Convenience vs Conviction, Pt.2

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:56-57 NIV)

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66 NIV)

In the last post we talked about how we can choose to feed on greed instead of on Jesus Christ, the only source of Divine and Eternal Life. We can choose to feed on a lot of things that we think will satisfy or bring pleasure, or even comfort in this life, but only when we feed on Jesus can we lay hold on LIFE WITH GOD.

Let me get back to an earlier thought, “the way in which Jesus says this truth is significant”. Jesus uses the metaphor of flesh and blood. The immediate thought conjurs up images of cannabilism or something worse. There is no doubt that there were groups in Jesus’ day that believed in such strange and evil practices as drinking blood and eating human flesh, but Jesus is NOT going there. Jesus is saying that we must spiritually eat His flesh and drink His blood – meaning we must fully accept His death and sacrifice on the cross. We must fully accept who He is and what He has done for us. We must invite the Incarnate Son of God to infiltrate our insides in order to morph us from the inside out.

Jesus knew what this would sound like to his original hearers, but He said it anyway. I love how Jesus is never afraid to speak the truth – that is definitely the direction I want to lead our faith community in. That is the direction that I want to go in, but at times I know that I am fearful of what others will think. I am fearful that others may leave if I speak the truth in such plain and direct language.

What Jesus said was absolutely true and absolutely led of God’s Spirit, something that I pray for every day and every week as I prepare and deliver messages from the Bible at The Dialogue Church (www.thedialoguechurch.com). But it was still MISUNDERSTOOD by some. There were those in the crowd who did not take the time to investigate Jesus any further. Maybe they were there to get something from Jesus: a miracle, a healing, a quick fix. There were those who probably got what Jesus said, but STRAIGHT UP REJECTED CHRIST. Isn’t that crazy? So many people today talk about how they would be so much more faithful to God if they had just walked when Jesus walked, but I can tell you that the WAY YOU ARE NOW, IS THE WAY YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN THEN, BECAUSE THE SAME JESUS THAT WALKED BACK THEN IS THE SAME JESUS THAT IS ALIVE NOW. The Holy Spirit lives within believers, that is a whole lot more intimate than walking next to Jesus, WE HAVE JESUS INSIDE OF US!

As we continue to lift up Jesus and let Him transform our faith community and our hearts from the inside out we must remember that THE TRUTH WILL COST US. There will be those who MISUNDERSTAND our leadership and our message from Jesus. They will either seek to fight us or flee from us (hopefully the latter). They may even try to rally some troops against us, twisting what we say for their own personal gain. Then there will be those who BAIL ON JESUS. There will be those who totally get what Jesus is saying but they don’t want to give up their own personal agenda, sin, comforts and conveniences.