Heart Tracks - Scandal In Heaven

"He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet upon the Rock, and steadied me as I walked along." Psalm 40:2....."On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand." Edward Mote...."How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word." John Rippon

As a young boy, I was blessed to grow up in a suburb of Pittsburgh that had once been farmland. There remained a great amount of wooded area that all of us used to play in. We used to run all through those fields and woods, but there was one place we had to be careful to avoid, and it was an area of swampy grass. You could be walking or running along, but if you stepped into it, you were immobilized, and would sink up past your ankles. I was put in mind of that with the recent words of a friend, who, commenting on Psalm 40:2, said that while we talk much of being lifted out of the miry clay and placed upon the Rock, we seem to do much of our praying (and living) from and in the miry clay. We may know that this is our "position" in Christ, but we too often fail to live as if it's our possession.

When we examine both our prayer life and our spiritual walk, how much of it comes from the place of the Solid Rock that is Christ? With what degree of confidence do we pray and live? So often, as we pray and as we walk in Him, we feel as I did all those years ago; immobilized and sinking. Christ has told us that we stand upon Him, but the enemy has deceived us into thinking we're still in the miry clay, and the only sensation we seem to feel is that of sinking...ever deeper and ever further from the power and reality of the Word and the Rock. We're spiritually immobilized by the miry clay of circumstances, fear, and lack of faith.

The enemy specializes in deception and delusion. If he cannot destroy our soul, he'll settle for destroying our lives and effectiveness for Him. He has victory if he can convince us that there is no way out of the mire of this life. That the promises and power of Christ are very limited on this side of eternity. That the circumstances we're in, and the fears and anxiety that come with them are more real than are the promise of His Presence and Life. If he can convince us that we're stuck in the mire, we'll never come to know the fullness, power, and abundance of the life He gives us on the Rock. The result is weakness; feeling like we are always sinking, never rising. We live like Christ is still in the grave. We live like we're in a grave.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something to the effect that, "It must be a great scandal in heaven that we live as we do." A scandal because He has already given us everything we need, "exceedingly, abundantly" more than we need to live His resurrection life here, right now. To live a life firmly grounded on the Rock that is Jesus Christ. Not a problem and trouble free life, but a life that responds to those problems, troubles and needs with and in the power of His Life. He has overcome all the power of the enemy and the fallen world system he works through. Living in and upon Him, we have as well. Should we not be living in that way too? Isn't it truly a scandal in heaven if we don't?

What's the ground you stand upon today? The Rock of His Life, His Promise, His Presence? Or, the sinking sand of self-reliance, deception, fear, worry, and victimhood? If you have truly come to Him through His saving grace, He has placed you upon the Rock of His Life. Do you live in that assurance? Or, has the enemy convinced you that the mire will always be your portion? If you've never entered into His Life, than all you know or will ever know is the sinking, shifting sand of this world. Come to Him, believe on Him, leave this sinking world for His rising life. Life upon the Rock. He offers it to us all. Will we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O