Balance
Everyone gets what they want.
I want to be near to the One who is kind, forgiving, generous, beautiful, patient, glorious, and radiant forever.
The trick of life is that I am picking it now. In millions of ways, I am forming my heart forever now. It is in what I allow my routine to become that I will find my heart conforming to.
I used to form my heart for comfort, balancing out my life in God, my family responsibilities, my work and career, friends...I found that I could hit that sweet spot of well-balanced life, but my heart was bored.
Then, I encountered a simple truth that forever changed me: followers of Jesus are entirely unbalanced. Wholehearted means unbalanced...tilted entirely toward one thing.
The American Gospel of being a respectable balanced Christian, who has all of Jesus and looks successful to the world is a total myth. The more I started to let Jesus unbalance me, the more I found actual joy. It was in giving myself entirely to seeking Him out....fasting and praying...that my life truly found momentum.
Balance = lukewarm
Lukewarm is rejected in Jesus' kingdom. It would be better to have never known Him than to have gotten to know Him and still pick to carve out your own lifestyle...mixing Him with selfishness. Using Jesus to balance your life out is not only selfish, it is a rejection of who He really is. He is wholehearted towards me.
It would literally be better to have never known Him. Then to take some of Him and leave the rest.
This is because of love. Love requires a response. The king of all literally gave everything to love me, for me to not FULLY respond to that truth once I know it is worse than never knowing it.
I want to live near to joy forever. That means I need to fully embrace the source of joy. This is why I drive across town everyday and give a little of my time to learning how to live in a picture of the throne room in heaven. It is weak, yes, but it's as close as I can get to the real thing.
This is David's process of life: setting up a place of corporate worship (1 Chronicles 25) that mirrored the throne room in heaven. It was weak, but it was the strongest reach for this reality the earth had ever seen to that point. Jesus is David's offspring. He sits on His ancestor David's throne. That throne was established in a very specific way...unbalanced.
I get one life to give away. Just one. By the signs in the earth, that time is quickly running out. It would be the biggest risk a man who had known the love of Jesus could take: to spend all of his strength pouring it out in prayer and worship. The Bible is clear: This is who the Lord will reward...the one who does this.
Little strength is the key...it's the key of David, embracing the weakness of worship and intercession. The reward is strength and glory forever.
This road is very narrow. Few will find it.
Revelation 3:7“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”:
8“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
9“Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
12“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
13“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
I want to be near to the One who is kind, forgiving, generous, beautiful, patient, glorious, and radiant forever.
The trick of life is that I am picking it now. In millions of ways, I am forming my heart forever now. It is in what I allow my routine to become that I will find my heart conforming to.
I used to form my heart for comfort, balancing out my life in God, my family responsibilities, my work and career, friends...I found that I could hit that sweet spot of well-balanced life, but my heart was bored.
Then, I encountered a simple truth that forever changed me: followers of Jesus are entirely unbalanced. Wholehearted means unbalanced...tilted entirely toward one thing.
The American Gospel of being a respectable balanced Christian, who has all of Jesus and looks successful to the world is a total myth. The more I started to let Jesus unbalance me, the more I found actual joy. It was in giving myself entirely to seeking Him out....fasting and praying...that my life truly found momentum.
Balance = lukewarm
Lukewarm is rejected in Jesus' kingdom. It would be better to have never known Him than to have gotten to know Him and still pick to carve out your own lifestyle...mixing Him with selfishness. Using Jesus to balance your life out is not only selfish, it is a rejection of who He really is. He is wholehearted towards me.
It would literally be better to have never known Him. Then to take some of Him and leave the rest.
This is because of love. Love requires a response. The king of all literally gave everything to love me, for me to not FULLY respond to that truth once I know it is worse than never knowing it.
I want to live near to joy forever. That means I need to fully embrace the source of joy. This is why I drive across town everyday and give a little of my time to learning how to live in a picture of the throne room in heaven. It is weak, yes, but it's as close as I can get to the real thing.
This is David's process of life: setting up a place of corporate worship (1 Chronicles 25) that mirrored the throne room in heaven. It was weak, but it was the strongest reach for this reality the earth had ever seen to that point. Jesus is David's offspring. He sits on His ancestor David's throne. That throne was established in a very specific way...unbalanced.
I get one life to give away. Just one. By the signs in the earth, that time is quickly running out. It would be the biggest risk a man who had known the love of Jesus could take: to spend all of his strength pouring it out in prayer and worship. The Bible is clear: This is who the Lord will reward...the one who does this.
Little strength is the key...it's the key of David, embracing the weakness of worship and intercession. The reward is strength and glory forever.
This road is very narrow. Few will find it.
Revelation 3:7“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”:
8“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
9“Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
12“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
13“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
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