People often say “this is what I believe.” For instance, “I just believe God is sovereign, nothing can happen unless he wants it to.” Where’s that at in the Bible? Or “I just believe that Jesus understands when we fall short, after all we are only human.” These are kind of half truths. God is sovereign in the sense that he is all powerful and in charge of everything. But if a person says he controls everything, I would say oh really; you mean he sponsors murder and rape. Obviously, man has a free will and does things that are completely out of the will of God. And as far as falling short, Jesus does understand, and wants to help us, but he isn’t pleased with it. Just look at this incident involving the
disciples in Matthew 17:14-21
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I
brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
He called the disciples faithless and perverse. I don’t know about you but I don’t want him to call me that. It seems like we have lowered the standard so much today, that Christians aren’t much different than unbelievers. That is a
crying shame. We shouldn’t be powerless, we should have the goods. There should be a difference! What if Jesus showed up in the flesh today and saw us trying to get people healed what do you think he would say? As far as we can tell his disciples had had a good track record up to this point. They just ran into a different situation that they weren’t prepared for. Jesus expected them to get it right and the same is true today. He told us that we could do the same
things he did with the help of the Holy Spirit in John 14:12. But do we really believe it???
One truth I have found in my life as a general rule is this. If I try to figure things out with my head only it usually leads to some soft hearted, false belief that accommodates human weakness. I have tried to train myself whether the thought starts with me or not, to go to the Word and confirm it. So do opinions count? While it is true that everyone has a right to their opinion that is really where it ends: truth must always trump opinion. We have made people’s opinions and the fear of offending them a brick wall in our lives. If I give you my opinion and it doesn’t line up with the Word of God, I want you to reject it. It’s the truth we know that sets us free (John 8:32).
So are you going to reinvent Jesus or accept the one of the Bible? If you make up your own, it really just is an extension of yourself and it will do you know good. You can’t be your own God! You need someone greater. But if you go to the Word of God and accept the one of the Bible, you will have a true friend who sticks closer than a brother, and all the power you ever needed.
disciples in Matthew 17:14-21
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I
brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
He called the disciples faithless and perverse. I don’t know about you but I don’t want him to call me that. It seems like we have lowered the standard so much today, that Christians aren’t much different than unbelievers. That is a
crying shame. We shouldn’t be powerless, we should have the goods. There should be a difference! What if Jesus showed up in the flesh today and saw us trying to get people healed what do you think he would say? As far as we can tell his disciples had had a good track record up to this point. They just ran into a different situation that they weren’t prepared for. Jesus expected them to get it right and the same is true today. He told us that we could do the same
things he did with the help of the Holy Spirit in John 14:12. But do we really believe it???
One truth I have found in my life as a general rule is this. If I try to figure things out with my head only it usually leads to some soft hearted, false belief that accommodates human weakness. I have tried to train myself whether the thought starts with me or not, to go to the Word and confirm it. So do opinions count? While it is true that everyone has a right to their opinion that is really where it ends: truth must always trump opinion. We have made people’s opinions and the fear of offending them a brick wall in our lives. If I give you my opinion and it doesn’t line up with the Word of God, I want you to reject it. It’s the truth we know that sets us free (John 8:32).
So are you going to reinvent Jesus or accept the one of the Bible? If you make up your own, it really just is an extension of yourself and it will do you know good. You can’t be your own God! You need someone greater. But if you go to the Word of God and accept the one of the Bible, you will have a true friend who sticks closer than a brother, and all the power you ever needed.
RSS Feed