Read: 1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17, Acts 25:1-27, Psalm 5:1-12, Proverbs 18:19

O Lord, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning.
Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you.
Psalm 5:1-2

Relate: In Buddhism, reincarnation is not a good thing. Life is suffering and the goal is to break free from the cycle of birth and rebirth. This is Nirvana. Siddartha Gautama was meditating under a Bodhi tree when he achieved this state of Nirvana. At that moment, he could have ceased to exist. This is the ultimate desire of any Buddhist. But he desired to teach others that the way to achieve Nirvana was to eliminate our desires. He chose to step away from that so that he might teach others how to attain their desire of Nirvana by eliminating their desires.

The year was 610 AD. A young man was in the cave of Hira when an “angel” named Jibril came to him and commanded him to recite. The angel began choking him out until he finally relented. That young man finally recited the first verses of Surah Al-‘Alaq. Even then, the man believed he was demon possessed and tried multiple times to throw himself off a cliff but each time Jibril prevented him from doing so. Eventually, he accepted that he was the prophet and is now a partner in the most fundamental doctrine in Islam that everyone must believe and profess to become a Muslim. “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

I could talk about Guru Nanak Dev Ji who founded Sikhism by teaching the doctrine that there are no doctrines and by becoming the first of ten elite gurus who taught that everybody is completely equal. I could talk about Joseph Smith who founded Mormonism by translating “ancient texts” like the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham and yet it was proven in court that not only could he not read Greek, but he didn’t even recognize it as Greek. He claimed it was Egyptian hyroglyphics. I could talk about Charles Russel who founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses who predicted that Jesus would come back at 1874. And when that didn’t happen the prediction was moved to 1914. Then 1918. Then 1925. Then 1975. Now they say he did come back in 1975, but he just hasn’t revealed himself yet. The legend is that the founder of Confucianism went to meet the founder of Taoism. He gets mocked for being too concerned with appearances but also tells his followers “that guy has no idea what he’s talking about.” This is true for the founder of every major religion outside Christianity and Judaism.

React: Other prophets disappoint us. But they aren’t really that special. Other people disappoint us. That is one of the most beautiful things of how the Bible shows us the heroes of the faith. Abraham pimps out his sister/wife to Pharaoh. Isaac plays favorites and his kids hate each other. Jacob spends seven years courting Rachel, but on the wedding day he doesn’t realize until the morning after that the woman he married and consumated that marriage wasn’t actually Rachel but her sister. His kids sell one of their siblings into slavery, claim he died, and then live with that lie for decades. Moses was insecure and had a temper. David was an adulterous murderer. Peter had foot in mouth disease. Paul started out trying to kill off all the Christians. I could go on. The heroes in the Bible are all beautifully broken. Except Jesus. He was always only beautiful. Yet his body was broken for us. There is no one else worthy of our worship. There is no other name in which we put our trust.

Respond:

Dear God,
You alone are worthy of all my worship. There is no one else to whom I pray. God, this is easy to say but it isn’t always so easy to actually do. Forgive me for the times when I am trusting in my own abilities. Forgive me for those times when my hope is in what others will do or in how they will come through for me. My salvation, my security, my hope, my trust. Let it be all, always, only You.
Amen

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