The Road Most Traveled

May 30, 2014

The Road Most Traveled

“No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.”

John 5:44

Jonah’s epiphany, “For my salvation comes from the Lord alone” (Jonah 2:9), was lost on the religious leaders confronting Jesus. Jesus told them they could not believe in him as God’s Messiah because to do so required them to take their eyes off of their own self-efforts to make themselves right with God. There is still a lot of that going around in our performance-based-acceptance culture.

There is a huge temptation in our American culture to transfer what works in the economic systems of the world to the spiritual life. Surely the success of the self-made person, operating in the market places of the world, will find similar success applying the same standards to their spiritual life. Certainly their attributes of self-discipline, SMART goals, and hard work will transfer well to the spiritual realm.  Actually you can build a good life through spiritual self-effort, for a while. Eventually though, the reality of Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall,” will come crashing down on the self-made person.

The challenge for the followers of Jesus is to find the balance between being an active, engaging doer of the Word and resting in the incomprehensible love of God. Martha’s sister Mary discovered this balance sitting at the feet of Jesus and she heard Jesus affirm her choice: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42a).

The Apostle Paul, reflecting on his life as a religious leader and Pharisee, made the same discovery as Mary: “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9).

I made this same discovery and when I knelt to be ordained, I opened my Bible to this passage in Philippians. I have also discovered something else. Because the temptations of the American culture are so insidious, I must rediscover Mary and Paul’s discovery with regularity, lest I find myself taking the road most traveled.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.