Sunday Cuppa – ‘Seeing the day of your Salvation’ for Christian Foundations
We’ve passed the slave stage and even the servant mentality in our posts for this blog. Remember a servant can live in the grandest palace and still be just a servant. It’s the growing child, the son of the owner that is the heir to all his father’s promises and lands.
As the child of God grows, he can choose more and more to see the hand of God in life’s events. We can see God’s view of things …. or return to the slave/servant mentality. The question becomes – how do we do this?
In the verses from the Bible, Jesus was coming up to the day of His crucification. He was visiting Jerusalem but the the leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not recognise Him for who He was. Luke 19:41-44 picks up the story:
“ 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it did not recognise God’s timing and in fact, would be destroyed in the future.
God had given the people and their leaders the opening to see His hand and turn to Him. If they had, would Jerusalem have been destroyed? An interesting speculation but was the opportunity lost in their blindness and religious beliefs. They failed to see that God had visited them … and lost His blessing. Not everyone rejected Jesus. In fact, most of the crowd that shouted His praises didn’t know about His arrest and crucification until later. Many watched and were added to His people on the Day of Pentecost. … but that’s another story and another post.
So then the Holy Spirit gently add: “How often have we missed the hand of God in His visitation to us?” We too filter everything through the grid of our expectations, religious ideas and beliefs … and sometimes fail to recognise His hand. A loving Father presents events, opportunities and opening for us to see more of Him ….. yet do we take the opportunity to do so?
Our beliefs about life control what we see as facts! We can be caught in the religious system, self-striving and pride in our own achievements, too busy with life around us or just too settled in a lifestyle that resists any change …. especially God-change!
Yet … this is the aim for any growing child, especially one marked by the touch of the Lord Jesus. It’s the whole purpose for this Earthly journey! That’s how we’re’….. being conformed to His image’, when we respond by learning the lessons from the great Teacher, the Holy Spirit. If we don’t learn …. well, we ‘go round the mountain again’, until we do learn. We cannot avoid pain here on Earth but …. learning the first lessons will often prevent future pain!
Sometimes that means hitting that ‘brick wall’ experience.
Recently I was hit by a car, totally his fault. Yes, oh dear! Here was a minor brick wall as I had to regain my energy and my physical health. I could have reacted with anger, guilt, frustration – I must admit that was there a little bit – but I could see the hand of the Lord there. I learned many important truths through that experience …. but how many other experiences have we been through when we gain little wisdom or even added more doubt and unbelief to our Heart?
Someone once shared a picture she had seen about Heaven. Her angel was showing her around and she saw a tall, brightly coloured building. When she asked to see inside, the angel said “No, I don’t think you really want to do that.” They continued on their journey and the building came into view again. “Yes, I really want to see this”, she said to her angel.
When they entered, she saw a room with her name. Inside were rows of boxes, small and large. “What’s this?” she asked. The angel replied. “These are all the missed opportunities, the gifts and the treasures the Father wanted to give you …. but you didn’t see His hand.”
How we need an attitude of humbleness, or seeing through the obvious into the spiritual realm around us. We have only one go at this earthly existence and we face eternity. Will we carry those boxes an gifts back to His glory and be able to say “Thank You!” Our Creator has provided thec way by becoming flesh and walking on the Earth He made.
Again, to repeat the obvious, this is the difference between the slave, the servant and the child of the Most High God – our willingness to grow and change. When was your last visitation from the Holy Spirit? A repentant, humble Heart will see His hand; others in their pride and self-sufficient thinking will miss the opportunity. Do you and I have a Heart to see His best for us ….or are we lost in our ignorance and self satisfied way of life? What a challenge this has been for me.
Here is one of the original messages, from Jordan Hitchcock from Luke 19:28-44, Sunday January 12, 2013. January 19th by Mike McNamara is listed in the same website: http://www.stalfreds.org/dev/resources/listen-to-sermons
Thanks for listening and may we, as children of the most high God, be looking for those God inspired opportunities to see and grow in Him as His child.
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: Not missing God's Hand
Filed under: From Slave to Sonship, Sunday Cuppa' with Susanne
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