Stealing God’s Glory...

The problem with being religious, or politically correct, is the fact that rituals, policies, or rules come before doing what is right. When Jesus healed the lame man of 38 years, He told the man to pick up his mat and stop sinning. When the man did so, the religious leaders scolded him for “working” on the Sabbath (picking up his mat was considered work). This totally took the focus off of God and the miracle Jesus performed and put it back on the religious leaders and their traditions. Any time God moves in His miraculous ways, and the focus gets diverted to something unnecessary, it steals the Glory away from God. The 8th commandment says we shouldn’t steal, well being politically correct or religious means you’re stealing from God something that belongs to Him. Remember, God said, “I will not share my glory with anyone” (my paraphrase) Isaiah 42:8. Let’s practice the principle of giving credit where credit is due. Even if that means going against the “religiosity” or “political correctness” of society. If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything. Truth stands on its own, cling to it; it will hold you up in turbulent times.

1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people–blind, lame, or paralyzed–lay on the porches.4 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, He asked him, “Would you like to get well?”7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. John 5:1-15