Words of Life

As I was reading in John 6, Jesus accuses the crowd of following Him just because He fed them. Then this crowd says to Him that Moses proved God was with him b/c manna came from heaven---what can you do to prove you are who you say? Jesus explains by going into the whole---I am the Bread of Life thing, and tells the people unless they eat my flesh and drink my blood they can't be my disciple. That was the test to see whose hearts really were after God or just after what God could do. At the end of the chapter it says the crowd couldn't handle what Jesus was saying so they all left Him. Then Jesus turns to the 12 and says—are you gonna leave me too? Peter replies—to whom shall we go? You have the words of life! Smart guy that Peter! Anyway, what struck me in this story is how God created this complicated situation. I am sure if we were to handle it today at a regular church service we would tell people how easy it is to ask Jesus in your heart---just pray a prayer and make it simple to understand and easy to do. This is why we have so many people calling themselves born again Christians that haven't the slightest idea of what that entails. Jesus Himself made it very complicated and even repulsive with the word picture of eating His flesh he presented. But all this was to weed out the true believers from the ones just looking for food……
So the question to ask ourselves is this----what are we looking for? Are we chasing after a relationship with God that can be complicated and uncomfortable to be a part of? Are we willing to hear stuff that sounds repulsive to our sensibilities believing that they are Words of life? These people were told by God Himself stuff that was exactly the opposite of what they wanted to hear. And they made a choice to walk away because what He said was just too hard to bear. God isn't kidding when He says He wants everything we are, everything we hope for, everything we think or do. He wants a relationship with us that will allow Him to say really hard to bear things, and us being able to receive them just by shear faith in knowing He has the words of LIFE. All life begins in darkness---the womb, seeds in the ground, in fact, in order to have life, a seed must go into the dark ground, die a solitary death, then and only then, does life begin. We have got to stop kicking against what God has allowed so our will can line up with His will. We have got to stop mourning over the Saul’s in our lives----let me explain. The prophet Samuel anointed Saul as King, and Samuel loved Saul. At one point, Saul was given a command to wipe out a city, down to the animals, and he didn't do it. God saw it, told Samuel to go tell Saul he was no longer going to be king because of his disobedience. When confronted, Saul insisted he had obeyed God even when proof was given. Only when he realized it was going to cost him his kingdom did he try to rectify the situation, but it was to late. Samuel loved Saul and mourned over the loss for a long while. Finally, God had enough and said to Samuel---how long are you going to mourn over Saul? Get up, wipe off your face, and get going b/c I want you to anoint a man named David as king in Saul's place. We do this a lot people---we mourn over the "Saul's" in our lives! Things and jobs, people and dreams that maybe once were a God thing, but disobedience has changed. God allowed Samuel more than enough time to mourn, and it's okay to mourn---for awhile. But there comes a place in our lives when we need to wash our face, and get up because God has a new future in store for us. A future that is earmarked with obedience and faith, one that is about a relationship with God and not about what or who He will provide for us. God often brings up hard things in an unpalatable way to see what we are really after. If we are after His heart, even if He presents us with difficult new paths to follow, we have to follow, because a heart in a relationship with God must say like Peter---where else could we go?—You have the words of life! V