IS HE ALWAYS WITH US?
by Ronnie Mutina
This morning I was looking for a certain thing, and I came across and interesting statement. I’m sure most of you have read, or at least heard the "Interview With God" story. It’s really a good story, but the last sentence really made me start thinking. The interviewer, who had been given permission to interview HIM, asked one final question after he thanked the LORD for allowing him to do so. He said, "Is there anything else you would like the world to know?" The Lord smiled, and said, "They need to know that I am here; ALWAYS"
Now think about that statement. Is HE always there? In Hebrews 13:5, the writer tells us that the LORD said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." The question of the day is, do you believe that?
Jesus taught his disciples, while HE walked on this earth, that there was no man that stuck closer than a brother, but HIM. In John 15:13, Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He has proved that love to man, over and over. But in the following scripture, Jesus said, "Ye are my friends," and a lot of people want to stop there. After all, we want Jesus on our side, don’t we? The problem is; without us finishing the scripture, the true meaning does not come out. Jesus loves us, there is no doubt, but HE didn’t just leave that statement at point. There was a condition added to it. The words, "if you do whatsoever I command you." Solomon tells us, in Proverbs 18:24, "A man that has friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." No doubt, the disciples didn’t always show themselves to be friendly toward Jesus. In fact, they sometimes wanted to do things on their own merit. Jesus was a friend to them throughout HIS earthly ministry. I don’t want us to think that the disciples didn’t love Jesus, because I believe they did. Peter seemed always ready to physically get between Jesus and any man who Peter thought was going to hurt HIM, and most of them would try the best way they knew to do what they thought HE wanted them to do.
My pastor preached a message last night on the scripture in Matthew 9:9, where Matthew was telling the facts of Jesus calling him. Matthew wrote, "And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, "Follow me." And the arose, and followed him." There were some good points that Bro. Dale made in the sermon, some I had never looked at, but Jesus always told people, "Follow me." That is what HIS desire was for every man. HE wants us to follow HIM. Now on most occasions, people gave up whatever they were doing, and just followed HIM. This is obedience to our KING. Jesus, in fact, does not ever leave us, but we do leave HIM sometimes.
Why would HE make the comment, "I AM HERE, AWAYS?" Fact is, HE is there, most of the time, where we left HIM. I got in a conversation, with Becky yesterday, and we were talking about the Christian Doctrine class I have the privilege of teaching. She made the comment, ‘People can always justify their lives and how they live, to themselves, but we cannot always justify it to God.’ That was similar to the statement she made, but it’s truth. The only way we can ever justify what we do is if it is in line with HIS WORD. Sin is never justifiable. If we hide our light, under a basket, does this mean everything is okay? No, it doesn’t! Fact is, the life we may be justifying to ourselves, because we think our way is better, or we think God’s Word doesn’t specifically come out and say we aren’t suppose to do something, doesn’t mean it is wrong, wouldn’t you agree? What did the LORD mean when HE said, "BE YE SEPARATE?"
He expects us to separate ourselves from the world and "FOLLOW HIM." This is a directive. A good point made to me long ago, by another preacher friend, was this; "If you go into a place where God doesn’t intend you to go, you leave HIM at the door, and you are open to whatever Satan has in store for you." Now before you, who have been saved by Jesus’ precious blood, go around saying that I said, "If we go into a bar or wherever, that we will lose our salvation," I am not saying that. However, if we go somewhere that we know that God would not have anything to do with, then we are opening yourself up to be oppressed by the devil. This would mean that he could use this to tear down the only thing we have control of: our testimony. In this case, Jesus did not leave us; we left HIM at the door.
If we want Jesus around us all the time, then we must follow HIM. Following HIM is the most important thing we can do. We are told, of a man, in the books of Matthew 19:16 – 22; Mark 10: 17 – 23; and Luke 18:18 – 24, that came running to Jesus, fell on his knees and asked Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and "Follow ME," the scripture goes on to tell us that the man then chose not to follow Jesus. If fact he was upset, because he had great riches. Now granted, this man turned salvation down. If he had accepted these things that Jesus had told him to do and followed Christ, it still would not always be easy for him to follow Jesus all the time.
Most of us, who have been saved for a long period of time, would love to say it is always easy to follow Jesus. If we did, we would be lying about it. Following Jesus everywhere takes discipline in our lives. Let’s look at one of the simplest things we have to do, and most of us make excuses for not doing it. The simple thing of reading your BIBLE everyday is usually passed by for things we would much rather do. Going to church as we are commanded to do in Hebrew 10:25, is overlooked, simply because of excuses. One of my most favorite excuses to hear is, "Sundays are the only day I get off to really rest." A lot of people do yard work, house cleaning, go to football games, etc. The list of excuses for not following God is long. One time a former pastor told me, after I gave him an excuse for not coming to church, "You could have said you wanted to watch a gallon of milk in the refrigerator, so it wouldn’t spoil. That is as good of an excuse as any other." He is right. Excuses are easy to make up to not obey God, especially when God is not standing there looking at you face to face. However, I have often wondered what our excuse would be if Jesus came back and found us in places we should not be even if it weren’t on a Sunday. Truth is, there is no excuse acceptable to the Lord for us not obeying HIM.
Yes, HE is always there! But to be where HE is all the time, we must be HIS true follower. Are we following Christ all the time in our life? Even when Peter was walking with Jesus, sometimes he went his own way. It took Jesus getting personal with him, (John 21:10 – 22,) for Peter to truly follow Christ. Has HE gotten personal with you yet? If we follow HIM in our life you never have to search for HIM. Why you might ask; Because HE is always there.
