Are You
EMPTY ?
We Try
to Fill the Emptiness of our lives with everything... Except JESUS
We work.
We go to
school.
We marry
and raise children.
We
pursue careers and advancements.
We buy.
We sell.
Sometimes
we buy a BIGGER house, lots of rooms to renovate into the current styles and
LOTS of yard to manicure.
We rent,
too, and thus we re-locate a lot.
Then
again, we sometimes move to a little apartment in order NOT to manicure our
living quarters and expansive, growing yard. We avoid
“that kind” of busy-ness.
What
does any of it accomplish?
Other
than basic --- and I do mean BASIC --- necessities for our health and care of
those we are responsible for, what does this constant involvement in this
temporal world accomplish for our souls ?
Nothing ?
Wrong.
WORSE
than nothing.
We stay
busy and concerned with all manner of temporal matters which touch our lives
and of which ( we think ) we have control ( i.e., as many options as our money
will buy or our lender will allow.)
Then we
are in debt.
What has
been accomplished ?
Nothing.
Actually
, worse than nothing.
After
the last room has been renovated, the last bloom planted, fed, and trimmed
back, and the last loan has been paid off... we are still empty, devoid
of REAL Life in the inner man. … emptier than ever before !
Our
lives, unfortunately, have become emptier and emptier of REAL life. Things of
this world DRAIN us of that real life.
Why is this so ?
Inanimate
objects simply have NO life in them. The more we pursue them, the emptier we
become.
Man's life DOES NOT consist in the abundance of things he
possesses, or THINKS he possesses, or Things that POSSESS him.
More
significantly, they HINDER us from accessing true Life. They clutter and impede
our pursuit of REAL Life.
Life, as
we see it, is not tangible. It cannot be touched. It consists of
"something" NOT visible or touchable... like love.
Love is
not something that can be seen with the eye, touched with the hand, or bought
with money. If demanded or grasped, Love eludes the Demander and Grasper.
Life ---
REAL Life in the inner man --- is like that too. It cannot be BOUGHT
with money. One cannot "demand" Life nor greedily grasp it at
will.
The
effects of having REAL life bear witness to it, but truthfully, LIFE which
operates in the inner man cannot be seen with the eye nor touched with the
hand.
REAL
Life comes from JESUS the
LORD. There is no substitute for the Life HE+ brings in the inner man.
HE+ changes us from being a dead soul into a
living spirit when we share His+ death.
Yes,
share His+ death.
We will
never have a garden if the seeds remain huddled together in a dry packet.
Each
and every seed requires moisture before it will sprout. Either in soil or in a sprouting jar, the
seeds need moisture.
They
absorb the moisture even through their hard hulls or coats and swell
INTERNALLY.
Then
they send a shoot, a sprout, through that hull. If in soil, the sprouts will continue on to
grow into little plants and the hulls will fall away and dissolve into the
ground, their job being completed.
Now...
what if the hulls REFUSED to function as all hulls are supposed to do... and
instead, harden themselves as best they could ?
What if
they secretly AVOID coming in contact with any moisture ( sigh --- What a job!
) ?
What if
they gather about them all manner of rocks and stones and bits of plastic,
trying to prevent their demise?
We laugh…
knowing
seed coats never function like that. They do not function like that because
their Creator DID NOT
GIVE THEM A CHOICE.
But, we
humans DO function like that because GOD did indeed give us a choice at our creation.
We dig
in our heels and steadfastly avoid anything that might water the Word+ of GOD which we inadvertently have heard.
If our
consciences DO rise up and bother us, we drown those well-meaning voices out in
busy-ness over our concerns of the day.
We
gather pieces of rock and stone and bits of plastic all around us to prevent
our demise, refusing to look at Truth.
The
Truth, that is,
that
all flesh will die.
This
TRUTH has been screaming at us since
we realized that our puppies and kittens and goldfish are not breathing or moving
about any more. They cannot communicate
with us in any way. They are dead and will have to be buried else they stink.
But now,
as adults, we pretend that by hardening our hulls, by gathering stones and bits
of plastic about us, that our outer man will not perish like all flesh.
JESUS told us differently. HE+ said it in many ways.
HE+ said,
I+,
I+ AM the
Way,
the
Truth,
and
The Life.
No man
comes to The
FATHER
except
through ME+.
HE+ was not bragging.
HE+ was simply stating a fact of life ... a very IMPORTANT
FACT. And if we will accept it, THE MOST
IMPORTANT FACT of both Life and Death found in the Universe !
JESUS is the Way.
HE+ is the Way to live in this temporal world so that
we avoid filling our lives with EMPTINESS.
JESUS is the TRUTH. HE+ Who+ never lost His+ integrity in sin tells us how to come to The FATHER for REAL Life.
JESUS is the LIFE. HE+ died so
that we might live. We die to Self and
live unto JESUS
CHRIST in order to be
given REAL Life ... both here and beyond the grave.
What shall we choose ?
To die
to Self and have REAL Life with JESUS ?
--- Or
---
To cling
madly onto "our" little world
inside
the hull ... which will be taken from us
at the
appointed time.
You
see, the seeds can NOT keep their hulls intact once moisture touches them in a
jar or in the ground.
Likewise,
we can NOT keep our hulls intact, our outer coats pristine, once we are placed
in the ground. They dissolve, just like the seed-coats.
Nor can
we keep them once the Water of the Word+ affects them.
We
either sprout, are planted,
and grow,
bearing fruit,
as our
Old Hull falls away
--- OR ---
we ROT and DIE in our SINS.
JESUS said,
I+
I+ AM
the
WAY,
the
TRUTH,
and the LIFE;
no man comes to The FATHER
except through ME.+
Are you EMPTY ?
Then
YIELD your Life to JESUS, die out to Self, and you will bear fruit in
HIM+.
EMPTY ?
You
won’t be empty…
IF you are bearing Fruit.
+ + +
