Come, Lord Jesus!

The reflective wisdom of Old Testament wisdom books (Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach, Ecclesiasties) is what we might call "practical wisdom," and the Holy Spirit bestows that as a gift.  There is a passage in Proverbs, I believe, that says something like, "The farmer does not keep on plowing, but begins to sow; his God teaches him the way."  (An approximation of the verse).  And one of the wonderful "presences" of the Holy Spirit is that He does give practical wisdom in everyday affairs, much to our surprise and awe at times.

But in the New Testament, the time has come where everything speaks of one event:  the arrival in the flesh of God Himself.  As much as Paul speaks of "the way of obedience," as much as He reflects on the convergence of the Old and the New, the final word is that the New Testament does not give us a philosophy or "rules for living well."  It comes down to the narrow gate, the Door to Eternal Life, which is Jesus Christ. 

Do we enter, do we surrender, do we submit to the entrance of His Life and Energy in us, or do we stand at the door and debate, philosophize, bargain, and refuse at last to enter onto the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Do we allow the Word of God to enter us and change us forever, so that the old has gone and the New has come?  Are we willing to give up the old man, the one who lives according to his insights and "practical wisdom," or do we acknowledge the death of the old man, entering instead the Door to Eternal Life?

Jesus said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.  That means that we must leave behind the works of the flesh and live according to the Spirit of Jesus.  However, it is not within our own power to "follow Jesus;" He told us that we must be born again---not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. 

If we are to enter the narrow door to eternal life, we must give up our own lives, surrendering to the Word of God that re-forms and re-fashions us according to the Image of the Son of God.  Of course, we do not know how to do this, any more than Nicodemus understood what Jesus was saying to him.  All we can do is be willing and to cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"  We cannot be good enough for Him to come to us; we can be only like the cold, empty, poor stable of Bethlehem, unfit for the Presence of the Divine.  But He will leap into an open heart and begin to live there to the glory of God. 

It is not "right thinking" that saves us, but only surrender to the One Whom God has sent to us.