Gotta Go For Now…

Some of you folks out there know me pretty well by now.

My handful of faithful readers are all too familiar with my periodical declarations of retirement from the blog-o-sphere.

It’s that time again.

There are many reasons for my making this decision, but the most important reason is that it is what the Lord wants.

There is only so much time in a day, saints.

Use it wisely.

I have come to see, more clearly than ever before, the inheirant dangers involved with the world wide web.

The problem that I have discovered is that while it has the capability to plug us into a global community, at the same time, it also has the power to divorce us from the immediate community around us.

For those of us who are married, or married with children at home, that immediate community starts right there.

Now, based on my experience, I’m going to throw a few things out there for consideration.

How much time do you spend on-line (outside of work)?

Are there other things that you should be doing?

Are there any relationships suffering because of the time you spend online?

Do you think that your spouse deserves a little (or a lot) more of your attention, time, and energy?

How about you kids?

How about your home?

How about your yard?

How about your neighbors?

How about your Job?

How about your friends?

How about your enemies?

Now to kind of tie in some things that Marie and I have been discussing, I want to give an example of the Lord ‘working out’ His desires through us.

It’s really pretty simple.

Because the Lord is the center, and not because I have ‘placed’ Him in the center, but because He IS the center, and while yes, I DO recognize that fact, that He is the center of my life…that He is my life and If I think He is not, I am only fooling myself….but because He IS the center of my life and He is in me, He also ’speaks’ to me.

This speaking is always connected to His love, His great and wonderful love.

While His love is most certainly directed at me, and while He does, indeed, continue to pour His love out to me in so many incredible ways, He is also pouring it out to others.

His heart is for me, but it is also for others.

Now, since He is in me, and because I am getting to know HIM more and more, I am understanding His heart more and more. I often feel what He feels, and even think what He thinks (to the best of my personal comprehension).

For so long, I had struggled with, ‘what is the will of God for my life?’

I lived in a world of confusion and distress, trying to discern His desires concerning my life.

I thank God for that season being over!!!

He wants me to love Him as He loved me first, and He wants me to love my neighbor as myself.

That is the overarching desire of Gods heart.

And the specifics of that?

That’s easy.

He wants me to be led of His Spirit and not of my flesh.

Simple.

Sure, we could get into all kinds of theological discussions as to ‘what that means’, but I would say to you that if you don’t know what that means, you need to go to Him and ask Him what that means.

Tell Him that you really want to know.

Tell Him that you are finally finished with your games and that you truly want to follow Him.

Don’t worry. He is good, and He is faithful.

We will walk, and we will stumble, but He will pick us up and we will walk again.

It’s okay.

We do not desire to stumble. We desire to walk.

Now getting back to the issue of community.

Marie was surprised with a response that I had given her about something she asked. She was surprised that I didn’t say “only God is the center, keep your eyes off of yourself and on Him” or something to that effect.

What if the Lord was, to you, the All and in All?

Would that change the way you understood His centrality?

It has mine, tremendously.

It means that ‘the least of these’ is Jesus Christ.

Really.

It means that my wife is Jesus Christ.

My children are Jesus Christ.

My neighbors are Jesus Christ.

My co-workers are Jesus Christ.

“Heresy!”

“Blasphemy!”

Go ahead, nail me up.

These things that I say did not originate in me.

I could quote you all the scriptures, but I’m not going to.

Well, as I type, I am getting the sense that my ‘work’ here, at least for now, is finished.

In this particular realm of existance ( as virtual as it may be), I have sowed the seeds and now it is time to move on.

I’ll be back for more journaling in the future and look forward to conversing with you all again soon.

Keep me in your prayers, as I will you in mine.

Never forget His broken Body and His shed blood.

This was for us.

He is wonderful, God bless you all.