Skip to main content

Secret Space

I have always known, although with incomplete interpretation and, therefore, inconsistent application, that I must take all of the time necessary to abide in that unique space that is consecrated to my experience of the presence of the Lord. This is not a daily devotion or an organized time of prayer and Bible reading. That supports and empowers the other, but I am referring to something more or beyond that. This space of abiding is mostly of God’s choosing. It is my part to recognize his invitation and meet him. It is a space not a place or a time. It is the space within and around me when I am surrounded by God. The invitation may come on a rainy Saturday morning in my car, sitting in a park. It may come while I walk down a busy city street or a crowded mall. It may come during a worship service. It may come in times of seclusion brought on by sickness or recovery. This holy space is about abiding in Christ; he is in me and I am in him. He speaks to me and convicts me of sin, strengthening me to repent. He brings things that I have distorted into correct perspective. He comforts and encourages and infuses strength. In this holy space I am perfectly positioned to learn from the past, live in the present and look to the future; I receive the gifts of discernment and interpretation. I grow in wisdom, faith and hope. I can no longer be so presumptuous as to think that I may or may not enter this space whenever I choose. I will cease to Live if I do not allow Jesus to choose when I need to enter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Conversion or Devotion?

Can you imagine Jesus telling his disciples to get a divorce or abandon their children so they can can follow him?   Can you imagine your pastor preaching a sermon like that in an attempt to convince lukewarm Christians to surrender their lives to Jesus?   Of course not; that would immediately qualify Christianity as a cult wouldn’t it?   Every Christian understands that Jesus would never affirm that Christian conversion or discipleship implies abandoning your spouse and children, destroying your family, to follow him.   Why, then, do we Christians sometimes expect non-Christians to risk destroying their family to convert to Christianity or serve Christ faithfully?   Usually, we quote this scripture from Matthew 10: 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — 36 a...
3 comments
Read more

Outside In

" You too were included in Christ." This small phrase was written by an old man to a group of young people who were whole hearted yet recent believers in Jesus. The old man had lived through times of disorienting religious and cultural change. These changes had made it possible for someone like him to connect to this group of new believers. He eventually accepted the changes and was transformed by them, becoming a master of his time whose teaching became the basis of mentoring the new generation. Old men almost never talk like this. The sincere faith of these new believers meant that they were no longer outsiders to the Jesus movement because faith in Jesus is what created and sustained it, but they were very different than just about everybody else who was already inside the new Church. The older more established churches within the movement weren't quite sure what to make of these newcomers. The insiders stood back from them, watching, waiting, judging. As a ...
2 comments
Read more

Discipleship and Christianity

An excerpt from my newest book Community Based Discipleship: Discipleship has normally been thought of as an exclusively Christian word that is used to define what devout believers are expected to believe and do. This approach to discipleship has done a lot of good for millions and millions of people over the long centuries of Church history, but we should not assume that faithfully following one’s inherited or preferred version of Christianity is always the functional equivalent of being a disciple of Jesus. If we are not careful, our discipleship can be inappropriately molded by a longstanding Christian environment that has reduced discipleship from a transformative relationship with God in the person of Jesus into a manageable lifestyle that everyone understands and follows. We must also begin to wrestle with the jarringly counter-intuitive fact that people around the corner and around the world understand and use the words Christian or Christianity to convey a wide variet...
Post a Comment
Read more