What constitutes
spirituality? Is it an interest in
religious matters? Is it the capacity to tease out the main idea in a
Biblical text? Is it a way of speaking
or a propensity for charitable deeds?
For Jesus, spirituality was grounded in a determination to do whatever
He saw the Father doing. His mind's eye
was fixed and never moved from that one focal point. At every place where He went, He was given
over to the will of the Father and in following Him step by step. Spirituality is nothing more than puffed up
personalized morality if it is not squared with the mind of Christ. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit not that we might do great deeds of godliness
but that we might be at one with Jesus Christ every step. The blood of Christ is in the washing of
personality a mightier work than we grasp.
It is holiness personified...not considered, not examined. With the cleansing Christ provides we can
live a holy life because Christ is holy.
We should not take this lightly.
Holiness is the personal end game for us. The Lord will never put up with a single bit
of sinful waywardness. He will shred us
and consume us with His blazing fire until every bit of rebellion is gone. This happens now and we should thank God He
does not leave all this work until we come face to face with Him. The trials we face today and the hardships we
encounter now are all a gracious work of God to strip us clean and the more we
give ourselves freely to Him, the more joyfully we will walk tomorrow. If the "well done good and faithful
servant" were left to us alone, we would simply be disgraced in the
end. But the "well done good
servant" is being shaped by God in our momentary troubles and light
trials. As we turn to Christ in faith,
we find the old pernicious acrimony toward the Father and what we see Him doing
drained from us and replaced with the sweet, happy stream of Christ Himself
welling up within. The great days of our
lives are when we are surprised to find Christ seeping out of us as we go about
the normal business we have. At those
grand moments, we will grin and laugh happily that we really have been made
new!
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
streams of living water will flow from within him."
John 7:38-39 NIV
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