A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (December 26, 2017)
But wisdom is justified of all her children. (Luke 7:35, KJV)
Jesus described the people of this generation in the following fashion:
“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation [who set aside God’s plan], and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, and saying, ‘We played the flute for you [pretending to be at a wedding], and you did not dance; we sang a dirge [pretending to be at a funeral], and you did not weep [so nothing we did appealed to you].’ For John the Baptist has come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a man who is a glutton and a [heavy] wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners [including non-observant Jews].’ Yet wisdom is vindicated and shown to be right by all her children [by the lifestyle, moral character, and good deeds of her followers].” (Luke 7:31-35, Amplified Bible)
Jesus is trying to show us that our tendency is to pigeon-hole people based on how people look and react in the natural. If we play a certain type of music (happy flute music) we feel they should dance. If we play funeral music we feel they should weep. If people don’t respond in the way we think they should, look the way we think they should, or believe the way we think they should, we write them off as weird.
John the Baptist was classified by some as having a demon because he did not eat bread or drink wine. Jesus was classified as a glutton and winebibber because He ate bread and drank wine and fellowshipped with tax collectors and sinners. By looking at people in this manner we automatically block any wisdom God may want to impart to us through somebody we just labeled as weird.
There is a great movie, based on a true story, entitled “Same Kind of Difference as Me” that we recommend to all of you. One of the lead actors in this movie played the role of a homeless black man with the nickname of “Suicide”. The movie is about the relationship that was developed between a rich couple (Ron and Debbie) and a this black man whose real name was Denver. I am not going to ruin the movie by sharing too much but one of the key things you can see throughout this entire movie is the wisdom which the rich couple gained from this uneducated homeless man that had spent years in prison and was currently living on the street.
The following are just a couple of quotes from Denver:
“I found out everybody’s different – the same kind of different as me. We’re all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or something in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless – just workin our way toward home”.
“Mr. Ron, I was captive in the devil’s prison. That was easy for Miss Debbie (Ron’s wife) to see. But I got to tell you: Many folks had seen me behind the bars in that prison for more than thirty years, and they just walked on by. Kept their keys in their pocket and left me locked up. Now I ain’t tryin to run them other folks down, ’cause I was not a nice fella-dangerous-and prob’ly just as happy to stay in prison. But Miss Debbie was different–she seen me behind them bars and reached way down in her pocket and pulled out the keys God gave her and used one to unlock the prison door and set me free.”
Ron (a rich art dealer) and Denver (a homeless man that lived on the street) went on to raise millions of dollars together and build homeless shelters all over the United States. You just never know in which direction wisdom is going to come from. Don’t pigeon-hole people because of their social status or skin color. They are all God’s children and it just may be that God will use one of them to speak wisdom to you.
