Daily Devotional

Within a few months of my salvation, I became very zealous for all to receive what I had.  How many church goers, like I had been, did not even know about getting saved?  I did some street witnessing.  I gave my testimony wherever I could.  It happened often.  I shared with my high school students.

I was appointed with another man to begin a youth center downtown in Reedley.  We called it the Streetlight.  I stopped coaching basketball, my old passion, so I could give my whole heart to the church.  I even worked on the church grounds for hours one summer.  I was eventually called to be an elder of the church.  More zeal.

They all seemed the right things to do, but the pace soon caught up with me.  I developed what I was sure was an ulcer.  I was also near to a nervous breakdown, I believe.  I could not even catch my breath, night or day.  I tried harder, and it all got worse.

I went through a great emotional and spiritual crash.  I gave up.  I had to.  I threw myself on Christ in a way I never knew.  I made life changing decisions, never before even considered.  I decided to live an extremely simple Christian life.  I saw it as a defeat.  It was merely an expedient step – change things or become sick and die!

I did what I had never heard anyone do, in all my 5 ½ years as a believer.  I gave up.  I took on a “one thing” life, like David shared in Psalm 27.  I had to simplify to survive.

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.
Psalm 27:4 (NASB)

In doing so I experienced joy, and peace.  I died to myself, even to my spiritual goals.  I started living with no goals.  Rather, I chose to live one day at a time.  Even one step at a time.  Simple.  It was all I could handle.  Enjoy it.  Do it well.  But only one thing.  Then later, another.  It became for me Life, beyond belief!

I discovered the wonder of God working, while I was not (Hebrews 4:10). I saw that God’s way was simple. The simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).  I had made faith a kind of striving perfectionism.  More is better!  But Jesus said that even a mustard seed of faith would enable us to move mountains and that nothing would be impossible for us (Matthew 17:20)!  I had taken hold of the kingdom as a scholar zealot, with relentless boldness and effort.  But I discovered that we are to receive it as a child would, in a simple way, or not at all (Luke 18:17).

Then came the pastoral call, out of nowhere!  It came because of this weeks long process, and its observable products.  I was to be that childlike, simple, restful pastor.  I was to teach the people in the church how to live that way, also.

We tend to make the Christian life complicated, and difficult.  The Spirit makes it simple and childlike.  You do not have to be a scholar to get saved.  You do not have to be a zealot to accomplish the kingdom.

In fact, I believe we must enter His rest to accomplish the kingdom (Hebrews 4:10–11)!  The work comes from surrender to Him, His Spirit and His ways.  Not more efforts.  Ceasing from our works make way for His works to grow up before our eyes, like young plants in fertile soil.  We then will know we did not do it!

The more the work is ours, the greater the loss.  It is one thing.  Dwelling in God’s temple.  Beholding His beauty. Then watching the product of that environment unfold before our eyes.

Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God (Psalm 92:13).

New American Standard Bible (NASB)Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation