Sunday, May 24, 2015

Dressed and Burning

DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
DRESSED AND BURNING

Luke 12:35-41
35 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." 
NIV



This is all about being ready for when Jesus comes for us. But this being ready encompasses more than just saying we are Christians, or followers of Christ. This being ready is being dressed for service and keeping our lamps burning. We cannot become lazy in our relationship with our Lord. We cannot simply say we are believers and then go about living as if we are part of the world, with the same goals and ambitions as those of the world have. We cannot make Jesus a part of our life, he has to be the reason for our life. Being dressed for service carries the meaning of looking like we are in the wedding party and keeping our lamps burning implies that we are actively participating in the wedding, as in fact the bride of Christ. He is the bridegroom which is the way Matthew records this same type of parable with the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom and only five maintained their lamps burning. Do we allow the flame of Christ to burn out in our lives, by embracing too much of this world? Do we allow our lamp to become dim and almost extinguished because we pay more attention to the rules and regulations of denominational pressures? Are we letting our flame flicker and our clothes become tattered by accepting false teaching? Are we truly dressed for service and have a bright shining lamp, full of oil, if we are distracted by all the things we want? Jesus needs to be the center of our life, the whole reason for our existence. We need to be ever ready for his return and that means we cannot ever allow distractions of any kind to kindle within us. Even thoughts about wanting to live long enough to see this, or do that could be considered a distraction from our being dressed and ready for his return. Being ready is being ready, as in a race. The runners are at the starting line, the starter yells, “On your mark!”, at which point they take their place and with every fiber of their being, without any other thought then hearing and responding instantly to the sound of the starting gun. Although they know the sound of the gun will happen, they do not know the exact moment of its sound and thus they have to be posed, focused, ready to leap into action. The slightest distraction could cause a delay in reaction time and thus perhaps lose the race. This is how focused Jesus is telling us we need to be, waiting for his return. We have to be at the line, posed and ready for the sound of the trumpet, the moment Jesus will return for us. This is being dressed and burning. 

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