Not My Problem

CAUTION: READING THIS DEVOTION BEFORE MEALS
MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR APPETITE.

TITLE: Not My Problem
DATE:  October 29, 2019

Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

TEXT: John 18:  - ESV -28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. [f] It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 
A few years ago, when I was in Turkey, my guide told me the story of an Arab who woke up hungry in the middle of the night.

The man lit a candle and searched for food.

Eventually he found some old dates. He broke one open and was shocked to see it was filled with worms. Tossing the date away, he broke open a second one, only to make the same discovery. As dates were the only food in the house, the man thought about what he should do.

Eventually, he made his decision. He blew out the candle, broke the third date open, and without inspection, consumed  it.
The Jews who took our Savior to Pilate's palace would never have done such a thing.

They spent a great deal of time and money worrying about how little things looked.

They were not especially concerned about things like justice, lying witnesses, and trumped up charges. The devil had told them that they were within their rights to ignore the fact they were sending an innocent Man to death.

Instead of worrying about whether  Jesus truly was God’s Son and the Messiah, they were preoccupied with and worried about whether they might be spiritually contaminated by entering into in the gentile Governor's palace.

What an extraordinarily bad set of priorities!

The Devil has given similar such priorities to our country.

• In our schools we can give out birth control, but no Bibles.
• We can grieve over the execution of convicted murderers, but dare not talk about the murder of millions of unborn children each year.
• In our cities we cannot display a Nativity scene on a government building but nudity can go unchecked in a bar.

Give thanks to Jesus that His priorities were always right.  From cradle to cross Jesus kept the priority is Father had given Him. He was to live every moment of every day of His life for the purpose of saving lost and condemned sinners.

The fact that He has been successful in this is evident from His victorious cry from the cross, “It is finished.” Today we thank God we can cling to the cross of Christ which makes and keeps sinners clean.

THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me be concerned about the important things of life. Let the fights I am concerned about be worthwhile. Let my priorities be Your priorities; In Your Name. Amen.

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html