Rejecting Jesus' Authority
What should have been a routine traffic stop escalated into so much more. A 65-year-old woman named Debra Hamil was pulled over by a police officer in Oklahoma for a broken tail light. You can see on the video that the officer is respectful and cordial. But when he gives her the $80 ticket, she refuses to sign it. She doesn’t think she deserves to pay $80 for something that she can easily fix (even though she admits her tail light has been broken for six months).
When the officer asks her to step out of the car, she swears at him, rolls up her window, and drives away. So the cop gets in his car and pursues her. He was on a mission to enforce the law. And nothing was going to keep him from accomplishing his mission.
So now we’re in a police chase. She ends up pulling over, but again she refuses to get out of the car. So he pulls her out. She kicks him. And so he tases her. Then he arrests her and takes her to jail. She is charged with assaulting a police officer, which is a felony.
The police officer accomplished his mission, but he wasn’t happy about it. Debra Hamil ended up in a police chase, then she was tased, then she was arrested, and finally she was charged with a felony. All over an $80 fine for a broken tail light. Her actions illustrate an important principle; things can only go from bad to worse when we reject authority.
Before I became a Christian, I hated the idea of a big authority figure in the sky telling me what to do. I didn’t want a God like that. Maybe that was true you, as well. And even though I am now a Christian, there are still ways I reject Jesus’ authority. You and I reject him with every sin we commit.
Similar to the police officer, Jesus is on a mission. But his mission involves more than just enforcing the law. Jesus is on a mission to save us from the consequences of our rebellion. We can either cooperate and reap the benefits of submitting to his will for our lives, or we can resist and make life much harder than it needs to be.
"An arrogant man stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the LORD will prosper" (Proverbs 28:25).
"But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him" (Jeremiah 17:7).
Together, We Will Replace God
Reuters reports;
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Humanity no longer needs God but may with the help of artificial intelligence develop a new form of collective consciousness that fulfills the role of religion, U.S. author Dan Brown said on Thursday.
Brown made the provocative remark at the Frankfurt Book Fair where he was promoting his new novel, Origin, … inspired by the question "Will God survive science?"
"... Are we naive today to believe that the gods of the present will survive and be here in a hundred years?" Brown, 53, told a packed news conference.
... Turning to the future, Brown said technological change and the development of artificial intelligence would transform the concept of the divine.
"We will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other," he said, forecasting the emergence of "some form of global consciousness that we perceive and that becomes our divine".
"Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges us ... will diminish and eventually disappear."
Who is really being naïve, those who place their faith in man or in God? It’s amazing how quick we are to place our faith in man despite the many lessons offered to us by history. But we keep thinking, “This time we’ll get it right!”
But we don’t even need the aid of history to realize how ridiculous this proposal really is--just spend a little time in the comments section of a trending story. The typical banter found in these comment forums should dispel the idea that a global human consciousness will replace the voice of God. Man’s vitriol and collective ignorance is a poor substitute for the wisdom of God.
As individuals, we aren’t the men and women God says we should be. Nevertheless, we are supposed to believe that collectively we will replace God. Really? As though all we need is more of a bad thing to equal a better thing.
I hear echoes of the serpent in the Garden, who suggested that Adam and Eve really didn’t need to listen to God anymore. The idea was that in their disobedience they would somehow “be like God.” We see how that worked out.
"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
Obedience Can Take You to the Moon
Swindoll retells the following story of his conversation with General Charles M. Duke and his experiences walking on the moon with the Apollo 16 mission:
I asked, “Once you were there, weren’t you free to make your own decisions and carry out some of your own experiments…you know, sort of do as you pleased – maybe stay a little longer if you liked? He smiled back, “Sure, if we didn’t want to return to earth!”
He then described the intricate plan, the exact and precise instructions, the essential discipline, the instant obedience that was needed right down to the split second. By the way, he said they had landed somewhat “heavy” when they touched down on the moon. He was referring to their fuel supply. They had plenty left. Guess how much. One minute. They landed with sixty seconds of fuel remaining. Talk about being exact! I got the distinct impression that a rebel doesn’t fit inside a spacesuit. Whoever represents the United States in the space program must have an unconditional respect for authority.
Some believe that obedience gets in the way of accomplishing their goals and dreams in life; that one must have a little rebellion to succeed. In reality, our love for God and our desire to obey only Him is what will "take us to the moon and back!"
"Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful" (Joshua 1:8).
Chris Horton