Family of God: [FamilyofGod] Judas, The Man Who Never Knew

This is so true today how the devil works in people, He uses people that are
close to you, just like Judas,Judas sat at the dinner table with Jesus but did
not have a clue who Jesus really was and did not really care. He knew all about
Jesus and what he did and said but the devil used that to his advantage . But
Jesus knew Judas's heart the whole time, Jesus knew Judas but Judas did not know
Jesus. I seen this in another group it said it was written by Max Lucado and I
thought I would save it and share it.

Love in Christ,
Steph

Judas, The Man Who Never Knew

I've wondered at times what kind of man this Judas was. What he looked like,
how he acted, who his friends were.

I guess I've stereotyped him. I've always pictured him as a wiry,
beady-eyed, sly, wormy fellow, pointed beard and all. I've pictured him as
estranged from
the other apostles.

Friendless. Distant. Undoubtedly he was a traitor and a quisling. Probably
the result of a broken home. A juvenile delinquent in his youth.

Yet I wonder if that is so true. We have no evidence (save Judas's silence)
that would suggest that he was isolated. At the Last Supper, when Jesus said
that his betrayer sat at the table, we don't find the apostles immediately
turning to Judas as the logical traitor.

No, I think we've got Judas pegged wrong. Perhaps he was just the opposite.
Instead of sly and wiry, maybe he was robust and jovial. Rather than quiet
and
introverted, he could have been outgoing and well-meaning. I don't know.

But for all the things we don't know about Judas, there is one thing we know
for sure: He had no relationship with the Master. He had seen Jesus, but he
did not know him. He had heard Jesus, but he did not understand him. He had
a religion but no relationship.

As Satan worked his way around the table in the upper room, he needed a
special kind of man to betray our Lord. He needed a man who had seen Jesus
but who
did not know him. He needed a man who knew the actions of Jesus but had
missed out on the mission of Jesus. Judas was this man. He knew the empire
but
had never known the Man.

Judas bore the cloak of religion, but he never knew the heart of Christ.

We learn this timeless lesson from the betrayer. Satan's best tools of
destruction are not from outside the church; they are within the church. A
church
will never die from the immorality in Hollywood or the corruption in
Washington. But it will die from corrosion within-from those who bear the
name of
Jesus but have never met him and from those who have religion but no
relationship.
Shaped by God

Judas bore the cloak of religion, but he never knew the heart of Christ. Let's
make it our goal to know . deeply.

From
Shaped by God
(original title: On the Anvil)
Copyright (Tyndale House, 1985, 2002) Max Lucado