GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. John 9:18 (NIV)

When Jesus healed the man born blind, the leaders of the ‘Salvation-by-List’ crowd initiated an investigation to determine exactly what happened. Yet, it appears the List-Leaders had already determined the outcome – so, when they found facts that didn’t support their predetermined conclusions — they just kept searching until they could find something that did.

Years later, John bar Zebedee, a witness the investigators ignored, shows us snapshots that reveal the flesh-weapons used by the List-Leaders:

• Closed mind and closed eyes – In this story about blindness, we learn that seeing is not always believing. (John 9:13-16) The List-Leaders could see the truth running counter to their pre-judgments, so they simply rejected the truth.
• Discredit – The Salvation-by-List crowd asked the man, formally known as blind, who’d healed him (John 9:17), and when he said it was Jesus, the leaders attempted to undermine the credibility of God’s anointed, perhaps the oldest flesh-weapon we use: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV) Did God really mean _____?
• Demand – The list-mongers returned to the question: “What did he do?” (John 9:26). They demanded an explanation because their focus was on the HOW instead of the WOW. Standing in front of them was a man who’d been born blind, but now he could see – WOW, God! Instead, they insist on knowing exactly what happened and HOW it happened, walking by sight and not by faith (opposite of 2 Corinthians 5:7).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam ….” John 9:6-7 (NIV)

And so Jesus came upon a man who’d been blind since birth. The man was begging on the streets of Jerusalem, just to survive until the next day. Although people were all around him, he sat in isolation. No one could truly understand his fears and his frustrations. People passed by, some spoke to him, some even gave him money, but no one could really understand his situation.

Then, a stranger knelt next to him and, perhaps, said quietly, “If you do exactly what I tell you to do, you’ll be able to see. I will heal you.”

The blind man was desperate to be healed; he was desperate for change; he was desperate for a sign from God, desperate to know he hadn’t been forgotten.

The blind beggar may have turned toward the voice, expecting the one speaking to command his eyes to open, expecting this man to speak light where there had only been darkness his whole life.

Just speak, Lord, and it will be done.

But Jesus didn’t give the command. The blind man may not have even been aware of what Jesus was doing in that moment – working his saliva into the mud and then spreading it across the man’s eyes like a mask.

Only then did Jesus give a command: “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam ….”

Jesus violates expectations – Jesus is not subject to our expectation of him; we are subject to his expectation of us. Jesus may appear inconsistent, for instance, one time he may heal someone by a mere word; another time he may put mud in your eye! His consistency is to the will of the Father, matching God step-by-step.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker
 
“… We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV)
 
With a quick glance, it’s easy to assume Paul is referring to the sinful behavior that occurs before we become Christians. That is, we announce our dependence upon Jesus and we renounce the sinful methods we once used to make it through a Jesus-less day.
 
But, Paul, our prefect in the school of Christ, is actually referring to the sinful behavior of a group of Christians who slander him even as they manipulate young believers.

Instead of slinging mud, Paul ignores their specific attacks and directs us heavenward. In effect, he says, once we used these same methods to get our own way, but now that we have Jesus within, we depend upon him to carry us through the day.

We no longer act like children – Often, you’ll see one child snatch something out of another child’s hands. We do this with God, snatching situations out of his hands, thinking we can do it better or faster. We stop acting like children when we no longer depend on secrecy, deception, or self-righteousness to get our own way.

We trust God can – Paul, ever the exhorter, pushes us toward the ideal, but his standards are never imperative, “ought to” statements demanding perfection from us. He, perhaps more than any other student in the school of Christ, understands our desperate need for God’s grace. We can’t; God can. We trust that God can.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:5-7, NIV)

Back in the carefree Sixties, a group called The Mamas and the Papas sang: “You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whoever you wanna do it with.” It would be easy to say those lines sum up the Sixties, but frankly I think they sum up the standard way of life for many of us even today.

Even as we affirm our faith, we tend to go where we wanna go, do what we wanna do, with whoever we wanna do it with, yet the Apostle Paul taught the early church another song. In fact, it became a hymn, perhaps the first praise chorus among the congregations. They’d sing: “Our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who emptied himself of all the things that come with being a king, and instead made himself a lowly servant ….” (That’s my paraphrase of Philippians 2:5-7.)

Here’s the thing – Christ had every right to go where he wanted to go, do what he wanted to do, with anyone he wanted to, but he laid those rights down in his costly service to you … (and me). Not to get too academic, but this passage is referred to by scholars as the kenosis, where Jesus voluntarily lets go of his omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. 

Think of it this way, Jesus agrees that he won’t go where he pleases (omnipresence); he won’t do as he pleases (omnipotence); and he won’t think as he pleases (omniscience). Instead, he’ll humble himself, going only where the Father tells him to go, doing only what the Father tells him to do, and thinking/saying only what the Father wants him to think/say (“take thoughts captive”).

I look at that and I realize that I have an attitude about making my attitude the same as that of Christ Jesus. Lord, forgive me.

My friend, which song are you singing today?

What does this mean?

• How would your daily destinations change if you went only where Jesus wanted you to go?
• How would your weekly behaviors change if you did only what Jesus wanted you to do?
• How would your thoughts be re-directed if you sent every thought to the feet of Jesus for his approval (or non-approval)?
• GRACE – Always keep before you the grace of God, that he is quick to forgive and willingly at work to transform you into the image of Christ. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.