Genie or Jesus?
The story is told of two of Canada’s First Nation peoples walking along a woodland trail next to a highway. Suddenly the calm and chirp and rustle of the woods is drowned by the roar of a passing sports car driven by a young European. Says one to the other, “White man know how to get to town, but he not know the way.”
God’s purpose in our lives is not so much that we attain destinations as it is that we be transformed by the travel. We need to experience the way… develop callous, taste raw honey, be quenched by the brook water and savour wild mint. We need to feel the calm, release our stress, take comfort in the chirp, and rustle, and slowly but surely see our Maker more clearly.
This past Sunday Elder Don Longworth outlined five essential truths one must visit “if,” as his message topic stated, “you really want to meet Jesus.”
If you really want to meet Jesus…
• Check your motives at the door: petition or person? (Genie or Jesus?)
• Have no entitled attitude: approach God in humility and reverence
• Find a genuine follower to teach you: actual or biographies.
• Press in: seek with desperation; the forceful take hold of the Kingdom of God.
• Throw away the box you made for him!
Are you journeying to Jesus because you want something from Him? Or do you seek simply to be with Him, to be engulfed and soaked through by Him? To give something to Him… to give Him yourself?
Yes we are encouraged to “come boldly” to His throne (Heb. 4:16), called to be “kings and priests” in His Kingdom (Rev. 1:6; 5:10), but we must steer far from arrogance. Though “we boast in the hope of the glory of God” we must ever remember it is His “grace in which we now stand” (Rom. 5:1). We approach Jesus in humility and reverence.
Paul urged Timothy “the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Tim. 2:2). We have a twofold duty: (i) to received guidance and encouragement and challenge from others whose faith we admire, and (ii) to be such a model ourselves to those newer to the path and cross of Christ.
Jesus said, “I am the Way…” (John 14:6).
Do you know the Way? – or are you just roaring around like a sports car?
More tomorrow…
To hear Elder Don’s complete message, go to the Lincoln Baptist Church website and look under ‘Sermons Online’ for the Oct. 6 message.
thebrokenrunner 
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