Saturday, October 1, 2016

Do we live now FOR eternal life?

Php_2:12  … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

'God’s Word must lay bare more and more of our natural life so that the work of the cross can probe deeper and deeper. That is why the cross must be borne daily. To know more of God’s will and to know more of the self, furnishes the cross increased ground to operate.'  Excerpt from 'The Spiritual Man' Watchman Nee.

Can you imagine doing 'all' things without any murmuring (aloud and to yourself silently) and without any disputing whatsoever?  Seriously. Internal murmuring goes on all the time, doesn't it? We are filled with this murmuring and disputing- and I'm not talking about riot-like disputing, but all disputing down to the smallest of disputes. We live day to day with murmuring and disputing until it has become NORMAL, yet they are far from normal. 

The excerpt above speaks of our natural life being laid bare and I believe that the above verse- about doing ALL things without murmuring and disputing- is a huge revelation for us.  We need to recognize the natural man in us and that natural self LOVES to murmur and dispute- again- I'm NOT talking about being the loudest murmurer to exist or the biggest disputer of all time.  We focus on ourselves to such a degree that we are slighted not just by others- but by things that interfere with our "ME" time, things that mess up our plans (self-made plans or otherwise.). We go from day to day and make note of most of the tiny irritants that have affected our well-being.   And our 'well-being' is that state of being which we've predetermined gives us the ease of life we believe we deserve. We've had a lousy day when our well-being is disturbed. We've had an amazing day when we've had the least amount of things irritating us and upset our 'well-being'.  From one moment to the next we are in a state of 'well-being' or 'not quite so well-being'.  We have made our 'well-being' our criteria for our lives. THE FOCUS is on ourselves! 

How are you today?  How is your day going? Having a good day? All this reinforces our self-focus, doesn't it? How do you feel today?  How is life?  Focus on self.  Even when we are asking another these questions we are drawing their attention where? To themselves.  I'm not saying we aren't to be polite, I'm saying society has made it NORMAL for us to focus on our well-being.  SELF FOCUS.

We need the many ways we are self-focused exposed to us so we may pray for deliverance from them. 

Our murmuring and disputing will often have its roots in our natural self, our flesh nature and NOT the spirit.

Truly this DAILY cross we are to carry is our DAILY work towards exposing all that would keep us from Christ.

We are to live day to day IN CHRIST- never putting off our Christianity, never setting it aside for a while as we indulge ourselves in non-Christian behavior.

If HEAVEN and ETERNAL LIFE with Christ is our HOPE, our TRUE HOPE, then living for CHRIST now should be our REALITY!   If we only hope for an eternal life with Christ as some sort of reward for our existing, then we are going to be in for a shocking surprise. 

We've made eternal life an abstract thought, a back burner idea, something to tuck away and think about from time to time while we live our current life.  We don't truly believe that we are STRANGERS and PILGRIMS here on earth living for a better place, a better home.  We believe THIS is our home and we set about living our lives accordingly.  If we TRULY believed we were strangers and pilgrims here, would we do so much to live for here and so very little for our eternal life?

If people live for eternal life- shouldn't they be active disciples for eternal life? 

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!


No comments: