Yesterday we thought about Whatever Jesus tells you, make sure that you do it! from John 2.6. And what did Jesus tell the servants to do?

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. (John 2.6, 7, NIV)

This is the part most of us remember, I think. Fill the jars. And they did. But the question is, when did the water become wine? The answer, according to The Passion Translation, may surprise you. It did me:

Jesus came to the servers and told them, “Fill the pots with water, right up to the very brim.” Then he said, “Now fill your pitchers and take them to the master of ceremonies.” And when they poured out their pitcher for the master of ceremonies to sample, the water became wine! (John 2.7 – 9, The Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

The miracle happened when the servants completed their obedience. Water, or even wine, sitting in stone jars wouldn’t do any good. The water/wine had to be put into service by the action of the servants.

Similarly, the bread and fish multiplied in the process of distribution, not before:

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, [Jesus] gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. (Luke 9.16, NIV)

Sometimes, it appears, we need to act in faith, and the miracle happens “on the way.” I’ve seen that in this daily blog. I’ve written 391 so far since January 2019, and, as another daily blogger just told me, “It takes a miracle every day!” The ideas come as we commit to sharing them.

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. (Luke 17.11 – 14, ESV)

I have a couple simple observations from Jesus’ first recorded miracle, changing the water into wine at a wedding (John 2.1 – 11). I like The Passion Translation’s rendering of Mary’s instructions to the servants:

Whatever Jesus tells you, make sure that you do it! (John 2.5, Passion Translation)

That’s a good word for us, and it reminds me of James 1.22:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (NIV)

And since Jesus is the Word (see John 1.1 – 3), we could say:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what HE says.

The servants had a slight advantage in that since they were standing in his presence, they had no doubt as to what he wanted them to do. Sometimes we have to discern his voice, and that can be the subject for another day, as will my next observation from John 2.

In the meantime, with respect to Jesus’ word: just do it!

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10.27, NIV)

As part of my application of the importance of preparation that I wrote about recently, I began learning Mathematica, powerful and sophisticated software for mathematics of all kinds. In addition to studying a couple of books, I participated in a webinar where I was watching and listening using my tablet while typing commands into my copy of Mathematica.

Everything was going fine until we began to explore Mathematica’s free form expression capability. “Just tell it what you want, and it will figure it out. Watch!” So we typed something like “Plot the sine of x.” And up it came! Magic.

So I typed something I thought I heard him say: “Plot a sine-like curve.” But of course, being a mathematician, I automatically abbreviated “sine” to “sin” like we always do. Here is the result.

Oops! I wrote to the Mathematica folks asking something like, “Who is she and why is she here?” Amazingly, the nerds at Mathematica knew the answer: she is Sinthea Schmidt (goes by “Sin”), and she is an arch-villain for Marvel Comics. And her picture is certainly a “sin-like plot.”

But it’s OK. I’m pleased that June and I, in our 70s, are not afraid to try new things. And making mistakes is part of learning and being alive, actually.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43.18, 19, NIV)

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)

My friend Bill Mowry, Navigator and author of the wonderful discipleship tool Ways of the Alongsider, likes to quote author Wendell Berry who often draws life lessons from his experiences on the farm. Recently Bill wrote about “organic ministry” – a subject for another day – and in it he included these paragraphs:

[Wendell] Berry asserts that successful farming begins with a simple act: walking the land.“Farming,” writes Berry, “is mainly observational . . . walking and looking, season after season, for many years. . . . The gait most congenial to agrarian thought and sensibility is walking. It is the gait best suited to paying attention . . . and most permissive of stopping to look or think. Machines, companies, and politicians run!”

[Bill continues: ] How are walking and farming related? Berry argues that “the faster we go the less we see, the less we see [the less the land flourishes]. This law also applies with equal attention to work; the faster we work the less attention we pay to its details, and the less skill we can apply to it.” It logically follows that as speed increases, care declines.

This reminds me of Bill and my mutual friend Skip Gray, now in his late 80s. Skip says:

Jesus had a 3-mile-per-hour ministry: he didn’t go jogging through Judea, sprinting through Samaria, or galloping through Galilee. He walked wherever he went.

Jesus had an unhurried life and ministry. Often the gospels record, “Jesus saw a man…” (E.g., John 5.6 and John 9.1) Jesus saw people because he was walking, moving slowly. I’m reminded of that day in Haiti when a missionary and I were walking to a nearby village and met one of my seminary students on his way to a meeting. After talking with us for a few minutes, he turned around and began walking with us toward the village. The missionary asked him, “Weren’t you on your way to a meeting?” To which he replied, “Well, I was, but you’re here now!” Walking (or at least a slower pace of life!) affords us the opportunity to change direction, to see what needs to be done, or to learn a lesson.

The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (John 1.35 – 37, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. (John 9.1, MSG)

One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a lout; They were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down. I took a long look and pondered what I saw; the fields preached me a sermon and I listened… (Proverbs 24.30 – 32, MSG, emphasis mine)

Here’s another insight from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness:

Afterward, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the lonely wilderness in order to reveal his strength against the accuser by going through the ordeal of testing. (Matthew 4.1, Passion Translation)

According to this translation, The Holy Spirit’s intent was “to reveal his strength against the accuser…”

I looked it up in the Greek:

πειράζω peirazō; to test (objectively), i.e. endeavor, scrutinize, entice, discipline: — assay, examine, go about, prove, tempt(-er), try.

So The Passion’s perspective is a good one. “To reveal his strength…” I think of my grandson Taylor’s Marine Corps training, which ended with a 3-day exercise called The Crucible. Here’s what the Marines say about that exercise:

The Crucible is a test every recruit must go through to become a Marine. It tests every recruit physically, mentally and morally and is the defining experience of recruit training. The Crucible takes place over 54-hours and includes food and sleep deprivation and over 45 miles of marching. The Crucible event pits teams of recruits against a barrage of day and night events requiring every recruit to work together to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and help each other along the way.

The obstacles they face include long marches, combat assault courses, the leadership reaction course, and the team-building warrior stations.

Each warrior station is named for a Marine hero whose actions epitomize the values the USMC wants recruits to adopt.

The bottom line is this—the Crucible is a rite of passage that, through shared sacrifice, recruits will never forget. With that memory and the core values learned in recruit training, they will be able to face any challenges in their path.

Boot camp is designed to transform recruits into Marines: the trainers knew that the recruits could complete the Crucible exercise. The purpose was to reveal to the recruits themselves that they could do it and give them an experience to look back on and build upon.

The Father knew that Jesus would defeat Satan in Matthew 4, but now Jesus knows and is ready for subsequent temptations including the one on the cross where the crowd said, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27.40) It’s the same thing Satan said in Matthew 4.3, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity. (Luke 4.13, MSG)

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (1 Corinthians 10.13, MSG)

I’ve just had some new insight into how Jesus’ growing up in Nazareth impacted his life and ministry. That development time counted! Here’s the first of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness as recorded in Matthew. Here’s the text in the Passion Translation:

And after fasting for forty days, Jesus was extremely weak and famished. Then the tempter came to entice him to provide food by doing a miracle. So he said to Jesus, “How can you possibly be the Son of God and go hungry? Just order these stones to be turned into loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4.2, 3)

Of course, Jesus responds “It is written,” and goes on to quote from Deuteronomy that “Man shall not live by bread alone…” But here’s something new: Jesus grew up in obscurity in Nazareth. So the temptation: “How can you possibly be the Son of God and go hungry?” had no meaning. He wasn’t used to any trappings. Why shouldn’t he be hungry? He had probably been hungry before. Maybe not a 40-day fast hungry (hard to imagine!), but he had no doubt learned not to expect that every need or want would be met immediately.

We in America could use some of that perspective. Years ago, 6-year-old Calvin in the (retired) comic strip Calvin and Hobbes once lamented over the length of time a microwave recipe would take: “Six minutes!? Who’s got that kind of time?”

Jesus had no illusion that every need would be met instantly. He knew the Father would see to it that he would have food when he needed it.

The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs. (Matthew 4.11, MSG)

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. (Matthew 6.25, 26, MSG)

(Here is the blog I sent out accidentally last week…)

I wrote yesterday about the importance of the picture on the box when working a jigsaw puzzle, and I compared it to the “profile of a disciple” that we sometimes teach churches to think through. If we’re going to make something, we should have a pattern to follow, yes?

I suggest that a good starting place is, “What did Jesus think a disciple looks like?” In turns out, he used the word disciple only three times in the Gospel of John.

• A disciple knows and obeys God’s Word (John 8.31)
• A disciple loves others (John 13.34, 35)
• A disciple bears fruit (John 15.8)

Disciples are people of the Word:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. (John 8.31, NKJV)

This is why I write often about our daily time with God. Paul is clear in 2 Timothy 3.16, 17 that we can’t be people of God apart from the Word of God.

Disciples love and serve others:

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you… A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.14, 15, 34, 35, NKJV)

Love isn’t just warm feelings, it’s self-sacrificial service, as I mentioned a few days ago. Love also would work itself out in Holy Moments that I’ve written about frequently.

Disciples bear fruit:

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples…You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15.8, 16, NKJV)

There are a lot of ways to bear fruit, as I wrote before, beginning last February 4. And verse 16 reminds us that we bear fruit in two ways: one in modeling godly character, making good work, and all the other ways that I introduced last year; the other is helping others do that too: “go and bear fruit that remains.”

So you can see that a lot of what I write is driven by my understanding of what a disciple is!

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, NKJV)

We ordered a jigsaw puzzle to work over Christmas, especially since Melody and family were going to be with us for over two weeks. Mark made significant progress on December 22, Melody worked it off and on until she left on January 2, and June and I finished it on January 16. Did I say that the puzzle was a bit harder than we thought it would be?

If you study the picture, you’ll notice a lot of oddly shaped pieces, curving rows, and difficult color patterns. For example, does this part of a tree go in the upper left or upper right of the picture?

Here are some lessons learned:

• Perseverance: all puzzles require starting by faith, putting in one piece at a time and persisting until the finish. With this one, I had to make a decision after everyone left whether or not to finish it (it was less than half done). I remembered a story told by a Navigator decades ago. A former Marine, Bob said he had committed to a project with his son: I think it was building a model ship. Bob said the project proved to be way harder than he had thought and would take significantly more time to finish than he had allotted. The solution? “I had committed to finishing the project, and so I finished.” I thought it would be worth it to Melody, especially, now back in China, to finish. So we did!
• Attention to detail: as I said, the pieces were oddly shaped, and it turned out at least two pairs of pieces were nearly identical. So much so that they were interchangeable. I was looking for a particular piece, and the only one I had of that size and shape wasn’t right. Finally, I found the missing piece…already in the puzzle! In the picture below, I was looking for the top piece with the bottom piece in my hand. The top piece was hiding on the other side of the puzzle from where I had a hole. See it? I didn’t discover another mismatched pair until after the puzzle was completed.

• Proper placement: there’s another lesson there besides attention to detail. Something in the wrong place throws everything off. God gives us many gifts, but if we get the order of things mixed up, tragedy follows. For example, we can’t live long in this country without money, but when acquiring money becomes the goal rather than the means, we’re in trouble.
• Pattern: having the box with the puzzle’s picture on it is indispensable. We build according to the pattern. When we teach disciple-making in a church, we talk about “Profile of a Disciple.” What does Jesus say a disciple looks like? How can we get there from here? I will share Jesus’ definition of a disciple from the Gospel of John in a subsequent blog.

We haven’t put the puzzle back in the box yet. There’s a place for it in the den, and I think I’ll leave it on display for a while. After all, it taught some valuable lessons!

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like…a willingness to stick with things…we find ourselves involved in loyal commitments… (Galatians 5.22, MSG)

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6.9, 10, ESV)

Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8.5, NIV)

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. Philippians 4.9, NIV)

Speaking of whining, I have just a quick observation on an editorial written in support of Queen Elizabeth and her handling of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan checking out of royal family duties. In case you missed it, Harry and Meghan want to be “independent,” perhaps in North America. The Queen’s response was very gracious:

Today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.

The Queen chose not to cut them off while making it clear that she’s at least a little disappointed that they have quit their job as “full-time working Members of the Royal Family.” I’m sure you know if you follow things in the U.K. even a little, you know that the Queen and the Family are expected to be “on performance” all the time and have a full slate of public appearances. It may seem easy, but many of us would find that routine tiresome. And Queen Elizabeth has been at it since 1952! Coming up on 68 years.

Anyway, William McGurn, in an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal published on January 13, wrote in praise of the Queen, with some disdain for Harry and Meghan. I’m intrigued by this sentence:

Not everyone is cut out for a life of service and sacrifice.

When I first read it, in the context of Queen Elizabeth, my first reaction was, “Yes. The Queen has certainly exemplified service and sacrifice, and that’s more, apparently, than Harry and Meghan are willing to do.”

But after some reflection, I’m hard-pressed to think of any relationship or job that does NOT require service and sacrifice. Marriage? Raising children? Taking care of aged parents? Serving in the military? Showing up for work, day in and day out to…deliver mail, pick up garbage, serve in a restaurant, issue drivers’ licenses at the DMV, write code, stock grocery stores, make cars, build houses… The list is endless. Practicing Holy Moments also involves service and sacrifice.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. (Philippians 2.5 – 8, MSG)

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. (Ephesians 5.25, MSG)

Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. (Ephesians 6.5 – 7, MSG)

A fellow I don’t know complained on the NextDoor site that his homeowners’ association dues had gone up. Someone was so shocked at his post, he asked if it were a joke. Why?

The fellow complaining lives in a very high-end subdivision (not mine!). The houses are on 2.5-acre lots, have 6,000 square feet or more, and I’ve not seen a house in that neighborhood with anything smaller than a 3-car garage. The increase he’s complaining about? His annual dues increased from $300 to $316, the first increase in over 10 years.

$16?! A year?!

I think we’ve become a nation of whiners. May our lives be different!

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2.14, 15, ESV, emphasis mine)

Be cheerful no matter what…thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. (1 Thessalonians 5.16, 18, MSG)