Lent Day 27: An Encounter with Christ

Today marks the twenty-seventh morning on our lenten journey. I praise God for all the miles He has graciously allowed us to cover together. Might we pause a bit and take stock?

How are you?

How is your stamina?

How are your spiritual legs and feet doing?

Are you acknowledging your thirst for God more readily?

Are you rending your heart to Christ or are you holding part of it back?

Is your faith being strengthened with all power according to God's gracious might?

Are your feet being fitted with the readiness that comes from the glorious gospel of peace?

I pray today you and I both will go over and over to the well that never runs dry. Let us draw water from the Lord's cistern and let us drink . . . and drink . . . and drink the living water which alone can quench our thirst. And as we go the well, may we encounter the Lord there just like the Samaritan woman in John 4!

"Lord, I come to You

Let my heart be changed, renewed

Flowing from the grace

That I've found in You

And Lord I come to know

The weaknesses I see in me

Will be stripped away

By the power of Your love

Lord, unveil my eyes

Let me see You face to face

The knowledge of Your love

As You live in me

And Lord, renew my mind

As Your will unfolds in my life

In living every day

By the power of Your love"

-- Extracted from Power of Your Love, Don Moen

Indeed, I pray that you and I will live a life that mirrors the beauty and grace of encountering Christ face to face, a life that images forth the overwhelmingly transformative power of the gospel.

The following story is an amazing account of an encounter with Christ:

"In Damascus 

the governor under King Aretas 

had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 

But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall 

and slipped through his hands." 

(2 Corinthians 11:32-33, NIV84)

What an amazing story of grace to ponder! 

In the book of Acts, we are given much background info aiding us in grasping the divine favor inherent in the above passage. Saul had left Jerusalem with the determination to persecute the Church. However, Christ confronted Saul in a radical fashion -- a "face-to-face" encounter on the Damascus road that turned his mission of death into a new vision for eternal life. The luminous presence of the Savior blinded his physical eyes so that, through divine grace, Saul’s spiritual eyes could be opened.

Thus, God transformed Saul (the enemy of the Church) into the apostle Paul (a prominent father of the Christian faith expressed in the New Testament). Instead of destroying this self-imposed enemy, our Lord chose to equip and employ him -- allowing him to spend the next three years studying and preparing in Arabia before he returned to Damascus and began to preach the saving truth of the gospel. Once there, the locals and governing authorities (who still thought of Paul as a traitor) were planning to have him killed. Gratefully, God spared Paul’s life by allowing him to escape over the city wall in a basket, leading him to become a powerful instrument in the propagation of the Good News. Praise be the name of Christ!

Have we, like Saul, had an encounter with Christ? Have we, too, been blinded by the sheer penetrating gaze of the King of kings, the Light of the world? Have we, too, experienced the gracious unveiling of the fog clouding our vision from real truth, sincere love, genuine faith, generous forgiveness, boundless grace, and the free gift of salvation? Have we surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s leading as He seeks to equip and employ us to become instruments that are perfectly tuned to the Father’s voice and uncommonly resonant with Christ’s message? Have we become aware of the enemies that dare to oppose God’s work in us, waging war within us through sin?

As we pray, let us remember that Christ’s tête-à-tête approach is not only reserved for the likes of Saul. In fact, He approaches us daily—shining His light on us, speaking His Word to us, calling us to action, protecting us, lowering us in His own basket over walls of pride and anguish, and guiding us to slip through the fingers of our fierce enemies (the devil, the world, and the flesh) to become necessary instruments of His peace in this world. 

Amazing grace! 

Unending Love! 

Amazing Christ!