Daily Bible Reading

John 7:16-18

So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. 17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.

This is from todays daily Bible reading.

Many of us have a message about Jesus that we sometimes (I hope!) make an attempt to share with others. We also have a message or an understanding of God's Word and what it means. After I read this I asked myself, is my message my own or does it come from God who sent me out to speak His message.

I know a lot of people... me and Airen planning out Christmas presents showed me this clearly. I also know a lot of people that are not Christ-followers in any way. When I look at the messages that Jesus brought to the people AND the way He treated people I begin to understand what God's message is to those that are far from Him.

Think about what comes further in these... some people talk about Jesus to others, and they do so because they want glory for themselves. It's an easy trap to fall into. There is a lot of prestige attached in Christian circles for being a "soul-winner" or whatever lame word we have for that same idea at the moment. The Bible never excuses having bad motivations for good actions.

This also challenges my understanding of how I exegete (interpret) God's word. (See my first post)

First off, many people interpret God's Word for their own glory. IE: They take what a verse really means and then take their opinion (Blend on HIGH for 2 minutes) to make the scripture justify their stupid choice/decision/action.

The funny thing is that these people never fool people that are actually doing God's will. This is not a surprise considering Jesus said that.

We should be careful with how we manipulate what God's says. I get a feeling that if I don't like being misquoted, God prob ally likes it even less.

If we want to honor God. We need to be speaking His truth.

But don't forget to speak it in love.