Over the past couple of weeks the Lord has been pulling me in closer to Himself it has been an amazing couple of weeks spiritually. He has shown me truths in His word, truths about myself and ways that I need to repent and changes that need to be made. Very recently He has shown me just how much wider the gap between this world and myself actually needs to be.
There is a common illustration used at least once in most evangelical pamphlets of a great chasm, with you on one side, and sin in the middle separating you from God who is on the opposite side. Then the cross of Jesus appears in the chasm and you are able to go over to the other side. Well I have crossed the bridge that Jesus built and am on the other side now and am exceedingly grateful for the access to God that Christ provided for me. The hard part is that there are quite a few people over here acting like they're still on the wrong side of the bridge. The Lord has been showing me here lately that in allot of ways I have been one of them. Whether its in immodesty, pride, selfishness or even self loathing it's sin, and there are allot of people on this side of the gap teetering dangerously close to the chasm that once separated them from God.
Most of them through lack of devotion have ignored or pushed aside Gods word. If we are seeing as through a glass darkly then Gods word is our Windex and He has used it in me over the past few days to clear my view just a little more. He showed me that the ground beneath me was starting to crumble under the weight of an unrepentant heart, and that those burdens which He had meant for me to throw in the fire burning in that great chasm had somehow cleverly found their way onto my back again. I've been gazing forlornly back over the chasm in the way a foolish child gazes at the swing sets when you're offering them disneyworld.
I know about my foolishness and have once again thrown aside the weights that hinder, and am running the race or at least figuring out how to move my feet. Sand is not easy to walk on, let alone run. The rock is there but my fondness for the things of this world have drug my feet down onto the shifting sands of doubt and distraction while my fingers cling desperately to the solid rock of Gods truth. Leaving the things of this world behind is a discipline, one that must be practiced daily if we are to win the race that as a Christian I am in. Whether it's the letting go of relationships, habits, entertainment or anything else contrary to Gods word it is something we must do if ever we are to make Christ believable to a sinful world.
At the time of my salvation I was given the occupation of a priest, and was called to be set apart for the Gospel of Christ, to be Holy as He is Holy and to preform all of the many splendid priestly duties given to all of us who have been redeemed and are journeying the road to the Celestial City. In all reality it is an amazing call to be set apart as a member of a Holy Nation, but it's easy to lose focus on this side of the sun. Most especially in the culture of Crete.
Crete was an Island that Paul the apostle established a church in and left one of his sons in the faith Titus on. It was full of debauchery ... wait, maybe I should use plain english... it was full of drunkeness, sex outside of the Gods Holy confines of marriage, lust, gluttony, violence, disobedience, greed, jealousy, slanderers, gossips and liars (this is what it means when someone calls you a cretan). Titus was living in a very hard place to be a Christian. The culture of America is allot like Crete, only bigger and with todays technology allot harder to get away from.
Sin is so glorified in this culture that turning on the television is dangerous now, only a couple days ago as I flipped through the channels I counted 5 times that I saw nude adults engaged in some sort of sexual activity. I flipped quickly away, but the damage had been done. Living as an American Christian can be so exceedingly difficult because sin is so celebrated, but God has called me to "come out from them and touch no unclean thing" 2 Corinthians 6:17 which is hard because the perversion is so thick even sometimes (sadly) within the church. So how do I get out of here? I have no clear idea at the moment, except to stop my ears like Christian did and run towards Gods promises yelling over the shouts of those who would beckon me back accross the chasm "Life, Life, Eternal Life!"
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