All Wrapped Up

Last night and I guess this morning was a lunar eclipse. A spectacular cosmic display of beauty where the Sun, Earth and moon come into line preventing the rays of the sun from radiating off of the moon's surface.

It really is a rare thing that should be enjoyed. However, last night I was struggling in vain to try and capture quality pictures of this divine gift. Last night was cloudy and prevented my camera from capturing the red tinted moon. I could see it fine, but my camera was incapable of replicating the wonder of the heavens in digital form. Rather than really just taking time to enjoy the gift of creation and give praise to the Creator I was wrapped up in trying to take a picture of the moon.

This seemingly insignificant and vain attempt of mine to reproduce in much lesser form something made by Sovereign God taught me an important lesson about life. It reminded me of the omnipotence of God. It also reminded me of the truly mysterious and miraculous nature of the works of God. My experience last night was a reminder to me of how sometimes in the course of church life or ministry people get wrapped up in trying to reproduce or replicate the irreproducible. They see God working and then try to take note of everything. Not to give glory to God, but to try and bottle the miracle of God's work so that it can be reproduced and sold. In one sense these types of people try to eliminate the supernatural element of God. It causes one to think that life change, healing and salvation can all be wrought by the hands of men. All you need is to follow steps 1,2,3 and you will be successful. You will cause people to be saved and change their lives.

It never really started that way. I don't think that people in church or ministry ever intend for this self focus to happen. But I fear that the danger many believers are ignorant to is the truly mysterious nature of God's divine intervention in our lives. Life change, healing, and our salvation are not works of man but of Almighty God. When we lose sight of that, we risk turning ourselves into idols. We begin to trust in our ability rather than in the Uncreated One who gave us the abilities we have to serve His purpose.

Of course the only reason why I recognize this is as a problem is because I know that I've fallen prey to this particular sin. I've taken the focus off of God and directed it toward myself. And I know that I need to pay particular attention to times when I begin to get wrapped up in something I'm "doing" for God and fail to trust in Him. When I fail to recognize that even my ability to serve is in and of itself only possible by the grace and mercy of the Lord. Moreover, nothing I do is of any significance a part from Jesus Christ.

John 15 (NASB95)

Chapter 15

Jesus Is the Vine—Followers Are Branches

1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so 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, so 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, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Disciples’ Relation to Each Other

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.

15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

17 “This I command you, that you love one another.

Disciples’ Relation to the World

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.