Thought of the Day !!

Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. 

                                   John 8:30 (NIV)

For the whole story you can read verses 12-30.  But to sum up, the Pharisees are arguing with Jesus over his validity.  They don't know who he really is.  They are blinded by their own sinfulness.

The awesome part of this story is that even though those well-educated scholarly types could not understand, those who would become like a child and accept Jesus for who he was believed.  It just goes to show, it's not how much you know, it's who you know.

I like to read and keep up with blogs and Twitter feeds.  I read stuff written by people much smarter than myself.  Some of these brilliant minds have humbled themselves enough to know that even their knowledge comes from God and that they can help others by sharing what He gives them.  Then there are those who share things that seem way out there.  These people are called by many names; atheists, agnostics, professors, physics, and wait for it....wait for it...Christians.

I believe that God wants us to learn more and more about Him because when we do we can come closer and closer to Him.  But we can get so caught up with what we believe to be right in our theological thinking (any thoughts about God and His ways), that our own knowledge becomes an idol.  One of the Pharisees idols was their own knowledge.  They believed that they were always right.  So when Jesus came on the scene and disagreed with them, they got defensive and fought back.

We must be careful not to rely so much on what we think we know that we are not above correction at times.  I'm not always right.  But what I will do is seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and go to Scripture when someone tells me that I am wrong.  It may be humbling to acknowledge we are wrong at times, but isn't that what Jesus teaches?  Did He not humble Himself when He came from Heaven and lived and died in a human body?

Put your faith in Jesus and not yourself.  Learn humility over defensiveness.  Then you will make God smile.  :)

In the love of Christ,

greg