Knowing His Voice - Day 140 Month 5-20 Week 20-7
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
Deuteronomy 29:1-30:14, Psalm 112, Jeremiah 24:1-25:11, John 9:35-10:21
Knowing His Voice
“The sheep follow him because they know his voice.” This is Jesus explaining in story form to the Jews that His followers know Him but would not follow a stranger.
Why do I read God’s Word (the bible), pray (talk to God) and try my best to stay in relationship with Jesus? It’s simply because I want to know Him. I want to know Him in such a way that I know Him intimately enough to recognize when I’m hearing something that is NOT like God’s character. I notice, especially in the US to our south, that some church leaders lead their people in a way that seems out of Jesus’ character.
I was employed by a church where the pastor ruled and no one questioned him. There were some theological and character issues that Sylvia and I had at the church to the point that Sylvia had started to attend another church regularly that we were more in spiritual alignment with. I had also joined Syl in attending a weekly small group from that same church because it was an atmosphere where I did not need to present an image of uncritical conformity. One of the elders where I was employed, took me out to lunch one Friday. This was not unusual because the elders were also employees of the organization and this one particularly was quite friendly to me. As we were enjoying lunch together, he asked me why he hadn’t seen Sylvia around as much anymore. I told him the truth. There was no point in lying about it and I knew that it might have come back to haunt me. We finished lunch and went back to the church. That weekend was normal. A church service on Saturday evening and 2 church services on Sunday. The weekends were always quite intense. As Sylvia and I were relaxing watching a movie on Sunday evening after I got home, I received a text message from the senior pastor. It simply stated: “I hear you are leaving.” I did end up leaving shortly after and God opened a door for a new job position at the church where Sylvia had been visiting regularly.
Here’s the thing. We were both hearing things that were contrary to how we were understanding the character of God. If you’ll remember from the other day, we read where Jesus states that if you know Him, you know God the Father. Now don’t misunderstand me, that church was accomplishing things for God, but there were some things that did not seem very “Jesus-like” in the way it conducted itself as an organization. It was a concerning time in our lives because we needed me to be working and I could have potentially been unemployed. The choice was to follow Jesus or to follow the teachings of a church that had good intentions but was on the wrong theological trajectory - like the Pharisees. We chose to simply follow Jesus.
The teaching of Jesus conflicted with the teaching of the Jewish leaders. This led to division as explained in John 10:19-21. Some said “He has a demon and is insane,” while others said “These are not sayings of one demon possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?” There lies the difficulty. The better you get to know Jesus’ teaching and understand the character of God, the more counterculture you become. As for me, I choose Jesus even if it might be uncomfortable for the culture I’m a part of.
Have a great day!
Steve
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