I’ve been on this post for one in a half months now… the weather has since then had a dramatic change and can no longer lay out in the park to ponder.. so this Christmas Eve 2017, this is my gift to you! 

Life can be easily entangled by all the media, gadgets and gizmos that it can literally consume our soul hindering our Spiritual connection with God.  Our abundance of channels, whether by technology or physical presence, gives us access to shows, social media, sports and merchandise that the one most crucial channel, our spiritual channel, becomes static or turned off.  I have come to the point in my life that my spirit can get so overwhelmed with such things that I have to establish hiatus in order to focus on my spiritual hiatus.

Hiatus – meaning to break a continued cycle, a gap, opening or slight pause. 

My first thoughts when I realize I’ve reached this point of spiritual exhaustion are this… “How can I even start or continue to hear your voice Jesus when I allow all these distractions in between us?  I want to see my prayers to not only be answered, but to be powerful.  But how can that even happen unless I’m properly responding to you?  Why is it at times in my life I allow a hiatus into our relationship?  Obviously I’m spiritually drained because I allowed everything else have first dibs on my energy, knowing if my spirit is renewed and refreshed by you on a daily basis, the more energy and hope I have to keep going.”  Can you relate?

I’ve seen it way too many times, people asking for prayer but not willing to make changes in their own life, not willing to take time to connect and identify what the root cause really is.  The same problem occurs with most Christians; they don’t tap into their spiritual connection with God like they should.  They do it enough just to get a ‘buzz’ to feel good about initiating a connection… but that’s where most usually stop… they initiate but don’t actually connect.  It’s almost like knowing someone who you see and walk by every day, you come into contact with them for just enough time to say hi, how are you doing and bye, all in the course of six seconds.  I have often stopped and prayed, “God, I’m sorry for treating you like another passing hi & bye.  You are much more, you are the only true Mighty God! Please forgive me of my negligence.”

We really need to put aside all of our daily distractions and focus on Christ in our life instead of going to Him when things get rough.  Jesus loves and truly does want a relationship with us.   He doesn’t just want to be someone we quickly say hi to … He wants to be walking with us and sharing His love.

The famous distraction we allow to interrupt is our excuses.  I get it! I get it!  We all have things to do, school, work to put food on the table, children to look after, and apparently there just isn’t’ enough time?!   This is where I respond with…”WAIT! WHAT? Your making an excuse of why you can’t “fit” God into your schedule?  The Creator of the universe? Jesus, who died for your sins so you can live free from the bondage of shame and guilt?  You can’t or you won’t?  That’s the real question… This is the same God who gave us the moon and the stars to govern the day and night… that made time possible.

I call these excuses the Hazy Cloud.  It’s like the American way of connecting with God… and I must say, it’s not only lazy but a very dangerous position to be in.  You may have heard of the lukewarm Christian.  How many of us are willing to reflect on our own lives and actually admit that we have been or are a lukewarm?  From personal experience I compared myself to other Christians and considered myself good, because there’s certainly a lot of other people out there that live terrible lives, but then there’s also a lot of people that have the same mindset but by the standards and comparisons they live by, they are no better off than the other person.  It seems like there’s always this outwardness that we are most concerned about that we never stop to check into our souls to see if any maintenance needs to be done.  I know my problem has been the worry of being viewed as “to spiritual.”  If we focus on our spiritual awareness,  new focus and relationship with God, the likeness of Christ will begin/continue to be manifested on who we really are inwardly giving us the freedom to express our true self in Christ outwardly.

The reason for my hiatus is to avoid being in danger!  We enjoy fruit.  There’s also the fruits of our labor.  But the most important fruit, is what we produce as a believer in Christ.

John 15:1-8 (NKJV)

The True Vine

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will^[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Yikes!  Okay… if you are in Christ and do not bear fruit… you are taken away.  Go ahead, take that in… just pause and chew on this truth… It’s not my opinion but the very Word of God… go ahead and open your Bible… it’s in your copy to… hopefully it doesn’t have a lot of dust on it, if it does then you’ll always continue to ponder when your in situation and God seems far away.  In the Christmas Eve service this morning, Pastor Marcus Mecum put it this way, there are times in our lives where situation after situation we feel that God isn’t there to turn to, fight after fight we ask where is God?!  That’s why He gave us His Word.  It’s God breathed scriptures, we can find out what God is up to if we are to abide in Him… in doing so He will abide in us.

Abide – obey, observe and follow

I desire to be the fruitful bearing branch.  I desire to be God’s best.  That involves daily meditation.

Psalm 1:1-3  (NKJV)

The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly

 

Take a time out and ask yourself these few questions just to get your mind reflecting.

1. What is meditation
2. Should I meditate
3. What things do I meditate on that I could give up to take that time to connect with God?

Tangent

Romans 12:2

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I had the privileged of watching the Detroit Lions play against the Cincinnati Bengals today at Paul Brown Stadium, of course luck was on the Bengals side as Detroit continuously dropped the ball or were to busy being penalized.   I heard the words “do not conform to this world” spoken in my head over and over again as I watched the fans from both sides.  It’s not the fact that football is evil, it’s the fact that I watched how fanatic people can be.   I wondered how much time they spend ‘meditating’ on sports.  It’s the American sport where all the fans can be their own “expert” of the game.  I walked around hopping from one seat to another as it was only me.  One guy I stood next to repeatedly muttered in what sounded like a mix of southern and jersey accent the old phrase “ya gotta be kidding me,” as he went on to share his expertise with those in earshot.  Then my thoughts played out… what if more of us were more concerned about our meditation in God’s Word… God’s play book if you will.  I get it, people want to connect with others, football is one of the biggest ways to connect, but it come to my mind how many may treat their team as an idol, or whatever they put their mind and thoughts to the most.   God’s Word is our play book, or if your a big movie buff.. it’s our script.  Most importantly… It’s alive!  It’s real and it’s a life style.

How can I put more precedence in my life with God? Less sports?  Less Netflix? less excuses?…. what’s your niche that might need to be changed?

 

Matthew 7:13-29

The Narrow Way

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because^[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

I Never Knew You

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Build on the Rock

²⁴ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

²⁸ And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, ²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

This verse hits home, I sure hope it does to you.  What do you want to be remembered for?  I’d hope people would say I was one that enjoyed and loved helping others versus he was a great sports fan or movie goer.  My reflection of what God things is most important than what you or anyone else thinks is first most important.  Because if I worried about what you or anyone else thought of me first, I may never be satisfied with who I am in Christ.  I desire to have that rock foundation that I may never be withered or blown away.  I desire to know God, so that I may also be known by Him.  So many times I’ve had to stop and think, if you take away the Cross and what Jesus has done for us… what do I really have left… what do I have to live for?  Just to be on earth for a short while and thats it?  Not to exciting to me.  There’s more beyond than what our eyes see on this earth… and it’s revealed through the spirit.  We have the opportunity to tap into that channel through our response to God through His Word.

I need my mindset to be cleared.. I need anything that’s making my spiritual channel static to be removed so my reception from God comes in clear.  At times it may be blank… but daily we have access to our script, our play book…. His Living Word.

Philippians 4:8

Meditate on These Things

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.