- Not The Only One!
- Post #126
- 28 Mar 24
- ” Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve “
- Howdy!
- Thanks again for checking in and for being a part. I don’t usually remember a lot of specifics about one post over another . However, I do recall a year ago writing ” CEO”, which was about people who grace the house of God on Christmas and Easter only, and well, it’s that time of year again. I want today , to thank God for them , at least showing up then and perhaps at some point they may connect the dots☺️☺️. I got a lot of great feedback from that post, and while I’m not here for the kudos, let’s see what we can get into today.
- I’m not a person who believes in living in the regrets of life. It’s not that I don’t have some of those, but two points come to mind, ok maybe three. As we go through life it’s inevitable that we will hurt others and other people will return the favor ☺️☺️. Oh! Yeah, the three points, first up, it’s kind of hard to move forward or live in the present , if we are always dwelling and living in the past. The second thing is that fear and shame will keep you from living out the full potential of your life. As of my last check, the time machine that will allow us to go back in time and fix our past mistakes, just doesn’t exist yet☺️☺️. If it’s at all helpful just think about it as a lot of our renewable energy, more hypothetical than actuality ☺️☺️. Thirdly, At the end of the day , God says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God forgives us when we screw up, but there must be a huge amount of grace. We have to give it, but we are also recipients. ☺️☺️ . This must also apply to self, because I’m one of those people who has a really hard time forgiving myself when I drop the ball and perhaps injure others.
- Just incase you are unaware or ill religious, we are smack dab in the middle of holy week or passion week if you prefer ☺️. This is the reference for the week leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. They call it passion week, because He was a man on a mission and the week , just climaxed with dozens of biblical prophecies being fulfilled . I have made reference after reference about my love of history. History is factual and it takes a hard look at what has already taken place and if we are smart, we will take lessons from what has already taken place. History will cause us to speculate at times about , what could they have been possibly thinking to make some of the choices that they made. It’s almost like in sports, one decision can be pivotal and mean the difference between hoisting a trophy over head and being a champion, or experiencing the agony of defeat☺️☺️. This is the place that will often lead us to the ” Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve ” . If you would indulge me just a little, I want to do a bit of speculating. If there has ever been such a thing as an unsung hero, it has got to be Judas Iscariot ☺️☺️. He was one of the main players in passion week and never thought of as in a positive light. I mean he was like the ultimate villain. He’s often in the class with Benedict Arnold, Tokyo Rose,, Hitler ,and Stalin , but he is like the original .☺️☺️ While all of these guys and lady included have left there blemish on mankind, only Judas can say that he betrayed the Savior of the world.
- The word of God says some pretty harsh things about him and as I’ve said before , I’m not going to try and defend the indefensible ☺️☺️. However I have often thought about, what the hell was he thinking? ☺️☺️First up, he was a part of Jesus’s * entourage, he was one of the twelve most closest people to Christ. This meant that he traveled with Him for the entirety of His ministry and saw and even participated in some of the miracles that Christ performed, such as the feedings of the multitudes . We know that he was the treasury of the little group and that he was dishonest with the funds. I keep thinking to myself, what an incredible disconnect! It’s really easy to throw him under the bus and back it over him a few times just for good measure ☺️☺️, but we know that the rest of them had a disconnect as well and didn’t truly understand until after the resurrection. All of that being said, he still betrayed and sold his mentor out for 30 pieces of lousy silver, not even gold ☺️☺️. I want to say that if I was standing there , when I heard Him say ” Lazarus come forth”, that It would have just scared the you know what out of me☺️☺️. So! , well this is all comes down to one thing and that one thing is the condition of our hearts. How can we be so hard hearted? , that we would see, or as scripture says taste and see of His goodness and still stand off from a distance and say….nope, I’m good!☺️☺️. I think that Jesus was and is the great divider. He’s always standing in the middle and saying come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. The religious leaders of the day gave Him a firm , no thank you Sir!, but prostitutes, tax collectors and other people of disrepute said yes I need what He is offering. It’s been a little bit since I’ve done a sidebar, but here’s one for you. The very people who should have absolutely got it, the one’s in charge of the writings of the prophets and the ” keepers of the law” the most sure of themselves and most self-righteous, were the very ones that completely missed the rim….that’s right, a big old air ball☺️☺️. I will be the first to confess to having my days of missing the rim, but not for three years straight, day in and day out ☺️☺️
- Since we are speculating together, have you ever wondered why they didn’t just examine the evidence? It’s some two thousand years later and we encounter people everyday with very much the same posture. It’s been said many times before, by people much smarter than myself, that there are only three possible options. They are that Jesus was a complete mad man as in being a complete lunatic, or one of the greatest liars of all times, or, He was the truth and exactly what He said that He was and that’s, He is the Son of God. And not just this weekend, but He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. This is huge and I don’t have a lot of time to drill down on it, but we know that sin is running ramped in the world, so how did He take it away?. In the simplest terms, it’s a case by case, one on one opportunity . It’s a personal invitation to have your very own specific sins taken away. It’s not a trick, magic pill, silver bullet, or even a get out of jail free card, because the enormity of the offer is so much more than that and has eternal consequences. The best part is that it’s available to every single person. What could possibly be the thing that keeps our hearts hard and unwilling to examine the evidence and except the offer to have my very own sins taken away?. How about instead of speculating, I give you a glimpse of me in the mirror. The number one thing for me was my pride. We don’t always see our independence as a source of pride, but it is and was for me. I think that I use to lie to myself and tell myself that I had it all together. Well, I had checked a lot of the boxes that the world would consider and tell you that you are successful, but deep inside, I knew that something was missing or suspected that there was some how more. If ,I’m going to lie to myself, I might as well tell myself that I’m a pretty good person, and that I don’t really have a sin problem, and if I somehow do, it’s pretty much insignificant ☺️☺️. As long as I keep the facade up and others see me as a good person, then I must just be ok, after all I haven’t killed anyone ☺️☺️. I love this part because, this is where I get to compare myself to others and they are usually of a lesser standing, so in my mind , more messed up than I am☺️☺️. I just completely discount the other end of the spectrum with rationalizations of them being lucky somehow, or just willing to put in more work than myself. ☺️☺️. Yeah!, I’ve heard, and there was a time as well when I believed that faith in a supreme power or some kind of a deity was a crutch, a weakness, the thing that keeps you out of therapy ☺️☺️. I think by most accounts I’m a pretty average guy across the board, height, intelligence, education, family, You just name it , and I’m pretty sure for most things that I would fall somewhere around average. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have things that I excel at or passionate about, but the point is that my coming to faith in God is not determined by anything other than me, not having a hard heart ☺️☺️.
- Let’s get back to our unsung hero Judas Iscariot ☺️☺️. He by all accounts was not a good guy, but I often wondered if he somehow felt that he was forcing Jesus’s hand to show His power and might. Let me explain real quick. When you look at prophecies, there are two completely different story lines about the coming Messiah. There are two, and they completely look different, one from the other. One tells of a suffering servant and the other of a conquering King. These two very different accounts refers to the first and second coming of Christ, that’s right, He’s coming again☺️☺️. We often see what we want to see, and not many of us, in fact very few would choose suffering over conquering ☺️☺️. If you have some fetish, then that’s a completely different kind of suffering ☺️☺️, and doesn’t apply ☺️. It’s a little ,far fetch, that three years of serving and suffering would just flip overnight to conquering . Judas’s mind may have been thinking that a few days earlier, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, with all of the fan fare and pomp of a conquering king, that perhaps some kind of * coo was about to take place. I mean we see this in the Muslim faith where they believe that there actions can somehow force the hand of god to act and show up. It’s a real outside chance that maybe he was thinking that his decision to betray would some how turn into a victory….because some how it kind of did ! ☺️☺️, but not what his thought process was ☺️
- I believe that it often comes down to us knowing our place. Do we know our standing with God. ? Looking back, we see that Jesus had an inner circle, and then He had the twelve, which Judas was a part of, we had the religious leaders and of course the crowds or the masses. Judas didn’t make the cut for the inner circle, but he was one of the twelve, which was a pretty good place to be. You don’t want to be one in the masses,, by all accounts they were a pretty fickle group, they went from singing His praises as the king of Israel and heir to David’s thrown , and not even a full week later were shouting crucify Him!, crucify Him!. I don’t even think that they even qualified as fair weather friends?☺️☺️
- Knowing our place!, now that’s an interesting phrase. When it comes to God, do we know our place? Are we just one of the masses?, far off and aloof from God, just hanging around for the benefits of what He may bring our way without any real commitment to the cause? Maybe , just maybe we are closely related to the religious leadership of the day. We are going to try and get by on our own good works and self-righteous. Jesus said it like this, you look good on the outside, but there is nothing going on inwardly, nothing spiritually, but the outwardly show!☺️☺️ Perhaps you’re more closely relates as one of the twelve . These are the people who know God and get up everyday, not perfectly, but try to draw into that relationship just a little bit more than the day before. Oh, yeah! ,The inner circle, these are the one’s who are so sold out , so closely connected to God, that when you spend time with them , they just radiate His presence. These are the ones who nine times out of ten act in complete obedience without asking the why. They answer the bell, and say here I am , “send me” ! I think that this is the place that a lot of us wish that we were, including myself ,but we still have some parts of our hearts that aren’t as tender and soft as they need to be. I truly do believe that this is the place, that if we can get there, that cuts down and cuts out much of the ” Should’ve, Could’ve ,Would’ve, the second guessing of life.
- So the question this resurrection weekend, where do you see yourself, and what is your place with God? There is no question that He knows you, He created you in His image and gave you breath, whether you realize it or not, so the big question is do you know Him? Knowing Him, not knowing about Him and there is a huge world of difference. Judas is not the hero of the Easter story, but he serves as an example to us, that people can be all around God and know things about God and still miss the rim☺️☺️, or the big picture. This may not be the best example, but it’s like that movie the ” Matrix”, and you have to ask yourself which reality are you living in? Are you living in God’s reality or one that follows the world and is orchestrated by you? A couple of hard truths before we depart. It doesn’t matter where you have been or what you have done, you are not beyond repair as in being to far gone. You are never beyond His love and forgiveness God’s go to move is always love. You could never be a Judas Iscariot, that part of history is already written ☺️☺️. Even if you were Judas, it wouldn’t matter because Jesus loved him to the very end, and that’s a really hard truth that many have a problem accepting. He betrayed Him and He loved him anyway and all the way right up to the very end! He loved him anyway. His mercies are new every morning and it’s the perfect opportunity to escape the “Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve syndrome.
- Till Next Time , ✌️ Peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
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