Disciples of Christ Smell Bad To The World

What is your passion, what is it worth? How bad do you want to connect with God, to experience the benefits of his supernatural presence. Do you want to be used by him to change lives and be led by the Holy Spirit?

David was told by Samuel he would become the King of Israel. He waited for a year for God’s word to be fulfilled. Saul was now dead and David is being moved into his God given roll. Jerusalem is under the control of the Jebusites. In 2 Samuel 5:8 David tells his army the only way into the city and to conquer the Jebsuites is to enter through the water drainage system, in other words the city sewer system. David would make the man who waded through the smelly sewer of Jerusalem, the chief of his army. Understand that for the people of Israel Jerusalem was more than a city to call home. It represented all things God. The loving worship the temple provided intimacy with the creator as well as the place to receive forgiveness of sins. The city embodied all things that governed the Jewish life, the very identity of Jewish life was Jerusalem. For the Jew Jerusalem and the temple represented life, separation the city and temple was separation  from God himself.

 David telling his men they had to wade through the sewage of their lives that separated them from God to victory and restoration to God.

 We have lost our passion for God because we have made the choice to embrace sin in place of our first love. God desires to be our all in all, deeper than the influence of anything or anyone else. It is necessary to fight through the sewage of our sin to return to him, to be restored to intimacy with him. No longer being  caught detained by things that separate us from his presence but to wade through it. Disciples of Christ smell bad to the world and to other Christians who are not willing to make the difficult journey through the sewer. According to Matthew 11:12 “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.” Luke 16:16 says “The kingdom of God is preached, and every man is pressing into it.” The fight to leave our sinful life style and the culture that demands that we partake in it is violent and we have to fight violently to free ourselves from it.

 The violence that is guarding kingdom entrance is our sinfulness directed by our old nature and fed by and the enemy of our souls.

 Jesus taught three parables describing the value of entering into the principals of the kingdom of God and his presence. The first two are in Matthew 13:44-46. “The Hidden Treasure’ and ‘The Pearl of Great Price.” Within each parable  the man who finds the treasure and pearl both hide each one, so not to be found by someone else, they each go and sell everything they have in order to obtain the Kingdom of God and his ways. The third is found in Luke 15:8-10 where we find a woman laboring intently because she has lost a coin. The Parable indicates this coin was of great worth to the woman and she lights a lamp and begins to sweep her floor. She tirelessly sweeps until she finds her treasure. When she finds it she calls her neighbors to rejoice with her!

 What is our relationship with Jesus worth to us? The intimate contact that says I don’t care what the world around me is doing. I won’t be drawn away from what connects me with the living God by any one or any circumstance that demands separation from connecting with God. My union with God and my need to connect and stay close to him is worth anything on my part nothing is too hard, too consuming, or too costly to me. I’m not talking about church, I’m not talking about service to people, I am talking about anything that gets me closer to my personal contact with the Lord Jesus himself.

 Wading through the sewer of personal sin./ The feelings of bitterness, resentment, loss, fear, anger, a lack of trust, these are the shackles the enemy wants to burden me down with that keep me from relational freedom with Christ that bring abundance to my life.

Micah 6:8 sums up in simplicity what the Lord requires of us as his children: I have shown you oh man what the Lord requires of you to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

 Whatever life altering steps, or personal sacrifice are necessary for us to find that place in life that makes Christ first in heart and deed are worth making. Learning to linger in his presence comfortably, not wanting to leave that place of hearing the tones of his voice speaking to our hearts that leave us with a drive to return as soon as possible, creating in a devotion to not let anything or anyone else keep us from this personal connection is worth any effort it takes to get in his presence and making that place the most comfortable place imaginable.

Get there!

 Linger there!

  Return there as often as humanly possible!