Jeremiah 17:5-8 

This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

To bring us back to our Essentials outline, we realize that being “obedient to Christ” is nothing more or less than rolling through this world with Christ at the center of our life. Obedience is the natural fruit of “abiding” in Christ, being “rooted and grounded” in Him, and as Jeremiah reminds us “planted by the water.” The result is super-human. We bear fruit (of the Spirit, character, and souls). Obedience is where the rubber meets the road, where our life comes in contact with the world, and we roll on. The wheel is NOT STATIC – it is MADE FOR MOVEMENT; by turning on its axel it gets things done and advances the kingdom. The unseen Holy Spirit is the energy behind the wheel, and when He turns it four things SEEMINGLY DISAPPEAR, while two things remain visible. When you see a moving wheel, you can still see the center, and the outside – in this case, the hub and the tire. The spokes disappear in a whirl. So it is with the life we have in Christ. If we are truly moving for Christ, they’ll see Christ in us, and they’ll see our good deeds (obedience). What they won’t see much of are the spokes. People might not see you spending 20-30 minutes a day in the Word of God or memorizing Scripture; the world won’t see how much you’ve been praying. Your witness may be “silent” much of the time; the world may not realize you are connected to 20 or 30 solid Christians who are in turn connected to 1500 believers connected in total to the Body of Christ numbering into the 100’s of millions of souls. The world will see the hub and the tire – Christ and your radically different life (obedience) moving uniquely through this rough life. 

Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

Consider these “last words” of Jesus and reflect on what you think He may have next in your life.