So stop letting your hands go slack, and get some energy in your sagging knees! Make straight paths for your feet. If you're lame, make sure you get healed instead of being out out of joint. Follow after peace with everyone, and the holiness which is necessary before you can see the Lord. Take good care that nobody lacks God's grace; don't let any 'root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble', defiling many people. No one must be immoral or worldly-minded, like Esau: he sold his birthright for a single meal! You know, don't you, that later on when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected. There was no way he could change either his mind or Isaac's (literally, he did not find a place of repentance), even though he wept bitterly in trying to do so.
This verse alongside 6v4-8 and 10v26-31 coupled with Jesus statement regarding the unforgivable sin, blaspheming the Holy Spirit hold me firmly in fear of the Lord our God. What does falling from grace look like? Let's just take our central hope: Jesus. That is to say God's New Creation has been birthed in and through Jesus by the power of resurrection, that the separation between Creator and Creation, God and man, heaven and earth has been taken away. This new reality is breaking into the midst of the old, consuming it by the fire of the Holy Spirit and everyone is invited to participate by the blood of the Lamb which purchased eternal forgiveness and reconciliation. This new world is always forward looking, self-giving love is the "dynamic currency" within this eternal kingdom. This kingdom will one day cover creation as the waters cover the sea then God who is self-giving love will be all and in all. If you've been born again into the royal priesthood by water and spirit then this is your eternal inheritance, the glory of God himself, grace fully manifest, the very face of God which we have seen in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Falling from grace...lose the hope, character infestation and degradation, endurance crumbles and spiritual weakness overcomes, leading to pain in suffering and looking for the easy way for temporary relief, start trusting (having faith) in the parody or the idol over and above the true and living God.
We have some magnificent promises and a faithful God, but let us not be so bold as to test the Lord our God. If there is something spiritually wrong in us seek the Lord's council and accountability with brothers or sisters that we trust and find healing through confession and repentance, if we need to be reconciled to someone, go to that person. Lack of shalom between us and others results in lack of shalom between us and God and it is a slippery slope. It may be hard and it will most of the time be very uncomfortable, but when you come to the Father through the Son with such issues you can be sure to find mercy in time of need. Just don't sell out for anything less than the real thing because it can not only take you out, but many others can get dragged down too...everything in God's world is interdependent.
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
Reading for today... Isaiah 35...be blessed and a blessing!
No comments:
Post a Comment