By David Post
I know when you read this title it may lead to believe that I am writing a post about math but I am not. I have been asked to lead our small group on Monday night, Jan 16 and I have been trying to think about what God wants us to discuss tomorrow. My church is reading through the New Testament this year and we started in John. I love this book since it truly shows you who Jesus was and is. He tells people who He is and they still don’t believe Him. The biggest thing that sticks out to me about these first few chapters is how many time Jesus causes a division among the people. In one chapter it goes to say that some of His disciples actually stopped following Him because they could not handle His teaching.
What is it about this man that causes such a division among people? Look at todays society, we have people fighting to keep Him out of everything they can. When I was in High School before every football game someone said a prayer, we could have bible study in the school, we had a service a few days before graduation that was held at a church. Now none of these things, or a very few of these things are allowed. As I think about why these things were taken away it is because the name of Jesus causes division. When Jesus performed miracles some of the people did not know what to think, is He a prophet, is he a possessed? Even among the Pharisees men they did not know what to believe. In John 7 the Pharisees send a group of soldiers to seize Jesus and yet the soldiers come back saying, I have never heard anyone speak like He speaks. The Pharisees then scrambled the make sure no one has believed in Jesus.
I love how controversial He is. When the movie The Passion of The Christ it caused such a controversy that it was allowed in countries where the missionaries aren’t allowed to go. In John you see how controversial He is, John 6:66, many of His disciples walked away and were not following Him.
We in this world love finding things to debate and ultimately will find things that cause division. I know the one topic that seems to always cause a division is that of Jesus Christ. A lot of people talk about wanting to “think outside of the box,” Jesus was the original person who “thinks outside of the box.” We should stop trying to come up with things that will cause someone to stop and listen when in fact the name of Jesus will stop people and will start a conversation. Let Him start the conversation and then ultimately let Him lead the conversation.
By David Post
I don’t think I have ever really had new years resolutions. Most people that have them always break them within the first month. Years ago I was talking to a friend of mine that owned a restaurant and he told me that the first of the year was always slow because a lot of people would make resolutions that said they would eat healthier. By February his business would pick back up because most people would break their resolutions. This year I do not want to make any resolutions but I want to try and make a promise or a pact. It is not with a tangible person but it is with God.
This year I want to try and make a promise to read the word more and study more. Over this past year I have had a lot of life changes, I moved two different times. I started a job in a field I have never worked in and now take care of a developmentally challenged adult. I manage a group home for developmentally challenged men and women. I have gone through a lot of changes this year but the one main thing that changed that should not have was my reading the word. I want to grow closer to God and to do so I must read more.
My church has a plan for the whole church to read through the New Testament this year. The website is ownit365.com. My wife and I are planning on reading a chapter each night before we go to bed. I really hope that by reading through the New Testament I will be able to not only read more but study more and blog more. Ultimately I want my love for God to grow this year and to share Christ more.
By David Post
These last couple of days have brought this thought to mind and I can not get it out, keeping looking up. I know that we can not literally look up all the time but what I mean is we must look to God first before we look to ourselves. What happens if we look to ourselves first is that we become selfish. Selfishness to me is the main sin we have in our lives. We want this thing or that thing but we can’t afford it. When we have fights in our marriages is most likely from selfishness. We fight about money and it is because I didn’t get my way when we spent it here or there. When you think about work and when you have a disagreement with a co-worker it is most likely dealing with selfishness, they got the raise or the promotion that I should have gotten.
When we look up first this selfishness goes away. When Jesus died on the cross He asked God to take it from Him but if was God’s will then he would die on the cross. He looked up first and thought about the world first. If Jesus had been like us then He most likely would have begged and pleaded and tried to find away out of dying on the cross. Jesus always thought of others first and not Himself. When we look up we think about others and the needs of others. This time of year brings out the best and worst in people. Sometimes we think of others first by being generous or we are selfish and want everything we can get our hands on.
I want to look up at all times and not just at a certain time of the year. Today was the first day in a while where I tried to look up and it was one of my best days in a long time. If we look up and keep looking up we get closer to God and in my life this is what I want to do, become like Jesus.
