HERE I AM!!!

Here I Am (Sylvia Merle Green)

Here I am, here I am! 
I'm the one the Shepherd left the fold and found. 
There were ninety and nine, but He left the fold to find
One little lost lamb, and here I am.

There’s a new word, ‘sheeple’, a pejorative denoting people who blindly follow a leader, whether religious or political. Ones who use it would laugh at us for singing Sylvia’s lyrics. Our choir sang her song last week and I not only enjoyed it then, it’s been ringing in my mind.

“Here I am,” talking about that glorious resurrection morning, when Gabriel blows that horn! But – what about now?

Christians shouldn’t be focused on our resurrection morning but on Christ’s. He spent weeks after His resurrection with the disciples, reinforcing teachings from the three previous years, then gave them specific tasks to accomplish.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV)

Mark wrote it a bit differently:

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15 KJV)

Luke heard from another:

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:45-48 KJV)

John’s viewpoint in Chapter 21 shows a group chatting around a fire:

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. (John 21:12a KJV)

… especially Peter and the “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. None of these conversations had to do with waiting until Gabriel blows his horn. Each of the gospel writers used action verbs. Go, preach, teach, understand, baptize. “Wait” is only referenced in one, with the word “tarry”:

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:49 KJV)

They didn’t simply tarry, though. Luke continues the story in the first chapter of Acts, telling how they remained in Jerusalem, met together and selected a replacement for Judas. Then came Pentecost, the filling with the Spirit and they were on their way to turning the world upside down:

But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; (Acts 17:5-6 KJV)

As a Christian, instead of waiting for resurrection, shouldn’t we be turning the world upside down? Why not?