Modern Day Transfiguration

I can’t help but wonder what the Transfiguration would look like today, here. Jesus asks a few good folks from GCR to come with him to the sand hills for some time alone for devotional. On arrival, Jesus stands at the apex of a dune and who should appear but George Washington and Alexander Campbell with Him who shined like the sun. The good folks said ‘Lord it is good that we have seen this. We are not far from pavement, so let us drill a water-well to create on oasis out here. We will call it the “spiritual Rest-Stop” so all can worship You and our most influential spiritual founders.’ A big whirl-wind blew in and a voice from the wind says “This is My Son, Whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

As ridiculous as this story is, it sounds like what happened to the disciples, or what could happen to us. After all, six days previous, in Matthew 16:24, Jesus had told them “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Jesus didn’t tell them to consult Moses’ writings or call on Elijah for help. His instruction was pretty plain as I read it. But the disciples, and maybe us sometimes, are looking for something more, something to do to make the world right and our place in heaven secure.

Even after Jesus told them in 17:9 that He would be raised from the dead, they still asked him about Elijah. How like the disciples I am sometimes? I cling to immersion, Lord’s Day communion (and only on the Lord’s day), acapella music to find some piece of salvation, when all the time it is all about Jesus. If I concentrate on “The One that God loves” and do those commands in the “red” letters, how much easier and more fulfilling will my life be?

- Deane Durham

Jesus Rejected In His Hometown

The story of Jesus being rejected in Nazareth has always been a tough story for me. I mean, it’s his hometown and the one place he should be accepted the most. Friends and family dwell there - all who saw him grow up and become a man. That is NOT how this story goes though.

Later on in Luke 14:26, Jesus actually says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters- yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Surely Jesus did not mean “hate, “ but what Jesus was saying is that we need to love God so much, that nothing -  not even family - should stop us from living fully for God.  Of course Jesus was going to be rejected in his own town, because he was so passionate about preaching the gospel it made them uncomfortable.  Do you make others feel uncomfortable by your passion for the gospel?

What I love about this story is that Jesus pretty much builds them up, and right when they think they know what will happen, Jesus flips a switch on them.  He reads a few verses in Isaiah about being freed from slavery and given favor by the Lord, and the crowds go crazy and “spoke highly” of Him as they rejoiced that Christ was on their side.  The story doesn’t end there, though. He continued by telling a few stories where it was not the healthy that were chosen, but the weak and needy. That’s why Jesus came - to heal, not to comfort the healthy.

This applies to my life because I have been rejected in my hometown. I became a Christian when I was a junior in high school and everyone else still saw me as the boy that always got in trouble, even when my heart was sold out on Christ. I was even rejected in my own household by my brother and sisters. They laughed at me for many years because they didn’t understand how much I was giving up my former ways for the sake of the gospel. I was rejected, and at times still am rejected for my beliefs to this day, but every day I have to wake up and decide whether I will be so sold out for God that my words and actions make people uncomfortable. Because Christ didn’t come to make peace, he came to stir hearts up and save the world. How will you choose to live today even if it makes the people closest to you uncomfortable?

- Jason Allen