Okay, I've never claimed to be the "sharpest tool in the shed". If there were an award for "Christian of the year", I wouldn't be nominated for it. And if I were Catholic...well, saint-hood probably woundn't be the track I was fit for. If front-row-seats in Jesus' throne room were given out based on merit, then I don't know if I'd even be allowed to enter the room. True story... I say that not because I've started a practice of public self-degradation, but rather I say it because over the past several months I've truly been trying to lift the veil of my "Pastor" title and do a better job of personally embracing the ugliness of simply following Jesus.
In so doing, my marriage has improved, my ministry is growing in both numbers and enthusiasm, my preaching has become more relevant, my worship has become more passionate, my prayer life has become more "real", and my Bible study time has become more fruitful. Take this morning for example, I was studying a portion of the sermon on the mount, and I had a revelation about loving my enemies.
It had never really occurred to me before that when Jesus said "love your enemies" He meant it in a very 'active' manner. What I mean by that is simply that Jesus' instructions 'to love one's enemies' are recorded in a verb tense that calls for action. I had never really taken notice of that before. In the past my practice of loving my enemies had simply manifest itself in my decision "to not hate my enemies", but what was impressed upon my heart this morning was a new depth of teaching on this love.
Yep, it's pretty basic stuff...I had the revelation this morning that "not hating one's enemies" does not fully embody "loving one's enemies", and I couldn't be more excited about it. Oh, I'm not pretending that this new revelation is going to make loving my enemies easier. In fact, I'm quite sure that it will make it harder, but I'm still excited because it has made the plan of Jesus a little clearer in my mind.
So perhaps this post should be categorized in the "DUH!" department for many of you reading this, but I've taken off the veil. "And we, who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord's glory." (2 Cor. 3:18) With that in mind, I'm sure that God is going to be walking me through many more "DUH!" kinds of enlightenment experiences. I'll be sharing them with you in the future because I truly feel called to do so, and I'm not at all intimidated by those super-Christians and soon-to-be-saints who already have this stuff figured out. May God bless them, and may God bless all of the rest of us whose walk with Christ looks more like a limp or a crawl. At least we're limping and crawling toward Jesus.
Grace and Peace
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1 comment:
excellent!
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