I am grateful, Father, for a day of clear skies and warm temperatures. I realize the world is all discombobulated but life in You is like the eye of the storm. You bring a deep settled peace in the midst of the chaos. I am Yours and You are mine – there is no better place to be.
Mark 8:27-30 (<<click to read the passage)
The problem Jesus had with His disciples telling others about who He was is that they really didn’t know who He was. Yes, He was the Messiah – the Christ, the Anointed One.
I’ve written before about the common misconceptions of who the people of Jesus’ time thought the Messiah would be –a conquering, politically based leader. The whole spiritual aspect was probably just somewhere on their backburners.
But more importantly, was the fact that the disciples wouldn’t really get the full picture of who Jesus was until His death and resurrection were a part of their mindsets.
So here’s the question for us, is it possible for us to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah but to not really understand what that means? I believe that part of our problem today is that many can’t accept who Jesus is in His totality. We have this “pick and choose” mentality.
“I like this portion of who I believe Jesus to be but that part…uh, that part makes me feel uncomfortable.”
“I can accept the areas of Jesus’ teaching and lifestyle that fit my mindsets and lifestyle but the rest of it just doesn’t gel with who I am.”
We absolutely cannot accept Christ on our terms! It is literally an all or nothing deal. Oh, He has unfathomable patience with us as we deal with it all but to truly be His disciple we have to embracing Him in His entirety. Doing it any other way is making Jesus a god in our image.
May 6th, 2019, Mon, 5:09 pm
