Friday 2 Aug 2013

Friday Reading: John 5:39-44

Key Verse: John 5:44
44  How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

Devotion:
When you sit down and really talk to people about what they believe you begin to find some things which I like to term as ‘shortcuts’ where people have taken the beginning of some scriptural truth, the end of a truth and joined the two together to come up with something that sounds good, has references in the bible and yet is a shortcut or even a shortcoming rather than the gospel!

Some of the Jews believed that they had eternal life because they had God’s Word, the scriptures, with them. They believed that because they as a people had something physical, that God would give them something physical in return. What Jesus was urging them to do here was to actually sit down and read the scriptures and find out the truth. I love being able to disclose the truth to others when I can see that they have taken a short cut because it then gives them more hope than they had before. Somehow the shortcuts they build up or take do not have the same staying power as the truth and they let go of them when they find they are not satisfied.

Jesus does not want us to grow weary looking for a truth that has been left out of our lives. He wants us to seek the truth and take a hold of it firmly so that we can move forward with Him and with that truth strengthening us all the way. If we are going to profess to be Christians then we have to make sure that we take on the whole truth and not just the parts we are comfortable with.

I love listening to people who tell the truth because you see some pretty worried faces from time to time as others begin to realise that they have taken shortcuts in their lives. It is not a short path that Christ has led us to but a long and winding path that we have to be careful to stick to. Satan is going to be trying to sway us from that path continually and to trip us up as soon as we step off the path – much like a clean path laid out through a mine field. If we step off the path in our ignorance or on purpose the result is going to be the same… big bang! God wants us safe; but we have to listen to keep safe!

Points to Ponder:
Do you take shortcuts?

Who’s honour do you seek?