John 3:10 - "Jesus answered [Nicodemus], 'Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?'"
While we're all walking in faith, misunderstandings happen quite easily.
My son just finished playing in a state basketball tournament for city recreational leagues in Alabama. As his coach, I was introduced to two different kinds of timeouts. I was familiar with the one timeout where you could stop the game and talk to your team for a minute. But the thirty-second timeout was new to me. In watching the first game of the other, same-aged team from our city, I heard the other coach, Jerald, call a thirty-second timeout and call it a "shorty." Ya know, Jerald was just doing what many in the world today do, namely, use less syllables and so less energy to say something. "Shorty" is two syllables; "thirty-second" is four.
But "less energy" and "better" don't always go hand in hand. Sometimes our shortcuts create misunderstandings. Like in our semifinal game in the tournament, as we got further behind and I wasn't happy with the referees. I called a timeout. The ref asked me which length timeout I wanted. I said, "Shorty." Apparently, they'd never heard the term either, so they looked at me as if I'd just insulted their manhood and were the proverbial "this close" to ringing me up with a technical foul. Fortunately, I saw the look and knew I better clarify and quickly said, "thirty-second."
That's what Jesus does in today's Bible verse. He sees the look on Nicodemus's face that goes with Nicodemus's misunderstanding. So Jesus makes it real clear a few verses later, saying, "For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16)
And that's what God wants us to do each day, namely, be clear, telling others, "have fun" or "good game" or "good job" or "good luck" or "I'm praying for you" or "keep your head up" or "let's talk" or whatever it takes, in the bounds of God's word, to cheer on each other, so we can work together as the ultimate team, namely, God's team, the Body of Christ.
So, I pray we all hear and pass along lots of clear, simple encouragements to each other today. Good luck today. I'm praying for you. Come what may, keep your head up. Hang in there. I'm sure you'll do great. And most of all, remember, God so loved the world which means he also loves you!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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