Good Monday morning! Somehow it is always more difficult to put 'good' in front of Monday than it is for Friday. While I don't hold an 8-5 job like many of you, I still have the occasional Monday too. The morning today is just too warm and wet, the mosquitoes loved it and their movable feast, but I wanted to do nothing but complain. Hmm, what blessings can I count this morning to set against all that bothers me? I was able to get up and go for a walk this morning; many in Pakistan and China must go for a swim if their house is even livable after the floods. A group of miners in Chile are still alive but may have to wait up to 120 days for rescue; I am not trapped in the dark far underground. Those are only two of the many situations people find themselves in this morning that I would consider worse off than my own situation. Perhaps I don't have so much to complain about after all!
This morning, we find Jesus not trusting the belief of many. Today's verse confirms something we might even have come to realize on our own.
No one needed to tell him [Jesus] what mankind is really like. (John 2:25)
Our Creator knows how it is with us. Our tendency to complain, and the lusts of the flesh that get in the way of constant worship. Jesus also knew that this fallen world would cause us no end of grief in this lifetime. Jesus also knows the worst parts of human nature. The tendency we all have to fall away or give up on what is best for us, whether it is physical exercise and good health, or the falling away from obedience to the commandments of God. Jesus brings us the Good News about eternal life in Him, and even after years of belief and faith we still have the urge to doubt his words. Faith and belief in Jesus are two qualities that we must work out on a daily basis. Belief in that which is not seen is not easy for any of us. The long-time minister of the big church in America will have just as much trouble as the Christ-one in a small house in China. The leader of many believers in India will have the same difficulty on a bad day that a farmer in England will have on his bad days. We all have that human nature in common; regardless of what political leaders want us to believe about people in far lands.
Therefore, now that we all have that human nature in common; is there any hope for mankind? Funny you should ask. This verse we read today states the problem that Jesus is going to take up in Chapter 3. The third chapter of John is one of the chapters of the Bible that everyone should read and meditate upon thoroughly. The central good news of the Good News is stated in 3:16. The way to eternal life is stated by Jesus in this chapter. The method the Holy Spirit will use to fix the problem in today's verse is discussed in Chapter 3. Perhaps more sermons, books, and devotionals have been spoken and written about something in John 3 than on any other part of the Bible. No one needed to tell Jesus what we are all like, but Jesus did need to tell us how we can be saved. Chapter 3 of John has just what we need.
Stand by for the Good News!
Bucky
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