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Those were the words spoken into my heart that fateful day fourteen years ago. It’s too long of a story to put down here right now, suffice it to say I was a dead man walking, going through the motions of sitting once again in my old institutional ‘place of worship.’
This is after having my coat of many colours stripped away from me and left naked and hung out to dry, or was that to die?
Many, many months prior to this particular morning, I told God I did NOT want to ever make any more irrational knee jerk impulsive choices to jump into any more fires, and that I would stay firmly fixed here until he said differently.
Little did I know that, that Sunday morning was going to be what has been said so well in a movie I saw, “Everything you’ve known, is about to change.”
The Father’s offer to me was vividly laid out to me and with this visual presentation he says, “You can stay and die, or go and live.”I was reflection on that turning point in my life and this jumped out to me today.
The children of Israel had barely left behind their former land of bondage, living in Egypt under the cruel hand of Pharaoh Lord of Egypt, when Pharaoh has a change of heart and continues to peruse these liberated slaves he once owned.
It is in this setting that the Israelites begin to freak out and say; then they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
As I was reflecting on this I sensed the Lord saying, ‘You’re darn right I did bring you out here in the wilderness to die.’
This could not be the Lord, in fact I remember Him asking me if I wanted to ‘stay and die,’ or ‘go and live,’ what’s with the dying part if I was going and not staying?
With this invasion of Life that happened in being reborn, it set into motion a whole new realm of struggles, and here is a comment from my friend Bill that speaks into this reality.
Rich
The Nature of the Struggle
In truth entering the Christian life is an entry into a series of struggles. The struggle that each child of God must confront is not what most Christians would imagine it to be. Our struggle is not with the physical world directly. We know this from Scripture: Ephesians 6:12. What most Christians would find surprising is that our struggle is not even primarily with Satan or demons. No, our most fundamental and long-standing struggles are with self.
This is after having my coat of many colours stripped away from me and left naked and hung out to dry, or was that to die?
Many, many months prior to this particular morning, I told God I did NOT want to ever make any more irrational knee jerk impulsive choices to jump into any more fires, and that I would stay firmly fixed here until he said differently.
Little did I know that, that Sunday morning was going to be what has been said so well in a movie I saw, “Everything you’ve known, is about to change.”
The Father’s offer to me was vividly laid out to me and with this visual presentation he says, “You can stay and die, or go and live.”I was reflection on that turning point in my life and this jumped out to me today.
The children of Israel had barely left behind their former land of bondage, living in Egypt under the cruel hand of Pharaoh Lord of Egypt, when Pharaoh has a change of heart and continues to peruse these liberated slaves he once owned.
It is in this setting that the Israelites begin to freak out and say; then they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
As I was reflecting on this I sensed the Lord saying, ‘You’re darn right I did bring you out here in the wilderness to die.’
This could not be the Lord, in fact I remember Him asking me if I wanted to ‘stay and die,’ or ‘go and live,’ what’s with the dying part if I was going and not staying?
With this invasion of Life that happened in being reborn, it set into motion a whole new realm of struggles, and here is a comment from my friend Bill that speaks into this reality.
Rich
The Nature of the Struggle
In truth entering the Christian life is an entry into a series of struggles. The struggle that each child of God must confront is not what most Christians would imagine it to be. Our struggle is not with the physical world directly. We know this from Scripture: Ephesians 6:12. What most Christians would find surprising is that our struggle is not even primarily with Satan or demons. No, our most fundamental and long-standing struggles are with self.
1 comment:
Rich,
Ah, very true. Good blog.
Right-on with that last sentence: "our most fundamental and long-standing struggles are with self."
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com
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