Three Observations/Interactions

The First: Since the two ladies are both professing Christians I decide to ask one of my Christmas questions:

“How many wise men were there and where did they find Jesus?”

“There were three and they found him in a manger that was part of the inn”, one of the ladies replied with the other nodding her head in assent.

“Okay, can you show me where it is in the Bible?”

After some hesitancy on the part of the women I said, “The wise men are in Matthew Chapter Two”.

Frances (not her real name) read Matthew Chapter Two and said, “There were three wise men and Jesus was in a manger”.

Having done this drill numerous times in my life I asked Frances to read the text again. After the fourth or fifth try, as Shawna was also reading the text, Frances said, “It doesn't say how many wise men there were, and they found Jesus in a house”.

This gave me an opportunity to talk to Frances about learning to read the text as it is written and not how we think it is written; as well as to talk about how strong preconceived notions influence our perception of text.

Then Frances said, “Shawna wants me to get her a study Bible so she can learn what the Bible says”. About that time people came in the office and I had to mentally file the conversation for follow up. I want to suggest to both Frances and Shawna that the best way to know what the Bible says is to read the Bible – and I think I can use the “wise men” question to illustrate the importance of reading things for ourselves. Maybe I'll ask them to read the Gospel of John and we can interact over it from time-to-time.

The Second: A dear friend is confessing a mess he is in to me; he feels guilty. There is no doubt that guilt in this instance is appropriate, on the other hand once we've confessed our sin to Christ we have the promise that He will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). My friend, a Christian, says, “I don't feel worthy to come to Christ”.

I say, “Twelve months ago you weren't any more worthy than you are now, and right now you aren't any more unworthy than you were twelve months ago”. Oh for us to know and to know and then to know again that Christ is our worthiness, that His death, burial, and resurrection constitute our justification and acceptance by God our Father. Yet so many of us continue to live a life in which we try to have our good works outweigh what we consider to be our sin, or our selfishness, or what have you – we still think we have to measure up, we still think we can measure up to God.

In reflecting on my time with this friend, I think that if each believer would just learn one NT book that things might be better; I know that's simplistic, but how many Christians really know just one book of the NT? Know it so that if they don't have a Bible they can still effectively and comfortably share the Biblical book with others? Oh that we would know Biblical thinking so that we can think about life Biblically, that our minds and hearts would be oriented to Jesus Christ.

The Third: I'm at the car dealership getting an oil change. I walk into the waiting room, the TV if off, there is quiet; I'm the only one there.

A couple with a child are led into the room by an employee – he picks up the remote control to turn the TV on for the family but he can't figure it out. “Good”, I think.

After an apology for not knowing how to turn the TV on the employee leaves. A woman customer comes in, sits down, and begins talking to the couple; I'm reading a magazine. The couple eventually leaves.

The woman picks up the remote and tries to turn the TV on. “Was this on when you got here?” she asks me. “No”, I reply; thinking “and I hope you can't figure it out.”

The woman tries and tries to turn the TV on, to no avail.

Why is it that people assume that others want to hear the noise of the obnoxious box? Of course even if they knew that others would love it off it probably wouldn't make any difference – after all, how strange is that...someone not wanting the TV on?

On my way to the dealership I was singing and worshiping. After beginning my drive home from the dealership I turned on the radio – then I thought about the wonderful singing and worshiping and reflecting on my drive from home to the dealership; I thought about the sweet silence in the waiting room; and I wondered what in the world I was doing by shattering the silence and reflection and worship; I turned the radio off.