Saturday 9 Aug 2014

August 9: John 7:16-19

Key Verse: John 7:16
Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

Devotion:
Jesus confronted the Jews as they sought to get rid of Him. He did not shout about them in the streets but went directly to them in a setting where they would feel comfortable, in their own synagogue. He went in and taught them as He was led by God The Father. Were the words His own? Yes they were because He is God. But what He was saying to the people was that they should stop looking at Him as a man and while they continued to do so then the words He spoke did not come from any mortal man, but from God.

If any one of us gets up in front of people and starts to tell them about God we have to be sure that what we are saying come from God and not from ourselves. Yes we will all interpret God’s Word differently as we go through it, but if what we are saying is coming from our own minds as we make it up, then it is pretty useless. When we know that it is based on the solid truth that is found in our Bibles then we can be sure that it is God’s Word and not our own.

Yes it is a fine line to say whether it is our word or God’s word because we are all very different and what comes out is going to sound different from each of us because of those differences. We have a unique mind that God has given us and we think things through in a different way to the person next to us. That is why it is such a good idea to sit and talk about what we understand through reading the bible. If we all went off on our own merry way then we would all get this idea that we knew it all! Not so!

Jesus knew that that is how our minds work and so set out to remind the Jews that the words He spoke came from God in Heaven and not from what someone else was saying. The Jews had got used to being in charge and telling people how things should be done. They had made an art of taking what was written and possibly changing things slightly in order to get their own ways. That is not what Jesus is about. That is not what God is about. Christ wants us to spread the Gospel, the truth!

Points to Ponder:
Where do you learn from?

Are you telling others your mind or God’s Word?