Short devotion: Listening to Jesus - Luke 9:35

Luke 9:35      A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is My Son, Whom I have chosen; listen to Him." (NIV)

            Sometimes, instead of listening to Jesus, I listen to my own thoughts and ideas. I end up making foolish choices and stupid mistakes which Christ could have helped me to avoid. I thought that the older I got, the wiser I would become. That just doesn't happen. If I don’t listen to Jesus, I am not going to learn.

            I hear other people quoting Jesus, but not really listening or applying what He has said. It’s almost as if they have created their own fortune cookie Jesus who sagely expresses words of wisdom to justify their actions, choices, and decisions. I keep hearing things like “Judge not, or you’ll be judged,” or “Love one another,” or “Do unto others,” or even the apocryphal “We are all God’s children,” (which He never said). People misquote His words because they don’t read the Bible or truly listen to the Gospel. And what they don’t hear, they make up to suit themselves.

            When God candidly speaks to the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36), he does two things. Firstly, He reveals to them that Jesus is actually His Holy Son. Secondly, God commands them to listen to Him. We may not understand this at first, but what we have here is the true process of becoming and being a Christian. To be a Christian means that we have to believe that Jesus is God’s Holy Son. To remain a Christian, we have to keep listening to what He says, which we can only do if we consistently, studiously, and prayerfully keep reading the Gospels.

            So the challenge for all of us, including me, is this: Do I believe that Jesus is God’s Holy Son, and am I willing to listen to Him?

Prayer:          Lord Jesus, You are God’s Only and Holy Son. Open our hearts and minds so that we may truly listen to You. Enable us to consistently make the time to continually read the Gospels. Help us to serve You in all of our decisions and deeds. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to ask questions or make comments about today’s message, please send him an email to Traqair@aol.com.

The attached image is one of John’s latest Celtic type drawings called “Celtic Communion.” If you would like to view a larger version, please click on this link: Communion.

Free Daily Devotions: No Man - Psalm 49

Psalm 49:7      No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him.

For most of his life, my father was an agnostic. He wasn’t sure if God existed and part of his stumbling block to faith was in accepting that Jesus was actually the Son of God. He was willing to concede that Christ was a deeply spiritual person and a great moral teacher. He just couldn’t grapple intellectually that Jesus was more than a mere man. In the end, however, when he was dying from cancer, he let go of this struggle and allowed Christ into his heart.

Lots of people wrestle with Christ’s divinity. Like my Dad, they’re willing to picture Christ as a religious and philosophical leader, but they doubt Christian claims that He was, is, and always will be the Holy Son of God. They believe that His crucifixion and death were final, proving that Jesus was only human after all.

But the Cross actualizes Christ’s divinity for me through the prophecy that is proclaimed in today’s verse. Hundreds of years before the Crucifixion, the sons of Korah prophetically sang: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him”

No man, no mere human being could redeem the life of another; but Jesus, who is both human and divine, could bring about this redemption and give the ransom for the whole world!

If anybody else had gone to the Cross at Calvary, redemption would never have occurred. Only Christ’s sacrifice could completely save humanity. Anyone else’s death would have been insignificant; any other sacrifice would have been merely superficial.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, without Your miraculous entrance into the world, we could never have truly known God. Without Your sacrificial exit on the Cross, we could never know the joy of redemption. We praise You for being fully human and fully divine. You are the Holy Son of God, the Lord of all Creation, and Only Savior of the World. Amen!

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.