When I was a boy, grocery wagons came to our door. My mother used to enjoy patronizing them. But they don't come any more. Now we must go to the market, and the grocer stays there until we take the initiative to go to where he is.
Fine. No problem. But let me ask a question: Is Jesus like the old-fashioned grocery wagons coming to your door, or is He waiting in His "shop" for you to come to Him?
He tells us that He is sending the Holy Spirit to us (John 16:7). Further, He says that means, "I will come to you" (14:18). The Holy Spirit is His presence able to be everywhere; to reject the Holy Spirit is to reject Christ. His first work is to convict us of sin (16:8), not to torment us or annoy us, but to show He loves us because to cherish sin is to "love death" (Prov. 8:36). We are closer to Christ today through the work of the Holy Spirit than the disciples were to Him over 2000 years ago.
Did you know that the Holy Spirit is God's divine alarm clock that wakes us up to remind us "it's time for breakfast"--time to receive some spiritual nourishment, some "bread of life"? We need it to energize us spiritually for another day, just as your body needs some temporal food in order to live, work, and go to school. Yes, this is Good News!
There are two texts in the Bible that make this plain: (1) Isaiah 50:4: "The Master, GOD, has given me a well-taught tongue, so I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, ... opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. ... and I didn't go back to sleep, didn't pull the covers back over my head. I followed orders" (The Message, Peterson). (2) Jesus goes door to door knocking, hoping someone will "hear My voice, and open the door" (Rev. 3:20). All this is "much more abounding grace." Don't receive it in vain (Rom. 5:20; 2 Cor. 6:1). One suggestion: get to bed early enough at night so you can "hear" Him in the morning!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 12, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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