Thursday, June 11, 2009

Devotional 110609

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. A cramp on my leg woke me up earlier than my alarm clock. It gave me more time to draw close to the Lord before I go to office at 10 am. I will have a long day today because I will lead worship at our annual city-wide revival meeting. Every year, the Lord would use different speaker to remind us of His presence in our lives. This year, the theme is “love in the tsunami of life.” And we have three different speakers instead of one because the original speaker from Hong Kong suffered a heart surgery lately, and his doctor does not advise him to fly. But It would be a triple blessing through three well known Chinese speakers from the Bay Area. I hope you will find time to come if you are in town. The meeting is bilingual (Cantonese and Mandarin).

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Do I want to get there? I can now. The questions that matters in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words - "Come to Me." Not - Do this, or don't do that; but - "Come to Me." If I will come to Jesus my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires; I will actually cease from sin, and actually find the song of the Lord begins.

Have you ever come to Jesus? Watch the stubbornness of your heart, you will do anything rather than the one simple childlike thing - "Come to Me." If you want the actual experience of ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes Himself the touchstone. Watch how He used the word "Come." At the most unexpected moments there is the whisper of the Lord - "Come to Me," and you are drawn immediately. Personal contact with Jesus alters everything. Be stupid enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude of coming is that the will resolutely lets go of everything and deliberately commits all to Him.

". . . and I will give you rest," i.e., I will stay by you. Not - I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep; but - I will get you out of bed, out of the laziness and exhaustion, out of the state of being half dead while you are alive; I will fill you with the spirit of life, and you will be stayed by the perfection of vital activity. We get pathetic and talk about "suffering the will of the Lord!" Where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God about that?

We have hard time to let go of our own weary or burden and commit it to the Lord. We got used to taking care of our own problems and saving our own lives. Deep down inside we echo with the “theology” of our pre-Christian friends who said, “I don’t believe in anything. I only believe in myself.” Though we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we still can’t trust Him with our own burdens. Many Christians conclude that Jesus is only good for their “spiritual or emotional” problems. The rest has to rest on them to handle. Therefore, at the end of the day they puzzle what abundant life in Christ really means? They can’t tell the difference between life with Christ and without Christ. When they are too weary and stressful to discern their problems, they become indifference with God or even distance from God. They may say, “Since I have to deal with life by my own strength, why bother to call on Him to help? Yes it is good to “buy” some eternal security from God, by “attending church or doing some religious rituals” whenever I have time. But after church, I still need to resume “the control of my own destiny” in full gear.”

I don’t know whether it is your “theology and philosophy of life” or not. You will still hear our Lord saying the same simple phrase in His gentle voice, “Come to Me.” Yes, we still need to do our part in making our living. Just as Paul gave this rule to the church, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess 3:10b), we do not glorify laziness or passivity by casting everything burden to God and do nothing. We do our responsibility by constantly abiding to Christ. Work and abiding in Christ are not contradictive or exclusive. We can do both at the same time. As a matter of fact, when we do abide in Him while we work, we experience His presence in a concrete way. He is there by our side offering timely help and guidance. You will hear Him telling you. “My beloved child, you don’t need to be so frustrated and mad. I am right here with you. I can carry this burden with you. You just need to come close to me…”

Draw close to your Divine Lover now.

Love you by His presence,
Lawrence

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