Daily Inspirations

Good morning. Again there was a division about Jesus. Some said He had a demon or was crazy. Others – these are not the sayings of one demon possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he? At that time the feast of the dedication – Hanukkah – took place at Jerusalem. The Jews were asking Jesus, how long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ tell us plainly. He had deliberately refrained from saying that in public. He knew that it was not the right time. He did tell the blind man that He was the Messiah. I told you, and you do not believe (they did not understand because they were expecting the conquering hero, not the suffering servant); The works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. (so He repeats the statement from before) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. Th...

Good morning. Jesus is getting ready to give an illustration in which He uses more metaphors to describe Himself. He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a Shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. There are those who try to persuade members of a church to follow them instead of the Pastor. They of course do it surreptitiously. (I never have an occasion to use that word. I still remember the first time I heard an explanation of what that word means. It was in high school during gym period. Instead of having physical activity, we heard a lecture by someone. They said that you can remember what that word means by the last three letters of the word - sly. It is something that is done on the sly.) The sheep know the shepherd’s voice. He also knows their name. This implies an intimacy...

Good morning. Today we finally finish with the blind man. Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, do you believe in the Son of Man? Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you. Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him. Jesus did not fit the pattern that the Pharisees were expecting, so they did not believe that He was the son of man. This man did not care whether or not Jesus fit the pattern. He had been healed, and therefore he believed. For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind. The Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said, we are not blind too, are we? To them being called blind was an insult because they “knew“ everything that was supposed to be. If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, we see, your sin remains. They trusted in their knowledge to save them. They had many rules and regula...

Good morning. The Pharisees come back again and asked the man who was blind “what did He do to you? How did He open your eyes? Of course the man gets upset, wouldn’t you? I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you? He’s getting a little bit bold speaking to the religious leaders like that. You are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses. As we used to say, well touch you. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from. They say this a 1000 years after Moses; but while Moses was alive, the people of Israel fought him tooth and nail. Well here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man we’re not from ...

  Good morning. Back to the blind man: The Pharisees couldn’t figure out Jesus, and so they asked the blind man what he thought about Jesus. He is a prophet. Watch as we go through this – his opinion about Jesus changes. Right now he is in the afterglow of the healing, and so he thinks the world of Jesus. Anyone would. Just like today when a miracle happens, the Pharisees did not believe that he had been born blind. They thought there was some logical explanation why he was healed. After all there had been people who had sight; temporarily lost it; and then regained their sight; but they had never heard of anyone who had been born blind receiving their sight. So they questioned his parents to make sure he was actually born blind; and if so, how could he now see? They confirmed that he had been born blind, but they refused to speculate on how he had been healed, because if they said that Jesus was the Christ, they would be put out of the synagogue. That was a horrific thing to hap...

  Good morning. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. Jesus had just said that shortly before, and will say it again later that He was the Light of the world. It is even more interesting that He says it now when He has encountered a blind man. He wasn’t just making some philosophical statement; He intended to put actions to His words. He spat on the ground; made clay; and applied the clay to the man’s eyes. He then told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. He did, and came back seeing. When people saw him, they said isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg? They asked the man how his eyes were opened. The man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes and told me to go wash. I did, and I received sight. They brought the man to the Pharisees and – uh oh – it was the Sabbath on the day when Jesus did this. He told the Pharisees what Jesus did. But since Jesus d...

  Good morning. So when Jesus said to the people, your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad, exactly what was He talking about? During what incident did this occur? Some believe that it was when Abraham met Melchizedek - that that was really Jesus in His pre-incarnate form. So the Jews said, You are not yet 50 years old, and have You seen Abraham? And now the statement that really got them upset: before Abraham was born, I am. It wasn’t just because Jesus said He was really ancient (that would just mean that He was nuts); it was because He said “I am”. They picked up stones to throw at Him, but He hid Himself and went out of the temple. This was not the only time that the people wanted to kill Him, but He slipped away. Nothing has said anything to the contrary, so we can probably assume that it was still during the feast of booths. He and the disciples were walking along and saw a man blind from birth. The disciples asked a question which even today p...