Pickle Heaven Press-James R. Johnson

something to help you laugh and think about life with Christ

Tag: John 3:16

hair apparent — January 8, 2025

hair apparent

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My son-in-law went to get his hair cut from his regular stylist.  She is a sassy girl – not shy about what she thinks.  He had sprouted somewhat of a beard since his last visit.  She saw it and said, “I don’t like it!” 

She muttered her dislike for the first half of the haircut, and then impulsively

took her razor and drew it down the side of his head, past his ear and onto his face, plowing a clean swath all the way down to the bottom of his chin.  

It was a novel look!  One he didn’t like, so he bowed to her will and she shaved the whole thing away.  

Isn’t it amazing how other people find it so easy to impose their wills upon us?  We live in a world where we are told what pronouns we are allowed to use, what kind of energy will power our cars, and what we must believe about issues of sexuality.  For that matter, my wife frequently tells me to tuck in my shirt.

As far as I know there is only one person who gives us complete freedom of choice. And that would be the Lord.

This was apparent to Adam in the garden.  “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die” – Genesis 2:15-17. 

Adam was forewarned, but certainly not forced.  The Lord allowed him to choose. He could ignore the forbidden fruit and live, or eat of it and die.  I wish elections in this country offered such clear choices. 

Adam and Eve chose poorly, leaving themselves and every child of Eden ever since, to bear the burden of sin and its consequences. 

But in the fullness of time Jesus came to earth, to bear that burden for us.   Peter wrote, “…Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God…”  – 1 Peter 3:18.

Despite the enormous cost to Jesus, we are given complete freedom to receive or reject His gift.

Jesus put it this way in Revelation 3:20, “Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home.”

This was an invitation to those who had believed, and yet it captures the heartfelt invitation that He extends to all of us.  Jesus freely offers everything we need and could ever want, but He politely refuses to barge into our lives and force it upon us.

He stands outside, patiently hoping and waiting that we will turn the deadbolt and push open the door.   He wants an invitation to be an intimate part of our lives, and for us to be a part of His.  He wants to enter our world that we might enjoy an abundant life now and eternal life forever.  

However, as with Adam, there are consequences that come with our choices.  John 3:16 is a sober reminder, “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

If you have not done so already, I wonder if you might take some time today to think on this, and if you wish, you too can choose to open the door of your life to Jesus. 

Whisper to Him words like these, “Lord be merciful to me, for I too am a sinner. I am trusting Jesus, the Son of God, to wash me of my sin and give me the gift of eternal life. From this point forward – I am yours.”   

It’s your choice!

A PRAYER: I pray Lord, that each of us would have the wisdom to choose Jesus.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord be with you always.

Passages are from the NETBible®

what’s the plan? — March 20, 2024

what’s the plan?

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My wife and I are still reasonably healthy and yet – we recently moved into a nursing home.  We bought a house that was originally designed to be the last home of an aging couple. 

So, they built for themselves a practical one-level ranch.  Included were grab bars positioned next to the toilet and the bathtub for the day that their legs would lose their lift. 

There is a nice bench in the walk-in shower for a mid-shower rest.  And the halls in the house are wide enough to accommodate a king-sized wheelchair or a dump truck if needed.

They were thinking ahead and were therefore able to comfortably live out their last days in the home that they had built. 

The Lord applauds that kind of planning and preparation for the future.

For instance, Proverbs 21:5 says, “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run.”   I believe ahead is quite a bit better than behind.”

Consider the ant for example. Solomon wrote, “Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do.  All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions.”  – Proverbs 6:6-8

The ant plans for the future.  He gathers and stores when he can, so he will have food when it is needed.

There will certainly be someone who would object saying, “Planning is contrary to believing.  We need to walk by faith and trust God for the future.”

Well, we certainly do need to trust God.   Proverbs 16:9 says, “We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.”  Our plans need to be made on our knees.  

But planning is not at odds with our faith.  Jesus said, “Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you…” –  Luke 14:28-30  Jesus clearly understood the need to plan.

So for what do we plan?

Sarah is headed off to college, – but she needs to check out the job market before she gets that degree in bagpipe technology. 

Lamar is so excited about his beautiful brand-new baby girl.  Oh, but there will be an expensive wedding in her future.  He may need to start setting aside a little money for that. 

I have friends who do a yearly inventory of their marriage, and then make specific plans for dates, trips and so on to help strengthen their marriage in the year to come.

Terrell and Tammy are in their fifties now.  They are finally starting to plan for retirement, but the projections are not looking so good.  They really regret not having started to save when they were younger.

Planning works with lesser things as well.  Who hasn’t gone on a trip and forgotten their toothbrush?  Consider downloading a travel checklist app or create your own.

Store the list in your computer and print it out and use it each time you pack for a trip.  You’ll never forget your toothbrush again, and the airline passenger next to you will thank you for it.

And what about your forever future?  We can plan and prepare for that as well.  John 3:16 says, “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  NETBible ®

How does the old adage go, “When we fail to plan, we plan to fail.” Seems true enough to be in the Bible.  

As for me I am planning to go sit down and take a shower!

A PRAYER: Lord pry us from the present to help us plan for what’s ahead.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

(Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

bible boredom — January 4, 2023

bible boredom

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Conflicted!  My heart compels me to read my Bible, but my brain yawns. 

I had a similar problem back in High School.  The prom was on the horizon, but I didn’t have a date. 

I was interested in one girl.  She had flowing hair down to her knees.  But because she may deny that she ever went out with me – I’ll just call her Rapunzel.

Just one problem, she was painfully shy.  I had never heard her put more than 2 words together in a sentence.  As for me, I was her socially awkward equal.  Together we made a bizarrely dull duo.  So, I took her out on a pre-prom date, to hopefully jumpstart the relationship. 

I picked her up and we drove to the restaurant in utter silence.  I was ready to drive off a cliff, but I didn’t want to muss up her hair.

She finally broke the silence when she ordered, but then retreated again.   I had no idea what to say and obviously neither did she.   It was boundlessly boring.

“How do I rescue this?” I wondered.  Maybe I could ask her a question.  She had to answer.  So, I asked, “So how long is your hair?”   “45 inches!” she said.”  And that was the end of the conversation.

So, I regrouped and asked a question that required a fuller answer. She gave me more than 2 words this time.  I was encouraged.   So, I asked another question and she answered.  And then she asked me questions and the ice melted, and we began to enjoy our time together.

OK, so I was a dating dufus, but I learned something valuable.  I learned that asking questions turns the dull into delightful.

Now did you know that The Holy Spirit is also a person, and that part of His job is to speak to us through the Word of God?  

Before He left this earth Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears and will tell you what is to come.  He will glorify me because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you.”   – John 16:13-15. NETBible.com

His job is to take the words of Jesus, and all of Scripture and speak through them to us to help us understand them. 

When we pick up our Bibles, the Holy Spirit is ready to have a conversation with us.  But here’s the problem.   We treat the time like we are on a date with Rapunzel.

We read the Bible passively, expecting the words to jump off the page.  We don’t interact with it.  It leaves us bored with the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

So, we need to ask questions.  When I read John 3:16 I want to ask: “For God so loved the world?”  Why did God love the world? And how? When did He love the world?   Did He used to hate the world?   What is the world anyway?  Is God a tree hugger?  Is that what that means?   

Why does the verse begin with, “for?”  What is the for there for?  John is the only Gospel writer who recorded this verse.  Why was this important to him and not to the others?

When we ask questions, the Holy Spirit whispers the answers.  And guess what?  He begins to question us.  “So, Jim, God loved the world. Do you also love the world?”  “How much Jim?   God gave up his Son for the world – what are you willing to give up?”

A rich conversation happens when we ask questions as we read the Scripture.  Try it – you’ll love it.

A PRAYER: Lord how cool to be able to actually converse with you.  Thank you.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you!

swim pit — July 8, 2020

swim pit

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I guess we get what we deserve! 

It was a sweltering summer day and our gang of kids was griping that no one had a swimming pool.  So, somebody said, “Hey let’s just build one!  “Cool” we said.  But, “Who’s yard will we dig it in? 

They told me to ask my dad.  I almost wet myself at the thought and Steve’s mom would throw a hissy fit.  But Tommy, well his mother was a single mom and she worked full time.  Perfect!  We could dig while she was away.  Tommy said she never went into the yard anyhow. 

Monday, we gathered our hardware, went to Tommy’s and began to excavate.  There was a bunch of us, so dirt was flying every which way. 

We worked most of the day and had a pretty good-sized pit to show for it.  Tuesday, we decided that we kinda dug, digging. Wednesday, we made plans for a diving board.   

By Friday the pit was about 2 feet deep with maybe an 8-foot diameter.  We amazed ourselves.

We planned to finish it the next week – but then came Saturday.   That’s when Tommy’s mom used her weekend respite to clean the house.  She took the trash to the alley.  On the way, she stumbled onto, or maybe it was into our pool.

She made some blistering calls to our parents – and our audacious aquatic plans were sunk.

Worse – We were ordered to return to the scene of the crime on Monday and fill in what had become an abyss.  “Why?” we asked.  “It’s what you deserve!” they said!

What a summer bummer. The sun was furiously hot and the labor exceptionally meaningless as we back filled our pointless pit.

I guess we really do get what we deserve! 

The toddler gets flicked on the hand when he defies mom.  The school kid flunks the test when he fails to study.  The teen that abuses his phone, loses his phone.  The collegian that cheats is expelled.  The young man loses his license for his third DWI.  The young lady gets an STD because of promiscuous sex and so on.  Sometimes the consequences are not immediate, they seem to catch us later.

Even the Scripture echoes the theme. 

Paul the apostle charged us when he wrote, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23) All Paul?  Absolutely.  We have all missed the mark and usually more than once. 

Again, says Paul, “The wages of sin is death.”  (Romans 6:23)   It was his way of saying, “If you do the crime, you do the time.”  The justness of God requires a person to satisfy the law when they break it.  He requires a death sentence – an eternal, infernal death sentence. 

We get what we deserve!  – With only one blessed exception.

The apostle Peter put it this way, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death.”  – 1 Peter 3:18NET Bible ®

Jesus stepped between us and the wrathful judgment of God – the just for the unjust – to bury our sins and to bring us to God.  Jesus took what we deserve.  How disturbing and yet comforting.

Time never seemed to erase the scar we left in Tommy’s backyard.  The site of our former swimming hole was filled with dirt, but it settled in lumpy and uneven ways.  It sported more weeds than grass.  It was a lawn mower no-man’s land – a nasty place in the yard.  And that’s kind what it looks like when we attempt to self-atone for our moral mistakes. 

With Jesus it’s different.  The Scripture says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” – Isaiah 1:18   When Jesus does His work, we end up way better off than we were before – new on the inside. 

So, will you face eternity knowing that you will get exactly what you deserve OR will you step aside and allow Jesus to bear your burden?   Pick up a Bible, find the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16 to find out how!

the weepy wheel watcher — August 14, 2019

the weepy wheel watcher

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james ray johnson

This is the story of Wyn the weepy Wheel Watcher.  My friend Wyn is an avid fan of Wheel of Fortune.  He is even registered to win prizes. 

So, one day a studio contestant spun the mighty wheel and it came to rest on the “Mystery Wedge.”   He flipped it over and found that it was worth $5,000.   Then Wyn’s first name and last initial was projected on the TV screen.  He was randomly selected as the lucky Wheel Watcher.  If the studio contestant could solve the puzzle, then both he and Wyn would become $5,000 richer.

Well the boy was good with his ABC’s and he solved the puzzle.  They both won.  Wyn had 24 hours to contact the show and claim his prize.

No problem – except that on that particular day, Wyn was out watering his veggies instead of vegging out on the sofa.  So, he didn’t know that he had become a winner. 

No problem!  The show also follows up with a phone call – except that Wyn will not answer his cell phone unless he recognizes the number.  Vanna White was not in his contact list – yet. 

No problem!  The show also follows up with an email notice.  Now Wyn does look at his email, but not often.  He checked it the next day and finally got the news.   Fantastic!  He could do a lot with $5,000 bucks – except that he didn’t check his email until after the deadline had passed. He was 15 minutes too late and $5,000 the poorer.  Wyn lost! 

Now you may be saying to yourself, “That’s a nice story – a little goofy – but it’s got nothing to do with me.” But – it does.

Scripture pictures a similar scenario. Christ is in the role of the studio contestant, while everyone else passively sits at home and watches.   And – whatever He wins, we win.

Vanna tell them what they’ve won. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! – and he raised us up together with him…” (Ephesians 2:4-6) -NET Bible®.

Did you catch the word “with?”  We were made alive together with and raised up with Christ.  He won the contest when He defeated sin and death at the cross.  The proof of His victory was in His resurrection. 

Because Christ was raised from the dead, we who have believed in Him are also entitled to the same prize.  This is our ticket to the resurrection and eternal life – a very desirable prize.

I serve as a Hospice Chaplain.  My job is to sit with and listen to and encourage and pray for those who are dying.  Can you guess what they most often want to discuss?  The future, of course!  They want to know if they will live even after they die.

It’s a rich privilege to tell them they can.   John 3:16 is a reminder, “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  -NET Bible®. The person who has trusted Christ as Savior in this life, will enjoy His company in the next.   It’s already been won.  We need only claim it. 

But there is a limited time?  The deadline falls the moment we take our last breath in this life.  15 minutes after is just too, too late!  

Wheel of Fortune is the most watched program on TV, with an average of about 2 million people tuning in each day.  I bet one of Wyn’s countless friends was watching the day his name was chosen. 

It would have been nice if one of them would have called.  Wyn might have answered his phone for a friend.  That friend could have asked, “Hey Wyn, did you know that Pat Sajak has a check for $5,000 with your name on it? ” But alas, no one cared enough to call.

So how much do you care?  Isn’t there someone in your circle of family or friends, who needs to know that Jesus has won for them the gift of eternal life?  

I can think of an easy, non-offensive and fun way to do that.  Send them the link to this blog!