On the Move

6 min read

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

During the Festival of Tabernacles, there were four enormous lamps that were lit every night of the festival. They stood about 75 ft high and illuminated the entire city throughout the nights. The light from the lamps was supposed to represent the shekinah glory of God—that is, the presence of God Himself dwelling with His people in the radiance of His glory.

And so Jesus is pointing to those lamps and saying that He is the Shekinah glory of God. But the shekinah glory of God was never meant to be stationary. Yes, Jerusalem and the temple represented the place where the shekinah glory of God was to draw the entire world into His presence to worship Him. But the shekinah glory of God was on the move throughout the world, and the people of God were supposed to follow Him.

The people of God were supposed to be witnesses to all the world of the shekinah presence of God through their love, through their worship, through their good deeds, and through their proclamation. By following the shekinah presence of God, the people themselves would become the shekinah presence of God through their witness!

But the Jewish people rejected the true Shekinah Glory—that is, Jesus Christ—and rather than following Him, they spent their energies staying put in their home and following man-made traditions in the name of religion.

If Jesus is on the move, and we don’t follow Him, we will relinquish the blessings that come with His glorious presence—just as the Jewish people did.

Churches who call on the name of Jesus make that mistake too. Sooner or later, churches who make that mistake become torn apart by pointless bickering and infighting instead of continually being blessed by the indwelling glory of Christ—because Christ won’t be there anymore. He’s moved on.

And sadly, that is the fate of many churches. Having been blessed through some program or ministry or some preacher or some music, they try to corral the blessings by latching on to the program or ministry or preacher or music. That’s idolatry.

But the blessings found in Christ Jesus are always on the move, because Christ Himself is always on the move to seek and to save the lost and to fill the earth with the shekinah glory of God in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families. That’s the church.

Jesus Christ and the blessings that come in HIm will not be corralled by people chasing after personal blessings. The only way to experience the blessings that are found in Christ Jesus is to chase after Him and to follow Him—to do what He does, say what He says, and love like He loves.

Father, we have seen the mistakes that so many churches make over and over again. We seek Your blessings, but we want Your blessings on our own terms, in the comfort of our own homes. Father, open our eyes to the reality of Your ways, the goodness of Your ways. Father, give us Your heart for the lost! Make us to have eyes to see and ears to hear Christ and Christ alone, and to follow Him. And as we follow Him, may Christ be our reward, may Christ be our treasure, may Christ be our blessing. In Jesus’s name. Amen.