|
|
Enter subhead content here
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
“Him” or “It”
John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.”
Jesus
made the above statement to Martha as they stood before the tomb of Lazarus. Martha had just said, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
There
is no doubt that Martha believed in the resurrection, but Jesus moved her from the doctrinal to the personal: “I am the resurrection.” Too often we are prone to stop
with doctrine and never allow the doctrine to move us to personal experience.
It’s the difference between
“knowing intellectually” and “knowing experientially.” It’s the difference
in knowing that He will someday in the future to knowing that He is right now!
We
too often stop with “it” and never move on to “Him.” We get an idea, a theory, a
doctrine in our heads, but we never go on to get Him in our hearts. We can preach and teach and defend our doctrinal positions
regarding sanctification, the victorious life, the second coming, etc. with a vengeance, but never find our hearts warmed
or stirred – we have “it” not “Him.” We join a different group and seek this
or that blessing and think, “Now I’ve found ‘It’” only to discover sometime later that
all we needed was “Him.” We can spend more time and prayer and never get to “Him.”
We can devote ourselves to walk by faith and never experience “Him.” We can search the Scriptures diligently
and spend time in the Word and never experience “Him.” There is no
life in “it” however good and right “it” is. He is our life! In “Him”
all things – including all the “its” - consist.
The
consuming passion of the Apostle Paul’s life was to know “Him.” He said in Philippians 3:7-10 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet
indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship
of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”
Paul was not interested in “it” any longer. All of the “it” that he had
known as a studious Pharisee he now counted as garbage compared with the unsurpassable knowledge of knowing “Him.”
Now his consuming passion was only to know “Him.”
How about you, have
you moved from knowing “it” to “Him?” Oh, dear friends, don’t settle for knowing
“it;” move on to knowing “Him!”
|
|
 |
|
|
|