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I bid thee farewell, Xanga.
But this does not go without a hello elsewhere.
http://www.homeisheaven.net
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| As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Matthew 4:18-20
The call to follow Christ is tied with the departure from a previous way of things. Simon and Peter left their stable source of income, their calculable way of life, their previous identifications, their rational securities and followed Jesus. The road ahead became uncertain and unplanned; all they knew is to adhere to Christ, wherever He takes them.
I reflected upon this passage and wondered, if I were Peter or Andrew, how much am I still holding on to even at this stage in my walk with Christ? I am probably still dragging along my net or some fish for the journey, just in case I need a fallback plan. The truth is, Jesus would not be pleased with that type of following. What Jesus expected from his invitation to follow Him was absolute trust in Him and complete obedience thereafterwards. There was and is nothing else you need.
Peter and Andrew's decision was immediate. What they did in, what seemed like five minutes, I am still trying to do after eight years. God give us grace to surrender it all.
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"We can visualize him at 5 in the morning in his room over Harris's bookstore. He is on his knees with his Bible, his Greek Testament, and a volume of Matthew Henry spread out before him. With intense concentration he reads a portion in English, studies its words and tenses in the Greek, and then considers Matthew Henry's exposition of the whole. Finally comes his unique practice of 'praying over every line and every word' in both the English and the Greek, feasting his mind and his heart upon it till its essential meaning has become his very person."
from George Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century
George Whitefield's model of how he did his quiet time blessed my heart so much after I had tried it. Not so much the part about the Greek Testament, but the part concerning praying over every line and every word. The method is ripe for spiritual growth and the growing richness of the word of God upon the human heart.
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"Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also."
Matthew 5:39
"We're not in ******* China," she said, angrily as she took her medications. She was obviously making a racist remark at me after I was done handing her her medicine. I must've fumbled with a question she was asking me, but regardless, the damage was done. I started running through my head what I would say to her if she came back to the window. Something twice as offensive back. Perhaps I could conjure a racist remark myself, and in doing so, justify myself, and recover my pride.
Then I realized my fault and my sin. This is not the way Christ had taught us to act. He had taught us that when someone slaps you, you should turn the cheek. He was teaching what He would, in turn, do for us to show us the extent of His love. Even as the Holy One of God, he endured ridicule and insults in the process of going to the cross for us. I look back at the moment at work and am ashamed before God of what I did because Christ set us an example of how we should live.
The world needs to hear the message of the gospel! I must still learn to preach it, first, with my actions, and then with words.
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