Luke 22 v26 “… but among you it will be different…”
Of the many gods in our world, our God is very “different”.
We believe in a God who is extremely unique in every way – and as a result, sometimes very hard to fathom, or understand, puzzling in fact, frustrating…!
Our God teaches differently to any other god.
He even says of other gods : “they have eyes but dot not see, ears but do not hear, mouths but do not speak…” (see Psalms)
Teaching involves imparting information which requires wisdom on the part of the recipient to understand how to use that information.
Wisdom requires thinking.
God in and through Jesus, was the greatest thinker of all time. He taught unusual thinking:
to be greatest, become least
to gain life, lose it
seed falls to ground & dies, to produce a harvest
widow’s mite, she’s richer than anyone else
Jesus must die, that we may live
In other words, what we think is “natural”, isn’t.
if someone seeks your coat give them more of your clothing
the meek will inherit the earth
to show that I am God I will become a baby!
to show I have power of eternal life I will allow them to crucify me!
Jesus was showing we live in an upside down world – all is not as it is
God’s ways are beyond us - our ways are foolishness to God and God’s ways seem foolishness to us.
In some facets of life, we do begin to understand though, how the way things really are :
eg. a horse trainer knows that to get a horse to follow you is not to chase it but to turn your back on him and walk away.
eg. Mahatma Ghandi overthrew colonial imperialism not with an army but with a life of humility and gentle words
eg. Nelson Mandela helped set a nation free by spending 27 years in a jail cell.
One of God’s favourite games is the game of “surprise” – God says,
“My ways are higher than your ways. You cannot use your natural mind, or your vast experience, or wealth, or cleverness, or intellectual prowess, or fancy words, to get to know me or my ways. The only way to approach me is by faith, That is very hard for the world at large to understand”.
We must start thinking “opposite”.
Do not think as the world thinks.
Think outside the box - eg shy person must become more assertive – make themselves “break out of a shy mould” that might be holding them back from reaching their true potential…
So Jesus taught His disciples:
when someone hates you, forgive…
or persecutes you, rejoice…
reach out when you feel like hitting back
pray when you feel like yelling in anger
give when you don’t seem to have enough
To live/think/behave “outside the box” like this, is to live in obedience to God.
Obedience is following unusual instructions.
This means our overall effectiveness in life is explained by our dependence on God – Phil 4, “I CAN do ALL THINGS in Christ who strengthens me!”
Human beings were designed to submit their spirit ONLY to the Creator.
Only God can direct, wisely, how you and I should live our life.
We must constantly remind ourselves that we, and CPAC, must be dependent on God at all times.
We might have budgets, strategies and professional practices but those do not explain our effectiveness.
Our effectiveness is explained by our dependence on God, on our relationship with Him and with one another, and on the way we live our lives as an example….Jesus said, “I am a servant”.
A World Vision worker in
Who told her this… she had observed his life, his actions and his behaviour as he helped the people in her community.
Some things we cannot explain without the hand of God.
Our God is a “different” in every way – does things differently…
Eg. Nick Vujicic and Michael Phelps – both can swim except one has no arms and legs (Nick) and the other does!
Both are known around the world for different reasons….
Nick born like that – doctors don’t know how or why. He is being used powerfully by God to speak the gospel message around the world….
In the end it is the transformed quality of our lives that will ultimately make the difference to how we live and the influence we have… it is not our skills, ability, etc… but our obedience to God and our dependence on Him in all things….
Amen.
