Intense

Now that finding an image is such a reinforcing part of my blog posts, sometimes the images hit me just as hard as the commentary. This pic - this guys eyes are about as intense as I've ever seen.

Define intense - what other concepts come to mind? Serious, passionate, captivated, energized....
It seems to be a word where you rely on the idea that people know what it means better than your ability to explain it.

Remember the first time you learned that there was a hell and what it’s like was described to you?
Remember the first time you learned that Jesus would return to retrieve His saints? Some would be taken and others wouldn’t.
Remember the first time you heard that not everyone GETS to go to Heaven?
I most certainly do. Those were some serious things that at the time, changed everything.

If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've heard quite a few concepts, quite a few Scripture verses, and likely, quite a few sermons...more than a few times.
Now it’s not my intention to lean toward any idea of dullness. Actually, there are many sermons that I never tire of. My main concern is, I want to have us be aware of dulling….becoming too complacent or too comfortable. More to the point, having our intensity diminished.

I remember as a child, first hearing a wide variety of “Bible” things. Initially, these things found me awestruck! They were ‘almost’ unbelievable things about the dead rising from their graves, people being caught up in the rapture and Christ Himself, demolishing an entire army with a word from his mouth. Now, it seems that something unfortunate has happened. What used to be “awestruck” has now grown familiar, and now finds me comfortable. What initially provoked and inspired, now momentarily excites, but then fades. It's not that those things aren't still very true. It's not that they're less real. I guess they're just less of an intensity about it.

All I can take from that is, there’s probably be a ‘dulling’ side to having to continue in this fallen world. I know I trust Him, I know His Word is true, and I know it will be fulfilled in time. But how do I act? Does my devotion look like it did when these things were new? In my mind, I know I don’t have the energy to stay as excited as I initially was. But if that’s true, then I’m sure God knows it too and in that, I don’t imagine that He expects the wow factor to continue….but what does He expect in regards to the impact His word should have on us?

Here’s The Word:

1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Notice this word, fervently. It signifies and conveys "intensity". So in light of that – knowing I don’t have to (and really can’t) stay wondrously excited – Here’s what I must purpose to do. First, take a real and rational look at where “dulling” comes from. I believe it comes from the world. The Bible says that God’s mercies are NEW each morning, which means that He has something new, every new day. God already displays the kind of tenacious, dedicated and compassionate intensity that He expects from us. I believe we get things mixed up when we start seeing the spiritual with natural eyes while we’re supposed to be making sense of the natural with spiritual eyes.

The first thing to do when we see this drift, is to acknowledge it. The next thing is to prayerfully consider how we get to these places so subtly, and then to do a course correction. To repent. So in my adult mind, I look to revisit those firsts in an effort to reevaluate, reexamine and re-gather a right intensity as a correct posture in light of the truth. When I think about it, I don’t think it’s hard to be fervent when you continue to let the Holy Spirit fill you while staying humble and close to a desire for righteousness. I think the hard thing is to try and stay “spiritual” according to the world, but still showing a cool calmness that allows too close of an involvement in what they do. What we used to do. What we're familiar and comfortable doing. After that, we just tack our religion on: We start seeing Christianity more as something we do, rather than a supernatural transformation that God is doing IN us....and His intention is not to show the world better people, but NEW people. Remember, they’re not new creations, but We are.


In Him,
Cros