Of late it seems an insatiable desire has developed within me to write, to record my thoughts and life experiences.
Coming from a blue collar family, as a first generation college kid, I frankly had few spiritual mentors beyond those who meant well with their focus on religuous morals and vocational work ethics. The latter I picked up well, the former took an epiphany at age twenty-five.
As I now daily read through the scriptures, one single line will often grab my ever churning mind, often moving me deep in my spirit. When that happens, I dump my thoughts on paper!
This morning it was Nehemiah 3:5b KJV and the words, "but their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord." The remaining majority of the chapter is simply a journal of "who did what" on rebuilding the wall.
My recent shift from the NIV, back to my now 40 something year old KJV was an attempt at discovering personal growth by way of contrasting verses underlined and marginal notes with my current understanding in the faith.
Now well into my annual read, I will every once in a while note as with this morning, that words without any previous indication of significance will jump out, speaking to my current life's window. That's the mystery of the text.
Apparently there were folk even in Nehemiah's day that were unwilling to stick their necks out, putting their "hands to the plow," desiring rather a more comfortable Gospel, "only three dollars worth of God", as Wilber Rees writes:
“I would like to buy $3 worth of God please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 dollars worth of God please.”
That has never been my heart, but rather like George Bernard Shaw, "I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live."
The more I look at this journey from Moses (assuming he wrote Genesis) to the 2020's, it seems that this "Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" thing, that Jesus spoke of might just have depended on the few over time, the more noble than I, who were willing to put their necks, even their fortunes on the line!
Not to distract from my point, but after this read perhaps see: https://www.gospelpatrons.org/video-series/called-to-business/12
As I wrote in an earlier blog, it's seems about every 500 years, that
God is able to move the needle somewhat in this divine plan to fully unveil the Kingdom on Earth. (see earlier post: A New Language for An Ever Expanding Revelation)
Now some 500 plus years since Luther's Reformation, I can finally see a glimpse of movement in my lifetime, though moreso in the marketplace than the 380,000 U.S. of A. church campuses. Likely another both/and, as many churches are now awakening!
Five hundred years is not as long as you think, it's just that our lives are more brief than we comprehend. "A thousand years is but a day," II Peter 3:8. So, do the math: 500 years is really only 12 hours! This thing is moving faster than we think, so do your part. Jump back on the wall, stick your neck out while your candle still burns!
Life is good once you find your sweet spot!
תגובות