A day of labor, Father, not at my laptop but of a physical sort. Thank You for the strength to do such things. May I never take such things for granted for there will come a day when they will be much more difficult and eventually when they won’t be possible at all. Amen.
Luke 12:8-9 (<<click to read the passage)
One thing about living in our society is the fact that we have lots of choices. Or maybe these words might drive home the point – oodles, gobs, loads, scads, a slew, or tons. Cereal aisles for instance. Isn’t it crazy?!
Out of curiosity I went onto Kroger’s website and looked up how many different kinds of cereal they have available. They had 17 pages of cereal from which to choose! There was a total of 391 different results! It blew me away! And that was just the cold breakfast cereal choices! That’s just one example!
Books, games, cars, restaurants, watches, even underwear – you name it and we have all kinds of choices from which to choose!
Have you bought a Bible recently? There are more translations than you can shake a stick at and then you have to decide between a slew of study Bibles, regular or large print, paperback, hardback or leather (which includes imitation, goatskin, calfskin, calf split, cowhide, French Morocco, genuine and bonded leather!) It’s just too much!
With Jesus, it’s quite a bit more sane. You don’t have to choose one color from the 152 count Crayola Box! (Here’s the list!) With Jesus, it is black and white. It’s either His way…or it’s not.
Today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel reads,
“I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels. Luke 12:8-9 NLT
Our choice is a simple one – acknowledge Him here on earth or deny Him here on earth. Whichever one you pick; it will be done the same to you. It isn’t complicated.
For more clarity, my study Bible (a hardbound, standard print, Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation!) has a great list to help us understand what it means to deny Jesus or to acknowledge Him.
We deny Jesus when we
(1) hope no one will find out we are Christians,
(2) decide not to speak up for what is right,
(3) are silent about our relationship with God,
(4) blend into society, and
(5) accept our culture’s non-Christian values.
By contrast, we acknowledge him when we
(1) live moral, upright, Christ-honoring lives,
(2) look for opportunities to share our faith with others,
(3) help others in need,
(4) take a stand for justice,
(5) love others,
(6) acknowledge our loyalty to Christ, and
(7) use our lives and resources to carry out his desires rather than our own.
Black or white…what will you choose?
July 14th, 2020, Tues, 7:22 pm
