In my younger days, from childhood through parenthood, I could stay awake into the wee hours engrossed in a good book. Once I read until dawn, finishing a new installment in a series. As I watched the sun peeking over the horizon, I wondered where the time had gone. Now I tend to fall asleep reading or listening to audio Bible study and commentary, as I’ve found that I prefer the truth of God’s Word to be the last thing my conscious mind experiences each day. My study of the Bible, however, requires more devoted attention. I am less likely to doze when I create for myself conditions conducive to alertness, truth applicable to my spiritual life as well.
“When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement:
“The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: “‘Go to this people, and say, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”
Acts 28:23-28, 30-31 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/act.28.23-31.ESV
Drift is to be diligently guarded against in my spiritual walk because there is no standing still in faith. Unlike climbing a flight of stairs where you can take a breather and continue upward, walking by faith requires constant vigilance; like climbing to an upper floor on a downward escalator. The prevailing momentum of the world is ever downward as Jesus warned it would be.
“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
John 17:14-18 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.17.14-18.ESV
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/eph.2.10.ESV
Isaiah foretold in the power of the Spirit a time when the hearts, the ears, and the eyes of the chosen people of God, Israel’s descendants, would grow dull. This is not dull as in uninteresting or boring but as in purposefully obtuse, intentionally dim-witted, having minds conformed to this world and no longer sensitive to the things of God. Eugene Peterson words it more harshly in the Message.
“Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it.
When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted:
“I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:
Go to this people and tell them this:
“You’re going to listen with your ears, but you won’t hear a word;
You’re going to stare with your eyes, but you won’t see a thing.
These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.””
Acts 28:24-27 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/act.28.24-27.MSG
Dealing with God face to face was allowed to a select few in Old Testament times, but the good news of the gospel is that in Jesus, we have direct access to our Heavenly Father 24/7/365! (366 in 2024!) To scorn His sacrifice, to continue walking according to our old nature for a child of God is like crucifying Jesus again and again. (Hebrews 6:6) This world is not our home. We are on pilgrimage to the new Jerusalem. We can do nothing to attain it for ourselves because salvation is a free gift from God and He will bring it to pass in His own good time, but Jesus told many stories instructing His followers in how we should be waiting.
Ten virgins with their lamps awaiting their bridegroom at the midnight hour, servants entrusted with their master’s wealth until his return, and the shepherd separating the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25 are examples of the kingdom of heaven, and all clearly depict expectation and action.
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,”
2 Peter 3:11-15 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/2pe.3.11-15.ESV
“How many are more concerned to be thought wise and holy than to be wise and holy?
How many therefore end up damning their hearers by their own bad example and by their drifting away from the Gospel and its entailments?
Our only hope is in this Jesus who, though he denounces this appalling guilt with such fierceness, weeps over the city (Matt. 23:37–39; Luke 19:41–44).”
Read the Bible: Genesis 24, Matthew 23, Nehemiah 13, and Acts 23
“The tensions in the Bible are not contradictions. Nor are they meant to be explained away; rather, they’re meant to draw us deeper into Scripture’s details and intricacies.
And, of course, since the Bible’s ultimate Author is trustworthy, we needn’t worry what a detailed investigation of its contents might uncover.
We simply need the confidence and persistence to tarry with the text, rather than grasp at quick-and-easy solutions.”
~Judas’s Demise in Matthew 27 and Acts 1. Do They Contradict?
JANUARY 27, 2020 | JAMES BEJON
“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Hebrews 6:1-2, 11-12 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.6.12.ESV
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
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