Monday, June 3, 2013

Dynamic Aging


Why the Bible is Important to me #7.

Where Dynamic Aging Begins
 
My mother-in-law with siblings (the Telfers of South Australia)
Dynamic aging is about meaning not muscle. It can be possessed by the weak and the invalid yet missed by the strong and healthy. Dynamic aging requires living in a spiritual dimension rather than being hypnotized by the secular. The dynamics for all of this begins on a battlefield.

In the Bible book of Amos we read about God’s ultimatum to Israel. The nation was intent on doing its own thing even in the face of the Lord God’s discipline. His words to the nation are applicable to everyone at a certain point in time. Amos 4:12: ‘Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel’.

God called upon the people to engage in an act of war. A contest of strength, will and therefore control. Who will be Sovereign? Such a contest appears uneven and stupid. However within the spiritual realm it is fought out everyday by some one, somewhere. Can you remember when you thought about taking God on when He asked you to let Him be your Sovereign?

The weapons at our disposal to defeat His right to our lives are the following.
A) Personal righteousness,
b) all religions lead to Heaven and
c) the pleading of ignorance.

What is the weapon the Lord raises against us? His word! Hebrews 4:12-13: ‘Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account’.

We know our goodness will not stand before the holiness required by the Lord. Everyone fall short of their own standard, what hope when measured by God’s? One strike and you are out. How many strikes do you imagine are against you?

A) is answered. We may not like what Jesus said in John 14:6 but it is either true or false. Who would dare make Jesus out to be a liar when He said ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’.
B) is answered.  Pleading ignorance is never an excuse. It is a person’s responsibility to seek out the truth and accept it. Jeremiah 29:13: ‘When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart’.
C) is answered. We break His word, we win the fight.

The trouble is the Bible remains unbreakable. More than that our moral and religious armour melts at the mere waving of the Scriptures across them!  We realise our nakedness. We are defenceless. What are our options?
Run! But where can we hide?

Surrender! Dynamic aging can begin at that point of time.
We kneel in submission. Our Lord and Sovereign, Jesus, lifts us up and calls us conquerors. 2 Chronicles 30:8  ‘Do not be stiffed-necked as your ancestors were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever, and serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you’.

We engage in a self justifying war without any possible victory when we take up our weapons against God and His word. Remember, God has the last word. Will it be ‘Depart into outer darkness’? Or will it be ‘Come into the joy of the Lord’?  

The victory comes when by faith we make Jesus Christ as our sovereign Lord and Saviour. A new, dynamic, eternal and challenging life begins.

This is  a chapter out of my  future devotional called  'Dynamic Aging.'
Ray (growing old with Christ) Hawkins

1 comment:

  1. I am enjoying growing...er...old with you my darling Ray. My mother's photo here with her brothers and sisters brings back some lovely memories. Although there were 10 of them they were very close - mostly due to their wonderful mother.

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