"You [heard] My word to you in Acts. You must now trust truth, not your experience or your blessings. I most fully revealed the truth you must hear and know and believe to the servant I chose to most greatly suffer. [Romans] lays the foundation of truth on which you must build your life. Read it carefully. Your fruitfulness depends on it." 66 LLI've been looking forward to Romans! It's my kind of book - logical and straightforward. The foundation of truth. It gives me answers to the basic questions in ways I can understand. It's the unvarnished truth, the gospel spelled out for all to see.
The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. (3:21)I was thinking that I had it all figured out, what these five days in Romans would entail. And then Larry Crabb surprised me as I read the Romans chapter in 66 Love Letters:
"It's time for you to pass through the corridors where truth is carefully outlined on the walls, where those who fail to realize that the corridor is but a hallway leading to a far better place do nothing but take notes. They mistake the truth that is living water for the dry dust of mere facts. These parched souls endlessly analyze the composition of the water I've provided but never seem to realize it was meant for drinking...
Organize your thinking into clear doctrine. Truth matters. Doctrine matters. Orthodoxy matters. But keep moving, not beyond truth but into truth...Let your time in the corridor achieve its purpose, to increase your capacity to drink more and to strengthen you to swim further, further away from shore, in sight of home."I'm intrigued. I don't fully understand what he's saying. Being left-brained, I know I tend to elevate truth and intellect above most other things, especially when it comes to my spiritual life. I'm eager to see what the Lord is going to show me through Romans. What in the world have I been missing??
"Bringing truth from the heavens into the small space of my head and thinking I have it all or, at least, far more than I do - God, that's me. What foolishness. What arrogance...
Father, is [this] why I so often feel more organized in my thinking than joyful in my heart, more thoughtful and proud than free and humble?
There is no refreshment in describing water. Test its purity before you drink it, make sure it's not Kool-Aid - that's what can and must be done in the corridor. But then drink it. You may never understand how water refreshes you, but that it does, you will not doubt." 66 LLOh, I have so much to learn! Lord, teach me to move into Your truth. Help me to recognize the corridor, to see what's beyond the hallway, and to actually drink the living water You offer.
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Happy Thanksgiving, my friends! I hope this is a day of great joy and tremendous gratitude for all that the Lord is doing in You.
2 comments:
Romans is already going too fast. I have so much to learn, to drink. Lord, slow it down for me so that You can do the major surgeries on my heart and in my life. I know they're so needed.
Ouch, God:
Romans 2:1
Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors.
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