Jesus Christ General Contractor:
Moving Mountains since Eternity: open 24/7 including holidays: walk-ins always welcome
Matthew 21:17-22New International Version (NIV). 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt,not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Our Pastor has been taking us through a sermon series on Faith. Today Pastor Adam focused on the scripture above and broke it down a bit. I’m finding that this is really necessary in order to make sense of some of the scriptures. At first glance of the scripture in verses 21-22 might make you think “now why would someone want to do that?” But that’s not the point at all. First it’s important to recognize that the phrase “moving mountains” was a common saying of the jews at the time. “Moving mountains” meant trying to accomplish a really difficult task. I think this phrase though is a bit easier to understand than some. Too bad there isn’t an Urban Dictionary that compliments the bible, to kind of dumb it down for us. I’m thinking there are a few books that this would come in mighty handy (cough cough Isaiah, Revelation, Daniel). We could call it Urban Bible. Making things all current day lingo;
So like this verse;
John 13:34-35New International Version (NIV)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Urban Bible: John 12:34-35: “Dude, play nice in the sandbox, ah’igh. No need to be gettin all up in each others grills!”
God doesn’t have this huge goal of making His Word so tough that no one understands it or you need a degree in Theology. But He does however want us to invest time and energy into studying the Bible. He wants us to understand how the Bible of the Old Testament bridges to the New Testament.
John 1 New King James Version (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend[a] it.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
He wants us to understand, so we can help others to understand. When we turn our hearts over to Jesus, He is constantly framing (get it? Framing…General Contractor…see how I did that..haha) our house, that is, our lives, so we can pick up the tools that he provides and go about the Father’s business. We become sub-contractors of sorts on His team.
So when someone asks you, “why do you say that God exists? Why do you speak of faith and grace?” Are you able to clearly explain it?
I want to recommend a series on Apologetics by Ravi Zacharias that I have been following. Here is a link to him if you’ve never heard of his teachings, I think you will find this really helpful, as I did.
My whole point of this blog is really to share with you this; Jesus is the General Contractor of our lives. He has given us tools, but it is up to us individually to use them.
God bless
light and salty, with a chance of frosting 