What was the last good idea you actually put into action?
I
am a great dreamer. I can dream up new possibilities all day. We could do this
and this and the other thing, would that be great!?! But how often do they
actually happen? I do this with ministry all the time I also do it with
physical health. I could start a new blog that would perhaps help me to loose
the rest of the weight that I want to loose, but the amount I have started to
put back on. I could start a fitness club or group at the YMCA. I could have an
online facebook accountability group. But have a done any of these things? No.
Have I lost the weight? No.
Following
this line of thought there comes another question: How bad do I really want to
loose the weight? Cause if I really wanted to then wouldn't I do these things,
wouldn't my thoughts become action? I could just get back on my exercise and
eating program and accomplish these goals -- if I really wanted to.
In
John Chap 5 Jesus approaches a man who has been lame for 38 years. For 38 years
he has been laying by this pool believing that if he could just get in the
water when stirred by the angel then he would be healed. Jesus approaches the
man and asks him, "Do you want to be healed?" The man responds with
an excuse, as most of us do, "I have no one to help me to the water."
Was that a yes? Jesus then gives him the chance to make his thoughts a reality.
"Take up you bed and walk," says Jesus. And the man does so...he
takes up he bed and walks...he has been healed!
Do
we want to be healed? Do we really? Yes I do want to be healed...am I willing
to hear the word of Christ and then act upon it? Will I take up my bed and
walk?
This
same sort of question is asked of the Pharisees in the rest of the chapter.
Jesus challenges them with the reality that they seek the scriptures seeking
eternal life and when eternal life is there before them, in Jesus Christ. They
don't take the action to believe and accept him. Jesus tells them he will not
judge them, but rather it will be Moses, the very one they cling to. Moses
wrote about Jesus and they are not accepting Jesus so they we be condemned by
the writings which they cling to. It is one thing to talk about ideas it is a
whole different think to truly accept them and act upon this with belief in
Jesus.
Last
night we watched the original "Guess who is coming to dinner." A
powerful story in the 1960's when a white girl brings home her black fiancée to
me her liberal parents. The question is posed directly to the parents, will
they take action on the values that they raised there daughter with and embrace
the marriage or will they shrink into hypocrisy? (It's a good movie, you should
watch it.)
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