Blow Me Away PLEASE
FAITH'S ADVENTURE IS NEITHER SAFE NOR EASY Many hear His words. But only the few who do them are rewarded.
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IT’S THE NINTH INNING. Two outs. Bases loaded. Your team is behind by three runs. Believing it’s over, you schlep to the restroom and then return to the sound of fans cheering wildly over the grand slam that pushed your team to the win.
How often have we missed something spectacular? That something awesome that happened just after we drive away. Had we stuck around five more minutes, we would’ve been part of it.
And that’s just the temporal stuff of earth.
WHAT ABOUT the stuff of heaven that truly matters in relevance to eternity?
Dumbfounded, I’ve pondered how often the disciples “missed” the life-altering deeds and speeches Jesus performed right in front of them. And these guys lived with the Messiah practically 24/7.
ALWAYS EVERYWHERE. God is omnipresent. ALWAYS speaking. Always wooing. Constantly pouring out mercy. He hovers over earth’s darkness, eager for the moment one of His wayward followers comes to his senses and cries, “What the heck am I doing? Save me, Lord!”
AM I TUNED in and participating with Him, or is my spiritual hearing dull?
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VOILÀ! The epic statement of the ages:
WOMEN CAME to the tomb seeking Jesus’s battered corpse, and angels told them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is risen!” Two messengers in the flesh attested to the miracle. But when these women informed the other disciples:
“The story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.”
NO MANMADE BLUEPRINT OR MOLD COULD CONTAIN THE SON OF GOD
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CLEARLY we are the ones without sound minds (except when Holy Spirit inhabits us)
IF THOSE who walked intimately with Jesus hadn’t figured out much less suspected what was going on regarding Christ’s resurrection, then how could we ever assume our perception is any clearer?
WHAT MAKES me think my interpretation of what my eyes see today is equal to what God knows is going on in the spiritual realm?
INSTEAD OF FIRST asking Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts, why do our minds automatically zip down to man’s footnotes in our Bibles and presume therein lies the correct interpretation of the God-inspired Word? I’m not knocking it; I do it too. But why first?
A FEW DAYS after His resurrection, Jesus walked through a wall into the locked room where the emotional disciples were grieving and trying to make sense of what to do next. They freaked out at the sight of Him.
“And He said to them, ‘Why are you disturbed and troubled, and why do such doubts and questionings arise in your hearts?’”
YES, WHY??
IS GOD the great I AM or isn’t He? Is He not ALL powerful and the One in Whom ALL things consist and hold together?
AT WHAT POINT will we surrender our perceptions that come from “human understanding of spiritual things”? ⇐an oxymoron.
AM I searching for the living among the dead?
GOD’S WAYS AND THOUGHTS are so much higher than ours. His kingdom is nothing like our present day earth, yet most of us settle for less than we were destined for. I’m begging Him to blow me away with true knowledge from heaven, even if it disrupts my present, westernized thinking and makes me squirm.
JESUS SAID, “Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness” yet we spend mind-boggling amounts of energy and resources trying to fix our broken lives, pile up retirement funds, and stress ourselves out going after the next adrenaline high. But no earthly pursuit can ever fulfill our deepest needs, which are designed to be met solely in an intimate connection with a Living God.
NO IN BETWEEN. There’s only one way to get out of the rut and into the spiritual adventure. It’s all or none:
We are created for (His) good works according to His divine blow-your-mind purposes that our wildest imaginations cannot conceive.
JUDGING BY THE TRACES of God’s glory surrounding us—powerful oceans, living artwork (sunrise), mighty atoms and complex DNA—the believer’s reward in heaven will blow us away. And we control the accumulation of that treasure through our works* here on earth.
IF WE GIVE the supernatural Kingdom of God complete reign over our hearts, minds and strength, might we then begin to turn our upside down chaotic world right side up?
WHO’S IN?
The Way of the Embattled Spirit
*We are saved only by grace through faith, not by our works/deeds.
