After 2000+ years, how much progress have "we" made as God's people? Think of them then: expecting their Messiah to come "almost any time" just as we are expecting the same Messiah to return "almost any time now." At least, "soon." They knew 2000 years ago, just as we know now, that there must come "a great reformatory movement among God's people" in order to be ready for the Messiah. There was an atmosphere of expectancy among God's people then, as there is now. And uppermost in their minds was a question that, frankly speaking, is in ours today: "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" (John 6:28; don't say that those who asked that question were not the people of God; they were--at that time!).
Today there are seminars and sermons presented in the churches that are variations of that question. "What program, what duty, what plan, shall we DO that we might have that 'great reformatory movement' of revival in preparation for the return of our Messiah?" There is diligent study in the Bible and inspired writings that yield a multitude of quotations about duties to "do"--about health reform, diet, good works, tithes, offerings, witnessing, devotionals--almost ad infinitum. And some sincere people are brilliant and have re-phrased the question, so it reads: "What shall we NOT DO, to work the works of God?" "What worldly habit must we give up, in order to have that 'great reformation'"? And each "guru" has a new program that this time will "work," if only we will "do" it, or give up doing this or that which is "worldly." There MUST be something we can "do" (or not do) to cure the worldwide disease of lukewarmness that everybody agrees afflicts the church. We long for some program, some new idea, some committee plan from some fertile minds.
Could it be that Jesus had the solution, 2000 years ago? "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom [God] hath sent" (vs. 29). The solution is not DOING something but SEEING something. If we have a tomorrow, let's "look," do some "beholding" of something to "see."
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 1, 2001.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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