Recently I went for a nice casual ride through the countryside. It was nice for a change to see nature, people swimming, the beach. It was refreshing. I had a beautiful swim. Free. Wonderful. Yet, at exactly the same time, in exactly the same manner, a person is gripped with fear. They dented the chassis with great pressure points, loosened the handle grip, and were in fear of their life. The beach was not a swimming place, and ghost white was the colour of the day (poetic license). What does it mean? Like always in life, we see the same thing from different perspectives. An exhilarating ride, or something to be squirmish at. I understand more and more, we are different. We see differently, we react differently to all life throws at us. Yet, the amazing thing, in spite of our totally different outlook at life, we see Jesus as our Saviour. One and Only. What a mass of characters we are, yet the LORD knows us as individuals. In this way, we are all different. Very different. Yet, one of the objectives of every army boot camp, is to come out united and focussed on one goal, one objective. A rabble, turned into an effective fighting machine. Do not say it can’t be done. It is. All the time. Everywhere; from army to church. Different characters aside; the goal is to be turned into a SEAL. You retain your character, identity, yet your focus of life is strictly goal orientated. You are focussed as ONE BODY to achieve ONE GOAL. As such, you have your own identity, you live your own life, you have your own job and physical family. But this is NOT the body in 1 Cor 10: 17. In this verse IS the Body of Christ, the church, the spiritual body. And there is ONE GOAL, Rom 8: 29. To be conformed to Christ, means the exact opposite of Rom 12: 2 - do not be conformed to the world. You can only be conformed to the one or to the other. Conformed to Christ or conformed to the world. That has nothing to do with our physical lives, though it does. This has to do with spirituality. It has to do with training so as to be one well-oiled machine, with a sole purpose of being Christ’s people here on earth, living, being, seeing, things - as the LORD does. This takes a lifetime, with many mistakes along the way. It requires self-sacrifice. Of what? Self, of course. It requires being formed into an arrowhead, a shaft, an effective weapon, for one purpose, and that is to be used by the LORD. It takes a long time, for self, to be taken out of self. We see a glimmer, but it is only a glimmer, till we remove self out of the equation. This is hard. Yet, what is most important, is that we all move forward, at the respective pace given to us, so that we all achieve that one goal, unity in Christ. As a SEAL team, they must only be focussed at the task at hand. We too, should be focussed at the task at hand, whilst also looking ahead, how to fulfil, the current task at hand. We don’t look ahead at the next task, for we do not know, this may well be our last mission. So, let’s put all we have in the current mission - It may be our last. Most people are in one job. Dissatisfied. Looking ahead to the next job. They are not effective in their current job, as their heart is not there. And they will not be effective in the next job, for they will look ahead to the next job after that. Be effective, in where you are. It may be your last. Yes, in the next life I may well be a NASCAR driver or a MOTOGP rider. One thing I do know, it reflects me - full throttle open; foot to the floor; pedal to the metal. I know no other way. That’s me. You?
MCC Admin
20 Kislev 5781