John 7:1; “After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.”
When the church ceases to become dynamically fruitful in this world it becomes irrelevant to those around them, even more it becomes irrelevant to God. How often has Christ wanted to enter the epicenter of our lives but could not and would not because “we, the Jewish leaders” (the Christians) were always looking for some kind of way to kill or chase him out of our life?
When the heart of the church fades, when the passions and faith, the love and hope go away… Jesus goes away. When we no longer live for the heart of Christ we become blind to the fact that Christ left our building. Jesus came and said in John chapter 7; “I couldn’t go up to Jerusalem because they were trying to take my life. They are trying to take me out of the world that I created!”
When the heart of the church no longer pounds with life, Jesus no longer resides within that church. Time and time again we see churches praying crying out to God saying, “O Great God, how is it that such a loving creator can see the beggar in desperation, the beaten wounded and the crippled helpless and yet not do anything about them?” but each time God answers us with the same answer, “I did do something, I made you!” Has the church gotten so blind? Have we lost ourselves in the midst of this world? Just days ago I found my close friends in a confrontation about meaningless things and right in front of them exists a world of great need, yet neither of my friends was willing to reach out and give a helping hand. Are we so stuck on trying to justify ourselves that we lose sight of the heart of Christ? Are we so focused in the way that we choose to live life that maybe just maybe we are chasing Jesus out of our city?
Everybody comes to the conclusion that the world needs to be changed, but not many people actually see that the change needed is actually them: Even more, we the church, need to be the change that we wish to see in this world. We have to come to the place where we no longer chase our Christ out of our world but instead we must come and join Him on His quest.
If we strive to become fruitful and engage in the needs of our world we will once again open the gates of our “city” so that Christ will gladly enter. If our hearts once again become intertwined with the affairs of Christ, then our city walls will be destroyed allowing Christ to enter from every direction to teach, heal and mend the broken hearted.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Everybody can become great…, because anybody can serve. You don’t need to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subjects and verbs agree to serve… you don’t even have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”
Sitting at the table amidst His disciples Jesus began to speak saying, “drink my blood and eat my flesh”... later in the conversation he boldly states, “I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me.” This whole conversation found in the book of John chapters 13 and 14 is focused on the idea of who we are, who Jesus is and who we are supposed to be in Jesus. Without effort Jesus steps forward and says, “Guys listen to me, do you want life? Do you want to live to the fullest of abundances? Then join me in my heart, consume my blood and eat my flesh for if you feed on me and my word you shall live because I and I alone am the sole provider for life.
There is a very old rendition of the word intimacy. I heard this quite some time ago. If you break the word intimacy into three parts it sounds like this, “into-me-see.” Jesus enters our realm, our world, our life passionately desiring intimacy with us. As he bluntly invades our hearts he tells us to see into him so that we may learn to live with him. We must acquire to see into the heart of Christ so that we may learn to know him. With arms wide open Jesus looks towards us daily saying, my dear children see into me, see my goodness, my faithfulness and my love that I have for you. Come and enter in communion with me and let me journey you through my heart so that you may once again be fruitful and so that I may once again enter your world.
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