Don't Drink That!

Don’t Drink That!

“Jesus replied, ‘Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God’” (Matthew 22:29 – New Living Translation).


In the movie, Crocodile Dundee, Dundee, an Australian bushman, went to New York City and was housed in a ritzy uptown hotel. He was amazed by the appearance of two toilets in the bathroom. Dundee tested the second “commode” and found it shot water UP rather than pulling it down. He thought it might be a water fountain. Before drinking from it, he finally figures out exactly what it was. It was a bidet! Imagine the huge mistake that Australian country boy almost fell into by making a simple mistake.

That’s a funny story, but it could have been a very serious mistake. Well, I’m not sure how serious, but I seriously would not want to drink from a bidet. How about you?

In our Scripture from Matthew 23, we find Jesus talking to some of the Sadducees. This group did not believe that those whose faith rests in God would be resurrected from the dead. Also, they did not believe that the Bible was handed down to man by God. Thirdly, they did not believe that there were angels or spirits. Fourthly, they did not believe in the promise of future judgment. You might say, “What did they believe?” Not much. They challenged Jesus with strange questions that they thought there would be no answer for. Rather than making it easy for them, Jesus simply tells them that they don’t know God’s power or His word.

This is huge! Why? God has revealed much of His character through the word. If you know of His character, then it is easy to recognize that something is coming from Him and is not simply chance or luck, but identify God at work. You see, friend, if we experience mercy, and by the word know that God is merciful, we can KNOW that mercy is of God and not by some arbitrary chance. That is how you KNOW the power of God! You recognize it is Him by the revelation of His character in the word and then it is confirmed by the witness of the Holy Spirit, and then established further as you experience God for yourself.

What we often do, however, is mistake who and what God is. The world likes it that way. Do you want to know something? The world would love to see you drink from a bidet. And, that’s exactly what we do in life sometimes. God has revealed so much of Himself to us, but because we don’t know how to recognize God’s handiwork, we pass it off as something else.

Other times, we think something is of God, but we are really drinking from the world’s bidet. Do you want to be able to tell the difference from a bidet and a blessing? Get in the word! God would have you know Him! Will you?