The Amish Voice 2
4. My physical health could sufer because
even my physical system may be afect-
ed by how I handle or fail to handle my
problems.
God meant us to face reality and solve prob-
lems. The spot on the paper is very real and
must be faced. But the danger comes when
we get too close to the problem and lose our
perspectve and fail to see the whole picture.
My whole life
is not
one leter, one boss, one
spouse, one twenty dollar bill, one weekend,
etc. My situaton, problem, event, or crisis is
only one tny part of my life.
Ofen an event passes
in
tme
but not
in
mind
. We cannot or will not stop thinking
about it, and thus we are unprepared for the
next moment of tme. ----
A boy buried his
dead cat and then every day he dug it up to
see how it was doing!
We ofen do the same
thing with yesterday's events and problems.
——————————————————
For the rest of this artcle, I would like to take
a look at several diferent examples of people
in the Bible who became wrongly focused on
ONE THING
, and how that ended up afectng
their lives in a painful way; ofentmes, it also
afected other people’s lives who were totally
innocent.
The frst example is found in 1 Kings, chapter
21, where the Bible tells us of a king that
wanted his neighbor’s vineyard so badly that
he couldn’t think of anything else. All he
could think of, day afer day, was the
ONE
THING
he did not have — his neighbor's vine-
yard.
What makes this story in frst Kings even
more strange is that King Ahab owned many
vineyards in his kingdom. The truth be told,
the King had prety much everything he could
ever want in life. He had fame. He had for-
tune. And he, most likely, had more posses-
sions than anybody else in the kingdom. It is
probably fair to say that he had more stuf
than anybody else in the whole land of Israel.
But the
ONE THING
he did not have was the
vineyard that belonged to his neighbor Na-
both. All he could think of was the
ONE VINE-
YARD
he did not have.
Let’s read the story, and then I would like to
make a few simple comments. Oh, and while
reading it, let’s not point fngers at the King,
but rather, let’s look at ourselves and be re-
minded that we have probably done the very
same thing, even as adults.
1 Kings 21:1-4
And it came to pass afer these things,
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W
H
O
W
E
A
R
E
A while back, a friend of mine pointed something out to me
that I thought was very interestng; something I had not real-
ly thought of before. So without further ado, today, I would
like to share it with you as well.
In a minute, we are going to look at John 19, but before we get there,
I would like to point out that in previous verses (same chapter),
John described how our Lord was nailed on the cross, and while he
was hanging there, a few of His followers were standing around at
the foot of the cross. As for the rest of His disciples, they had all run
away and hid out of fear. Among those at the foot of the cross that
day, were Mary (Jesus' mother) and John (the one whom Jesus loved).
So let's read the Scripture and then I would like to make several
points that I think are very interestng.
John 19:25-27 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his moth-
er, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and
Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple stand-
ing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman,
behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy moth-
er! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own
home.
Notce that Jesus did NOT call Mary “Mother”; He called her
“Woman”. You ask, “what is so interestng about the fact that Jesus
called His mother “woman” in stead of “mother”?” Well, it could have
meant several things, but let me point something out to you that I
think really makes sense as to why Jesus called His mother woman.
See if you agree.
I truly believe that it had to do with the fact that Jesus, the
Savior of our sins, had to cut His relatonship of and separate
Himself from His earthly mother. Here is why that makes sense:
At that very same moment, Mary had to acknowledge her son Jesus
as the Savior and the forgiver of her own sins, just like all the rest of
mankind. It may also have been at that very moment beneath the
cross of Jesus Christ, that the relatonship between Jesus and His
mother, Mary, changed from a
fesh and blood relatonship
to a
spir-
itual relatonship
. The two are separate and totally diferent in nature.
Understanding this correctly, will help us realize even more --- just
because God used Mary to bear the Son of God, does not mean that
she was any diferent from all other child bearing mothers in the
world. Mary was a lost sinner and needed a Savior to cleanse her from
all her unrighteousness, just like all other mothers in the world.
And just like all other mothers, Mary's physical body died one day and
was buried, but her living soul went on to stand before her Creator,
where she too gave account of her life on earth.
Here's something else to consider: It is almost certain that Mary, the
earthly mother of Jesus, was the only (blood) family member at the
cross that day. Because of what verse 27 says, it is prety clear that
Joseph, for whatever reason, was NOT in the picture anymore. And
according to history and Scripture, Jesus' half-brothers did not accept
Him as the coming Savior untl afer His resurrecton. And for that
reason, the Apostle John took Mary into his own home for the rest of
her days on earth.
Heart
to
to
to
Heart with Joe Keim