You're Not Supposed To Do That

Good morning! Bible study and breakfast are behind me, time to get on with the devotional writing. I'm watching a short documentary on a Rose Bowl concert from 1988, this date in 1988 in fact. A band did something unexpected that date, they sold out the Rose Bowl. New Wave/Alternative bands from the 80's weren't supposed to do that. Congrats to Depeche Mode, 25 years later. By the way, the first word in the band's name is not pronounced de-peachy as I am wont to do here in the house by my lonesome. Let's see, in 1988 I would have been into the heavy metal music, a carryover from almost four years of WXQR out in Jacksonville near the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. Around that time I attended my one and only big concert, Alabama played at Cheyenne Frontier Days in, well, gosh, I do believe it was in Cheyenne. I'm so brilliant after a good breakfast!

Okay, I am mocking myself in the devotional today. Someone say, "You're not supposed to do that!" I wonder if anyone said something like that to Jesus before He left Heaven. Go down to the Earth, be born as a tiny baby in Bethlehem, and then grow up to die for the sins of mankind. That doesn't sound like something most folks would do. Maybe if they were allowed to change the death from execution on a cross to a peaceful death in old age with family listening to the wise last words before heading back up to Heaven, we might go for it then. I don't know, bearing the sins of all mankind still might be a bit rough. How about we tone that down to just the sins of the good ones, you know those humans that lived good enough to stand a real shot at getting into Heaven anyway. Maybe then you and I could stand up and volunteer. Still, a stable for a birthplace, dirt and the stink of hairy beasts and all that. Then to run for our lives to Egypt because King Herod gave an 'off with their little heads' order, I don't know. Maybe if we had the choice we would wait to be born after all cancers are cured, genetic testing and manipulation assures good healthy and physically attractive babies, and some genius invents a stable Windows-based personal computer. Then, yes, maybe a few more would volunteer. Hmm, must be sin-free and pure? Uh oh, maybe all of us are under qualified already.

We want to become more like Jesus, but the Son of God you and I are not. I wonder today if maybe, just maybe, God wants you and me to not be Jesus, but to be just you and me as He created us to be, and then He will take care of that sin part that He died to save us from. We may be allowed to help in this reconstruction project, but mostly we help by getting out of the Spirit's way through not clinging to our old sinful self. Yes, me can be hard to let go of, but God will get us cleaned up and ready for the big wedding feast, trust Him.

Bucky