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?
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?
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