Please understand I do not tell my story to draw attention to me and if that appears to be the case then dismiss that immediately...you see my story isn't really my story at all because the story was written a long time before I ever existed; written in the long hand of the God of all glory. That is a pretty amazing thought don't you think? In fact it is a difficult thing to think about at all but that makes it no less true...anyway we will get back to that in another post.
In July 2012 I travelled to Cambodia. I have been to that precious country many times and Cambodia and her people are intimately interwoven into the fabric of my life. They are a part of me and that relationship was determined and established by God.
The July 2012 trip however was different from any other,...(the others all had their part to play and those trips and the interaction I had with my people there were all contributory in laying a foundation. It is like God was building a maginificent building but before He could raise up the ediface of the building in all its beauty, and complete the detail of the interior it was necessary to lay a firm foundation. This is right as any construction engineer will know!)...it was different for the following reason.
On the July trip God provided me with someone and I had many conversations with this person who today has become a most precious brother. All these conversations were impactful for me but in a strange sort of way, it can only be God, they all reached a pinnacle in a conversation that concluded with my brother making the following statement...
"Jesus is EVERYTHING".
Okay I sense some incredulity at the simplicity of this statement but please come with me because in that one simple statement is, well...what else can I say but this, in that one simple statement is EVERYTHING.
Mathematics says that 1 + 1 = 2 but I have learnt something new, 1 + 1 = 1.
What?
I am going to address this in future posts to this blog so please encourage me by following it but for now I want to quote from a book I have read...
"The Christian life may be summed as the consciousness that He (that is Jesus) lives within us, and we draw upon His infinite life in every situation we find ourselves in. This means that as we grow in Christ and become mature, we will have an increasing sense of our own weakness that we might no longer trust in ourselves and so proportinately live from His strength". (Malcolm Smith, The Power of the Blood Covenant)In preparation for the next post on this subject I want you to think about the word "abide". What does the word mean? What does that word mean to you? When Jesus said "Abide in Me" what was He saying? If you want something to read in preparation then read John 15 from the Bible. Great book! If you haven't looked at it before give it a try.
Have a great day.
