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Released from comfort
God in His infinite wisdom always knows what’s best for us even when our own concept seems more pleasing. We try to find comfort in the world and what is yet more damaging to our person is we would like to believe that the call of God delivers that ease of life. The comfort that God offers us in Jesus is the forgiveness of sin and relationship unto eternity. This is Spiritual comfort in the love of God. But Jesus healed our bodies and cast out demons when He was here you say. Wholeness is still the focus of God for His people but this to remove the obstacles that deter us from choosing to serve Him. “Where are the nine?” refers to those healed who did not follow and what of all those that He fed miraculously; did they all follow? Jesus acted out of an abiding love giving us choice to follow Him. What we to often seek is the material comforts to please our flesh and many have confused the two; from pleasing God to pleasing our selfish flesh. God did not come to please our selfish flesh. The Kingdom we receive now is within us, it is not external in this world. You get the same comforts Christ was given… the defilement, the tortures and the betrayal. “If they hate me they shall hate you” Did we ever stop and consider why they don’t hate us as much as they hated Him yet? Well stay tuned its coming. The question is, are we in any way ready for it? God called us to follow Jesus right to the cross. Remember “pick up your cross daily” yet we sometimes feel like failures when things are going wrong in our life. Where is God? When adversity is on every side we loose sight of God and our lack of faith causes us to question His presence. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. Our problem is a selfish concept of our calling. When Jesus is baptized we hear God say “This is my son in whom I am well pleased” the Holy Spirit descends upon Him and… now is there a Parade, a celebration, do throngs of people gather, is there a small party with friends or a crowed of well wishers, what does God the pleased and loving Father do? Jesus is led out into the desert to fast and pray for forty days and tempted by Satan himself. And please remember He was alone out there in the heat of the day and the cold of the night. He slept on the ground in the wilds His prayer disrupted by the taunting Devil. This was no comfort station and this was just how He started. The mission of God for His very own Son is one of sacrifice. Jesus at this point has left the comforts of the world to serve and there is no rest in the world from this point on. How comforting was it that He was so exhausted He slept in a boat tossed about in a storm. “The foxes have holes and the birds have nests but the Son of man has no place to rest His head” was the comment to someone that asked to follow. Is this a pleasing picture of comfort? Why do we think the call has changed? “My food is to be about the work of my father” when asked if He was hungry. When do we fast? Jesus puts fasting in the perspective of daily sacrifice of His service not fasting when and if you feel like it or that we may never have to fast. The result of all His loving labor was to be betrayed and tortured and killed. And His call to us is to “follow me” Why do we presume comfort is our lot in Jesus? Because we are to count it all for joy with our faith in the resurrection… here in Jesus and here alone is our rest… in Him eternally. If our faith is not in the resurrection then we will seek our comfort now. We don’t trust you God to deliver us to the Kingdom of eternity so we would like to have our comfort now, is the cry of most. We want and pray for wealth and those gathering it say look what God has done for me. We don’t pray to be delivered from temptation, we invite it and when it lures us we falsely proclaim “Look what God has done for me!” We insight and promote the flesh in others to seek the same… to seek and lust after the world. What’s wrong with that? We are ready to defend our desire for comfort more then we are ready to die for Jesus. No one wants to die for Jesus even though this is our calling but we are ever ready to live for Him in comfort. Stop and think; if just a small percentage were to abandon their lives to live for, proclaim and love like Jesus what would happen? As it is evil is gaining a stronger foot hold in every part of our lives. Where is the Church? They have taken pray from school and education is floundering. Barbed wire surrounding schools armed guards at the doors and in the halls. Even with weapon checks and drug checks and precautions of every kind, there is violence in spite of it all. We have never seen children killing children, teachers and administrators boldly with cold calculated indifference yet it dominates our headlines today. Don’t mention God or Jesus when He is needed more then ever. Where is the Church? The church is on the defense in every area; the Ten Commandments have become a crime to display; crosses or symbols that have adorned logos and public places for generations are being removed. It is almost unbelievable that it even unacceptable to say “Merry Christmas” Because of our laxity in obedience we are being
released from our comfort. All this and abortion continues by the thousands, war rages around the world, terrorists threaten from without and within, famine continues to grow, drought, hurricanes, fires, tsunami’s, volcano’s world destruction everywhere. New disease, pestilence, plagues both natural and man made continue to threaten. Aides still killing millions and leaving behind over 18 million orphans in Africa alone. Where is the church… well in between bouts here and there they come back to rest in the comfort and safety of their homes. The problems being so overwhelming we come to our false security to indulge ourselves and distract ourselves from the real issues at hand and watch a good sports game or movie or our favorite TV shows. Can we see what God is allowing? Gently shaken from comfort now will be followed by
a rude awaking when like so many who already have lost homes and jobs
because of it, are rethinking their values. What will it take to awaken
the church that is fighting so hard to hold on the comforts of the world
without an effort to recognize its call to serve sacrificially,
selflessly and to persist in the labors of love enduring until the end?
God is allowing all these things to buffet us to release us from our comforts. The question is will we finally awake and “Pick up our cross” or will we just fight that much harder to gain back and attempt to preserve what we had or even try to gain more of the world… the final act of deception for our fleshly lust followed by seducing spirits The end draws near will Jesus find your faith in Him or faith in the world?
Jesus Christ’s Community at Hebron www.jesuschrists.com |
