Shine JESUS Shine!

Eversince I graduated from SOT and started work, I have had to establish an order and discipline of seeking God and feeding on His word daily. After two months of trial and error, and sheer perseverance, I found something that worked. Since, Mon-Fri mornings would begin with about an hour of devotional and bible reading as I took my simple breakfast and coffee. Saturday mornings are my times of unrushed solitude with God and week after week, God has been faithful to comfort me with His tangible presence, teaching me the things that perplex me.

About 3 weeks back, there was a saturday that I awoke late, and as a result, threw my routine off course. It's not the first time but this time, I ruined the day with a mind hung up on spending time with the Lord but a heart that is afar off. I realised a burden weighing upon me just because I missed a morning of solitude. And I thought to myself, "This isnt what a victorious Christian life should be. I should be joyful. Why am I heavy-laden just because I didnt have my time of connectivity with the Lord this morning as usual?" And the scary thing was, I couldnt bring myself to do anything else. So I was in a state of mindless praying in tongues. This bothered me.

The following day, I was led to purchase a book by Steve McVey (don't know him prior to this) on Grace Walk. And unlike my typical reading style (to start from page 1), I flipped the book and opened to this chapter called: All I Need Is Love. That was the beginning of an increased understanding of God's grace in our lives. The author wrote about Christian performance vs relationship. We are raised and trained in a culture of performance/goal-orientation so much that it spills over to our Christian life. But God is after relationship - a connectivity of our heart first that would then lead us to do His business as He leads. Yet many of us seek to please Him with the impressive list of things that we do, none of which is going to make God love us more. Neither is He going to love us any less if we missed and fell short of 1 thing or 2! But we fail to grasp this...

The grace of God is His love that gives us the space to respond to the call unto Himself. When we choose a wrong response, His grace is sufficient to give us a 2nd chance, and another, and another. Yet we do not take for granted the God of 2nd chances. Because of an awakening to His amazing grace, I learn to not take Him and the people/things/opportunities He has given me for granted. Because of an awakening to His amazing grace, I am motivated to want to draw near to Him even more and ask Him to guide me in every little way, and not compartmentalise my life as in the past, spiritual life is spiritual life, the rest of life is the rest of life. No it doesnt work that way. I know yet I live that way. But by His grace, I have come to realise it.

The greatest realisation is that the fruit of an abiding relationship in Christ is Christ Himself manifesting through me. Gal 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." The new identity is the Christ in me, not former me who is dead and passed away. And then I realised what it truly means to "SHINE FOR JESUS." It really means SHINE forTH JESUS.

The word "for" could mean do something to/towards another; or on behalf of. Both expressions place a strong focus on the self. And people are hooked on what they can do for Jesus; what they have done for Jesus; how they have and will conduct themselves to be a good testimony for Jesus. So much of the I is emphasised when it is clear in John 3:30 that, "He must increase but I must decrease." God doesnt need us to give Him a helping hand to show Himself real and strong! Rather, the ultimate goal of our Christian life is to be more and more like Christ; to be transformed into the image of God as God has intended for us from the beginning. By that, when we have a strong relationship with the True Vine, His character, nature and life will flow out of our being. That is when we realise we do not have to remain the way that we are but let the potential, the seed of God in us develop. By this, we shall be witnesses for Christ (Acts 1:8)! Shine FORTH Jesus, my friend! #nelle#