Walking with Jesus
Walking with God requires us to understand Him, otherwise, there will be no point to our relationship with Him. In today's blog, I want to start a two-part series that highlights two things that we must appreciate if we want to walk with Jesus. First, we must learn to take His words at face value. He says what He means and He means what He says. But paradoxically, the second point is that we must learn not to take His words at face value, and seek to find deeper meanings to what He says because more often than not, Jesus' words contain nuggets of truth that must be mined.
Today, we briefly will see from a passage of the Bible, how we must take Him, and by extension, other loved ones with whom we are in relationship at face value. Take a moment please to read the Scriptural account in the gospel of
John, chapter 21, verses 13-24
Take His Words at face value
In this story, the disciples, as devout, righteous and well-intentioned as they were, fell into the error that a lot of us fall into. We make assumptions from what others say. We do not take their words simply for what they say, but we say to ourselves "this is what this person must mean." Jesus said, concerning John "If I wish him to remain alive till I return back to the earth, what is that to you?". And the disciples thought and concluded that Jesus said, "This disciple will remain alive till I return back to the earth." They misconstrued Jesus' words. The result was a lot of rumour spreading and time wasting on the figment of someone's imagination, not on truth.
Why do we read wrong meanings into people's words? Let me suggest 3 quick reasons.
1. We are attracted by the superlative and scandalous, rather than the simple truth
There's something in the human nature that loves the extraordinary, the outrageous and the scandalous, hence the record-breaking sale of some of today's tabloids. If indeed Jesus had said that John would not die till He came back to the earth, perhaps hundreds of years into the future, that indeed would be newsworthy because John would live and live and simply go on living for hundreds of years to come. Unfortunately for the rumour mongers (and fortunately for John!) this was not what Jesus had said.
2. We colour people with the paint of our own prejudices
We see people as we would want them to be rather than as they really are. This is why we have racism, sectarianism, sexism and other more or less severe forms of prejudices today. In the story under reference, Peter saw John, not as a comrade and colleague, but as 'this other person' or 'that man'. How often are our words full of "those people" statements. If we are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, white, black or Asian, we instinctively see those different from us as "those people" and we paint them, not as they are, but as we think they are, which is highly erroneous.
3. We loathe individual responsibility
Jesus had put Peter on the spot by asking him these piercing personal questions and then telling him things that would happen to him in the future. Most people I know hate being put in the spotlight in very personal and intimate ways. When this happens, we instinctively head for the crowd and seek to hide in the phrase "what about him" or "what about her" or "well, I'm not the only one..." Rather than humbly looking inward and excercising true security in who we are, we look for security outside of ourselves in various acts of passing the buck.
To come back to our original theme, we cannot walk with Jesus meaningfully until we take His words at face value, embrace truth rather than glamour and take personal responsiblity for what God's word says to us, rather than point the finger at someone else. This is the path of true personal discovery. It is the path of integrity. It is the way of those who learn to walk with the Lord. Be blessed today as you walk this road. Amen.
Today, we briefly will see from a passage of the Bible, how we must take Him, and by extension, other loved ones with whom we are in relationship at face value. Take a moment please to read the Scriptural account in the gospel of
John, chapter 21, verses 13-24
Take His Words at face value
In this story, the disciples, as devout, righteous and well-intentioned as they were, fell into the error that a lot of us fall into. We make assumptions from what others say. We do not take their words simply for what they say, but we say to ourselves "this is what this person must mean." Jesus said, concerning John "If I wish him to remain alive till I return back to the earth, what is that to you?". And the disciples thought and concluded that Jesus said, "This disciple will remain alive till I return back to the earth." They misconstrued Jesus' words. The result was a lot of rumour spreading and time wasting on the figment of someone's imagination, not on truth.
Why do we read wrong meanings into people's words? Let me suggest 3 quick reasons.
1. We are attracted by the superlative and scandalous, rather than the simple truth
There's something in the human nature that loves the extraordinary, the outrageous and the scandalous, hence the record-breaking sale of some of today's tabloids. If indeed Jesus had said that John would not die till He came back to the earth, perhaps hundreds of years into the future, that indeed would be newsworthy because John would live and live and simply go on living for hundreds of years to come. Unfortunately for the rumour mongers (and fortunately for John!) this was not what Jesus had said.
2. We colour people with the paint of our own prejudices
We see people as we would want them to be rather than as they really are. This is why we have racism, sectarianism, sexism and other more or less severe forms of prejudices today. In the story under reference, Peter saw John, not as a comrade and colleague, but as 'this other person' or 'that man'. How often are our words full of "those people" statements. If we are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, white, black or Asian, we instinctively see those different from us as "those people" and we paint them, not as they are, but as we think they are, which is highly erroneous.
3. We loathe individual responsibility
Jesus had put Peter on the spot by asking him these piercing personal questions and then telling him things that would happen to him in the future. Most people I know hate being put in the spotlight in very personal and intimate ways. When this happens, we instinctively head for the crowd and seek to hide in the phrase "what about him" or "what about her" or "well, I'm not the only one..." Rather than humbly looking inward and excercising true security in who we are, we look for security outside of ourselves in various acts of passing the buck.
To come back to our original theme, we cannot walk with Jesus meaningfully until we take His words at face value, embrace truth rather than glamour and take personal responsiblity for what God's word says to us, rather than point the finger at someone else. This is the path of true personal discovery. It is the path of integrity. It is the way of those who learn to walk with the Lord. Be blessed today as you walk this road. Amen.
posted by Shegs at 2:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home