Welcome to Cam’s Reflective Bible Study Journal

Cam’s Reflective Bible Study Journal is a blog/podcast where Cam, one of Reflective Bible Study's founders, shares things he has discovered from his time studying the Bible (usually from one or more of the four gospels).

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Ready to Receive: Luke 9:43b-45

Published September 16, 2026 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 9:43b-45 (NASB)

In this passage, the primary focus is on Jesus directly telling His disciples what would happen. Jesus tells them plainly that He will “be delivered into the hands of men.” Mark and Matthew’s account tells us that Jesus finishes the sentence, “and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” (Mark 9:31; Matthew 17:23)

Here in Luke we see an interesting idea that Mark and Matthew don’t bring up, and that is the significance of this prediction was concealed (hidden) from them so they would not understand it. This brings up an interesting idea: “Sometimes God hides truth from us until we are ready to receive it.”

We have 3 or 4 events recorded where Jesus directly tells the disciples that He will be crucified, but they don’t seem to understand. One time Peter thinks He understands and tries to challenge Jesus saying this idea, which doesn’t go so well for Peter, but overall, it seems that only after Jesus has died and shattered their preconceived ideas about the role of the Messiah do they finally understand what Jesus came to accomplish.

I must ask myself: If God hid truth from the disciples, is it possible that He is hiding truth from me – at least until I am ready to receive it? If so, will I trust God enough to accept His timing and not try and push my own?

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Acting Through Our Doubt: John 6:1-15

Published September 15, 2026 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: John 6:1-15 (NASB)

Of all the events in the gospels, probably the one that thrust Jesus into the spotlight more than any other was the time He fed a huge crowd with a young boy’s lunch. This event holds a very exclusive status as being an event that is included in all four gospels, and while Matthew, Mark, and Luke share many excellent details about this event, only the gospel of John goes into detail about where the food came from, and how it made it to Jesus.

After Jesus had challenged the disciples with an impossible for them task, we read an unlikely turn in the story. “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?’” (v. 8-9)

Even though Andrew brought the boy to Jesus, in how he introduces the boy to Jesus we can see plenty of doubt displayed: Andrew asks in the last portion of verse 9, “What are these for so many people?” This semi-rhetorical question doesn’t show much if any faith in what Jesus can do. But even while Andrew was doubtful, he still does something right – he brought the boy with his snack to Jesus.

While Andrew didn’t have any idea what would happen next, he knows that bringing this boy with his food as a gift for Jesus is the right thing to do. And so he leads the boy forward through the disciples as they are all grumbling among themselves about how to solve the problem of feeding this large crowd.

Eleven of the disciples are caught up in the problem, but only Andrew has something to offer, and only Andrew was observant enough to at least bring this boy through the group to allow him the chance to give his lunch to Jesus. Even though Andrew didn’t have much faith, the little faith he had, mixed with the boy’s gift was all that Jesus needed to perform one of the most famous miracles in His entire earthly ministry.

This miracle was only able to happen because a doubtful disciple chose to act and bring a boy with a snack to Jesus. Andrew acted even though he didn’t have much faith, and through this we learn that Jesus doesn’t need a lot of faith from us – just enough to inspire us to act!

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Flashback Episode — Praying for Protection: John 17:1-26

Published September 14, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, while traveling to the Garden with His remaining disciples, John’s gospel records a powerful prayer Jesus shared and it may surprise you to learn exactly what Jesus prayed for in this prayer. While we might wish for Jesus to have changed certain parts of His prayer, I know that because Jesus prayed the way He did gives us answers to how God may be moving in the world today, even if we would rather He move differently.

This powerful prayer comes immediately following Jesus teaching these disciples and promising them that He would send them the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and teach them.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

1 After Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed:

Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. 2 And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. 3 Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. 4 I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, give me back the glory that I had with you before the world was created.

6 You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you. 7 They know that you gave me everything I have. 8 I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me. 9 I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world. My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them. 10 All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.

11 Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.

13 I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do. 14 I have told them your message. But the people of this world hate them, because they don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t.

15 Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They don’t belong to this world, and neither do I. 17 Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours. 18 I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me. 19 I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.

20 I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. 21 I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

22 I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. 23 I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world’s people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.

24 Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. 25 Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. 26 I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.

In this prayer, which seems to end a little abruptly, we see a powerful theme present that many of us might wish was framed a little differently. At several places within this prayer, Jesus emphasizes His request for God to be with His followers while we are in the world and to keep us safe. In verse 11, Jesus prays, “I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me.” Verse 15 includes the request, “Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one.” And verse 18 emphasizes this truth even more when Jesus prays to God about His followers saying: “I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me.”

While we might have wished for Jesus to pray that God would rescue all of Jesus’ followers from this world, that was not part of Jesus’ goal. If Jesus had prayed for rescue for His followers, we likely wouldn’t be here today believing in Jesus. Instead, we have people who believe in Jesus over 2,000 years later because Jesus prayed to God to protect His followers while He sent them into the world.

Also, just in case we might have doubts about who Jesus was focusing His prayer on, Jesus quantifies that this prayer is bigger than just these eleven remaining disciples. In verse 20, Jesus emphasizes this point saying: “I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me.”

Jesus’ clear message in this verse is that we are included in His prayer just like His first disciples when we have faith in Him because of what His followers share. We are also able to spread Jesus’ prayer even further by inviting others to believe in Jesus so they can also experience God’s blessings and His promise.

However, near the beginning of this prayer is a powerful truth that is often overlooked or simply missed. In verse 3, Jesus tells us clearly: “Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.”

Eternal life is only found in knowing God, which can only be done through knowing Jesus Christ, the One God sent. Jesus came to show us God, and He died so that we can have the opportunity of redemption. Jesus Christ brings eternal life, and eternal life is only found when we know God the Father through what Jesus Christ accomplished for each of us!

Knowing in this context is more than simply being aware that God loves us, that Jesus died for us, and that belief in Jesus brings salvation. Knowing in this context means letting the truth about God and about what Jesus has done for us transform our lives! We accept God’s gift through Jesus when we let the Holy Spirit Jesus promised transform our lives with the truth of God’s love!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue to seek God first in your life and choose to accept the truth of God’s love into your heart and let the Holy Spirit transform your life. Choose to accept the mission God has given all of His followers to go into the world and trust that He will protect our lives. Even if our lives on this earth are given up in service to God, our lives are never lost when we have our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. When we believe in Jesus, God promises to protect us through the evils of sin and bring us into His recreated New Heaven and New Earth that will exist forever without sin.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. God wants a personal relationship with you, and a personal relationship with God is best formed and strengthened through regularly praying and studying His Word – the Bible.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in John – Episode 37: After teaching the disciples and promising them the Holy Spirit, Jesus shares a prayer that you may be surprised by, and He shares a promise that ever believer in all points of history can depend on while we press forward with God towards eternity and the end of sin.

The Misrepresented Request: Luke 7:1-10

Published September 11, 2026 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 7:1-10 (GNT)

1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things to the people, he went to Capernaum. 2 A Roman officer there had a servant who was very dear to him; the man was sick and about to die. 3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his servant. 4 They came to Jesus and begged him earnestly, “This man really deserves your help. 5 He loves our people and he himself built a synagogue for us.”

6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the officer sent friends to tell him, “Sir, don’t trouble yourself. I do not deserve to have you come into my house, 7 neither do I consider myself worthy to come to you in person. Just give the order, and my servant will get well. 8 I, too, am a man placed under the authority of superior officers, and I have soldiers under me. I order this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; I order that one, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and I order my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

9 Jesus was surprised when he heard this; he turned around and said to the crowd following him, “I tell you, I have never found faith like this, not even in Israel!”

10 The messengers went back to the officer’s house and found his servant well.

Read Luke 7:1-10 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Something that I notice when reading the gospels is how the different details that each gospel writer includes helps to change and amplify the story in my mind. It is the case in the event where a Roman officer living in Capernaum requests healing for his servant.

While this event is included in both Matthew and Luke’s gospels, only in the gospel of Luke do we see something that Matthew likely abbreviated to simply save space. In Matthew’s gospel, the Roman officer comes personally, while in Luke, the Roman officer sends Jewish elders from the synagogue.

What really jumps out at me in this unique detail is how these elders frame the officer’s request. Luke tells us that these elders come to Jesus and beg Jesus to come by saying, “This man really deserves your help. He loves our people and he himself built a synagogue for us.” (v. 4b-5)

The officer simply asks for Jesus to come and heal his servant, but the request these elders make is that this officer “deserves” Jesus’ help because he loves the Jewish people and he built their synagogue. Chances are that this was not how the Roman officer wanted his request framed.

Did Jesus bend to the request of these elders because this Roman officer “deserved” God’s help?

It is unlikely, because none of us deserve anything good from God. We have all sinned and broken God’s rules, and we all deserve punishment from God more than blessing. Jesus didn’t accept the officer’s request because of how the elders framed it – He accepted it because of what would happen next.

While on the way to the officer’s home, another message arrives. Perhaps someone had ran ahead and told the officer what had happened and what was said. Not wanting Jesus to really get the wrong idea, or for anyone to think that this request was framed with an immature attitude of entitlement, the officer sends some of his friends with a new message that began by saying, “Sir, don’t trouble yourself. I do not deserve to have you come into my house…” (v. 6b)

While the Jewish elders felt that this officer “deserved” to have Jesus help him as a thank you for what he had done for them, this Roman officer did not feel this way. This officer knew Jesus was different, special, significant, and perhaps even holy, and that he was truly unworthy to have Jesus enter his home.

It is the same way for us today. We might feel as though God owes us something, but if we travel down that path of thought too long, we will end up bitter towards God. God does not have a debt towards us – it is really the other way around. We have a debt called sin that is owed to God. Jesus came to pay that debt for us. Jesus’ sacrifice frees us from the debt and allows us to have a restored relationship with God – a relationship that is not based on feelings of entitlement. Salvation (i.e. God’s help) is a gift we have been offered – not something we are entitled to receive based on what we have done or have not done. The Roman officer understands this, while the Jewish elders missed it.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.