"You will only be able to take a person as far as you have gone yourself." -John C. Maxwell (quoting Les Parrot)
A variation of this quote was attributed to my Pastor who has since gone home to be with the Lord. It really typifies his life as a believer. He was a man who constantly communicated a 'Go all the way with God' attitude. That is the kind of attitude I admire. I have made decisions to this end and I am determined to keep making them. From what I can see... going with God is the best possible way I can spend my life so I am going to God all the way with Him. Why settle for anything else?
The above statement is the reason that no priest or man can take you to Heaven. He has not been there himself so how could he take you there. I want to follow the one who has conquered death. I can follow the faith of a man (see Heb 13:7) but they will not save me. They can't save me. Jesus can.
I can cast all my care on the one who sits in Heaven because He is in a place to carry them. I can go with Him through any situation because He has traveled that way before and found the victory that no one else can find.
To talk about grace is one thing... to 'go there' is another. What about mercy and love? If we don't dive deep who will? Maybe we have had great examples to follow... people we have known who walked the walk right before our eyes. Perhaps we have read about great people and what they have done. The Bible is full of people whose faith we can follow but the decision is ultimately ours.
We can live in mediocrity or we can go for it. We can pray or we can just talk about it. We can follow God or we can just live in excuses. We can just read a verse or two every once in a while or we can tear apart the scriptures and see how they work. Not in striving but in Love. Our eyes can be on the floor or on the horizon.
Do you want to tell your children, 'Follow God I used to and it was great.' or to have a bar stool ministry of some kind? Can any of us afford to live only in what was?
If Jesus is going somewhere I want to be on that bus! Jesus wants us on the bus also if we have the gutz to get on it. Grace and mercy have paved the way to this kind of adventure.
Today is the day. I want to go far today. I want to live where God has taken me because from the vantage point of Heaven I will have something real to say. I want to find rest in Christ so that I can say to the restless, 'I have found a place for you to rest.' I want to say,
"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" Jn 4:29 ESV
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