Morning: Psalm 147:12-20
Genesis 16:15-17:14
Hebrews 10:1-10
John 5:30-47
Evening: Psalm 116:1-19
As our Covenant Groups at South-Broadland continue in our "Into the Word, Into the World" daily Bible readings and weekly discussion groups, it has occurred to me that we can all get off on reading the Bible together, growing in fellowship, and excited about what we're learning. But Jesus distinguishes between assenting to what the scriptures testify about him, and actually receiving Jesus into our life. Jesus puts it this way in John's gospel:
39"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 40Yet you refuse to come to me to have life."
How easy it is to refuse to come to Jesus, while we proclaim God. We can come to church, teach Sunday school, lead a small group, even tithe. We can preach the gospel, and pray. We can quote scripture, chapter and verse. But unless we "come to Jesus," surrender all we are to this relationship, it's all rubbish, as Paul would call it.
Yes, the scriptures tell me that. But it ain't nothin' unless I come clean with Jesus about my own life. Coming to Jesus for me, means active participation in what Christ did for me. Coming to Jesus is a giving up myself to take on Jesus' life - giving up my schedule and agenda, a bad habit, or attitude. And a taking on God's will, not my own. That can be a vocation, a relationship, a commitment to my church, accountability for my shortcomings, responsibility for my actions. Coming to Jesus is coming to grips with how sin is real in me, not just in the bad boys and girls in the Bible, and I'm dead to it without Jesus. Coming to Jesus is coming to God.
Coming to Jesus also means to me that I believe in the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, and even though I'm terrified about what the Spirit might do in and through me, I come anyway. Coming to Jesus is letting the Spirit have his way, knowing I couldn't even come to Jesus at all without Him. Coming to Jesus means my life will never be the same old, same old. Coming to Jesus, my friends, is much more than assent. It's the difference between life and death.
In reading Psalm 116, it is to me a fitting litany for coming to Jesus. Say it out loud, and let the Holy Spirit make the words alive in you, as the Lord hears your cry. Come to Jesus:
1I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
2Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4Then I called on the name of the LORD:
"O LORD, I pray, save my life!"
5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
9I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10I kept my faith, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";
11I said in my consternation,
"Everyone is a liar."
12What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
13I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
16O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
18I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
18I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!