From Fellowship, To You: Sunday, 10/7

Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. - Colossians 3:2

So often in life, I get caught up in the activity. I find myself wrapped up in getting things done and passing the time, all the while focused on it seems like everything but God. At the start of this week, that's all I did. Satan moved upon seeing my weakness (complete lack of focus), and I started living a very self-centered, self-protective, self-devoted, self-indulgent life which leads to a lot of the things found in verse 5 if you read the passage. It wasn't really a good start. It's so easy to lose focus. It's so vital not to. How can I think of heaven, how can I think of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ enthroned and remain selfish? I can't. How can I live as God has called me to if I've set my mind on earthly things? I can't. Therefore I must, we must, do whatever it takes to have our minds ever set on Jesus, letting everything He is about rule in our minds and hearts, and in so doing die to the evils of this world and bring to it the goodness of the kingdom where Christ reigns.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. - Jesus (John 6:38)

Cool. I'm imagining this in my own life and it is absolutely beautiful. Can you picture it? Imagine having no spiritual thirst inside of you. Imagine liquid life making up the essence of your being. Can you comprehend the freedom? Can you feel the joy? Can you sense the wholeness? The peace? The power? To add to it, if you read on in the Scripture it says that these streams of living water (note the plural) are the Holy Spirit. If you look back at what Scriptures in the past have used the metaphor of living water (even specifically streams of living water) to describe, it is God Himself (see, I believe, Jeremiah 2:13). Yahweh inside of us. The great God of everything, streaming through us like living water, and not just that, but flowing "from within." This implies an outward movement. This includes an inner life full of the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, but is not limited to that inner life. Jesus paints a picture of this inner world brimming with so much life that it flows into the world around us. It changes the world around us, the people around us. The overflow of God's life in us always has a Godly impact on the people around us.

May our inner lives be filled. May we always recognize that the great I AM abides in us and equips us not just to be alive, but to bring that life into the lives of others. May we live with such obedience, such understanding of God's love for us, such Spirit-filled faith that the God of life flows through us into the world. And May He alone be glorified.