Are You Vested?

When I first asked Jesus into my heart I lived in a small town in the high desert of central California. I didn't have a church at the time and not growing up in a Christian environment I didn't know what having Jesus in my heart meant to those who did or looked like, so I asked around and began going to The Church of the Nazarene wanting to surround myself with like minded people.

Week after week I would attend the mid week service, both Sunday services and a women's Bible study. I would watch the way the people would talk to one another, how they would solve the problems of the church or in each others lives, plan for events but mostly how they conducted themselves in day to day living. In the months that passed there was one woman in particular I found myself watching more than the others. Bea Connally had a certain "something" that I loved seeing. Always mild mannered, respectful to her husband and others, never ever judgemental or having a bad word to say about anyone. More than that though she possessed a certain calm, a peacefulness, something I wanted to claim as my own. Once when I asked her about it she told me it was the Lord and to feel His closeness I must be in His Word and know Him.

Well, over the years I have spent many hours in God's Word getting to know Him, persistently in quest of that higher level of peacefulness or calm I witnessed in Bea, concluding that there were only a few certain individuals who could know that closeness. Today I attend Calvary Chapel and continue to surround myself with godly women some of whom are great teachers of the Word, some servants, some shepherds, all selfless, wonderful Christian women that have close personal relationships with the Lord spending countless hours pursuing His holiness. Within these women the Lord has sent one to stand out in my eyes as possessing the calm and the peace of Jesus that I once witnessed in Bea Connally.

A couple of years ago while attending a women's retreat this beautiful lady was called upon to teach. When she got up to share with us what the Lord had placed upon her heart she recited from memory an entire book in the Bible. Not just a chapter but an entire book. My head snapped up when I realized what she was doing. I was in aah with what I was witnessing for it was more than a woman reciting scripture, you can ask anyone who was there, they will tell you it was truly the Lord speaking through her. It gave me chills and I felt honored to have been able to be there.

From then on I began watching her, the way she talks, what she talks about, and her genuine love for all she comes into company with. She glows as her love for Christ oozes from her very being. She cannot teach on Jesus without tears filling her eyes as the love she has for Him consumes her as if she could feel the very pain He suffered for us.

I recently learned she has now committed seven books of the Bible to memory. Knowing how much time she has spent so close to our Lord in doing this, holding His hand as he guides her gives me cause to admire her and I'll say it...a little covetous. I hear her speak of how Jesus guides her in areas so remote I could never fathom and yet He answers her. And I have to tell you coming from any other person I would raise and eyebrow in scepticism, but to know her is to know there is no doubt she hears directly from the Lord.

In watching her I have come to believe that that level of intimacy with the Lord is attainable to anyone who will stand at the door and knock not just a chosen few. My friend is vested in the Lord. She knows His Word, She falls prone in prayer seeking His guidance in all that she does.

She is not side tracked by useless things of this world and her reward is a familiarity so personal so completing.

Therefore I ask, how vested are you? How much time do you give learning our Lord Jesus Christ? Is there anything you won't give up to experience a oneness with Him so exclusive so everlasting? I know I now long more for Him and less for the world cherishing every whisper I am blessed with from my Abba Father.

Psalm 144:18, 19 says; The Lord is near all who call on Him. To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and save them.