In my Journey Towards Epiphany, I am seeking to have Christ revealed to me in everyday life. Christ reveals Himself to many in Scripture, beginning with shepherds and wisemen. It is interesting in this Christ-revelation how both the simple minded and the wise are included.
He then reveals Himself to a man and woman at the temple, a prophet and prophetess, fishermen and tax collectors, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. What’s the reoccuring ingredient in all these people? I supposed one could be that they were looking for something MORE, even if before His revelation they were not aware of the fact.
This is good news for me, because I am definitely looking for more. It has always been my hearts cry to have more of God. In reading through the Book of Common Prayer last night, my Gospel reading was from John 14 in the Amplified Version of the Bible.
21The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]
Could it be, that when I feel far from Him, it is time for me to climb to a new level of obedience? What are these commands? Seeing that Jesus boiled them down to two, they would be: to Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind, and to Love my neighbor as myself.
The longer I walk this walk with Him, the more I realize that this truly is a real journey, very much like the one Christian makes in Pilgrim’s Progress. Until my journey closes, I will have new challenges and new levels of commitment and obedience . How can I say that I really believe in God, if I won’t obey Him? Obedience is a statement of faith, overcoming the doubts of the world, and sometimes even greater, the doubts of the human mind.
So I guess my question to the Lord today is, “Lord what act of obedience will unlock the gate towards a greater revelation of You today?”
I’m going to be meditating about these things today. Because after all, my determined purpose is that I may know Him, and it seems as though obedience is one way to accomplish that.
journeytoepiphany.wordpress.com 
Indeed the call to deeper or higher levels of obedience will be until the day of His appearing. It is a call to love is it not? Compliance out of fear is not really obedience, it is avoidance of pain. I wonder if the key is in knowing the height and depth and width and breadth of His love – and knowing that whatever the next step He is requiring of us – is for His highest purpose and ultimately our highest good.
I am sure that knowing and understanding His love for us does play a part in our obedience, otherwise wouldn’t it be works??? Oh that ever swinging pendulum of works and grace…
I am learning so much from reading your post, thank you… I hope thru this you reach many…. so many people are lost and searching for all the wrong things… Thank you.
Fishy Face,
Is it okay for me to call you that? You are so correct in the fact that many are searching for the wrong things, or the right things the wrong way….but for the grace of God that is me, (and I’m sure has been me at times). And yet, like Christian we get up and our hunger for more of Him drives us on…
Lots of substantial food for thought here. Excellent reminder to dig deeper into His word, too. Blessings!
Thanks Judith…His Word is a bottomless pool of refreshment…
Making us think again, and such a big topic! In practicing the presence of God, He is revealed more in “every day life”, if only because we see things differently. About obedience: Dallas Willard says, “.. “more than any other single thing, the practical irrelevance of actual obedience to Christ accounts for the weakened effect of Christianity today…” and ” It is truly not a matter of anything we do or don’t do…but a matter of how we cannot but think and act, given the context of our mental and spiritual formation.” Afterall….He is my beloved Maestro and Lord. Obedience? Naturally! More? “Draw nigh to Him”. You are precious in His sight!!
As people walk through life, they obey their instincts, obey their wants and needs, try to fill every desire. The longing for MORE is deep in us. There is a reason for that. Thankfully, when we have exhausted pursuit of all our earthly desires for MORE and find that all the ‘MORE’ we get can’t satisfy, we come to the end of ourselves and the desire for More that God put into us takes us past our ‘self’ and finally turns into seeking Him and then seeking More of Him! Love and Obey, Love and obey, and we will get, by grace, to know more of Him!
Thanks, Sis Kimmie for your thought-provoking epiphanies.
May you experience More of them, More often, as love and obedience grow in you. I have more to say in today’s brite (!)
Bro
This is a great post and it was nice to read people’s comments too. It is so hard to separate all things “earthly” from trying to draw closer to God. And you’re right the top two things are to love God and to love our neighbors. As these are the highest two things, you would think that “obedience” would be easy. It should be easy to love, right? I find it very difficult sometimes. It’s so hard to not be self-centered(for me personally). I find that sometimes my priorities are all skewed. Good Luck on your journey to grow closer to God. Thank you for stopping by my blog and following. A monthly family prayer session sounds wonderful for a Friday night out! Have a great weekend,
Michelle
Friday Night Family prayer is nice….I always come home refreshed.
Oh, and I’m following you now through email and RSS feed.
Yay! A new friend!
I find that meditating using books such as The Book of Common Prayer/i> is very helpful to me. Blessings to you on your journey!
I really enjoyed reading this post…definitely looking forward to more!!! Thank you so much for sharing and allowing us to glimpse a piece of yourself and the struggle which seems to plague a lot of us who only want to obtain a higher level of spirituality through Jesus Christ our Saviour and God our father.
You’re so welcome. Thanks for looking around here at JTE!! Headed to see what’s going on at mychristiancoffeeshop.wordpress.com!