Christians are the busiest of all people.  We often get so busy that we miss the most important thing, the opportunity to see God.  We see the lesson we are studying or teaching, we see the building we are maintaining, we see the preacher preaching, we see the musicians singing, but we do not take time to sense the very presence of God and a new direction He wants to take us in.  It is a tragedy that the place where we should see God most clearly is the very place where we exhaust our discernment on seeing ourselves doing church.

Jesus told the doubters of His hometown that a prophet is not welcome in his own hometown. He made this statement after reading a prophecy from Isaiah chapter 49, and then publicly proclaiming that the hearers had just then seen fulfillment of the prophecy about the coming Messiah. He was explaining to them that Israel had gotten so wrapped up in their religious routine and ritual that they were missing the very presence of God in the person of the Messiah/God/Man Jesus Christ.  The response to this truth is recorded in Luke 4:28-29 and is included below.

28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these

     things, were filled with wrath,

  29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led

     Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was  

     built, that they might throw Him over the edge of the cliff.

The next time church leadership recommends something new, remember it just may be Jesus Christ at work in your midst.  Don’t miss Him, and don’t kick Him out!