Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Do you ever get one of those “Not available at this time!” messages? Perhaps you are only trying to see what’s new and you are responding to advertisements.  Perhaps you are trying to use GPS on your phone or doing a Google Search. Maybe you called a service too early or too late and now is not within their hours of operation.

I guarantee you that you have never gotten that message while seeking the Lord. That is true at this moment, it will not always be the case.  I say at this moment as I write this. There is no guarantee that He will still be available when you read this. I can say that because I am still here writing. After I post this message and send it out for any and all to read, well that availability isn’t within my control.

For those of my readers who know the Lord, they understand what I mean. If these words are viewed by anyone who does not know the Lord, let me explain. I belong to the Lord and I have His promise to me, and He keeps His promises.

1 Corinthians 15:51 I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed. (CEV)

You see we who belong to the Lord and are alive at the moment of calling out His Bride, the church, will be translated in a moment, into that heavenly realm. I cannot tell you when that will be. No one knows when that will be, not even Jesus, for it is only for the Father to say when.

So if you have not accepted Jesus as Lord, you have two deadlines. When you die, or when He calls out His Bride. Since you have no control over either event, I would say to you, stop shopping and make that decision, now while you can.

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Christ is life, choose Him.

Psalm 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

I have wanted this for myself. I’ve wanted it so much I’ve tried to make it happen. I’ve wanted it for others, so much so that I’ve tried to make it happen for them also. Now this morning as I began to read the Psalms again, for my own purpose and pleasure, I was struck by a truth I had been ignoring.

Fruit does not come by will or desire but by season. While the symbolism is a natural tree, the spiritual implication isn’t of the natural man, but rather the spiritual man. We think of our worldly maturity by one standard, our place in this world, responsibilities, opportunities and actions. It is not that way in the Kingdom.  Here maturity is based on relationship, obedience of faith and God’s will.

There is only so much we can do about spiritual growth. We have to feed ourselves and exercise ourselves, but the will of God is not within our control. My season of fruit production in the Kingdom is not totally within my control, yet by worldly standards I act as if it is up to me to produce. Not only that, and perhaps even worse I have an expectation of seeing your fruit by a standard I cannot keep myself.

Fellowship with purpose of production is not what Christ intended. It has always been meant to be a shared experience. Where two or more gather, Christ is there. Christ centered fellowship isn’t about me taking a place at the table, nor seeing that everyone else is seated, it is the Lord’s Table.

Isaiah 5:12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.

I mean to be considerate.