Hebrews 7:25
If we look at life as static – or single events having no connection to another, then the eternal nature of who we are as human beings is neutralized.
If we look at life as dynamic – each event having a connecting thread to the other, weaving a tapestry that we cannot “see”, then the eternal nature of who we are, as human beings, becomes energized.
I use to tell my son, “nothing happens in a vacuum”. Everything we do impacts something else or some one else. The same is true with life-events, they do not happen in a vacuum. They take place on a continuum – an ever moving, ever growing series of life decisions that will not end until they end. No decision is final until it’s final. Oh, we can say “that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it”. But today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, we could change our mind. Or as Zig Ziglar says, and I paraphrase, have new information and make a new decision.
That’s where I am right now. Gathering new information and making new decisions. Realizing that no decision is final. No act is un-reversible. Nothing that’s done cannot be un-done in some sense.
As I take each step along this recovery process, I begin to understand how God is helping me and guiding me. Sunday is a good example.
My wife has been attending a certain church here in the Monroe, NC area for the past several weeks. Week before last, I went with her knowing that I need to be in worship. It was “okay” but nothing that pushed any buttons. Then again, I don’t really require buttons to be pushed, if that’s where she’s comfortable, that’s good for me.
But through the week, I began to feel like maybe we should “re-visit” one of the churches we had attended on Easter. It’s a huge church – but several of the people in our neighborhood attend, one of our new “friends” teaches a class there; and perhaps we should give it another look-see. So we went.
The experience there was pretty intense.
It was similar to what I felt like the first time I heard the Gospel. The songs that were song and the message that was given, seemed directed specifically to me. It was what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it! That doesn’t mean I had a “re-conversion” experience. It simply means that I sat there in awe of the Father, knowing that in his infinite love, he was saying to me, “I’ve been waiting – here, this is for you – I prepared it especially for you!”
The key to it all ---- Hebrews 7:25
"Consequently, Christ is able for all time, to save those who approach God through him,
since he always lives to make intercession for them."
In all of my stumbling, my rationalizing, my “but you don’t understand” theories, there was Christ – at the right hand to the Father interceding for me! As if to say:
“Father, there he goes again. He is struggling because he thinks his life should be free of pain and difficulty. That somehow because of what he does it must require some kind of special hedge. I want Norm to be stronger, to look to me for the strength he needs to sustain him, but he finds that difficult. Fortunately he is learning and today was a huge break through.”
Now let me go back…. yesterday, was just one more step on that journey. It wasn’t an experience that took place in a vacuum. It was a point on a continuum that marks my way on the journey.
Yes, I did have that professor who said, “the only way to remain a Christian is to remain a Christian”. Well, the remaining remains to be seen. But isn’t that what remaining is – remaining! And does that mean remaining without interruption?
As the pastor said in his introduction – he wasn’t sure why he was preaching on that passage in Hebrews or the attending passages; why God was leading him in that direction for that particular Sunday; but long before he knew it, God had this day planned.
Could have been for a thousand other folks – but I’m thinking it was for me.
Thank you Father!
If we look at life as static – or single events having no connection to another, then the eternal nature of who we are as human beings is neutralized.
If we look at life as dynamic – each event having a connecting thread to the other, weaving a tapestry that we cannot “see”, then the eternal nature of who we are, as human beings, becomes energized.
I use to tell my son, “nothing happens in a vacuum”. Everything we do impacts something else or some one else. The same is true with life-events, they do not happen in a vacuum. They take place on a continuum – an ever moving, ever growing series of life decisions that will not end until they end. No decision is final until it’s final. Oh, we can say “that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it”. But today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, we could change our mind. Or as Zig Ziglar says, and I paraphrase, have new information and make a new decision.
That’s where I am right now. Gathering new information and making new decisions. Realizing that no decision is final. No act is un-reversible. Nothing that’s done cannot be un-done in some sense.
As I take each step along this recovery process, I begin to understand how God is helping me and guiding me. Sunday is a good example.
My wife has been attending a certain church here in the Monroe, NC area for the past several weeks. Week before last, I went with her knowing that I need to be in worship. It was “okay” but nothing that pushed any buttons. Then again, I don’t really require buttons to be pushed, if that’s where she’s comfortable, that’s good for me.
But through the week, I began to feel like maybe we should “re-visit” one of the churches we had attended on Easter. It’s a huge church – but several of the people in our neighborhood attend, one of our new “friends” teaches a class there; and perhaps we should give it another look-see. So we went.
The experience there was pretty intense.
It was similar to what I felt like the first time I heard the Gospel. The songs that were song and the message that was given, seemed directed specifically to me. It was what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it! That doesn’t mean I had a “re-conversion” experience. It simply means that I sat there in awe of the Father, knowing that in his infinite love, he was saying to me, “I’ve been waiting – here, this is for you – I prepared it especially for you!”
The key to it all ---- Hebrews 7:25
"Consequently, Christ is able for all time, to save those who approach God through him,
since he always lives to make intercession for them."
In all of my stumbling, my rationalizing, my “but you don’t understand” theories, there was Christ – at the right hand to the Father interceding for me! As if to say:
“Father, there he goes again. He is struggling because he thinks his life should be free of pain and difficulty. That somehow because of what he does it must require some kind of special hedge. I want Norm to be stronger, to look to me for the strength he needs to sustain him, but he finds that difficult. Fortunately he is learning and today was a huge break through.”
Now let me go back…. yesterday, was just one more step on that journey. It wasn’t an experience that took place in a vacuum. It was a point on a continuum that marks my way on the journey.
Yes, I did have that professor who said, “the only way to remain a Christian is to remain a Christian”. Well, the remaining remains to be seen. But isn’t that what remaining is – remaining! And does that mean remaining without interruption?
As the pastor said in his introduction – he wasn’t sure why he was preaching on that passage in Hebrews or the attending passages; why God was leading him in that direction for that particular Sunday; but long before he knew it, God had this day planned.
Could have been for a thousand other folks – but I’m thinking it was for me.
Thank you Father!
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