Ever been on two sides of a coin? You want to leave, but you want to stay? Want to hate, but end up loving? Want to change, but won’t let go? Said good-bye to old friends, but want them back?
Ever heard people say the Bible is full of contradictions? Probably have heard it all the time, I’d imagine. There aren’t any, though there are sayings and teachings that can be interpreted that way. Check it out:
“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:4). Meaning, don’t get on the same level as a foolish person. But then, in case he boasts and needs to be put in his place:
“Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:5). In other words, there’s a time and a season for all things-remember?
In terms of contradictions, isn’t it interesting that the author of love was hated by the world? That the healer was tortured, bruised, flagged, and crucified? That the Bread of Life was “chewed” out by the masses? That He that said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14), hungered and thirsts on that cross?
Jesus calls us to live in ways that seem like opposites. You have to:
1. lose yourself to find yourself.
2.Lose your life for His sake, to find yours (Matt. 16:25).
3.Give it all away to get it back (Luke 6:38).
4.Die to live (John 12:24). >
5.Hunger to be filled (Matthew 5:6).
6.Be humbled to be exalted (Matthew 23:12).
7.Be hated, to be loved (Matthew 10:22).
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you” (John 15:18, 19).
If you’re on both sides of the tracks, switch over to God’s side.
“That at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us” Ephesians 2:12-14).
Christ has demolished the wall of sin that separated us from God’s presence. We’re now on the same side, same train ride, chugging to the same destination: God’s Magnificent Home!
God Bless!
Sam
Recommended Song: Faithful Men by Twila Paris