Heart Tracks - Disagreeable Places

"That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." 2 Corinthians 4:10......"It is the disagreeable things which make us exhibit whether or not we are manifesting His life." Oswald Chambers....."When men meet us do they meet the surpassing love of Christ? When they touch us, do they touch something of God?......While He was on earth, Jesus was Himself the vessel of divine life. When men touched Him, they touched God.....Today, what do they see?" Watchman Nee

These two spiritual mentors, Nee and Chambers, speak to me today. They bring the piercing question to my heart that, in the disagreeable places of life, whose life do I manifest? The life of fallen Adam, or of the risen Christ? It's a question for you as well. Whose life do you manifest in those places?

When Christ manifests Himself anywhere, He is manifesting the very presence and character of the Father. Of Himself. It is something powerfully real. As Nee said, to encounter Christ was to encounter the very reality of God. When people encounter us.....especially in the disagreeable places of life, what reality do they see? When they touch us, do they also touch Him? As someone once asked, has anyone, upon meeting us, ever remarked, "What a presence of Christ is about them?" Especially in those disagreeable places of life?

Chambers said of Christ, "He was at home with God anywhere." Then he asks this question which goes to our very heart: "Is there any place where you are not at home with God?" That's the key to it all isn't it? It's no great challenge to feel at home with Him in the midst of good and plenty. When people behave as we would want. When circumstances are all playing out as we wish. We feel very much at home with Him there. But what of those places where we are in the midst of disagreeable people, unwanted circumstances and problems, and everything else that seeks to take our eyes and heart away from Him? Does He manifest Himself in our lives to the extent that even in there, He lives through us, speaks through us, touches others through us? In those places, unwanted places, are we at home with Him even there? Are you....am I?

Disagreeable, unwanted places will be a part of every life. God's people will never be exempt from them here. Indeed, we may find ourselves exposed to them more than anyone else. How then should we live? How will we live? It's in those disagreeable places that Christ in us must cease to be our ideal, and become our reality. Where He lives through our words, our touch, our presence.....and through us, He speaks, He touches, He lives. How can this be so? It can happen only at the cross...where we surrender to Him. to His life, in even the most disagreeable place. Only then, will He really be seen in us. Only then will He really touch and minister through us.......Are we at home with Him today.....even if the disagreeable place? Or, is there someplace, places, where we are not at home with Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O