Waves Crashing

 

Conviction..... like the waves crashing...sweeps over my soul.  

Luk 10:41-42  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:  (42)  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

 

Have you ever been slammed with the deep conviction that only the Holy Spirit can bring?  The kind of conviction that hits you in the gut and almost doubles you over from knowing how wrong you are in the presence of a Holy God?  I encountered one of those today.  Conviction for being a hypocrite.  Conviction for being a Martha in a Mary moment.  Conviction for honoring God with my lips but where does my heart and my actions lie?  Conviction for not seeking for the one I claim to want with all of my heart.

My lips say that I want to see God move, my lips say, pour out your Spirit Father, let us reach you and touch you and worship you. My lips say from the first word to the last amen, let it be all about you.  Yet my actions…. I had a moment, so let me catch up the work in the office,  I had a moment so let me…. I have a moment so let me check my messages,  I have a moment so let me fix this.  I have a moment…  

What if, the Spirit spoke to my heart, when you have a moment and you spend it on the One you are seeking?  The One you say you want with all of your heart?  What if when you have a moment  you begin to prepare your heart?  What if when you have a moment  you set aside all the responsibility of the moment and just worship at my feet and learn of me?  What if you have a moment and instead of squandering it on stuff that will always be in front of you, you give it to me?  What if???  Would our service begin differently?  Would our hearts already be at a place of receiving from the Father?  Would our Worship already be on our lips?  What if?

What if we would choose to be a Mary in a Martha world. 

(and let’s not even talk about the challenge of the sermon & the conviction of checking where our eyes  are focused the discouragement or the promise? )

NOT ME

 

Been thinking about Jesus and His last days on earth and what that must have been like.  Did He know when He chose Judas that he would betray Him, and yet He chose Judas anyway?  The word says that He knows us before the foundation of time, so I believe that Jesus did know.  He was purposefully chosen to fulfill his role in history. 

What would it have been like to know that you came to be the Savior of the world, to shed the necessary blood for mankind’s sin once and for all because God so loved the World?  His path was not easy.  He was hated, He was used for His miracles, He was loved, He was pursued. He spoke truth that was not understood. He poured into His team to prepare them for what was coming.  He gave them warning, a play by play, yet they turned deafened ears and blinded eyes because it didn’t mesh with what they thought.  Not happening….

I peeked into the upper room at that Last Supper, where he broke that bread, and said “This is my body, He took the cup and told them this was His blood.  He told them He wouldn’t partake of the fruit of the vine until He was in the kingdom of God.  Yet before He broke that bread, He told them, one who is supping with me will betray Me.  Oh they were all sorrowful.  Not Me…

After they broke bread, he tells them ALL OF YOU will be MADE TO STUMBLE.  PETER said, “NOT ME.” “Though none go with you I WILL.  Peter was warned before the rooster crowed twice, HE WOULD DENY HIS BELOVED CHRIST three times.  NOT ME  said Peter.

They come to the garden.  Gethsemane.  Jesus said, “Sit here while I pray.”  “Stay here and watch, My soul is exceeding sorrowful.”  Jesus prayed. 

He found them sleeping and said to Peter, “Simon are you sleeping? Could you not watch and pray?”  then HE said something to them that I realize, He was as much sorrowful for what they were going to go through that they weren’t prepared for as He was for the heaviness of the sin of the world.  They were too busy being in denial, NOT ME, I could never forsake my beloved Savior.  NOT ME, I have walked with you.  I have talked with you.  I am strong in you, Jesus.  NOT ME.  He said again, could you not watch one hour?  HE said in  Mar 14:38  Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.  

Jesus knew they were weak.  Jesus knew they weren’t prepared.  Jesus KNEW what they were getting ready to walk through.  He knew even though they vowed total loyalty, which the spirit of man was willing, but the FLESH oh, our flesh, how weak it was.  NOT ME

 

I find myself thinking of today. HE IS COMING SOON! Jesus is warning.  The signs are there.  His Word tells us what to expect in the last days before His return.  Some of the phrases He says, “Many be offended” “Shall hate one another” “There shall be famines, and pestilences” You can read the list in Matt 24, in Mark 13.

He tells us there will be many false prophets.  That there would even be those that do miracles in His name, but aren’t His.   My heart is distressed at the thinking in our land that just because we live, that we go to heaven.  God’s WORD is clear, that you have to  Repent, and believe on the name of Jesus. 

 

I find myself asking, “Will we fall into the trap, NOT ME, it can’t happen to me, though none go with me, I will follow.”  I propose instead, we realize that if not for the Grace of God, there could go I and “Could we not watch and pray?”