If you sit with people who sit at the feet of Jesus, you’ll quickly discover that the conservations are different, & you’ll leave feeling inspired not inferior. That’s because our Christian walk is a race, but it’s not a competition. And you’ll find that those whose focus is firmly on the Lord, and not themselves, will foster goodwill not rivalry. It tells us in Proverbs 13:20 that, “He who walks with the wise grows wise.” …the simple lesson from this being…we become like those whose company we keep. So if your walk with the Lord needs some bolstering, consider first who you’ve been hanging around with…and then, whose Christian walk you admire…and go sit with them for awhile.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
Psalm 19:1-4 ” The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
The invisible God is revealed through the visible medium of the sights & sounds of creation. We can observe the lightening, the giant redwood trees, or the ocean waves… and we can listen to the babbling brook, the wind in the trees, or the thunder in the distance and know they all are figuratively proclaiming God’s glory & power. It’s this Creation language that’s constantly declaring, pointing to, and proving God’s existence or as Romans 1:18-20 says, No man is without excuse of knowing God through Creation’s Message.
“Cheer up Christian! Things are not left to chance: no blind fate rules the world. God hath purposes, and those purposes are fulfilled. God hath plans, and those plans are wise, and never can be dislocated.” C. Spurgeon
With God there is no such things as luck, fate, karma, chance, or accident. Our Creator God is sovereign and totally in control, never leaving any missed detail, or needing to fly by the seat of His pants. As Jeremiah 32:19 tells us, “O great and powerful God, Whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are Your purposes and mighty are Your deeds.” God’s plans & purposes were written before the beginning of time…each goal, aim, and design divinely devised in order that His purposes will be obtained in perfect timing. And so we can trust & believe this…for as God Himself said in Isaiah 14:24, ” Surely, as I have planned, so it will be and as I have purposed, so it will stand.”
The Story of Two Gardens & Two Choices.
It tells us in Genesis that The Garden of Eden was a sanctuary where God invited Adam & Eve to enjoy fellowship & peace with Him. The garden itself filled like a banquet table with all good things to eat for the first Adam, created by God in His image…perfect, blameless, and holy. But then we see their choice to disobey and rebel against God’s Word. This original sin, or the Fall, not referring primarily to the first sin committed by Adam & Eve but to the result of that first sin – the corruption of the human race. In the Garden of Eden we see God’s great love for mankind…but we also see His great wrath as the earth is cursed & fellowship with Him is broken. Fast forward to The Garden of Gethsemane and we see what was started in the Garden of Eden fulfilled by Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane…the paradise lost by the first Adam is being restored forever by the last Adam. Again we see a perfect, blameless, and holy man, but when it came time to make a choice, Jesus chose to do the Will of His Heavenly Father…even though it cost Him dearly. The agony Jesus suffered in that garden He did willingly…fulfilling His destiny as the Savior of the world. His agony the basis of our Salvation…His triumph on the Cross our only way back to God. With the First Adam, hope was lost…but with the Last Adam, it was restored.
Ecclesiastes 1:14 ” I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Even with all of the God-given wisdom Solomon possessed, and a lifetime of pursuing worldly things in order to find peace & joy…he now calls it all empty, fleeting, or as here, meaningless. That life became futile when he sought earthly & secular things rather than seeking after God. The Hebrew phrase translated “under the sun” occurs 28 times in the Book of Ecclesiastes and refers to life in this world…a life that has been adversely affected by the Fall. Which essentially means, a world without God. (For God exists “above the sun, or in Heaven” or as Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, “God is in Heaven and you are on earth.”) And sadly, it’s “‘under the sun” where all of mankind experiences the frustrating & perplexing side of this life, a life full of elusive fulfillment & empty joy…all because God is left out of the picture.
Mark 1:16-17 ” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow Me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’
Simon Peter & Andrew were doing what they knew best how to do, and probably what their father had done before them, and his father before him. So when this stranger approached them and said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” they totally understood what He was saying. And nothing has changed…as Believers we too should be actively seeking after the lost by casting the net of the Good News of the Gospel Message wherever we go. But have we, the Church, become too comfortable in our cushy surroundings to the point that we’ve become “keepers of the aquarium” rather than fishers of men? Concerned more that the fish tank of the Church is neat & tidy rather than attempting to bring new fish in? Jesus met Simon Peter & Andrew where they were at and used their unique talents & expertise for the glory of God…and He wants to do the same with you today.
Romans 8:26-27 ” In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s Will.”
When that deep moan of pain, grief, or anguish escapes from our mouth because our world has been turned upside down, it’s better to have 1000 unspoken words of prayer in our hearts, than to have a long lengthy prayer with no heart involved. We constantly are made aware of our weaknesses in the area of prayer…especially in how to pray for ourselves in the face of things like a devastating & grave diagnosis, a fatal car accident of a family member, or the suicide of a close friend. We find ourselves at a loss with no words to pray. But this longing to somehow express that chaos & helplessness is really an indication that the Holy Spirit is already at work interceding in our hearts…making requests before our Heavenly Father that will most definitely be heard. And we can rest in that, assured that God’s Will be done in our life & the lives of others.
Hosea 10:13 ” But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and your many warriors…”
Instead of cultivating a fruitful & right relationship with God, Israel had planted, reaped, and eaten wickedness & dishonesty. This idea is repeated by Paul in his letter to the Galatians, “A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8) The bottom line is this…the one who purses godlessness & morally wrong behavior & actions will eventually be destroyed by it…period. But if we sow righteousness, truth, & goodness, we will most surely reap a lasting reward of great value…whether it’s material or Spiritual.
John 15:16 ” You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
In John 13:18 Jesus tells us that He has chosen us unto eternal Salvation, and that its outcome is our bearing fruit that abides. Thus our direction in Christian service to others as we, “bear fruit in every good work” (Colossians 1:10), is first and foremost evangelism, that results in eternal significance in people’s lives. But sharing the Gospel Message with others is only a part of God’s plan. For the proper perspective of this position as a servant of God is marching along in God’s Army, taking orders without question, and willing to do all grunt work necessary. But when we’re asked to do mundane or menial tasks that we feel are beneath us or aren’t exciting enough, we miss the chance to see some of God’s greatest accomplishments happen…simply because we’re too proud. Fruit that remains is good fruit that has grown slowly in the fertile soil of God’s ultimate plan & purpose for each one of us…watered carefully by the Master Gardener in both the mundane & the marvelous good works we do for our good and His glory.
I Peter 2:24 ” He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.”
The Cross…the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. But don’t mistake it for martyrdom, but instead, the supreme triumph over death & the grave, and the quaking of the very foundations of Hell. The Cross made it possible for us to be brought back into a right relationship with God – bridging the chasm between this broken world and our Heavenly Father. But no way is the Cross something that just happened to Jesus & that He had no control over – for His sole purpose coming to earth was to redeem us from Hell as our sin-bearer. But neither is the Cross the cross of man, rather it’s the Cross of God…and try as we might, we will never be fully able to comprehend its power this side of Heaven. Finally, the Cross is God’s manifested heart for Salvation…made easy to obtain because it cost Jesus so very much.
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