"So I said, 'Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest,'" literally, "settle down." (Psalm 55:6)
It just doesn't work that way. You may, "fly away," but you will not, "be at rest." Life will "fly" after you. David was in big trouble. He was in hiding from Saul, and had been betrayed as to his location, but Saul was relentless.
September 11, 2001, showed pleasure-loving-seeking Americans just how relentless could be a nearly 4000 year-old culture, a culture which would later develop a religion to fit its ambition. September 11, 2001 showed Americans that its insular philosophy of life was very uneducated, naive (I want to say, stupid, sorry) vulnerable. Americans found out that its unparalleled military might, two vast oceans, a friendly English-speaking nation to the north, and a virtual third nation to our south does not constitute safety ("rest"?). As I told my children in the 1980s, "Some day the world will come home." That bright, sunny, September day in 2001---- it did.
The majority of Americans have learned nothing. They wring their hands, talk of war-weariness, but all the time the majority of the population is as David while his enemy was pursuing him, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest ('settle down')." There are millions who are saying to those Americans, "Too bad. We will keep coming until one of us is dead."
1 Peter 1:13 says, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and REST your hope fully ('perfectly, completely, without wavering') upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Strong's says that the phrase translated, "gird up," means, "brace up (with a view active exertion); a metaphor from girding of the flowing tunic, to prevent its hampering one in active work."
There is no rest in flying away. There is only rest in Jesus, as in, "Come to Me...and I will give you rest." Followers of Jesus around the world: Do not let the prevailing "cultural order" in your nation be your prevailing "cultural order." Read, study, meditate in the "God-Breathed" Word, "looking unto Jesus." This cannot be said too often, nor can I be reminded too much of this/Him. "....You will find rest..., only in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Himself is our Rest. Apart from Jesus, the term "rest" is nothing but emptiness, just has no definition.
When you and I so live, the "fly away" people just may ask us, "How can you do this?"
Father, in Jesus' Name, I can only "do this" in You. Thank You for Your Rest. Amen.
It just doesn't work that way. You may, "fly away," but you will not, "be at rest." Life will "fly" after you. David was in big trouble. He was in hiding from Saul, and had been betrayed as to his location, but Saul was relentless.
September 11, 2001, showed pleasure-loving-seeking Americans just how relentless could be a nearly 4000 year-old culture, a culture which would later develop a religion to fit its ambition. September 11, 2001 showed Americans that its insular philosophy of life was very uneducated, naive (I want to say, stupid, sorry) vulnerable. Americans found out that its unparalleled military might, two vast oceans, a friendly English-speaking nation to the north, and a virtual third nation to our south does not constitute safety ("rest"?). As I told my children in the 1980s, "Some day the world will come home." That bright, sunny, September day in 2001---- it did.
The majority of Americans have learned nothing. They wring their hands, talk of war-weariness, but all the time the majority of the population is as David while his enemy was pursuing him, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest ('settle down')." There are millions who are saying to those Americans, "Too bad. We will keep coming until one of us is dead."
1 Peter 1:13 says, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and REST your hope fully ('perfectly, completely, without wavering') upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Strong's says that the phrase translated, "gird up," means, "brace up (with a view active exertion); a metaphor from girding of the flowing tunic, to prevent its hampering one in active work."
There is no rest in flying away. There is only rest in Jesus, as in, "Come to Me...and I will give you rest." Followers of Jesus around the world: Do not let the prevailing "cultural order" in your nation be your prevailing "cultural order." Read, study, meditate in the "God-Breathed" Word, "looking unto Jesus." This cannot be said too often, nor can I be reminded too much of this/Him. "....You will find rest..., only in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Himself is our Rest. Apart from Jesus, the term "rest" is nothing but emptiness, just has no definition.
When you and I so live, the "fly away" people just may ask us, "How can you do this?"
Father, in Jesus' Name, I can only "do this" in You. Thank You for Your Rest. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day 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
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
