The month of July, for me, became a sort of point of convergence upon where the last three years of God's work in my life came crashing together in a truly awing epiphany, which, for some (and indeed for me now), will sound a bit obvious when they hear it. (Another post on that here.) Basically, the verse from the Sermon on the Mount, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you," (Matthew 6:33) has become "heart-knowledge" rather than "head-knowledge." God, I believe, is much more detail-oriented than we often give Him credit for.
Now that I've become more sensitive to this character of God, it seems to pop up everywhere in my devotions. Recently, while reading in Philippians, I came across this passage: "3I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. " (Philippians 1:3-6)
While watching a lecture for one of my summer classes, a statement the presenter (Dr. Bill Gothard) made really struck me: "We are indestructible until our work here on earth is done."
What an incredible notion. And as it pertains to this post, now I realise just how blind and helpless I was before the Lord revealed this truth to me. Without defining this term, may I make the statement that faith is not something grand and glorious for us to have or to do; it is believing what is real is really real. Faith is calling black black; a public declaration that the laws with which God has bound this universe are real, sound, and worthy of observance.
But more than that, faith comes with the pluck to admit that something, somewhere, has a better grasp on the workings of the "clocks" of life. Faith doesn't need to analyze or understand what it accepts before it accepts it.
I was a terrible math student for my teachers. I wanted a reason for everything--I wanted to know why an even number of negatives make a positive and an odd number of negatives make a negative when multiplying. No one seemed to have an answer for me other than, "That's the way it is. Accept it." (Apparently my questions drove away my teachers, because by my freshman year of high school I found that my only math teacher was to be my textbook. :P) But the illustration stands: Some things are the way they are, and while God may understand why, He doesn't have to condescend to explain it to us. And even that has a reason behind it, for, "without faith it is impossible to please [God]." (Hebrews 11:6)
So, friends, with that I encourage you to continue to declare that what is real is really real.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Revelation
Speaking of lessons from the Lord (this post arose out of this one over here), I realise my true helplessness after something is revealed to me, and go back to 1 Corinthians 1 with renewed insight. Isn't that always the way it works, though? I seem to blunder about in the dark on a particular subject until the Spirit swoops down and blinds me with a crashing bolt of light and truth, and after navigating through the lighted area, I look back and think, "Hasn't it always been this bright?" And then I realise over just how many years that bolt of light spanned, and pick out a new golden thread in my life the Lord is weaving together.
It reminds me indirectly of the circuit rider from the book, Caddie Woodlawn. He brought a clock which had stopped on account of neglect for Mr. Woodlawn to fix. When asked what was wrong with it, he hesitates, and is described as someone who, "knew all about horses and ways of predicting the weather; he could quote you almost any passage in the Bible and make clear the book of Revelations. But anything wheels or cogs or springs was an unfathomable mystery to him."
I therefore contend that life, and the general workings therein, is composed of myriad unfathomable "clocks." I ask the Lord to teach me the deep mystery of the workings of one particular clock, and when He opens the casing and teaches me the inner workings of the wheels and cogs and springs, it seems such a simple machine compared to the contrivance of mechanical workings it was before.
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men," declares Paul, "and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:25)
It reminds me indirectly of the circuit rider from the book, Caddie Woodlawn. He brought a clock which had stopped on account of neglect for Mr. Woodlawn to fix. When asked what was wrong with it, he hesitates, and is described as someone who, "knew all about horses and ways of predicting the weather; he could quote you almost any passage in the Bible and make clear the book of Revelations. But anything wheels or cogs or springs was an unfathomable mystery to him."
I therefore contend that life, and the general workings therein, is composed of myriad unfathomable "clocks." I ask the Lord to teach me the deep mystery of the workings of one particular clock, and when He opens the casing and teaches me the inner workings of the wheels and cogs and springs, it seems such a simple machine compared to the contrivance of mechanical workings it was before.
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men," declares Paul, "and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:25)
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Lord, I believe: An Original Poem
The Lord has been working with me about my faith, and here is the product of about a year and a half. As is my faith, this poem is a work in progress. It started with the first two lines bouncing around in my head for a week or so, and has become this. I hope to add more and more verses as my walk in faith continues. If it helps, sing these lines to the tune of "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness."
Lord,
I believe Thy faithfulness sure:
Myself
Thou shalt steadfastly secure.
With
Thee on my side through every trial,
Though
my head droop it shall be rais’d higher.
Lord,
I believe Thou orderest my way,
Come
gloom or gladness; come night or day.
If my
faith fail, or I should lose hope,
Thee,
Lord canst bear, with what I cannot cope.
Lord,
I believe that weakness of mine
Is
swallow’d in strength of the perfect Divine.
And
Thou in Thy love givest to me
The
sweet blessed Jesus: all that I need.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Light
If you do not already know about the series this post is a part of, click here.
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
-O Love That Wilt not Let Me Go- by George Matheson
One of my favorite hymns, that seems to have a lot of parallelism with the Gospel of John. There is a reason the cover picture on my blog is of the Gospel of John. In my estimation, it is the richest and most symbolic of the four Gospels, and often runs on more than one level. In my project to find Who Jesus is for us, I have decided to devote 2-3 months and possibly 2-3 posts to the Gospel of John. Reading a particular line in the above hymn reminded me of a verse in John 1. "I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray..."
Now, in John 1, there is a verse that has always puzzled me: "...That was the true Light, which ligheth every man that cometh into the world." Unlike most statements about or from Jesus Christ, this is not a totally exclusive word. He is that Light which lights every man. As I always understood it, the world is full of darkness, not a light that lights every man. A person is not "lit" until he knows the Father through the Son (John 17:3). But this verse says, "every man."
What if it is true that all men receive their light from Jesus? Colossians 1:16-17 tells us "...all things were created by him, and for him: ...And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." That line in the hymn uses interesting language: "My heart restores its borrowed ray." The way I see, everyone born into the world is made human with a soul and a spirit, or "lit," by the Son of God. Some light has been turned to darkness, but some are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, and in His sunshine's blaze, our rays are fairest and brightest. My study on the Gospel of John shall continue through May.
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
-O Love That Wilt not Let Me Go- by George Matheson
One of my favorite hymns, that seems to have a lot of parallelism with the Gospel of John. There is a reason the cover picture on my blog is of the Gospel of John. In my estimation, it is the richest and most symbolic of the four Gospels, and often runs on more than one level. In my project to find Who Jesus is for us, I have decided to devote 2-3 months and possibly 2-3 posts to the Gospel of John. Reading a particular line in the above hymn reminded me of a verse in John 1. "I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray..."
Now, in John 1, there is a verse that has always puzzled me: "...That was the true Light, which ligheth every man that cometh into the world." Unlike most statements about or from Jesus Christ, this is not a totally exclusive word. He is that Light which lights every man. As I always understood it, the world is full of darkness, not a light that lights every man. A person is not "lit" until he knows the Father through the Son (John 17:3). But this verse says, "every man."
What if it is true that all men receive their light from Jesus? Colossians 1:16-17 tells us "...all things were created by him, and for him: ...And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." That line in the hymn uses interesting language: "My heart restores its borrowed ray." The way I see, everyone born into the world is made human with a soul and a spirit, or "lit," by the Son of God. Some light has been turned to darkness, but some are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, and in His sunshine's blaze, our rays are fairest and brightest. My study on the Gospel of John shall continue through May.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Accountability
(Note: This is a largely evangelical post.)
There is a cultural phenomenon that has been going on for quite some time now which I have only recently become hip to. (HA, and there's some 60s slang I only recently got hip to.)
There is a particularly pernicious lie people have fallen for: that the only thing you can know is yourself, your own emotions, and your own mind, and therefore you oughtn't try to know other's similar qualities but instead lead such a fun and happy life doing all the things that please you so that when you're old and dying and about to no longer exist, you can look back and say "Wow, I really enjoyed myself. I guess I don't feel so bad now that I'm not going to exist anymore." There are those who act as if this is a sort of hard thing to accept.
The problem people have here is not with suddenly not existing. In fact, it wouldn't be so bad to suddenly stop existing, if you think about it, because you certainly wouldn't be around to know it. The problem here is that no one wants to be accountable for everything they've ever done.
But we are, whether we believe that or not. One day you will have to give an account for every action, deed, and word ever to come out of you. Every. single. one. And when you get there, you'll either have an intercessor who is the Worthy One, Jesus Christ, or you will have only your wits and your long, incriminating history of sin, after condemning sin, after condemning sin. Did you think that you could get away with not having to do this simply because you don't believe in it?
God does not need your consent to exist. He does not need your permission, your belief, your faith to still judge you. But then again, why should He judge you? After all, He hasn't lived your life.
I'll tell you why. He created you, and the only reason He hasn't completely wiped the whole of the human race off the face of the planet yet is because He is infinitely patient, loving, faithful, and hopeful. I know if I were God, I would have gotten rid of the whole rotten lot of us long ago.
You have no rights before God. You are a created being who has trespassed against the statutes and laws of the all-powerful, all-perfect, all-deserving God, and therefore you forfeit any argument you had against Him doing as He pleases with you. At this point some people may be getting fidgety and tell me that this sort of blog post, which really doesn't mince words, and makes them feel terrible, is a bad example of Christianity, and that's exactly the reason they don't want to be a Christian. Well, my friend, Christianity is all about love, but you've got to give up your old ways at some point, and someone has got to tell you do it at another. Haven't you noticed by now, though, that this materialistic, self-absorbed, selfish lifestyle really isn't as fulfilling as you thought? Don't you ever get tired of watching other people suffer while you sit in comfort and do whatever floats your boat, whatever you feel like doing, whatever think will stroke your self-esteem the most? This world has got problems, and much as we all would like to ignore them, we can't. We've got those friends whose parents got divorced when they were 8, and now they don't believe in "love," or "happiness" anymore. We've got those friends who are suicidal, or self-injurious, or something else because they feel like the world's better off without them. Because they doubt the very attribute of God that makes Him God: Love.
Or how the bigger problems, all around the world? Disasters, explosions, people preying on other people, horrible hate, discrimination (in the true sense), etc. How on earth could a loving God do this to us? How can He let this happen? I once heard someone say "If there is a god, he must be a very indifferent one." Did you ever think you'd brought this suffering down on yourself? (Now, in the case of mental illness, I know that's not something that someone can just will themselves out of, much as they might like to.)
When you succeed, you say it's all because you're so excellent at sports, or you inherited your dad's MENSA tendency, and that's why you're a child prodigy, or the reason everyone likes you so much is because you have such a winning personality. You, you, you, you. You've got it all. Until something goes wrong. Then God is the first to get the blame. In the world, God is always the last to get the glory and the first to get the blame. If you can have so many achievements, why can't you have just as many failures? Maybe, just maybe, God allows these things because we are sinful creatures who need desperate, desperate help. The world's going you know where, and whose fault is it? Not God's. Certainly not God's. When He created the world, He pronounced it good. Very good, in fact. And then guess who came in and gummed everything up. Man, woman, the devil, whomever you like to blame, they all had a part in it and they all blamed someone else, usually God. "That woman you gave me, God, she told me to eat that stupid piece of fruit. I would have never done that if You had given me a better wife, or maaaybe if you're such a good God, how come you let this happen in the first place? Why don't you stay true to yourself, and not let any of this evil stuff happen?" Oh, the depravity, wickedness, pride, and self-absorption of man. The depths of sin and evil we can fall to, to blame our very Creator for the problems His creations make. You didn't want Him to make you into a robot, did you? You want your own free will. You cannot have it both ways. So God gave everyone a free will, and now we all use it to serve ourselves, to hurt others, to gain glory and prestige for ourselves, while we along with the rest of the world slowly spiral down the drain of sin into destruction.
Isn't there a way out? Can't we do good things to make it all up? Live a good life, serve others, love people? No, not in ourselves, and you know it. Self-reform inevitably ends in despondency and failure. Why? Because in the Garden of Eden, while man and woman and devil were blaming each other and ultimately God, man and woman separated themselves from God. God is the only one from Whom come all good things. Is there happiness in the world? Thank God. Is there a good turn anywhere? Praise God. Has your "faith in humanity" been restored from a post on Facebook? Glory to God, real humanity had nothing to do with it.
You see, God, in His never-ending mercies, has provided a way to impart His Goodness to us. You've heard it. The very Son of God Himself climbed down from His throne in heaven to live as a man and die as a man, only do it perfectly, so that death might swallowed up in victory. And whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
There it is where you will find your true satisfaction, your true purpose in life, and you may even look forward to the end, when you will see your God face-to-face. And instead saying He never knew you, He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into rest." Oh, that the entire human race could know this eternal rest.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58
John 3:16-17
There is a cultural phenomenon that has been going on for quite some time now which I have only recently become hip to. (HA, and there's some 60s slang I only recently got hip to.)
There is a particularly pernicious lie people have fallen for: that the only thing you can know is yourself, your own emotions, and your own mind, and therefore you oughtn't try to know other's similar qualities but instead lead such a fun and happy life doing all the things that please you so that when you're old and dying and about to no longer exist, you can look back and say "Wow, I really enjoyed myself. I guess I don't feel so bad now that I'm not going to exist anymore." There are those who act as if this is a sort of hard thing to accept.
The problem people have here is not with suddenly not existing. In fact, it wouldn't be so bad to suddenly stop existing, if you think about it, because you certainly wouldn't be around to know it. The problem here is that no one wants to be accountable for everything they've ever done.
But we are, whether we believe that or not. One day you will have to give an account for every action, deed, and word ever to come out of you. Every. single. one. And when you get there, you'll either have an intercessor who is the Worthy One, Jesus Christ, or you will have only your wits and your long, incriminating history of sin, after condemning sin, after condemning sin. Did you think that you could get away with not having to do this simply because you don't believe in it?
God does not need your consent to exist. He does not need your permission, your belief, your faith to still judge you. But then again, why should He judge you? After all, He hasn't lived your life.
I'll tell you why. He created you, and the only reason He hasn't completely wiped the whole of the human race off the face of the planet yet is because He is infinitely patient, loving, faithful, and hopeful. I know if I were God, I would have gotten rid of the whole rotten lot of us long ago.
You have no rights before God. You are a created being who has trespassed against the statutes and laws of the all-powerful, all-perfect, all-deserving God, and therefore you forfeit any argument you had against Him doing as He pleases with you. At this point some people may be getting fidgety and tell me that this sort of blog post, which really doesn't mince words, and makes them feel terrible, is a bad example of Christianity, and that's exactly the reason they don't want to be a Christian. Well, my friend, Christianity is all about love, but you've got to give up your old ways at some point, and someone has got to tell you do it at another. Haven't you noticed by now, though, that this materialistic, self-absorbed, selfish lifestyle really isn't as fulfilling as you thought? Don't you ever get tired of watching other people suffer while you sit in comfort and do whatever floats your boat, whatever you feel like doing, whatever think will stroke your self-esteem the most? This world has got problems, and much as we all would like to ignore them, we can't. We've got those friends whose parents got divorced when they were 8, and now they don't believe in "love," or "happiness" anymore. We've got those friends who are suicidal, or self-injurious, or something else because they feel like the world's better off without them. Because they doubt the very attribute of God that makes Him God: Love.
Or how the bigger problems, all around the world? Disasters, explosions, people preying on other people, horrible hate, discrimination (in the true sense), etc. How on earth could a loving God do this to us? How can He let this happen? I once heard someone say "If there is a god, he must be a very indifferent one." Did you ever think you'd brought this suffering down on yourself? (Now, in the case of mental illness, I know that's not something that someone can just will themselves out of, much as they might like to.)
When you succeed, you say it's all because you're so excellent at sports, or you inherited your dad's MENSA tendency, and that's why you're a child prodigy, or the reason everyone likes you so much is because you have such a winning personality. You, you, you, you. You've got it all. Until something goes wrong. Then God is the first to get the blame. In the world, God is always the last to get the glory and the first to get the blame. If you can have so many achievements, why can't you have just as many failures? Maybe, just maybe, God allows these things because we are sinful creatures who need desperate, desperate help. The world's going you know where, and whose fault is it? Not God's. Certainly not God's. When He created the world, He pronounced it good. Very good, in fact. And then guess who came in and gummed everything up. Man, woman, the devil, whomever you like to blame, they all had a part in it and they all blamed someone else, usually God. "That woman you gave me, God, she told me to eat that stupid piece of fruit. I would have never done that if You had given me a better wife, or maaaybe if you're such a good God, how come you let this happen in the first place? Why don't you stay true to yourself, and not let any of this evil stuff happen?" Oh, the depravity, wickedness, pride, and self-absorption of man. The depths of sin and evil we can fall to, to blame our very Creator for the problems His creations make. You didn't want Him to make you into a robot, did you? You want your own free will. You cannot have it both ways. So God gave everyone a free will, and now we all use it to serve ourselves, to hurt others, to gain glory and prestige for ourselves, while we along with the rest of the world slowly spiral down the drain of sin into destruction.
Isn't there a way out? Can't we do good things to make it all up? Live a good life, serve others, love people? No, not in ourselves, and you know it. Self-reform inevitably ends in despondency and failure. Why? Because in the Garden of Eden, while man and woman and devil were blaming each other and ultimately God, man and woman separated themselves from God. God is the only one from Whom come all good things. Is there happiness in the world? Thank God. Is there a good turn anywhere? Praise God. Has your "faith in humanity" been restored from a post on Facebook? Glory to God, real humanity had nothing to do with it.
You see, God, in His never-ending mercies, has provided a way to impart His Goodness to us. You've heard it. The very Son of God Himself climbed down from His throne in heaven to live as a man and die as a man, only do it perfectly, so that death might swallowed up in victory. And whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
There it is where you will find your true satisfaction, your true purpose in life, and you may even look forward to the end, when you will see your God face-to-face. And instead saying He never knew you, He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into rest." Oh, that the entire human race could know this eternal rest.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58
John 3:16-17
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Ransom
Part II of the series I am working on through the New Testament. If you do not already know about the series this post is a part of, click here.
What is Christ to us? We saw earlier through the book of Matthew that Christ is the Son of God, and this is the most important aspect of Him. In Mark, we find that Jesus is our Ransom. Mark 10:45 - "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
This is how we are accepted into the Kingdom of God:. At first we are taken prisoner, slaves to sin, but when the Son of God comes down and ministers unto us, His Life is all that is needed to ransom us from our captivity. Are you weak, sick and tired, and trying to do it all on your own? Stop your struggle. Let the Son of God be your Perfect Ransom, and as He promised, you will find rest for your soul.
What is Christ to us? We saw earlier through the book of Matthew that Christ is the Son of God, and this is the most important aspect of Him. In Mark, we find that Jesus is our Ransom. Mark 10:45 - "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
This is how we are accepted into the Kingdom of God:. At first we are taken prisoner, slaves to sin, but when the Son of God comes down and ministers unto us, His Life is all that is needed to ransom us from our captivity. Are you weak, sick and tired, and trying to do it all on your own? Stop your struggle. Let the Son of God be your Perfect Ransom, and as He promised, you will find rest for your soul.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Rights
When my brother and I were children, my mother would always attempt to settle our little spats by saying, "You both have the right to be wrong." Now, in the spirit of that sort of childish conceit that is especially magnified after one has just been contending with one's younger brother, I didn't understand what she said, and didn't much care to understand. But in the past two years or so, my eyes have been in the process of being opened by our Lord, sometimes in spite of me, and other times with my whole heart in it. I see now what it means to have the right to be wrong.
In Corinthians, there is a verse in chapter 6 that goes something like this: "Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" And that last line, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? has been running through my head ever since I returned from my trip to London. Why, as Christians, do we hold so tightly to our "right" to win the argument? There is but one source from which this spirit flows: self-love. But so quickly we forget that we have been freed by the precious blood of Christ from the spirit of self-love! We have the Son of God Himself, the consummate Being of self-giving Love living in our hearts, and yet we allow our unrenewed minds to persist in the pride of always having to be right.
We say to others, "Read this Gospel tract; this News will change your life," or, "Let me tell you about a man named Jesus Christ; He is the one Who can turn your life around," and yet we "Christians" ourselves, who have already experienced this life-change do not exhibit the transforming Word we so often press on others!
Living rightly will be of no effect if one cannot love and suffer oneself to be defrauded. An exemplary life is but an eyesore if one always has to be right. As it says in James, Mercy triumphs over judgment. It may be true of us that we never swear, and abstain from media with corrupt content, and always tell the truth, and be transparent about our sins, and do all the right "Christianly" things, but if we cannot handle being wrong, it is of no worth. I am not saying that the commandments themselves found in the Bible are worthless. No indeed, the commandments are there for our benefit! But they are worthless if one performs them without the ability to admit one is wrong. Because to admit being wrong is to love someone more than yourself.
Can you attain that? Can you love someone more than yourself? "Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die," but as soon as a man crosses us and makes us look as if we are wrong, or that we are less than perfect, our pathetic human love is snuffed cold and unrighteous anger quickly takes its place. No, we cannot attain that, but we must be willing to allow Christ out of us, Who can love more than Himself. After all, He died for you and me. We are not even very good people.
"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me," says Jesus to the young rich man who insisted he had kept all the commandments since his youth. "Come and follow me," says Jesus, but to do that, that young rich man has to not only sell possessions, but any rights and respect he had garnered in the world. And away he went, sadly. It is no different for us. To follow Christ, we must deny ourselves daily, especially our right to win the argument. Let us not turn away sadly.
Credit is due to Paster David Gibbs for inspiring me to finally post this.
Verses consulted:
1 Corinthians 6:7
Romans 6:18
Romans 12:2
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
James 2:13
Romans 5:7
Matthew 19:21
In Corinthians, there is a verse in chapter 6 that goes something like this: "Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" And that last line, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? has been running through my head ever since I returned from my trip to London. Why, as Christians, do we hold so tightly to our "right" to win the argument? There is but one source from which this spirit flows: self-love. But so quickly we forget that we have been freed by the precious blood of Christ from the spirit of self-love! We have the Son of God Himself, the consummate Being of self-giving Love living in our hearts, and yet we allow our unrenewed minds to persist in the pride of always having to be right.
We say to others, "Read this Gospel tract; this News will change your life," or, "Let me tell you about a man named Jesus Christ; He is the one Who can turn your life around," and yet we "Christians" ourselves, who have already experienced this life-change do not exhibit the transforming Word we so often press on others!
Living rightly will be of no effect if one cannot love and suffer oneself to be defrauded. An exemplary life is but an eyesore if one always has to be right. As it says in James, Mercy triumphs over judgment. It may be true of us that we never swear, and abstain from media with corrupt content, and always tell the truth, and be transparent about our sins, and do all the right "Christianly" things, but if we cannot handle being wrong, it is of no worth. I am not saying that the commandments themselves found in the Bible are worthless. No indeed, the commandments are there for our benefit! But they are worthless if one performs them without the ability to admit one is wrong. Because to admit being wrong is to love someone more than yourself.
Can you attain that? Can you love someone more than yourself? "Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die," but as soon as a man crosses us and makes us look as if we are wrong, or that we are less than perfect, our pathetic human love is snuffed cold and unrighteous anger quickly takes its place. No, we cannot attain that, but we must be willing to allow Christ out of us, Who can love more than Himself. After all, He died for you and me. We are not even very good people.
"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me," says Jesus to the young rich man who insisted he had kept all the commandments since his youth. "Come and follow me," says Jesus, but to do that, that young rich man has to not only sell possessions, but any rights and respect he had garnered in the world. And away he went, sadly. It is no different for us. To follow Christ, we must deny ourselves daily, especially our right to win the argument. Let us not turn away sadly.
Credit is due to Paster David Gibbs for inspiring me to finally post this.
Verses consulted:
1 Corinthians 6:7
Romans 6:18
Romans 12:2
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
James 2:13
Romans 5:7
Matthew 19:21
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Life
If you do not already know about the series this post is a part of, click here.
I shall today start the
vein of finding all the things which Jesus is to us, either through
statements of the apostles in their epistles, or through statements
from Jesus Himself (e. g. “I am the vine”). The first book I read
with this perspective was Matthew. Now, this is a book which tries to
prove that Jesus really is the Son of God through presenting the
prophecies that had been coming since the Garden of Eden. To be
honest, there were not a lot of statements made by anyone about who
Jesus is for us, who are His church. But one certainly gets the feeling that
Jesus really is the Son of God after reading Matthew. (Alright, so
Jesus is the Son of God regardless of how we feel about it, but you
know what I mean.) Maybe that doesn't seem like much, but being the only begotten Son of God truly is the single most important aspect of Jesus Christ. Why? Because in Him, God climbed down from Heaven to save us earthlings the only way we can be saved.
God created the human. When the first humans ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they incurred a humanly inseparable gulf between God and man. Suddenly, because sin and self-love had entered in, man could no longer commune with God the way Adam and Eve had been used to. So our first instinct is to measure up to God's standard ourselves in order to reclaim that communion enjoyed by the first humans, correct? But we never can, because of the nature of eternal life, and eternal death.
Eternal death is merely a separation from God. When we are separated from Him, sin is the natural outcome. But sin is not the root of eternal death. Eternal life can come only from God. Anything apart from Him is doomed to failure and death because He is the only Life in the universe. By Him all things were made, and by Him all things consist. How can life be imparted to a person by mere actions of right, when the whole man is wrong by separation from the Life? It is the syndrome of the young rich man, who insisted to our Lord that he had kept all the commandments from his youth. But it was not enough. Nothing short of complete surrender could grant him the life he sought. If we are to believe him that he had indeed kept all the commandments, he was still yet not good, because he had not surrendered and become indwelt by the only Good One of everything.
This is why the Son of God is the most important of all the things which Jesus is to us. For no one else could impart the Life which we so earnestly desire, and can never attain on our own wrongful foundation.
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