Here I Go Again

After a long silence, I thought it was time to post something.  Hopefully I'll become more consistent at this.  It's good for me and I hope for you too.

I like looking at the big picture of life.  Where I am good with the details, it is the big picture that thrills me most.

It's in looking at the big picture that we see elements of life that are consistent with each other and other elements which aren't.  In surveying the big picture we see things that are true and right and good.  We also see things which are lies, they're wrong, they're evil.  It's possible to live with these incongruities because we live among the details and rarely climb high enough to see what kind of a picture the details form.  Every now and then we need to back away from the canvas and see what we've got.

There are some verses in the Bible, in John 8:39-44 that are a good illustration of this.

"Abraham is our father," they (the Jews) answered.

"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abrahm did.  As it is, you are determined to kill, me a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.  Abraham did not do such things.  You are doing the things your own father does."

"We are not illegitimate children," they protested.  "The only Father we have is God himself."

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here.  I have not come on my own; but he sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you?  Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is not truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."  (New International Version)

These guys wanted to be followers of Jesus but on their own terms.  They wanted to maintain contradictory elements in their hearts and Jesus called them on it.  They didn't want to take the road that their beliefs laid out for them to see where it led.  Jesus helped them.  He was able to show them that rather than be his follower and consequently God's follower, they were in fact a follower of the devil.

This process is incredibly important.  We could get the surprise of our lives and end up at a place that is exactly where we thought we were heading away from.