20101012

The Way of Walking with Christ - based on a work of Miyamoto Musashi

8) Do not lament parting on any road whatsoever.
Time is linear, and it is moving only in one direction.  Being within the fabric of creation, to include time, our perspective is limited.  We only see the sliver in which we find ourselves.  God sees the end from the beginning and He is not surprised by where you find yourself either today or tomorrow, or even the choices you or i have made.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.


The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:15-26, ESV)
Once we set out on the path with Christ, we are forever bound to Him.  There is a dynamic of God's sovereignty and our free will to be sure, but in the end we are now traveling with the true Master.  There is no fork in the road He has not already seen, not already made atonement for on the cross.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:57-62, ESV)
Ultimately we are on a journey with the Savior.  To regret, or want to look back and want to return, is to say that the path He is leading us on is not the best, that we feel that He is misleading us, and we know better than the Creator of the Universe.  Our race is before us, run it with fervor.

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