Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Holding On

 

[Photo of stone arch with words superimposed]


“If you hold to my teaching,
you are really my disciples.”
—John 8:31b

How do you react when you learn something quite remarkable? Life-changing information is hard for me to ignore. When someone offers insight that can revolutionize my entire life, I grab onto that information and hold on to it.

When I began working at a radio station back in 1959, one of my first jobs was to edit safe driving public service announcements. Various state and local police officers would come to the studio and record short scripts provided by AAA. I would then add an opening and closing that had been prerecorded by one of our announcers.

To complete this task, I would take the reel-to-reel tape, place it on an aluminum splicing block, cut the tape with a razor blade and splice the sections together with special splicing tape. It was very tedious and time-consuming work.

In this age of digitized audio, I can perform such a task by electronically cutting and splicing on a computer screen that shows the waveform of the audio in much the same way that someone cuts and pastes paragraphs using a word processor.

Once someone taught me this new way of doing an old task, it revolutionized that small part of my life. I now “hold on” to a new way of living.

Now, imagine what you might do if someone offered you a total makeover for every aspect of your life. If this was attractive to you, you surely would hold on to this new way of living.

The Lord Jesus Christ has offered each of us a whole new life. We have become transformed. A whole new way of living has opened up before us.

The only thing Jesus asks of us is obedience to His will and to His Word. Notice what Jesus says in John 8:31-32:

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Holding on to Jesus’ teaching, resting in the life-transforming reality of His mercy, grace, and love—with the help of the Holy Spirit —seems like a very wise way to live our totally new life.

Let’s launch off into this new day with a mindset of obedience. Let’s hold on tightly to Jesus teaching and watch our transformed life unfold before our very eyes. We will surely experience a life set free by God’s truth.

 

Copyright © 2015 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.