Friday, November 09, 2012
Respect My Authority!
Mark Daniels:
In today’s world, we don’t much care for the whole idea of authority. We don’t want anybody telling us what to do, even when the person in authority seems to know what they’re doing and to have our best interests at heart…even when the authority figure in question is God. It’s so hard for us to trust even the God we meet in Christ. Yet Jesus tells us (and backs up the authority of His words through His death and resurrection): “I am the way, and the life, and the truth. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Do you believe that Jesus has the authority to make that command and that promise? Or do you repose greater trust in yourself, your family, your work, your wits, or your pleasures? Do you believe that Jesus is the one and only "God and human" chain that can connect you to God and the life you were meant to live? The choice between heaven or hell, life or death, purpose or futility, connection to God and others or utter, stark eternal aloneness inheres in the issue of who you will give authority over your life.Note Mark's words, "even when the person in authority seems to know what they’re doing and to have our best interests at heart," when was the last time you actually knew an authority figure that had our best interests at heart. We are all selfish creatures to one extent or another. And note these words, "backs up the authority of His words through His death and resurrection." Christ's authority comes not in the fact that He is God, but in His sacrifice. Christ could indeed have easily stricken all who sought to persecute him and walked away unscathed Yet He chose to set aside the power that came with His nature and proved undeniably that He placed our interests above His own. So many leader claim Christ's authority. So few follow His example. I think the world and the church would be quite different if there ere more of the latter and less of the former.
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