{"id":6792,"date":"2015-08-06T00:05:50","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T07:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6792"},"modified":"2015-08-05T14:32:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T21:32:25","slug":"can-you-see-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/08\/06\/can-you-see-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You See Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Jesus then said, \u201cI came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tSome Pharisees overheard him and said, \u201cDoes that mean you\u2019re calling us blind?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tJesus said, \u201cIf you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you\u2019re accountable for every fault and failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t \u201cLet me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he\u2019s up to no good\u2014a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won\u2019t follow a stranger\u2019s voice but will scatter because they aren\u2019t used to the sound of it.\u201d (John 9:39-10:5)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jesus had forsaken diplomacy when it came to his relationship with the Pharisees.  After healing a man born blind, Jesus told them that he wasn\u2019t trying to be obscure with his teaching.  Instead, he was trying to make everything as clear as possible, so that those who didn\u2019t understand would come to understand, while those who claimed to know it all would be shown for what they were: clueless.<\/p>\n<p>The Pharisees were clued in enough to realize that Jesus was insulting them, calling them blind. So Jesus gave them an illustration to further make his point\u2014in case his insult wasn\u2019t already clear enough for them.  He told the Pharisees that they were up to no good, like robbers sneaking into a sheepfold.  The sheep\u2014God\u2019s people\u2014would not listen to them.  But they would listen to Jesus, because he was speaking with a familiar voice\u2014the voice of God that all of God\u2019s people recognized if they really understood the Scripture and really loved him.<\/p>\n<p>God loves sinners.  With the tax collectors his love was gentle.  With the Pharisees, it was harsh.  In both cases, Jesus wanted repentance.  <\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s people recognize when something or someone is from God.  If it isn\u2019t from God, they may not know precisely what\u2019s wrong, beyond the fact that it isn\u2019t the sound of the one they love with all their hearts.  <\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus then said, \u201cI came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/08\/06\/can-you-see-me\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6794,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions\/6794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}