{ELGIN} Normally I would have an excerpt from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest as a lead-in to my daily devotional thoughts. Well - today I got a "503 Service Unavailable - No server is available to handle this request" when I tried to connect to that website. What to do! There are three, no four, sources of inspiration for this BLOG, the Word of God, Oswald Chambers, my interchange with other people, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The only two of the four that are indispensable are the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The only one that is dependent upon technology is the My Utmost Website.
That leads me to the point for this morning. What is it that determines how committed you are to doing what you know you should do, spiritually? How easily are you deterred or, put another way, how easily do you give up when you meet resistance? The answer is that it depends upon how passionate you are about your faith. Not how passionate you think you are or your say you are, but what evidence is there in your life that demonstrates that passion? I had to face that question this morning. I thought – “Hmm – no internet – guess I can’t do a devotion this morning.” But then the other three motivations came to my mind. Then I thought “hmmm- guess I can do a devotion – OK Lord, What do you want me to say?
Not reading the Bible, not going gathering together with other Believers, not doing what God as clearly directed you to do … it’s really easy to not do. You can find all kinds of reasons … good reasons … for not-doing. You don’t have time to read the Bible … but you do have time to watch your favorite TV program. Maybe you don’t like the worship music or the pastor preached past the time your had allotted for God on Sunday morning and you were late getting to your favorite restaurant and had to wait for a table. You really don’t want to spend the money to do what God prompted you to do .. God will understand .. you are trying to be a good steward. It’s so easy to say no, not now, can’t do it, can’t afford it. OK – here it comes – (James 4:17) “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
That verse takes what seems to be a trivial, optional decision to sin. You know that the word “sin” originates from the idea of missing the mark. The bottom line is that our flesh – our old nature – has convinced us that we don’t need to do whatever for whatever reason – and we yield to it. And we sin. That was the choice I faced this morning. That is the choice we all face every day. Choose God or choose me. It started in the Garden and persists today and will persist until Jesus returns – Lord come quickly! So what to do. Well – to quote a song – “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” (I guess I did have something to say after all.)
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