When it came to his dedication to Jesus, Simon Peter was absolutely oozing with confidence!  He was sure that he had Jesus' back, no matter what came His way!  He was Jesus' right-hand man!

As I read through today's reading from John 12-13 (ESV), one of the things that struck me the most was just how stubbornly the Pharisees and the religious leaders opposed Jesus, even though the text tells us that they could tell He was from God! 

Have you ever noticed that in today's reading from John 8 (ESV) that the Jews are content to simply disagree with Jesus and tell Him how crazy and demon-possessed He is until vs. 58, where Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am"?  It's after Jesus says this that things suddenly get ugly, and the Jews decide that they're going to wipe Jesus off the face of the earth with a shower of stones!

Who do people see when you they look at you?  Do they see Jesus shining through you?  Or do they just see one more face in the crowd who's arrogant, cynical, sarcastic, jaded, impatient, always in a hurry, etc., like most of the people they meet each day?

What can God do?

Hopefully this sounds like a kind of stupid question for me to be asking.  I say "hopefully", because I hope that you're someone who easily answers this question by saying "God can do anything - He's God!"  And yet so often, in our human arrogance, we do try to limit God by saying that He can only do something if we can understand how it's possible!  We try to put God "in a box", and the walls of that box are made-up of human reason and logic.

Are you a man or woman "of character"?  By that I mean, do those people who are closest to you generally believe you to be someone who is trustworthy, loyal and honest?  The kind of person who can be counted on to do the right thing in matters big, as well as matters small?

I find it pretty easy to relate to the disciples James and John... and not only because my name also happens to be John!  I find it easy to relate to them because of the kind of righteous indignation that they feel towards the people who reject Jesus in today's reading from Luke 9 (ESV). 

In today's Scripture Reading from Luke 4-5 we see an excellent example of what it means to be an "Incarnational Christian" in the account of Jesus calling Levi the tax collector to be His disciple.

But what does it mean to be an "Incarnational Christian"?  Hmm... Maybe we should start by breaking the word "incarnational" into parts.