Walking With Jesus

Taking a Spiritual Retreat

“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place Your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand.” (Psalm 139:1-6 NLT)

How can God know so much about us when we know so little about Him? Why would He even care to know US? The Lord’s knowledge is infinite. He knows everything about everything, including about us! But get this – He not only knows what we’ve done, but what we’ll do, ultimately, what we’ll become as a person, including where we’ll spend eternity.

But please don’t get information confused with predestination. Knowing is a matter of the mind, our intellect, but predetermining is a matter of will, which is a subject for another post. If I’m in your presence, as God is ever-present with us (there’s never a second He’s not with us), He obviously will know everything about us, but His knowing doesn’t violate our will in any way. He may know we’re wearing a blue shirt, but He in no way influenced us to wear that shirt.

Why mention this in the context of taking a Spiritual Retreat? Because these and other subjects that often baffle us can be subjects of our retreat. However, if you’ve never taken a personal spiritual retreat, let me offer some observations and suggestions.

First, initially, let it be just for you and Jesus. Go to a quiet place in nature, a park, lake, or forest area, and leave your phone in the car. Take snacks and some water and plan to stay for at least 1 – 3 hours. Take your Bible and a pen and paper or your iPad or equivalent. Sit quietly for at least thirty minutes paying attention to what you’re seeing and hearing all around you. Nature is often God’s way of speaking when we’re ready to listen.

Second, have a subject, idea, or text in mind that will become the focus of your time with the Lord. For example, you may want to investigate God’s Promises. If you’re not that familiar with the Bible, you may want to Google “God’s Promises in the Bible.” You’ll quickly learn there are hundreds, but you can take 10 or 15 and write down their Biblical references. Then during your retreat, go to each promise, make note of its original context – why did God make THAT promise and to whom? Then think about how that promise effects or applies to you. Other subjects may be God’s Names, prayer, the Prophets of God, the Disciples, the Great Commission, the 10 Commandments, and on and on it goes. Pick a subject that will guide you in your time alone with the Lord.

Third, after each 30-45 minutes, take a break to eat a snack, walk around for 10-15 minutes pondering what you’ve just read or studied. Then go back and pick up where you left off.

Fourth, don’t feel compelled to complete the whole study. If you’re listening to the Lord’s voice and He’s guiding you into a deeper understanding of Himself, yourself, His Word, the specific subject you’re studying, that’s the “WIN,” continuing may be counterproductive. It’s not an assignment to complete, it’s time alone with your Savior in which your primary goal is to get to know Him more intimately.

This can also be beneficial for you and your spouse, a friend, or small group of friends.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Path of Everlasting Life

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23-24 NLT)

One of the tragedies of the sexual “revolution” of the sixties that has continued through to the present day is that it believes “freedom” to exploit one another sexually leads to satisfaction emotionally, but it doesn’t. We’ve believed that sex with multiple partners would lead to some measure of emotional contentment or even sexual satisfaction, but it doesn’t.

God had it right from the beginning – one man and one woman in a lifetime commitment to one another in marriage. Sexual intimacy that is satisfying and long-lasting grows out of the security of a lifelong commitment that can be difficult and takes effort to maintain. It grows out of a relationship in which we sometimes kick and scream and fight the temptation to not pay the price; to bail out of the marriage, but, unfortunately, many still do.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

But the prize is to those who stay together and pay the price to break through to true intimacy where the two become one flesh. It’s a closeness that will never be achieved over night, but only comes over a lifetime of facing the ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs of love and life together, all along holding tightly to the hand of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Intimacy with our spouse and with our God is a lifelong journey, one that demands time and work and a willingness to persevere. It doesn’t take minutes a day, it takes hours, but it’s worth every second.

If you’re serious about getting close to the Lord, you first must be willing to let Him be close to you. The Psalmist asked God to “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

In order to allow the Lord to do those things you’ll need minimally 30-45 minutes to let your “engine” cool, so your heart and mind are in a suitable posture to listen. Sit with pen and paper close by because when He speaks, and He will, you’ll want to listen carefully and take lots of notes. Also have your Bible handy because sometimes He’ll point you to things He’s already told you, but you weren’t listening.

God’s Word will come to life for you like never before. You’ll read with a “sixth sense” that enables you to see things you’d never seen before; understand how to apply things you never saw before; and open avenues of intimacy to the heart of God you never realized existed before.

You’ll learn to see who God is, what He loves, why He loves, how He loves, how He teaches us, corrects us, desires for us to know and love Him on more than a superficial level. You’ll see more clearly why the people of the Bible we consider “great” men and women of God were that way and how they got there.

Loving God and being loved by Him is the greatest adventure of a lifetime and the reason most people never learn to enjoy Him is because they think they’re too busy. I couldn’t find who said this, but it’s the truth. It says: “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” You’ll rarely, if ever, find the Lord in your busy-ness. You’ll find Him in your quietness.

In tomorrow’s post I’ll give you some guidance in planning a personal “spiritual retreat.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Moves God’s Heart?

“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38 NLT)

In our harried pace we miss opportunities to grow in our relationship with the Lord, largely because we treat Him like a school project or work assignment. We disengage Him from the emotions of other relationships.

Would you listen to or read messages or letters from your spouse, but never engage in conversation? Would you content yourself to see words from them, but never desire to sit in their presence or do things together? We wrongly assume going to church, reading, even studying the Bible, and speaking to Him in prayer is enough, but it’s not. Where is the intimacy in that?

Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

Where is the fellowship, the blending of spirits, the joining of lives? I can read someone’s biography and learn a lot about them, but if I never meet them, exchange conversation, spend time together we’ll not really “know” one another.

Our goal as a believer in and follower of the Lord Jesus isn’t simply to know about Him, but to KNOW HIM! Jesus said in John 7:28-29 in reference to His relationship with His Father: “While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, He called out, ‘Yes, you know Me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on My own. The one who sent Me is true, and you don’t know Him. But I know Him because I come from Him, and He sent Me to you.”

Paul expressed his strong yearnings to know God personally when he wrote in Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

Knowing, experiencing His power, suffering with Him, sharing in His death, experiencing the resurrection, what do all of these things share in common? They all shout intimacy, closeness, relationship! We can’t have intimacy with a book or an idea about someone or something. Intimacy implies closeness, companionship, friendship, the kinds of things most Jesus followers are too busy to pursue with Him.

For years I contented myself with reading, studying, preaching, teaching God’s Word, as well as my “token” hour of rehearsing my “prayer” list and telling God all the things I needed Him to do for me or others. I spent very little time in intimate conversation with the Lord where I not only spoke to Him, but genuinely listened to Him.

And yes, of course, I “listened” to Him as I read His Word, but most of my listening was for me, not Him. My goal was to get information from Him that I could use to “glorify” Him, but there was little or no intimacy in that. Now I listen to hear His heart – what He loves, what brings Him joy, what makes Him laugh, lifts His heart, and brings a smile to His holy face.

You know what it is? I believe Adam Mabry nailed it when he wrote: “The God of Scripture isn’t impressed by busyness; he’s moved by love.” What does that look like? It looks like you and me making an effort to spend alone time with Him without an agenda. Without a list of wants or needs or anything else. Just listening to His heart even more than His “voice.” I will warn you it takes time and effort.

This is too rich, let’s pick this up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Hinge of History

“When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in the manger.” (Luke 2:15-16 NLT)

As we find our way in this new year, we’ll find it more meaningful and more satisfying if we view our life and what we encounter through the clear lens of our relationship with the One born in the manger so many years ago. According to Ralph W. Sockman: “The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.”

So much of what we fret about and with which we wrestle wouldn’t have such a hold on us if we could grasp the significance of what the infant Jesus grew to become and died to offer us. We want to compartmentalize and isolate our relationship with the living God, but what Jesus accomplished through the Cross has opened the door for us to walk with Him in a relationship that encompasses every detail of our lives.

Photo by Tuesday Temptation on Pexels.com

Regardless of what happens in our life, when we are walking with Jesus, He will guide, guard, inform, and surround us with His comforting presence. We’re far too quick to trade the intimacy we can have in our relationship with the Lord Jesus for religious duties, obligations, rituals, and rules, which can be fine as long as we see them and hold them in their proper perspective.

But when we relegate our walk with Jesus to religious exercise or practice, we reduce our relationship to that which we can control and rather than nourish our friendship we treat Jesus like a picture on the wall or an artifact on a shelf. We depersonalize the Spirit of God and reduce Him to an idea rather than treat Him as the alive, active, and engaged Savior that He is.

It’s like treating our spouse and/or children as if they were invisible and didn’t have the ability to speak or interact with us. Because the invisible God became flesh and blood in the Person of His Son, Jesus has given visibility to who the Father is and what He desires for us to know about Him. He’s personable, relatable, loving, kind, compassionate, caring, as well as all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present and in many other ways, while different than us, He’s like us in that He shares many of the same feelings, aspirations, heartaches, pains, and avenues of joy and sorrow that we share.

To treat our relationship with Jesus simply as a “religion” is to be married and treat your spouse as an “institution.” We’re not saved and sanctified by a religion any more than, if we’re married, our spouse is a structure or set of documents. Jesus is a real Person who though not visible to our physical eyes is nonetheless visible in a thousand other ways.

He’s knowable in many of the same ways any other human being is knowable. We can carry on conversations with Him, hear Him laugh and cry, see Him smile and give expression to His emotions. Yes, of course, we “see” Him with the eyes of our heart, but it’s no less real and He’s no less alive to us.

Does it take time and effort to nurture our relationship with Jesus? Of course, but it’s no different than meeting someone who speaks a different language and taking the time and making the effort to learn to communicate with them. Though it will try you, it doesn’t have to be a chore, it can actually be revealing, uplifting, encouraging, and very enjoyable.

It’s taken me many years to feel comfortable speaking with my Savior, but because He opened the way to Himself through the “Hinge of History,” we can now nurture a relationship with Him that is literally as close as the air we breathe.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Beyond the Visible

“For we live by believing and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT)

Do you realize that on many levels the most meaningful aspects of our lives are created and stored in the unseen places of our heart? Can you draw a picture of love? Describe the impact of compassion? Formulate thoughts that can adequately express your appreciation for what Jesus has done and is doing for you? We try to act as if what is unseen doesn’t matter or count, but what about the air we breathe, the heart that pumps our blood, the devotion we have to our newborn child?

Many like to believe that faith is abstract and foreign to us, yet it simply joins the dozens of other unseen things that give meaning, joy, appreciation, sustenance, and a thousand other good things to our lives each moment of each day. Belief is in the fabric of our being. We’re going to believe, it’s only a matter of that in which we put our faith.

Beyond the Visible “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

Each day we choose the outlook, attitude, demeanor, pathway, in short, we map out our strategy as to how we will deal with what we encounter during the course of the day, all of which is invisible to us at that point in time. Our mind gives visibility to what we imagine, yet even then we’d struggle to explain what we’re seeing or imagining.

Each day Ray Marjoran shares his thoughtful and beautiful prayers and adds a picture to help us envision that about which he prays. A few days ago, he prayed: “Please help us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on the eternal promises You have given. When doubts whisper that we are alone, remind us that Your presence surrounds us, like the sunrise breaking through the winter trees.

Teach us to take each step with courage, knowing that Your plans for us are good, even when they are beyond our understanding. Guard our hearts from the need for constant certainty. Instead, may we have a deep trust in Your Word and in Your Spirit, who leads us with peace and assurance. Let our faith be a witness to those around us, reflecting the quiet confidence that comes from walking hand-in-hand with You.”

What do you see when you pray? What thoughts guide you as you carry on a conversation with the living God? Have you ever stopped to realize that the words of Scripture are largely invisible words that the Lord shared with those who were in tune with His voice and were conveyed through prayer? In Isaiah 43:19 we read God’s words as He shared them with His Prophet: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Is your heart parched today? Does your life feel like a vast wasteland too desolate to make sense? Or does it sometimes feel like you’re groping in the darkness trying to find your way? Hear God’s words through the Psalmist: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me.”

In a very real sense, the most vital aspects of our lives are experienced without the benefit of our physical senses. Who God is and how we experience Him is a deeply spiritual matter that may result in a physical response but can only be processed and followed through the devotion of our heart, mind, and soul. The greater our willingness to understand the value and impact of that which is beyond the visible, the easier it will become for us to “see” and follow our Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When Wills Are Wed

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.” (Titus 1:15-16 NLT)

Our tendency can be to see everyone who walks away from the Lord as being in the category of those referred to above as: “Such people claim they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.” In our pious saintliness we can write off everyone who doesn’t fit our “Christian mold” as not being “saved” in the first place. But in my more than 60 years of walking with the Lord I’ve seen too many good, and yes, godly people, experience such heart wrenching tragedies and life circumstances that they lose their will to walk with God.

And, of course, that’s another discussion. But suffice it to say I’ve seen people who have made a genuine commitment to Christ, be baptized, and walk faithfully for years, then turn away. But why? God alone knows, but I believe the Lord gave me an insight that makes sense to me. I believe it’s an issue of our will.

I believe there came a point in each of the original Disciples lives and that must come in each of our lives when what God wants of and from them and us becomes more important and a higher priority than what we want for ourselves. There must come a shift in our heart, mind, and soul when our life means nothing to us without knowing, loving and serving Jesus.

In other words, there must come a point where we sacrifice our will on the altar of our love for Jesus and accept His will as our own. On some levels it’s like ending the “courtship” and committing everything on the altar of “Marriage to Christ.” How that translates for me is this: until our will becomes one with the Lord’s we have the capacity to walk away, but once our will and God’s become one, there’s no turning back.

It’s like when Hernán Cortés ordered his men to burn their ships so no one would be tempted to turn back. There needs to come a point in our walk with the Lord Jesus when we “burn our ships,” when something in our spirit determines we’re not turning back no matter what! It’s like Peter in John 6 when the Bible says: “At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, ‘Are you also going to leave?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.’”

There must come a point in our lives where “We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Too many, me included, began our journeys without having a clue as to what it would cost us. When we start, we want to believe we’ll go the distance, that we won’t back down or bail out. But when reality happens and life gets hard: when a child dies, a spouse leaves, the diagnosis is terminal, we fail irreparably, or any number of other scenarios, some wash out, but some don’t. But why?

What makes the difference? Are you “married” or just “dating” Jesus? Do you not only have all of the Lord, but the Lord has all of you? Are you still hanging on to your will or have you let it be “wed” with the Lord’s? The bottom line for me is simple: Who owns your will owns your heart? When you have no will but His you’ll never walk away, your heart will be cemented to the Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Salvation (Part 2)

“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NLT)

In a very real sense, personal salvation, the ability of an individual person to be saved, wasn’t available until the Holy Spirit was given. How do I know that? Because according to Paul (Romans 8:9): “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.)”

So, the key, at least as I understand it, is the presence of the Holy Spirit living in someone. Paul goes on to say that it’s the Spirit that gives us life, because it’s the presence of the Spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s child (Romans 8:16). So, can it be that the Spirit resides in us, but we ignore, negate, or refuse His leadership in our life?

In Romans 7 Paul outlines the struggle that is present in every believer’s life, but he goes on in Romans 8:2 to declare that “because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” Is it safe to say that the power to deliver and being delivered are two separate issues? What’s my point?

My point is simply this, not everyone who begins their journey with Jesus ends up in heaven. Judas was the first to illustrate that in a very dramatic way, while all of the remaining 12 except John, died a martyr’s death. But my conviction is while at the moment of conversion we may get all of God, I’m quite sure, based on my own experience and many others I’ve known over the years, God doesn’t get all of us.

Salvation is a process, a journey if you will, a journey that some, by their own admission and choice, don’t complete. But why? In previous posts I’ve talked about the issue of free will, but I’d like to look at our will from another angle. What if there comes a point in our walk with the Lord where our will is wed to and becomes one with God’s will?

As Jesus prayed in the Garden, “Not My will but Yours be done,” He gave illustration to the fact that, while He had a will, He didn’t want anything except what the Father wanted for Him. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to in my life. There’s nothing this world could possibly offer me that’s of higher value to me than my walk with Jesus, or, in other words, my salvation in Christ alone, by faith alone.

But haven’t I always seen or understood it that way? While I might have used those words, they wouldn’t have meant what they now mean to me. Here’s the bottom line as I understand it. Here’s what I see happening in our “salvation” journey, resulting in why some people can walk away from their salvation while others never will.

I’m out of space. Let’s discuss this in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Salvation

“Jesus responded, ‘Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:9-10 NLT)

What are the “components” of salvation? When does salvation begin? How do I know I’m saved? Once I’m saved can I ever be “unsaved?”

Since I wrote the articles a few days ago about “Eternal Security” and “Once Saved Always Saved,” the Lord and I have been in much conversation about what the real essence of salvation is. When it happens and to whom? What constitutes a “saved” person, and what role does our free will have in the process?

Salvation, like Sanctification, Consecration, and other terms in Scripture that end in “tion” have past, present, and future implications. For example, I was saved (past tense) when I was a teenager, I’m presently saved as I’m continuing to walk in submission to the Lord’s authority and recognize His Lordship over my life, but one day soon I will be saved (future) as I complete my faith journey with Jesus.

Based on examples in Scripture I see a pattern that can apply to us that, at least for me, answers a lot of my questions. Let me “map” it out, then go back and put some of the pieces together.

Was Judas ever saved? There’s no account of how or when he began to follow the Lord, other than as a disciple (like the other 12), but according to the pattern of Scripture, Jesus hand-picked the twelve. Were they “saved” when the Lord “called” them? Did Jesus only pick Judas because He needed a “scapegoat?”

We’re tempted to make assumptions because from our current perspective we know, based on Scripture and tradition, how each one turned out. Yet, according to Mark 6 and other companion passages, all twelve were sent out to tell people “to repent of their sins and turn to God.”

Yes, of course, Judas was the betrayer, but my sense is he began as the others, with a heart to serve God and to be an effective disciple of the Lord. I think of Thomas the doubter and Peter the denier, James and John who were proud and wanted to be seen as the “closest” to Jesus. Each one had their faults, like each of us, yet, ultimately, only one went astray.

Of course, I’m not going to build a case for someone walking away from God based on what Judas did, largely because there are other factors. For example, NONE of the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. When they went out to preach they were “armed” with Christ’s authority, which, as I understand it, would have been an anointing of the Spirit for a specific assignment. But were any of them “saved” in the same sense as we are “saved” today?

Food for thought.

Let’s pick this up tomorrow.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Did They Lose?

“So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and He sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which He had been made.” (Genesis 3:23 NLT)

When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden they lived in perfect harmony with God and all of creation. They had no fear, nothing to disturb the peace and tranquility that surrounded them. We’re not told how long they lived in the garden before the fall, but obviously enough time passed for Adam to share with Eve the instructions God had given him regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to consider what that meant.

All they knew was that they would “die,” but death was a foreign term to them. Nothing “died” in the garden. Everything thrived. What was it in having the knowledge of good and evil that was able to destroy them? Obviously, they had a perfect relationship with God and with each other, what would lead them to desire or consider that they might need or want more?

The scene in the early verses of Genesis 3 doesn’t give us a timeline, but days may have passed while Adam and Eve pondered Satan’s words: “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” And when Eve clarified what God had said, Satan responded by saying: “You won’t die! …God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

Alexander Pope’s old adage, “A little learning can be a dangerous thing,” can be true, as it proved to be in Adam and Eve’s minds, but what is it about knowledge that is so dangerous? What was God concerned Adam and Eve would discover when they ate of the fruit? What would they lose that is so vital in a relationship with God? Could it be their singular focus?

My sense is the greatest loss they incurred when they were expelled from the Garden was their intimacy with God. We’re so far removed from what they had that our intimacy pales in comparison with what they enjoyed but, obviously, based on their choice, took for granted. It’s taken me more than 60 years to begin to enjoy a level of closeness to the Lord that I desire for everyone, thus the reason for this blog.

Adam and Eve had nothing to compare to their oneness and closeness to the Lord. They’d never NOT been one with Him. How could they know the catastrophic results of their sin? But that’s what they chose to lose when they ate the forbidden fruit. And, however we want to think of it, that’s exactly what we forfeit when we sin.

Sin separates us, from God, from each other, from the things God has in store for us, from a sense of purpose, from accomplishment of His will that alone can render peace, harmony, a sense of comfort, and safety in His presence that we can experience in no other way.

In my mind I can “hear” a conversation between Adam and Eve. They’re alone in the quietness of their new surroundings and suddenly Eve says to Adam: “It feels so different here!” For the rest of their lives, each moment of each new day would introduce them to what they “lost” by choosing their way instead of God’s.

What have you and I lost in our stubbornness and insistence on following our own way? I’m quite sure we’ve lost more than we can possibly imagine but will see firsthand when we leave this planet.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

His Slumbering Church (Part 2)

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what He is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 2:7a NLT)

The first and most important place to look for “slumbering” believers is in the mirror. Who are “slumbering” believers? They are those who profess faith in Jesus but have “fallen asleep at the proverbial wheel” of their faith. We can get to the point in our walk with the Lord that our attitude seems to be: “I’ve got this Christianity thing! I know how it works, and I know how to work it.” Which basically translates: “I’m in my ‘groove’ and nothing or no one is going to change my mind.”

And please understand, I’m not pointing fingers. I’ve been there and understand not only how it happens, but what to do when it happens. The biggest issue as I understand it, is intellectual. We figure things out in our mind, but, unfortunately, they don’t always equate with what’s in our heart.

For example, for many years, even as a Pastor, I had a “working” relationship with the Lord. I spent time in prayer and reading the Bible, but it was, almost without exception, a means to an end for me. What does that mean? I read and studied because I had to prepare for something, it wasn’t simply to get to know the Lord better or even to build my personal walk with Him.

On some levels I was in “survivor” or “performance” mode. Yes, of course, I loved God and wanted to please Him, but there were times the persons I most wanted to please were the ones staring back at me on a Sunday morning. When I was completely honest, the ones who decided whether I would stay or leave.

However, since retiring, I’ve now been liberated to love God because He’s God. My “quiet” time extends throughout my day. My communion with the Lord isn’t only when I’m in a formal posture of prayer or even when I’m reading His Word, but every second of every day I’m longing for His presence; looking for Him in the ordinary events of the day; seeing Him at work in people and places I never imagined He’d be.

Many today are “slumbering” because they haven’t learned how to “wake up.” They haven’t yet discovered what it means to “love God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.” The haven’t yet allowed the Lord to captivate their heart and mind and channel their every thought through the filter of the throne room of the Most Holy God.

When we’re living for an audience of One, the heart of the matter becomes our accountability to Him. Yes, of course, we care what others think to a degree, but that’s not what governs or motivates how we live. Thinking that way is liberating, yet restrictive. How so?

It’s liberating in the sense that I can love everyone without obligation to believe what they believe or see things the way they view them. We can agree to disagree on nonessentials and still fight side-by-side for the souls of our friends and loved ones.

When you boil it down, no one – NOT ONE – person who has lived, is living, or will ever live, except Jesus, has perfect understanding of the Bible, or anything else for that matter. Our understanding is limited to what we’re given. So, it stands to reason, the closer we are to Jesus, the more understanding He’s going to give us, thus the reason He may choose us to send a clarion call to anyone who has grown lazy or is “slumbering” when they should be fully awake and engaged in the fight for souls to Christ’s honor and fame.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊