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By Mike Caton

John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.”

With great blessings come great responsibility. Jesus’ coming had been predicted by God in his word, through his prophets for thousands of years. The Jews studied it, picked those passages and promises apart looking for clues, they dreamed about the day the Messiah would come and set things right. And yet they completely missed it. Why? We could give many reasons, but it really comes down to they really hadn’t listened to what God was telling them all of those centuries and they didn’t listen to Jesus when he came.

And while it is easy to sit here today and condemn those folks, we need to be sure we are not making the same mistake they did. Jesus has come and spoken to us as well, but are we listening to him? Jesus speaks clearly to us through his word; simply put, and it is a point I love to harp on, we need to be students of the Bible, we need to read, meditate, study, think about and apply what God tells us in his word. And as we read and study, we will find the truth and the direction for our lives. All the answers to all the questions we will ever have are revealed by God to us in his word. I am not suggesting some kind of out of this world experience will happen to us, no text from God with specific instructions. But the plan, the principles, the direction we need is there, if we simply commit ourselves to finding it.

But we also need to be careful about the things we find there. Because there will more than likely be things we don’t like, things we need to do differently, things that will (or should) convict us. And so we cannot make excuses, or pretend we didn’t know, or whatever. With those great blessings come great responsibilities. And so we need to listen carefully to what Jesus is telling us.

Father, help me hear and heed. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works part time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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