Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Put your
trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of
the light.” After saying these things,
Jesus went away and was hidden from them.
But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people
still did not believe in him. This is
exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted:
“Lord, who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?” But the people couldn’t believe, for as
Isaiah also said, “The
Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts—so that their eyes cannot
see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and have me
heal them.” Isaiah was referring to
Jesus when he said this, because he saw the future and spoke of the Messiah’s
glory. Many people did believe in him,
however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the
Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue.
For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. John 12:36-43(NLT)
The real time of what
John writes about here is during Passion Week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem just
days before he will be crucified. The
crowds hailed him with loud hosannas, acclaiming his entry as the coming of
Messiah, the promised one who would save Israel from the domination of Rome’s
legions. By the time Jesus says some
disturbing things about losing your life in order to find it, the crowds have
begun to die-down, and the media crush about the Messiah turns
to a new cycle.
Religious fads
come and go!
What is born in the
midst of religious fads is religious fear.
John makes note of
the fact that even some of the Jewish leaders began to believe, but they put
more stock in their place in the synagogue, than in the Lord of creation and eternity. Little faith comes…and goes.
As we’ve noted in
previous parts of this Lenten Walk series, this is a
time of preparation, which cannot be effective without introspection…looking within
to see the condition of our ongoing conversation with God. And while we’re looking at our hearts we
measure the progress of where we’ve been with who we are now. Like the doorpost where your Mom measured
your height from last year in third grade, to this year’s height. We keep track of such things to see how far
we’ve grown.
It is the same in
Christian living; we take stock of our walk with Christ in areas of faith: stewardship, witness, ministry, prayer, and
devotion in worship. I believe[2]
it was William Barclay, or perhaps C.S. Lewis, who wrote that with
every decision we make we become more like a child of heaven, or more like a
child of hell. For me Lent is
the process by which I keep track of my progress away from one and towards the
other.
The measuring
stick of growth, however, can be tricky.
When you try to measure your spiritual commitment you can be fooled by
lots of busy-ness. When you’re busy
doing something, like trying to write a good devotion, or a sermon, or answer
six dozen emails about this or that…or if you’re serving meals at the homeless
shelter, or visiting the nursing home, or, or……
Busy-ness may be because you’re growing, and the opportunities to serve
are also piling up; it may also be that you’re busy because you’re not growing
and simply too busy to pay attention to the voice of God.
For You Today
L
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
No comments:
Post a Comment