I don't know about you ... But here is how we should work; while passing through this world our eyes are constantly scanning our surroundings. Our hope in scanning is threefold:
1. Is there any God moments ahead?
2. Is there a familiar soul with whom we can fellowship and encourage?
And/or
3. Is there something new to see and learn that renews my breath.
Nevertheless, even those committed to this journey with Jesus... Who have come to realize that there must be a constant, compassionate, forward movement to be fully alive ... Can and will be distracted because of incomplete disruptive events. What do I mean?
A windshield smash,
a stairwell fall,
an icy slip,
a blinding flash of uncontrolled power,
a debilitating pain,
an uncontrolled darkness,
an end of normal ... On and on ... And in that disruptive beginning our heart will cry out and our eyes may even fall earthward as we lose hope.
(I would hate to be chained to a walk in life that has my "soul shoulders" stooped, eyes gazing blankly with an unengaged anesthetized mind to the ground, and a fearful sullen heart that will only risk closed eyelids when looking Up).
God is here ... In this beginning ... While our faith has seemed to leave us as an untimely birth ... Still connected to our bloody placenta, choking in our own blood and birth fluids, filthy by contact with our surroundings of abandonment and none to comfort, wash or swaddle us ... Even then He says "Live".
I wasn't always alive ... (No I am no talking about the obvious - my water birth into this world) ... I had that evidence of forever presented to me in a way that made sense and I cried out for the "Second Birth" in Christ Jesus. Some of you understand what I have just stated ... Others may be still wrestling with this concept. Please bare your heart in this matter as I continue to open this moment to a glimmer of light that always shines for those who have opened their hearts to the matter of Faith in Christ.
Now ... There will always be a way that seems "right" unto a man, though the end of that way is absolute eternal separation. God's way, Jesus, leads to eternal life ... What is the other alternative?
Now ... "Now is the accepted time, today is the day of Salvation, If you hear his voice harden not your heart!" Why on earth would a man, who so desperately needs God, provoke Him by insisting that the death of God's own Son wasn't enough to satisfy the righteous mandates concerning the wages of sin?
Now ... There is One Way, and only One way that brings the declaration of justification from the lips of God. That declaration's power and authority was settled on the cruel cross of Jesus and signed, sealed and delivered by His Resurrection. That once for ALL payment brought the justification that covers, completely, the sins of men. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!
Aside from a false perception that everything will be ok ...
Without Him:
We are a destitute and shallow representation of life ...
We are a naked, bloody, aborted child ...
We are tossed cruelly into spiritual emptiness; still attached to the rotting placenta of our water birth that starts us on our perilous journey to death.
All we have earned, obtained and amassed will be left to others as our carcass, though potentially prepared in loving care ... Will be placed in box, the lid will be closed and our remains will be lowered into a cold dark hole where dust that once breathed will turn back into breathless dust.
Proof of our fallen-ness (which will be with us in spite of the miracle of salvation) is "that tendency" for every one of us to fail, fall, curse and blame even though ... We are His. The greatest gift that God has given us in the midst of our "Meltdown Moments" is Jesus, and in Him is found the security of His "New Covenant by His Blood" with us that puts us under the responsible covering of His wings ... Not only when we feel strong but in our moments of shameful exposure, undefended vulnerability, provocative indecency, and improper behavior that leaves us naked in our willful self sufficiency.
Read through Ezekiel 16 -- it is a long passage -- if you can bear with the crushing mirror images of Israel and our potential personal rebellion as the Church ... And in the end we will see "where sin abounds, Grace does much more abound." Here is a pivotal verse to keep in our hearts...
Ezekiel 16:8 - "Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine."
Look deep into this -- God, in His unapproachable holiness, had all the right to pass us by ... But He looked upon us in our breach and decided for our eternal good ... It was our time of His Love; He spread His wings over us, covering our undefended shameful exposure: He adjured us and Covenanted with us and we became His.
Amazing Love! how can it be... that Thou, my God, wouldst die for me?
HLFA,
Jeff