pastorrudytlc

We have been well trained to protect our stuff, our safety, our reputations, our agendas, and our own physical well-being and we have been expected to also do the same for our closest loved ones! But if God should come to us and invite us to “Come and Follow Me,” even if it means leaving the loft of luxury- it is never right to be content to settle to stay behind! For too long, way too many of us have learned to coddle the very comfort zones that we should be courageously ceasing to inhabit! Contrary to cultural opinion- God never promised any of His followers an easy life!  We have been bamboozled into thinking that because we believe, we deserve!  Grace is the gift of God’s refreshment that is given to us even though we don’t deserve a drop of it!  Mercy is the realization that none of us will have to receive what we really do deserve which, by the way, is not a custom made mansion just over the hilltop.   

Service without sacrifice is superficial! Jesus left the greatest comfort zone in the universe and was willing to come to my graveyard just to resuscitate and rescue me! Why would I give him such a hard time when he just asks me to walk across the street and share a random act of kindness with a stranger in danger? The only response that we should ever give at all to the Lord when He begins to stir us is “Here I am Lord, send me!”  Why not be ready to abandon it all for the sake of the call? Isn’t being included in the work that God is doing here and being given personal and specific assignments from him the only real joy of Christianity anyway?  I wasn’t saved to be safe and to sit around!  I was redeemed to be released into the flow of God’s intervention in what is happening on planet earth now that will lead to the kingdom to come then!  Why would I forfeit eternity because I want to be satisfied with one selfish day?    

It is all about coming to God to get going for God!  Obeying him doesn’t mean that all will go your way especially if he has bigger plans for you being part of God getting his way!  We will be asked to leave the bunker if we want to be part of the real battle for souls!  Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive and love isn’t love until it is given away freely and without strings attached!  It means going anywhere- anytime- to anyone that the Lord may send us to!  He will equip us and escort us the entire way even if it means travelling to some dangerous destinations!  As a matter of fact, I have learned that it is safer to be serving in a mine field if that is where God wants you!  You are better off there than you would ever be if you think that you are going to be nice and cozy and kept from harm hidden away at home if you know God wants you elsewhere! It is perfectly normal and alright  to shudder at some of the things the Lord asks us to do, but it is never acceptable to shirk the responsibility to show up for duty!

Sometimes following your heart is not your best guide if it is getting in the way of you being totally available as an instrument in the hands of the Living God!  To go God’s way, we must be prepared and willing to say “Goodbye” to our coping mechanisms that prevent us from walking the high wire with Jesus.  Faith is the only safety net we will need because he will not allow us to fall into a crevasse of nothingness!  It is time for us to abandon all comfort zones and put them up for sale and evacuate them before we suffocate from all the stuff that wants to hem us in from God’s wide open space of his grace!  Turn down the noise of society that wants to deafen you to his heavenly words that lead to real life!  Open your eyes and see God’s purposes for us!  Ships are safe in the harbor but that is not what the big vessels were made for!  And we were saved to do lots more than creative pew sitting!  I will not allow my lust for comfort and my giving in to my anxieties and fears to prevent me from doing and going and being what the Lord has always dreamed for me! 

It is time and we are the ones who need to dive into the waves of God’s will!  I have to go out every day and give God everything that I have and when I am willing to serve him empty handed- he makes sure that I never leave empty hearted! Some people show more glory in their dying than so many ever do in their living!  I don’t want to be one of them!  I don’t want to be taking up space in a life boat if I can still hear the screams of a brother or sister who is stuck in the raging seas!  I want to take the love of Jesus to the streets, the office, the schools, the gyms, the plants, the stadiums, the prisons, the nursing homes, the neighborhoods and the surrounding community!  I want to be willing to stand fast and be strong and put my own selfishness aside so that somebody else can be rescued and somebody new can be redeemed!  Let us no longer be content to be constrained to our comfort zones!  It is time to return to going away again!