Nightly Nuggets

I was heading for bed, doing my Bible reading for the night and came across notes I wrote on the Good Samaritan passage in Luke 10.  Verse 30 said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him...wounded him..departed...leaving him half dead.

Then the religious priest and likewise a Levite came and saw the wounded man and passed by on the other side. 

Then the Samaritan had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds and took care of him. 

Just a couple simple points from that story.

First, I see the thieves represent the world.  Satan is the god of this world and the Bible says he came to steal, devour, and destroy.   Second, the priest and levite represent religion.  Religion is pious and clean and avoids anything that requires something you truly need God for.  Finally, the good Samaritan represents Jesus.  Only Jesus had the compassion.

My notes were that:

The world destroys you.

Religion deserts you.

Only Jesus delivers you.

The World disillusions you.

Religion disappoints you.  

Jesus hence deserves our worship.

The phoniness of religion usually is not always noticeable.  The priest probably just finished a lecture on how to help the stranded person who gets beat up and robbed.  The Levite was likely on the way to a men's meeting where he could brag how holy he was and how many gifts of the spirit he had.

Jesus wants us to be honest.  Our natural desires is selfishness.   We need God to smote our hearts so we honestly care.  We need God to change our minds so we think like he does.  We need God to use us and break us and get us to care.

Without Him I can do nothing.

With God all things are possible.

The two-sided coin again.

We need to know both.  We can experience them in our failed moments if we don't quit.  He wants us to be honest and see our need and our hopelessness.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I can't do anything without him.

Oh, but his grace is sufficient.  When I am weak, he is strong.

I hate seeing how weak I really am.  Just let me work some overnight shifts or bring home a new box of Oreos (has to be the double stuff) and I reveal how unspiritual I really am.  But when I am weak, he is strong.

Man, that is humbling.

Man, my flesh doesn't like it.

Man, it's embarrassing.

But Oh God, it is wonderful to see him move junk and road blocks and fears and failures out of my heart.

I am still under construction.  There is a Ron Hamilton song about it.  Maybe the paint is still wet.  God is not finished yet.

Little by little inch by inch.  By the yard it is hard, by the inch its a cinch.