Mind=blown

Nearly a month has past since I realized my mind had truly been blown away. I've gotten so use to seeing links to various sites saying how these never-before-seen photos will "blow your mind" or how amazing this thing is but how it ended really got to me stories. I rarely click on them. They are click-bait. They are the newest way that headlines try to grab your attention. I remember growing up and being upset that I couldn't stay up to see the 10 p.m. news to see the "shocking story" that was only being shown then. Later I would learn that this was simply a way to get people to stay up and watch the story and they really weren't that interesting.

Most of these mind blowing stories aren't really that shocking or amazing. Most of the unknown facts about various movie franchaises are things I've already known for a while if it's something that I'm interested in.

On February 6th, I truly had my first mind blowing story.

The small group from my church was discussing the previous Sunday's sermon. We were in a series about the miracles and wonders that Jesus performed and we were in the fifth week. One of the passages we were looking at was the following:

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
 Mark 8:27-30

There were a few questions on this section and the first one was the one that we decided to discuss. It asked why do you suppose Jesus that ordered His disciples to not tell who He was and we all had a few thoughts. One person had a brilliant insight that hadn't occurred to me. Jesus ordered them to not tell anyone because He wants them to figure it out on their own.

Jesus wants us to figure out on our own that He is Christ.

Mind=blown

This wasn't actually a new fact to me because it didn't matter how many times I was told that Jesus is Christ and God, I didn't believe it until I figured it out on my own. I think that's an important thing. No matter how hard we try to shove the idea into that of an unbelieving heart or mind, it won't be accepted until it has been figured out on its own.

I had recently learned about the concept of falsified conversion. This is, in my understanding of it, often seen when someone says they accept Christ but refuse to allow the Spirit to change them. They instead rely on themselves to do the right things or simply don't change their behavior and see themselves as saved as they once said a pray asking Jesus to forgive them. 

This is how I believe my story started. I realized Jesus is God and that He died to forgive me but I didn't want to change. So I didn't. I still wanted to be in control and do what I wanted to do. Seeds were planted but they weren't tended to and the soil was very rocky. It took me coming back around and truly committing to the fact that Jesus is God before I could really change. So this insight that Jesus wanted people to figure this out on their own shouldn't have been that big of a surprise, but it was because it was right in front of me instead of begging me to click the link or stay tuned for after the weather to learn about it.