Micah Bemenderfer

July 30, 2023

Mark Mark

Passage Read: Luke 9-10
Meditation Verse: 9:26

Thought

Jesus has said a lot of things that are hard to accept. There are things all over Scripture that are hard to swallow, but all come from God. Especially when the society around me rejects such teachings. But Jesus warns that if I am ashamed of His teachings, He will be ashamed of me when He returns in glory. He says this on the heels of two warnings about losing my life, so this shame is most likely to be understood in the same way: If Jesus is ashamed of me, I am doomed.

Application

If I acknowledge Jesus as Lord, then I don't have a choice in what teachings of His I'll accept. It's all or nothing. If I follow some teachings but not others, I clearly have little fear of Him. Do I really see Him as Lord in that case, or just a really smart man, but not entirely smart? He's God's Son, but what does He really know?! I cannot be ashamed of anything He says. Perhaps these hard-to-accept instructions are just to test my faithfulness and trust and commitment to Him. More likely, they're just good and right, and the world hates them because it loves evil. Either way, no matter how wrong Jesus' words seem to me, I still need to believe and obey them if I don't want Jesus to be ashamed of me when He returns in power.

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