't take this approach.

He choose to lay down a sign and refer to the temple being destroyed and how in three days He will rebuild it or raise it up. The temple built by man was about to become obsolete, because Jesus to me was now taking it back and identifying Himself as the Temple.

While at the time, I am sure many were confused at what He was saying. Jesus knew that they would remember what He said, but also knew that they would think He is "off-his-rocker". So look at what Jesus was doing...He was weaving delicately : minor miracles; "off-his-rocker" comments; major miracles; and public confrontations with the Jews political officials and religious leaders. He was viewed as a poor man from lowly Nazareth who drops into the core of the Jewish society and starts to confront the corruption of God's plan.

This is all very interesting to me. You can see Jesus' careful and calculated strategy to rock the core of the corrupt society. He is laying an example of boldness in the face of insurmountable power. He is showing us to do the right thing no matter what people think of us. Yah, they may think we are "off-our-rocker", but we know it is right! What is even more amazing, Jesus is now using US to expose the corruption and dark ways of our society. He is empowering us through His example, the Holy Spirit and our faith to overturn some tables and go against the "norm" for what is right.

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for your strong example of continually exposing the right, when we are being looked at as being different." Amen.