Pause ---

Several preaching and family engagements are happening from now until May 1st. Blog will return on May 1st hopefully. If you have questions mail me at jessiecoates@yahoo.com

Do You Believe?

The man who had been blind all his life, received his sight, but lost his community. Blind from birth, he used to sit and beg. One day a man called Jesus, spread something on his eyes and told him to go and wash it off in the pool. When he washed his eyes he was able to see. He went home and his parents were amazed. Then he went around town, meeting voices he knew and seeing faces he had never seen. People could hardly believe it was the same man; not surprising because the facial expressions of people who can't see change when they do see.

The priests ordered him not to credit his recovery to the man called Jesus, because, said the priests, "We know he is a sinner."
"That's strange," replied the man, I have never heard that God would give the power to open the eyes of blind people, to a sinner."
Exasperated, the priests ordered him out of the place and announced that he was expelled. People feared being seen with him, because their law said they were not to mix with people who had been expelled from their society. Even his parents were nervous in case the priests expelled them too. He had received his sight but lost his friends. Much like to-day, when a person from certain religious societies believes that Jesus is God, that person shocks their family, and becomes unacceptable in society.

Sighted but alone the man wondered around town, seeing the hasty turning away of people whose voices he knew, and feeling the snubs of those who avoided meeting him. Jesus heard that he had been expelled and did what Jesus does: he went looking for him.

When they were sitting together, Jesus asked, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
"Tell me who he is," said the man who remembered voices, "and I will believe in him?"
"You have seen him," said Jesus "and he is the person speaking to you."
"Lord I believe," said the man born blind, and he began to worship Jesus.

The man born blind was a Jew. Jews worship God and no other, the command to worship God and only God is the first of their ten commandments. Jesus was a Jew, he kept the Jewish law, but he did not stop the man from worshiping him.

All over the wider community, religious people who worshiped God and no other, were beginning to worship Jesus, they believed that he had come from God and that the words he spoke came from God. The recently healed man was just one of many.

The gift of sight had opened his eyes to the world around him, but the gift of faith had opened his mind to the truth about Jesus. Today, Jesus is still looking for people who will believe him. He still speaks to us through the words of scripture. Many people hear and believe. What follows is that they are the same person but yet a new person. They have been born into spiritual life. They worship Jesus the message-bearer, Jesus the Son of God who became man for our sake.

The gospel of John, chapter nine, verses 1-41

The Turning Point

I am the light of the world, anyone who follows what I teach will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus said these things, while he was standing in the treasury of the temple.
The crowds stood around and listened to the response of the temple leaders, who were threatened by this workman from Galilee who had not been to their religious schools. As this particular session ended Jesus reiterated once again, that nothing he did was self-motivated but that he had been sent by God, whom he called the Father, and was giving the message that God had given him. He went on to say that when they had 'lifted up' the Son of Man (He was referring to the fact that they would kill him by crucifixion, and his work would be completed) then they would understand. Many of the regular people listening to the discussion between Jesus and the teachers and priests chose to believe that Jesus was telling the truth.

What did they believe? that Jesus was the Son of God, and had come with a message directly from God.

Why did the believe? Because they had heard about the things that Jesus did: he healed people, people who had not been able to get healed any other way, people who were close to death, and some who had died, like the little daughter of Jairus. Only by the power of God could these things happen. Also because the message that Jesus delivered was good: about the love of God, his good intentions towards humanity and his promise to keep faith with everyone who believed. They chose to believe that Jesus was telling the truth.

To them Jesus said, if you remain in my word you are my disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. This puzzled them; they began to ask the meaning and Jesus began to explain.

The simple decision they made by deciding that Jesus was God's son and had brought God's message; that was their entry into light. The light had already come, but they had not sought light, preferring the darkness of their own thinking and the safety of accepting what the religious rulers taught. Now by a simple decision they had entered into the same light that enlightens all who believe today.

That was all Jesus asked that day, he simply accepted them as his disciples and instructed them to continue believing the message that he had brought. He didn't say, you will become my disciples, but he said, "You truly are my disciples." The rest was to follow, all the rest of their lives they would experience what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus.

This is still all that Jesus asks; believe that he is the Son of God and has brought God's message to us. There is nothing more to do because he does all the rest. There is nothing more to do, but there is a lot to experience.

President Bush and his cruelty to all generations

What will it cost us? Will we be prepared to pay the price? Will anybody even want to do anything? I'm talking about the Christian's response to President Bush's veto of the bill passed by Congress that would prohibit the CIA from using methods that are torture called by another name. I am asking, are we Christians going to do anything? When it was a question of women getting the vote, or chopping down trees, people chained themselves to fences and trees. What will we be called upon to do now? Will any of our Christian leaders be willing to pay the price of resistance? I know I am afraid of the cost. I have such a nice comfortable life; I would hate to be inconvenienced because people who may, or may not be, terrorists are being tortured.

But if our church leaders do not call us to rally and demand that Bush change his mind what am I becoming? I am becoming someone who gives a tacit agreement (By not resisting) to inhumanity and cruelty. It looks like Mr. Bush has already inconvenienced my comfortable life. That is if any of our church leaders care enough to do anything about it. I don't think they will. Years of occupying themselves with cruelty to the unborn will have made them indifferent to cruelty to the suspected terrorist. Years of fighting all sorts of domestic calamities will make them tolerant of a national calamity. There is no glamor or pride in fighting against something which the President thinks necessary. There may be a few committees, and even a letter from the various leaders. That will lull us all into aquiesence.

Expediency is the excuse that President Bush has used for his refusal to listen to the voice of this country's leadership and to continue to treat our enemies brutally. Expediency was the excuse the Herod the Great, the King of the Jews used when he killed all the boys under two years old in Bethlehem. He reasoned that if the safety of the nation (and his position) needed protecting then any evil thing became necessary. Fear and suspicion justified his murder of little children, the same fear and suspicion made it expedient that he order the execution of two of his own sons. Will we soon accept torture of our own people to make our nation safe? Will we become fascist in order to protect ourselves against fascism?

So what am I to do? Should I leave America so that my taxes do not involve me in this unamerican activity? Alas I have paid my taxes; I am involved. Now that we have dishonored the Geneva Agreement will it still be honored by our enemies? What if one of my grandchildren is taken prisoner in a future war? There are some preachers who have got so misled by the notion of winning at any cost that they will tell me that my grandchildren will have to be brave and trust God. I want to know why aren't we being brave and trusting God now?

Do we trust God enough to refuse to do evil? We have been faced with fascism and terror before from Nazis and Communists, we did not use cruelty then, and we were victorious, with God's help. So why are we now so afraid that we have choosen cruelty in order to defend ourselves? Is it true that we we are so afraid of this hidden enemy and his cruel religious laws, that we will make our own laws cruel in order to defend ourselves? In fighting terror will we allow CIA to become a terror to foreign and perhaps domestic suspects?

Do we trust God enough to refuse to be party to this evil that our President has involved us all in? That is the question Christians must ask. The answer may be that we do not trust God. We only trust God when we have big guns and fast planes. When the Jewish faith became more talk than action God did not deliver the Jews from the Assyrians, Is that why we are afraid? The religious leaders of the Jewish nation chose to have Jesus tortured to death because they were afraid of Rome and its retalliation. Just one small act, approved by the leaders. Jesus could have backed down from his determination to deliver the whole message and saved himself from death. Jesus chose to do right, only right, all the right. We dare not do the same, we dare not do right, only right, and all the right. It appeared that God had not defended Jesus because he died. Of course he was resurrected, but we are very much a down to earth brand of Christians just now, and this might not appeal to many of us. Is this what we are afraid of, that God might let us loose? We dare not trust God to defend us, so, rather than do right and trust God, we will ignore and destroy the standards of mercy that Jesus taught us, is this true?

No our religious leaders will not give us leadership. God may raise up a Daniel for us, but if he does we will probably kill Daniel.

The Only Safe Place

Psalm 32:1-11 (New Revised Standard Version)


[1] Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
[2] Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

[3] While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
[4] For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
*Selah

[5] Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD",
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah

[6] Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
[7] You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Selah

*What does Selah mean?
Two early translations, the Targum and the Vulgate, understand 'Selah' as a cry of praise and translate it as 'for-ever'. Other translations remember the Arabic root 'sl' which means, 'this is the time to prostrate yourself.' Other translators consider it a musical notation or a place to lift up your hands in praise. From The Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Tyndale) Modern Bible study groups understand that 'Selah' is intended to emphasise, and so translate it in their groups as 'Think about this.'

The Jew standing, the Muslim prostrate, the Christian raising his hands. We all worship One God. We all share the same experiences of guilt and forgiveness. How I long for a time when we all worship and praise together. None of us threatening or compelling complete agreement, but all of us focusing on the majesty and magnificence and mercy of the Living God.

Prayer from the web

This prayer came to me in my e-mail. With it was the instruction: Pray this prayer whether you feel like it or not. So I did, and have prayed it several times since. I can't find out who sent it but it is certainly worth sending on. So I send it now to all my readers. God will bless those who trust him.

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day. I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning. I'm blessed because You are a forgiving God and an understanding God. You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me. Forgive me this day for everythingI have done, said or thought that was not pleasing to you.
I ask now for Your forgiveness. Please keep me safe from all danger and harm. Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Let me make the best of each and every day to clear my mind so that I can hear from You. Please broaden my mind that I can accept all things. Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over.
And It's the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits.
I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart. Continue to use me to do Your will. Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others. Keep me strong that I may help the weak.. Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others. I pray for those that are lost and can't find their way. I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood. I pray for those who don't know You intimately. I pray for those that will delete this without sharing it with others. I pray for those that don't believe.

But I thank you that I believe. I believe that God changes people and God changes things. I pray for all my sisters and brothers. For each and every family member in their households. I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes that they are out of debt and all their needs are met. I pray that every eye that reads this knows there is no problem, circumstance, or situation greater than God. Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight.

I pray that these words be received into the hearts of every eye that sees it.

Sin no more - part two

"Sin no more" is an instruction Jesus gave to people he had healed or helped. These words are wonderful words for people of any and all religions. Religious people long for God: sin separates them from God, and they feel this in the core of their spiritual being. They know that if it were possible to be sinless then they could be joined to God. Jesus, who lived and died sinless, gives all religious people the opportunity to be united with God through him. He is the conduit through which they can be joined to God. Because he was and is sinless.

Sin is the thing that all religious people fight against. Most religious people recognize the need to purify themselves before they approach God; this is because they instinctively know that they need to be 'clean' before they pray to the great sinless force that brings order to the universes. The various religions don't all name what is is they need to be purified from, but some do; they name it sin. Since we cannot free ourselves from sin (but only from some sins) we need to be saved.

People who do not recognize a need to be cleansed from sin are people who do not recognise sin. This is to be lost, so lost that you do not understand the order of the spiritual world. So lost that you do not understand your own struggles. So lost that you do not know you are lost. It is a terrible place to be in, and yet the people who are living this lost life feel no terror. They are so lost that they cannot come alive to their own lost condition.

God the compassionate, God the merciful, alerts some people to their lostness and they begin to feel a need. What is the need? They feel they need to be saved. This is it. This is the great word which describes what Jesus came to do, why Jesus came into the world. He came to look for and save the lost. When at last we begin to understand that we need to be saved it is because Jesus has come near to us and is shining his light into our life.

Among all the things we need to be saved from, self is perhaps the strongest. Self even when it is nurtured and fed and measured and built up remains deceptive. Being saved means being saved from the deceptions that self continuously imposes upon self. Saved means being rescued from outer forces that are too strong for us to fight against, and so continuously errode and supress our humanity. Saved means being saved from God-loneliness. Saved means being able to build up and nurture a spiritual relationship with the source of all being, health and sense. Saved means being able to control the forces that divide us against ourselves. We need to be saved.

This saving does have a beginning. When we first believe that Jesus spoke the truth, then salvation begins. Christo-religious people remember that moment of belief and say that was when they first felt the great change. It is the time of salvation; the moment when we feel pulled out of a pit, the moment when a light goes on inside our person, the moment when we become aware that Jesus is with us and God is for us. Like marriage, Like birth, salvation has a beginning moment, we call that being saved. But like getting married or being born, salvation is daily renewed as we continue to recognize Jesus and learn from his words.

We shall never be sinless while we live, but in the eyes of God who sees us through the activity of Jesus we are already acceptable to him. Jesus is the cleansing, and the preparation, Jesus is the mediator. God knows we are not sinless but he counts us as though we are; because he has reckoned the sinless life of Jesus to our account.

The sinlessness of Jesus, given to us, forgives our past sins, strengthens us to resist sin in our present circumstances and frees us from the consequences of sin in God's reckoning. We are being saved. And Jesus who never sinned is every day saying to us, "Sin no more.' Everyday I am saying to God, "I need to be saved." and everyday the spirit of Jesus protects me, alerts me to my conceits and self deceptions and grants me greater understanding of God's mercy and rightness. I am being saved. May you also believe and be saved.

Sin no more

She had broken the law of God, the law of the nation, and the laws of loyalty and honesty. She had had sex with someone who wasn't her husband.

Jesus rescues her from the people who want to throw stones at her till she dies, but does not excuse her. He tells her to sin no more.

The woman goes away and almost certainly hides, in case her accusers should change their mind and arrest her again. Does she 'sin no more?' We don't know, but we do know our own reaction to those word.

Some people react by saying that what she did was not sin. They argue that a person can do what they like with their own body and they say it does not hurt anyone else. (Rather untrue but that's what people like to think.) Other people say the laws of her country were wrong, she should not be killed for a private sin. Others would say that she just couldn't help it, her passion was stronger than her caution, and she should be pitied. Jesus would be amongst this group, he understood that people just can't help doing wrong, either because their desire is stronger than their will power or because they deceive themselves about the wrongfulness of what they are doing. He is compassionate and merciful towards all people who do wrong.

You and I know that some wrongs hurt people more than other wrongs do, and so we tend to classify sin into big sins and little sins. Jesus didn't have any such classification because he knew that sin is a desire, a deception that masters us and we need help.

Talking to the people after he had refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery he told them that if they believed what he said they would know the truth (about many things) and that truth would make them free.

The listeners, jumped in delight on that word free and chose to challenge him. They were not slaves, never had been slaves, what was he talking about? People do challenge Jesus: you can challenge him in disagreement and he will probably just leave you to your own opinions, or you can challenge him as a person willing to understand what he says and you will receive an answer. You might not always like the answer.

If you sin, said Jesus, you are in the power of sin. You can't help it, it has enslaved you. The people listening didn't want to agree with that. Probably some of us don't agree either. We have classifications for sins. There are, we say: big sins and little sins, and little sins shouldn't be counted. Then there are harmful sins and sins that don't hurt anyone else, therefore they shouldn't be called sins. There are lots of sins that God should just forget about, and then there are sins that other people do that we never intend to forgive or forget.

"If you sin, you are a slave to sin." said Jesus. We have never been slaves, responded the people; indignant, defensive and proud. Their pride was justified; their nation was founded upon a promise to keep the laws of God, the nation still had these laws, and the people offered prayers and sacrifice whenever they thought they should.

About six hundred years before, one of the Jewish prophets had spoken to God in prayer, His words were reverenced by the very people Jesus had just called slaves to sin. He said this: You are indeed angry, for we have sinned, and we continue to sin and we need to be saved.

Jesus, is the salvation that Isaiah was looking for. Jesus said that anyone who believed him would be set free from the power of sin. The people who chose not to believe him would, "Die in their sins." Jesus does not consider this a small thing but three times warns against it. Even religious, highly moral people like the Jews were in danger of dying in sin, sin makes God angry, and it keeps us from uniting with him.

Many people believed what Jesus said. Their belief resulted in immediate change in their life and the change confirmed their belief. They found that the appeal of things sinful had lessened, and that even when they were tempted there was help available from Jesus. Thus there arose on the face of the earth a new people, a people who had found the salvation Isaiah had prayed about.

The gospel of John chapter eight, verses 12 to 36
verses 21 to 24
The book of the prophet Isaiah chapter sixty-four verse 5.