Front and Center

When I was a kid, the statement, "Front and Center!", when spoken by my mother, meant business. You knew without fail that you'd better go to where she was and heed what it was that she was saying. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind, or the minds of my sisters, but that what she told us to do was to be obeyed.

This morning as I was reading in Matthew 28:16-20 I read where it is written "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted." From there Jesus went on to give them their marching orders . . . we know it as the Great Commission.

The disciples, just like my sisters and I, heeded the call of 'Front and Center'. But unlike my sisters and I when our mother spoke, some doubted. Some doubted! Doesn't that seem unfathomable? Jesus Himself stood among them. The very same Jesus who had just become the victor over Satan and the grave. These men knew Jesus intimately and yet they doubted. They spent time with Him, heard His teachings directly from His mouth and saw the miracles AS HE PERFORMED THEM. How in the world could they have doubted.

This week my mentor shared with me a teaching from Dr. James MacDonald/Walk in the Word. The name of the study is called "What's Down with Hell". In it Dr. MacDonald clearly shows that his heart is burdened for those people who, because of their unrepentant hearts, will not only miss out on the unimaginable hope and joy of heaven but worse yet . . . they will forever live with the hopelessness of Hell.

Immediately I put a personal slant on the teaching. Realizing fully that I AM SAVED by His grace and that NO ONE and NOTHING can take me away from Him I, nonetheless, did take this as an opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me anything that I have willfully allowed to be a lord in my life. Willful unrepentance. We do that you know. We justify. We are sure that the God of the Universe will bend to our way of thinking. Surely He will be understanding and forgiving. But in Dr. MacDonald's teaching he mentions that life - however long we have on this earth - is our opportunity to repent from our own self-centeredness.

Jesus called us 'Front and Center' in Matthew 28:20 to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." May those around us, see in us, a life of open and willful repentance. May they see the Holy Spirit who lives within us. May they align their wills to that of Christ's and in doing so live in the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Father, may it be so.
Amen and amen.
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