Life changed for me with one step - one bad step. I have a broken foot with a metal pin in it now. I won't be able to put weight on that foot for several weeks because of one step. Some things I am learning about one step:
One step, just one wrong step cannot be un-taken. It was a step I took without seeing the changes in the San Antonio River Walk in front of me. I was unaware of what that step would mean but it does not change the consequences and I can not retrace my steps and change things after that one step.
One step leads to another. After that step, changes began to take place and I have a new path to follow. I will be taking steps down that path but not with my left foot. Christmas plans had to be changed or cancelled. A mission trip to the Dominican Republic goes on without me and my wife. I have to alter pretty much everything I do now - eating, bathing, sleeping, dressing and just getting from Point A to Point B. They all have to be done differently now. All requiring much more effort and much more time, because of one step.
One step I took, affects everyone around me. Family Christmas plans, church services, every day life schedules all had to be changed. People's lives were affected. A whole surgical crew had to add me to their busy schedule on Christmas eve because of my one step. I am very grateful for everyone who stepped up because of my step.
My one wrong step brings home the power of a single sin - a single unthinking decision and its consequences. A lot of the things I have just written about are true also because of one wrong spiritual step as well as a wrong physical step. I cannot undo my wrong spiritual steps, not a single one. My wrong spiritual steps lead to another, they have an impact on everyone around me. Just one wrong step.
But sometimes we don't see the power of a single positive step. It can change things for the good and have just as many positive consequences with one right step. One step in obedience, even "unthinking" obedience can be a very powerful thing. One obedient step leads to others, because of one step life is changed and by one step other people's lives are impacted. Usually when the positive happens we don't notice as much as the negative but it doesn't mean it is not as powerful.
This Sunday (Lord willing) we will talk about one step and how to carefully choose our steps. Oh, the power of a single step.
for the journey...
Tim
Showing posts with label Obedience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obedience. Show all posts
Friday, January 2, 2015
Monday, March 11, 2013
Moving to Follow
At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” Luke 4:42-43
I appreciate in a new way what Jesus is going through here. He begins his public ministry with forty days of fasting, praying and temptation in the wilderness. He then heals and teaches many but when he comes to his home town of Nazareth he is rejected to the point that people who have known him all his life want to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30).
Jesus then goes to the people who are responding and that is where we see the scripture above. After a time of prayer, Jesus senses God's direction to move on, even though people want him to stay there, he needed to move on in the mission of the kingdom of God.
That is why a group of us are in the valley on a mission trip. Jesus would later tell his disciples (Acts 1:8) that they would be his witnesses in the town they were in, in the state they were in but also in the neighboring region where people were of a different culture and also to the ends of the earth. To follow Jesus is to be on the move and to know it is not about being accepted or staying just where you see a response. Following Jesus means starting where you are but also going where he leads and he is always on the go. It means leaving a place of acceptance to risk the unknown.
This scripture was very important to me several years ago when I moved my family 60 miles east to come to Victoria. I was in a place I knew and in a place where I was known. I had seen God move. But that statement of Jesus about taking the good news to "other towns also, because that is why I was sent" weighed heavily upon me. God spoke to me through it. I moved. Is he speaking to you? How are you willing to move to follow?
For the journey...
Tim
I appreciate in a new way what Jesus is going through here. He begins his public ministry with forty days of fasting, praying and temptation in the wilderness. He then heals and teaches many but when he comes to his home town of Nazareth he is rejected to the point that people who have known him all his life want to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30).
Jesus then goes to the people who are responding and that is where we see the scripture above. After a time of prayer, Jesus senses God's direction to move on, even though people want him to stay there, he needed to move on in the mission of the kingdom of God.
That is why a group of us are in the valley on a mission trip. Jesus would later tell his disciples (Acts 1:8) that they would be his witnesses in the town they were in, in the state they were in but also in the neighboring region where people were of a different culture and also to the ends of the earth. To follow Jesus is to be on the move and to know it is not about being accepted or staying just where you see a response. Following Jesus means starting where you are but also going where he leads and he is always on the go. It means leaving a place of acceptance to risk the unknown.
This scripture was very important to me several years ago when I moved my family 60 miles east to come to Victoria. I was in a place I knew and in a place where I was known. I had seen God move. But that statement of Jesus about taking the good news to "other towns also, because that is why I was sent" weighed heavily upon me. God spoke to me through it. I moved. Is he speaking to you? How are you willing to move to follow?
For the journey...
Tim
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