I will share that lately I have been in a dry land, spiritually speaking. Walking with the Lord tends to have an ebb and flow, a waxing and wanning to it. One thing we don't usually pick up from reading scripture is the experience of time for those people we read about. We read and unconsciously think it's one thing after another for Moses, Abraham, Jesus, the apostles, etc. Or at least I do. But in most cases there is much time in between the lines. A lot of times, there are years there. Anyway, the point is, the reader sees one cool thing after another and may easily miss the day to day walking that is required, or even the troughs in between those great events.
So I have been in a trough myself, and that is okay. I've walked with God long enough to know that a dry land is a place to remain faithful, prayerful, scriputureful and so on, just like always, and I will come out of it. Usually it's a time of learning or even a testing. Not so much that God needs to test me to see what I will do, but I need to see what I will do. He already knows.
Yesterday at work, was a typical day of working- mowing, edging, pressure cleaning etc in the hot sun. All day I was thinking on my dry land experience I've had for weeks now, wondering when I would come out of it, just why I was in it and how it would be nice to have a word from the Lord. Just a little something to "feel" He is with me. I "know" He is, because He has promised in His word to never leave me or forsake me, but sometimes one can't help but feel alone. Faith is not feeling. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Spend some time thinking on that. Interesting stuff. I guess really what I wanted was to hear from Him to know that in this time, I am doing well in keeping faith, and praying, praise etc. Am I walking alright in this desert place? The day went by and the work toiled on. No word, no "feeling", no well done My son, nothing. Just a sense of owell, and I will continue to walk and take things as they come. This will end sometime.
I was wiped and driving home, not thinking of anything. By then my mind was toast, and I was focused on maintaining driving in between my lane lines.
The word came-
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."
(interestingly, this is part of the lyrics of the song I posted last time)
Jesus is speaking about Himself and anyone else who would have opportunity to die for a friend. I've known that but this time the friend part got me. He calls me His friend, a couple times in those verses in fact. Jesus the Man, though sinless through perfect obediance, but still a man in the flesh sees me as His friend, then dies for me shortly after these verses. Whoa. I have always looked at it as God, the Almighty, in Jesus, dying for my sins. That is cool in itself no doubt. But in my head it was like God= way up here, Josh= down there somewhere in the mist. Thanks God for my salvation it is wonderful, but you are still unattainable as you are GOD; way up there and I am down here...
Well, "friend" to me means- with me, my contemporary, on the same level... out there working with me on the grass, out there playing ball, out on the battlefield, etc. That is pretty cool. Jesus the man, perfectly obedient even to death on a cross, and therefore sinless, is my friend. And He died for me, as such. I thought about my earthly friends here and now- Tom, Bryan, Brandon, guys back home in Florida. What if it were they, dying for me. I would be so taken by it and forever grateful. What a thing do for your friend. That is love for sure. And this, God Himself did, for me and calls me His friend.
I don't know if I conveyed the weight of my revelation yesterday, but it was a wow moment for me. To say a light bulb went off isn't enough. It was a whole new understanding of the Gospel and even the thing we call the Trinity. Jesus has been my Lord and Savior for 8 years. He is my Captain and King, and He is my "friend."
Well, we will see if my dry land experience is over. That was a pearl yesterday, a drink of cold water for sure. And well worth the weeks of dryness even if they continue. That is how this walk goes. You come to a basic understanding of the Gospel to a point of acceptance and salvation. From there the walk is long, often difficult, and narrow but a nugget is given here and there. A new understanding of the fullness of the Gospel.
"Whom will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little."
No comments:
Post a Comment