I got a letter today. It left me really confused. It was made to look like someone had handwritten this letter just to me, but I suspect that this message went to a lot of people. It was a woman who was telling me a story about her grandparents coming to America many decades ago and how they looked forward to the freedom they would have here. It went on about how important it was to get out and vote in the coming election cycle and especially
on this one proposition. It was actually done pretty well, and they made my name and text look like someone had really written it all out. The problem was after I read the letter, twice, I had no idea what this lady or those behind this letter wanted me to do! I just kind of shook my head and threw it away. Afterwards I thought of something that Jesus said when he was talking to a group of folks and was talking about making promises. People in those days were just like us people today. They would make promises and then when something else came up, they would look for a way to get out of the commitment they made to folks or even to God. The way they would do it is to take an oath and then they would add all kinds of things to that promise, so you were not sure what it was that was binding them to keep what they had committed to. Jesus told them and us that day that you just need to clearly say “Yes, I will,” or “No, I won’t.” The rest of the stuff we add, he says comes out of the evil one (see Devil here), because he is a liar and the father of lies. And the best way to tell a lie is to dump a lot of other stuff in there so one can come back and say something like “Well, I didn’t pinkie swear!” Yeah, I remember that stuff as a kid. As a follower of Jesus, we aren’t going to cloud our message or our personal intentions with a lot of smoke. Just say what you mean…and then mean what you say. That will set you apart from the majority of folks out there! And it is what God wants…so let’s do that. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Matthew 5:37 NLT Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ
on this one proposition. It was actually done pretty well, and they made my name and text look like someone had really written it all out. The problem was after I read the letter, twice, I had no idea what this lady or those behind this letter wanted me to do! I just kind of shook my head and threw it away. Afterwards I thought of something that Jesus said when he was talking to a group of folks and was talking about making promises. People in those days were just like us people today. They would make promises and then when something else came up, they would look for a way to get out of the commitment they made to folks or even to God. The way they would do it is to take an oath and then they would add all kinds of things to that promise, so you were not sure what it was that was binding them to keep what they had committed to. Jesus told them and us that day that you just need to clearly say “Yes, I will,” or “No, I won’t.” The rest of the stuff we add, he says comes out of the evil one (see Devil here), because he is a liar and the father of lies. And the best way to tell a lie is to dump a lot of other stuff in there so one can come back and say something like “Well, I didn’t pinkie swear!” Yeah, I remember that stuff as a kid. As a follower of Jesus, we aren’t going to cloud our message or our personal intentions with a lot of smoke. Just say what you mean…and then mean what you say. That will set you apart from the majority of folks out there! And it is what God wants…so let’s do that. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Matthew 5:37 NLT Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ