SCRIPTURE: Mark 3:20-30
“He is out of His mind!”… “He is controlled by Beelzebub!”
Jesus responds to how people accuse and attack Him, warning them to be very careful, that they may actually be closing themselves to God’s Spirit.
What they see as crazy, what they feel as wrong, what they reject as demonic… is actually God!
How many of us do that, refuse to listen or learn because it does not fit with our own ideas about what is right or good or true?
When we are critical, judgmental, close-minded, the truth has a hard time penetrating our skull.
Instead of rejecting people because of perceived flaws or weaknesses, pay attention to what may be God and good in them.
Always ask yourself, ‘is there something God’s Spirit is saying to me here?’
That aggressive atheist, that angry abuse victim, that environmental activist, that raging televangelist, that grumbling church member, that troubled teen, that hard-to-understand special needs person, that on-fire new Christian, that passionate Muslim, that quiet neighbour…
I am not saying that everything about them is right and good… but if you remain critical, judgmental and closed, you may miss out on what God is doing, what God’s Spirit is saying, what Jesus is doing in your life.
Think of someone extreme, fanatical, different, and ask yourself: ‘is there something God’s Spirit is saying to me here?’
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, if John the Baptist came today like he did back then, most of us would have dismissed him, and not gone out to see him. Yet he was pointing people to You. Help me to see the crazy ways that you are trying to reach me, to help me.