This message will never grow stale.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
"Couldn't you watch with me even one hour?"
Disclaimer: This was a draft post I never finished,I have no idea where I was going with it but I thought the highlighted line was funny.
These were the words of Jesus to His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane,but how often does He asks this question of us. Not one hour,but maybe a week,a month,a year..a season of our life when He wants us to be vigilant and awake.
I was thinking about this evening,how long am I willing to wait on God,how long am I willing to stay vigilant...because I assure you being vigilant is not a test of ability but of will. Will I become complacent and compromise when I feel like God has stopped working on my behalf? Sometimes I do feel like some issues have been put on the back burner by God,and I get the immense desire to take things into my own hands..I let my spirit go to sleep so my flesh can wreak havoc.
Psalm 121:3 says "He will not let you stumble;the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed the one who watches over Israel ( I dare you to insert your own name) never slumbers or sleeps"
These were the words of Jesus to His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane,but how often does He asks this question of us. Not one hour,but maybe a week,a month,a year..a season of our life when He wants us to be vigilant and awake.
I was thinking about this evening,how long am I willing to wait on God,how long am I willing to stay vigilant...because I assure you being vigilant is not a test of ability but of will. Will I become complacent and compromise when I feel like God has stopped working on my behalf? Sometimes I do feel like some issues have been put on the back burner by God,and I get the immense desire to take things into my own hands..I let my spirit go to sleep so my flesh can wreak havoc.
Psalm 121:3 says "He will not let you stumble;the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed the one who watches over Israel ( I dare you to insert your own name) never slumbers or sleeps"
The Assurance of Not Falling
The assurance of not falling...
This may possibly be one of the greatest promises in the new testament,at least if you consider the current focus of the church and every other Christians broadcast on TV and radio.We dedicate so much of our time to avoiding pitfalls,working through our struggles/challenges,After all a saint is just a sinner who fell down .....and then got up,and fell and got up and so on and on.
I fall and i get up and I fall and I get up but sometimes I am tired of falling.And sometimes the amount of energy and resources I utilise in getting up detracts from the God focus in my life,it makes me weary;more like a prisoner of war than the "more than a conqueror" Paul declared us to be.
And then there is this verse,this verse that says "if ye do these things,ye shall never fall (trip). Say whaaaaaaaat? How is that possible?How is it possible to not trip,that somehow offends my 21st Century Christian senses.It implies that I have currently settled for a life of wallowing and stumbling in mud when I my face need not touch the ground...it speaks to a life of victory,a life where I am not focussing on me and the mud that lies beneath.
It really should not be a surprise,earlier in the verse it always says that if these things are in us....and abound,we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.In John 15 :5 Jesus says "I am the vine,ye are the branches:He that abideth in me ,and I in him,that same bringeth forth much fruit".( yes I just quoted from the KJV) What Peter outlines as the 7 habits of highly effective Christians,the requirements for being fruitful,are also an indicator of abiding in Him.
In that same verse in John Jesus goes on to say that apart from Him we can do nothing. Apart from Him we will stumble,everytime we turn and fix are gaze on something or someone other than Jesus we will stumble. Somehow that changes the game,associating my stumbling not with human weakness but with my failure to abide in Him.
We ARE a new creation,the old man IS dead...at times I found this hard to reconcile with my...mm mm mm struggles forgetting that I can't walk this walk without Jesus,that any time my focus is not on Jesus I end up in the mud.
This is the generation of "follow us on Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,Pinterest..." and as a result following has become a passive activity,one click and you are following.After that there is nothing to do but wait for something to pop up.Jesus does not ask for or need such followers ,He needs followers who are willing to blister their feet in the following,go hungry in the following,lose friends in the following.Followers who will not just follow but abide in Him
Dear Lord,
Teach me to abide,to never settle for being in the crowd of those who have heard about Jesus or even seen His miracles.I want to lay my head on your bossom,totally at peace as Faith the beloved...to sit at your feet not thinking of a dish or pot,totally mesmorised by you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
This may possibly be one of the greatest promises in the new testament,at least if you consider the current focus of the church and every other Christians broadcast on TV and radio.We dedicate so much of our time to avoiding pitfalls,working through our struggles/challenges,After all a saint is just a sinner who fell down .....and then got up,and fell and got up and so on and on.
I fall and i get up and I fall and I get up but sometimes I am tired of falling.And sometimes the amount of energy and resources I utilise in getting up detracts from the God focus in my life,it makes me weary;more like a prisoner of war than the "more than a conqueror" Paul declared us to be.
And then there is this verse,this verse that says "if ye do these things,ye shall never fall (trip). Say whaaaaaaaat? How is that possible?How is it possible to not trip,that somehow offends my 21st Century Christian senses.It implies that I have currently settled for a life of wallowing and stumbling in mud when I my face need not touch the ground...it speaks to a life of victory,a life where I am not focussing on me and the mud that lies beneath.
It really should not be a surprise,earlier in the verse it always says that if these things are in us....and abound,we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.In John 15 :5 Jesus says "I am the vine,ye are the branches:He that abideth in me ,and I in him,that same bringeth forth much fruit".( yes I just quoted from the KJV) What Peter outlines as the 7 habits of highly effective Christians,the requirements for being fruitful,are also an indicator of abiding in Him.
In that same verse in John Jesus goes on to say that apart from Him we can do nothing. Apart from Him we will stumble,everytime we turn and fix are gaze on something or someone other than Jesus we will stumble. Somehow that changes the game,associating my stumbling not with human weakness but with my failure to abide in Him.
We ARE a new creation,the old man IS dead...at times I found this hard to reconcile with my...mm mm mm struggles forgetting that I can't walk this walk without Jesus,that any time my focus is not on Jesus I end up in the mud.
This is the generation of "follow us on Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,Pinterest..." and as a result following has become a passive activity,one click and you are following.After that there is nothing to do but wait for something to pop up.Jesus does not ask for or need such followers ,He needs followers who are willing to blister their feet in the following,go hungry in the following,lose friends in the following.Followers who will not just follow but abide in Him
Dear Lord,
Teach me to abide,to never settle for being in the crowd of those who have heard about Jesus or even seen His miracles.I want to lay my head on your bossom,totally at peace as Faith the beloved...to sit at your feet not thinking of a dish or pot,totally mesmorised by you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
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