Scripture

But the Pharisees were disturbed by this and said to each other, “We won’t be able to stop this. The whole world is going to run after Him.”

~John 12:19, TPT

Quote

“I’d rather rule in hell as to serve in heaven.”

~Satan {John Milton}

I am reading the gospel of John is the Passion translation and in chapters eleven and twelve we have back to back episodes of Jesus be hailed as Savior and King. Jesus has the entire city in a frenzy. The people have either witnessed or heard about the two astounding miracles: raising Lazarus from the dead and healing the man born blind. Jesus has a massive following made up of all ages. Even the children are getting in on the praise and celebration. Everyone is talking about Jesus. Everyone wants to see Him and be near Him. The religious big whigs are talking about Jesus too; only they want to kill Him. After the raising of Lazarus, the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. It was in this meeting that Caiaphas said, “You folks are ignorant. Don’t you realize that we {elites} would be better off if one man were to die for the people rather than the whole nation perish?” Caiaphas is not worried about the people: his concern is to preserve his seat of power in the Roman occupied Judea.

What preceded Caiaphas famous prophecy was a comment made during the meeting of the court. Someone said,“If we allow Him to continue like this, everyone will believe in Him.” Two ironies pop to the surface. Did you catch that phrase in John 11:48, “If we allow Him.” The Him is Jesus who is the great I AM. He is the source of life–we are because HE IS! We are sheep and He is the shepherd. We are the creature and He is the creator. How insane to speak of allowing Him to do such and such. He is God and He can do as He very well pleases. People can say stupid things, and this statement, “If we allow Him,” is utterly stupid. The second irony caught my attention first. The Jewish religious leaders were worried that the whole world would follow Jesus and I am worried they they want. Their fear is my prayer. I pray for the whole world to turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. I join Luther in his prayer, “Father restrain the forces of evil, convert sinners and turn the hearts of our enemies toward Christ.” I pray almost daily for the conversion of the Jewish people. I very much want the world to follow Jesus; to flock after Him, to fall at His feet like Mary of Bethany and worship Him with true adoration and praise. N

Speaking of foolish statements. Biden speaking of a “Come to Jesus” meeting is beyond stupid. Biden is not Jesus. I see no similarities between the two and Biden will not se up the meeting. The meeting has already been arranged and Jesus will be coming to Biden. The problem is: Biden is blind and ignorant just like the Jewish leaders that Isaiah describes is chapter fifty-six. The poor idiot {Biden} doesn’t understand his accountability. I can promise you one thing: you do not want to trade places with him. Speaking of ironies: what about a man that pledges to support the killing of the unborn and then minutes later makes a reference to Jesus. The Jesus I know loves little children and that includes the unborn. Nothing would bring me greater joy than to see millions upon millions turning to Jesus.

Extra

I think they are predicting some rain this evening. The ground was sticky but I planted two rows of sweet corn yesterday. I needed to wait one more day but was afraid the rain would get here before I could get to it. We have our 49ers Fellowship today at 11:30. We are doing deli foods today. Sunday evening we have a fish fry with fish, shrimp and chicken. That begins at 5:30 and you are invited to join us for either. We will have enough food, trust me. For all you working folks and children, it TGIF day. Have a good week end. Thanks for reading the blog.

Extra/Extra

Did you know that California has a population of almost 40 million and that is more than 30 U.S. states combined. Top three in population are California, NY State and Texas. The least populated state is Wyoming with 576,000 but there are five states under one million: Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota and Delaware.  We have four states that are just above the one million mark: Montana, Rhode Island, Main and New Hampshire. My guess is that the extremely cold winters and the lack of large cities accounts for this low population. Other small states population wise are Hawaii, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kansas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nevada, and Iowa. All have three million or less, most of them less. Kansas was the biggest shock to me but half of Kansas City is in Missouri.