Someone
asked me if I was speaking for Jesus after I shared a post on Facebook. My answer was: “No, I am only sharing a story
that I find relevant to the discussion at hand.” In reality, I suppose that I do speak for
Jesus in my words, actions and Facebook posts.
The story I shared was factual and
relevant to the issue of the day. I do
not apologize for anything I said in response to the person who seemed to be
questioning me because the story was from a certain news outlet (not sure if it
was my character, my intellect, my bias).
In sharing the story, I was not validating every story that outlet has
ever published nor would I ever deny the bias of the news outlet. Honestly, I did not give a lot of thought to
where the story originated just that it was a factor that would help bring
light to the discussion. I have long
recognized the bias in news reporting. I
have a practice of balancing the sources from which I get news so that I can
better discern the truth for myself. I
have a friend who lives in a different country who says everyone in his country
knows that the television news is censored by the government so they watch it
and then go to international news sources to evaluate better what is really
going on. I guess I do this too. I did not take the story down and I don’t
plan to stop posting stories that I think are important to the discussion. The solution is simple when you are only
looking at one aspect of truth. Iris
Pearce says: “Simple truth divides, complex truth creates discussion and pure
truth unites.” We can be united, but not
when we focus on simple truth. We need
to accept that truth is complex and opposing sides have nuggets of this complex
truth. Moving beyond simple truth is
essential for moving toward unity.
I do speak for Jesus because I am a
Christian. When I add facts to a
discussion, it will make some who oppose those facts think that I think Jesus
would agree with me. I am a reflection
of Jesus but a very flawed one. I
decided to write about this when I read St. Irenaeus’ sermon “Against the Heresies.” He wrote about Jesus: “He revealed God to man
and raised man to God. He shielded the
Father from human sight so that man would never undervalue God through
familiarity but would always have something to strive towards. On the other hand, he revealed God to man in
many ways so that man would not fall away entirely from God and thereby cease
to be. God’s glory is in living men and
full life for men is in the vision of God.
If the revelation of God in this world gives life to all living
creatures, much more will the revelation of the Father by the Word give life to
those who see God.”
No one will see God without seeing
God’s Son. John 14:6 says:
Jesus answered, “I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” Jesus has spoken
for Himself. He took on human flesh and
His actions, miracles, words all speak about who He is and who God is. His death burial and resurrection are the
loudest messages about God’s wrath, patience with us, mercy and invitation to
live eternally with Him after death.
Jesus also commissioned Christians to speak for Him, but we must always
know that in speaking for Him we are minimizing Who He is because He is beyond
our understanding. Believe me, I have no
idea why God and Jesus chose to speak through Christians. It’s always a mystery to me. I could better understand if they spoke
through an unbreakable piece of technology so everyone could hear the truth
without the bias of a human experience.
For some great reason, far above my understanding, God and Jesus have
assigned the task to Christians to use our mouths, and His Spirit will
speak. I am amazed every time I am a
part of someone putting their faith in Christ.
I had a conversation; but then a miracle took place, and the person no
longer was speaking to me. There was
another member in our conversation. The
presence of God was now speaking to the heart that opened up to God through
faith. It’s a very complicated truth
that I accept and witness about but will never comprehend.
Copyright © 2018. Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved.
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