April 22
Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me (Matthew 11:6 ESV).
The
Word of God does take account of the possibility of our being offended with
Him. It does not say anywhere that that possibility should never arise and will
never arise. The Lord has nowhere said that we shall never have any occasion
for being offended with Him. He HAS indicated that there will be PLENTY of
opportunity for so stumbling at Him, falling over Him, coming down because of
Him – if you like: crashing because of Him. There will be plenty of occasion or
opportunity for doing so. He has never said that it will never be so. It is as
well for us to recognize that.
The
Lord sent no word of rebuke to poor John the Baptist in the prison when he was
perilously near to being offended with the Lord because of his situation. The
Lord was not hard on John because of his question. He might, had He been
another, have said, “But John, did you not point Me out as the Lamb of God? Did
you not proclaim Me as the One, the Messiah? Haven’t you preached about Me to
multitudes? Have you not made the strongest declarations and affirmations as to
what you believed about Me? And here you’re asking a fundamental question about
Me. John, what’s gone wrong with you?” No, nothing like that. The Lord knows
our frame, that we are dust. And the Lord, I’m saying, takes account of this
ever-present possibility, in our weakness, of being offended with Him. But He
does attach to this matter a particular blessedness if we don’t crash over the
Stumbling Block of His ways with us, “AND blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in Me.”
By
T. Austin-Sparks from: The Blessedness
of the Unoffended
This is from a Facebook page called Live Life in Color.
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