Illusion or Fact?

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Matthew 16 (click the link)


KEY PASSAGE:
Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:12, NASB)


THE BIG IDEA:
Jesus IS confusing.  You never get a straight answer.  That may be why the disciples just didn’t get it most of the time.  I think it would be exhausting to always talk to someone who spoke in parables and answered questions with questions.  Ever feel like that?… God, just give me a straight answer… do I do this or that?… you choose… just tell me what to do.  I feel like that most of the time.  My nature is to be straight forward… black and white… remove the gray.  Jesus didn’t remove gray… he thrives on it.  Ughhh. 

In each encounter in this chapter, gray abounds.  Nothing is ever what you think he means… and only a few times… for the disciples’ sake, does he explain himself.  You have to think… deeply… sometimes for days before you get it.  I think this is on purpose. 

How many times have we made snap decisions and regretted it?  How many times have I made decisions with what my eyes see and not what the REAL issue is? 

I think Jesus wants to slow us down and have us really ruminate on what he says… be dependent on it, let it become part of us.  I know there have been times I read a passage and thought I knew what it meant… and I understood it at the time… but NOW it REALLY speaks to that particular situation I am in… and I GET IT.   As I grow older, passages I have read for years take on a whole new meaning.  Fascinating how scripture works that way, especially the red letter parts.   

I also find it riveting in the interaction with the smartest and brightest minds of the day, namely the Pharisees and Sadducees, he refers to Jonah.  In that instance, he is referring to RELUCTANT repentance.  God had to run Jonah down with a big fish to get him to bring repentance to a people (Nineveh) that He wanted to spare, but because Jonah had an arrogant and hateful heart toward these people, God had to deal with Jonah’s heart first!!!  It took three days floating around in refuse of a fish stomach to get him to repent.  I hope that God doesn’t have to throw me up on the shores of Lake Travis to get me to repent!!!!  Just sayin’. 

I find in this chapter, over and over again, Jesus throws a bomb and the people are blown away and stunned and confused.  Nothing short of fully responding to the Holy Spirit is needed to wade through the words and actions to SEE the truth.  It is the same today.

REFLECTIONS:

I feel like I am rambling a bit, but I think Jesus seemingly rambles from time to time as well.  I have received some pretty confusing and ambiguous words from time to time from the Holy Spirit.  How about you?  My first response is usually… WHAT?  Yeah, I talk to God like that.  Maybe I shouldn’t, but that is what I would say to my best friend.  And he is that to me. 

I am reminded of a word from God I received once when I worked as a legal assistant in a patent law office.  The office manager there was and still is a good friend of mine.  One day she received a phone call from the hospital saying her husband had had a heart attack.  Obviously, she ran to her car to get there as fast as she could.  I didn’t want her to be alone, so I asked off the rest of the day to be with her.  As I drove to the hospital, I was praying earnestly for her and her husband.  I was asking God for a word, since I knew when she saw me she would ask me to pray.  It was about a 35 minute ride, so I had time to collect my thoughts and really try to hear from Jesus.  The only word I got was an emphatic, “NO”.  NO??  I distinctly heard it.  “NO” there it was again.  No, you are not going to give me a word or I don’t need one??? What???  “NO” and again I heard it.  I was a little miffed and undone by the time I got there and as soon as she saw me, just as I had felt, she came running to me.  She said, “They are telling me my husband is going to die today... he is going to die today!”  I slowly hugged her and I said “NO” he isn’t.  God said NO.  He is still alive and well and in good health today.  They are happily living out their retirement today as I write this. 

Jesus is vague, yet clear as a bell.   I think they call this a paradox.   Such is life in the Spirit.  I think Jesus described it as the “wind.”  That is where our faith comes in.  If Jesus is the TRUTH then we MUST believe what he says, even when our mind can’t get around it.  It is REVEALED to us through the Holy Spirit.  Take for instance, Peter (I relate to him more than all the others), ridiculous Peter, so literal and totally clueless.  When the Holy Spirit fell on Peter at Pentecost, there was no mistaking the clarity he had.  The wind cleared it up.

POINT OF ACTION:

Set your faith on believing every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth to you.  Write it down until revelation comes.  Record your dreams.  Take time to ponder often prophetic words that wise ones have spoken over you.  Let understanding come from the Holy Spirit through His Scriptures.  

PRAYER:

Fill me Lord today with the Wind of your Spirit!!! Let it blow in me, over me and permeate every doubt and perplexity I may have in my being.  You are the truth!  I believe in You.  I believe your words.  Fill me with your Revelation!! Illumine my eyes and let me hear with my ears.  Let me build my house on the Rock of Revelation.  Let real truth abide in me.  Give me discernment to hear your voice and know the truth of it. AMEN.

WHO AM I?

I’m June Criner and I want to thank God for the rain.  I know I harp on this a lot, but I really mean it.  It seems everything in Nature responds to it and is nurtured by it.  The lake is filling up little by little.  It is so beautiful and everything around it is green.  I am reminded about how the River of God makes everything alive wherever it flows… and I am also grateful to God that he is feeding the deer this year and I do not have to sacrifice my yard to them.  LOL