Monday, February 7, 2011
Reading: John 5:31-47
Reflection: As I read this passage, the one phrase that jumped out as me are Jesus words where He states that He does not "accept glory from human beings." Now, I may not rightly understand what Jesus is saying here, but it seems that what He means is that He doesn't ultimately put that much weight on what other people think about Him. Rather, the opinion and testimony of God the Father is of ultimate importance to Jesus.
I don't think this means that Jesus is trying to intentionally offend people. However, when push comes to shove, Jesus will always set aside what people want Him to do in order to ensure that the Father is pleased with Him. If this is in any way what Jesus meant, it is informative and challenging to me. I tend to be a people pleaser. It bothers me when people are upset with me over something I have said or done. In those situations, I can be easily tempted to compromise in order to regain their approval. However, if that compromise results in disobeying or dishonoring God, I need to avoid such action. It would be a shame to gain the approval of people by losing the approval of God. Ultimately, His approval comes first. May the Holy Spirit give me the resolve to live at peace with people without compromising my obedience to God.
Readin the Bible is a lot like a crockpot We "simmer" or think about the text and the HS brings us to a "Boil" and helps us remeber stuff Well i've gota go work on web stuff! see ya'll later
ReplyDeletep.s in today's text Jesus said he don't acceept" the prazie of what?
a. lions
b. bears
c deer
d men
whoever get it right get a prize I'll do this eveyday
I had another thought from today's passage that was related to yesterday's message. Kind of a scary one, actually... We know that the Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates scripture and uses it to teach us, correct, rebuke, etc. But Jesus tells the Pharisees that even though they "diligently study the Scriptures" (vs 39), they still missed what scripture was actually pointing toward. It's possible to read and study and still miss it...is the difference in how we are listening?
ReplyDeleteGlen - Jesus doesn't need the praise of men. :) (No prize necessary).