The Account of My Discovery of Telus by Bruce Lindsay

Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.

My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.

To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/  

* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Guest Blogger today – Bruce Lindsay – Great thoughts for a Cold January day!

The Account of My Discovery of Telus by Bruce Lindsay

I thought I’d take a break from sorting socks today and share a thought that has been very encouraging to me lately. I shared it as a devotional last week and everyone thought it was interesting.

It begins with John, chapter 8, when people brought a woman to Jesus who had been convicted of adultery. They thought she should be stoned to death. Jesus said whoever has no sin should cast the first stone. (I’ll bet you know the story) They let her go. Jesus said to her, (Verse 11) “They don’t condemn you? Then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” That last part has always seemed very discouraging to me. “Go and sin no more.” I’ve also seen it translated as “Go and be perfect.”

The end of this story has always bothered me. How can Jesus expect this woman to be perfect? How can Jesus expect anyone to be perfect? Especially a woman that has lived as sinful a life as this woman. Not that I’m saying I’m any better. I know I am a sinner. I try to ‘die to myself daily’ and walk in the way I think pleases God. Yet I know that “There is a way that seems good to man but in the end it leads to death.” I don’t believe it’s possible to ‘go and sin no more.’ It always seemed like Jesus was setting her up to fail. That doesn’t seem like the Jesus I know.

Likewise the verse from Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (What!! How can we be as perfect as God?!).

Recently, though, I learned about the word ‘TELEIOW’, a Greek word that has been translated to mean ‘perfect’. The direct English translation is TELUS. Many people know the phone company Telus Mobility. This is where it gets it’s name. “Teleiow” or ‘Telus’ is the word used in that Matthew verse. It also makes sense that it is what Jesus said in John 8:11. The word has been translated to mean: to make perfect, to make happen, to complete, to finish, but I recently had someone explain that the best translation, the one Telus Mobility uses, is, “The right tool for the job.”

If I was working on my car, changing the oil, and I asked you for a monkey wrench, but instead you passed me a socket wrench that had the exact metric socket as the nut I needed to loosen, I would slip it over the nut, easily begin loosening it, and I would think. Aah, perfect! The right tool for the job! That’s Telus.

If I was working on my baseboard and needed a hammer, but instead, when I looked in my toolbox I found a finishing hammer, that would be ‘Telus’. Yes, perfect. The right tool for the job.

That changes everything! Jesus was telling this woman “Go and be the right tool for the job.” Or, “Go and be the thing that God intended you to be.” Or, “Go and serve God.” Be a tool in God’s toolbox. By being what God intended us to be, which is what we are all trying to do, we can be telus. Perfect.

The verse in Matthew makes sense now too. Isn’t God ‘telus’? The right tool for every job? Of course He is! So Jesus is saying, “Be the right tool for the job, just as your Heavenly Father is the right tool for the job.” Jesus wants us to be tools in God’s toolbox that He can use for His glory. That’s an awesome thought. It means that there will be things God wants to have done and will look through his toolbox and say, “Aah, Bruce will be telus for this job. Perfect!” or “This is a job that my servant Murray will be telus for. Perfect!” The jobs that God gives me will be different from the jobs God gives you, because we are different tools in the toolbox, but for our respective jobs, we are ‘telus’. We’re not perfect, but in God’s eyes, we can be perfect for the job.

I used an awesome Bible program to find other places where Teleiow (Telus) was used.
Most important, Philippians 8:21 “Through faith in Christ, we become perfect.”

That means that it isn’t until we have an encounter with Jesus that we become perfect. That makes sense. How can you serve God unless you choose to, through Jesus. You have to decide to get into the toolbox on your own, to be telus. That brings me back to the woman in the story. Before she met Jesus, she was just another sinner. But after meeting Jesus, she was changed. Jesus knew it, so He used her. Think about it. She wasn’t perfect, but she was the perfect one to teach us this lesson. That’s ‘telus’. “Now go and be perfect.” I think Jesus was just telling her, ‘Now serve God, because God might need you again soon!’

I feel so encouraged lately, after learning this truth. I have been telling everyone I meet. It could be that this thought has been revealed to me because I am the perfect person to spread the word. Maybe this is exactly what God wanted me to do. If so, I’m telus. I’m the right tool for the job. Through Christ, I’ve been made perfect. I’m perfect in God’s eyes.

I’ve got to get back to sorting socks now, but here are a few others places the teleiow word is used. See if the verse changes meaning when you read it knowing that ‘perfect’, could be translated to ‘the right tool for the job’ :
Hebrews 10:14 “He has made perfect, forever those who are being made Holy.”
Phillippeans 3:12 “Not that I have already obtained or have been made perfect, but I press on…”
James 1:4 “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing…”

~ Bruce Lindsay ~
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/