The Stuff On The Top Shelf…

One of my children wanted to get at some treat on top of a kitchen cabinet. So the child got a chair and a stool and climbed on top of both in order to get at something desirable. There was food on the lower shelves that didn’t require all that effort (and danger!); but what the child wanted was up high & required extra thought, time, creativity, balance, risk, etc.

Loved ones that is what we are doing each Sunday morning as we go thru the Bible verse by verse like this, digging deeply, climbing high. Yes God loves us, yes the Lord Jesus died to pay the sin-penalty for all who cry out to Him in repentance & faith. That is the foundation of all Truth & we must remind ourselves of that constantly! The Good News!

But we must also partner with the LORD to BUILD on that foundation! There is a closeness with God & a joy in Truth that comes only with maturity, that comes as we put in the effort to grow, to dig, to climb, to seek the LORD with all our hearts—

There’s danger!—we’ll miss out on some things that others do because we’re putting more time & energy into seeking the LORD; we’ll certainly miss out on the sin that others are enjoying.

There’s danger—you will get MORE spiritual attacks the more you are in the center of God’s will & are maturing in Christ.

• It’s like the scorched earth policy in war—burning crops so the opposing army can’t eat—if soldiers don’t eat they don’t fight. The enemy doesn’t cut down barren/fruitless trees, enemy doesn’t burn unplanted fields of weeds—enemy attacks trees with fruit, fields with an abundant harvest.
• So it is with us as we grow in Christ—we will face danger! And the devil aims to cut us off from our food supply, tasting & seeing that the LORD is good as we feast on His Word every day…

Our sinfulness that we still carry will fuss/complain/whine/avoid at this climbing, this seeking, this digging, this growing—don’t listen! Keep going, keep digging into God’s Word, keep praying, keep meeting together to encourage each other—climb for the treat on the top of the cabinet! Goodness it’s delicious—knowing Christ deeply, maturing in Him! Let’s climb loved ones, not to get salvation as a reward but because we’ve already received it as a free gift thru repentance & faith in Jesus Christ!

To the top shelf…!