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| Lay Down Your Heavy Burden |
Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?
― John 5:5-6, NKJVWe continue this week with the story of the sick man healed at the Pool of Bethesda. [John 5:1-15].
Disciplining is the Commissioning:
The great commission is commissioning for making disciples, but we have turned it on its head to achieve our own self glorying objectives. We are all about size, bigness, and number. We are fixated on quantity, not quality—membership rather than transformation. We have simply missed Christ, and we are all about blowing our own trumpets.
Instead of waking up to what is wrong, we are busy further digging ourselves in. We work tirelessly, trying to protect our own vain names and legacy while off track from the master's mandate. Not being able to prosper in the spirit, we are all about patching things up. Aiden Wilson Tozer, the American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor, rightly deciphers the situation. He wrote,
Instead of waking up to what is wrong, we are busy further digging ourselves in. We work tirelessly, trying to protect our own vain names and legacy while off track from the master's mandate. Not being able to prosper in the spirit, we are all about patching things up. Aiden Wilson Tozer, the American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor, rightly deciphers the situation. He wrote,
“Religion today is not transforming people; rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society’s own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender.” ― A.W. Tozer.
What a shame. Thanks, be to God; all is not lost yet. Christ's hands are ever extended out to us. He bids us come. He knocks at the door of our hearts if only we will let Him in. He wants to come in and have fellowship. He longs for koinonia. [Revelation 3:20] On our own, we can do nothing. Only in and with Him are we made whole and can begin to fulfill the purpose. [John 15:5]
Things That Follow Salvation:
There is more to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ than the mere salvation of our soul. His sacrifice also affords us a restoration, refreshing, renewal of our soul. [John 3:5, 8:32, 1:12, 10:10; Acts 3:19; Romans 12:2; James 1:21] He that the Son sets free is free indeed - Spirit, Soul, and Body. [John 8:36] Why are we focusing on one at the expense of the other.
None of our excuses hold water. They are simply baseless. I love the way C. S. Lewis puts it.
“Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies."We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. [Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3-4] God did not provide them to keep them there. He provided so we can lay claim, lay hold, and bring them into reality for use in this present life, on this side of eternity. It is not only the "Sweet By and By." I need God here, today, in the "Sweet, Now and Today."
He is not only the God of Heaven. He is the God of the Earth also. [Psalm 24:1]
© 2017 Akin Akinbodunse
Link to Study Series:
Choose Life (Part Fifty): Drink From the Waters (Part Five)
Choose Life (Part Fifty-Two): Drink From the Waters (Part Seven)
Link to Other Resources:
Unchanged Word of God (David Jeremiah)
Don't Tell Me There Ain't No God (Gary McDougall)
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