"Don't think that I have come to make life cozy. I've come to cut--make a sharp knife cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law---cut through those cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father and mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me. "If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." -Jesus (Matt 10:34-39) MSG
I'm strapping on my gloves to pound out this selfish, prideful, flesh...
How often do I think of Jesus as an "ASS KICKER"?{Please excuse the language, but it seemed needed for the impact.} The answer: Not Often.When I'm feeling desperate, defeated, wounded, without hope, tempted, destroyed... I seldom remember that the One I follow, came to open a can.. and FIGHT. "Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Whose the Baddest of them All?" We wouldn't typically answer: JESUS. Oh, but the past few days, He is showing me that He is...
I see from reading Matt. 10 that Jesus did not come to make peace. He came to MAKE WAR!
He came to mess up our worlds.
Our complacency.
Our comfortable ruts.
Or worse, our comfortable SINS.
He came to kick selfish, prideful thinking in the face.
He came to destroy lust that entangles us so easily and traps us in a deep dungeon.
He came to VIOLENTLY clean out the garbage that stinks up our lives.
AND, here's the kicker. He challenges us to MAKE WAR too.
To go ALL the way.
To bare everything for Him.
To go AGAINST our flesh, and find our true selves.
To strap on our gloves and FIGHT for our lives.
I had coffee with a couple of friends earlier this week. As always, sitting down with a cup of coffee and these 2 ladies, I come away with an insightful lesson. The teaching Tuesday morning was on Jesus cleansing the temple: Our Cowboy, Jesus, threw Himself together a few whips and busted up the place. He pushed over some tables, whooped up on some people, and took names later. {well, He probably already knew the names.} He not only did this once, He did it twice. The gospels tell us, He enters His ministry kicking tail, and He leaves kicking tail. I bet every time He went by the temple He did some VIOLENT cleansing. He did not destroy the temple itself, He just VIOLENTLY drove out what did not belong there. As my friend was being drawn to this scripture and given a fresh revelation on it, she became disgustingly ill with the stomach virus. For two days every pore and hole in her body was violently disposing of the harmful agent that did NOT belong there. Her insight:: God even made our physical bodies to respond as Jesus did to the virus in the Temple.
So here's the deal:
I see from reading Matt. 10 that Jesus did not come to make peace. He came to MAKE WAR!
He came to mess up our worlds.
Our complacency.
Our comfortable ruts.
Or worse, our comfortable SINS.
He came to kick selfish, prideful thinking in the face.
He came to destroy lust that entangles us so easily and traps us in a deep dungeon.
He came to VIOLENTLY clean out the garbage that stinks up our lives.
AND, here's the kicker. He challenges us to MAKE WAR too.
To go ALL the way.
To bare everything for Him.
To go AGAINST our flesh, and find our true selves.
To strap on our gloves and FIGHT for our lives.
I had coffee with a couple of friends earlier this week. As always, sitting down with a cup of coffee and these 2 ladies, I come away with an insightful lesson. The teaching Tuesday morning was on Jesus cleansing the temple: Our Cowboy, Jesus, threw Himself together a few whips and busted up the place. He pushed over some tables, whooped up on some people, and took names later. {well, He probably already knew the names.} He not only did this once, He did it twice. The gospels tell us, He enters His ministry kicking tail, and He leaves kicking tail. I bet every time He went by the temple He did some VIOLENT cleansing. He did not destroy the temple itself, He just VIOLENTLY drove out what did not belong there. As my friend was being drawn to this scripture and given a fresh revelation on it, she became disgustingly ill with the stomach virus. For two days every pore and hole in her body was violently disposing of the harmful agent that did NOT belong there. Her insight:: God even made our physical bodies to respond as Jesus did to the virus in the Temple.
So here's the deal:
In order for me to ever conquer my sinful flesh..
Step 1: I MUST MAKE WAR ON IT!!
No comments:
Post a Comment