No Light In Being Busy

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“…Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening… (Gen 24:63)

light only in Christ
light only in Christ

Surely, we would be better Christians if we were alone more often. We could likely do a lot more if we attempted less and spent more time in retirement, and quiet waiting upon God. The world is far too much a part of us. We are afflicted with the idea disease that unless we are frenetically running around, then we are “doing nothing.” We have been trained to not believe or to practice “the calm retreat, the silent shade.” The shadow of the cross pales in our experience in favor of the “light” of our busyness, our getting, and our building bigger barns to keep our stuff in. Bigger house. Fancier car. The list is endless. We have been duped into believing that we must have “all of our irons in the fire,” as if to cover every eventuality, and we even consider that any times spent between the anvil and the fire as “lost time.”

And here we are, all caught up in our getting and our doing and our accomplishing to the point where we have little or no quality time that is set apart for quiet thinking, for talking with God as to a Friend, for looking up to heaven from where our Help and Comfort comes. We are all created to have these wide open spaces in our life. Precious moments where we leave our soul open to any sweet influence or thought which God is pleased to send us through His Word. His Voice, on earth today. How lost is the art and science of being with Jesus. Spending quality time in communication with Him and acknowledging and experiencing the fact that our life will always be better and our hearts beat with new joy and hope as we accept that His presence will go before us. And that’s not so that we can ignore Him in all our busyness and our getting. This new joy and hope that we can have in Christ will never truly be ours unless we get it to impart it to others.

My friends, the place in this picture is such a beautiful spot to stand. Yet there is a better place for us to stand as we celebrate “Immanuel, God With Us.” As God’s children, we stand at the foot of the cross, where His love ran red and our sins washed white. Praise His holy name for that is the entire reason that Jesus came to us in Bethlehem that beautiful morning long ago. As Isaiah puts it in Isaiah 60:1

“Arise, shine, for thy Light is come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.”

For the true Christian, this is something that happens every day of the year.

Arise! Arise from your quiet times with God and help make the very loud noise spoken of in Rev 14:6-7 where we find the true Christmas message, and the entire reason that Jesus came to us in the first place:

And I saw another angel flying in heaven: and with blood, he had the everlasting gospel, to proclaim to dwellers on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people;saying with a loud voice, Worship God, and give glory to him; because the hour of his judgment is come; and adore ye Him, who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water. (Rev 14:6-7, Murdock)

When was the last time that you spent serious time with Jesus to ask Him His thoughts for you personally, regarding these verses of Scripture?

This year, as we celebrate “Immanuel, God With Us,” even at this late stage in God’s judgment hour, we may rejoice that Jesus continues to offer everlasting life to the world (John 3:16). Today, the gospel message still beseeches unbelievers to give glory to God that they might escape the penalty of our sin, and arise to others in our daily life with the everlasting gospel by which we ourselves would be saved.