Monday: Absolutely Not Lord! I Have Never
WEEK 46
MONDAY
ABSOLUTELY NOT, LORD! I HAVE NEVER
Matthew 9:10-13
We have been looking at the mastery of prejudice. When Peter was about to have his spirit opened to receive Gentiles as equals, he cried, “Absolutely not, Lord! I have never . . .” (Acts 10:14). That is the classic statement of a classic attitude, old fears holding up a protesting hand against the new. Suppose those fears had prevailed? Peter would have strangled himself and his influence. The rest of his days would have been spent trying to justify the unjustifiable. He would have been on the defensive instead of the offensive—noncreative.
As a boy I was prejudiced against beets; I didn’t like the smell of boiled beets, so I wouldn’t touch them. Every time they were put on the table, I had to justify my prejudice; so I would exaggerate the smells that were and create them where they weren’t. Then one day I tried eating some beets, holding my nose in the process. I found they were not bad; then as prejudice died completely, I found they were delicious. Every time I eat them now, I thank God for the death of Old Man Prejudice!
A woman said to a friend, “Stanley Jones is a Communist.” “How do you know?” asked the friend. “Why, he has written a book on it,” she replied decisively. She hadn’t stopped to inquire on which side of the question I had written the book Christ’s Alternative to Communism. The title shows! Her mind was completely closed. Another woman, who said I didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, came to hear me; I happened to say I didn’t believe in Jesus because of the virgin birth, but I believed in the virgin birth because of Jesus. The miracles didn’t carry Jesus; he carried them. But this woman was a diehard and died hard, “Did you notice he didn’t say he believed Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary; he only said he believed in the virgin birth?” She lived by chewing on the dry bones of prejudice and was upset when her dry bones were being taken away.
But when we have learned how to receive from Jesus, we have learned how to receive from all his followers—everywhere. Everyone is our possible teacher if we lose our prejudices, even the prejudiced can teach us not to be prejudiced!
O Spirit of Truth, guide me into all truth wherever found, for it only points me to him who is the Truth. I lay my prejudices at your feet. Turn them into possibilities. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Everything and everybody shall teach me something today, for I shall be openhearted and open-minded.