Woke up with this song playing in my head. I think it’s by Chris Tomlin. It goes …
Oh wait – I was asleep; that was just a dream! Now that I am really awake, what was that song I was thinking of in the
dream? Can’t remember!!! The chorus of “Only Jesus” (Matt Redman)
started playing in my head as I was trying to remember, crowding out any other
tune. Oh well …
Getting ready to go to church I was visiting, I thought of
Hebrews 12:1-2:
Hebrews 12 (KJV)
Wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of
our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Verse 1 includes the phrase, “let us
lay aside every weight.” I must confess
that when thinking about fasting, which comes up when thinking of Lenten
observances, my mind naturally seems to go to the possibility of weight
loss. While that is not the primary
purpose, it could be a benefit (to me, anyway) as it would allow me to more
easily “run” anywhere, especially “the race that is set before us.” And as for
the sin …
At the church service I attended this
morning, (during which the sermon, incidentally, included a message about
having a listening ear, a responsive
heart and accompanying actions when God is speaking to us, 1 Samuel 3:1-10) I clearly
heard God speaking to me again about His being everything (as the choir sung
the chorus from “Everything” by Tye Tribbett - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3X6qCogleU
included with another song near the beginning of the service – “You’re Everything
to Me”) and His wanting everything from me so He can be everything for and to
me (song near the end of the service, “He Wants It All” by forever Jones - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEcqTu52gZ4
– ohhhh … more conviction watching this video as the singer at the end encourages
a responsive singing of, “I give it all today, I give it all today, I give it
all”!)
Now I’m having to repent in thinking
about the sermon message, because I awakened early this morning and couldn’t go
right back to sleep. I thought of
getting up and doing my blog entry, but it was cold and I didn’t want to get
out of bed. So instead I read some
Scripture, sang a little and prayed before going back to sleep. Maybe that’s why when I got to the church there
were some things that bothered me a little.
Maybe it was in part because my spirit was not right because I had not
done the first things first. When I read
my God Calling devotional (twolisteners.org) after returning from the church, I
see I may have been better prepared had I read this part:
Seek this
time as a time of communion with Me -- not as a time to ask questions and have
them answered. And meet Me in Communion. It is soul-food that I have provided.
Do not expect a
perfect Church, but find in a church the means of coming very near to Me. That
alone matters, then the much, that is husk, falls away. Hold it of no account.
Grasp the truth and find Me -- the true Bread of Life. The lesson of the grain
is the lesson of My Church and Me. The real life is all that matters, the
outward Church is the husk; but the husk was necessary to present a life-grain
to men.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my
name,
there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20
Even the Oswald Chambers devotional, My Utmost for
His Highest (www.utmost.org), ended with a sentence that lets me know I didn’t
choose what was best:
As soon as we arise and obey,
we enter a higher plane of life.
LORD,
in the Name of Jesus, please forgive me.
Help me please to put off, give up, and renounce all of the weight and
sin which is hindering my progress in surrendering all to do Your will. I’m forever grateful for Your mercy towards
me …
… and my journey with
Him continues …
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