Christmas Day Pensitivities

It's Christmas Day

Just finished reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis :) Awesome... makes you think.

Read (past tense) Matthew 5... realizing that Jesus was an extreme guy during His time on the earth. He not only said, "Don't murder." He said, "Don't even get angry at someone for no reason or call him an empty-head or a fool [or you'll be exposed to the lake of fire]." He not only said, "Don't commit adultery." He said, "Don't even think about getting with another person other than your spouse." He not only said, "Love one another." He said, "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you." He not only said, "Do not deny him who asks to borrow something." He said, "Give him twice the amount. If he wants to take your tunic, give him your cloak. If he compels you to go a mile, go two. If he slaps you in the face, give him the other cheek to slap you again."
Talk about extremes and just plain dying to yourself.

Reading this makes me ponder on this last year... and even the year to come (about my cotidian doings).
Interesting... We try to plan for the upcomming year and try to make resolutions... but what about the now? Every single day is one to verbally confess that we are the Lord's, that we are alive to follow and obey Him, that we breathe because He allows us to, that our bodies stay intact because He permits it, that we have in our possession His eternal word that others might not know about.

Think about it. Where are we now? In a place where the Lord wants us? Or is there something in my life hindering His movement in my life? Because we do have that capacity: to permit or reject His moving in our lives. So we must regularly examine ourselves. Not just at the end of the year. Why Christ might come in the Summer! So then if we just think back once it's the end of the year, then it's of no real use. God's an "always" God. God works always... not only when we stop to really realize that He is.
Like breathing, we're always breathing. We don't breathe only when we realize that we're inhailing and exhailing. Breathing is so regular and such an everyday thing that we forget the fact that we're actually breathing. But I sincerely pray that I never take the Lord's constant calling out to me and His continual grace for granted. That it doesn't become just some type of "background music" that fades away, yet still being there, due to some habituation process.

So God is always working, and when we stop to realize that He's working is actually when we stop to realize how much we're letting Him work in our lives. Why wouldn't God want to work in our lives every second of our everyday lives? I mean radically work in our lives. We are in desperate need for Him and He's not a God to hide from His creation or play hide-and-go-seek. He makes Himself known! So it must be us. We're the one's impeding His working in our lives. Whether it's looking to other things for pleasure or creating idols or loving things more than Him, such things creep into our lives yet we are flagrantly creating a larger cliff between us and God. Why would we do that?!
Instead, call out to Jesus Christ who's, in a more vivid sense, the bridge that gets us from one side of the precipice to the other in order for us to meet the Father.
These pensaments remind me, once again, that the Lord is already working in and through me, that He is so willing and eager to work in and through me and you more than you or I can ever imagine, and that you and I must die to ourselves every single waking day in order for that to happen.


P.S. He says He'll help you the whole way through ;)