Monday, April 4

Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” John 6:7

Thought for the Day: Questions about Passions, Free Will, and Choices

I knew God from early on as a child. Raised in a Christian family, my parents read the Bible to me at bedtime, took me to church almost every Sunday for worship and Sunday school, and sent me to a Lutheran pre-school where I attended chapel Monday through Friday for four years. The only day of the week I did not worship God was on Saturday—a kind of reverse Sabbath for me! All my parents’ closest friends went to our church and they seemed to all have children close to my age.

For me, God was good and the center of the life of my family. I knew him from what my parents read me from the Bible, what Pastor Minch told me about him in daily chapel at my pre-school, what I heard about him at Sunday school and worship, and what I heard about him when my parents and their friends spoke about him. Without even knowing it, I was being discipled and raised to know God and the truth about God. But not all my friends were.

I had two neighbors, who were boys, one on either side of my parents’ house. While I liked to play with them, I tended to get into trouble with them. The older boy encouraged me to turn off the power switch of neighbor’s houses and to start small fires of dry leaves after stealing matches from inside my house. (I say “stealing” because I knew they were only for adults and not five-year-old boys.) Being older, he was the leader of the gang of kids in my neighborhood, but being older did not make him any wiser or kinder. Instead, he seemed to use his position of being the oldest to exploit those younger than he.

I was closer to the other neighbor who was my age. I especially liked going over to his house early Saturday mornings to watch cartoons on his larger television and eat doughnuts his mother bought that mine did not. Unfortunately he had an unhealthy interest in things my family did not approve of and a desire to torture small animals, especially cats. I wish I could say that I had a positive influence on them, but I cannot. Neither went to church on Sundays nor showed signs of having an inner conscience that told them that much of what they did was wrong. I relied on my parents for that, but these two boys did not have parents like that. Looking back, I think their parents were all alcoholics, who, however unintentionally or intentionally, abused their children, leading them away from the truth about God to self-indulgent lives. I do not know what happened to the older boy, but my other friend led a difficult life of drug addiction after his parents’ divorce and ended up taking his own life at age 21, soon after his mother and older sister died in a plane crash on the Texas/Mexico border.

Am I claiming that because I grew up in a Christian family and went to church that I am a more moral person than they? That I am a better person? Part of me wants to say “yes,” but I know the truth is “no.”  I am not more moral or better. I seemed to have had no positive influence on them and I willfully followed them into immoral actions. I do not blame them because I could have resisted their influence out of my own free will. Or perhaps I couldn’t. What is the truth about me, my passions, and my will? What is the truth about you and your passions and your will? We will look at some answers tomorrow.

Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:

Before you pray, take some time to reflect on your sins. Perhaps there is one in particular about which you are concerned. Tell the Lord you are sorry, ask him to help you stop this sin, and then pray a prayer like the following:

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Spend further time in prayer and worship before studying the Gospel of John below.

Study: John 8:31-59, The Truth Will Set You Free

 ³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ³³They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?"

 ³⁴Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."

You Are of Your Father the Devil

 ³⁹They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God." ⁴²Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."

Before Abraham Was, I Am

 ⁴⁸The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" ⁴⁹Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." ⁵²The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.' ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?" ⁵⁴Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' ⁵⁵But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." ⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." ⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Reflection Questions:

1)  In verse 32, what does Jesus mean that the truth will set you free? From what are we free?

2)  The Jews tried to insult Jesus (verse 48) by calling him a Samaritan. Jesus chooses not to respond to this charge. Perhaps they said this after he told the parable known as The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Recalling this parable, have you ever considered that Jesus was talking about himself in the parable?