December 2019 – Pursuing Purpose

A few weeks ago Pr Jonathan (senior pastor at BTC) preached about ‘God At Work – Preparing for His Return’ and it touched on something that has been stirring deep within me. It’s a subject not too often talked about and often connected with weird and wacky ideas that can be rather off-putting, yet it is a reality that we need to have centre-stage in our lives.

Living with an awareness that Jesus is the ‘soon coming King’ affects the way we live. Yet it’s all too easy to get caught up in the busyness of life and become unaware. Last Sunday’s message was a reminder and a wake-up call. (You can click on the link above to listen to it if you want to hear more).

One of the things that struck me in a new way that Sunday, was that ALL will see Jesus returning. It won’t be missed, it won’t be quiet, it won’t be unnoticeable. And those that know Him and have awaited His return will be both shaken and in awe, and those that have rejected Him or denied His existence will run terrified, crying even for the rocks to cover them.

So what does it mean for us to live in the light of the truth that Jesus is coming again? How DOES that affect our every day lives?

I believe that first and foremost it is a heart issue. Is Jesus first in my heart? Is He the centre? Do I pour out my love to Him daily? Jesus is returning for a pure and spotless bride – am I giving myself to Him daily to be made pure, to be cleansed, to be prepared? How I do I do that when the demands of the day are such that I don’t have a regular time set aside to pray and read early in the morning and by the evening have such a battle staying awake? Y’all, God gives grace and He gave us our children, but 4 girls aged 2-6 are exhausting!! The battle IS real. And it is a matter of the heart.

Reading the Word and being saturated in God’s Truth is central to living with an awareness of Jesus’ return. After all, it is the Bible that speaks much about His return and points to it throughout… the culmination of God’s plan of redemption and salvation for the earth. Without that we wouldn’t have any awareness or know how we are called to live. So we read, and we pray, and we seek to live and pray what we read.

There’s a wonderful song a friend sent me a couple of months ago – Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me by CityAlight – it quickly became my favorite because it encapsulates the truth that it is all about God anyway – my role is to yield to Him, surrender the entirety of my life to Him and to let Him have His way in me – He does everything else to get me to the goal.

¹²“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

With an awareness that Jesus is coming soon (and even my understanding of what ‘soon’ means is surrendered to the Lord – He knows the timing, I don’t, but He does give indications and warnings to prepare us) we seek to press on, to stand when the enemy resists us and when storms come, and to trust that through Christ in me, I will overcome and be made ready. And we seek to prepare our girls – in the midst of the daily routines and the stress and strain and busyness of life – with the hope that they will live lives worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called (Eph. 4:1) We do it by no means perfectly, but we press on.

There’s much more pondering on this, but it’s late and it’s already taken me weeks to find snippets of time to write! We are currently packing the house up ready to move a week on Saturday. We have no idea where we are going yet, but are praying and waiting on the Lord’s faithful provision. It has surely been a fight to remain in a place of faith (and we can’t say we’ve been consistently victorious by any means), but today in prayer we were encouraged by the testimony of David encouraging Himself in the Lord and seeing things established that changed the course of battles, peoples, etc. We believe that whatever God is doing in the season of great uncertainty and challenge and waiting, is for purpose beyond just us. And we rejoice in that. And we’ll share the testimony when it comes!!

One last song – Even So Come by Chris Tomlin is a beautiful cry and declaration of Jesus the soon-coming-King.

All of creation
All of the earth
Make straight a highway
A path for the Lord
Jesus is coming soon

Call back the sinner
Wake up the saint
Let every nation shout of Your fame
Jesus is coming soon

Like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be a Church ready for You
Every heart longing for our King
We sing “even so come”
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come

There will be justice, all will be new
Your name forever, faithful and true
Jesus is coming soon

Oh, like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be a Church ready for You
Every heart longing for our King
We sing “even so come”
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come

So we wait
We wait for You
God, we wait
You’re coming soon