Scripture

His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

~John 2:5, NASB

Quote

Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to Jesus where there seems to be no way.

~Oswald Chambers

Following Christ requires faith from start to finish. The justified live by faith, not sight. It is impossible to please God without faith and it is impossible to follow Christ without faith. Can you imagine being one of the disciples as they followed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The decision to go to Jerusalem was not made by the group, none of the disciples wanted to go. Jesus choose the course and they followed Him. They did not understand His logic nor what He had in mind. In terms of their understanding, Isaiah summed it up in chapter 59, “We grope like the blind along a wall.” They had no clue where they were going; the only thing they knew was Jesus was leading them. I absolutely love the story in John 2 about the wedding and Mary the mother of Jesus running out of punch. She didn’t panic or fret, she went straight to Jesus. Evidently Mary was a relative or friend of the host and when they ran out of wine, she went to Jesus. Jesus reply is a bit shocking “Woman, that’s not our problem, My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” I love it! No one knew Jesus better than His mother. She had no doubt about His ability or capability and she had a hunch He would tell them to do something crazy. 

Sure enough, Jesus told them to fill six stone water jars; each could hold twenty to thirty gallons of water. The servants promptly obeyed and when the jars had been filled, Jesus said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So again the servants followed his instructions. We all know you make wine out of grape juice, not water. Water and wine have nothing in common. Nothing Jesus said to these servants made sense but they were good servants and they did not question His instructions.

Are you in a crisis of faith; debating whether or not to follow Christ or your own inclination. Perhaps what He is asking you to do seems crazy because it does not make sense. Remember two things: first His sense doesn’t make sense because we don’t have enough sense for His sense to make sense. He operates on an infinite plain. We cannot fully understand His thinking: it is infinitely above our thinking. Second, we are following HIM. Our commitment is to Him. It doesn’t matter where He is going or what He is doing and it doesn’t matter if we understand: all that matters is staying on His heels. We are called to follow not figure. You will never be able to figure things out before you follow. We follow and He does the figuring.

Extra

Another good LORD’s day and we give thanks: God is good. Clara had a good weekend; Shohn was able to do AWANA last night. Thank YOU Jesus! Gregg was at church last night and he looks good. Sarah Hooper is at home under Hospice care. Morris K. Edmonson was about the same when I talked to Steve yesterday. I had planned to go over to see him this evening but it looks like I will have to put that off until tomorrow. It looks like we are going to have a beautiful day.

I hope you have a great week and thanks for reading the blog.