 January 18 | ||
| And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him. | ||
Genesis 5:24 | ||
| “Who shall I say sent me?” asked Moses of God. “Say I AM that I AM hath sent you” (see Exodus 3:14). And with this, Moses must have come to realize that if God is “I AM,” like Enoch, he “was not.” John the Baptist must have come to the same conclusion, because when he was asked if he was the Messiah, he emphatically declared, “I am not” (John 1:20). Oh, how we as a culture, as a body, and as individuals need to grasp what Enoch, Moses, and John the Baptist understood so clearly: that God is, and we are not. You see, I believe the problem for most of us is that we are constantly trying to figure out who we are, what we should do, how we should minister, where we should go. Yet the more we think about how we’re doing, where we’re going, or what we’re thinking, and the more we talk about ourselves, make reference to ourselves, or draw attention to ourselves, the more misery we heap upon ourselves. Do you ever get tired of hearing your own voice, of dealing with your own stuff, of taking your own pulse? I do. That’s because we were created not for self-indulgence or introspection, but solely to give pleasure to God (Revelation 4:11). It is only logical, then, to join Enoch, Moses, and John the Baptist in losing our lives in the wonder of His glory (John 3:30) and in decreasing so that He might increase. Because Adam sinned, and because the wages of sin is death, everyone in Adam’s family tree ends up the same way: dead. There is, however, one exception. There is one guy who never dies. After walking with God three hundred years, one day the Lord simply snatches, grabs, raptures Enoch. The wages of sin is still death. But, like Enoch, there will be a people who will not die. Paul put it this way: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). I believe we are the generation who will see the rapture of the church. But even before that glorious day, you and I can experience rapture in our hearts presently. You see, the Latin word raptus speaks of the physical event that will take place when Jesus comes to call His church home. But it also speaks of an emotional event that can take place right now. “I was enraptured by that music,” we say. Or, “The poem she sent me enraptured me.” Is your heart enraptured? Maybe you’ve walked with the Lord for ten years; maybe you’ve been a believer for twenty years; but maybe you haven’t found the Lord to be all that enthralling lately. Instead, maybe you’re discouraged, defeated, or depressed. Maybe you’ve read that happy are the people whose God is the Lord (Psalm 144:15), and the joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10), but you’re feeling anything but happy and joyful. Why is this? It is because you’re not doing what Enoch did. Look at our text: Enoch pleased God. That is, as he walked with God, Enoch brought pleasure to God. The closer you walk to God today, the more you’ll be enraptured, taken, caught up with Him. The godliest people I know don’t talk about themselves. The happiest people I know are not focused on themselves. The folks I truly admire are not those who live to please themselves. The people who are the most godly and happy, the people who are just a joy to be around are those who live for one reason: to simply walk with and please God. May we be such people. | ||
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