Category: Jesus Character

Jesus Boldly Dares Me

We’ve been looking at John 7:17, and seeing that Jesus practically dares us to test His teaching. Here’s a devotional poem from Christ-follower Rena Himick seeing the same. It’s called “Jesus Boldly Dares Me.”

How can I know
the thing I think or hear is true,
unless I put it to the test?

I hear stories
great and small,
but would I just
believe them all?
When someone claims
to know the best,
how can I know
who’s a fraud,
just pretending,
and who’s of God,
life unending?

Information comes in waves,
each voice proclaiming
“what I say saves!”

But only One
boldly dares me,
absolutely guarantees me,
that if I’ll walk by faith in Him,
I will know the Truth.
Now faith is trust
and trust is earned,
and testing this I have learned
that Jesus’ joyous ways are Truth.
He is I Am; He is the Way
that I will live with joy today.

Devotional poem © 2016 Rena Himick. Used with permission.

The promise is clear: we can know whether Jesus Christ was true or false, whether his teaching was human or divine. But the promise rests on a moral condition. We have to be ready not just to believe, but to obey. We must be prepared to do God’s will.

John Stott

Jesus said, “I didn’t make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up.”

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of John 7:17

Life Science

Jesus said, “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God” — John 7:17

Science, they say, is sure:
well-designed experiments
gathering empirical evidence
to prove or refute
your hypothesis.
Reasonable work:
proof, or refutation.

Jesus, they say, is
the opposite of science:
His humanity,
His divinity,
His teaching,
just blindly believed.
Unreasonable: unverifiable.

Yet how truly scientific
is the Savior!
How reasonable
is the Reason of God!
Jesus scientifically says:
Would you surely know?
Put my teaching to the test.

Your life is
a well-designed experiment.
My teaching is
a hypothesis that will prove true.
I am science’s Creator:
Would you surely know?
Put my teaching to the test.

Devotional poem © 2015 Michael Himick. Used with permission.

Anyone Who Chooses

Jesus said, “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God” — John 7:17

Oh Opinion

We’ve been looking at John 1:4, and seeing that Jesus is the Light we see by. Here’s a devotional poem from Christ-follower Rena Himick seeing the same. It’s called “Oh Opinion.”

Sometimes I feel
my opinion matters most.
But really, who am I
to make any sort of boast?

Oh ego, big and wide,
sit down and listen:
there is One who holds
my opinion in low esteem.

The Creator of Mankind
is waiting with a pin
to deflate my opinions
so I can see His truth.

Oh opinion, my dear
beautiful easy opinions,
I will open my heart,
not just my head,
and let His truth
free me from you!

Devotional poem © 2016 Rena Himick. Used with permission.