40 Days Closer to Christ

What if they decided to hold a concert and every member of the orchestra showed up with their instruments tuned anyway they wanted? I’ve been to a few middle school concerts and I have to tell you that it wouldn’t be good. There must be some standard to which all the instruments are tuned, or else you end up with a cacophony. But not only do the instruments need to be tuned, but they need to be tuned to a Master note.

In my house I have three guitars. (Actually since my kids played rock star with one of them only two are playable, but for illustration purposes lets suppose all three can be played.) If I tune one of them to with a pitch pipe or with an electronic tuner than I am pretty sure that it is conditioned for optimal performance. Now I can go to the second guitar and tune it by the first one. And I can get around to tuning the third one by using the second. Theoretically, all three should be tuned up just right. But if I strum a note on the third one, and check it with the tuner, more than likely it will be a little flat or a little sharp. It is just not quite in tune. No matter how good my ear is, a little variation sneaks in as they get tuned down the line. All three guitars have different tones and pitches but if they are all tuned with the electronic tuner and to the same standard then they sound good together.

It is the same way with us. We can get pretty close to where we should be in our spirituality, in our righteousness, and in our walk with God by sharpening ourselves against each other, but we will always be a little off. We need to go back to the Master to make sure that we are where we need to be. It is Christ alone who is the standard by which we measure ourselves. And it is by Him alone that we will be able to perform as we should. That is why we take forty days leading up to Easter and use it to draw closer to Christ and to reestablish our discipleship.

Forty days is the optimal period to form a new habit, to establish a new practice, and to change the pattern of your life. 40 Days – Closer to Christ is an activity (we won’t use the word program) that can change your life.

Forty is a significant number in the scriptures. When God brings about change, the scriptures often represent a significant event as having a forty day duration. Noah’s world was changed forever in forty days. Moses saw God face to face and in forty days received the word which is still the basis for law and government. The city of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes and turned away God’s wrath in the space of forty days. David became a hero after all Israel cowered under Goliath’s forty day challenge. Elijah lived by faith for forty days after God sustained him with one meal. The disciples were given the mysteries of the kingdom as they were taught by the Lord during an intensive forty day seminar after the resurrection. Jesus prepared with a forty day fast for a ministry which culminated in the salvation of mankind.

We can grow closer to the Savior as we study His life and His appearances throughout scripture. We become the people we should as we strive to lead a life of diligent discipleship. In these forty days we can review and renew the vital things that bring us to the Lord. We can refresh our memories and recall the eternal truths of who God is, who we are, and how we can have a close relationship with Him. 40 Days – Closer to Christ is an opportunity to more fully develop that relationship, so that we may see as we are seen and know as we are known.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Day 35 ~ Creator (Isaiah 40:28)


I am on the road to see both the sunset and sunrise for most of the year. I have to tell you that there are some which are so breath-taking that I have to pull over and take a good long look. Brilliant colors swell and fade, leaving me awestruck by God's handiwork. Just when I think I've seen the pinnacle of beauty along comes another that supersedes all others. No two are ever alike. Beauty surrounds us. Creation is literally bursting with pleasing and inspiring variety. And it is always changing. The Lord is forever changing the face of His creation and making new beauty.

The Lord made man as the crowning work of the creation as recorded in Genesis. He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He gave commands to them. They transgressed and were cast out. But it wasn't the end. Adam and Eve didn't blow it for the human race. The creation wasn't over. Mankind was never meant to stay in the Garden. The creation wasn't complete.

1 John 3:2 says "it doth not yet appear what we shall be."

It amazes me how many different metaphors there are for God's continual work of creation in us. And how scary it is that most of those metaphors sound like the process is painful. In Jeremiah 18, the prophet is told to go down to the potter's house. He watches the potter as he shapes a vessel in his hands. But somehow the vessel goes wrong. So the potter takes the nearly complete and hardening clay and breaks it and reshapes it upon the wheel. God calls himself the potter and we are the clay. There are times when we must be broken on God's wheel if we are to be useful.

Then there is the refiner of Malachi 3. God sits as a refiner of silver. He takes the impure silver and puts it into the hot fire where it sputters and flares as the impurities are literally burned out of it. The heat is intense. But the wise refiner knows just how hot the fire and just how long the baptism until we can come forth shining as the sun. The work of creation goes on.

When C. S. Lewis' wife died, he noted that God's plan placed Him in the role of surgeon who must continue a surgery even though the patient is awake and violently protesting. Yet, the Physician must continue else "all the pain up to that point would be useless" and all would be in vain. We knew this. We accepted it. We wanted it.

If only we could see life like Chris Tomlin writes:

    I want to live like there's no tomorrow                I want to give like I have plenty
    I want dance like no one's around                       I want to love like I'm not afraid
    I want sing like nobody's listening                       I want to be the way I was meant to be
    Before I lay my body down                                  I want to be the way I was made.

Foolishly there are those who resist God in their lives. They don't understand the plan. They believe that man is, as Morris West writes, "Conceived without consent" and "wrenched whimpering into an alien universe." They want God to have nothing to do with their "creation," because they do not understand the plan.

In Hanover, Germany, a cemetery contains an unusual gravestone. A woman who didn't believe in God directed in her will that her burial place be made so secure that just in case there was a resurrection it couldn't touch her. Huge slabs of granite were fastened together with heavy steel clamps and securely placed over her grave. Engraved on the marker were these words: "This burial place must never be opened." In time a small seed germinated just beneath the edge of the stone. As it grew into a tree and its trunk got bigger, the heavy slabs were gradually shifted and the steel clamps were wrenched from their sockets. The massive pieces of granite could not withstand the dynamic life-force within that small seed. Man cannot thwart the creative power of God. It will not be complete until "all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth" (John 5:28-29).
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)