How is it I am so OK when others are suffering; why is it I only really feel for me and my own? (John sings "Settled on My Lees," a song he wrote... the title from a King James Bible phrase for those who have not been "poured from bottle to bottle"...see Zephaniah 1:12 and Jeremiah 48:11.) On his being blessed, and having received so much. How does one move on from such blessing into the unknown future? When one is young, all is unknown; when you are old, you have things you think you can settle on, even though God has proven himself trustworthy. Shall I now defraud myself from knowing God as I have just because I have arrived at a certain stage? (I quote Psalm 34:8 but actually mean 116:12-13.) What God wants in return for all He has blessed us with is... US! Current science with its beginnings in Darwinism relegates humanity to a process that didn't have it especially in mind. The creator of the universe had us in mind from the beginning. We are not, as Jim Al-Kahlili says, the leftovers from the collision of matter and anti-matter (final statement his documentary "Everything and Nothing"). How science defrauds us from the reality! King David's heart was to seek what might bless God's existence after God had blessed his, giving him the kingship, etc. David's declaration he would build a house for God was in the context that God had lived in a tent from the time of the wandering in the wilderness ~500 years before. (John describes this tabernacle, with its Holy Place, its furniture, and the Holy of Holies, with its ark and its contents.) David was allowed to collect the materials and find the site, but it was his son Solomon who built it and dedicated it, which was the high point of the Old Testament. The temple becomes the focal point, even towards which Daniel prayed and eventually to which the remnant returned to rebuild. (John relates history of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, the the division Jeroboam caused to separate the people from Jerusalem. David's line remained with Jerusalem.) BUT it seems all we can do is receive what God has done, rather than try to pay back. In the New Testament, the spiritual reality of the Old Testament physical things, like the temple and Canaan, are seen in the Church and Christ Himself. The Church is the House of God, God's family, the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the army of God... what can we do to bless God's existence, that blesses God Himself? If I get "settled on my lees" because of my comfort in what God has blessed me with, it means I am no longer running the race after Christ (Philippians 3:13); I am being cheated out of what I could have in Christ... so I need a SHAKING UP so I might not be defrauded. God has shown Himself faithful countless times... why should I be afraid? We don't know how much time we have, but we still have time left to know God, which is what salvation really is. To be salvation is to be saved from everything that is not God, to God. He just needs our willingness, our "Amen." We are granted assurance of eternal salvation, but this age is for us to know, to gain God. John shares an experience that exposed how selfish he is... he had no sense that someone else may have benefited from an opportunity to get a "good deal" more than he and his family might. No Christian has arrived at a state of totally "being Jesus." We are in the process but until then, is not every Christian technically a hypocrite? John seeks the church life, where believers might impose themselves on one another without the other feeling inconvenienced. We are God's family in whatever city they are in, despite the choice to be divided per the structure of Christianity. Let the structures fall. As it is, perhaps Christ might still find a way to have a "work around" for Christianity to achieve His objective. Can we not just enjoy being in the Body of Christ, rather than in some so-called "church" that is not The Church? Is that not something in the way, if the Church is to be one?
