Heart Tracks - Different Language?

"I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent Me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life." John 5:24...."The truth is, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." John 14:12........"How can we have a room full of people who say they have the Holy Spirit of God Almighty within them and yet their lives look just like everyone else?" Francis Chan

Francis Chan shared how he, as a young believer would look around at the fellowship he was a part of and it's lack of fruit and Holy Spirit life, and wonder if this Bible containing His Word that everyone seemed to carry, but so few seemed to live in the power of, was speaking another language from theirs? That may sound judgemental, but Chan spoke and pondered those words with deep love and concern. And in the pondering and speaking, included himself in the question as well. Are you and I willing to do the same? Can we allow His Word and Spirit to search us in order to find what is real, and what is not, within us? That was one of the apostle Paul's great challenges to the church. To allow Him to so search them as to know whether they truly had life in Him or not. Are we up to the challenge?

We are experts at looking around us, but so poor at searching within us. If we are, as the Word says, a people set apart for Him, what is that sets us apart? The surrounding American culture is obsessed with pleasure, entertainment, materialism, comfort, and yes, self-absorption. At the same time it is assailed with a propensity to every kind of addiction, aimlessness, hopelessness, despair, and the absence of inner peace. It seeks its security in outward things, yet never lays hold of it, so it abides in a always present spirit of fear. All of this in direct contrast to the life to be had in Christ. Life that is to mark those who are His. When Jesus promised that all things become new in Him, new creations in Him, is it the witness of our lives, our fellowships, that this is so? He said that we pass "from death into life," ......now, not just at some future date. Again, is this so for you and me? I've a friend who likes to say that the world speaks "earthish" while His people are to be speaking "heavenish." The Bible clearly speaks in heavenish. Are we who say we are His continuing to speak earthish? If all things are new in Him, shouldn't our language be so as well? A language that comes not from our minds and tongues alone, but from our hearts. Kingdom language has become our native tongue.

Jesus said that we would do the same works that He did, and even greater ones. I can't begin to plumb all that promise means. I just ask myself, is this the witness of my life and the life of the church I am a part of? Is is the witness of yours? Christ came that we might have life and have it abundantly. How do we define such life? When we come down to it, does our definition look any different from the world's? Are we speaking the same language as it does? Have we passed from death to life? Are all things new? Do we see? Do we hear? Do we know? Do we really believe, and do we live what we believe? Do we speak the language of Christ, or the language of the world and it's bondage that He died and rose to deliver us from? What's our native tongue?

Blessings,
Pastor O