Sunday, 4 September 2011

On Time 4 the LTM + Thorough Cleaning - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-days challenge)

The most meaningful thing a human being can do - before the Lord's return with His kingdom or him being raptured to the heavens - is to enjoy the Lord and worship Him at the Lord's Table Meeting on the Lord's Day! Praise the Lord for this privilege! The Lord's Day is a new beginning - it's the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection from the dead, the real Sabbath, the day in which we all can gather to enjoy the Lord together, remember Him, and eat + drink together in the Lord's presence! Which brings me straight away to...

One Meaningful Thing I did Today - On Time for the Lord's Table Meeting + A Thorough Cleaning!

I don't know how you are in this respect, but many people I know - myself included - tend to be late especially for this, the Lord's Table Meeting. I don't know, maybe 5-10 minutes late... and sometimes I have no problem with this! I come late to the meeting, and "it's fine" with me... This doesn't mean I have a habit of being late, just that - due to unforseen or unplanned things - I somehow get to the meeting a bit late! When I get there, yes, I do exercise my spirit and participate, but recently I have been shined on by the Lord and convicted concerning this.
How comes I'm never late for work? Actually, if I'm late, I apologize, I promise I won't do it again, etc. How comes when I attend important outward events that I care for - I'm never late? How comes I'm never late when I'm supposed to meet someone at a certain time we both agreed on? How comes I'm never late for interviews? How comes I'm never late for the train or the plane - rather I plan to be there 30mins ahead or hours even? But... when it comes to meeting with the King of Kings at His table, when it comes to meet with the saints - the sons of God - to bring God praise and worship... I have almost no sense of guilt?
This is not to put guilt into people or even into me - but the Lord Jesus, the living Person within us, has something to say about this. Just contact Him and ask Him about it! That's what I did, and I was rebuked, corrected, adjusted, and exposed... so today, even though I had to take the tube (and not the bus as I used to) I made sure I was there right at 10.00am! O, the joy! O, the flow! O, the praise! I was sitting between two dear brothers and as we prayed and praised, the Spirit with our spirit... was so rich and so moving! Praise the Lord... Paying the price - YES, there is a price to pay! - to be on time at the meetings can also bring you some more practical experience and enjoyment of Christ!

This is also true about the home meetings, the prayer meetings, and all kinds of meetings - somehow we tend to get late (for various reasons) to the meeting, and... it can become a habit. Especially when you're young this is more true... In the Full Time Training you just CANNOT be late - and you learn to be regulated in this, in order to be a proper human being and a proper vessel in the Lord's hands. But what about when no one is demanding this from you - when there's no "serving one" that gets you to the meeting, but you have to do it yourself? Would you be early / on time because you just love the Lord? When we meet with the saints - this is the greatest joy on earth! It is here that our spirit never faints, and our lives are filled with worth!

The second thing, as mentioned in the title, is... THOROUGH CLEANING! I'm not sure you YOU are in this, but I both love and hate cleaning! I love cleaning and I love being clean, but at some points in time I just don't want to / hate cleaning! This doesn't mean that it's clean / messy in my room / place all the time, but it means that things pile up, the cleaning gets delayed, other more important things get in the way, etc - and the cleaning part sometimes gets forgotten! It's even more difficult when you have your own place - you don't live with people, parents don't see you to be on your case, you can "do what you want"... but many times the divine life in you and even your inward sense of being a clean-proper-human-being bothers you to CLEAN - and CLEAN THOROUGHLY!

When the divine life comes into us through our regeneration - when we are born again to be sons of God - we start a new life, and there's another Person in us. The Lord is very real and very practical. Though you may not feel anything when you tell Him daily, Lord Jesus I Love You! - yet when the time comes, when there's a practical thing happening, the Lord will be real to you within and He will speak to you specifically. He is not at peace with me enjoying the Lord in my room when my room is in a mess! Many times I repent to Him about the state of my room, the state of my heart, the state of my PC, my facebook comments and pictures, my twitter comments, etc... The Lord has something to say about everything we do/say/are! And the more we listen to Him, though we may do outward things in fellowship with Him, the more we gain Him!

So... please accept my apologies again for "using myself as an example" - I'm not different than anyone else and I'm not "special"; rather, I believe we all have this kind of experiences... - but the Lord somehow needs to make His home in our heart more! The inward enjoyment is expressed outwardly in a practical way by having Christ lived out in us - we become Jesusly human, human yet divine, proper human beings living Christ! ... to cut the story short, after such a wonderful time at the Table Meeting today there was a bothering in me, and when I got home, I was strengthened and motivated within to clean my place! Dusting, wiping, hoovering / vacuuming, washing dishes and cleaning, putting things where they belong, ironing the shirts (30mins of ironing!), arranging things, getting 2 loads of laundry done + putting them up to dry, putting out the trash / rubbish, etc... - these are just some of the things I had to do....
Lord, thoroughly clean my inward being! No separation or cloud between me and You! Shine on us, Lord, and may there be no hindrance. Keep speaking to us. Even in practical things, Lord, we want Your presence. Re-arrange the "furniture" in our heart, and strengthen us to cooperate with You even outwardly in our room, our house, our family, among the people we work / study with... Make us real Christians, real God-men!

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