Everything

"Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28....."Personal contact with Jesus alters everything." Oswald Chambers

No one can see and experience Jesus Christ and remain the same. It's impossible. So what does the reality that many attend church worship services regularly, yet emerge no different than when they entered the sanctuary? Is the lack found in the worship itself? In those who lead it? In those who constitute the congregation? Perhaps all of them together? These are questions to ponder, and will only be answered by the allowing of His Spirit to search us deeply. When we do, the answers will come forth. Are we willing to ask these questions? Are we willing to receive His answers?

Why is it so hard for us to obey those three simple words from the Savior, "Come unto Me?" Chambers says that as long as we harbor unresolved and unsurrendered issues within, we will dispute with Him rather than come to Him. The One who comes to Christ must come yielded. They must come knowing at least something of their depth of need for Him. They must come broken, for the unbroken will not come. They'll never see the need that they should. In a world with no lack of tragedies, there is nothing more tragic than this; that those He came to seek and save see no need to be found, and no need to be saved. So they remain lost.

So, in whatever degree we resist His invitation to come to Him, we miss the wonder of what it is He wishes us to receive from Him. Life, real Life. And all that is included in that Life; hope, joy, peace, strength....and love so amazing and true. All of it and more is ours when we come to Him, encounter Him, and are changed by Him. He wants to meet with us Life to life, Heart to heart, Mind to mind. Could any of us imagine what the result would be if this was the regular experience of His Church? Nothing, not the Church, and not the culture surrounding and within it would ever be the same again. This is what's to be our regular experience with Him. Not emotion based warm spiritual fuzzies, but life transforming encounter. Are you hungering for that? Hungering for Christ, the real Jesus Christ?

I close with a prayer that I've had in my journal for a number of years now. "Jesus, walk with us today. Fill our lives with Your heart. Fill our hearts with Your life. May You become more and more at home in our hearts as we become more and more at home in Yours." May this be fulfilled in your life and mine, your church fellowship and mine. May we come to Him each day, and be changed more and more into His likeness each day. Coming to Him alters everything.

Blessings,
Pastor O