A letter taking my responsibility
written by Michael McBane
My friends today I sit and ponder that another September has arrived. I see time compressing as never before. I could not help but remember the flurry of words that many began to break forth last spring marking the summer, each of the months had escalating purpose. As some said, the Lord was going to do a particular thing each month ( some of which was spoke of in particular ways ) but August would burst forth.
There are always words such as these that come and they tingle in us to some degree but most that I know have not seen the evidence of the grandeur of these proclamations. So whats up? Should we not examine this particular characteristic that carves such a furrow through our hearts and culture? I say yes and I must start with me. Though I tend not to gravitate or be inclined to give such I have on occasion spoken with a particular unction that I feel might forge greater hope. My intent is never to do so flippantly and I think that would be the case in most that give such words that are more explanatory in nature. But the damage continues. We make great excuse for our ways. It unfortunately is a way for some to make a living. I for reference do not. Life can be a carnival.
Never the less I want to sincerely say please forgive me if or when I have brought something that has not enlarged the truth and intent of the Lord Jesus in this time. I mean this. I have responsibility, we all do. And maybe to wear that responsibility with a weight is right. It need not be cumbersome but it should be a fearful thing. And let us stop equating responsibility with those in a particular position. That has no validity. We are joined one to another and everything we do will bring life or death.
Let me repeat my heart. IF I have ever brought a false hope to you with my words that somehow generated an emotional surge that flatlined. Forgive me. I so take what I say with a certain fear of accountability. The past years have been so hard for us to understand the Lord. He is without doubt taking us through a barren place that is starving the false gods that we have adapted to in our christian culture. Ones that have nothing to do with Him. Instead of attempting to resurrect them we should fast to deliberating force them to a death that allows only one to live in us who would be the true Christ.
We live in a time that has wearied us. I find there to be days that lack the will to penetrate into the next moment. Its as if the life we have know is being sucked away. To know Christ is to be stripped down to the bear naked reality of who He is, after or during our often public depreciation. And this must be so. We have added far more then we would suspect to who He is. We have adapted His grace to be inclusive of sin and simply eradicated the volume of the cross of Christ. But my friends this barren field is a field of hope. Does knowing God demand that we be miserable people? Absolutely not. He ...He is the joy of our salvation. It, I think is a matter of transferring our concepts of life to Christ really being our reality, our substance.
Loren Sanford shared these scriptures recently.
John 1:12: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God." Note the adjectival Hebraism which goes beyond mere genetic descendance or creation by His hand. To be a "son of" or a "child of" something is to resemble that thing in a significant way. Romans 8:19: "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." This movement I speak of is about impartation of the nature of the Father in character, disposition, heart and spirit. It is a time of conformity to "the image of the Son" (Romans 8:29).
My heart is found as are many others in the formation of these expressions into reality. These are the substance that will reveal Christ in a way to this world that we do not have the imagination for yet. Because we have contained our thoughts within something lesser.
I can not find life in much of anything that does not at least attempt to allow the grace of God to expand in us in such a way. In a sense I say enough is enough let us be done with our ways, our peculiar characteristics that we guard as God but are relics of things that God allowed to reveal Himself to our understanding. There is a heart that waits for us. It is so big and so creative.
If I can I call us up and into Christ. Jesus came to take us to the Father. This is a continuum of hope. The blood of Christ is not void it shall always be our only substance in a battle that is waging. Let us not be so deaf and dumb that we somehow absorb into the fabric of the death of darkness. Seriously, we extend the value of this world into our expressions and ways with great ease, I am fearful of this casualness and the damage it is creating. We here castrate the flow of life from God true provision to us. We shrink our faith. We should be incredulous at the lack of life among us.
Can we be responsible and walk in the shadow of His going before us. Let us not shrug off holiness or purity in deed or language or by our indulgence in a squandering of less. Let us be fearful of not speaking truth to one another. We must walk collectively in a love that we can only have in our barrenness. Here we are rich.
May God's grace abound, Michael McBane
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