Here is the question for this week: How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? If God has to choose between your eternal safety and earthly comfort, which do you hope He chooses? Don’t answer too quickly. Give it some thought.
If God sees you standing when you should be sitting, if God sees you at risk rather than safe, how far do you want Him to go in getting your attention?
What if He moved you to another land, as He did Abraham? What if He called you out of retirement, as He did Moses? Would you want to hear the voice of an angel or be relocated to the bowel of a fish, a la Gideon and Jonah? What if you got a promotion like Daniel’s or a demotion like Samson? How far do you want God to go to get your attention?
God does whatever it takes to get our attention, even in the midst of a pandemic. Isn’t that the message of the Bible: the relentless pursuit of God, God on the hunt, God in the search, God wrestling with us Jacobs in the muddy Jabboks of life?
The Gospel message of God’s offer for salvation through His only begotten son Jesus, is God’s attempt to not only get our attention but to redeem us from our sinful selves.
That’s how John saw Jesus. John writes in his Gospel that, “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17) John’s Gospel has two themes: the voice of God and the choice of man. Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the door. I am the way, the truth and the life.”
This is the Jesus that John remembers: the honest questions, the thundering claims, the gentle touch. Jesus, he never going where not invited, but once invited never stopping until He’s finished, until a choice has been made.
God will whisper, He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; He’ll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, He will take all but one. But He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.
