In these days of the pandemic, we may feel dry and lifeless. Alone, and without our face-to-face interactions and physical serving, can we still find the living water? Can we still produce the fruit of real salvation? Being saved is a mysterious, even illogical experience. Yet all truly saved ones have experienced the same process and have tasted the exact same flavor and fruit. Oftentimes we rely on meeting and being together physically to remind us of our salvation. But today’s challenge is whether we are able to enter into the reality of salvation in our daily life.
As an example, before the pandemic, you might have relied on the local coffee shop to make your morning coffee. But under the pandemic restrictions, we suddenly are lost without the convenience of that standardized drink. You struggle to make the same delicious coffee yourself, because you’re lacking the ingredients, the water, the process, and the know-how to make that cup of coffee. In the same way, the pandemic is pushing us to live the true believer’s life, and to enjoy daily salvation with an authentic, exact taste at home. Our search is to brew this heavenly experience without it being watered down. Although we may be saved, we should not forgo that taste—that experience—of our salvation being real to us every moment. Each element—the temperature, color, flavor, and texture—can be so specific to us every time, something familiar yet enjoyable and new with each sip.
So what is this very specific salvation? How do we know we are saved? At the moment we were saved, we were brought into the divine meaning of our human life. Our salvation brings us into another purpose, one that does not generate from ourselves. This salvation ties us to the purpose originating in God, the Creator. All human beings are made to manifest Him and His divinity—we are His unique expression. We may not have read the Bible and did not know the Lord Jesus, and yet one day, we believed! We experienced something of God’s love, and we were brought into the church, where the saints help us and strengthen us to mature and grow. As believers grow, we not only are saved once, but also know and experience this salvation constantly. The Lord uses many incidents and experiences to bring us into a deeper, more essential stage of what it means to be saved. He wants to make this salvation essentially yours. Hallelujah, there is a way! There is a specific process to be saved, to be recovered, to come back to this unique purpose from God.
So today, especially in the days of the pandemic, it’s time for us to make our own coffee. Salvation should not be something unfamiliar or external to us that only the qualified saints can enjoy or help us to have. We should be saved daily, moment by moment, with this very specific salvation. We don’t need to dream that one day we can return to the coffee shop to get that perfect espresso. No—we must have it today! We can’t rely on others for our own salvation. All of it—the ingredients, the process, the enjoyment of that “just right” flavor—has to be ours. Rather than settle for watered down, bitter or sour coffee, we need that vitality, that drive, that experiential know-how, and the understanding to authenticate the taste of salvation. Church meetings are good, but the real test is whether we are able to do this at home or not—that is, we are able to be saved, we know what we’re saved unto, and we are living out that purpose day by day. And, we must not only experience this salvation, but also be sure of its processes, ingredients, and essence, so that we can reproduce and continue the genealogy of our own salvation.
(Above is part 1 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/3/2021, not reviewed by the speaker. Read part 2 here.)