The Gospel of John begins with the words "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." in verse 4. Jesus often talked about life. In fact, Jesus said "I am the life". He said he would give life abundantly. For those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12,13). Real spiritual life begins with an act of God. Anything else is really death.
Jesus could do a lot as a human being. However, he could not rise from the grave with his human strength. He could not roll away the stone with his human strength. That took an act of God as well. Do you desire to move from death to life? I'm not necessarily talking about salvation here, I'm talking about moving into the real life that Jesus has promised.
I know for myself, I want to press further and deeper into the God-life. I want a deep, real relationship with Jesus. I want real life. I sometimes feel as if there is this giant wall between myself and God and I just can't break through. Today, I realized I can't break through and I never will be able to break through. It's not ever going to be by my effort, it's not the will of the flesh nor the will of man. How do I break through? I stop my striving and clawing and banging and I surrender. I ask God to roll away the stone. I admit that unless He moves me, I can't be moved.
We do many things to seek to grow closer to God and we expect those things to have a power they just don't have. Prayer doesn't allow us to break through to God, it puts us in the position where God can come to us. Does that make sense? Spiritual disciplines just put us where we need to be, at the foot of the mountain as it were. The path we must walk truly is narrow, just like Jesus said. On one side, we have a sheer cliff which drops off into sin and "freedom" where we think we don't have to follow God's standards because "He'll forgive us anyway". On the other side is a cliff which drops off into religious activity where we must perform or God won't like us. The path is where we understand the real value of the things we do like prayer and worship, etc. They are merely tools to put us into the place God can meet us. Don't put your faith in the things you do, put your faith in the one for whom you do them. These things won't sanctify us, they won't redeem us, they won't give us life but they will take us to Jesus, who is the life, who is our sanctifier, who is our redeemer. And he'll meet us and make sure we make it through.He will be our life and light. He will be our everything.
Do you want real life? Then don't settle for anything but Jesus himself.
Copyright © 2005 Greg Holl. All rights reserved.
Jesus could do a lot as a human being. However, he could not rise from the grave with his human strength. He could not roll away the stone with his human strength. That took an act of God as well. Do you desire to move from death to life? I'm not necessarily talking about salvation here, I'm talking about moving into the real life that Jesus has promised.
I know for myself, I want to press further and deeper into the God-life. I want a deep, real relationship with Jesus. I want real life. I sometimes feel as if there is this giant wall between myself and God and I just can't break through. Today, I realized I can't break through and I never will be able to break through. It's not ever going to be by my effort, it's not the will of the flesh nor the will of man. How do I break through? I stop my striving and clawing and banging and I surrender. I ask God to roll away the stone. I admit that unless He moves me, I can't be moved.
We do many things to seek to grow closer to God and we expect those things to have a power they just don't have. Prayer doesn't allow us to break through to God, it puts us in the position where God can come to us. Does that make sense? Spiritual disciplines just put us where we need to be, at the foot of the mountain as it were. The path we must walk truly is narrow, just like Jesus said. On one side, we have a sheer cliff which drops off into sin and "freedom" where we think we don't have to follow God's standards because "He'll forgive us anyway". On the other side is a cliff which drops off into religious activity where we must perform or God won't like us. The path is where we understand the real value of the things we do like prayer and worship, etc. They are merely tools to put us into the place God can meet us. Don't put your faith in the things you do, put your faith in the one for whom you do them. These things won't sanctify us, they won't redeem us, they won't give us life but they will take us to Jesus, who is the life, who is our sanctifier, who is our redeemer. And he'll meet us and make sure we make it through.He will be our life and light. He will be our everything.
Do you want real life? Then don't settle for anything but Jesus himself.
Copyright © 2005 Greg Holl. All rights reserved.
