Tags
Related Posts
Share This
A Simple Equation
Some things never change. During Jesus’s time, the people least comfortable with Him happened to be the most religious. Weird, huh? But I find that to be all too often the case still. Many church-going folk are quite proud to affiliate with a particular denomination or church culture (“I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Lutheran/Methodist/Baptist/Etc.”). But start talking about Jesus…just Jesus… and people start getting a little nervous. So the chief priests and scribes want to get rid of Jesus, but don’t want to alienate people. How could they take care of this problem a little more neatly?
Enter Judas. He’s close to Jesus – part of his inner circle. We don’t know exactly what motivated Judas to betray Jesus, although we can come up with several theories.
Now enter the final player in this drama. The text says that Satan entered Judas. Alan spoke last week about the Greek translation of “enter” meaning coming in and out freely. And we all know the choice Judas makes at the end of the story. Although he alone was accountable for his choice, Judas allowed himself to be persuaded by the enemy.
Everyone faces the temptation to make decisions that we know are not right. But what do we weigh when making these decisions? Whose counsel do we seek? To whom do we listen?
Satan cannot control us; his power only lies in deception. It’s up to us to protect ourselves from the deception, to recognize truth versus lies, and to control what we let “enter” us and influence us.
It sounds good to say that God’s voice is the primary or dominant voice that guides us. But that’s mathematically impossible if we spend more time listening to the television, friends, talk radio, ipods, etc…And while none of these other voices are evil in and of themselves, I know I’ve been convicted once or twice of being less than choosy. A friend once jokingly said to me, “Garbage in, garbage out.” As corny as that sounds, I knew she was right. Whatever I listen to the most is what I allow to “enter” me and influence me. If I listen to everything and everyone else and fill my head with whatever’s around, I drown God out. And when I believe otherwise, I am deceived. Satan is the deceiver. I’ve done the math.
I had not thought about how uncomfortable some church goers are when you talk about Jesus. It also strikes me that I don’t talk to other Christians about Jesus enough. What is coming out of my mouth? Encouragment, praise, loving kind words or critisim? Lord help me today to put more of you in so I will shine you out.
Please pray for a person in our small group who has a job interview today. Also pray for my son as he takes tests and midterms this week.
Megan, thanks so much for sharing.
I want to share a quick story of something that happened to me this morning. I was on my way in to work this morning and someone else was driving. The rule in that the driver chooses the music. We were listening to a popular top 40 radio station. I can in to work this morning with those songs in my head (hips popping, let’s drink, etc). Horrible.
When I got in this morning and read your entry, I felt like I needed to cleanse my mind. I popped in my ear buds and began listeing to a Christian radio station. Now I have the proper frame on mind. I still have a song to sing but it is a much better song.
You are absolutely correct about garbage in – garbage out. My I recognize the various ways that Satan uses to get at me so that I can protect myself against evil.