![]() 3Feb'22 No.15 ///// An IronMen Moment ///// (Designed to be passed along to men and young men in your life.) Get-Aways Have you ever stopped to count how many times the historical account records Jesus going off alone? What a contrast to John the Baptist...who came out of the wilderness to preach, teach and baptize. Whereas, the Messiah came out of a small town, practicing the tradecraft of a carpenter, and went to live in another town, Capernaum, next to the Lake of Galilee... and made a practice of *going out* from the towns, away from cities, to the desert. How interesting. Hmmm. But...why? To rest? Yes, probably. Imagine how tiring his long days of teaching might have been. To pray? Sure. The Gospel writers said so. Some demons, He told his disciples, could only be driven from their hosts BY prayer. To "recharge" as it were, and regain His energy? Very likely. He was operating in a limited human body, afterall, right? So, here's the question for us: If He who saved us, is currently teaching us, the Captain of our souls...did these things, as our example, might there be the same need for us to practice this in our lives? Do you ever get to that point in your own fatigue when you sense the need to get away? It could be physical fatigue, sure. But it might be something internal, something closer to the heart. What we've come to call spiritual need. Secularists might call it psycho-social neediness. The fact is: we are limited...and we often come to a place of need. For rest. For shelter from an emotional storm. For a respite from matters of the daily grind. For support from Him whom we serve. For guidance. For energy to keep pressing forward. "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...'." -- Isaiah 30:15, niv2. Consider that. + repentance and rest... + quietness and trust... There could be a spiritual secret in there to be mined-out and made our own. (Acts 17:11) Personally, I suffer from a dark streak of independence. My whole life, in fact. I was raised alone, left alone, abandoned by those you'd expect to care for you. So, the urge to go-it-alone is very strong. And I've dealt with this in spite of my decades-long faith in Christ. But I *have* figured-out that I'm finite. And I have figured-out that my need for Him isn't expected to "go away with age," as if I'll someday "outgrow" it, or "outgrow Him." Doesn't work that way. It struck me the other day when a Bible prophecy scholar whom I listen to observed that our heavenly access to the Tree of Life, in the New Jerusalem, right in the middle of its main streets (see the ending chapters of Revelation)...is a testament to our ongoing dependence upon the Father. We may be in eternity, and living in eternal bodies, but it doesn't mean we will exist independent of Him. He will STILL be our source of life. If that is the case in Heaven, I thought, how much moreso now? Brought to you by IronMen.
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