{"id":2847,"date":"2021-08-25T14:06:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T22:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2021-08-25T14:06:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T22:06:46","slug":"devotion-john-71-the-plan-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2847","title":{"rendered":"Devotion John 7:1 The Plan Remains"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 7:1\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>After these things Jesus\u00a0was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because\u00a0the Jews\u00a0were seeking to kill Him.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter these things.<\/i>\u201d After the healing of a man in Bethesda on the Sabbath who had been suffering for thirty-eight years (almost the life-span for a man in those times) and they persecuted Him for that. After saying that He was equal with God they wanted to kill Him.\u00a0\u00a0After He tried to teach them eternal life and how to have it.\u00a0\u00a0After producing the miracle of feeding five thousand from two small fish and five barley loaves (a boy\u2019s meal).\u00a0\u00a0After the disciples saw Jesus walking on storm waters.\u00a0\u00a0After He empowered Peter to walk on those same waters.\u00a0\u00a0After He taught those who followed Him that they must consume who He is and what He has done in order to receive eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0After many who heard His teaching stopped following.\u00a0\u00a0After Peter confessed the identity of who Jesus was and gave the great statement that there was no-one else to go to because Jesus had the words of eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0After all those things John continues on. Wow, so much to try to understand and then to continue on.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s as if John is saying \u201cBut wait, there\u2019s more!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0(Chapters 5\u00a0<\/b>&\u00a06<\/b>)<\/p>\n

Jesus was walking in Galilee.\u00a0\u00a0The meaning is that Jesus kept walking in Galilee.\u00a0\u00a0While Jesus forced no-one to walk with Him, He did stay around so that they could come to Him if they had a change of heart.\u00a0\u00a0Today, Jesus still stays around and walks near the unbeliever to give them every opportunity to have a change of heart and come to serve Him. (Of course, He is always with the believer.\u00a0John 14:18, Romans 8:38-39, Matthew 28:20b<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0I thank Him for repeatedly offering to me, but never forcing upon me His salvation.\u00a0\u00a0I praise Him that He is still walking around my family and friends who don\u2019t know Him.\u00a0\u00a0He is good all the time and He loves us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was unwilling to walk in Judea because\u00a0the Jews\u00a0were seeking to kill Him.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Jesus did not avoid the Jews who were trying to kill because He was afraid of them. God has encouraged His servants to not be afraid. (Joshua 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:7, Deuteronomy 31:8<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Fear is a lack of faith and trust in God. (Possibly ignorance of who God is and what He has said.)\u00a0\u00a0It is worry that God will bring us to something that we cannot successfully go through.\u00a0\u00a0Or that what we will go through will hurt us beyond what we can endure, whether physically or that will bring consequences too great for us.\u00a0\u00a0That is a lack of knowledge of God Himself or His Word, or a non-belief in Him or His Word.\u00a0\u00a0Since God has declared He will always be with us and that nothing can separate from His love and goodness, why should we fear?\u00a0\u00a0Jesus did not fear, He loved and trusted the Father because He knew and loved the Father who loved Him.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus did not fear (not talking about dread that came up from what He knew He was about to go through.)\u00a0\u00a0Fear does not come from faith and the Word states in\u00a0Romans 14:23<\/b>\u00a0that whatever is not of faith is sin.\u00a0\u00a0Heed not those who say that fearing is not sin.\u00a0\u00a0To face fear with faith is not sin.\u00a0\u00a0To live in continuously fear without faith is sin.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was sinless, He did not fear.<\/p>\n

Since it was not fear why Jesus avoided the Jews then what was it?\u00a0\u00a0It was from His absolute obedience to the will of the Father. (John 6:38<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As He told His mother, and also others, He had a timetable from the Father that He was following.\u00a0\u00a0(John 2:4, 7:30, 12:27, Mark 14:35<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0He would not do anything that would jeopardize the will of the Father.\u00a0\u00a0He followed what we also are to do in\u00a0Proverbs 3:5-6<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0This is not to only to keep the timetable but also to keep the scope of what Jesus was to do.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10<\/b>) and not to, at this time, overthrow the empires of the world (Revelation 17:14, 19:11-21<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0That will happen at His Second Coming. A building contractor may have two phases of work.\u00a0\u00a0The second one that is supported by the first cannot be done till the first is completed.\u00a0\u00a0More than any construction phases, God has a plan and it must be adhered to.\u00a0\u00a0The time He came to save spiritually.\u00a0\u00a0Next time He will save physically and defeat the devil and his armies.\u00a0\u00a0The Lord God is now reversing the events of history to make the time ready to fulfill the rest of\u00a0Isaiah 61:1-2<\/b>\u00a0at the return of Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0But His First Coming was not time for the events of His Second Coming.\u00a0\u00a0We know of His first coming, but about the second coming, He would say to us what He said to them, it is not yet the hour for that, though soon.\u00a0\u00a0God has His plan and it will happen just as He has said. Because He is who He is and everything He has said will happen just as He planned, what do we fear?\u00a0\u00a0We believe and trust in the True and Living God.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/i><\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 7:1\u00a0–\u00a0After these things Jesus\u00a0was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because\u00a0the Jews\u00a0were seeking to kill Him.\u00a0 \u201cAfter these things.\u201d After the healing of a man in Bethesda on the Sabbath who had been suffering for thirty-eight years (almost the life-span for a man in those times) and they persecuted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[103,100,2186,2556,93,101,94,1874,17,711,10,2555],"class_list":["post-2847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-joshua","tag-luke-proverbs","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm","tag-revelation","tag-romans","tag-timothy-deuteronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2848,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}