Smoke AND Mirrors
By Ess-Jee Rautenbach
Hebrews 1; Introduction: God Has Spoken Fully and Finally in His Son
1:1
After God spoke long ago1 in various portions2 and in various ways3 to
our ancestors4 through the prophets, 1:2 in these last days he has
spoken to us in a son,5 whom he appointed heir of all things, and
through whom he created the world.6 1:3 The Son is7 the radiance of his
glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all
things by his powerful word,8 and so when he had accomplished cleansing
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.9 1:4
Thus he became10 so far better than the angels as11 he has inherited a
name superior to theirs.
As
the writer points out in this powerful scripture, in the old covenant
God spoke through prophets but in the new covenant He is speaking
through His son who lives today in us. The more I listen to believers,
the more I get the impression that most of us are following other
prophets and doctrines rather than to follow Jesus Christ, our
indwelling Lord. Why is it that we think there is more than Christ?
Most of us think that if we’ve got Jesus then, well, we’ve got the
T-shirt and we can move on to better and bigger things. The sad thing is
that there is no end to Christ. If we say that we know everything
there is to know about Christ, then I can tell you that you don’t know
Christ.
Jesus
is much bigger than we can ever imagine He is. If you are in the
presence of some believers again, try to listen what they are talking
about. Most of them will quote a famous preacher or ministry, they will
say this said this and this and such and such. It is rare that you
will hear Jesus said this and this. Jesus did this and this. The Bible
teaches us this or that. It is very concerning for me that we proclaim
Jesus is the center of our lives but we really don’t have a clue what
that really means. I have been a committed believer for more or less 7
years now and I discovered in my own life that I don’t really know God
and I don’t really understand who this awesome Christ is who lives in
me. That is scary because I have done so many Bible schools and
listened to so many seminars but not one told me who I am in Christ.
How do I discover who I am in Him and who God really is? I have come to
a point in my life where I’m going too fast with everything. By
“everything,” I mean all Bible teaching seminars, gospel books,
ministries and all the Christian culture offers today.
1 John 2:27 King James Version (KJV)
27 But
the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need
not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of
all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide in him.
Don't
misunderstand me; all of these are not bad. I'm just trying to learn
how to depend on God and His Bible alone. If we go back to the early
church you can see that all they had in their possession was Jesus
Christ. They didn’t have fancy seminars you can download from the
Internet. They didn’t have all the millions of Christian books
explaining this or that. They didn’t even have the gospels in the Bible
we have today. Again, all they had was Jesus Christ. They proclaimed
the person Jesus Christ in the fullness of His glory and majesty.
They
gave people Jesus -- not Jesus plus a certain doctrine, just Jesus.
Jesus was there obsession, and that’s the way I believe the early
church was so victorious in there missionaries. I don’t know about you
but I want to understand this. I want Jesus to become my all. Not only
for myself but there is a dying, hopeless world out there that needs
the body of Christ and to stop playing around and start doing what God
commissions us to do in order to give them Jesus Christ.
Will
you join me in laying down all our pet doctrines and ambitions? Let’s
stop listening to other prophets and let’s start to grow closer in our
relationship with Christ. Let’s put down all our differences, Body of
Christ, and let us start to work together as a unit, seeking our Lord,
making Jesus our focus point and seeking Him alone and His will and
way. The Bible tells us that when we grow closer to each other and
Christ, we will be filled with all knowledge of God, not intellectual
knowledge but knowledge from God’s will.
