My Daily Journal:
The crowd can (and often is) wrong. Many of us have a bias to popular opinion. The majority rules. The individual people has a say in the direction of things.
I believe this comes not so much in the faith of the populace, but in a lack of faith and trust in tyrannical rulers. But, in the same way that we can yield too much to power in the hands of a few, we can also yield too much power to the many.
There is a growing trend in churches to want to be “culturally relevant.” We need to be more accepting. We need to open the church up to a dialogue and allow people to shape what works for them. We need to be accepting of popular opinion.
But that is not how Christianity works. Jesus tells Peter, you didn’t get your statement of faith from a book or from listening to the crowd. You got your faith from God. That is where faith in Jesus comes from. “No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus Christ is a rock, not a willow tree. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He doesn’t yield to who people want Him to be or who they would like for Him to be, He is who He is: The Messiah, The Son of the living God.
Emphasis is on the word “the”. There is only one Messiah, there is only one Son, there is only one living God. Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Again., THE. The only way, the only truth, the only life. There are no other paths.
Some may look at that and say, “how arrogant. Every other path is wrong and Jesus is the only way?” It is not a boast. It is a fact. If there is only one path, shouldn’t we tell people that are heading the wrong direction. That isn’t condemning them. It isn’t judging them or putting them down. It isn’t excluding them. It is trying to love them and save them.
Don’t pay attention to my words. I could be wrong. Don’t pay attention to the words of our culture, to popular opinion. It is normally wrong. Pay attention to what the bible says. It is never wrong.
My Answers:
4.
a.
Elijah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah
b.
the Messiah, the Son of the living God
c.
Both
d.
Yes – affects everything
5.
a.
by my Father in heaven
b.
John: children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God
1 Cor 2: not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words
1:Cor 12: no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
The Notes are Good 