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September 14, 2010
Jesus Speaks ...
Even when He is in the "Box" |
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Greetings!
The phrase "in the box" is used in the business and organizational thinking to mean a restrictive or confined limit. We often hear statements like "think outside the box" or "don't put yourself in the box". In church circles you hear about followers of God putting God in a "box". This statement refers to limiting God's power, grace and love by thinking things through with our flesh and worldly minds and not with the understanding of God's limitless nature and ability.
Jesus came and defied the tradition and ritual of the religious leaders of His day. He came to the earth with "outside of the box" thinking. The Jews were looking for a Messiah that would restore political. military and social power or one that wouldn't interrupt their religious business. Jesus came to restore relationship with God the Father and break down corporate religion to initiate individual fellowship with God.
Jesus is an "out of the box" God. Too often, we come to Him with our own ideas, concepts, outcomes and desires and thus place Him in the "box" of our worldview thus denying His Kingdom and the preference for His will. Too often, it is not "Thy will be done" but "my will be done". When we live or think this way we are putting Jesus in the "box".
Sometime last year, a partner ministry gave us Biblical hero dolls that speak when you push their back. We had a Moses doll and a David doll that we gave away. We kept Jesus. Jesus moves around our office and speaks when we touch His back. The
Jesus in the Box | other day someone moved Jesus and put Him in a cardboard box. Thus, Jesus was placed in the "box". I used this as a object lesson and grabbed Jesus out of the box. When I did I also touched His back. As I put Him back in the box He spoke, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one come to the Father but through Me!" Thus, Jesus speaks ... even when we put Him in the box! |
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The Woman at the well and the "Box" she put Jesus in
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." 11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." 17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." 19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." 26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
~ John 4:1-26 ~ |
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Don't Put God in a Box ... Renew your Mind and have Faith in our "Out of the Box" God!
The woman at the well had Jesus in a box. She used the box of ethnicity when she described Jesus as a Jew. She used the box of religion when she told Jesus about the differences in worship. She used the box of history when she stated that a "messiah" was coming. She used the box of deceit when she attempted to hide her adultery. She used the box of reason when she told Jesus He didn't have anything to draw "living water". Friend, how are we like that woman?
Is there a box you keep God in? What is your pre-conceived notion about how God moves or who God is that place limits on God? The reality is that Jesus speaks even when we have Him in a box! Jesus is always speaking and always trying to blow up the boxes where we keep God.
The Bible has no box for God. The Bible is full of instances where people or religion attempts to put God in a box but He destroys it. In Luke 18 when Jesus replies to the rich young ruler the question is asked "who then can be saved?' Jesus responded, "What is impossible with men is possible with God". In Luke 1:34-37, Mary asked the angel how she could become pregnant as a virgin the angel replied, "Nothing is impossible with God".
We need to take Jesus out of the box we place Him in and allow a great God to be great! The amazing truth is that God will still speak to us through the box we create. God is so rich in mercy and so kind that He continues to pursue our heart and soul. It is our task to listen, to learn and to grow to become more like Jesus.
This week, take time to reflect on the limits you place upon God and then repent for those He reveals. It is good to ask friends and loved ones if they see any boxes you have for God. Again, if you find them simply repent and allow a Great and Mighty God to work great and mighty things in your life through His vast power, grace and love. Jesus will speak to us through the "box" but I pray we destroy the "boxes" and walk in maturity and great faith in a great God! |
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For King and Kingdom,
Randy Martin |
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