Nothing like the first day of the month to start fresh! As you may have noticed the blog has lagged quite a bit of late. It has been noted that this blog is usually tied in with my preaching schedule and in fact the daily devotionals and many thoughts I share do indeed spring from my daily study in preparing messages to preach. I also like to provide devotionals that are related to the sermons I preach so that the congregation and others who listen online can delve more deeply into the things we cover from the Word of God.
However, since I have not been preaching lately I have not been studying for messages.....that and a very hectic work schedule have conspired to hamper my writing. I need to learn to blog apart from preaching if I am to continue blogging faithfully. And in the mean time I hope you are praying with me as we wait on the Lord for our next assignment in service to Him and His bride so that I may once again preach the Word regularly!
So, Lord willing, I will finish out this week with a few thoughts and then work back into our devotions on the spiritual armor starting next week.
For today, I want to share a quote I recently came across from Leonard Ravenhill. It is challenging and strikes at the very core of how we think about our relationship to the world around us. Ravenhill preached:
If I was to ask you tonight if you were saved, do you say, "Yes, I am saved?" When? "Oh, so and so preached, I got baptized, and ..." Are you saved? What are you saved from? Hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebellion against your parents? Come on - what are you saved from?
Look at Jesus. We see that there is no room for Him in the inn. He got a bit older, there was no room in His family. His family turned on Him. He went to the Temple, no room in the Temple, the Temple turned on Him. And when He died there was no room to bury Him. He died outside the city. Well why in God's name do you expect to be accepted everywhere?
How is it that the world couldn't get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me? Are we compromised? Have we no spiritual stature? Have we no righteouness that reflects on their corruption?
As Dr. Tozer used to say, "You knew one thing about a man that was carrying a cross out of the city. You knew he wasn't coming back." Is the world crucified to you tonight, or does it fascinate you? The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. I am embarrassed to be part of the church of Jesus Christ when she is totally, radically different from the New Testament, so impoverished, so blind, so powerless. The redeemed must be determined to be a part of the bride and to be part of the bride you've got to be divorced from everything in the world!
Are we busy trying to make room for ourselves in the world? Are we truly fascinated with the things this world has to offer to entertain and amuse us? Some have been asked if they want to go to heaven and they answer, "Yes. But not today." Perhaps that is what is wrong in so many of our lives. We are not citizens here. We are pilgrims passing through. And yet we have become infatuated with the world around us. We love this life more than we love Christ.
Today, at the start of this new month, let us look to see if we are trying to make room here, to be accepted here and esteemed here. If so, let us repent. Let us strive to store up treasures in heaven. Let us love Christ more than this life. More than this world. Let us love Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. This after all is the least we might do in service to Him.
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