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"