The Lord's Pace***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life with the Lord is intended to be quite leisurely and I have missed that pace due to so much self-driven striving over the years.  This morning, as I pull myself out of a deep sleep,  I hear a sweet wake-up call with His words  "Slow down and enjoy the rest of journey".

Most of the Lord's directives lately have to do with me getting out of the fast lane where most of my life has been spent.  Even amid the busyness of our times and our world, the Lord's pace is slow.  

There is always the temptation to respond to the urgent instead of prioritizing the important things in life.  Today I have to stop and consider His words and take them for the blessing that they are. 

To confirm His voice, He leads me to His written word;  Ecclesiastes 9:7-8 "Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart;  For God has already accepted your works.  Let your garments always be white and let your head lack no oil."  I am stunned by this verse and the timing of its discovery.

Just to be clear I did not know this verse from memory nor was I looking for the "confirmation" per se.  I was researching for another word that would speak of the pace, when He took me to this one.  That is how the Holy Spirit leads us.....some may call it a coincidence...but I call it a supernatural leading by the Holy Spirit and I celebrate it with a Hallelujah opportunity to Praise His Name. 

After spending a little worship time in that Divine interlude, I go back to the subject issue of His pace.  I understand that the Lord's pace is slow, and the evidence that convinces me about this truth is in the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus when He walked the earth.  Our Creator God appeared and walked among His creation for a short time in human history.

The timing of His arrival seems to be tied to the "age" when the Roman Empire was conquering most of the know world and set about establishing travel routes so that in that day it could be said that "all roads lead to Rome".   Common language came with such advances in the networking so the sacred writings of both old and in preparation for the future New Testament could be sent far and wide with Greek being added to worldwide communication.  That was an important detail to understand and then share on a wider scale, the words of God's love letter to humanity AKA the Bible.

Jesus kept to a geographically small area in the world but His message could be sent out to other nations via the Roman roads  by and through His disciples from generation to generation, after His death and resurrection.

As I read about the life of Jesus,  it is clear that He was never in a hurry.  His pace was slow and deliberate.  The circumstances that crossed His path and directed His life came as He simply walked from place to place sharing His message as He went.

He addressed the conditions of His day and brought healing and joy to every life He touched among those who accepted His hope and help.  He truly is the Good Shepherd and takes great care of the sheep.  That picture in all it's symbolism is one that we in the western world and technical age know little about.

We are so driven by and addicted to our technology that the simpler things in life have lost their appeal.  On one hand we complain abut how busy we are but then have a hard time resting if and when the opportunity comes.  Like a child on a sugar high, the mind races and the body follows until we cash and burn in a blaze of regret and not glory. 

Jesus lived in and faced the same challenges we do today:  sickness, political intrigues, relational rejection and abuse, physical hardship and demonized people.

The wonder of His human life was the glory of His Divine One.  Jesus met all those conditions in the flesh and left us with the model for how we can live and deal with those same like-kind circumstances once we become His disciple.

When He first called men to follow Him there was (and still is) a choice to be made. It involved a coming out of their worldly lives.  They still did fish but with a different life purpose.  Their job was the same but their occupation changed.  So it is when we become servants of our Master. 

The Lord began His training of the original disciples and He set the pace.  The few years of His earth life and ministry that they spent with Him allowed them to learn about the Kingdom of Heaven and the Father heart of God through living daily life with Jesus.

As I ponder His words and directive this morning, I "see" them in a way I have not registered before.  I have argued in my mind that we are so spread out and our mobility and fast pace allows for a great and wider dissemination of the gospel.  We can get more people "saved" through cyber sharing and short term, long distance mission trips but then the arguing stops when He says, "Go, make disciples of all nations".

The way of making a disciple has not changed since He walked the earth and made the 12 chosen men His disciples. Disciple-making involves lifestyle sharing and there is still 24 hours in a day: no more no less.

I find the old adage that says, we are to "grow where we are planted" is a picture of time as well as placement.  Plants grow and influence the garden  slowly.  The beauty unfolds gradually and in a human sense growth takes time.    The same is true of discipleship as the method of evangelism here and around the world.

The pace of our Lord has not changed from age to age.  It is slow.  It is peaceful.  And it is necessarily so.  If I am to seize the opportunities that life presents I must not be in such a hurry to get to the next way station.  There are people and situations in my life today that need the touch of the Master's hand. I am His representative to the lost and hurting people who are Divinely placed in my path. 

The question is will I keep the Lord's pace and actually minister to those I see in need or will I race past them looking for an "opportunity" that is already here.

His words today are not just a blessed call to slow down and enjoy the journey, but also a directive to see and seize the opportunities He provides to be and bring a blessing to others along the way.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?             

                

The Great Commission***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Out of the early hour brain fog I hear Him speak something of the Great Commission.

With the world in such turmoil, I wonder what His message will be for me today.  Guilt descends with an "Oh No!  I am in trouble now" reaction as I turn to my mental file cabinet for evidence in the defense that I am fulfilling my part.

He repeats what I only half heard a moment ago, "The Great Commission is to go and make disciples of all nations and it is a team effort".

Relief floods my heart as I feel His love and not a rebuke.  I am immediately drawn to Matt 28:18-20 NKJV, which is where I can read and remember my commission.  These are among the last words the Lord spoke to His disciples before He left planet earth and entrusted His life message into their care and keeping.

The scriptures read, "And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, "All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age". 

These parting words of our Lord should be burned into our minds since the commission has been given to all who believe and have received the gift of eternal life from and through the Savior Son of God, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Meditating on His words brings things to light and therefore to life.

The Holy Spirit made it clear that the "Great Commission" is a co-mission and a team effort, so the burden is not ours to carry alone.  We have a part to play in the carrying out of the Lord's spoken will, but it does not rest entirely on us individually or alone. 

He reminds me here that due to His son submission to the Father's will and the glorious resurrection that came as a result, Jesus now can claim all authority in Heaven and on earth.  This is the great news we have to share.  It is a blessed day when we come to terms with the knowledge that it is the love of God and not the hatred of an evil dark being that rules over our lives. 

Our Savior and Lord has given us the commission and it is not to "save" the world for He has already made a provision for humanity's salvation by and through His death on the cross. We talk about going out and getting people "saved" when our role and commission is to make disciples. 

To BE a disciple is to follow the precepts and instructions of the one we call our "Master".  To MAKE a disciple is to teach and instruct in the ways of the "Master".

Many questions begin to flood my mind as I ponder the commission.  Self-assessment comes as the Holy Spirit does His work in me. 

Am I making disciples of my church or of my Master? 

Am I focused on saving a soul (not my job) rather than making a disciple of the soul I am in line to share the gospel with?

Is my belief system so caught up in legalism that I judge rather than instruct? 

There are so many questions that must be answered in truth.  The truth does not allow for self-deception or lame excuses for following independent, self-serving, flesh glorifying agendas.

Baptizing and being baptized in the name of someone signifies a total immersion and agreement in their authority and is a public proclamation that it is according to our will to be changed into a new and different persona who emulates the life of the Master in whose name we are baptized.

A more humorous description of baptism is when a cucumber is "baptized" (immersed) in a solution and becomes a pickle.

We are to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which speaks of the Trinity as our three-in-one Sovereign Creator God which is His unique identity and is foundational to our faith.  The Trinity works in concert with each other and yet as One.  Via the Holy Spirit we are brought into that Divine community to work in concert with them as well.  Yet more evidence of the co-mission we have been given. 

I am told to go, baptize and to teach the ones I am sent to make disciples thereof, to observe all things that Jesus commanded of His followers. 

How can I teach others to observe what I so carelessly ignore?

How can I justify ignorance when I have the Heavenly Counselor dwelling within whose job it is to teach me and lead me into all truth?

Truth can be brutal especially when it reveals the dark side of me.  But the proper reaction to truth allows for the Divine purpose of transformation to take place in the lives of all who come to Jesus as Savior and Lord and that includes me. 

Once truth has been revealed, a choice must be made either I embrace it and go to the next level of obedience and begin correcting what has been exposed with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Or...I run away in denial and continue in self-deception until the next wave of truth comes crashing on my shoreline.

Today, I come to confess (agree with) what the Holy Spirit has shown as potential weaknesses to fulfilling my part in the Great Commission.  His questions send me deep to find where carnal thinking must be eliminated in order to continue to walk on the highway of Holiness. 

His final word in the verses today reminds me that I do not have to go it alone:  "and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age (entire completion, forever, the perpetuity of time eternal)".   He is with me and always will be with me in life and in the "Great Co-mission" so that with and by His Spirit I can live and fulfill my part. 

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

                            

Understand Your Trial & Check Your Fruit

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  With a severe winter storm behind me and the last vestiges of the snow melting away, I can now assess my own preparedness or actually the lack thereof and begin to make corrections needed for a better weathering of any future storms.

His gentle voice delivers a directive, "Check your fruit"  and I know instantly what He means.  I realize the trials of life are learning opportunities that the Holy Spirit wants to use to hone me into the image and character of my Lord Jesus the Christ.

Just like the storm emphasized the need for an emergency heat source if and when the power goes out, the trials of life can reveal places within my heart that are needing some form of corrective action before the next storm hits. I have long understood for myself that to walk with the Lord is to see things through His eyes and from His perspective. 

When Jesus said, "without Me you can do nothing" in John 15:5, it does not mean that I cannot react in my flesh or that I cannot follow my own agenda.  What it does mean to me is that without and apart from Him and the ruling authority of His Holy Spirit, I can do nothing that will survive the test of fire in the last day judgment of our "works".

It is easy to forget that reward will be given not for the "good" things we might find to do but rather the reward will come from our obedience as a servant for executing the Master's will.  He may ask us to simply wash another person's feet but instead we decide to show our "loyalty" to Him by marching for a "good" cause.  We may get some notoriety here but lose our eternal reward there.

It is this struggle to discern and follow the internal voice of our Shepherd that makes for the sanctification process.   In this passage of scripture from John 15, Jesus was speaking to our faith life that He described as our being a branch in the Vine.  He is the Vine and we are the branches and our faith life comes from and is sustained by Him.  He goes on to say that we did not choose Him but He chose us to go and bear fruit.  The fruit we are to bear is the fruit of the Holy Spirit as described in Gal 5:22:  Love, Joy, peace, patience or long suffering, kindness, gentleness, faith and self control.

The trials we experience provide the heat that exposes the dross or impurities in our spirit.  The human spirit must yield to the ruling authority of the Holy Spirit, and as we do, we are brought into the conforming image of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the "fruit" of the Spirit is actually the character of God we can use that as our standard of success in the assessment of victory or defeat in any given trial.  I have come to realize that each trial I encounter challenges one or more of the character qualities of my Lord.  The trial seems to challenge the "fruit" that the Lord is wanting me to bear.

If I ask myself what fruit of the Spirit is most challenged by the situation I am in, I can work with my Lord to bear that fruit rather than follow the flesh incitement to violate the Holy One within.  What we face in life will always be in some sense more than we can comfortably bear.  But in the eternal sense, that is the point behind the trial.  The Lord filters things through His Sovereign fingers of love that brings us to understand our human dependency on Him.  Simply put, we need our Lord.

If we are ultimately going to be entrusted with co-managing the Creator's worlds beyond this one, then this dependency is part of the training process for eternity.  Leadership is honed in service and obedience is required before authority is given.

Our life and existence beyond the veil we call death in this realm, is promised to the Believer in Christ Jesus to be a life more amazing than we can think or imagine.  With evil and death destroyed, what is left is goodness and life and describes what we can look forward to after leaving this temporal training ground behind.

Today I purpose to look at what the trial is challenging to the fruit of the Spirit.

Is (unconditional) love being challenged? Is joy being challenged?  Is peace?  Is patience? Is kindness?  How about faith or simply self control?  What flesh reaction, comes bubbling up from the heat of the situation?  Hate, even self loathing? Bitterness, angry conflict, impatience, a mean spirit or retaliation or faithless unbelief? 

As the Holy Spirit was sent to lead us into all truth, we can expect and trust Him to show us our weakness and failures.  But in a most amazing and gracious way, once revealed, and as we ask Him for help, He will also cleanse us of the carnal iniquity and then empower us to bear His fruit and live out the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The helplessness we may feel is designed to lead us to the Rock that is higher than any one of us.  Jesus never leaves us like He found us and we are all in a transformation process.

The last storm revealed a weakness that now I can fix.  When the next storm hits I will be better able to weather it in a more prepared way.  So it is with the trials of life and the God ordained purpose that is preparing us for victories here and unimaginable wonders in eternity to come. 

Today I will check my fruit and allow the Holy Spirit to show me what I need to correct so that next time a crisis hits I will be better prepared to handle it in a Christ glorifying way. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?                

   

 

Power In The Blood of Jesus**

The Holy One calls to me this morning and there is urgency to His call or maybe just urgency in my need to talk to Him.  His voice is strong and commanding, "Remember the Blood of Jesus and what it has done for you".

The Holy One has been providing deep lessons for a few weeks now and they all center on the Blood of Jesus that was shed for us when our Savior was crucified.  When I say He has been providing lessons, I have been drawn to and stumbled upon some pretty random studies that have meandered me to the central theme which has "coincidentally" been the same from a variety of sources:  The power of the Blood of Jesus.

 Evil saturates the atmosphere of our world.  We struggle against sin from within and evil from without. Rev 12 tells us that we share this earth turf with a dark demonic being called the Devil.  Rev 12 speaks of the war the Devil has declared and wages against us humans.

From a study of end times prophecy where the Blood of the Lamb is brought out as a weapon to defeat the enemy of our souls in Rev 12, and to answer some hard questions concerning the issues of the healing that are so desperately needed in our lives and world today, the Holy One keeps pointing to the Blood of Jesus.

I was raised in a church that celebrated the Lord's Supper and provided "communion" time every Sunday.  Over the years and passing through denominational differences, it seems that the practice of "communion" is a tradition that is less consistently or regularly returned to than I experienced as a child. 

The Lord did not give a specific time requirement for us to come to His table, but rather said that when we take the symbolic elements of that Last Supper that we do so in remembrance of Him.

For some it may have come to be a "legalistic" symbol of a religious churchy act and dismissed as just another thing we do on a given Sunday.  Maybe there are those who are moving way from the sacrament in exchange for a more feel good Gospel so as not to offend the visitors with our "blood based" religion. Whatever the reasons I would venture to suggest that perhaps the absence of our reminder may be connected to the powerlessness of the Body of Christ. 

Paul brings the instruction to the Church for remembering the Lord's supper in I Corinthians 11:17-34.  He spoke about divisions and factions occurring when they came together to eat.  He then returns us to the night before the crucifixion of our Lord and what Jesus said the night He was betrayed: 

"And when He had given thanks, He broke it (the bread) and said "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me".  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper and said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink, in remembrance of Me".  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death til He comes."

Taking a regular time to think about the meaning of why it was important in the first place is a doorway into the Presence of Holiness. This communion is a place of self analysis, personal confession of sin and then provides a visual reminder that His blood was shed and does cleanse us in a God ordained forgiveness.   But why is this blood...... "His" blood different? 

Over the course of history God has spoken that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission or pardon of sin.  He has through the Law brought the tragic reality that no one is righteous and all have been judged as guilty by the standard of Holiness.  In other words all must die because all have sinned and missed the mark or standard used to judge righteousness.  Accountability is individual since "The soul who sins shall  die",  so no blame shifting is allowed in Divine judgement.  (Ezekiel 18:4 NKJV)

However, the Lord God also established the Divine principle of substitution.  Animal sacrifice was used as a symbolic sacrifice for the guilty human and the life blood of the animal was accepted instead of the humans life blood.  But the sacrificial lamb had to be "without blemish" and "perfect".

For centuries this practice of substitution was performed within the Nation of Israel and followed all the Divine guidelines set by the Lord God Himself.

What we come to learn is that this practice was established to prepare the world for Jesus, who came as the ultimate "perfect", substitution, sacrificial Lamb of God and for the purpose of shedding the only Blood that has the power of resurrection life associated to it. 

The life and essence of our being is in our blood.  If our blood stops pumping through our veins we die.  Life and death is in the blood.  The very blood that brings life, upon death brings corruption.  It is the chemical that breaks down our physical body and turns us back to the elements from which we come. 

The life and essence of Jesus is Holy and was at the time of His earthy invasion, as the eternal God wrapped in flesh.  He came in a flesh body so flesh could see and relate personally to God but the essence of His being was the eternal God who can not die.

Jesus was always of Divine origin.   His conception was supernatural and His blood was not tainted by sin.  Therefore, His Blood is unique and while His body was flesh and temporal, His blood was Holy and Eternal. 

I have always thought when Abraham offer up Isaac, that whether Abraham killed him or not, the lad would be restored and if necessary resurrected.  Until now, when I realize for myself that apart from the Blood of Jesus, humans cannot resurrect.  There is no eternal component to our blood that allows for resurrection life.  If Abraham had been allowed to plunge the death knife into Isaac, the child and promise would have remained dead.

The issue was not one of atonement sacrifice but trusted devotion to the God of the promise.  And then even more so we gain the understanding that God is the only one who can and did provide the acceptable sacrifice for sin that gives us eternal life.

Until God Himself made that sacrifice, humanity was doomed to remain dead and was not eligible for eternal life in Heaven.  At salvation, His Holy Blood is mysteriously and miraculously transferred to us, His righteousness is imputed to us and His life becomes ours.   I realize this has everything to do with resurrection life and a glorified body but the jury is still out on the mysterious details of that.

I am thankful that we do not have to know everything in order to believe.  Our lessons about our Sovereign God are life long and we will never arrive at the place where we know it all. Today the truth about the Blood of Jesus offers so much encouragement because of all that it provides.  Through the Blood of Jesus:

We have been and continually are forgiven for all sin.  There is no unsettled claim against us.

We have been redeemed out of the hands of the devil and he has no ultimate power in or over us.

We can walk in the light and as we do, we are cleansed and being cleansed from all unrighteousness, even a guilty conscience.

We are justified in God's eyes and as I live my life with my Lord, it is just-as-if-I'd never sinned.

We are sanctified, made Holy and set apart to God for His Divine use and purpose.

Jesus is God.  And Only God can save His creation.   Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me"   (John 14:6).

It is by the Blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and the word of our testimony that the devil is overcome and death has no power over us.  The word of our testimony is our declared witness that we accept and believe that Jesus Christ is the One God sent to save us and that He died in our place and for our sin. We declare our belief that He is the resurrected Savior and that we belong to Him. 

Our declaration of the Truth, our belief in it and surrender to it causes the enemy to flee and the Lord to work His will through our lives.  But it is the power in the Holy Blood of our eternal God that provides for our participation in eternal life and the resurrection of our soul.

If the power of resurrection is ours though the Blood, so is the power to live a Holy life here on earth.  Time to tap into my Divine inheritance and embrace all that the Holy, eternal Blood of Jesus provides.

Today I feel the need to have regular personal communion times and to "do (all) in remembrance" of Him.  I do not need the church to provide the opportunity I can make for myself.  To appropriate the power and influence of the Holy Blood of Jesus is within my grasp and with the Holy Spirit, today is a great day to begin that discipline. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?