"Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.'" (John 4:34)
There is absolutely nothing of life which is not included in, "the will of Him," nothing. The Bible is very clear that Jesus did not just come to save man's soul. He came to convert man from living for himself to living for Our Heavenly Father, Who, "has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." If "born again" life is not this, it is not Biblical, "born again." Kingdom reality check--- "the will of Him," is not for ordering our daily schedule. It is, "to finish His work."
There is a dispute in a congregation in our area between the pastor and the church board. They have taken the dispute to a local court. A friend of ours suggested that I read an article in a local paper about the situation, and as I did, I took note of a comment of a member of that congregation. "I think it hasn't affected me at all....It's important to remember that this is a business aspect of the church, it's not spiritual." It is this compartmentalizing of life which allowed recent generations of church-goers to vote for presidents carrying Bibles out of church meetings, one even teaching a Southern Baptist Sunday School class, while also writing an anti-Semitic book, one who loved press photos of himself coming out of church meetings carrying his Bible, while concurrently carrying on an affair right in the White House, several who support the murder of the unborn, and all of them carrying out policies which weaken the State of Israel. Remember the popular comment, "Oh, it really doesn't matter what the president does in his private life, just as long as he is a good president"-- Translation: "Mr. President, just take care of me, and I will love you and vote for you. Christianity is only feel good stuff for me anyway."
The great battle of the Follower of Jesus Christ is to bring all of life under the Lordship, Control of Jesus Christ, not just going to the hospital and praying for the sick, but kindness to the check-out clerk, not just preaching and testifying in church meetings, but honesty in business dealings, not just loving my wife, but staying away from the woman across town. Why are so many religious people depressed, divorced, in prisons, voting and doing taxes just as the world? Their "food" is to live for themselves. Here it is, my friend, the key to life as the Blessed Trinity intended, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus; that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again.... Therefore,...anyone...in Christ...is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new"-----------------------------
"spiritual" and "business."
Father, in Jesus' Name, May it be!! Amen.
********************************************
Great new articles: www.apf327.blogspot.com
When an 18 year old Norwegian "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
