KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Agenda
CROWDS EXCITE...
Crowds have the appearance of success. The modern church is into crowds. Get crowds! Jesus feared crowds. Jesus ran from crowds ( John 6). Jesus came to preach. Jesus left crowds to preach! Baffling! But the crowds wanted a menu not a doctrine. They came to get, not hear. They were interested in their bodies, not their souls. The excitement of crowds is subtle, deceptive, deceiving, intoxicating. No wonder Jesus headed for the hills -- to pray! He had a "God-agenda." God is needed, vital. You cannot keep God's agenda without prayer. Do we praise God or give in to men ( John 12:42-43)? Fallen man always thinks he can do both. Jesus could turn stone to bread. He did not. He could keep His divine agenda and save us. He did! Jesus was not Dale Carnegie. He told those He healed not to tell. Why? He was their Savior, not just another "do-gooder." to keep His agenda, Jesus left. (Charles Hodge)
KneEmail: "But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth" ( Mark 1:38).