Of all the mental disorders, hearing voices is perhaps the most unsettling. Yet it seems that our lives are rendered dysfunctional by all the real voices we hear trying to direct, counsel, and control life. From the time we were kids we have heard voices telling us to do this and to do that, to go here and not to go there, this is important and that is not. Growing up doesn't solve the problem – it only makes it worse. During adolescence, the voices of our peers often conflict with the parental voices heard at home. Then there are the religious voices, professor's voices, voices from the media and entertainment, and even voices from within that leave us dizzy with an attack of contradictory input and advice. Life is a search for a voice we can trust - a single voice that puts all other voices into quiet perspective, a voice that settles the loudness around us and speaks peacefully yet clearly and confidently. A voice of leadership that we can trust. Jesus Christ is the Voice. He affirmed, "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). Those who have set their hearts to hear His voice and trust in His leadership have been liberated from the din and frustration of the seductive voices that threaten their destinies. Unfortunately, to look at most of us who call ourselves by His name, it would be hard to tell that we hear His voice alone and trust to follow it. Our lives are more often than not dictated by our soul and body functional voices within and by the most pressing and influential voices around us. Freeing ourselves from the voices that haunt us and which are not from God is the primary pursuit and the most privileged identity of the Christian life. It is about becoming what God intended us to be as His children. It is about experiencing Life – the Life of Christ – the way it was meant to be. Christians are to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and relating successfully begins by trusting in His leadership. He doesn't relate to us on any other level than trusting on His strength in our weakness. Yet in sermons, we may hear little about trust. Oh, we hear about trusting that Christ paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross. But day to day trust in Christ is another message. For most of us, Christianity has been formed as a system in which earthly leadership is paramount. We are led to believe that if we relate successfully to the structure, we are doing well in our Christianity – especially if we serve well enough to become leaders. If we have heard about trusting in leadership at all, it is usually in terms of earthly persons, codes, and institutions. Christianity has become more of a ritual and less of a relationship, more of a system and less of a Savior who like a shepherd, LEADS US! Those who trust in Christ know that Christianity is different. They know that it is Christ and Christ alone. And those who grow into a good awareness of and trust in the leadership of Christ within them experience the liberating joy of simplifying their lives by simply following Christ. We are never to say to ourselves, "I think I'll make something of my life – and, oh yes, I'll try to trust Him as well." Instead, we are to embrace the reality that Jesus said, "Follow Me and let ME make something of your life." Those who rise to the Voice and set their minds on non-negotiated, uncompromised trust in Christ's leadership will also get, as a side-effect, His glorious PEACE. Something significant has happened since Christ issued the challenge nearly two thousand years ago. We have become quite happy to call ourselves Christians with little or no thought of trust in His leadership. As a result, we are paying dearly through a loss of fulfillment, personal satisfaction, and our impact on the world. It is not that we have denied Christ or even that we have done seriously wrong things. In fact, most of us have mastered the codes of conduct and rituals of our religion. The problem is, we have masqueraded Christ to our own little world with our own little ways. When non-Christians see us, they see more of our distorted portrayal of Christianity than they do a clear reflection of the character and quality of Christ. And they often conclude, "If this is what Christ means in a person's life, then forget it!" Living in a metropolitan area, I am aware of what graffiti can do to an otherwise attractive façade. Throughout history, vandals have destroyed masterpieces of art by wanton strokes of a brush, adding glasses, a mustache, a sinister smile, a beard, or a distorted nose. Too often we have graffitied the face of Christ. His image becomes clouded by our prejudices and preferences. Apart from our activities on Sunday and our conformity to external codes of dos and don'ts, the world doesn't notice much difference between us and people who don't claim to be Christian. All they see in Christianity is the loss of a day of leisure on the weekend and the denial of common pleasures. Nor does it go unnoticed that many professing Christians manifest as much greed, self-centeredness, materialism, anger, aggressiveness, and physical appetites as the average pagan on the street. Few will be drawn to Christianity as a system, especially in its graffitied form. Yet those who find their way through the distortion discover Christ as a compelling leader who can be trusted. Christianity is a relationship, an adventure, a passionate pursuit of trust in Christ. This trust then escapes the boredom and drudgery of a system of rituals and regulations in the discovery of this intriguing Person. As children of God through Christ, we are liberated from all that does not reflect the perspective, character, and conduct of Christ. Although we may hear a multiplicity of voices from both within and outside the church, we really focus on only one. It is the voice of Christ, who simply said, "Trust ME!" In our modern world, any other voice that says, "Trust me" should be met with a good solid dose of skepticism. But Christ knows what He is talking about, and He means it. No conditions. No negotiations. No particulars. No contractual exceptions. Just trust! It was the first and last thing Jesus required of Peter (Mark 1:17; John 21:19,22). It is the beginning and the end of what it means to be a Christian. Everything in between is measured by it. Unfortunately when we identify ourselves, our terms of identification don't readily indicate our trust in Chris's daily leadership. To say, "I am a Christian," may focus our attention on our privileges and entitlements. Or, perhaps it is simply a way to differentiate ourselves from other kind of people. For some it means little more than not being a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist. The title itself does little to forge a sense of calling to trust action. Some of us have understood the vagueness of the title "Christian" and have opted for "believer". But this only focuses on a time or season when we confirmed the fact that we had chosen to believe in Christ and His gospel. Again, this fails to define or delineate what it actually means to live as a believer. What does a believer DO apart from giving mental assent to a system of belief? Then there is the identity of "brother" or "sister". The problem here is that these terms focus our attention horizontally, in terms of relationship to one another, not primarily on our relationship in union with Christ. Others of us think of our relationship with Christ in terms of "I am a Catholic" or Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, or some other denominational or group label. As good and important as these identities may be, at some point we have to get beyond these labels to a self-perception that will demand the right stuff of our lifestyle. "In God we trust." Our money says it. We are TRUSTERS – and Jesus Christ is the great TRUSTEE! As strange as the word sounds, identifying ourselves as "TRUSTERS", even though the word is not in the dictionary, captures the essence of what it means to be in union with Christ. Think of the difference it would make if we answered questions about who we are by saying, "I am a TRUSTER OF CHRIST." Calling one another "TRUSTER" would draw out encouragement and accountability. Thinking of ourselves as trusting in Christ keeps our focus on Christ and holds us accountable for how we live. Yet, in a strange, twisted sort of way, many of us live out our faith in Christ as though He exists to trust us in our demands – to satisfy our wishes. Distorted perceptions of Christianity present the power of faith and prayer as instruments designed to get Christ to serve our impulses for peace and prosperity. This disguised form of self-serving religion sets Christ up as just one more commodity in life that will enhance and empower our dreams and destinations. An informed perspective of a TRUSTER cancels that notion. Of course, Christ wishes to grant good things to us because He IS generous. But He gives us good things out of His pleasure, in His time and His way, not out of any authority that we supposedly have over Him. We must not forget that all of life suffers when we fail to trust in Christ's leadership. WE WERE CREATED TO TRUST. In the very beginning, God created us so that we could connect with Him as our transcendent guide who would lead us to the reality of the life He desires for us. It is not that we have not heard that intriguing call, "Trust Me!" It is not even that we don't believe in and admire the One who calls. Our struggle is that it is just plain difficult to be a TRUSTER. In a world consumed with leadership, independence, and self-led living, it is tough to find volunteers who will even admit that they want to be TRUSTERS. We get and give the impression that TRUSTERS are limp, vulnerable, weak, controlled by others, and lacking in initiative. Kids used to play "Follow the leader". I don't know whether kids still do, but I know that I always wanted to be the leader. In fact, so did just about everyone else. The reason? The leader was always right, never caught off guard, and never embarrassed by having to imitate others. The leader always looks good, and the followers are the ones who stumble and can't quite keep up. Growing up hasn't changed our perception of the difference between leading and following – only now it's not a game, and the stakes are high. All of life and its outcomes rise and fall on whether or not we will choose to be the leader of our own destiny or a TRUSTER of someone wiser and better fit to lead. Unfortunately, when it comes to the life choices that matter most, we resist yielding control. We don't want to give the impression that we are unable to figure out life for ourselves. In the face of our resistance to being vulnerable, Christ calls us to TRUST Him. He calls us to count ourselves wholly, and without compromise, fully devoted TRUSTERS in the great TRUSTEE. And He wants it not as a part-time expression of, or add-on to, our Christianity, but as the all-consuming center point of our existence – THE LIFE AS A TRUSTER
The Prodigal Son - (like you've never read it before!)
A faithful father’s forgiveness . . . (paraphrased)
Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the farthings. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends. Finally, facing famine and fleecing by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famishing, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fallen fodder fragments. "Fooey! My father's flunkies fair far fancier," the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly . . . frankly facing facts. Falling at his father's feet, he floundered forlornly, "Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor." But the faithful father, forestalling further flenching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast. The fugitive's fault finding fraternal foe frowned on the fickle forgiveness of former falderal. His fury flashed, but fussing was futile. The farsighted father figured, "Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity? For the fugitive is found! Unfurl the flags! With fanfares flaring, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten; folly forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation of future fortitude."
I am no fan of the alternative worldview fostered by the Left Behind of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In terms of ability, I realize that I am not fit to sit at the same computer keyboard with either, given their success as authors – but their ability is not my real concern. And, I have no reason to doubt their commitment to God, and again, they stand on all before Jesus, not me – or you (Romans 14:4). However, based on biblically-based, Christ-centered teaching, the Left Behind series leaves much to be desired. It is but the most recent example of reading the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other. I am intimately acquainted with the product of prophecy-intense study. I lived it. The fictional premises of Left Behind and all of its genetic forefathers feed its followers an unending speculative diet of events that promise the time of the end to be near. Many followers and devotees of “prophecy teaching” respond to each new speculative salvo like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They can’t get enough of it. This end-times stuff is devoured by those caught in its clutches, until by God’s grace, one day some wake up and smell the roses of the full implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my experience that those who once relied on speculative prophetic teaching find that hype and fear is not the stuff of the gospel – and often they find it difficult to move from a diet of frantic warnings that “the end is near” to the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ. When people find out that the Left Behind gospel is flawed, they often blame God for the fact that he was misrepresented. Sadly, in terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ, many then do get left behind. I know many people, many of them dear friends, who have already been left behind, because of the same kind of teachings popularized by the Left Behind series. Some bow out of Christianity altogether, many becoming ambivalent in terms of faith and belief – with some winding up as agnostics and atheists. I know – I spent 15 years thinking that “the end” could come at virtually any moment. My transition to authentic Christianity was like a walk through the valley of the shadow of death. How could I have been so wrong? How could I have been so mistaken -- and misled? Why didn’t I see how shallow and silly some of the teachings I held so near and dear actually were? How could I have once believed what I did? Several weeks ago I found myself channel surfing, and there, before my eyes, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins were being interviewed on NBC’s Dateline. The setting and script was all too familiar: 1) Secular interviewer entices Christian prophecy teacher to tell the world about his or her insights, 2) Prophecy teacher jumps at the opportunity to “reach the world” via secular media, 3) Secular media sees this as great television – a chance to yet again let a Christian demonstrate how unreasonable and preposterous the claims of his or her faith really are, 4) And once again, the world at large is given a stereotype of Christianity, evidenced by one minority view of how some view Bible prophecy. The interviewer wanted to know why God would rapture believers in such a way so that mass chaos and incalculable suffering would result. After all, Rapture teaching (the pre-suppositional ground- zero of the Left Behind series) posits that believers will suddenly evaporate into thin air, without warning, even while they are engaged in critically important professional capacities such as bus drivers, airline pilots, surgeons and law-enforcement officers. Why would God sponsor such a disaster, resulting in such mayhem for those who, for some reason, are not ready, prepared or qualified for the Rapture? I could not believe the answer offered by the authorship team, the creative genius behind the blockbuster Left Behind series – “there will come a time when God will run out of patience.” God is going to run out of patience??? That’s not my God. That’s not the God of authentic Christianity. The God who loved us so much that he gave us his Son, so that by believing in him we would not perish but have everlasting life, does not “lose his patience.”God is not sitting (or standing) in heaven, looking out of his huge control room picture-window down at our earth, shaking his head, slowly losing his cool. There will not be some time in the future when God is having a bad day, when his medication can no longer keep his blood pressure in check, when he blows all his fuses, and announces to the heavenly hosts – “All right. That’s it. I’ve had all that I can take. They have finally done it. Now it’s time to go down there and kick some serious ___.”Nothing in the Bible gives us any such idea. Yes, God was grieved when the children of Israel were worshipping a calf while he was giving Moses the law on Mt. Sinai. But we fail to understand that the only way that the Bible can reveal God to us is through human language and reality. When we read of God’s anger, it is not one and the same as our anger. When we read of God’s wrath, it is not human wrath. When we read of God’s vengeance, it is not human vengeance. In order for God to reveal himself to us, he condescends to our level, he accommodates his language to our reality, and uses “earth-speak” to reveal himself to us. The mere fact that God uses human language, speaking to us in our reality through our limited and earthbound linguistic symbols, is proof that we do not perfectly understand the nature and attributes of God. God is not a God who is just like us. His thoughts and ways are not one and the same as ours (Isaiah 55:8). The psalmist quotes God as rebuking us, for “you thought I was altogether like you” (Psalm 50:21). We can give thanks that God is not just like us – upon reflection, which of us would really want him to be just like we are? Isn’t that why he is God and we are not? Further, the God of the old covenant had an entirely different relationship with Israel, under the terms of the old covenant, than he does with Christians, who experience the new covenant through God’s grace and because of the cross of Christ. God does not lose his cool with us. He is not like us. God’s love is beyond our comprehension, beyond our measurement, beyond our capacity to grasp (Ephesians 3:18-21). The Bible does speak of God’s love and his anger, but what a huge mistake it is for us to presume that his love and anger is understood, experienced and expressed as human love and anger is. The God of the Bible is not a God who is angry and needs to be appeased. The Cross does not appease an angry Father. That’s paganism – bad theology – even though you hear this in churches . . . Their idea is that the Father created, then we messed up the creation, and now the Father is just really mad, and somebody has to die. He won’t be happy until the Son dies. But hey, the Son’s alright with that. He says, "Well, to deflect the Father’s anger I’ll die for you." So the Son dies, then the Father says, "I’ve got enough blood, now I’m happy." That’s not Christianity. That’s absolute paganism. Will God eventually lose his patience with you? Regardless of the implied teachings of the fictionalized Left Behind series, the truth is that you need not live in fear that one day God will lose his cool with you. He loves you with a perfect love, a love that is beyond anything we have ever or will ever experience. God is love. Yes, Jesus Christ will judge the world. But exactly how all of that will come about, and what will happen, to whom, when, where and why -- those details are not revealed to us. We do know that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Will God eventually lose his patience with other people – people who do not accept Jesus Christ – people who are really bad sinners (not just plain old ordinary sinners like you and me)? No, God is not like us. He doesn’t experience road rage when the freeway commute in heaven is bumper to bumper and he is late for a meeting with the “four living creatures and the twenty-four elders” (Revelation 5:8). God will not lose his patience. Be assured that God doesn’t “lose it” as we humans can and do. After all, if it were possible for God to eventually lose his patience, my history books tell me that there would have been many times when that would have already happened. Spend some time in prayer and thought considering God’s love for you – and for everyone else. Consider how God will continue to demonstrate his tender mercies to his creation. There is much suffering in our world today, and the pages of history are soaked with bloodshed. The future will bring more of the same. The future is not based, according to my Bible, on God’s losing his patience. The foundation and motivation of God’s Church in this age of grace is the love of God. God’s purpose of love is to save humanity from itself and from all of our lust, greed, envy, intolerance – and yes, lack of patience.
Last night, I attended a home Bible study on the book of Proverbs, and one theme seemed to predominate. A number of the men had problems understanding the will of God in how they conducted their business practices and relationships – about how much time was allowable away from their families, about how insistent they should be about their “rights” and “privileges” in business, about what is the “right” amount of material desires. In my early years, I thought that certain actions were “good” when you could see “good” effects, and other actions were “bad” when you could see “bad” effects. But this is a wrong simplification of sin. But I grew to understand what the world does not understand – that “good” has the MOTIVE of depending on God’s strength and that “evil” or “sin” has the MOTIVE of depending on our own strength. My early definition of “sin” was that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). But this definition can be deceiving because it does not take into consideration the MOTIVE behind the action. Some actions of sin are well-defined in the Bible such as adultery in marriage, premeditated murder, etc. There is a black and white understanding of sin here. But other actions are less defined and depend much on the MOTIVE of the person. A rich man can give a million dollars to a hospital which seems to be a good action of love of neighbor. But if the MOTIVE for giving is to aggrandize himself to others and receive public acknowledgment, then the action, for him, is the SIN of pride. Our MOTIVE for Christian living, and thus all of the choices stemming from that living, can be one of only two. Our MOTIVE can be to depend on or trust in God to lead and empower our life – and then our choice of action will follow that motive. Or our MOTIVE can be our own independent strength and leadership – we might call this a motive of independence – and then our choice of action will follow that independent motive. MOTIVES have to do with faith. Galatians 2:20, my favorite verse in the Bible, has a little two-letter word which I overlooked for years. And I am really just now coming into an understanding of its application in daily living. The verse says that “…I live by the faith OF the Son of God…”. Notice it does not say that I live by faith IN Christ. I thought that this must be a mis-translation; those old “King-Jamers” were at it again. But the original Greek reinforces and even emphasizes that it is Christ’s faith that is meant. The Bible does say that we are to grow in faith. What does all this mean? It sounds like double-talk to say that I am to grow in MY faith in CHRIST’S faith. But a little study and teaching by the Holy Spirit clears up the matter. Before conversion, our motive for our faith in how we live is an independent motivation to live by our own resources. We inherited this independence from Adam and Eve as carried down through history. Finally, one day, we recognize that this motive just does not work. We’ve failed miserably. The Bible says that at this point God gives us a “measure of faith”. We get a sampling of “spiritual dependent faith”, just enough to get us to call out for a Savior. And when we do, God does what He promised. He recreates us into a new species, a MEMBER of His Family. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit come to live IN US. I always thought that this “measure of faith” had to grow spiritually and get stronger and stronger in ME. But I have come to see that the measure of faith was only for the “old man”. And he is dead! The TOTAL UNLIMITED FAITH OF CHRIST is what I have now. I am a “new man”. Christ living in my human spirit now makes me so. But there is still a ME involved in this union of spirits. My human soul must still line up with the faith of Christ in my spirit. How does this work? By AWARENESS! My awareness of who I am in the Family of God is the key. Paul said “Pray always”. I see this to mean that in everything that I see and do, keep in my soul-mind at a level in the high subconscious that awareness. And this awareness is the MOTIVATION to live by the FAITH OF CHRIST. I can’t “work up faith and motivation”. I can’t “grow in faith and motivation”. I can only keep awareness of who I am in the forefront. How does this understanding help my friends make proper business decisions? They must not allow themselves to slip into independent thought and desire in their businesses. They must keep a constant awareness of their human weakness and Christ’s strengthening faith and motivation. Give and take expression of prayer will provide confidence in the guidance and leadership of the Spirit of God.
My wife, Joyce, my partner in 50 years of marriage, died last month. The point was made throughout her memorial service that she is now with God. I believe this wholeheartedly. But there is some question about what happens to a believer when he or she dies. Many Christians preach that you go directly to heaven while others have said that you will be sleeping until Christ returns. Which, according to the Bible, is correct? The majority view, throughout the history of Christianity, is that the spirits (or souls as some prefer) who are dead in Christ are with God, in a conscious state. They are with God, and therefore, "in" heaven. Because God is omnipresent (everywhere at once, not subject to the limitations of time and space) he is not geographically defined. So, heaven is best described as being with God rather than in some universal, spatial "place.”Of course, the body of the deceased decomposes — this we can know empirically, by observation. The Scriptures speak of the resurrection of the body of those who are dead in Christ (1 Corinthians 15) — and the glorification of our bodies to immortality, so that our bodies are not subject to decay and aging, as they are now. In this regard we will be "like him" (1 John 3:2) — his resurrection is therefore our hope, our victory and our eternal gift from God. While the body of the deceased decomposes, the spirit (or soul as some prefer) goes to be with God. Some believe that the spirit (or soul) goes to sleep, to be awakened at the Second Coming, reunited with their body at the time their body is given a resurrection body. Two problems. Scriptures speak of being "with" God, present with him, at home with him (2 Corinthians 5:8). While one could try to explain that the spirit could be at home, present and with God while asleep, one is still left with "why." Why would God want to have — (or does he, presently have) a huge warehouse-like hospital ward in heaven filled with sleeping spirits? Why not enjoy them -- why not be with them? Here’s the second big problem with “sleeping after death”. The Bible uses the term sleep to describe death, but it uses it as a metaphor, rather than a precise clinical description. Thus, when we read that "David slept with his fathers" we read it as a metaphor, rather than assuming that David's spirit was literally placed in a big heavenly bed where he snored with his fathers. This takes a metaphor and attempts to twist it into a precise description of the state of the spirit during the intermediate state. Having said all of that — we still don't know for sure, do we? No one has gone to the intermediate state and come back with a full report — not even Geraldo Rivera (yet, anyway). So how vital is this belief to our salvation? It isn't — but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth discussing.
The idea that God's grace leaves us in a position of being able to "do anything we want without any accountability" is a human reaction, first expounded to us by Paul in Romans (see, for example, Romans 6:1-2). The idea that we humans may either gain our salvation, or that we may in some way improve our standing on the basis of our deeds and works is anathema to the gospel of Jesus Christ, as explained by Paul in Romans, as well as Galatians. However, when we humans hear that only God can make us holy, we are often scandalized, for such a proposition says that we are unable to produce any righteous product on our own. It is that very weakness, in our human nature, that religion takes advantage of, and tells us that God's grace just doesn't make sense, and that in the end it will lead us to permissiveness and licentiousness. There is no way that Christians have any permission to behave immorally. It is OK to poke fun at our human attempts to make ourselves righteous, for in so doing we can help to explain the profound love of God, which makes our pitiful religious self-righteous antics look like what they are. But in the end, it is all about God's grace…Christianity without the religious stuff that many believe is a substitute for Jesus. There is no substitute for Jesus - there is no religious ritual or regulation that helps us to earn God's approval. God loves us because he is good. When we accept that, and realize that all of our attempts to make ourselves righteous are without validity, and when we repent of them and surrender to God who alone can justify and save us, then Jesus lives his risen life in us and he will produce the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5) - and the fruit of the Spirit that Jesus produces in us has nothing at all to do with doing "anything we want." Bob George in his book “Classic Christianity” says, “To many people, all this emphasis on total forgiveness and Christ living in you seems threatening because they fear that it will lead people to become complacent about their Christian lives…But let me share an illustration. Let’s imagine that a king made a decree in his land that there would be a blanket pardon extended to all prostitutes. Would that be good news to you if you were a prostitute? Of course it would. No longer would you have to live in hiding, fearing the sheriff. No longer would you have a criminal record, all past offenses are wiped off the books. So the pardon would definitely be good news. But would it be any motivation at all for you to change your lifestyle? No, not a bit. “But lets go a little further with our illustration. Let’s say that not only is a blanket pardon extended to all who have practiced prostitution, but the king has asked you, in particular, to become his bride. What happens when a prostitute marries a king? She becomes a queen. Now would you have a reason for a change of lifestyle? Absolutely. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the lifestyle of a queen is several levels superior to that of a prostitute. No woman in her right mind would go back to her previous life. “As long as a half-gospel continues to be taught, we are going to continue producing Christians who are very thankful that they will not be judged for their sins, but who have no significant self-motivation to change their behavior. That’s why so many leaders have to use the hammer of the law and suffocating peer pressure to keep their people in line. “But what is the church called in the New Testament? The Bride of Christ! The gospel message is in effect a marriage proposal. And just as the prostitute became a queen by marrying the king, guilty sinners have become sons of God by becoming identified with Christ. It is that relationship and our new identity that becomes our motivation, and it is motivation that comes from within.” (End of quote)
Another example of design in God’s glorious creation has been discovered. Newspapers reported this month that scientific research now understands how the monarch butterfly migrates. Monarch butterflies making their annual migration from the eastern United States to winter residences in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountain range find their way by following a three-dimensional map made of rays of polarized ultraviolet light, according to a new study. Though UV light is invisible to humans, to butterflies it appears as a grid or highway in the sky that emanates from the sun, the researchers reported in the journal Neuron. But as the sun travels across the sky, so does the highway. To compensate, the butterflies use an internal clock that recalibrates the highway throughout the day so they can travel in a straight line. Scientists had long thought that the butterflies used polarized light to navigate, but they weren’t sure it was from the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum. Their suspicions were confirmed when they put the insects in a barrel-sized flight simulator and used a plastic filter to block UV light. The butterflies could still see but they just flew around in circles. Without UV, they get very confused and lose their sense of direction. The scientists discovered that the part of the butterfly visual system that detects polarized light is dominated by photoreceptors for UV. They also found that those receptors are linked to neural fibers that contain a key protein used to regulate the butterfly’s internal clock. Why did God design the migration process? Unlike most other insects in temperate climates, monarch butterflies cannot survive a long cold winter. Instead, they spend the winter in roosting spots. Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains travel to small groves of trees along the California coast. Those east of the Rocky Mountains fly farther south to the forests high in the mountains of Mexico. The monarch’s migration is driven by seasonal changes of day length and temperature. In all the world, no butterflies migrate like the Monarchs of North America. They travel much farther than all other tropical butterflies, up to three thousand miles. They are the only butterflies to make such a long, two way migration every year. Amazingly, they fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees. Their migration is more the type we expect from whales or birds. However, unlike birds and whales, individuals only make the round-trip once. It is their children’s grandchildren that return south the following fall. Let’s face it folks, this has to be a God thing! This UV highway grid system in the sky and the constant recalibration by the means of an internal clock is just too far-fetched a design to have developed “randomly through natural selection”. We have here just another great example of why Romans chapter one states in substance that there are no true atheists. The Message Bible states in verses 18-20: “People try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. SO NOBODY HAS A GOOD EXCUSE!”
In this graduation season, we Christians must come to the realization that our life on this earth is a "schoolhouse". We must all be educated in the lifestyle which is purposed for us by a loving and patient Father God. Man, through "the fall", has put himself in the front of his own thinking with the illusion that he has to work through his problems and care for and develop himself in a lonely world. With the remnant of this outlook carried over, the converted Christian feels that he has to struggle to reach certain standards. This brings him almost to despair, as he is unable to really be "like" Christ, even though he constantly calls for divine aid. He cannot truly love himself because, despite all his efforts, he is unable to meet the standard. Conflict is created as he loves God but rejects himself because of his inadequacy – the self whom God has loved and accepted! So God starts a period of education in which He weans man from his self-dependence through sometimes painful experiences. Self-dependence is really an illusion – a carry-over from the primal downfall of the human spirit. What has to happen is that the Christian's false concept of himself must drastically change. He has received Life and Love at conversion, but he can no longer make life work through self effort – the keeping of laws and meeting of standards. The reason for the conflict is far from a lack of desire for the ways of God, for the most dedicated and consecrated are frequently the ones who suffer most until the newness of life in union with God by Christ living in them permeates and reshapes their thinking. The process of conversion into the service of God can be a devastating affair, as many can testify, if carried on from the viewpoint of "my work for God." Has God gone out of business? Is He still not the Worker? Jesus said, "My Father works, and I work," meaning that God is the Worker and we are His manifesters. But we can mistakenly look upon ourselves as the ones independently doing this for God. While God accepts man at conversion, He does not accept man's self-dependence. This has to be changed. WE MUST ENTER AN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS IN WHICH GOD LIVES IN MAN, NOT ASSISTS HIM FROM SOME REMOTE REGION. The dreadful condition caused by the fall of man has been removed by the experience of redemption and new birth. The nature of Satan, our father, has been removed. And we have been reborn with a new Father. Union with Christ and God the Father is a fact, not an earnestly desired objective. It is Another living through me. "For me to live is Christ living," says Paul. Only God living in man is Christianity; anything else is name only. But we must not be confused by the delay or the conflicts which arise as God puts us through this educational process. We finally learn who we are and how we function, but more often than not it requires us to pass through a long and painful period of life. But the end result is such that we cannot but ask God to hasten in us the destruction of the illusion of the independent-self. The individual who has come to a clear realization of this new relationship and for whom the yoke has become easy and the burden light will not easily move back into a life of self-effort. A new level has been gained, the focus of life in union with Christ understood. However, a word must be said about the slips into self-trust, self-love, anger, resentment, and many other things that tend to bring us low and into the bondage of temporary remorse and guilt. Thank God, we do not live in these distortions of the true relationship. They are temporary and short-lived because we are sensitized by the Spirit so that we quickly recognize them. Our awareness of the sin quickly becomes a recognition that it is finished and powerless through Christ. The illusory independent-self is recognized again as false. No time is allowed to indulge in remorse for this independent and sinful action. Renewal is immediate upon recognition and acknowledgment of the wrong, whether thought, word or deed. The grace of God's acceptance is an immediate healing. Should you find yourself going down a wrong street in an unguided and self-chosen excursion, remember that GOD IS NOT INACTIVE IN ALL THIS! He does not stand at the street corner where you departed and wave goodbye to you as if He could not go on the trip with you. He goes with you for the express purpose of KNOCKING YOUR FOOLISH HEAD against the wall at the end of that dead-end street. And the quicker the better, so as to get some spiritual sense into your outlook. God doesn't stand aloof and leave us to our own devices. He is the INVOLVED God, the "Hound of Heaven," as Francis Thompson depicts Him in his marvelous poem. He hurries you along to the end of your self-centered side trip, and you find that correction you need. You are therefore educated by God to live unafraid of yourself, for God is well able to take care of your deviations. He will not and cannot gloss over them, but He is with you to bring you through in a sometimes severe, but always spiritually educating experience. We are to live freely in the assurance that "we are His workmanship" and that "he that has begun a good work in you will perform it." We can rest assured that it is God living in us. We don't have to "find Him" or invite Him to be with us. We AFFIRM His presence – we don't wonder if He is there. As someone else has said, "I awake in the green light of His assured presence and go in that, only stopping to consider what should be done when I see that the red light has appeared." We live in the green; the red is there in case we go off beam at any point. But to live in constant apprehension of the red is a dreadful distraction and frustration. We are intended to live a full, spontaneous, and restful life, regarding the next step to be God 's will, unless He checks us. Surely God is great enough to check you effectively! A flood of light comes to us from the words "Work out your own salvation…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13). My working, therefore, is His working in me, both in the realm of willing and acting! There is nothing in life outside these two realms. Willing and doing is the ALL of life. Therefore we can live boldly in this restful assurance. There will always be a willingness to recognize when we have gotten in the way, with some attempt to help ourselves or to help God out. But we don't live in the over shadowing fear that this self-dependency is going to express itself. Some suffer from this sort of self-consciousness, thinking it is true spirituality. But it is an over-concern with our own perfection, instead of the perfection of God. Now, at last, God has educated us in His truth. You know that you are complete in union with Christ; that you cannot, but He can; that you are weak, but He is strong; and that while you decrease daily, He increases. He will conquer though you, in your self-effort, can never conquer. In reality, all things have already been perfected through Christ's death and resurrection. All you have to do is recognize that as a fact. God has placed HIS desires in your heart. Your problems arise when you demand, rather than receive, from the Giver. You MUST be weak, and He will be strong. If you are weak, not as a dependent cry-baby, but in a vulnerable way, you will submit your life to His will and trust His love. At last, when your education is complete, you are free but at the same time vulnerable in your world. On occasion, to trust God is difficult, but the love, protection and direction you receive when you do is worth it. It builds you up for the next time of weakness. That is the education of it all. And there is joy in knowing that the true desires of your heart have been placed there by God, and that you can act on them, depending on Him in all that you do and say. As Saint Augustine said, "Love God! And do as you please!" It sounds like a wild idea until we understand that Christ is in us to direct our desires. He lives in our spirit which is the spiritual guidance system of our being. The only thing that can mess us up after our conversion and new birth is when we are swayed by the world, the flesh or the devil to temporarily ignore who we are in spirit. BUT CHRIST DOES NOT LEAVE! He draws us back quickly to Him. The Christian life is not a process of getting stronger WITHIN OURSELVES TO DO THE WILL OF GOD. Yes, the Christian life is a process of education and growth and getting stronger within our soul. But the education is only in the area of recognition and acceptance and trust in God's control of our life; trust in the power of God. We can trust our lives into God's hands every day because, by our new birth, we have already entered into intimate union with God. We are who we are in our spirit: Christ in our form. Following those desires that we recognize from our spirit will eventually lead us to the fulfillment of God's plan for our lives. So the bottom line of the education and the graduation of a Christian is to teach us to rest in Him. THE CONFUSION OF A MIXED UP INDEPENDENCE GIVES WAY TO THE CLEAR UNDERSTANDING THAT IT IS CHRIST WHO LIVES IN, AS AND THROUGH A WHOLLY UNITED HUMAN BEING!
Thanks to you all for coming here to remember Joyce. Many of you knew her well, some of you hardly knew her, and some did not know her at all but came to pay respects to me and my family. I so appreciate your care and concern.
I want to tell you – I knew her the best. We celebrated 50 years together as husband and wife last year. In our modern culture, you just don’t see that much anymore.
I knew when I married her that I had a beautiful and loving bride. But as we grew together raising children and I observed her relationships with people, I knew that God had given me a very special treasure of a wife.
I saw that she was a GIVER to others of extreme proportions. God wired this servant heart into her unique personality. While I myself, when called upon to help others, often stopped to consider first what it might cost me, Joyce jumped into every situation to help instantly.
As the Holy Spirit matured us in our spiritual growth, one verse of the Bible caught us and became the theme song in our Christian walk. The apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, said about himself and, by extension, about all true Christians, – I am crucified with Christ – nevertheless I live – yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. One of the longest single verses in the Bible and one of the most inspiring.
Our discovery of this true inner union with Christ was the milestone of our Christian walk. And especially for Joyce with her servant wiring to begin with, she just leaped forward in her spiritual growth.
In this graduation season, I can see God saying, “There’s my loving child, Joyce. She has passed her tests about my lifestyle and is ready for graduation to come to be with me. My child, Lou, has a few more lessons to learn first, and then he can come to be with Joyce.”
We all in our own way miss Joyce and are sad. And that’s good. That is just part of our human makeup.
But I’m here to tell you right now, let that more important spirit part of you kick in. Celebrate with me that Joyce is with her Lord, Jesus Christ. She was a happy person and she wants us to be happy now too. Remember the song, “If you could see me now.” I’m sure those are Joyce’s words now.
