Category Archive

Oh, how we have insulated ourselves from the lost and wandering children of God. What do our hearts feel toward those who are seeking to enter but are not able, those who do not know that striving to enter is encouraged by Christ (Luke 13:23-25)?

What should we feel toward a world filled with injustice and deception? Are we allowed to govern our thoughts and emotions – to build a protective covering from the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain of others? Is that what our hard work has accomplished for us – separation, numbness, and blindness? Are we excused to desensitize ourselves?

Even a “strong house” (i.e., Matthew 7:24-25) without compassion is hollow and uninviting; and its doors are barred to anyone desperate enough to seek assistance. Are we willing to close our eyes and ears, our hearts and minds, to those people and conditions that Jesus died to redeem? Are we willing to refuse God’s heart and grace for those created in His image – even those who are His children and our brethren?

I dare say that any response constructed on an argument of condition or sufficiency is a deception of our carnal mind; responses like:

• I do not have time.
• I cannot help everyone.
• My company will not allow it.
• People do not want to hear it.

These and many more defenses are worthless in God’s kingdom, for at least three reasons:

1. Our sufficiency is from God and He is limitless;
2. These are responses of the head, not the heart; and,
3. He is our King, or He is not.

The starting point of our response to the lost and wandering must begin in our heart – the desire to do His will, and receive faith from His word. If we do not allow Him to search our hearts, we are refusing His grace. If we do not lean into His will – working out our own salvation with fear and trembling – we risk becoming branches that bear no fruit.

To wake up rested at 3:30am is a grace of God and an offering of time. To roll over for more sleep is a refusal of His grace. To subsequently change the alarm for even more time is a consequence of that refusal (i.e., my carnal mind now in control). The fact that I am more tired with two additional hours of sleep is the proof of my foolishness. I refused and missed the grace of God for sleep I did not need.

This is a wake-up call. Let us receive the grace God offers. Let Him search; let Him speak. Let Him continue to save us, putting off every sin and weight which so easily ensnares us, and running with endurance the race that is set before us.

May this encouragement, to whom God intends, haunt our souls unto surrender, for His will and doing.

Humbly yours and forever His,

Rob