Contradictions
John 4:28-29 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?
A 5 time looser, divorcee, Samaritan (Not Israeli) woman was the first evangelist in the Bible. Sent from Jesus to preach to the MEN in her village.
Pretty interesting seeing how that kind of is contradictory of what a lot of the Bible infers the following which seems to be in contradiction with the rest of the Bible
1. divorcees shouldn’t be preachers
2. women shouldn’t teach men
3. we as believers shouldn’t talk to people in false sects
4. men shouldn’t be alone with ladies
5. inter-nationalism. Samaritans weren’t Israelis.
God does things like this to keep us on our knees. He NEVER contradicts Himself. We misunderstand HIM. God wants us to be praying, and to not be so rigid in so many ways. People love to argue. People think they are right and everyone else is wrong. THEY LOVE THIER SET RULES. Life has continuously changing dynamics. God wants us to LOVE Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds. And to LOVE our neighbor as ourselves. I very rarely ask people anymore what I should do because I will get a different answer from everyone you ask. I love their opinions but the actual WHAT DO I DO? part is for God. The answer will be prayer, scripture, and praise. We will praise Him when He gives us the answer.
Jesus said, if WE don’t praise Him, the ROCKS will cry out. Where in the Bible does it say that rocks should praise Him. It doesn’t! Except right there! They *the religious* said that Jesus broke the 10 commandments *He NEVER sinned* but they said He didn’t Honor the Sabbath. He healed people. He gave his men food *harvested by hand* etc. Jesus (God) said that God created the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. It applies in a lot of other ways that you will only see AS YOU TRY TO REALLY WALK OUT THE CHRISTIAN WALK. We get so caught up in the small thing that we STRAIN AT A GNAT. Do you know the reference of that? Jewish people weren’t supposed to eat things with blood in them. So when they accidentally swallowed a bug, they would make a HUGE public display of puking so that everyone knew that they were staying kosher.
These are not contradictions. These are illustrations of how God is bigger than our conceptions of what He wants. He wants us to give, and to love. He wants us to strive to help others, even if it doesn’t look good or appropriate. People will be upset with you, but God wants you to be out there, on a limb. That is where the Christian life is to be lived.
One thing that comes to mind is the talents. Remember? They were given to the servants when the master of the house went away. One guy, the one that had been given the one talent, buried it because he was afraid. The rest invested the talents that they got. You can obey every jot and tittle of the law and still displease God. Some monks do that. They hide away sometimes, in perfect surroundings so they can stay in prayer, and be perfect. I would love to do something like that, but I know it is not what God wants for me in this Christian life. Maybe it’s good for them, but not for me. It would be a sin if I did that. It of reminds me of the guy that had 1 talent and buried it, out of fear. If I lived tucked away, I would be doing the same thing. GOD liked the guys that risked it all, to gain even MORE for the master. The fearful guy said, I know how you are, and I was scared. The ROI guys were so excited about they what they did, that they ‘forgot’ how strict the master was.
We as Christians don’t want to sin. We do need to do stuff that doesn’t look good though at times. Stuff happens. If it doesn’t happen, if there are no contradictions in your life, and in your walk as a Christian, there is something wrong with your walk, and with your life, as a Christian.
A catholic priest and I worked on the same small island in Panama. We were assigned to the same prison, at the same hours every week. I think the guards kind of wanted to see ‘preacher wars’ or something. He was assigned to work with the same 50 indigenous that I worked with, lived on the island as well. Many times we left at the same time in the morning, so we jogged to the village together. The island folk did not understand at all. No problem, we made it work. A little inconvenient, but it worked. It was actually fun. The priest even let me bring missionary teams that were visiting me into his catholic church to share with the youth group. *WE BOTH GOT INTO BIG TROUBLE FOR THAT ONE*. He would do his thing, I would do mine. I once had an older missionary come from another little island, shaking with fury and righteous indignation. He called me so many names, without swearing, that I was kind of impressed. IMHO I think he made a complete fool of himself, but maybe I deserved it. Maybe he was right, I would be the first to admit it if I thought he was, but, nope, don’t think so. I could only do what I felt that God was guiding me to do. We lived on a very small island together. There was no way around seeing this catholic priest. The island had a lot of animalism, and seeped in vudu. Very few christians with any kind of testimony to speak of. The priest was nice, funny, loved God, and was living a pretty righteous life. He had me beat hands down. Plus he talked almost always about Jesus, not the saints nor rituals, just about the Bible, the Lord and heaven etc. We were good friends for years, until the Father was returned to Spain.
In Nicaragua I was driving once in the middle of the night. All of a sudden I saw like 10 white shirts up ahead. It was so dark and rainy that that was all I could see. So I pulled up, and there was this group of mormon guys, lost in the boondocks some how. They were really young, and it was a pretty dangerous area. So I loaded them up in my church vehicle and took them to my church until they could get their bearings. MAN you should have seen all the smiles turn into frowns from a visiting gringo team when they saw 10 white shirts and black name tags came pouring out of my vehicle.
Once Winnie and I kidnapped a bunch of children prostitutes from the Managua airport. A coyote was taking them north, and they were laid over in Managua. We met them in the airport, they asked me for help, so we herded them up like cattle. They only spoke dialect, no spanish even. Fortunately on the island, they spoke a similar dialect so I could kind of understand them, and they could understand me, kind of. All 20 of these 12 and 13 year old prostitutes followed Winnie and I out of the airport and into our car, the coyotes running behind them, threatening them and us in spanish. We drove them to our home, and when I had them piling out of the van, another gringo team was there. Again, smiles turned to frowns. So we had the coyotes mad at us. Their bosses threatening our lives. The church mad at us. Jesus wasn’t mad at us though. Neither were the children caught up in trato blanco *white slavery*.
YOU WILL TAKE HEAT for just being nice to people who you meet on this contradictory road called the CHRISTIAN WALK.
Here’s a verse you won’t see stuck to refrigerators John 16;33 In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage I have conquerred the world. Jesus