Here are my thoughts as we listened through the last of the gospels.

• Nowadays most people think about terrorists when they hear these verses. The apostle Paul was one of the first religious terrorists.
• People are wrong on so many levels when discussing things about God. This is why it’s so important to LISTEN to what the Bible says.
• In his humanity, Jesus didn’t know that God would turn his back while Jesus was on the cross
• If Jesus prayed that we would be protected from the enemy, it must be a pretty big deal – much bigger than we realize.
• Jesus already knew what was going to happen, and he did it anyway.
• How did they not know that Jesus was going to come back to life?
• I love that Jesus came back specifically for Thomas. Not one person’s relationship with God is insignificant to him.
• I have always loved the (seemingly insignificant) fact that they counted the fish – and that Jesus had breakfast ready.
• It’s amazing how easily stupid rumors get started.

I don’t know if you thought this or not, but there is something about the narrator’s voice for John’s gospel that just sounded like someone telling me a story.

I love the tone in his voice as he read the last verse. He didn’t make it sound like “The End” – more like, “You’ve got to hear the rest of this story…”

Appropriately, “The Acts of the Apostles” is really the continuing story of Jesus’ work.

Still catching up on posting my “Listen” thoughts from while we were gone.

• Even though Lazarus died, his sickness didn’t “end in death.” Sometimes God will use even death as another event to glorify himself.
• Jesus came by, and the religious leaders couldn’t think about anything except losing their followers, their buildings, their status, etc. God’s kingdom is so much bigger than just our church buildings and ministries.
• It’s so easy to care about “the poor” when they are nothing more than a subset of humanity out there, some where. Jesus didn’t care about “the poor” – he cared about the lost person who happened to be poor.
• Lives are changed when people come into contact with someone who has been changed.
• What good is it to “have faith in Jesus” but not tell anyone about it?
• What would you do if God gave you “complete power”?
• God doesn’t care so much why you have faith in Jesus, so long as you do and it’s genuine.
• I want to look at this further in its broader context: “If you obey me, I will keep loving you…”

Saralynn and I have been out of town at a conference for the last couple of days, but we were listening. I’ll get caught up on my posts in the next couple of days. Here are my listen thoughts from Sunday’s passage:

• I wonder if the offer for kingship was a test or temptation that Jesus chose to run from
• Many people ask, “What does God want me to do?” Jesus’ answer was simple: “God wants you to have faith in the one he sent.”
• This statement reminds me of another one of Jesus’ teachings about those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6, NET)
• This is a great passage that teaches both 1) God’s perfect knowledge of the future and our responsibility to believe in him and 2) God’s ultimate hand in giving salvation.
• I don’t know how anyone can read this conversation and say that Jesus never said he was God.
• I love this guy’s testimony! “I don’t know about all the fancy stuff. All I know is this: I was blind, but now I can see.” It doesn’t get any better than that!
• This lifelong-blind beggar knew God’s heart behind the Scriptures better than the teachers did.

Here are the stats so far for our Listen program (for you numbers people). As of Saturday’s listening:

• we are over one-third (35%) of the way through by days (14 of 40)
• we are 28% through the chapters (73 of 260)
• we are just over one-tenth (11%) through the books of the New Testament

Micah: God told Jesus what to say

Nathan: This is the only book so far that has done more than just mention Philip

Saralynn: Jesus was alive before John, even though John was born first

Dan’l:

• I wonder what kind of relationship John and Jesus had growing up (since they were relatives); John obviously didn’t know that Jesus was the Messiah
• "Come and see" requires that there is something to see. If you invite someone to see Christ, he had better be able to be seen.
• I think momma needed to cut some apron strings and let her baby go
• Think about this: if a teacher of the Old Testament law should have understood about Christ, then we should be able to find him all over the Old Testament law, and we can.
• I had never thought of the Samaritan woman using a condescending tone of voice
• This is what we want to do – move people from just believing our word to actually experiencing Christ
• How many sick people did Jesus walk past and step over in order to heal just one man?
• This is a great explanation of the inner workings of the godhead, the trinity – the Son does nothing on his own, but he has been given the authority to give life to whomever he wants. "Trinity" is good, but "tri-unity" is better.
• Do our actions show others that God has sent us?