Get Caught in the Act

During an early morning cruise in the “Radar” Red Outlander on I-70W in Maryland, somewhere ahead of us, we could see a bright flash of light. As we moved forward through the heavily signed, 55 mph speed limit, construction zone … we looked down at the speedometer with the confidence that we would not be “flashed” by the roadside camera. That Camera loves to shoot those pictures of your license plate, and deliver them to your doorstep with a $200.00(+) fine.

{There is one of the sad things about this planet; when you are doing right no one notices, no “flash” pictures are taken, no $200.00 reward is sent your way, and righteousness is left in anonymity.}How does this fit in this weeks diatribe? I guess we will have to wait to the end to find out.

Woe, what dream this morning! It was a culmination of my years of dealing with America's unruly but wonderful youth. Here is the “Quick Pic” of the dream: Sixty or so rambunctious teens of various ages, gender, nationality and social standing, leaning, sitting, slouching, etc.; all in one room. The room had two glass entrance doors on one wall, two blank side walls, and the wall opposite the doors had large windows to the outside world all along it. Through the glass entry doors peered faces that could have been used for “Far Side” models. Out side the windows on the opposite wall there was a muddy wrestling match between a giant and a midget that had mud slinging everywhere. The crowd of young people inside the room seemed to care less about anything but their 100db conversations.
I, apparently, was assigned the task to challenge these youth.

The call for “Please open your Bibles”, produced everything but Bibles (science fiction mags and novels, ratty clad lust novels, soiled covered books, splattered goo paged books, comic books, National Geographic Magazines, dictionaries, and books labeled “Bible” that contained a Hodge-podgy of anything but the Bible). AND Somehow the guest speaker (Me) … didn't even have a Bible. The time with the teens became a furious and chaotic search for a Bible so that we could “turn to Revelation 2(???).” (Never happened!)

Between the grotesque looking old folk peering through the doors, the weird muddy wrestling match outside, the unruly teens inside, and the frustrated screaming leader inside … I could stand no more. Time to wake up! Though I left the dream back in La-La Land, I did carry a desire for Revelation 2 with my arrival back into the land of the Living.

Some of you at this point are already worn out, but please hang on, here is where the dream of nonsense led me: Revelation 2:4 - “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy fist love.”

Many of us have heard this verse through the years and without knowing it may be subliminally shutting down. Most folks that I have discussed this verse with don't seem to pull the full passion that was delivered by the Holy Spirit. We will rarely step back to look at Jesus in this passage, who introduces Himself to the Church of Ephesis as the One who "holds (having and holding with grace and power to the point of being adorned with) the seven stars (Angelos - God Appointed Messengers of the Churches) in His right hand, and walks (with full responsibility, opportunity and fellowship) in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks" (the seven churches). WE DON'T GET IT!!!

DON'T GET WHAT?

In the midst of our tedious struggles to uphold our positions and posessions in the Church... with truth, purity and righteousness; in the midst of mistakenly trying to do the task that Jesus takes full responsibility for; we walk away from the One who brought us into this everlasting love relationship. We abandon the nurturing of the greatest love story in the universe, and spend our days in frustrating power struggles that DO NOTHING to help bring us closer to our First Love.

For God so loved the World … as He called us ... we met Him at the cross with our sin ...to find that He was there first ... loving us in spite of our sin ... to wash us from our sin … and in trusting His love, He brought us into an everlasting relationship with Him … so that He could actively love us and we could actively love Him ... for now and all eternity.  Wow!!!

When the entry way windows of our lives are filled with grotesque condemnatory peers, they should be able to catch a snap shot of us loving Jesus. When the mudslinging mismatched struggles of life wrestle their way into our field of vision, the participants should find us calmly and joyously courting our Saviour. When the chaotic crowds of diminutive listeners are engulfing us with their rebellious responses … oh, that they would “flash” find us on our knees in love and at peace with our God.

Revelation 2:4 inverted – “Nevertheless, I am fully excited for you, because with full abandon you have continued on in intimate courtship with your first and only Love, Jesus Christ!”

HLFA,

Jeff

Live openly and joyfully in love with Jesus!