Devotion #3: Connected to the Source
I learned something new today. Have you heard of the saying, “straight from the horse’s mouth”? It is one of those phrases that you hear from time to time, and for the most part, you know what it means. In writing this devotional, I looked up the origins of this phrase. Here is what “grammarist.com” had to say:
“The idiom straight from the horse’s mouth seems to have been coined around the turn of the twentieth century, used at first in horse racing circles. The idea is that a racing tip has been received from the race horse himself. Some believe that the phrase relates to checking the teeth of a horse in order to see what sort of physical shape the horse is in, and whether he is capable of winning a race. Today, the idiom is used in a wide variety of situations to mean learning information from an impeccable source.”
Another example of this is the “telephone” game. Everyone sits in a circle, and one person gives a message to be passed along that they whisper into the ear of the person next to them. This process continues one by one until the message makes its way back to the original person who gave the initial message. If you have played this game before, then you know just how quickly the message changes, and how different the message ends up being once it makes its way back around.
These examples quickly came to mind as I read Matthew’s conclusion to Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:28-29 says, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” I love how Matthew records that “the crowds were astonished at his teaching.” Imagine what it would have been like to hear Jesus preach and to hear these words directly from the source!
In the world we live in today, we are not lacking when it comes to content to consume. Between podcasts, YouTube, and social media, if you are looking for someone’s perspective or commentary on different topics or issues, you can find it. The end of Matthew chapter 7 gives us a healthy reminder to make sure that we have a connection directly to the source. I am not saying that it is bad to listen to Christian podcasts or to listen to other Christian pastors and leaders speak or preach, but I think that we need to be cautious not to reduce our faith or our relationship with Christ to a copy or replica of someone else’s. You might be thinking, “But Ferd, Jesus is not walking around preaching today like He was back in those times! How can I be connected directly to the source?” To that, I would encourage you to spend just as much time (if not more) in God’s Word as we do listening to or taking in others’ teachings. Reading God’s Word is how we can hear the words of Jesus, just as if He was walking around today.
Hebrews 4:12 reminds us, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”