Bourland Family Blog

Yesterday when I was catching up on my reading, I noticed verse 26 of Luke 9.

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26 [NKJV]

One of the things that has always impacted me regarding the ‘Fear of God’ has always been this fear that I would be in a state of sin the moment when Jesus returns. Think about this – for you it might be a road rage incident where you come unhinged on another driver. Maybe a moment where your frustration with your children has caused you to lose your temper (Eph 6:5).

In any circumstance where I lapse in my self control is a moment that Jesus might return and be ashamed. Now, I am not ashamed of Jesus or His words, but I can be flippant and not respecting of His commands on my life if I refer to myself as a “Follower of Christ” yet allow my sinful flesh to entertain the things the Lord tells me to flee; then I run this risk.

God give me the strength and perseverance to embrace everything it means to be sold out to your Son. Thank you for the grace You have extended me.

Hey everyone, I’ll bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth. Well, news about my demise has been greatly exaggerated. The truth of the matter is that for the last week I’ve been working pretty much 16 to 18 hour days and getting about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night. I am so thankful for Marianne providing this time for me to execute this very very big test event at work that included the US government. It was extremely successful, but also very tiring. I got to see some old friends that I’ve been working with for the last 4 1/2 years that I hadn’t seen in probably 3 to 6 months, God has created a very unique situation for me to be a testimony and a witness in situations, where there can be heavily competing cultures…The US ARMY and Microsoft.

Although I will still have to stay fairly engaged at work. I will be doing that remotely from Newport Beach, California where my family and I go for some vacationing every summer to spend time with the in-laws. It’s a great reconnecting time for Marianne and I and her sister and brother-in-law, as well as our four kids and their three girls who don’t get to see each other except once per year during this time.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9:23-25 [NKJV]

Some people read this passage and feel that it is negative in its connotation. For me, it’s one of the most freeing passages in the Bible.

The daily decision to take up the Cross and crucify my sin every day…really crucify myself every day; allows me to operate in this freedom of knowing I am in the right place and the right mindset in following Jesus. The next statement about what we pursue reinforces what Jesus had just finished saying… If your pursuit is to achieve the things of this world in money, career, happiness, and, success, then your reward will be exactly what you achieve. But if you instead pursue Jesus, then you essentially inherit everything that Jesus has coming to him at the end of the age. That, is a big deal and extremely freeing.

Remembering these truths in scripture is so important to my daily life in my desire to be a godly man. Lord Jesus, help me to see that what is to come, is what my focus should be… Once again, here I am, needing to remember that my focus has to be eternal.

And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
  So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”
  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
  Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” Luke 9:18-20 [NKJV]

As I was reading this passage today it just made me think about how our world constantly tries to come up with someone Jesus is other than the Messiah. Even here ‘The Messiah” was not one of the ‘persons’ the disciples rattled off as who people said He was. It is just too hard to come to terms with Who Jesus is as the Messiah…because what it would mean is that people would have to admit that He is the answer, that He should be the person that they should worship, that He is exactly Who He says He is. The day will come when every knee will bow and worship Jesus for Who He truly is.

God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name, ​so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Philippians 2:9-10

Application:

QUESTION: Am I already acknowledging Jesus and bowing to His name even now…before He returns in person? I am convicted by the fact that there are actions/times in my life that relegate Jesus to being ‘resurrected prophet’, ‘John the Baptist’, or ‘Elijah’. That He does not own the throne of my life…because in those places I have a different name on that throne. Between the sermon this morning by Pastor Koby and now this time in God’s Word, I need to not live for every day but to live for “Well done good and faithful servant”. This means living and making the most of every 5 minutes, an eternally focused 5 minutes.

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Romans 14:10-12

Today was a mixed bag. It started out with me needing to go into work for a bit. We had a late breaking software change that was going to be a good win if it worked but we needed to have the confidence we didn’t break something else before Monday. In order to keep from my team having to come in before a super busy week, I chose to go instead. It paid off and the Dev Team was able to fix a pretty nasty bug in the experience. Picture below is me in the empty building at work this morning.

But then I came home and released Marianne to get started on a bunch of work that had been piling up on her and I took the Littles. Bella is still not feeling well so she was in bed and Sophie was spending the whole day with a neighborhood friend. What we decided to do was both good for me and for the Littles. They came with me for a little ‘Twighlight Golfing’. We had a wonderful time and the girls really enjoyed the cart and looking for golf balls. The pace of play was pretty bad so we joined up with Mr. Steve who was really nice.

For there were about five thousand men.
 Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”  And they did so, and made them all sit down.
 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Luke 9:14-17 [NKJV]

The miracle of the feeding of 5000 is a little crazy. First, the Bible says that it was about 5000 men, but we are pretty confident that there were women and children with them…but let’s just stick with 5000 for a minute. Jesus tells the disciples to have all of the people to sit down in groups of 50…this is 100 groups! Just picture this in your mind’s eye, on a hillside with 100 groups of 50 people. Just the orchestration of making this group separation happen is pretty crazy.

The other thing that stood out to me was that Jesus looked up into Heaven. I used to kind of get on myself for looking up into heaven during worship or even when I pray sometimes. The reason for getting on myself is because God is right in my heart with me; the Holy Spirit dwells within me. I don’t need to look up to Heaven because He is right here. But seeing Jesus do this helps me to see that prayer and worship can also be focused on the Trinity. The Holy Spirit lives within me here on earth, but we together can petition, serve, and address God the Father and Jesus the Son in Heaven. There is something quite powerful about this if you keep it within that context.

Application:

First off, the feeding of the five thousand is a continuation of yesterday’s points about Jesus’ caring heart and tenderness He shows us. Second, Praying and Worshiping while looking up to Heaven is a powerful acknowledgement of the situation of our earthly state with the Holy Spirit; and the Father and Son being in Heaven. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and the Son represents our needs/situation to the Father. Then through the Holy Spirit, God sends us comfort, peace, wisdom, knowledge, and strength. So, gazing up into Heaven during worship and prayer is 100% appropriate in my book.

The last two days have been a crazy ramp to next week where we will have our GOV customer with us witnessing the testing of the product we are building. My team is the one who plans and executes that testing…will be a stressful week.

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. Luke 9:10-11 [NKJV]

This is time right after the apostles had returned from their missions journey where the Lord had given them power over demons and the ability to heal. This is one of those passages where you see the tender heart of Jesus our Savior. Read the above passage again and think of that Man standing at the right hand of the Father in Heaven representing us and our needs.

He took them aside privately (intimately). He wanted personal alone time with His friends and disciples to hear their stories and encourage them after their travels. Somehow the multitudes of people who had been following Jesus got wind of where He was with the disciples and they came to Him. He then promptly shoo’d them away and went back to spending time with His friends….nope, that not what happened. He received them, spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.

Application:

When Jesus told the disciples that He would send a helper, this is how I think the Holy Spirit wants to be with us. He receives us when we follow and seek Him out. He reveals things about the Kingdom of God through His Living Word as we read our Bibles. He heals our hearts and gives us peace when we need it. This is the Holy Spirit inside of us Who is available when our inner spirit seeks to commune with Him. I need to constantly remind myself that this picture of Jesus above in the passage is Who the Holy Spirit is for me in this life under the sun.

First day back to work after a 4-day weekend…Meh. I really enjoyed being off. Lots of time with my kiddos and Marianne and I could have used more. I needed to be back to work though as the next 10 days are going to be quite crazy and busy.

​Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 
Luke 9:1-2 [NKJV]

On the topic of ‘Spiritual Gifts’ comes a lot about what God’s Word has to say, as well as a lot of opinion around the Christian community on said gifts. Pastor Steve’s rollup on gifts over the last 2 weeks of June was really good and essentially nets out to be a couple of takeaways.

• Gifts given by the God are rare
• Gifts are always for the Glory of God alone
• Gifts are always given by the God at His discretion
• Gifts edify/build up the church body

Here we see the extension of abilities to the Disciples by Jesus for the work of ministry. JESUS GAVE THEM POWER to do these things. They did not get these powers by just following Jesus. Like Jesus, the Spirit will give gifts to facilitate ministry and to equip for specific tasks. The focus of the Disciples in this commissioning was to take care of both the spirit (through the Gospel and casting out demons) and the body (by curing diseases). There is nothing said of personal edification or anything…in fact Jesus sent them on their way with no provisions for themselves…. everything would be provided by God through hospitable people in each town that would accept them.

Application:

Firstly, I need to always bump up the presence of supposed gifts with the backing of scriptural support. When it happens, it will fit within the takeaways above. Secondly, God provides when He is using me in the furthering/building of His Kingdom. He equips: I just need to BELIEVE and be OBEDIENT to what He is calling me to do.

Today was all about the 4th of July Parade in Bothell, WA. Marianne did such an awesome job grabbing us some great seats in the shade and we were able to cheer on the Cedar Park Christian Cheer Team as they walked the route. Great memories created today. Thats Bella doing a heart with her hands, Prim standing to her right, and Sophie is in the back of the group pulling the wagon with her hand in the air.

While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.”
  But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” Luke 8:49-50 [NKJV]

See, I can only get a few verses each day before the Lord gives me a new primary takeaway, I feel I must absorb and apply. Today is no different.

“While He was still speaking…” is when He was telling the woman who had the Blood disorder that her faith had healed her and to go in peace. So the feeling is that these things are happening right after each other in a quick-fire kind of way. You must notice that Jarius says nothing here…Jesus doesn’t let him get a word in (right after the messenger brings word that his daughter had already passed away). I can see Jesus turning his attention to Jarius and holding His hand up saying [Ben’s paraphrasing and color added], “Don’t lose it, don’t worry or be afraid…Just believe. Your daughter will be made well.” As we follow the rest of the story, that promise is made good on by Jesus telling the girl to get up and she does.

Application:

The order of events here are 1) Jarius comes to plead with Jesus (falling at Jesus’ feet even) to save his daughter who is dying, 2) Jesus’ journey through the city is interrupted by a lady touching His cloak and Jesus stopping to address her, 3) a messenger comes and says that Jarius’ daughter is dead, 4) Jesus comforts and reassures Jarius that his daughter would be made well, and 5) Jesus comes through on that promise…but there are two words that Jesus presses in His reassurance to Jarius, –> “only Believe“. This same set of steps happens all the time to us. So, how do I apply “only Believe” in my earthly walk? I Believe that what God is doing is to bring about His good will and purposes. That when I pray, I pray believing that God’s best outcome for my situation will prevail — this may not be the outcome I am looking for; but it is the outcome leading to the completion of His will on this earth in my set of circumstances. I can’t lose heart; I must keep faith in the moments.