In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 7:12)
The Golden Rule is the one moral maxim that is supposed to sum up all ethical behavior, that appears in one form or another in practically all religions, and is thought to be universally and invariably applicable. It has been said that if people everywhere obeyed literally this rule, we would have heaven on earth. But although virtually all are willing to assent to the validity of the rule in theory, they are convinced that it will not work in practice in every situation. In some respects it is utterly impracticable. They say that if we were to try to take it literally, matters would be made much worse. AND THIS CONTENTION IS QUITE TRUE! For example, suppose you were a judge in a criminal court, and a prisoner should be brought before you. Would you, if you were in the place of that criminal, want to be sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary? You are confident that what you would have that man do to you (were conditions reversed), and what that prisoner wants you to tell him, is to go in peace and sin no more. If you literally obey the Golden Rule you must do just that. But all people of mature judgment know that we dare not do to the evil-minded as we know they would have us do. What then is the answer? When we discover that this saying from the lips of Jesus seems impracticable, we may be sure that the difficulty is with ourselves. We do not understand it. To begin with, it is not necessarily a rule at all. Jesus never called it a rule. Jesus made many statements which were in themselves excellent advice, but not necessarily rules. It has been said that the difference between a rule and a principle is: A rule is a regulation of life; a principle is the source of life itself. One forms the banks which direct the channel of the stream; the other is the basic spring from which the stream flows. People usually prefer a list of rules, a book of regulations. It is always easier for a person to regulate his life by a list of rules outside himself than by a principle inside. The Bible does not attempt to spell out the exact Christian behavior for every situation that may arise. It is for this reason that we are admonished to have our “senses exercised” so as to be able always to “discern between good and evil,” that whatever we do all may be done to God’s glory (Heb. 5:14; 1 Cor. 10:31).
The Platinum Principle
Rather than living by a “Golden Rule”, or even any other system of rules and regulations, or even a golden principle, God would have us live by what can be called the PLATINUM PRINCIPLE. Platinum is more precious even than gold. Whatever places deep within our being, in our mind and conscience, the power to guide and control human conduct is priceless in comparison with something external. And what is the basis or the source of this Platinum Principle? What is the source of the “river” which flows between the shores? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). People instinctively think of themselves as quite self-sufficient. They are quite able to order their own lives, and plot their own course down the river of life (avoiding the rocky banks of the river, of course), until some unexpected emergency interrupts the carefully plotted course of their lives. Our reaction to the unexpected is an important part of our developing that special virtue of “trust” in the Lord. In fact, “trust” is a virtue which can flourish most in an atmosphere of tension and concern. God unfolds the future to us as we travel, ONE STEP AT A TIME. But we in our finiteness and weakness need to remember that we are in danger of jumping to conclusions and mapping out the future days and weeks when He has given us instructions for only one STEP. Just where that one step in the midst of the swirling waters of life is leading may be quite different than we think. But we must trust. The whole of the Christian’s life is in the hands of the Lord Jesus. And He comes at our new birth to live within us and take control as we are aware and allow Him to do so. His one purpose is to bring each to full maturity as a child of the Father. This does not mean that it is wrong for us to have a schedule, to plan ahead, to put down engagements in a notebook, to make reservations ahead of time, to project what should or should not be done. Not at all. However, we are warned that we are not to be positive in stating what we will and will not be doing, but that we must always preface our plans, at least in our minds if not our words, with: “The Lord willing I will..”. James 4:13-17 in the Message Bible states: “And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, ‘Today – at the latest, tomorrow – we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.’ You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, ‘If the Lord wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that!’ As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, IS evil.” But how do we acknowledge His will on a continual basis, in “all” our ways? How do we make the Platinum Principle work? Isn’t it an attitude of humble submission to His leading in confidence that you know Him well enough to receive His message, hinging our plans on His by the day, the month and the year? And when the unexpected where no rule applies (and perhaps the unwanted) comes, then we have a practical opportunity to live the “Lord willing” clause we might so easily say at times. We may be shocked to learn how contrary God’s will is to our own, and will even overrule the “Golden Rule” at times - and how worldly influences can get a hold on us at times making us unwilling to ‘follow”. Now let’s apply this Platinum Principle” in place of the Golden Rule to the case already mentioned. The judge on the bench has a prisoner before him. As a Christian judge, the Golden Rule dictates his course of action by Jesus’ words: “In everything do to others what you would have them do to you…” The Platinum Principle would lead him to take into consideration all the circumstances, surroundings and ameliorating conditions. And at the same time, the judge must put himself in the place of those others the judge represents – the great mass of honest society which is to be protected – and act with justice and mercy toward all concerned. My earlier definition of a rule and a principle bears repeating: A rule is the banks that keep the stream in its channel; a principle is the spring or the source from which the stream gets its birth. The effects of every good deed, every good thought, every good attitude we manifest by our trust in Christ is continually being formed into habit. We become more and more pre-programed into right habits. This is the Platinum Principle in operation. Seeing that we have been in the habit of trusting Christ, we continue to do so in critical times. It becomes, as they say, “second nature” – which, for Christians, is really their true nature!
CHRISTIANITY came to Rome and became an institution. CHRISTIANITY came to Greece and became a philosophy. CHRISTIANITY came to Europe and became a culture. CHRISTIANITY came to Asia and became a concept.
CHRISTIANITY came to America and became a business.
CHRISTIANITY came to a true Christian and became a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! [Back to Home]
Many surveys have found that a majority of church-going Christians believe that “God helps those who help themselves” is a verse in the Bible. More importantly, most believe the principle of God helping those who help themselves defines who and what God is and the relationship He offers us. The truth is just the opposite. Those who realize that they cannot help themselves and cannot earn their own salvation accept Jesus Christ as sufficient to do what they can never do. Every salvation comes from the grace of God. BUT GRACE DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Grace doesn’t add up. Why would Jesus come to be one of us, to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay? Why would He pay for our sins in advance, before we were even alive to commit them? Why would He do that? Free? No strings? What was in it for Him? What if we take advantage of His willingness to forgive us every time we sin? What if we take advantage of God’s unconditional love? Surely there is some point when God’s patience and grace ends, and when we become toast and chopped liver. Remember the parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18:21-35? Jesus gave this parable to explain the magnitude of God’s grace, and that His grace has no limitations or conditions. Act one of the parable paints the story of a financial manager who finds that he owes his employer a staggering amount of money, perhaps a much as the annual revenue of a small nation or city-state. Jesus does not tell us why the manager had come to owe this prodigious sum of money. Perhaps Jesus didn’t want us to get lost in obsessing over the sleazy sins that resulted in the manager’s debt. How the debt added up is not the point of this parable. The point is that the manager’s debt is far beyond his resources or that of his family ever to repay. When he stood before his employer for an accounting, the manager heard the verdict that his entire family and all of his possessions would have to be sold to begin the repay the debt. The financial manager threw himself on the mercy of his employer, begging for time so that he could repay his debt. His employer responded with something the indebted manager would never have dreamed of, and certainly would not have asked for. His debt was being canceled. All of it! No strings. No conditions. *** The debt that we owe God is so enormous that there is no human way we can settle the account. Our situation is hopeless. We are powerless to repay our debt. There is no human act or combination of actions – deeds, virtues, efforts, good works – that can pay the bill. When the debtor throws himself upon the mercy of the employer, and not before, he is forgiven. Only when we accept our inability to save ourselves and express our complete faith and belief in Jesus Christ to do for us what neither we nor religion can ever do, then our debt is paid. However, as long as religion convinces us that we can stumble along somehow taking care of our own bills, our debt remains unpaid. And there are a lot of religions in the world that do this. But now the parable gets ugly and personal – after grace, then what? After grace, how should we live? Act two of the parable depicts the manager who was forgiven, redeemed, and reconciled – the same man who was rescued, saved, and freed from his debt – going out and refusing to forgive one of his debtors. Fresh from the riches of mercy and grace just given to him, he goes out and meets a peer. His contemporary owes him a meager amount compared to the staggering debt the manager had just been forgiven. According to the parable, the newly forgiven man grabs that person by the neck and screams at him, “Pay me what you owe me.” And as we read this part of the parable, we protest, “Oh no, that can’t be! How can this man act that way?” And that’s one of the morals of this parable – if we realize we have been forgiven, we will be forgiving, even if it takes some painful experiences to help us understand that we cannot be anything but forgiving. Who are we, the forgiven, to do anything but forgive? Our mission is to tell others about God’s amazing grace. Our calling is to share the unbelievably good news that God’s grace is good enough and sufficient for our salvation. We have the precious opportunity of telling others that God (the ultimate employer) is looking for them and that God will forgive them once they fall at His feet and ask for His grace. God’s grace leads us to display and reflect (not produce, for we cannot produce enough to repay) grace to others so that others may see Jesus through what He is doing in our lives.
There was a large sign on the front door of a church:
Attention! Behind these doors we worship regularly with liars, thieves, gossips, backbiters, people with troubled marriages, alcoholics, and drug takers. We welcome hypocritical, jealous, envious, coveting, materialistic sinners of all sizes, shapes and colors.
You had to walk up to the door to read the next part of the message which was in smaller type:
But the good news is that we all have something in common. We believe that the church, the body of Christ, is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. The Lord, who is our rest, reaches out to save us and brings us together as a community of the saints. We gather here to worship Him, to plan how we might be better agents and ambassadors of change in a darkened world that needs good news. You are welcome to join us, but be warned that we take Christianity seriously. [Back to Home]
With the implosion and destruction of Busch Stadium in St. Louis scheduled for after the baseball season in the Fall of 2005, I thought I would republish an article I wrote many years ago. Here it is. The latest news from science is that astronomers have discovered what appear to be planets around stars that are comparatively close to earth. No telescopes have actually spotted these planets, of course. They are too small to be seen with present magnifications. But scientists assume that they are there because the gravitational actions between them and the parent stars can be calculated. Are these really planets and could they really be livable by creatures like us – or very much NOT like us? This announcement of other apparent planets renews the old question of whether there is life out there in the universe besides us. It also gets us thinking about comparative sizes in the universe. Is the earth really special in God’s plan? Why was man put on THIS insignificant planet instead of some other place? What about the SIZE of everything? Isn’t the earth pretty puny in size compared to our solar system? To our galaxy? To the KNOWN universe? What about the SIZE of man? Couldn’t God have made us a little larger? Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to obey God’s orders to “subdue” the earth if He had just made us a little larger than the trees and mountains around us? Aren’t you glad you don’t live in the time of the dinosaurs? “Subduing” so many creatures larger by far than man is a real problem. AND SO I ASK: WHAT ABOUT THE PHYSICAL SIZE OF MAN AND THE EARTH IN RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE? “It is the glory of God to CONCEAL a thing [how great the universe is in size]; but the honor of kings is to SEARCH OUT A MATTER [inquire, look, observe, find out]. The heaven for HEIGHT [how high is up?], and the earth for DEPTH [how far is down?],…(Proverbs 25:2-3). This indicates that man is to SEARCH OUTWARD away from himself and INWARD within his make-up. Modern man has invented two tools of science for examining the world around him: the telescope and the microscope. Crude forms of magnifying glasses existed in man’s early cultures, but not until 1600AD were the compound lens type telescopes and microscopes invented. Man has steadily improved the magnification and focus on detail in both instruments. I have visited the world’s largest sun telescope in Tucson, Arizona atop Kitt Peak National Observatory. The main body of the telescope is 500 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. It is used primarily for studies of our sun, but it also probes the planets of our solar system. If there were no curvature of the earth between Tucson and New York City, this telescope could easily make out a man on top of the Empire State Building. With the power of instruments like this, man has established that the universe is at least 20 billion light years in diameter. You may have heard many times the mind boggling comparisons of size and distance in the heavens. You have probably less often considered sizes as man looks inward by means of the microscope, on what might be called inner space as opposed to outer space. The present practical limit for an optical microscope is 2,500 times magnification. This is like taking a half dollar and spreading it out the size of Busch Stadium in St. Louis and walking over it to check every detail. But this is just a start toward magnification. Scientists now have electron microscopes which can magnify two million times! A good way to think about this is what could that same half dollar cover at this magnification. Well…if you laid the eastern edge of the coin at Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis, where would the opposite edge lay? You would have to get in your car, travel west on interstate 44, head on out toward the city limits – but keep going – go past Kirkwood, past Valley Park, past Eureka, past Six-Flags Amusement Park – oh don’t stop yet! Past Pacific, past Union, past St. Clair and stop at Sullivan, Missouri. This would be the opposite rim of the coin … 63 miles in diameter!! Imagine what detail you could discover on THIS COIN! And how long it would take to really explore it. This allows us now to start distinguishing between individual molecules and atoms. As we explore molecules and atoms, it appears that ALL matter is internally constructed of miniature galaxies and solar systems. In God’s material creation whether it is a giant solar system of sun and planets or a single atom of hydrogen or oxygen, the basic overall plan of God seems to be NUCLEAR CORE WITH ORBITING PARTICLES! God seems to have made everything in the material creation, large or small, out of a nuclear core with orbiting particles. This has even required us to invent new units of measurement for length and time. A FIRMI is a measurement of length equal to the diameter of the nucleus of the hydrogen atom! A JIFFY is the length of time for light to travel the distance of one firmi! Revelation 5:10 says that man is to reign on the earth. But what IS so special about the earth? Revelation 21:2 says that God actually brings His seat of government TO the earth. It sounds like there is SOMETHING special about the earth, doesn’t it? Isaiah 51:16 states that we are to “plant” the heavens; to establish worlds under God’s government “out there”. Is it possible that in choosing the dwelling place for man and the size assigned to man who is to “inherit all things”, God selected the planet at the point of division which is the MEAN or middle size between the greatest and the smallest in creation? Think about it! From the earth as his abode and vantage point, man can look in EITHER direction. Through the telescope peering into the heavens, he beholds the INFINITY OF GREATNESS. Through the microscope, he inspects the INFINITY OF SMALLNESS. But in either direction, man has never yet been able to view the farthest reaches of space! There was a science fiction movie in the 70’s called the “Fantastic Voyage”. In the movie an important and highly intelligent scientist is discovered to have an inoperable brain tumor. With a machine able to reduce the size of anything, a submarine with a crew of scientists is reduced small enough to enter the blood stream in order to flow to the brain where they can use laser rays to destroy the tumor from the inside. The picture had fantastic special effects of what it looks like inside different areas of the body. “God has put ALL [outer and inner space] things in subjection under man’s feet…God left nothing that is not put under him. But we do not see yet all things put under him [we don’t yet have a body capable of traveling into outer and inner space].” (Hebrews 2:8). Man’s destiny in the God family is to control or govern the whole universe. We have all probably meditated on what it would be like to travel and deal with what can be seen in a telescope, but we need also to expand our thinking in the other direction. If man is a MEAN or average size, then there is a whole universe which can be seen in a microscope and beyond which is also to be included in the government of God. In other words, when we think of the material universe, we really should think not only of the “outer space” of solar systems and galaxies; but also of “inner space’ with its molecules and atoms. So now, if we are destined to “plant” or establish worlds under God’s government in outer space, are we also going to “plant’ the reaches of “inner space”? This is part of the universe too. Who knows? Speculation? Sure. But a speculation built on man’s steady progression of discovery of the universe. This business of inner and outer space is a tough concept. But if we correlate our knowledge of God’s plan that mankind is destined to rule the whole universe with Him, then we gain God’s understanding with our science and its instruments. In our present mixed up world, a rich man has paid 20 million dollars to the Russians so that he could orbit the earth in a space vehicle for a few days. His desire not to be earth-bound was so great that he just had to do this. Upon his return to earth, he stated that his journey was even more spectacular than he had expected. You and I as members of God’s family are going to travel in ways that will make his earth orbit seem insignificant. In our total spirit existence after death, you and I will almost instantly be able to go from one end of the universe to the other. The speed of light will have no meaning to us. We will travel out within the hugeness of the universe and also to “inner space” down within the molecules and atoms. What a thrilling existence! So when you see Busch Stadium implode and the 96 arches in rotation tumble to the ground, think about how I have used the stadium in my size comparisons. Speculate about God’s universe. Some speculations are provable now. Others must wait to the proven when we are total spirit members of the family of God. But speculation serves a purpose. It EXPANDS our minds into thinking about the afterlife will be like. This is not day-dreaming! This is not escapism! This is not wasting your time. We should think about God’s ultimate goal for us. Let’s give our worldly thoughts some real competition for a change. Then when our real test of faith comes, whatever it may be, we’ll KNOW where our loyalties and desires really lie: WITH GOD AND HIS AWESOME UNIVERSE.
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (John 14:20). In John 10:30 Jesus of Nazareth made the claim, "I and My Father are one." The Jews understood Jesus to be saying that He WAS God. In fact, they were so sure of the meaning of Jesus' claim that they even tried to stone Him "for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God." However Jesus did not say "I have BECOME God," nor did He claim that He, by any of His virtues or goodness, WAS God. He simply stated the truth, "I and My Father are ONE." Religions outside of Christianity, if they accept the existence of Jesus at all, claim that He was only a MAN, possibly a holy and great teacher, but only a man. It is often taught in Christianity that Jesus of Nazareth WAS GOD, and John 10:30 above is the scripture most often used to prove it. But many fail to understand that Jesus did not live such a perfect life that He qualified Himself to become God or one with God. Rather, God the Father gave birth to Jesus Christ! If Jesus had not been birthed of God, but lived the very same life, it would not have made Him one with the Father. God the Father made Jesus one with Himself at conception in the womb of Mary. This is why Jesus lived the life that He lived – because He already was one with the Father, because of the life within Him. Did you ever realize that Jesus of Nazareth never said, "I am God!" But He often declared Himself to be the "Son of God". Am I just splitting hairs here or is this an important concept to understand? I believe that it is an all-important understanding to proceed to maturity in the Christian life! We all know that Jesus Christ declared Himself to be the Son of God. But at what point in time did He become the Son of God? I believe the understanding of this issue is important to a person's grasp of the marvelous purpose of God in the creation of mankind. Let's go back to the very beginning, in prehistory. If you were asked where in the Bible to find the very earliest description of God in point of the time of His existence, you probably would say, "Why, in the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, of course." Right? Wrong! In time order the earliest revelation of WHO and WHAT God is is found in the New Testament: John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4). "The Word" in this passage is translated from the Greek logos, which means "spokesman" or "revelatory thought". It is the name there used for an individual Personage. But who or what is this Logos? Notice the explanation in verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." When the Word was born as Jesus Christ, He was flesh and blood, materialistic and could be seen, touched and felt. But what was He? As God – as the Logos? That is answered in John 4:24, "God is a Spirit", and spirit is invisible. The Word, then, is a spirit Personage who was made flesh -–fathered by God, thus having another spirit Personage as His "Father". Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of John 1, THE WORD WAS NOT (YET) THE SON OF GOD. He divested Himself of His glory as a Spirit divinity to be fathered as a human person. He was made God's Son, through being sired by God and born of the virgin Mary. So here we find two Personages mentioned – one is God (in verse 14 called the "Father"). And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who also was God – one who later was sired and born as Jesus Christ. We later in the Gospels of the New Testament are introduced to a third Personage – the Holy Spirit. But at this point in John 1, we are only told of God and the Word. The "Word" was a separate Personage from "God", but was also a part of "God", the divine God Family. The Word, at the time of John 1:1, was not, yet, the Son of God. But He was with God, and He also was God. They were not yet Father and Son – but they WERE members of the GOD FAMILY. That Family – as revealed further in the New Testament – is composed, now, of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit, along with many born again humans who already, NOW, are true SONS OF GOD (Romans 8:14,16; 1 John 3:2), forming the Church of God. That FAMILY aspect – the GOD FAMILY – is vitally important in God's creative purpose for humanity. After our understanding of the first chapter of John, THEN we go to Genesis 1 – the material creation. God (the Personage called the Father) is Creator. But He "created all things by the Word (the Personage to later become the Son of God, Jesus Christ). It is written, "He spoke, and it was done" (Psalm 33:9). God tells the Word what to do. The Word then speaks, as the workman, and the Holy Spirit is the power that responds and does what the Word commands. But the Bible tells us that this God Personage called the Word gave up His status AS God and became a MAN – Jesus of Nazareth. "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). The second Person of the Trinity was the "Word". When He was doing the creating, He was NOT the "Son of God". The "Word" BECAME Jesus Christ at the human conception and birth in Bethlehem. The "Word" BECAME the Son of God in the human person of Jesus Christ. And what made Jesus Christ the "Son of God"? Jesus' human spirit part contained the divine nature of the God Family! Jesus was born to Mary that way – the only human ever, in the past, present or future, to come from his mother's womb that way. The Word, a member of the God Family, became Jesus, a human member of the God Family, and thus BECAME A Son of God – one of many Sons of God to be formed in the human race. Jesus was the first Son of God with many to follow upon belief and acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior. Jesus came to start a new human race – a new race of God Family members born over again with the divine nature of the God Family. Jesus Christ came into the world containing this nature of the God Family right from conception. But He was the "firstborn of many brethren" – each of us Christians who have to be born again by faith in Christ. Jesus drew all of His power from total dependence on His union with the Father. We brothers and sisters of Jesus must learn to follow His example by drawing on the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in living union with us. So what can we truly call Jesus of Nazareth? God? Man? JESUS CHRIST WAS A NEW MAN – THE FIRST OF MANY "SONS OF GOD". Jesus was the first man to contain the nature of God. All men before Him contained the nature of Satan inherited from that evil event in the Garden. And until this new man in Christ, no man could shed this fallen nature. It is very important the believer understand the principle of living life according to a nature. Why? It is important because, from the outset, God intended each creature live by the nature within. This is also true of each of the members of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – for they live life by their nature. It is very interesting to note that the word "nature" or "natural" is used only once in the Old Testament and is found in Deuteronomy 34:7. It should be very obvious that very little or nothing was known about the nature of creatures in Old Testament times. Except for Jesus, the apostle Paul was the first to understand that God had a nature, and that His nature, was, is and shall forever be a Father-nature. John and Peter picked up on this understanding later than Paul. It is my understanding that prior to creation God intended to have a nature-to-nature relationship with His offspring. Hebrews 1:1-5 talks about this and verse 5 says "I will be to him a Father and he shall be to Me a Son." God is well pleased with a nature-to-nature relationship, and at this time Jesus was the only one who had a nature-to-nature relationship with God, which is also known as the Father-Son relationship. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). Jesus was the first human being that ever had God as truly a Father to Him. Pleasing God is achieved by a nature not by what can be done or performed. Just as Jesus of Nazareth was NOT God but a man having the nature of God making Him a Son of God, so also we born-again Christians are NOT God but have the nature of God making us sons of God in God's Family. The difference between Jesus of Nazareth and us is that He was perfect as a container of the divine nature and we are imperfect containers of that nature. Some might say, "But Jesus had to be more than just the ideal, perfect man – He was God and He knew it, otherwise He couldn't have performed all the miracles He did!" Jesus was the perfect Son of God, a perfectly mature Son of God thus giving Him all the supernatural powers available to perfect sons of God. Remember that Paul, Peter and John worked miracles too because they had a maturity beyond most men. But they were still MEN. All the true sons of God from Jesus on down to us today are given supernatural powers in relation to their maturity. As a growing Christian, little miracles occur in your life every day of which you may be unaware. And these will increase as you mature spiritually. Others might say, "But Jesus had to be God because the Bible shows that He remembered things about Himself in past ages and even before the foundation of the world." We, as Christians, remember things from our life with the nature of Satan before conversion. Much of this is garbage which we draw on influencing us temporarily away from awareness of our living union with Christ and awareness of our present divine nature. But Jesus of Nazareth did not have any such past mental garbage. He was never confused mentally. He always knew to turn to the Father's nature within Him for His wisdom and understanding. This perfection of mind thus allowed Him to tread the corridors of time and eternity as He – as a Man/Son of God – used the wisdom of the Father. Jesus remembered who He used to be – the WORD. What gem of truth can we draw from all that I have attempted to explain? JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS THE FIRST MAN/SON OF GOD AND THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE TRINITY OF GOD HAS IN MIND FOR THOSE HUMAN CREATURES WHO CHOOSE TO FOLLOW CHRIST. JESUS OF NAZARETH GAVE UP HIS PERSONAGE OF THE "WORD" AND BECAME A MAN/SON OF GOD, THE FIRSTBORN OF MANY SONS OF GOD. JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS A MAN IN LIVING UNION WITH HIS HEAVENLY FATHER AND HE LIVED IN TOTAL DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER WORKING FROM WITHIN HIM. THIS IS THE EXAMPLE OF MATURITY WHICH WE AS FOLLOWING SONS OF GOD SHOULD AIM FOR. AS JESUS LIVED FROM HIS FATHER WITHIN, WE ARE TO LIVE FROM THE RESURRECTED JESUS CHRIST WITHIN US (see Galatians 2:20, my favorite Bible verse.) WWJD. What would Jesus do? We can never really understand the specifics of everything that Jesus would do in the situations of life which we face. But what we CAN understand is the METHOD. "I can, of my own self, do nothing!" "The Father in Me, He does the works!" The method is dependence! When we understand our weakness and dependence on our union with Christ within us, THEN we are living out WWJD! The bottom line is that the "Word" had to become the Son of God – in Jesus Christ. And each human being is being given the opportunity to become another Child of God by choice – by faith and trust. This is the knowledge that "surpasses all understanding." We, as Christians, are BIRTHED of God. We are children of God. We have the nature of God. We will never BE God, the Trinity, but we are the next best thing – children in the Family of God. This knowledge will bring us to more rapid maturity in our day to day Christian living.
Going To Church – (by Mart De Haan, RBC Ministries)
If I’ve learned anything about going to church, it’s that there are plenty of reasons not to go. I’ve visited enough churches all over the world to know that human nature is the same in Kuala Lumpur as it is in Kalamazoo. Since there are no perfect churches, see if you share my thoughts when I say:
1…I DON’T GO TO CHURCH EXPECTING to see a group of people consistently reflecting the attitudes and values of Christ. I’ve seen enough of myself in church sanctuaries, meeting halls, and boardrooms to know that we all are at varying degrees of spiritual growth or regression. Some of us are like noisy newborns. Others are showing signs of spiritual senility. Most are somewhere in between, trying to figure out why we are acting like mere men and women rather than mature members of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:3). All of this would be disillusioning to me if I didn’t find that the New Testament depicts the first-century church in the same condition of imperfection (Revelation 2-3).
2…I DON’T GO TO CHURCH EXPECTING to hear music that will lift everyone to the same level of worship. In theory, church music is a shared language of the soul rooted in the theology and anthems of heaven (Colossians 3:16; Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 51:11). In reality, however, the songs of the church are the down-to-earth sounds of changing generations that are united by Christ but divided by preferences as varied as bluegrass, country, or Bach. Because music is an art that resonates differently in all of us, we can’t all feel the same way about our songs of worship. The idea of “worship wars” is probably a contradiction in terms. But from the first century until now, the music of the church has been an opportunity for the Lord’s people to show whether they are submitted to the Spirit of Christ and to one another in the process (Ephesians 5:18-21).
3…I DON’T GO THE CHURCH EXPECTING to see men and women consistently giving one another the mutual honor and consideration they deserve. The curse of Genesis 3 describes our reality. Just as we still work to get weeds out of our yards, and just as we do what we can to reduce the pain of childbirth, so our challenge is to see the misuse of gender-based power and influence as a problem to be solved rather than as a right to be defended (Genesis 3:16-19). We need to remember that the One who calls us together gave women more love and respect than they received in their own culture, not less (John 4:25-27).
4…I DON’T GO TO CHURCH TO FEEL morally superior to those who wouldn’t be caught dead in a house of worship. The apostle Paul thought of himself as “the chief of sinners” years after he “saw the light” on the road to Damascus. Long after he discovered that there is no life outside of Christ, he urged those who joined him to remember where they had come from. He reminded them what they were still made of (Galatians 5:16-17), and how far they all had to go (Philippians 3:12-13). The self-righteousness of church people was a concern, but no surprise, to the authors of the Bible. They wrote with transparency not only about the failures of the church (1 Corinthians 11:17), but also about its tendency to be morally proud (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 4:3-5).
5…I DON’T GO TO CHURCH LOOKING for a perfect sermon with no errors in content or delivery. I’ve walked with enough pastors along the way to know that no matter how thoroughly they prepare their messages, they almost always fall short of their own expectations, let alone the needs of their people. Many wake up Monday morning knowing they’re being measured by memories of the past and compared with the pastor of a bigger church on the other side of town. The shortcomings we see in our church leaders can be a reminder to us that a pastor’s performance is not nearly as important as the perfection of the Savior and His Word that together we are called to honor. Because unrealistic expectations are a formula for disillusionment, I’m convinced that we do far better when our motives are more in keeping with the original purpose of the church.
Why I want to go to church:
1…I WANT TO GO TO CHURCH NOT BECAUSE I’m good, but because I’m not. I need to meet with others who realize that we all are like addicts in need of reminders that life is not found in another drink, another television program, or another hour at work. Life is found by seeing every circumstance as an opportunity to discover that God’s ways are better than our own.
2…I WANT TO GO TO CHURCH TO BE counter-cultural in the best sense of the word. Because everyone is important in the eyes of Christ, there is no better place to go to reverse the short-sighted values of a materialistic culture. There is no place on the face of the earth that gives us more reason to affirm the value of every person than a body of people “called out” by the Lord of the universe to regard everyone as someone for whom Christ died (James 2:1-9).
3…I WANT TO GO TO CHURCH TO CONFESS with others the life-changing truth that meeting together is not just about us. From the beginning, the church was established to be a place where the words of God are contemplated, where the Spirit of God is heard, where the goodness of God is confessed, and where the wisdom, power, and love of God are praised.
Father in heaven, thank You for the countless ways You have used men and women if Your church to enrich our faith. Forgive us for focusing only on our disappointments. Renew in us a willingness to hear Your servant who, for our good, wrote, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). [Back to Home]
