Kris

Dial Daily Bread - 11/13/01

Dear Friends of Dial Daily Bread:

When I was a boy, grocery wagons came to our door. My
mother used
to enjoy patronizing them. But they don't come any more.
Now we must
go where the market is, and the grocer stays there until we
take the
initiative to come to where he is.
Fine. No problem. But let me ask a question: Is Jesus
like the
old-fashioned grocery wagons coming to your door, or is He
waiting in
His "shop" for you to come to Him?
He tells us that He is sending the Holy Spirit to us
(Jn 16:7).
Further, He says that means "I will come to you" (14:18).
The Holy
Spirit is His presence able to be everywhere; to reject the
Holy
Spirit is to reject Christ. His first work is to convict us
of sin
(16:8), not to torment us or annoy us, but to show He loves
us
because to cherish sin is to "love death" (Pr 8:36). We are
closer to
Christ today through the work of the Holy Spirit than the
disciples
were to Him 2000 years ago.
Did you know that the Holy Spirit is God's divine alarm
clock that
wakes us up to remind us "it's time for breakfast"-time to
receive
some spiritual nourishment, some "bread of life"? We need
it to
energize us spiritually for another day, just as your body
needs some
temporal food in order to live, work, go to school. Yes,
this is Good
News! There are two texts in the Bible that make this
plain: (1)
Isaiah 50:4: "The Master, GOD, has given me a well-taught
tongue, so
I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the
morning,
. . . opens my ears to listen as one ready to take
orders. . . . And
I didn't go back to sleep, didn't pull the covers back over
my head.
I followed orders" (Peterson version). (2) Jesus goes door
to door
knocking, hoping someone will "hear My voice, and open the
door" (Rev
3:20). All this is "much more abounding grace." Don't
receive it in
vain (Rom 6:20; 2 Cor 6:1). One suggestion: get to bed
early enough
at night so you can "hear" Him in the morning!