Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In His severe rebuke of Peter’s presumption, Jesus offers all of us a clear choice: “Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (Mark 8:33b). We can set our minds (the meaning of “savourest”) either on godly things or on worldly things. Power, money, possessions, popularity – all of these can easily ensnare people. We can even try to use the Bible to defend our worldliness. I have heard folks take God’s promise of “success” to Joshua (Joshua 1:8) and apply it to seeming success in worldly pursuits. “You can’t argue with success,” many will say. Yes, we can – and we must. Tyrants such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao were successful in killing tens of millions of people and thereby consolidating their power, but we must reject their evil governmental success. Drug cartels make enormous amounts of money (increasingly through human trafficking as well), but we must reject their financial success. Ungodly people become quickly and wildly popular by trending on various social media, but we must reject the freakish ideas that contribute to their popular success. Joshua’s “good success” was good because he was following God’s plan to settle the Promised Land. His “success” was being part of his Lord’s goodness to the people of Israel. Success outside the will of God is not success at all. May each of us choose to follow God’s Word: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).