| Puzzled Oct. 31, 2007 |
Matt. 8:18-22 NKJV 18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” In sudoku puzzles we are challenged to place the numbers one thru nine in any order that we like within a large and small cubed box. However there are certain rules that we must abide by that can cause this fairly simple request to sometimes render a messy and frustrating outcome. Why? Because each number produces a cause and affect and if it is not placed properly then the rest of the puzzle will be out of sync. It is the same with our priorities. God allows us to place them in whatever order we want BUT only one order will correctly solve the puzzle. Like sudoku puzzles, He will give us hints along the way, such as He is to be number one, but it is still up to us to place Him there and to figure out the correct order of our other priorities while abiding by the rules that He has put in place, otherwise our lives will always be out of sync. Now, written above are verses from the book of Matthew in which Jesus cleverly points out the priorities of two men who desired to follow him. The first claimed he would follow Jesus wherever he went, however Jesus recognized that the man's first priority was security and a place to stay which would make it impossible for him to successfully live the lifestyle that he would be required to live (vs 19-20) in order to be Jesus' disciple. On the other hand, the second man requested to bury his father before leaving which signaled that his first priority was family, and Jesus knew that this priority when placed as number one would hinder this man from following Him with a whole heart (vs 21-22). Now please understand that the priorities of these men weren't bad, but they were in the wrong order. They were puzzled. They forgot to place God as number one, and that mistake prevented them from being able to go to the other side with Jesus when He was ready to leave. Likewise, we need to take a good hard look at our own priorities and make sure that all of our numbers are in the correct spaces so that we are always in sync with our Savior. That way when Jesus is ready to take us to the other side (vs 18) we won't be puzzled at all, instead we will be ready to go and we won't have anything holding us back or making us fall. I hope you enjoyed reading the word of God in a new light. Have a Happy Wednesday! God Bless, Minister Tommy & Sis. Shatika Gray Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth |