JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Key Element for Thriving Relationships is to follow Jesus rather than the crowd.
Exodus 23:2 instructs us with these words, “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”
Peer pressure can lead us into trouble if the crowd is bent on doing what is wrong. William Penn once said, “Right is right even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.” While it can be so easy to follow the crowd, Jesus has another message for us, “Follow me.”
As we do this consistently, day-by-day, step-by-step, His grace and truth will be the influence that guides our pathway forward to a fruitful faith. The disciples are an example of this: They spent time with Jesus. Then, after they were taught and trained, they preached the Gospel and persuaded many in the crowd to put their faith in Jesus.
Following Jesus rather than the crowd is a key element for thriving relationships that honor God.
John Shirk
john@wjtl.com
JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Person of Integrity from the Bible is Micaiah.
He was a prophet of God who was more interested in saying what was true than what was popular.
In Second Chronicles 18, King Ahab had considered going to war, and consulted four hundred men about the decision. They all said the same thing, “Attack and be victorious.” But when Micaiah was summoned for counsel, he was pressured to let his word agree with theirs and to speak favorably. He replied by saying to the messenger, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what my God says.”
This was the mindset that led him to say to King Ahab, “The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” He was slapped in his face for saying that, but his words proved to be true, because he heard from God, understood what God was doing, and spoke for God.
The faithfulness of Micaiah to be strong and courageous for God inspires us to be a bold witness for Jesus and to live a life of Integrity.
John Shirk
john@wjtl.com
JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Q and A Segment explores the question, “What was Pilate’s dilemma?”
Pilate was the governor who questioned Jesus just before He died. After interrogating Jesus, he came to the conclusion that Jesus was not guilty of any crime, and therefore, not worthy of death.
But the religious leaders were determined to put Jesus to death, and applied pressure on Pilate to crucify Jesus.
The turmoil was between what was right and what would please the crowd. Refusing the demands of the religious leaders would threaten peace and order, and perhaps his own reputation with Caesar. So, the decisive moment came in John 19:12 when the crowd said to Pilate, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he made the decision to hand Jesus over to be crucified.
Peer pressure puts us in that place of Pilate’s dilemma, whether to do what is right or to do what pleases the crowd. Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd. Jesus wanted to please His Heavenly Father.
We can find the courage to resist peer pressure and do what is right in God’s eyes by following in the footsteps of Jesus in the Year of Exploration.
John Shirk
john@wjtl.com
