The Presents have been opened (Maybe even broken) The Trees have been put away, the lights have come down off the outside of the house (maybe) and we have welcomed in the New Year (2020) with countless memes and videos of Barbara Walters telling us what year it is and puns galore of how we can have a clear vision for our life in 2020...
So here we are in the New Year... Now what?
I have many friends in the ministry world and a lot of them are taking advantage of the year 2020 to start the year with a sermon series of "Keeping a 2020 view of God" or "2020 vision: fixing our eyes on God, or... you can fill in the blank And there is nothing wrong with that at all (Seriously, of all people, I'm the last one who should have any issues with puns)
But lately I have been thinking...
We have been spending so much time talking about our vision, and our view of God... What about our "verbal" or our body language?" What about what we say? What about how our "actions" talk?
Many (if not all of you) have probably heard at one point or another that Jesus was referred to as the second (last) Adam (see 1 Corinthians 14:45 if you haven't) Now there have been countless hours spent by many theologians who are much smarter than me and dozens/if not hundreds of books have been written on the matter of Christ being the "last Adam" and I'm sure many of them are great. But when I look at them, I look at the "first recorded words" that Scripture has them saying to their "Parents" (In Adam's case it's God... it Jesus' case it's Mary and Joseph) I wonder how many of us know just which "Adam" we take our cues from in speech and in action.
Maybe right now you are wondering (if you made it this far) what in the world my point is
Here it is simply (I hope)
When I look at Genesis 3, I think the first recorded conversation between Adam and God was after he sinned by eating from the tree of life. In that the context of that conversation Adam had just eaten from the Tree of Life, realized he had sinned, and hid from God when he heard God asking "Where are you?" When God found him he said he heard him looking for him and he hid away from God" (We can get into the double meaning of that verse alone some other time)
When I look in the later section of Luke 2, we have the first recorded conversation Jesus had with his parents Mary and Joseph. They had just finished celebrating the Passover and a day after leaving they realized Jesus was not with him, when they found him in the Temple they asked him where he had been and he told them "He had to be in his Fathers house
Two "Adam's"
One "hid" from God
One "hid" with God
Which one will you be?
When you hear God talking to you, or calling for you in 2020, what will your response be?
Will you hear him calling and go and hide?
Will you hear him calling and go and enter his house?
I heard a quote once (and now I don't remember who it was from and my quick paraphrased search didn't help me discover who said it) But it said "the first thoughts you have and the first person you spend time with in the morning will set the tone for the rest of your day."
Keeping our vision on Christ is important
But keeping our lives in Christ is what helps us have that vision.
When you wake up each morning, what are the first verbal words you will say?
Will they indicate you are hiding from him?
Or will they indicate you are in His House?
Lets not just shoot for a clear vision of God, lets shoot for living a clear Life of God
