From Grace on the Table
Colossians 4:2
Being watchful can also be translated “staying alert.” In our praying, what is it that we
are watching and staying alert to?

The answer is in the letter.

In chapter one, we are to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, by

• Bearing fruit in every good work
• Increasing in the knowledge of God
• Being strengthened by God for all endurance and patience with joy
• Being thankful to God for
  • Forgiving our sins
  • delivering us from the dominion of darkness and
  • transferring us into the kingdom of His beloved Son so that we are
  • sharing in the inheritance of the saints
  • being reconciled to God
  • being made holy and blameless before Him

In chapter two, we need to be watchful so that we aren’t

• taken captive by some deceptive philosophy that’s going around
• convinced that we are spiritually disqualified because we don’t follow secret worship rituals or restrictive physical practices

Because these are things that pull us away from Christ.

In chapter three, we are to

• Set our minds on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God
• Put to death sexual sins of the body or of the mind – the actual act or imagining it through words, pictures or memories
• Put away anger in its various forms, including vengeful thoughts and obscene language
• Put on compassionate hearts, humility, meekness and patience
• Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven us
• Let Christ’s peace rule our hearts
• Let Christ’s Word rule our thoughts and our words
• Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him
• Wives are to submit to their husbands.
• Husbands are to love their wives.
• Children are to be obedient
• Parents, especially fathers, are not to be harsh.
• Those who serve others, whether servants or employees, should do so with integrity and as an act of worship to Christ.
• Those in authority should use that authority justly and fairly, remembering that
• They will give an account to the Lord.

Day 40

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Romans 8:35

When it comes to songs that are sung, two types of songs seem to dominate the list. The first would be love songs that seek to woo the one I love, imagine being with the one I love, or celebrating the wonders of our love. The second would be the songs that flow from a broken heart because of unrealized dreams of romance, of a relationship that did not work where the two had to part company, and the songs of betrayal.

One of the great challenges of recent decades has been how to successfully do relationships. So many relationships begin, but so few make the distance of a lifetime. In fact, it’s come to the point that many no longer even expect to "live happily ever after." Wedding vows, when they are said at all, often get modified to say, “as long as we both shall love“ rather than “as long as we both shall live.”

Even parents and children are falling out of love and abandoning their relationship at alarming rates. Adult children frequently find themselves having to choose which parent to spend a holiday with because mom and dad are no longer together. And a current trend is to find fault with one’s parents and cancel them – stop calling, stop visiting, act like they don’t exist. Or a parent finds some reason to reject their children and end all connection.

The number of people receiving talk therapy is at an all-time high. Much of the conversation has to do with relationships.

In start contrast to that we are told that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Mother and father may reject us, brother and sister made despise us, spouses may disdain us, children resent us and friends abandon us. But Jesus will never, ever, ever stop, loving us. No matter how good it gets or how awful it becomes, He loves us. When we are wonderful and when we are horrible, He loves us. When everything and everyone is against us, still, He loves us.


Hope Church, may 2025 be a year in which our love for our wonderful Lord burns bright with passion throughout all of our days and over all of our ways.

My prayer is that these devotionals might be of some help along that path

Your pastor,
Charles M. Butler

Day 39

“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:32

Jesus had just called Levi, also known as Matthew, to follow Him. Levi had been a tax collector. In response to Jesus call, Levi shut down his tax collecting business and then threw a party for Jesus and invited all of his friends from his business world – other tax collectors, women of questionable morals and men of unethical business practice.

The Pharisees, who seem to be aware of most things that Jesus did, asked the disciples why they and Jesus were eating with tax collectors and sinners. The question is a legitimate one.

Jesus was known, at that point, as a rabbi, a teacher of God‘s Word and God‘s ways. As such, it was expected that He would be holy in His behavior and His associations. The Pharisees had a significant list of those with whom they would not associate and practices that they would not engage in, so they expected that Jesus would have the same. But the people at this party were all questionable.

The question of the Pharisees made its way back to Jesus, and Jesus answered the Pharisees directly.

People who are well don’t need a physician. The Pharisees thought they were spiritually healthy so they were not seeking Jesus’ company. The tax collectors and sinners that Levi invited, however, had no illusions about their spiritual health. But they also found in Jesus someone who was holy, but who cared about them and was not ashamed to be seen associating with them.

And therein lies the wonder and the genius of grace. Jesus was not defiled by being among sinners. We could not make Him unholy, but He, by His life and sacrifice, would make us holy as we received Him. He came to carry our sin to the cross.

In the Old Testament, the priests had to keep themselves separate from anything that might make them ceremonially unclean — unholy. Jesus came in perfect holiness from the halls of heaven and pitched His tent among us who were dead in trespasses and sins. To say it more personally, Jesus felt no hesitation to receive me even though I was defiled by my sin. And He is not ashamed to claim me as His own even though I still stumble in many ways. Many have rejected me for much less; Jesus knows all and embraces me. And in His embrace, I become more holy.

When you have stumbled, when you have fallen, even when you have taken a swan dive into sin, don’t hesitate to come to Jesus. Grace and truth came through Jesus: grace to receive us and truth to lead us out of sin and into His holy love, making us more like Him. Our Lord is gracious!

Grace, grace — God’s grace
Grace that will pardonand cleanse within
Grace, grace — God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin

Charles M. Butler

Day 38

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21:5

I can’t say that my next statement is true for everyone, but I have gathered that it’s true for many Christians: There are some things in us that have been broken and until we are made new, those things won’t be fixed. We create workarounds. God gives grace. But those things won’t go away.

The Apostle Paul knew about these kinds of things. He talks about the "thorn in the flesh," the "messenger of Satan" to buffet him. Three times he asked God to take it away. God did not. Instead, He told Paul that His grace would be sufficient for Paul, that God‘s strength would be made perfect in Paul’s weakness.

We are never told exactly what that thorn in the flesh was. We know that Paul suffered with some type of eye affliction. In Galatians 4:15, he mentioned that the Galatians were so moved with love toward him that they would’ve been willing to gouge out their eyes and give them to him. In the 6th chapter he mentions how he writes with such large letters when he writes for himself, which suggests that he couldn’t see well. And he said that he bore the marks of Jesus in his body. I have often wondered if the thorn in the flesh was something that resulted from Paul being stoned at Lystra.

The question is not whether God could heal. We know that He can. But our afflictions serve a purpose in our lives. God often uses them to keep our pride in check, or to help our hearts stay responsive to him. They also shape our testimony. When others here of the burdens or the wounds that we carry and see the grace of God active in our lives, they are encouraged that God can give them grace also.

But, truth be told, burdens get wearisome and wounds get old. We want to be done with them. Joni Eareckson Tada has said on more than one occasion that when she gets to heaven, she will thank God for her wheelchair and for the many ways that needing that chair caused her to trust God and lean on him as she never would have otherwise. But she said that once she had her new body, she would tell God that He could toss that chair into the fire.

Dysfunctional families of origin, violence perpetrated against us, mistakes that we have made and the wear and tear of life take a toll, some of which doesn’t get removed at salvation or which we don’t “grow out of” or get delivered from. I’ve got some things in that category. Maybe you do too. But one day, we will be done with those things. One day, we will stand before Jesus and He will fix everything that’s broken and wipe every tear. He’s making all things new, including me and you. “These words, Jesus said, “are trustworthy and true.”

So take hope and press on a little while longer. Change is coming — the kind of change that only Jesus can do. He will make us new.

Charles M. Butler

Day 37

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age
Matthew 28:20b

Our Lord never said that following him would be easy. There are, of course, seasons when things go exceptionally well. When we are walking with the Lord and ministry is fruitful, relationships are rich, we are seeing family and friends walking with God, along with us – those are good days.

But Jesus said there would also be difficulties, days when we would be misunderstood, days when we would face trials of various kinds. He even said that it was possible that, because people hated him, they would hate us. But he spoke through His servants to remind us that with every temptation, He makes a way of escape, and with every trial, he gives grace. He tells us not to be anxious, but to humble ourselves under His hand of protection, and when the time is right, he will exalt us.

Today’s verse is literally the last sentence of the gospel of Matthew. Jesus has risen from the dead and has gathered His Apostles and commissioned them to make disciples. They are to spread out and take the message of His resurrection. They are to baptize those who believe, immerse them Into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And they are to teach them to obey, to observe, to live out all that Jesus commanded and taught.

That was bound to rub some people the wrong way. It would make them some enemies, as well as some very dear friends. But Jesus told them not to worry because there would never, ever be a time when they would be alone. “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So when they spread out across the known world, carrying the good news of Jesus, they had the promise of the One that they came to know as the son of God, the one who rose again from the dead and who has declared that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him -- this One has said He will never leave them, He will never forsake them.

And He extends that promise to me and you. Jesus never leaves us alone.

Hallelujah!

Charles M. Butler

Day 36

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

We are all familiar with various uses of the term darkness. It can refer to the absence of physical light. It can refer to ignorance, the absence of knowledge. It can also refer to a deficiency in moral or spiritual sensitivity.

Jesus called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. He obviously was not referring to physical darkness. There is a certain sense in which He was referring to the absence of knowledge, because many of us were unaware that we were dead in trespasses and sins until the light of the gospel came. And when we think in terms of salvation, it can seem as though moral darkness and spiritual darkness are one and the same. They are not.

There are some secular people and people of other religions who have a solid moral foundation. They have a well developed sense of right and wrong that provides the bedrock of personal life, family life, and community life. But spiritually, they are unaware of the holiness, the justice, and the wrath of God. Consequently, neither are they aware of his grace.

Today’s verse begins with a description of the marvelous light into which Jesus has called us: we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” Those are not categories that we found of our own initiative. Jesus called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light. We thought we were OK. We believed we had a sufficient moral code that worked for us. We were not particularly interested in the boundaries that some invisible divine being had established. We either didn’t believe such a being existed, we were unsure about their existence, or we believed we had those bases covered by our practice of religion or spirituality. That is, until Jesus called.

It’s a strange sensation when you are in spiritual darkness with a large group of people and you get called out of that darkness. It’s strange because you didn’t think you were in darkness, and all the people that you move away from are confused or offended by the fact that you’re leaving. They are still unaware of the darkness. Why some hear the call of Jesus and others do not is beyond our sorting out. Some would say He calls this one and not that one. Others would say that some make a choice not to respond or to respond partially. The parable Jesus tells of the four soils implies some interaction between the soil and the seed. Today's verse says Jesus called us.

Whatever the answer to that question, I still find myself immensely grateful that He called me out of darkness into His marvelous light, into His royal priesthood, His holy nation, the people for His own possession. I am glad that I am His.

Aren’t you?

Charles M. Butler

Day 35

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15

Yesterday I talked about how Jesus understands our small sins and struggles. Today I want to address the other side of the coin.

The high priest of Israel was the one who, on the Day of Atonement, carried the blood of the bull and the goat into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat. When Yahweh’s presence was with Israel, He came to the Holy of Holies, to the Mercy Seat. That was the focal point of His presence, even though God was not limited to being in that single location.

The Mercy Seat was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark were the two stone tablets of The Law, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded. The people of Israel, like the rest of us, sinned. When God came down to the Mercy Seat, He would see that His law had been broken and would pour His righteous wrath on the people of Israel.

But when the high priest came into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on the Mercy Seat, God saw the blood and His wrath was turned away. The high priest had made atonement for their sin.

The high priest had his own sin, so he was sympathetic toward those for whom he was making atonement. Jesus had no sin of his own; He was morally perfect. But He was also fully human and knew the tug of temptation. The things that tempt us tempted Him, but He never yielded. That gives Him a unique empathy regarding the power of temptation and our need for an advocate and intercessor. He offered His blood once for all to atone for our sin, but He did so with compassion because He understood the intensity of the battle to remain holy.

My worst sin, your most heinous sin – these do not shock our High Priest and Savior. Because He understands, we need not run from Him when we sin; we do not need to hide from Him in our shame. In fact, it’s just the opposite: we run to Him because He understands our weaknesses, and He alone has the answer to our sin.

Man of sorrows what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Guilty vile and helpless we
Spotless Lamb of God was He
Full atonement --  can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Lifted up was He to die
"It is finished" was His cry
Now in heaven exalted high
Hallelujah! What a Savior

When He comes, our glorious King
All His ransomed home to bring
Then anew this song we'll sing
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Charles M. Butler

Day 34

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15

It has been a good day. This was the first time that Hope Church Chicago had a Christmas day service. It was a wonderful celebration of our Lord‘s birth in Scripture and song. Family and friends showed up to celebrate with us. A beautiful service!

After the service we held family Christmas dinner at our house. We prepared and we ate, we laughed and talked as the children played. And then we cleaned up and everyone headed home.

My wife and I are exhausted, though happy. with all the preparations from Sunday through Christmas Day. Sleep has been on the short side and busyness has been on the high side. So when I set my mind to prepare this devotional, I had to work through just wanting to chill out and get ready for bed.

Given everything Jesus suffered for my salvation, being tired at the end of a few busy days is trivial in comparison. But Jesus' whole life was not live in that kind of crucible of suffering. He knew what it was, for instance, at the well at Sychar in Samaria, to be weary. He sat down on the side of the well because he was tired. But still, he engaged the woman at the well in conversation.

And that thought reminded me of one more thing I love about the Lord Jesus. He gets me. He gets us. He knows what it is to be fully human. He knows the surges of energy and the depths of exhaustion. He knows the satisfaction of a good laugh and the broken heart of deep loss. Not just in the big things, but in the small things, He understands. Whether we are tempted to procrastinate, overreact, give in to sin or look the other way when wrong is being done, He empathizes. He has been tempted in every way, just as we are, but without ever sinning. He who serves as our high priest before God, His Father, advocates for us with a genuine understanding.

That’s why, when we come to His throne, we can obtain mercy and find grace to help us when we’re needy.

Jesus knows all about our struggles
He will guide till the day is done
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus
No not one
No not one

Charles M. Butler

Day 33

“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
Luke 2:6–7

“O holy night,” we sing, and rightly so. That the Holy One of God, the Only Son of the Father, was born of the virgin Mary that night makes it a once-in-eternity event, an occurrence that will never be repeated.

It would have been appropriate if the entire number of angelic beings had lifted their voice to notify the whole earth that the Son of God was coming to live among us that night. But our Lord had emptied himself of His glory and humbled Himself to become human. The number of angels that did appear was limited, but still more than enough to leave unsuspecting shepherds in wide-mouthed astonishment at their announcement.

The words were fit for the most exalted herald: "for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ, the Lord." The announcement is the kind that’s proclaimed in the courts of kings, not the fields of shepherds.

It is the normalness of today’s verses that stand out. "The time came for her to give birth." That happens with every full-term pregnancy. They wrapped him and swaddling cloths, blankets, like every other baby. They layed him in a manger because there was no room in the inn. Again, it was not unusual when the crowds came to Jerusalem and then overflowed into Bethlehem and Bethany and others surrounding towns, that all of the available beds in people’s homes were filled. There were no motels, just shared rooms. When they were full, some slept under the stars, others would find space in a cave that was being used as a stable or the ground floor of a house where the animals were normally kept. It wasn’t an insult. It was life, normal every day life.

God does some of His most amazing miracles in normal every day life. A couple has a baby, and that wakes them up to their distance from the Lord; they return to church and to the Lord. You invite a friend to church or to listen to a livestream of your church and the person becomes a Christian.  When you hear a message on the radio, when you are handed a gospel pamphlet or tract, and you take time to read it; when a friend shares the gospel with you, when you get invited to church, these are all every day normal things. But somehow, in the midst of these normal conversations and interactions and invitations, we got saved. God created new life in us when we repented of our sin and believed on Jesus. No flash of light, no angels singing in the sky. When we pray in God hears and answers, and it is clear that the answer was in motion before we prayed, that’s normal every day life. When the opportunity comes for us to share Jesus with a dear friend, a relative, we love, coworker, we respect, and they hear and believe the message, that’s normal every day life.

Prayers, conversations, invitations, normal everyday things, can lead to salvation, sanctification and transformation.

Because our Lord is at work in normal, everyday life.

Do you see Him?

Charles M. Butler

Day 32

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:31

In Acts 13, the elders at Antioch were directed by the Lord to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work of evangelism and church planting. Barnabas took with them his young nephew, John Mark, a native of Jerusalem. Their first stop was the island of Cyprus. Cypress was a primarily Jewish island in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the coast of Israel. It was an easy first start and their ministry there went well.

Their next port of call was Perga in Pamphylia, on the southern shore of Asia Minor, which we know as Turkey. This was a thoroughly pagan place with a very different feel than Cyprus. John Mark deserted them there and went back to Jerusalem. In Acts 15, when Barnabas suggested that John Mark join them on their second missionary tour. Saul, who now went by Paul, put his foot down and absolutely refused to have the deserter accompany them again. It was the cause of a partnership-splitting rift between Paul and Barnabas.

It was around 20 years later when Paul asked Timothy to bring John Mark with him when he came, because he saw John Mark as being profitable to the ministry. John Mark wore the mark of his failure for a long time.

How different the picture is for Peter when he failed. The response of Jesus does not carry the tone of rebuke, but of a good natured chiding, that had Peter held onto his faith just a little bit longer, he would have done it. He would have walked on the water to Jesus.

Peter had an even more poignant experience with Jesus after denying Him three times the night He was arrested and tortured, then crucified. After His resurrection, Jesus made it a point to visit Peter personally, a private meeting that we're told nothing else about. But later, in front of the rest of the disciples, Jesus restores Peter in John 21.

Our Lord encourages us in our efforts to follow Him boldly with our whole hearts. Even when we miss the mark and sink, He pulls us up and encourages us to go again. Peter walked with Jesus on the water to get back to the boat. He who pleases the Father perfectly, who never made a mistake, never missed the mark, but who knows fully what it is to be human -- our Lord Jesus -- welcomes do-overs.

What grace! What compassion! What kindness! What a good, good God, we serve!

Charles M. Butler

Day 31

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
Matthew 14:28–29

Teachable moments. Every excellent teacher, every life-changing mentor is aware of those moments when the past and the present conspire to create an opportunity for a concept or a lesson to be grasped and assimilated with a clarity that had not been accessible until that instant.

Jesus had sent his disciples out by twos to do what they had seen Him do — preach, heal, deliver and resurrect. When they returned, he immersed them into an even more intense mode of ministry: they had ministered to one person at a time; now they would minister to thousands. Knowing that they handed Jesus two small fish and five tennis ball sized loaves, from His hands they carried basket full after basket full of fish and bread until close to 20,000 mouths had been filled and satisfied. The disciples were awestruck, not just that Jesus had done this, but that He had included them in it, just as He had when He preached and healed and delivered and resurrected.

Exhausted, they got into the boat at Jesus’ urging and starting rowing across the lake. In the midst of the storm that stranded them in the middle of the lake in the middle of the night and at the end of their wits, Jesus showed up to rescue them, walking on the water.

After they stopped screaming, Peter got the idea that, if Jesus had them do the other stuff that He had done, why wouldn't Jesus have him walk on the water? He asked. Jesus simply said, “Come."

How else would Peter learn to trust Jesus in the days to come, when he was to lead the team that would launch the Church? Peter understood that Jesus was teaching by example and he wanted to try. And Jesus was for it!

The other eleven stayed dry. But Jesus affirmed Peter’s desire to literally step out in faith. Had Peter not risked it, he would never have seen what faith in Jesus could do. Had Jesus not said, “Come,” there would be no story to tell.

Paul said to Timothy,


Jesus didn’t nurture timidity. He didn’t remind Peter of what could go wrong. He encouraged him to boldly step out.

Because Jesus had him.

Charles M. Butler

Day 30

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
Matthew 14:27

You are doing God‘s will with all your heart. You’re serving faithfully at your church or in your ministry. You’re loving on your family and taking care of them. You’re in God‘s word. You’re praying, interceding for others, believing God to do what only God can do. You’re sharing your faith as you have opportunity. And you’re walking with God. You have moments of sin, but you confess them to God quickly and return to walking with God. Most days your fellowship with Him is sweet.

But then, without warning, things start going wrong. Struggles at the ministry. You’re having a hard time sleeping. Your devotions are getting interrupted. But you’re no wimp. Difficulties will come, but you press on. You dig in. You don’t roll over, you don’t give up.

But the storm gets worse and you’re losing ground. You can see it around you and you can feel it in your heart. You’re starting to get discouraged, starting to wonder how long you can keep this up. You’re praying, you’re trusting God is best you can, you’re speaking His word into your heart and mind. But still the storm gets worse.

That’s where the disciples are when Jesus speaks the words of today’s verse to them. They had just returned from an incredible ministry tour. When they got back, they helped Jesus miraculously feed 5000 men plus women and children. When that was over, Jesus put them into a boat and told them to row to the other side of the lake and he would meet them there.

That’s what they were doing -- rowing. But a wind storm came down off the mountains, and suddenly the water got rough and the waves were being thrown in their faces. They were putting all their effort into rowing, but it was getting them nowhere. The sun was setting when they left but now it was 3 o’clock in the morning and they were still rowing.

As they were hitting the point of desperation, they saw something moving on the water toward them. What they saw made no sense. They saw someone coming toward them on the water -- not in a boat, but walking on the water. The only thing they could think of that could do that was a ghost. That’s when they lost it.

But that was also when Jesus spoke to them. Take courage! It is I. fear not. The middle sentence is the one on which the other two hang; it is I. Literally, what Jesus said was, “I am.“ That can mean "It is I" or something like "I am here." But this is Jesus. Yes, He was telling them that it was Him, but He was also demonstrating that He was Lord of creation.

The Lord of all, the one who commands the winds and the waves, the one who heals the sick and casts out demons and raises the dead, He is the one who comes to our aid. In our darkest nights, in our most desperate of situations, He is with us. His presence strengthens our hearts and takes away the power of fear. We will not be overcome.

Because, I AM is with us.

Charles M. Butler

Day 29

They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
Matthew 14:17–18

Few things are as disheartening as taking honest stock of yourself in your situation, and realizing that what you have is inadequate for what you need to do. No matter how you slice it, no matter how carefully you steward what you have, it’s just not going to work.

Not every situation is like that. We face challenges that stretch us, that require that we think outside the box, that force us to tap into capabilities that we weren’t convinced that we had. There are even times in life when we come to the realization that we can’t accomplish the goal by ourselves and need to enlist the help of others. But those situations can have happy outcomes. We stretch to do something that we have never done before. We force ourselves to think in new ways about what we need to accomplish. We face our fears and attempt to do something that we had told ourselves we couldn’t do, only to find that it was within reach. Or we humble ourselves to recognize that if we enlist the help of others around us, we can get the job done.

The disciples had done all these things. They had just come back from a ministry tour, where Jesus had sent them to do what they had seen him do: heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the gospel, and deliver from demons. And, in His name, they had done all that.

But what Jesus had just told them to do -- feed a crowd of 5000 men plus women and children – was simply beyond them. They couldn’t come up with the money to buy the food. Even if they had the money, there was no place nearby to get that much food. And they had taken a survey of the crowd and found a total of five biscuits and two sardines. They were out of options and out of time.

They were right where Jesus wanted them to be; they were at the end of themselves. Jesus invited them to bring what they had to Him and trust Him to make up the difference, just as they had on their ministry tour.

Jesus took their inadequate best and multiplied it to accomplish his will, but He included them. He was not scolding them or shaming them. He was growing their faith in what He could to do in and through them.

When young child wants to help a parent with some task being done around the house, the parent knows that they could accomplish the task more quickly by themselves. But because they want their child to grow into all that they can be as an adult, they have the child help them. And in the process they teach the child to be a little more like them.

We are created in the image and likeness of God. Because we were tainted by sin at the beginning of our race, we have no idea of the capabilities that God has placed in us and how He wants to partner with us. Jesus came not only to save us from our sin, but to reconcile us to God and restore us to God’s purpose for us.

When we reach the end of our adequacy, it is then that, in His grace, He takes what we bring to Him and shows us what can be accomplished with Him. He is preparing us for eternity, where we, the unworthy and inadequate, will reign with Him

O what a Savior!
Isn't He wonderful?
Sing Hallelujah,
Christ is risen
Bow down before Him
For He is Lord of all
Sing Hallelujah
Christ is Risen

Charles M. Butler

Day 28

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10

What do you long for? What would it take to satisfy you?

We would typically answer a question like that by saying that we need to know what area of life we’re talking about. What would satisfy us economically would be different than what would satisfy us relationally or vocationally. It would be a difficult question to answer.

Jesus warns us that the thief seeks to come between us and satisfaction. Satan is that thief, and he accomplishes his goal of deprivation by leading us away from that which cannot be stolen or killed or destroyed.

One of the great challenges of the American way of life is its constant insistence that the accumulation of economic wealth is the dream most worthy of pursuing -- the American dream. But the testimonies of those who have attained significant riches often reflect their surprise that having it all does not satisfy.

Jesus would tell us that to pursue the American dream or it’s equivalent is to set ourselves on the path of disappointment. His wisdom: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Righteousness is what results when people do what’s right. Don’t think of it in terms of do I obey the speed limit or do I tell the truth on my taxes or am I faithful to my spouse. Those things matter, but they limit our thinking. Like looking through drinking straws, we’re blinded to much of what there is to see.

To do right is to show care and concern for my fellow human beings, for the earth and the creatures that inhabit it, to do today that which will not bring harm today or tomorrow. To do right is to do my part to contribute to a world where things work as God intended. Right is good.

But right is not common. The question Jesus asks is, do we long for right or do we just want things to go the way we want. The second is the American dream. The first, Jesus says, leads to satisfaction. it’s not the satisfaction of a good meal that leaves in a few hours, or the satisfaction of completing a major project, which may last for years or decades. This is the satisfaction of knowing that I have been faithful to God and have pleased Him. It’s the satisfaction of hearing Him say, well done -- a satisfaction that will last for eternity.

Jesus came to give us life to the full, which is to say, to the point of satisfaction.

And Jesus doesn’t lie and He doesn't deceive. His way is not our way, but His way leads to the destination that we truly desire.

Charles M. Butler

Day 27

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Revelation 22:13

We’ve seen both in the Gospel of John chapter 1 and in Colossians chapter 1 that everything that was created was created through the Son. He is truly the Alpha, the first, the beginning of all things. And here in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Jesus declares that Ge is the Omega, the last, the end. He came to fix all that had been broken by sin, to reconcile all that had been alienated. And all that He came to do, He accomplished. The 22nd chapter of Revelation depicts life after sin, Satan, Death and Hades have been vanquished. Jesus has won the victory!

His work as the Alpha, the first, and the beginning is plain for us to see. The earth is here. We are here. We can look up and see the sun and the stars. We can look around and see birds and animals and insects. And we can peer into the seas and behold all manner of aquatic life.

But the work of our Lord as the Omega, the last and the end is yet to be completed. It has been begun, and there is one sense in which it’s completion is guaranteed because Jesus does not fail to deliver. What He starts, He finishes. Jesus started the new age, the end of all things, when He came, and especially, when He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. That which is to be fulfilled is on its way to its fulfillment.

But it’s not there yet. We are experiencing that middle ground, the "now" and the "not yet." For those of us who have believed, we have been united with Christ in His death and have been raised to life with Him. We are in His hand and nothing can pluck us out. We have been given eternal life. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and He will come again and receive us so that we may be with Him where He is. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Still, the one who was born of a virgin, who not only predicted His death, but His resurrection, and then died and was raised from the dead as He predicted, this one can be trusted to finish what He started. Here is one statement of the promise He made to us:


We will make it home. It won't be because we were so faithful. It won't be because of our great service to the Kingdom of God. It won't even be for our sacrificial service to Jesus our King. We will make it home for one reason: Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He has made the way for us so that "not yet" will become our "now." He who holds all authority in heaven and earth, who is Lord over all the ages of the world, will glorify those He foreknew and predestined and justified.

Jesus never fails.

Charles M. Butler

Day 26
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
John 15:16

Embracing Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord is the culmination of a journey for most of us. After we place our trust in the Lord, after we receive him and receive new life from him, most of us think back, asking ourselves, “How did I get here?”

I can remember finding a little gospel booklet entitled “the end of the world”. After reading it, I was aware that God was holy and I was not. I was going to go to hell if I died. But I was only 12 or 13 and so I didn’t think about it any further right then. It was two years later than I had the gospel explained to me. And that’s when I received the Lord Jesus as my savior.

It’s clear that I had a choice in accepting the Lord. But what Jesus says in our verse today is that he chose me; I did not choose him. And that’s surprising, because it sure felt like I chose him.

But as we saw a couple of days ago, Zaccheaus climbed the Sycamore tree because he was seeking Jesus. What he was unaware of, however, was that he was inclined to climb the tree because Jesus was seeking him.

It’s the same with us. Ephesians 2:1 tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had no spiritual sensitivity. Consequently, we could not choose the Lord because the part of us that would have been sensitive to our need for him was already dead. One of the mysteries of God’s saving work in us is that he must make the first move for us to be able to respond.

Eventually, that raises the question in our minds, why did God choose us? Why me? And the answer to that is found in the word “choose“. John wrote his gospel in the Greek language, which was the common language of his day. And the word he used for choose is one that clearly means the choice was made by the chooser, and had nothing to do with the quality of the one being chosen. There was nothing in us to warrant or earn being chosen, he, for his own reasons, chose us. In multiple places, we are told that the reason is because he loved us. He loved us for no good reason that we can come up with. He loved us because he loves.

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Charles M. Butler

Day 25

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 2:1–2

A friend of mine had made some bad choices and had a court date to face charges. He reached out to me, concerned about how he would represent himself. An attorney that I knew said that wasn’t the type of case that he handled, but he would make a call. He let me know shortly thereafter that his fellow attorney would handle it pro bono.

My friend arrived in court on the required day and time, but his name was not called. After waiting for an extended period, he approached the clerk. The clerk said his attorney had come earlier that morning and taken care of the case and he was free to go. He called me, grateful and quite surprised.

When we mess up, it’s good to have an advocate.

In the first chapter of 1 John, we learn that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness at all. He is completely and utterly holy, and He is all seeing, all knowing. Nothing escapes His notice. So when we sin, He knows. There’s no point pretending or denying. We are caught.

But there is hope. John tells us that if we confess our sins, if we own them without excuse and agree with God that what we did was wrong, that He’s faithful and just to forgive our sins and then to wash us clean from all of our unrighteousness.

We could read that and think, “Well if that’s the case, my sin doesn’t really matter.” That would be a mistake. In today's verses, John makes it clear that we should not sin. But if and when we do, we are not pleading our case to God alone. We have an advocate

Jesus lived a perfectly righteous human life. He pleased the Father in every way. Our Advocate has a perfect record before the court, so He has favor. He stands in for us, to plead our case. But He does so on a unique basis. He is the propitiation for our sin. He is the sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God from us. It’s on the basis of what He has done that we are forgiven; He has already paid the penalty for us.

And John reminds us that it’s not just for us. Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world -- all who receive Him as their Savior and Lord. He's reminding us that we should share this good news.

Because we all need an advocate.

There are so many reasons to love our Lord!

Charles M. Butler

Day 24

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5

A few days ago, the devotional was on John 1:4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.“ That idea, that in Jesus is life, is the basis of what Jesus is saying here: He is the vine, we are the branches. Life flows from Him into us. When it does we bear fruit. In fact, Jesus says we bear much fruit.

The one requirement to bearing much fruit is that we abide in Him and He in us.

This conversation in John 14-16 that Jesus is having with his disciples came right after Judas had left the room in order to betray Jesus. He did not abide in the vine. He looked like a believer. He sounded like a believer. He even healed like a believer and preached like a believer. And yet, when it came down to it, he had not truly believed, and so, he didn’t abide.

Jesus said that to everyone who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God. Children of God abide in the vine. But not everyone who hangs around Jesus and speaks His name is truly His. When He talked about the four soils, Jesus let us know then that there are some who receive the Word with joy initially, but then fall away when problems come. And there are others who receive the Word, but then turn their attention to the cares of this life, and the Word gets choked out. Not everyone who hangs around Jesus and speaks his name is really his.

But when we are genuinely His, we abide in the vine. And those who abide in the vine produce much fruit. It’s not because they are so good or proficient or diligent. It’s because the life of the vine flows in them.

We sometimes get confused about what is fruit. But Jesus connects fruit with prayer; whatever results from effective prayer in Jesus' name is fruit. So fruit covers a wide range of examples. But fruit only happens because the life of the vine is flowing in us.

Jesus is life. We are in him as the branch is in the vine. His life flowing through us produces fruit. That fruit can be a change life, it can be someone who believes the gospel. Fruit can be a healed marriage or a person who takes one step closer to Jesus because of us. Fruit can be our pastor’s effective ministry because we prayed for him, or it can be our church’s recovery from a crisis. When Jesus life flows in the believer, there’s always fruit.

Perhaps, if we looked for fruit differently, if we noticed how He’s working through us, our passion for Him might burn a little more brightly.

Charles M. Butler

Day 23

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10

It’s not every day that you see a business man climbing a tree in public. But Zacchaeus hadn’t made it to where he was in life by caring about what other people think. So when he heard that Jesus was in Jericho, he knew that Jesus would pass by that tree on that road, and he wanted to get a look at Jesus.

What Zacchaeus didn’t know was that the reason he was up in that tree was that Jesus was coming to see him. As He walked and taught, surrounded by a small crowd, He came to the tree. He stopped, looked up into Zacchaeus‘s eyes, and invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s house.

Jesus had dinner there, stayed the night there, and the next day Zacchaeus was a changed man. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." He remembered his Torah from his childhood at synagogue and committed to fulfill its requirements. A man who had sold himself to the Romans for the sake of making money -- he was a tax collector for them -- is now promising to give away large amounts of money. All because Jesus stayed at his house.

Zacchaeus thought that he was seeking Jesus when, in reality, Jesus was seeking him.

Have you ever given thought to how the gospel got to you? Why it came to you persistently, or just at the right time, so that you responded in saving faith? Why the circumstances of your life had you in the frame of mind to hear what was being said to you? Why it made sense now when you blew it off all the other times?

It wasn’t a coincidence.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. You were lost. I was lost. We didn't know we were lost. We were just trying to make life work the best way we knew how, trying to make a buck, trying to make our relationships work, trying to make a little headway. When God came to mind, we brushed it off as something that we would have to address later. Or we shut down because we had gotten disappointed or hurt at church before. But Jesus came to our tree and looked us in the eye, said He wanted to stay with us. He invited us to hear Him, to see Him, to believe and receive Him.

Jesus came and found us.

Aren’t you glad?

Charles M. Butler

Day 22

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’”
Matthew 28:18

Jesus has been given all authority by the Father. With that authority, Jesus will restore all that Satan has taken or damaged. 1 John 3:8 says:


Satan is the father of lies. By his deception he has persuaded men and women to construct structures, systems, and lifestyles that are dishonoring to God and destructive to humanity and to the earth.

Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

• Satan had put things in place to block our path to God. Jesus destroyed Satan‘s works by becoming our way to God.

• Satan began deceiving and leading humans astray in Genesis 3 and he continues to develop sophisticated and layered deceptions to entrap us. Jesus is the Word who became flesh. He has revealed the Father to us. He is the Light of the world that has exposed the lies and deceptions of Satan.

• Satan led us into sin. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Jesus took our sin on Him and suffered death in our place so that He could give us life.

Jesus has defeated Satan and triumphed over him. Nothing that Satan has perpetrated against humankind or the earth will stand. Jesus has begun the restoration through His work on the cross and will finish it when Satan, Death and Hades are thrown onto the Lake of Fire. The heavens and the earth will be new, and Jesus will present a fully reconciled Kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:23-28). Nothing can hinder Him from completing all that He came to do.

In the words of the Negro Spiritual:

“Ride on, King Jesus!
No man can hinder Thee!
Ride on, King Jesus! Ride on!
No man can hinder Thee!

For He is King of kings!
He is Lord of lords!
Jesus Christ, the first and last,
No man works like Him!

Charles M. Butler

Day Twenty-one

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’”
Matthew 28:18

In Genesis chapter 1, God created the heavens and the earth, and then filled the earth with life. His final act was to create man and woman and place them as rulers over all the earth. But in chapter 3, the woman was deceived by the serpent into rebelling against God. The man willingly followed her in that rebellion.

Satan was the mind and the will behind the serpent. By their rebellion, the man and the woman left their throne unattended and Satan was more than happy to sit in it. He has held sway over humankind, and through them, the earth, ever since.

But God had promised that the seed of the woman would one day crush the serpent’s head. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the seed of the woman. And through His death on the cross and His resurrection, He crushed Satan‘s head and broke his power over humankind.

But most people still believe the lies that Satan tells. They refuse to acknowledge God and so they don’t walk with him. Their sins come between them and God.

But Jesus, through His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to the Father’s side, has broken the power of sin and death for all who will believe in Him. That is the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel.

But the good news goes further than that. Jesus came to reconcile all things to Himself– everything that Satan and sin have touched and tainted -- humanity and the rest of creation. And He Himself will rule until all the enemies of God are subdued and Jesus reigns supreme in all things.

Man and woman, Adam and Eve, handed the world over to the destruction of Satan and those who walk in his ways. God's solution to the debacle of Genesis 3 was to send His Son to earth as a full human being, to break Satan's control over humankind, undo all that Satan had led them to do, and rule as the King of the universe.

All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him.

And in an unthinkable act of grace, He will have His bride, the church -- all those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, reign with him.

Hail to the King!

Charles M. Butler

Day Twenty

“I and the Father are one.”
John 10:30

In the second most famous chapter in Isaiah, chapter 40, Isaiah asks a question in verse 18: "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?"

Then he ridicules the practice of making an idol. Jeremiah does the same thing in chapter 10 of his prophecy. Both raise the question: why would someone cut down a tree and carve part of it into a shape, set it on an altar and bow down and worship it? And then take the rest of the tree, chop it up into firewood, and use it to cook their dinner. How can it be my god if I have to make it?!

A being worthy of the title “God” should be infinitely more than I am, more intelligent, more powerful, more present, more knowledgeable. The Creator and Sustainer of the universe should be categorically, qualitatively beyond me. Why worship something that's on my level?

These are the thoughts that occur to me when I come to John 10:30. How are Jesus and the Father one? Some have sought to say they are one in mind, one in purpose – they have the same goals and intentions. Those things are true. However, John began his gospel explaining that the Word who was with God was God, but was also in the beginning with God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the point that Jesus is making here is more than just intention. He’s saying that He and the Father have a connection such that He can do everything that the Father does. He is God.

The Jews that were listening to him accused Him of making Himself God and tried to stone Him for blasphemy. They understood Him clearly. But their thinking about Him, and about the nature of who God is, was stuck in what they could conceive of. In their minds, their one God could only be one person.

Admittedly, that there is one God who exists in three distinct persons is not logical in any human sense, but God is not human. The Son became human for us, but the Father and the Spirit did not. Jesus stated it clearly: God is spirit.

I wrestled with whether or not to write this as a devotional. What compelled me was the thought that I would not worship that which I could figure out.

When the Lord Jesus confronted Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, the bright light of Jesus’ presence blinded Saul. He knew exactly what that light was: it was the Shekinah, the glory of the one true God. But Paul was compelled to ask a question: “Who are you, Lord?“ And the answer stunned him: “I am Jesus.“ The Shekinah glory of the one true God had just come from Jesus of Nazareth. How could one God be two?

He would later learn that the Spirit of God was not simply an influence, but the third person of the Trinity. One God, three persons. Our God is no carved figure made from a well chosen tree, nor a molded object made from a piece of precious metal. He's not even the product of a brilliant imagination. He is more – more complex than we could imagine, more subtle than we can discern, more immense than our thoughts can navigate.

And still, He is rich in mercy toward us, has great love for us, and boundless grace to save us.

He is worthy of our worship.

Charles M. Butler

Day Nineteen

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 10:27–28

During hurricane Katrina, a heartbreaking story appeared in news reports – really just a sentence in the midst of the longer accounts of that disaster. The waters surged around a parent and child. The parent found a handhold with one hand, but the other arm had been damaged in the flood. The child either didn’t get to grab on or the grasp slipped, and the parent, unable to save their child, watched in horror as the child was swept away and eventually disappeared from sight. The flood had no malice; it was just water. But it snatched that child away from their parent.

Yesterday we talked about becoming a sheep in Jesus flock. There are persons, Jesus calls them thieves, who come after the sheep with the intent to steal, kill and destroy. they are also referred to as wolves. These are people who attempt to invalidate our faith in the Lord Jesus, who seek to persuade us that we have been duped and led to believe a lie. They may approach it from the viewpoint of another religion, or an atheistic secular worldview, or they may just be cynical about all matters of religious faith. But their goal is to steal our allegiance, to kill our faith and destroy the lifestyle and legacy of those who know Christ.

But Jesus, our Shepherd, says "No" to the thief and the wolf. He says His sheep are in His hand and no one can pluck them out. Once we are His, we are secure. He will not let us go. The flood waters of overwhelming situations, of persuasive and manipulative people, of our own weaknesses and misguided decisions will not pluck us from our Shepherd's hand.

We talked yesterday about what it means to be known. Jesus knows our hearts, even when we become disoriented and confused. What He has done for us cannot be undone. If it could be, even by us, then Jesus would be a liar. But "no one" is all inclusive. We are safe in His arms.

Then our Lord takes it a step further: “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

We are in the flock of Jesus because the Father gave us to Him, placed us in His hand. Jesus says that we are secure because His Father is greater than He and, because His Father has placed us in Jesus' hand, to take us from Jesus' hand would require that someone snatch us from the Father‘s hand. And that’s not possible because His Father is the greatest of all.

So we are doubly secured: we are in the hand of Jesus, in the hand of the Father. If we reach forward to Ephesians 1:13–14, we learn of another layer of security, because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, triple secured in our Savior’s care.

Be at peace and rest in him. He has you.

Charles M. Butler

Day Eighteen

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 10:27–28

On Sunday, our brother Charles Lyons preached to us about "Change Your Mind" – a message about repentance. He explained to us that Jesus began His ministry with the word "repent". He was calling us to change our minds in light of who He was and what He preached. If we receive the message of Jesus, we change our minds.

That’s what Jesus is describing in the first part of our passage. To receive the message of Jesus is to become part of His flock, to become His sheep. And He says His sheep know His voice, and He knows them.

Those two thoughts are connected: us knowing His voice and His knowing us. When we receive His message, He gives us new life -- a new heart and a new spirit -- so that we can relate with Him. We read His Word and we hear His voice. His Spirit, who He have to us when He gave us new life, teaches us God's Word, reminds us of what Jesus has said and warns us when we are drifting away from the Lord and His Word. Because of all the provisions He has made for us, we, His sheep, hear His voice.

And He knows us. Sometimes we don’t want to be known because those who know us have a certain power in our lives and we may fear that. If I’ve been surrounded by those who abuse power, I don’t want to be known by them. If I choose to do that which is dishonest or malicious, I’d rather not be known. But when I know that I am loved, deeply loved, unconditionally loved, then being known becomes a precious thing. It gives me peace and a sense of security. It gives me confidence and courage.

When we hear the message of Jesus and we change our minds and follow Him, He knows us. He knows us in the sense of a deep and intimate relationship. He knows us with His unconditional love, His faithfulness and His generous mercy.

Does Jesus know you? If He does, then you know that you matter. You know that someone is paying attention to you. You have worth to Him.

Gospel recording artist and minister of music Anthony Brown penned these words:

You thought I was worth saving
So You came and changed my life
You thought I was worth keeping
So You cleaned me up inside
You thought I was to die for
So You sacrificed Your life
So I could be free
So I could be whole
So I could tell everyone I know

Does that truth stir your heart for our Lord?

Pastor Charles Butler

Day Seventeen

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
John 1:18

I have been married to my wife almost 44 years. I know her better than I know any other person and, I believe, I know her better than any other person knows her.

But to say, I understand her is probably stretching it too far. Now, there is a lot about her that I do understand, things that I can anticipate and predict. But she still surprises me. Her responses and perspectives are often very different than mine. I know her - we're in the most intimate of human relationships - but I don’t fully understand her. That’s a journey and not a destination.

Yesterday we reflected some on Moses' request to see God‘s glory. God had told Moses in response that no man could see his face and live. In today's verse, John reflects further on that storyline and reminds us that, "No one has ever seen God." And then he tells us that the one-of-a-kind, who is God in His own right, who is as intimately close with the Father as can be – the older translations of the Bible say “in the bosom of the Father“ – this same one has explained God to us, has told us God’s story.

In John’s first letter, 1 John 1:1-4, John describes the experience that he and the other apostles had with Jesus. He talks about how they saw him and heard him and how they had physical contact with him. I don’t mean to sound overly common, but they knew the aroma of Jesus during a long walk on a hot day. They knew which pair of sandals belonged to Him. They shared housing and meals and travel. And while, on the one hand, Jesus was their rabbi in the early days and their Lord in the latter days of His ministry, on the other hand, Jesus was one of the guys. They bumped and jostled one another as they worked side-by-side or pressed their way through a crowd. They knew Jesus "up close and personal."

But it was in His teaching, and in His responding to needy people, the way He handled those who misused their authority and those who sought to harm Him – these were the things that explained God to them. His patience with them as they argued over who was the greatest, His gentle and persistent instruction when they didn’t understand things that He taught them, and most of all, when He was arrested and tried and crucified - these were things that transformed their understanding of who God was.

Moses spoke with God “face-to-face “, meaning one on one, but not that he actually saw God‘s face. When Jesus came, suddenly God had a face that we could look at and live. And even though we today do not look into the physical face of Jesus, we know that one day we will. And until then we continue to grow in our understanding of God because Jesus has explained him to us in ways that we can connect with.

Through reading the Gospels, we gain a first-hand account of God through Jesus. As we walk the roads of Palestine with Him and visit the villages, watching what He does and listening to what He says, God is being explained to us. As we read the rest of the New Testament, we learn a little about how God thinks as He builds His church and accomplished His purposes. Our Father in heaven is no longer unapproachable or unknowable.

All this is missed, of course, if our pursuit of God centers around what He can do for us, what He can give us and how He can bless us. But when we seek Him first, we have a privilege greater than Moses ever knew, because we know Jesus. And because of Jesus, we can understand God better, little by little.

Thank God for Jesus!

Pastor Charles M. Butler