John 13

Interesting stuff in this chapter.

John 13:3 & 4
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

The use of the word "so" here is very interesting. "So" is a word that indicates a logical conclusion to a circumstance. For example, "I was hungry, so I ate." "I wanted a good job, so I went to college." "I needed to lose weight, so I started dieting." The circumstance presented in these verses and the conclusion doesn't make sense to me. Jesus has all power, came from God and is returning to God, and is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3), so he washed His disciples' feet. I'll have to let this marinate in my head a while.

John 13:25 - 29
Leaning back against Jesus, [John] asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.

This is the "last supper." Jesus has announced one of His disciples will betray him. John, leaning on Jesus, asks Him, "who is it?" It doesn't say it in the scripture, but it seems to me that Jesus whispered his reply to John; nobody else could hear Him. "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." If all of the disciples had heard this, there would not have been any question of what Judas was leaving to do. Instead they assumed he was going to buy more food for the meal, or give to someone in need. So why did Jesus tell John and none of the other disciples?

John 11

A couple of things stand out to me here.

John 11:32 - 36
Jesus knows our hurt. The weeping of Mary and the friends and family gathered so moved Jesus that He was overcome with emotion as well. It was evident to people that He loved Lazarus and his family. Even though He has the power to fix all things and make them better, He still understands where we are now.

John 11:4, 15, 40
Jesus is very adamant about giving glory to God. Even though it would cause great hardship and pain for the people involved, He ensured that His actions pointed to God and displayed His power.

John 11:21, 32, 39
God has a plan. Although it might not fit our expectations or our own timeline, He is orchestrating everything to reflect His glory. It's our job to participate with Him in His plan and ensure He is glorified through us.

John 9

Just read John 9 this morning. It's a great story illustrating how God follows through on His promises and His plans. It reminds me of Phillipians 1:6, which states that God is going to complete the good work He began in you.

In summary, a man was born blind. The disciples ask Jesus who screwed up and sinned to cause him to be blind. Jesus tells them nobody sinned, that He was born blind so that God's power and glory could be revealed in him. Jesus heals the man by putting mud in his eyes and asking him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The man does so, and can see for the first time.

This occurred on a Sabbath, so the religious leaders wanted to know who healed the man; whoever healed him clearly worked on the Sabbath and should be punished. They questioned the man repeatedly about who healed him, even asking his parents if he really was blind. Ultimately, the man started preaching TO the religious leaders, even before he fully understands who Jesus is. This excites me because this man, who was a nobody, a blind beggar, a member of society that nobody really wanted to deal with, stood before the leaders and proclaimed Jesus to them. From zero to hero, in a sense.

The religious leaders kick him out, Jesus finds the man and tells the man who He is, and the man worships Jesus.

This whole story began with Jesus telling His disciples that the man was blind so that He could be glorified. Look what happened. Jesus began a good work in this man when he was born blind, and was indeed faithful to complete that good work. It's pretty awesome.

The other thing I noted was the man's parents' reaction to the religuous leaders. Verse 22 says "His parents...were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue."

This still happens today. If someone decides they are going to follow the call of God on their life rather than please the religious establishment (pleasing people), that person sometimes faces severe ostracism from those in the establishment. It has happened to myself and my whole family at various times. Sometimes we have to be bold to follow Christ, even within the church. We have to put His word and His calling on our life first, before anything else. In that way He will complete that good work within you.

Loving others

Loving others is hard. There are so many different people that can get on your last nerve and push you over the edge, but this isn't what God has called us to. God has called us to patience, to understanding, to love. I try my best to avoid disparaging others, but it still happens, especially when I'm driving. For example, if someone pulls out in front of me and cuts me off, my first instinctive reaction is to mutter something about how dumb they are, etc. This is the incorrect way to handle it. Man was created in God's image. You were created in God's image. I was created in God's image. The guy that pulled out in front of me on the road was created in God's image. God loves all; He offers forgiveness and redemption to all. If I am a follower if Christ, I will understand this love and forgiveness that God offers to everyone, and try to align my life, thoughts, and actions along with what God intends. That means I don't call the bad driver stupid. I recognize that person is someone that is loved by God, and for me to disparage Him is to be in direct contradiction with God's love for that person. Matthew 18:23 - 35 clearly illustrates this. Who are we to condemn others, hold grudges against others, think bad of others when we have already been forgiven of what we have done against God?

I don't always abide by this. I'm still learning, still disciplining myself. But I truly believe that we are in the wrong when we say bad things about another person who is created in God's image.

Salsa Recipe v. 2.0

After more experiments and trial and error, I've revamped my salsa recipe slightly. Here it is in all of it's glory.

Stewed tomatoes (I prefer Great Value Sliced Stewed Tomatoes)
Onion
Garlic cloves (could probably do powder but cloves give a better flavor and better texture)
Cilantro
Celery
Green Bell Pepper
Jalepenos - whole pickled or fresh (whole pickled jalepenos have a better flavor than regular sliced pickled jalapenos)
Lime
Lemon
Cumin
Chili powder
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Vinegar
Guajillo chiles (may also be called cascabel chiles)
Ancho chiles

Optional: hot chile peppers such as pequin chiles, japones chiles, etc. I prefer pequin chiles.

You can find guajillo and ancho chiles at Walmart in the hispanic aisle. They should be dehydrated.

The ratios I think I go with are as follows - for two cans of stewed tomatoes, you should probably use one medium-sized onion, one bell pepper, one celery stalk, one large garlic clove, one jalepeno (whole, fresh or pickled), two guajillo chiles, one ancho chile. You should add your hot chiles to taste. I honestly have no clue how much cilantro or spices I use. 1/3 juice of a lemon and 1/3 juice of a lime should be used for about two cans.

1. Strain the stewed tomatoes the best you can - the less liquid you have in them, the less runny your salsa will be.
2. Mince up your onion, garlic, cilantro, celery, bell pepper, and jalapenos.
3. Chop up your chiles as fine as you can or chop them up into chunks and run them through a small blender until you get them to a fine powder-like consistency.
4. Throw your tomatoes and your chopped ingredients into the blender and blend it up until it gets to a consistency you like. Just be sure you don't accidentally make a salsa smoothie.
5. Dump the contents of the blender into a pan. Put the pan on an oven burner UNCOVERED and set it between low and medium. The goal of heating the salsa is to release the flavors of the vegetables and allow them to mingle with the spices, and to allow excess liquid to cook out of the salsa.
6. Sprinkle your cumin, chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt over the salsa in the pan. Starting out I would just lightly sprinkle the whole surface of the salsa with your spices. As the salsa cooks and the flavors combine, add more spices to taste (if necessary).
7. Add a small splash of vinegar.
8. Add lime juice and lemon juice.
9. Stir the salsa periodically. Ultimately what you want is the salsa to VERY slightly simmer. If it gets too hot it will start shooting everywhere.
10. Taste-test the salsa as it cooks to make sure it's turning out as you want. If it needs anything, now is your time to add it.
11. Allow the salsa to simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring it periodically. I will usually let mine go 45 minutes to an hour, but that's when I make a big batch.
12. Dump the salsa from the pan into a container and put it in the refridgerator. It's pretty much done at this point. You can enjoy it warm or let cool off in the refridgerator.

WARNING!!! It is incredibly easy to over-do the garlic, lime juice, and/or lemon juice. If you're unsure about how much to use, use less rather than more. I would also go lighter on the salt than you would the rest of the spices. Salt can easily cover the flavors of the vegetables and the spices.

Once you're done with all of this, if you're feeling adventurous you could throw in some corn and/or black beans with the salsa, that might be good.

Rest

Matthew 11:28 - 30: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

There are a couple of meanings I get from this. One of the first things that come to mind is the context of the law of Moses, the law that Israel was under prior to Christ's coming. The law was a burdensome thing, a huge list of do's and don'ts that haunted every single person. Nobody could completely and consistently satisfy all of the requirements of the law. Nobody could say that they were 100% right with God. Jesus came and fulfilled the law; whereas the law showed us our depravity, Jesus showed us the way to sanctification. We are no longer weary under the burden of the law that shows us our sin; we have rest through Jesus' sacrifice.

"Take my yoke upon you..." If we look at Jesus' life, we consistently see him doing two things: staying in relationship with the Father and fulfilling the will of the Father. Jesus accomplished these two things by staying in submission to the will of the Father. I've heard it said that "Jesus is ultimately responsible for your relationship with God." There's nothing we can do on our own to grow closer to God or to justify ourselves in His sight; all we can do is be in relationship with Him and live a life submitted to Him. Through this we allow Him to make the relationship stronger, to direct us where He wants us to go. We take it out of our hands and put it into His, where it belongs. We don't have to worry about fulfilling a law or doing all sorts of works to make God accept us. God has already accepted us through Jesus' sacrifice. We have to accept that there is nothing of our own we can offer that will cause God to accept us other than what was already done for us, outside of our own power.

"I am gentle and humble in heart." God's goal isn't to plow over your will so that His be done. He wants you to be willfully surrendered to Him so that He can accomplish His will. He wants us to participate in what He's doing so that we in our submission to Him can work with Him towards what He is fulfilling.

"You WILL find rest for your souls." We were created to be in relationship with Him, coming along side Him and being in His presence. There is no greater peace than being with Him.

"My yoke is easy and my burden is light." We don't have the responsibility for making our relationship with Him work. We simply obey and He makes the relationship work and come alive. Once we can lay down our pride and our will and accept His, He works to accomplish what He wants through you.