Let me tell you about one of my least favorite Australian realities: speed cameras. Ugh, just saying those two words makes me feel ill. You see, in the US, where I\u2019m from, you receive a speeding ticket by being pulled over by an actual officer and given an actual ticket. It\u2019s still no fun, but it is decidedly more, well, human<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Perhaps like you, I\u2019ve been pulled over by a police officer when I\u2019ve been guilty of speeding. There\u2019s always that feeling of your heart dropping when you see the flashing lights in the mirror. Then there\u2019s the embarrassment of being on the side of the road while everyone drives by thinking the same thing you think when you see someone on the side of the road with a police officer. Then there\u2019s the fine.<\/p>\n
Or maybe not.<\/p>\n
Perhaps like me, you\u2019ve been given a mere warning. What a feeling that is! I should know, it\u2019s happened to me several times. In fact, it used to happen to me pretty regularly. You see, my brother is a police officer in my hometown, so whenever I\u2019d get pulled over the officer would ask to see my license. Then they\u2019d see it: \u201cAsscherick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then this: \u201cSay, are you related to Wayne?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then my answer: \u201cYes, he\u2019s my older brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then this: \u201cAlright, please slow down and have a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is One who not only loves us, He is like us! He understands us. He sympathizes with us\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The officer would hand me my license, go back to his car, and drive away. This may not have been the best thing for my driving, I admit, but it definitely made me feel connected. It wasn\u2019t my merit, sweet-talking, or anything else that got me out of several deserved tickets, it was my older brother.<\/p>\n
According to Scripture, Jesus is our older brother (Hebrew 2:11). We are connected. There is Someone who knows us and who loves us in high places\u2014heavenly places, in fact (see Ephesians!). He is merciful and forgiving and kind. And He is King (Revelation 19:16).<\/p>\n
This is no excuse to sin. Let\u2019s be clear about that.<\/p>\n
But unlike Australian speed cameras (where you simply get a ticket in the mail from a camera you didn\u2019t even know you\u2019d passed), there is something very human<\/i> about it all. There is One who not only loves us, He is like us! He understands us. He sympathizes with us (see Hebrews 4:15-16).<\/p>\n
Are you in need of mercy? Of grace? Of forgiveness?<\/p>\n
Your Older Brother bears your name. You are connected.<\/p>\n
Go and speed no more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let me tell you about one of my least favorite Australian realities: speed cameras. Ugh, just saying those two words makes me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[150,44,179],"class_list":["post-9749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional","tag-grace","tag-incarnation-of-god","tag-love-of-christ"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Go_and_Speed_no_More_2.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-2xf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11320,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions\/11320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}