Skip to main content

Traveling Through


              I am writing this week’s Tea Time devotion from the airport in Houston, Texas.  When I set out my travel plans months earlier, I never expected to use the Houston International airport at all.  I’ve been here two times in the last three days, and the last time it was for about six hours due to weather at my destination!  In fact, for the last four days I have been traveling back and forth from two different Central American countries, and only one of my four days of flying proceeded as planned.  I’ve had a lot of time to ponder airline practices; and I can come up with a multitude of suggestions for what they could do better, but that is not my job.  The long, strenuous, and unexpected travel has driven home the instructions Peter gives to Christians in his two letters:  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16) So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.( 2 Peter 3:14).
              My Christian life is like the journeys I have been taking these last few days.  I face the unexpected, the unwanted, the difficult and the surprising on my Christian journey as well.  I know where I want to be—my destination is Christlikeness; yet it seems I never arrive.  Just as I arrive eventually, more tired, bedraggled, and smelly than I intended, I will arrive at Christlikeness one day in heaven.  One day I will truly be holy through Christ’s power fully released in me.
              My lifetime is a journey to heaven.  Each day presents another opportunity to focus on what Christ would have me realize about Him, God and the Holy Spirit.  Delays on my spiritual journey are constant, yet they don’t feel as unbearable delays by flight cancellations that keep me from my destination.  In fact, I often zone out to the fact that my spiritual life is not what it ought to be or has the potential to be through Christ.  It’s so natural not to think of life the way Peter instructed all Christians to think. 
              This brings me to my gratefulness for the delays in travel the last four days.  They challenge me to consider why I am so desperate to arrive at my destination that I don’t fully take in the journey and why in my spiritual life I am so desperate to be comfortable on the journey that I don’t think about my destination.  Paul said that if I only understood the real reality of my destination, I wouldn’t think twice about the drudgery of the journey (life on earth). Romans 8:18 says:  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  And he should know since he was given a glimpse of heaven.
              What would happen if you chose to think about your eternal destination—being with God in complete holiness?  How can you prepare yourself today for holiness?  Every day is a step on the journey to heaven for all Christians.  It is a long journey for sure, but the destination is what motivates us to crave holiness more and more.

Copyright © 2017.  Deborah R. Newman  teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8).   I decided through tears that I would go on
2 comments
Read more

Day Nine - Journey's End

    I didn't think I could write today, but do to bad weather we now have extra time at the airport. Today we looked over the model city and I can't believe all I have learned. Some of the excavations since the model was completed reveal differences in what they built in the model. What amazed me was that I could see what wasn't where I expected based on what I experienced. Here is a wide view of the Model City which is 1:5 scale.  It was created by a Jewish man who wanted his son to understand what Jerusalem was once like.  Someone said that if you didn't see Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great, you have never seen a beautiful city.  Do you understand what I mean about how grand this Temple was?            Next we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I learned a lot about the Essenes.  They lived like monks today.  Like Jesus, they were not happy with the way the Temple was being run and they came to the desert to offer truly holy sacrifices, untainted by the mismanage
2 comments
Read more

Not Treating Others as Their Sins Deserve

            Turning the other cheek has become a Christian cliché.   These beautiful and penetrating words of Jesus are minimized when we humans try to apply them without God.   The best we can do to achieve Jesus’ description in our power is repress our anger about the way someone sins against us.   This only serves to make us look stupid to the world, creates ulcers, or causes an unplanned, embarrassing, public explosion of anger.   Jesus spoke these words and many others like them to invoke the spiritual understanding that it is impossible to live out His directions for our lives without Him.   He has no intention of our trying to take His work on in our flesh.             It happens all the time in marriages and other relationships where one person who thinks they need to be a certain way to please God centers his or her relationships around keeping peace.   I don’t believe that kind of turning the other cheek is very pleasing to God.               No, God is inviting us
2 comments
Read more