This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
-Ephesians 5:14
There is so much wisdom in Oswald Chambers’ devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. In today’s devotional (11/25), Chambers articulates the immeasurable impact of prioritizing spiritual integrity, i.e. the coherence, consistency, and integrity of our lives. Chambers explains that when we, like the Apostle Paul, “live in the basement” of life's externals, then the enemy can literally throw anything at us and we are unaffected, i.e. perfectly content.
Oswald points out that it is the critics who live on the “upper level” of life’s externals. They are the religious groupies, personality-cult campers, and modern-day Pharisees. They are spiritual snipers who critique and criticize from their disconnected and lofty vantage points of self-righteousness. They are those whom Paul specifically mentions in 2 Timothy 4:3, saying, “For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.” They are those whom King Jesus specifically mentions in Mark 7:8, saying, “Having neglected the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
Striving to impress people rather than honoring Christ Jesus is far more destructive than an exercise in mere futility. Scripture exposes that we can't do both, and attempting to do so identifies us as those on the wide path that leads to destruction. Therefore, we must, as Chambers notes, “State your beliefs to yourself again. Get back to the foundation of the Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it.”
By “your beliefs” Oswald isn't speaking of some nonsensical subjective “personal truth.” Instead, Chambers is speaking of the essential dogmas of the Christian faith (Scripture as divine revelation, eternal Holy Trinity, human depravity, Christ's exclusivity, etc.).
If we’re honest with ourselves, we have plenty in common with Old Testament Israel.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we have plenty in common with Old Testament Israel. High places abound in our lives just as they did with Israel’s corrupt kings. Sure, we’ll get excited about a community cleanup project for a while. We’re always eager and ready to tear down all of our neighbors' high places, but when the dozer of spiritual revival and renovation is in our backyard, that's precisely when we petition for efforts to focus elsewhere. It exposes that there’s an idol lingering, the very one we'll never willingly or willfully surrender in our flesh.
There’s always evidence though. There are plenty of clues that it's still alive and still has deep roots in our lives. We still meet with others about it. We still discuss it, refer to it, and even celebrate it. We have tokens, pins, holidays, and even anniversaries for it rather than giving it over completely to Christ for its crucifixion, utter annihilation, and death. As Oswald states, “If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the Cross… (what we're proclaiming with our lives) produces nothing…it may be interesting, but it will have no power.”
Many of us are still asleep and, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:14, it most certainly is time for us to wake up. We live in an elusive, illusionary, superficial, fictional, reality-disconnected, and social-media-matrix world. We present our best photoshopped, filtered, app-modified moments and versions of our families, homes, meals, ministries, and lives. Most Christians today post more about what and where they eat than what they believe or why they believe it. In doing so, we're proclaiming to the world that it’s still all about the externals.
It’s time for all Christians to move out of the penthouse suites of our entitlements...
The Apostle Paul told us he’d figured out King Jesus’ secret of being perfectly content, even while hanging upon the Cross of Calvary. Paul revealed, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” It’s not about asking Jesus into our hearts and then living in the upper room of our idolatry, criticism, and worldly externals. Instead, it’s time for all Christians to move out of the penthouse suites of our entitlements, comforts, and complaints, and relocate immediately. It's time to go where Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived, found perfect peace and contentment - the spiritual basement.
In Matthew 7:22-23, at the end of His Sermon on The Mount, King Jesus revealed, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”
The world is full of ivory towers, good causes, and lofty places of spiritual externals. No one will ever meet King Jesus there. Instead, we meet him in the spiritual basement of lives wholly abandoned and fully surrendered to Him. We meet Him on the battlefield of His mission as we suit up in the full Armor of God to take the Good News to the ends of the earth for His eternal glory.
The question isn't whether or not you know Jesus. The question is whether or not He knows you... whether you've intentionally met with Him in the spiritual basement and served under Him on the battlefield of His mission. It's all about Christ Jesus in the basements and battlefields.
Blessings,
Kevin M. Kelley
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