daily java

Daily Java:

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)

Jesus had just gotten through saying some things that the people listening found, quite frankly, offensive. He had been saying that in order to be pleasing to God, you had to eat him and drink his blood. He was, of course, speaking metaphorically. What he meant was that you had to take him into your self in such a way that he became part of you. It would almost be as if you ate him and drank him.

A lot of the crowd said, in effect, “Yuck. Gross.” And then said “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”  (John 5:60). Jesus knew that his apostles were confused by such raw imagery and some just plain didn’t like it. So he asked them, are you going to leave too? They told him, where would we go? You are the answer to our questions. And we believe in you.

Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn starred in a movie about the older Robin Hood and Maid Marian. He came back after the Crusades to find her in a convent. As they told each other what had happened in the intervening years, he told her of the atrocities that King Richard had visited on those he fought and the things that he had Robin Hood do. Some of them were baffling, others were appalling.

Marian asked him at one point, why did your keep on doing these things? Robin’s answer: he is my king. What else would I do after a lifetime of service but serve my king.

That has always rang in me somehow. There are things that God has done or left undone in my life that I do not understand. And many things that he has done or left undone that I quite frankly disagree with him over. But I have served him for over four decades. It will not be but a couple of years that I will enter my fifth decade of service to my king.

Someone asked me the other day why I stayed in ministry when things seem to be going so badly. And my answer was like Robin Hood’s. He is my King. Where else would I go? There are no other alternatives, no other avenues of approach, no other ways to serve him. He is my King.

There are a lot of things that I just plain do not understand and a lot that I do not like. But he is my King. And if I serve him as my King, I have to recognize that what he does in my life is up to him. He has used me mightily in the past. Right now, I don’t seem to be doing much. He has blessed us financially in the past. Right now, he has not.

But above all else, he is my King.

Jesus asked the apostles, are you going to leave too? I was going fine and then I said something that you didn’t like so you leave? And to their credit, they said no, we will not leave. For better or worse, you are the Holy One of God.

As we see in politics and everything else today, someone may be a trusted advisor or confidant for years, and then say the wrong thing. When he does, he is pilloried by the press and usually dumped by those who just yesterday thought he was great, simply because they didn’t like what he said.

Sometimes it is good but you don’t want to hear it. Sometimes it may be too hard for you to comprehend. But whatever God says is always good, even when you don’t want to hear it.

In Revelation 10:9-10; the angel give the apostle John a book. It was God’s will and plan in a symbolic fashion.

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!” So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.

The word of God is often beautiful, but often harder to do than to listen to. I am convinced that many people prefer the old King James Version of the Bible simply because they can listen to it in comfort and not really understand it because of the outdated language. Modern translations give the word of God in a format that is too easily understood and they don’t want to do it.

The apostles found again and again that Jesus was not just some good philosopher. He was the real thing. And the real thing is sometimes hard to follow.