Missions Paul

 

John 21 v1-4

 

“Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus.”

Here are 7 disciples hanging around in their post-resurrection blessing.

Things are not the same. What are they meant to be doing now? Their master was always with them but now He shows up when He wants to.

Peter went back to work. He went back to what he knew. “We can fish. Let’s fish.”

Are you one of those going back to work this week?

Type ‘back to work’ into Google and you can read websites dealing with:

What was it like for those who had to?

Shall I return to work? Your rights …

Do I have to go back to work after lockdown?

It may not be work but you will soon be going back to something that you once had or did.

There is much posturing on what life will be like post-lockdown living in a world with a virus which has yet no vaccination.

There are things we would run back to very quickly and perhaps some things we wouldn’t want to go back to.

Unless Jesus returns the world will most probably return to a new adapted norm which we will fit into and live again. Post 9/11 the world changed but we learned to live in that change and the same will happen. Come Lord Jesus. My hope is that we will have learnt lessons in lockdown that we will put into action which will make our world better. We will burst out of lockdown loving God more and loving each other in a way Christ loves.

One thing they were to soon realise which they hadn’t learnt. Jesus had told them that “apart from me you can do nothing” (15 v5). How often we fall into doing things without any thought of His presence? They were fishermen, they had the right skills, they were fishing at the right time, but they caught nothing.

In a beautiful scene that we will discover over this next week Jesus stands on the shore waiting for them as they come back with nothing.

As we emerge from lockdown in the next weeks and months to come let us go back with the presence of God. For without Him there is nothing to go back for.

Maybe that is how you describe yourself now. You have nothing. You have tried. But your hands are empty. You have nothing to show for your efforts. Jesus specialises in these moments. Meeting people with nothing in their hands is the moment Jesus is about to give them something. If you look across the shore there is someone waiting for you. Don’t miss Him.

 

John 20 v 19-29

¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” …  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” …  Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” ²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”…

 

Have you had a conversation on the phone with someone during lockdown and asked what they had been doing? You have had more exciting conversations perhaps because one of the major difficulties for many is the mundaneness of life. Each day there seems to be repeated activity.

On the evening of the Resurrection day Jesus had supernaturally appeared at a disciples meeting in a certain house that was locked down because of their fear of being found. These soon to be super-apostles were not looking good.
His words were “Peace be with you”. He showed them his nail prints in his hands and side and AGAIN said “Peace be with you” before commissioning them.
A week later, the disciples met AGAIN. They were AGAIN in the same house. They AGAIN locked the doors. AGAIN Jesus supernaturally stood among them and yes AGAIN He said the same words, “Peace be with you” before encountering doubting Thomas.
(John 20:19-29)

Often our lockdown days are AGAIN moments.
We struggle because we want long for different, spontaneous, exciting moments … again!

Invite Jesus to come to today and to declare over you AGAIN: “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you, Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (v21-23)

BE AT PEACE; BE SENT; BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT; BE A FORGIVER.

Lockdown is an opportunity to settle the anxieties of your life and to be at peace with yourself and with God. Receive HIS PEACE today.

It is a moment to be re-commissioned, we will be out of our homes soon and when we do we will have new relationships to maintain, the people in our street for example who we spoke to for the first time at the Thursday 8pm clap.

We now have time to seek HIM and for the SPIRIT to overwhelm our lives with the presence of God.

Lockdown is an opportunity to reflect on our relationships too. To let the prisoners go from our lives. To forgive. To release them so that we are free.

Come Lord Jesus!

 

 

 

John 19 v38-41

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

 

God planted a garden and waited. God created a new tomb and waited. God placed a cross and waited. In your darkest hour there is a garden with a new tomb waiting for new life.

If only those women at the foot of the cross had looked to the right or left. If only they had seen the garden with a new tomb. If only they had known that opportunity and provision lies in the middle of a crisis.

John brings onto the scene 2 men as the other gospel writers do. Both are secret disciples and one, Nicodemus, we have met before as he came to Jesus by night.

God always has someone/something in the wings ready at the right time to come onto centre stage of your life. Joseph had previously cut into the rock a new tomb (Matthew 27:60) which was in a garden at the place where Jesus would die.

What came first? The cross, the new tomb or the garden? It certainly wasn’t the cross. Within the experience of pain lies divine encounters that have been prepared beforehand for your future.

The people you meet today may be the provision you need for tomorrow. You moved into that neighbourhood a few years ago and you began living next door to that neighbour and you built a relationship and then covid-19 strikes and you are now praying for them in their darkest hour. God positions, places and plants for His provision.

The Bible is full of stories of plants, trees, vineyards, fields, sowing, harvesting and bearing fruit to reveal spiritual truths. The story begins in a garden in Eden but comes to a conclusion in a garden with a new tomb. The first garden sin appears and the last garden sin is defeated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

You may wake today to the image of a cross. You may be battling Covid-19, you may have suffered loss from the virus already. You may be grieving and bearing the weight of pain. I encourage you to lift your head. In due season winter will change. Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Your cross is in a garden. Nature springs to life after death. Death, then resurrection. Death gives way to life.

A new song by Elevation has these lyrics

You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You’re the only one who can

You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You’re the only one who can

Beauty lies alongside the ugliest parts of life. Look up, you will see it eventually. Wait for God. He has got it all ready. He has prepared a table in the presence of our enemies and knowing this is how we fight our battles. When we know He surrounds us then we can carry the cross.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6 v16-17)

John 19 v31-37

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”^] 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

 

Of course these verses show us that Jesus really did die (as opposed to Surah IV:156-157 where the Quran says he didn’t and that at the last moment Jesus was swapped for a disciple who looked like him, so that Jesus wasn’t ever on a cross). To suggest that the Roman soldiers had crucified the wrong man is ludicrous. The Chief Priests had got their man. The women around the cross could see he was their Lord. John in order to confirm his death says that because of their devotion to God the leaders wanted the bodies taking down from the cross. The crucified would often still be half alive for many days pushing themselves up in order to breathe. Pilate agreed and the soldiers broke their legs and they died within minutes. They came to Jesus and he looked like he had already died. To make sure they stuck a spear into his side and the substance that came out confirmed that he had already gone. So they didn’t break his bones. Looking back John sees again that all this had been mentioned in Scripture. Exodus 12 v46 gives instruction that the Passover Lamb should not have its bones broken. Zechariah 12 v10 says the Messiah will be pierced.

But these verses show us something else which until now I hadn’t seen.

Jesus died before the other two criminals. Why is that important? Remember what Luke said in 23 v43, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”?

One of the thieves on the cross had been given a promise for that day. Then he saw Jesus die. “Your death won’t take days to come it will be today,” and the thief had to do what we all have to do and that is to hold on to the promises of God that when we die we will be with Jesus in Paradise. The place that the apostle Paul experienced in a vision (2 Cor 12:3) and the place that was promised to the church at Ephesus in John’s Revelation (2:7). The followers of Jesus all have to hold on to the promise that when their Today comes they will be with Jesus on that day. For some that may be a battle of faith in itself. How can you believe in a place where you have never been? How can you know you will qualify to be there? It seems the more we follow, the journey may be anxious, but the destination is assured in us.

One final thing is of course that Jesus went alone, so did the thief and so shall we. We have all been moved by the stories of the caring professionals stepping into the place of family members as they sat and held the hands of those dying recently. The thought of anyone dying alone is something that we see as an injustice in every culture of the world.

I’ve held the hand of many and tears flow easily when I think of the hands of my friends. There is always some tug-of-war going on. To survive is our instinct that we have for others as well as ourselves until ‘we let them go’; ‘they’ve gone’; “passed away”; “departed”; “slipped away”; “went home” “went to a better place.” There are so many euphemisms and many are so helpful but one thing remains the same, we go alone. Jesus doesn’t take us, he waits for us. Those that prepare for that journey in their hearts and minds now are better equipped for when it does come. We live in a safe neighbourhood and at the top of our hill is a lovely forest where I walk a lot. My daughter says she would never walk their alone. She doesn’t need to because we walk together. “You’ll never walk alone” sing fans of a certain football club who didn’t win the Premier League in 2020. But we will walk alone and that’s okay because we have encountered Jesus, even if that was as a thief and at our lowest ebb, we met him, he gave us a promise and we go alone holding onto that promise that he will meet us when we die.

John 19 v28-30

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 

John is keen to show how everything was aligned to the Scriptures, Psalm 69:12 “(They) gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

He tells us that the hyssop plant was used to give the vinegar to Jesus: Exodus 12:22 “Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe.” The reader realises that we have come full circle, Scripture has been completed; Jesus is indeed the Passover Lamb of God which didn’t cover over but took away our sin.

That is why John uses the same word on two occasions in this short section. He uses one word which is translated for us as ‘It is finished’.

The job is done! Everything that had to be done has been done! It is finished!

All that is left to do is for you and I to put our faith in that finished work of the cross and follow that Lord who died and rose for us.

John is the only gospel to have originally been written in Greek and the one word that is used for ‘it is finished’ is tetelestai.

I am sure many of you have heard thousands of sermons on this one word with wonderful explanations of what it means. Perhaps we just need to meditate on the word as I have been doing this morning. Let it fall into our minds and hearts. We may never fully comprehend this word but we must let it rule our lives. C.H. Spurgeon said, “It would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it. “It is finished” is the most charming note in all of Calvary’s music.” That quote in itself is beautiful.

It is finished and so I don’t strive to be a better person, God says I am already.

It is finished and so everything that comes my way, whether fear or guilt, shame or judgment falls to the ground, whether or not I feel it or believe it, it matters not, it is a contract binding in the blood of Jesus, it is true.

It is finished and so I don’t need to question what God thinks of me and I don’t need to ask whether He is angry with me.

Some of the most miserable people are Christians who are trying to be holy. They haven’t understood the words It is finished.

Some of the most miserable people are Christian moralists. We need moralists to practice good morals but we don’t need moralists who condemn the immoral simply because they have never understood the words It is finished.

Some of the most miserable people are the Christians who are more aware of them doing the work of God than the Spirit doing the work of God in them. They haven’t understood It is finished.

The cross is a painful channel of love.

John 19 v25-27

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” ²⁷ and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

 

It was like a sword piercing his mother’s heart (Luke 2:35) and Jesus through the blood falling from his head could see her pain and what she needed.

He had no material possessions to give to anyone. What he had left, his clothes, was being gambled away in front of him. We can only assume he had not had this conversation before. New ideas flow when pain is directed away from self.

All he had left was his love. Out of his love he gave his best friend to his mother. Out of the cross poured love.

But I have seen this in so many cross-carriers. The person whose heart is broken at the loss of a loved one thinking about the pain in other people’s lives. The person who has a terminal illness making sure their loved ones are going to be well cared for when they have gone. Love flowing through pain on the cross.

Christ followers direct their pain from themselves to others and love flows through. It’s a beautiful thing (as my friend often said).

The Rwandan genocide in 1994 only lasted 100 days. But during that time 800,000 citizens were brutalised and murdered by their own neighbours.

Though Hutu and Tutsi tribes are the same ethnic group, share the same language, lived and worked together, shared the same religion (mainly catholic), Tutsis and supportive Hutus were slaughtered by people they had co-existed peacefully with for generations.

Even from school age Tutsis became dehumanised.

They were called snakes and cockroaches.

The killings were horrific and sadistic.

Here is a story of a mother whose son was killed in that genocide.

The woman had nursed bitterness, grievance and thoughts of vengeance; she just wanted to find her sons killer and bring due punishment. But one night she had a dream and in the dream she was going down the street and saw a house and she knew it was a house of her enemy.

And she heard God say, “Go into the house”.

She said “I don’t want to go into the house”

She went into the house and God led her through many rooms and then up the stairs.

And He said “I want you to go up the stairs”

She said “I don’t want to go any further in this house”

“I want you to go up the stairs”

She went up the stairs, opened the door at the top, and found it led into heaven.

And she had a revelation.

That the path to heaven goes through the house of her enemy.

Two days later there was a knock on her door.

A young man is standing there at the door and he is shaking.

He says to her, “I am the man who killed your son. I place my life in your hands, whatever you want to do with me, I accept it. I have had no peace since I did what I did. And I will accept whatever. If you want to kill me, you can kill me.

If you want to turn me in to the authorities turn me into the authorities. Whatever you want, my life is in your hands.

And because she had a revelation from God, she said “I will not do any of this. But I do have one request. You must now become my son.”

She took him in and fed him at the table where she fed her son. He’s the same size so he wore his clothes. He actually moved in and became a son to her, because heaven passes through the house of her enemy.

 

Who is your enemy? Who is the person that hurt you? Would you believe that heaven goes through that house? It does. It’s called the cross. Pick it up today. Love is your most treasured commodity that no one will take from you. Give it today.

John 19 v14-22

“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour.”

In the context of making sure the Passover lambs were without fault ready for the sacrifice and the Chief Priests’ determination to remain undefiled, Jesus has been interrogated for six hours before paraded by compromised Pilate.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

And then history repeats itself.

At the commencement of the Kingdom of Israel, “So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:4-5)

“But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. (1 Samuel 8: 6-7)

Here is your king!

Of all the terrible things they have said this is the worst:

“We have no king but Caesar,” v15.

We have no king but the king in Rome.

It is amazing who can be named as an ally when the human will wants something badly.

At their beginning they reject God as their king and here they do it again.

They choose Rome and within a generation Rome would crush them to the ground.

This whole passage speaks of how compromising people can become.

• Pilate compromised.
• The Chief Priests insisting on no compromise by refusing to enter Pilate’s palace and defile themselves for the Passover.
• The Chief Priests compromising themselves by giving their allegiance to Caesar.

Compromise is usually a commodity of luxury that is used when it suits. We appear so righteous and wise one moment and then hold hands with the enemy in the next breath.

When He was crucified, Pilate ordered the inscription on the cross to be written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek—the languages of the three major cultural groups of that era.

Everyone was able to read that God’s people had rejected their King. Let’s make sure we keep Jesus the King of our lives and the Church today. Being undefiled in the eyes of man doesnt mean He is King.

John 19 v10-13

Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” ¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” ¹² From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” ¹³ When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).

To the Romans Gabbatha was where ‘jupiter’ (the king of the gods) judged on all matters of state and religion.

To the Jews it is where God judged or where He permitted Gentiles, like Pilate, to judge people, v11 “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above”

It literally means ‘heap’ or ‘haughtiness’.

It was a mosaic pavement where the Bema (judgment) seat was placed. One day Pilate would stand before the judgment seat of Christ but on this day Jesus is before him.

He’s the Governor, in control, the main character and in charge of the events. By his word people lost their life or kept it. Pilate’s Gabbatha was indeed his throne. But his Gabbatha had an Achilles’ heel and the Jewish leaders knew it.

“We have to be very careful with this decision. If you decide to do what you are suggesting (for me it was the right decision) then you will lose the vote of the people, they will not go with you and it will end up worse for you. If you do what I am suggesting (for me it was a cover-up decision) I think you will see I am proven right, it is all a case of damage limitation.” That moment still remains a regretful obedient scene in my memory.

When judgment is couched in ‘what do people think of me’ then it is weak judgment.

When leadership decisions are slowed down because of fear of what might be said or how people may react then wisdom is often lost. Consideration for people’s welfare is not the same as bowing to a hidden fear, that of pleasing, in order to keep your position. The Achilles’ heel of Pilate was not so much the people, but a person, Caesar. Pilate was not in favour with him and knew that if it got back that he had released someone who was standing in front of him claiming Caesar’s title then questions would be asked. The Jewish leaders played him and Pilate fell into their trap.

Be very careful the next time you sit in the seat of judgment. It is a high place and the danger is that of pride. But it is also a place where the desire to please can be crippling and you end up making the wrong decision. Sometimes it is simply best not to sit there but of course there are times when we have to. The fear of man always proves to be a snare.

 

John 19 v1-5

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face. ⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

John is writing his gospel so “that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (20:21). What description did John portray of Jesus?

From the commencement of his gospel: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (1:14)

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God …’ (1:29)

‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’ (14:9)

Throughout the gospel we see God in Jesus.

In the miracles: Changing water into wine; Healing the royal official’s son; Healing the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda; Feeding the 5,000; Walking on water; Healing the man born blind; and raising Lazarus from the dead.

In the ‘I AM’ statements of Jesus: I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the gate/door of the sheep; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the good shepherd; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the true vine.

“We have seen his glory …” Not everyone has seen but we have. Referring to the Transfiguration where the face of Jesus shone like the sun; where Moses and Elijah appear standing alongside Jesus affirming his Messianic role; and where John hears a voice, “This is my Son.” That voice came from a bright cloud emphasising the visible glory of God.

Where is that glory now? And here is the crux. Here is the shock and the disappointment rolled into one.

v5 ‘Here is the man’.

His skinless back full of blood, a crown of thorns piercing his head, a face bruised by the beating, barely able to stand, a broken God of glory.

Some will wake today once again driven to succeed, to be somebody, to do something, to achieve their dreams and to be remembered, all for the glory of God. ‘Here is the man’.

Some will wake today and wonder how did they become so disappointed in life? Why have their dreams died and their prayers not been answered? Why are they hurting so much? ‘Here is the man’.

God coming into the world looks like this.

How many ‘likes’? What is the brand? How many engaged?

Here is the man.

‘The Word became flesh’ was shocking and it was meant to be.

See the divine in the failing humanity.

Greatness and Glory are seen, ‘here is the man.’

Reject this picture and you will turn from the power of God seen in your weakness.

Avoid this pain and you will never reach the power of the resurrection.

Here is the man.

Look in the mirror with all your questions, disappointments, hurts, grief and confusion.

Here is the man. Here is the woman. Not much to look at. Yet God has chosen to dwell in such a place as you.

John 18 v28-40

“‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.” v38

Fake news v real news.

Opinions over the governments handling of the Covid crisis.

Prophetic insights over lockdown.

Our minds are full of divided voices.

There’s no shortage of knowledge, thinkers are all around us.

 

Pilate v the Jewish leaders.

The Jewish leaders knew that if they entered Pilates palace they would be unclean.

‘What are the charges against Jesus?’

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

Knowledge can be wrong. You can know something your whole life and what you know is wrong.

 

‘What is true?’ v the TRUTH.

And TRUTH was standing in front of him.

And TRUTH had testified to the truth.

And TRUTH had listeners on his side.

Truth is. Truth lives. We need truth.

 

Today is VE day, 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Europe. Whole populations had been fed a lie by their leaders regarding the Jews being the cause of WW1. A lie became knowledge and knowledge corrupted the truth.

Father Edward P. Doyle, a chaplain in the US Army during WWII, participated in the liberation of Nordhausen. He recalls: “I was there. I was present. I saw the sights. I will never forget. You have heard the story many times before. On the night of April 11, 1945, my division, of which I was the Catholic chaplain, took the town of Nordhausen. The following morning, with the dawn, we discovered a concentration camp. Immediately the call went out for all medical personnel that could be spared, to be present. […] On that morning in Nordhausen, I knew why I was there. I found the reason for it – man’s inhumanity to man. What has happened to that beautiful commandment of the Decalogue, the commandment of God to love one another?” A lie became knowledge and the truth of love was lost for millions.

I was increasingly unsure of things prior to the lockdown.

I am during it and thinking of post lockdown only fills me with more uncertainty.

Some people are so sure of things, let them be.

What I know is Jesus is the TRUTH.

We must testify of the TRUTH to God, we must align ourselves under Him.

We must speak the TRUTH to ourselves or have someone do that for us.

We must speak of the TRUTH to others, the gospel is the same good news and we must tell.

Let’s worry less about knowledge. That is what the cross is all about.

Whatever lies in front of us let it be about the TRUTH, JESUS CHRIST, let us love HIM and love OTHERS. That is the TRUTH. That is what is waiting for us tomorrow. Let knowledge bow to this TRUTH.