“If you plan to keep step with Jesus the Pioneer, you better expect some changes.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within (Kindle Location 383). Kindle Edition.

I am reading the New Testament Gospels thirteen times in 2013. I want to really catch a glimpse of what Jesus thinks is important. One thing I’ve found is what Erwin says in this thought, Jesus brings about change.

He brought religious change by His continually healing people on the Sabbath. He brought vocational change to a group of swine owners when He cast some demons out of a man named, Legion and they were sent into the pigs and they went over a cliff. He also brought structural change to a house when some men tore open a roof to drop their sick friend down in front of Jesus so he could be healed. Over and over He brought change through His teachings and His miracles where ever He went.

Have you noticed that in all of the good He did for someone He was it seemed messing up someone else’s day to day world? I mean the Pharisees had everything set up to make the Sabbath a peaceful day and Jesus went and kept healing people. His miracles upset their way of thinking, their rules. Granted their focus was way off base. Somehow they didn’t even see the good that was happening to people.

And then those swine herders, I mean how dare Him to cast out all those demons from that man. Granted the pain he had lived in was gone but what about their pigs? Of course if they would have put their trust in this Man who could take care of demons He could have taken care of their livelihood. But they asked Him to leave instead.

Somehow we need to change our focus, our trust from our self-interest and on to His plan. He has something greater that He wants to do through us than we could ever imagine if we would just get our eyes off of our self-interests. Yes it will upset our world but isn’t that the reason why He came in the first place.

He didn’t come to bring safety and calmness to the world. He came to upset it and to bring change.

So how do you handle change?

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