Just a few quick thoughts. I need to go to sleep. 2 longs days back to back isn't good for my health! Well, I have just been challenged today, thinking about all the things that make up the nature and existence of the thing that is Christianity. It's interesting how our minds tend to develop and categorize our experiences by the things we perceive, and when someone says the word, "home", a particular image and/or taste or smell comes flooding into our minds. Likewise, when someone says the word, "Christianity", something comes into the front of our mind, and our ability to think about the realities behind the entity is severely hampered by this picture/experience we have, these memories and cliches that crowd our view.
So, what is Christianity. Who is the 'Man behind the curtain..."? Is it all show, lights and smoke and hidden microphones? Is our sacred text, the Bible, just another book? We who call ourselves, 'little Christs', what does that mean to us?
I have been plagued all of my life by a search for what I call, 'the real'. It nags at the corners and backs and sides of my consciousness, always alerting me, "this isn't real, these thoughts you're having; you are missing the whole point...think deeper...dig more. THINK!" The shadow-lands in which we live, the dim veil we call the universe: it grates against my new nature like fingernails on a chalkboard. I want to really see, to really be alive, to actually understand...oh, just EVERYTHING!
WHO IS CHRIST? Is He the 20 minutes I "should have spent reading the Bible?" Is He the "weekend camp I went to and had a great experience there?" Is He the "Romans road?" Who is He? What has He done, and where is He now? And what in the world is He talking about in the 4 Gospels? He is certifiable if He wasn't telling the absolute truth!
I have to deal with Jesus the Christ, the firstborn from among the dead, the Voice who spoke you and I and the Milky Way galaxy. He has said quite a bit, and told us a little of it, more than we can handle, really.
Do you live, knowing that you haven't yet begun to actually be truly alive? I feel that fact every moment, and the ache of not knowing Christ as I am fully known sometimes threatens to crush me. Yet that pain is a stepping stone. It doesn't lay me low; it pushes the crook of my knees just past the point where they can keep me standing and makes me bow; the pain rouses me from my slumber and says, "Awake, o sleeper, your redemption draweth near!" And I leap and look to the clouds and say, 'Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!'
Do you look forward to His appearing? Or do you dread it? Does the thought of bowing your knee to Him gladden or harden your heart?
Seek Him while He may yet be found! He came in a food trough. He touched lepers and ate with tax collectors; this is the One who healed on the Sabbath, whipped the temple corrupters, the One who came to divide; He is the One who told the seas to shut up with hardly a word. (He spoke the waters into existence; of course they would listen to Him. They have more sense than we do.)
Do you know Christ and the One who sent Him? I hope you do, because Jesus said that this is eternal life, "That they may know You, and Jesus whom You have sent..." That's it; that you know Him. So doesn't it make sense to throw our whole beings into knowing Him? Don't you want to know the REAL Him. You can start right now. Cry out to Him, not with emotions, but with truth primarily. Speak truth to yourself from God's revealed Word. Listening to yourself usually leads to living in the flesh. But speaking God's truth to your heart (reading it, praying it, obeying it) brings it under the guidance of the Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment