I Walk the Line

You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine, I walk the line

~Johnny Cash

There is a mistaken notion, especially among the grace, grace, grace crowd, that serving in the Kingdom is akin to a wide open space to roam---sort of like going on a safari in the wild plains of the Serengeti. 

This is an inaccurate analogy.  If we study Bible scripture we see that the closer and closer we get to God, the way becomes narrower and narrower…tighter, more constraining. 

Now, at first glance, this concept can seem almost creepy...Sort of like being in the grip of a Boa Constrictor.  I recently viewed a YouTube video of an Anaconda wrapped around a dog.  Each time the dog exhaled a breath, the snake got tighter and tighter, literally squeezing the life out of him.  The dog was surprisingly calm realizing that struggling would only make the situation worse.  Thankfully the owner came upon the situation, scared off the snake, and the dog survived no worse for wear.  So why would we want to envision an image of constrainment in our Christian lives? 

Like Bob Dylan so aptly sang: 

You’re gonna have to serve somebody

It may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody. 

The problem arises when we mistakenly think we are “free”…a term in our Western culture definition which usually translates to “Doing my own thing.”  We are deceived.  Seriously practicing Christians embrace the concept that we are bond-servants to Christ.  The scripture tells us that the only thing we have control over is our will or our right to choose.  That’s it.  Despite what secular culture and all the commercials tell you…you don’t get a vast array of choices...Just two:

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

~Deuteronomy 30:19

We can’t say:  “I choose not to choose.”  Go back and re-read the underscore.  You must make a choice.  Like the boa-wrapped dog, you can’t “wriggle out” of it unless your Master comes and chases the snake away.  

I imagine after this harrowing snake incident, the owner proceeded to keep the dog on a short leash when walking through dangerous territory.  I think the dog was more than happy to be close to his owners heels and was cautious about running unrestrained through wild terrain again…Just stay close to the Master’s feet and obey.  Whew…close call.   

Interestingly, the concept for this blog caused me to deeply study the origins and etymology of the word “Serengeti.”   It’s fascinating to find the shaded meanings embedded in one single word.  Names have both a clear meaning and an obscure hidden interpretation.  On the surface, Serengeti means: 

Seren = Serene endless view

Geti = Plains

But it ALSO means:

Seren = Siren Song

Geti = Rift Valley

The ancient Greek definition of “geti” has additional shades of meaning which indicate cattle being prodded by a spear through a gate.  The devil, while seemingly giving us a vast array of delicious options, is really “cattle-driving” those who listen to his “Siren song” with a pitchfork to their destruction.  You may foolishly think, like the Fleetwood Mac song, “you can go your own way,” but instead you are really tromping to the slaughterhouse. 

The Equator is one big imaginary line encircling the Earth.  Geographic locations on the Equator experience the fastest sunrises and sunsets.  It’s truly the line where dark and light are closest together.  The ultimate example is the equatorial location where the upper edge of the Serengeti passes through Lake Victoria in Africa.  The Rift Valley there runs from Israel’s Jordan Rift Valley to Kenya’s Great Rift Valley.  Great political symbolism here if you meditate on it.

Right now, there’s a “rending” going on in the spiritual world.  During Jewish mourning, known as “sitting Shiva”, funeral-goers rip a piece of their outer garment off.  Some wear a black ribbon. The Hebrew meaning for ribband is:  “Line.”  The torn garment or ribband symbolizes and expresses the mourner’s sorrow.  This is a spiritual concept of the Remnant…those who will sit and mourn with God while the Earth is wracked with spiritual and physical grief.  “Sitting Shiva” goes on for seven days.  The Remnant will mourn for seven years. 

He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

~Daniel 9:27

The Great Rift is coming.  It will be evidenced in both physical and spiritual struggles globally.  Those who are closely wrapped up in Christ will stoically face the coming constrictions as the earth labors and travails like one in childbirth.  We will know, like the patient, trapped dog, He is coming soon to set us free.  Those roaming the plains recklessly will weep and wail in loud pain and torment.
 

Only if you are walking the line with the Lion of Judah will you truly be… 

Born Free

Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

~Song of Solomon 2:8

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee! 

~the last song purported to have been played on the Titanic before it sank

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~by Debra R. Monterosso

Posted with permission by Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com