Featured Post: Mark, I am recalculating route now

This featured post comes from Mark Brown, who is the former CEO of Bible Society New Zealand, as well as the founder of Global Scope Media and Global Scope Ministries.  More info. about him can be found here.

Mark, I am recalculating route now

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32

I was recently in the US and had a hire car.  Thankfully it has GPS to help keep me on the right path, but I cannot count the number of times the patient GPS voice reported, ‘recalculating route now..’  And thankfully even though I had accidentally taken the exit 10 miles too early, the nice GPS machine was able to get me back on track.  I could almost hear it sigh and quietly mutter under its breath ‘oh not again.. recalculating route now’. The greek behind the word ‘sinners’ talks of one who deviates from the path towards God.  To sin is to get lost, to be distracted, to stray off the path God intends for us.

My GPS is my Bible.  It shows me not only that when I am off route, but it displays to me what I need to do to get back on track.  But what would happen if I had put the GPS machine in the trunk of the car?  I would be in big ‘where am I?’ trouble. In the same way, I need to spend time with my Bible often.  Not just once a day, but often, making it part of my approach to life, being guided along the right path consistently.  Reflecting on passages throughout the day.

And repentance: when I come before Jesus and confess my sin and am washed anew, well that is when God says, Mark, I am recalculating route now, you are back on the path towards me.

Praise God!

Mark Brown