Skip to main content

Listen!


 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)
 

         Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.
            Then Jesus started talking of going to Jerusalem and dying. Peter had rebuked Him. Can you blame him? Here was his best friend, the Messiah who was supposed to overthrow Rome and free Israel, the Son of the Living God, talking about dying. In return, Jesus had called him Satan. He was at the bottom of the hill.
        Then, Jesus took them up a physical hill and was transfigured before Peter, James and John. Talk about top of the hill. Why wouldn't they want to stay there, especially if staying meant that Jesus didn't go to Jerusalem and die?
       We're the same way without even as much motivation. When we get to a "mountaintop" experience, we don't want to go back down. We especially don't want to race back down to a low point. Like Peter, we might suggest building shelters and sticking around, instead of asking God what He wants especially if we didn't like the answer the first time we heard it (before having the experience.)
           Peter raced back down the hill without leaving the peak. God reminded them and reinforced what Peter had said a short time before. He took it further by saying that He was well-pleased with Jesus, the same Jesus who was talking to Moses and Elijah about going to Jerusalem and dying.
         There are time when we don't want to listen to Jesus because He's telling us something we don't want to hear. Sometimes, we pretend we didn't hear. Sometimes, we pretend He didn't say it, that the part of the Bible in question isn't God's word. Of course, the parts we like are. Sometimes, we argue with Him about it. And God's response to these times is, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Birthday of Bedrick Smetana

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more