The High Cost of Non-Recognition

August 23

(Luke 19:41-44 NIV) “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it {42} and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. {43} The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. {44} They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.””

(John 1:10-13 NIV) “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. {11} He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. {12} Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—{13} children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

Rarely does Scripture speak of God crying, but as Jesus approached Jerusalem, He wept over the city. He knew He would be rejected there, and that the city would eventually be destroyed because they failed to recognize Him. These prophetic words were fulfilled in 70 AD when the Roman army completely destroyed the city and the temple of God, killing men, women, and children. Not recognizing Jesus has a high cost. We all have the same choice as Jerusalem had. We must decide whether to receive him as King or reject him. There is no in-between. We either recognize him, or we don’t. We either believe him, or we don’t. We either follow Him, or we don’t. But when we fail to recognize the time of Christ’s coming to us, moral destruction and spiritual death will follow. Jesus knows the high cost of non-recognition, and He still weeps over those who will be lost. Don’t be one of them. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day