All Access All the Time
Good Morning,
It will soon be road construction season in many parts of the country. And accompanying that season are road signs that change our patterns of movement. Signs like “Road Closed”, “Detour Ahead”, “Alternate Route Advised” and “Local Traffic Only” come to mind. Essentially these signs prohibit access to certain places we want to go.
This same thing can happen in our walk with God. There can be places in our life where we restrict access to Him. Areas where we want to be king or queen and thus don’t allow God’s access to influence how we live. Although it is hard to admit it, we are essentially trying to keep God in his place.
When we accept Christ into our life things should be different. Different because we have not just received a face-lift or renovation. We have been reborn and recreated (2 Cor. 5:17). That means we aren’t simply trying to apply Christian principles to the different facets of our life. We are instead living an entirely new life – in Christ. A life that flows out of Christ at the center of everything thus changing the way we think, respond, react and love. No more restricted access.
I like the way Joseph Benson describes it. By living faith and the indwelling of his Spirit; if any man have an interest in and union with him (Christ); he is a new creature - there is a new creation,in the soul of that man. His understanding is enlightened, his judgment corrected, and he has new ideas and conceptions of things. His conscience is informed, awakened, and purged from guilt by the blood of Jesus. His will is subjected to the will of God, his affections drawn from earth to heaven, and his dispositions, words, and actions, his cares, labours, and pursuits, are all changed.1.
Why is this so important? Because perhaps like never before, people are sceptics. They are quick to judge others as frauds and hold them to standards that they may not even hold themselves to. There is a hunger for something genuine and relevant. And Sunday morning expressions of this are inadequate. Coffee dates with our Christian friends will not suffice. To have an impact on this world courageous authenticity will have to show up in the everyday, hard, uncomfortable places of our life. The “Road Closed” sign will have to come down and the Holy Spirit will have to enter in and transform our attitudes and our actions; all of them. Nothing else will do.
You may find this blunt. You may find it hard. I do and I am writing it! Admittedly we are all works in progress and will still make mistakes. Yet, of this I am convinced. Our life in Christ is an all-inclusive, all-in, every day, every moment, every decision, every relationship, every word, every room of our house life. It is our in the car life, at the restaurant life, at the office life, on our smart phone life, at the ball game life and at the DMV life. It is our life in the noise of the crowd and our life in the stillness of a sunrise. It is our life when no words will suffice and when no words are needed.
May God’s indwelling presence transform us and in doing so, edify others.
Live on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein
- Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testament
