"Though Seeing, They Do Not See."

Matthew 13:13 (New International Version)

"This is why I speak to them in parables:
'Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.'"

Today, Lisa and I met with a group of people who call their church "Church of God." (This is not to be confused with the Church of God that is in North Carolina.) Basically this church believes that you cannot have salvation until you accept two things: (1) that there is a God the Mother and (2) that you can only have eternal life if you take a rigidly detailed view of the Passover.

While I don't want to get too detailed about what their cult believes, I just wanted to explain something the Holy Spirit revealed to me today.

You know when you are approached by people of a cult and they begin to take you on a furiously flipping, head-spinning journey through the Bible and seem to disprove everything you say? Yes, well...this same thing happened today. In the past, I used to get really frustrated because either I didn't know how to argue them back, or...after having studied the Scriptures to where I know where I stand on certain issues, I would get frustrated because they wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. Today's frustration was the latter. The man explaining to us (Phil) would point to one verse out of context, and when I would try to explain the context, he'd move on to another point. No matter what I said, he wasn't having it. Then he showed us Matthew 13:13 and the Holy Spirit was like, "See, Jessica?"

Phil was using the verse to explain that Lisa and I were blinded because we don't believe in God the Mother. Ironically, I realized exactly why I couldn't voice any of the rebuttals in my head: If the man speaking to me was blind, he wasn't going to get the Truth anyway. If he is choosing to be blind, then I will be casting pearls before swine--the age-old tactic that Satan uses in order to waste a believer's time.

Let it suffice to say: If you are ever discouraged because a cult follower seems to have the upper hand in a theological debate, just remember that it's not about you winning the debate. If they are blind, they are blind. Maybe the Spirit didn't want you to waste words. You can't convince people just because you are willing to convince them. The Spirit has to be ready for that person. If the Spirit is not ready, nothing you say is going to change their mind. In other words, be encouraged that the Spirit is using you, even if it's not the way you expect.

This is why prayer is the only real way of getting anything done. Pray for cult followers. They are lead by very very clever--yet entirely defeatable--demons. Some people cannot be convinced by evidence. . .but they can be by the Holy Spirit's moving. Pray for them.

Finding Pasture in John 10:9

John 10:9 (English Standard Version)
"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture."

This is one of those moments where I just now realized something that I've largely ignored all my life. Specifically, I'm talking about the last nine words of that verse: "and will go in and out and find pasture."

Up until now, I'd realized the first part and surrounding verses talking about how Jesus is our Shepherd and how we are His sheep. I got that. Sunday school teachers always talked about how the shepherd would sit at the door of the fold for two reasons (1) to protect the sheep and (2) keep the enemies out. Those two concepts were easy for me to understand within the realm of my conservative upbringing...but...this verse actually brings up a third point: (3) Truth is found in the Bible, and Truth can be found outside the Bible--but we can only determine Truth after we have entered through the "Jesus door."

What I found so interesting is that the words do not say, "and will go IN and find pasture." You'd expect the verse to say that if you looked at most churches today: The congregation finds the church to be the only truly "safe" place. Christians buy only Christian things. Christians have only Christian friends. Christians are stereotypically stuffy and self-righteous. Christians get offended when non-Christians don't act like Christians. And on and on . . .

However, the verse doesn't say that. The verse says that we can go in and out freely. I'm not advocating relativism. I'm advocating that in order for Jesus to be the truest "door," He will have to be true in any circumstance for any person in any location. This means that after learning about Christ, we can listen to secular song with our eyes opened. Instead of switching the radio off in disgust, we can listen to the hearts of the searching people who wrote the song and pray that God would give us the words to minister to someone else with that mindset.

Also, we don't just come "in" once and get our "Jesus fix" and then stay out in the world. There is constant, healthy movement between the two. This way we can stay culturally relevant--yet stay on-track with God--the way Paul and the apostles did.

If you were to look at the mold of a plastic cup, would you see a cup? No. However, if you first saw the cup and then saw the mold of the cup, you would recognize the mold as the absence of "cup." Likewise, now that we see the universe through the person of Christ, we don't have to become embittered by others' sinfulness. Instead, we are free to recognize sin simply as an absence of something--something in the exact shape of "Truth."

Therefore, when a non-Christian at work curses God, we don't have to alienate ourselves from them. Instead, we can "find pasture" in the fact that we now have a chance to explain who God is to them. If we see that a bumper sticker on the car in front of us is pro-choice, we don't have to hate "baby killers." Instead, we can "find pasture" in the fact that they are--probably in an effort to respect women--replacing the sin of chauvinism with the sin of murder and need discernment. When we hear about terrorists bombing cities in the name of a false god, we don't have to rally against the Muslims across the street. Instead, we can "find pasture" in reading their holy books and asking the Holy Spirit how to talk to our neighbors.

Some other helpful references I just studied regarding this:

1 Thessalonians 5:21
Test everything. Hold on to the good.

(Paul advises that when we hear people preach about God, we aren't supposed to buy it just because they are a pastor or whatever. Instead, we should ask the Holy Spirit to show us what is good. But not everything a "false teacher" says is wrong. We just need to know what parts are good and what parts are bad. That wisdom can ONLY come from the Spirit.)

Acts 17:11 (New International Version)¹¹Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

(The Bereans themselves were into this whole "testing everything" thing. They even tested Paul. That's awesome, b/c Paul was just a man. Who cares if he is a leader or something; he's human: Test him.)