Burning

It is sheer lunacy to think you are not inhibited by the spirit of this age.  You are stopped short at nearly every turn by some good or respectable option...a way that seems reasonable and even right.  But it is not what God has told you to do just then and so you drift off imperceptibly from the straight and narrow way.  And when you do, you lose the quiet voice...or at least you lose track of it.  God will not beat you back in place, He will let you drift until it becomes nearly unbearable, this loss of His still, sweet nearness.  It is not some dramatic falling off the wagon that will hurt you most, it is the terrible indifference to the burning flame of the consuming Holy Spirit.  The soul that is not being scorched and seared by God is slowly growing cold and weary.  Only the determined return to the last word from God will catch your heart aflame again in the passionate fires of your loving Lord.  Again, take hold of God in His Word and you will find yourself flowing once more with the Joy of your Salvation. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Genesis 22:7 NIV

Normal Christianity

Is it not the easiest and most natural thing for a Christian walking in the freedom of the Holy Spirit to do what God says?  There is no real hindrance in this for the believer who trusts God.  He is absolutely without barriers for he can rise above every disappointment and difficulty, unencumbered by worry or fear.  The love of Christ is empowered by the conquering work of the Cross and it will not let the disciple be wrecked.  Too often we mistake a trial or a temptation or even a bruising wound of Satan for a death blow to our peace and joy.  The life we have in Christ is too big and too vibrant to be held back for long.  We are genetically enabled by the work of Christ when we are born again to rise above each Satanic attack.  Follow Jesus at any moment and trust Him then and you will find a heavenly flow coming upon you, an outpour of living water reviving you.  You have God in you and you are free to be happy and content.

A Willful Temple

There is a place at which we must decide who we really are and make a clean break from all the other possibilities.  If you are the Temple of God, then that must be decided in definitive actions.  The river must be crossed, the rope released, the battle entered.  As long as you see yourself as less than the Temple of God, you will live like it and no amount of posturing will obviate the damage caused.  The simplest and most uncultured of Christians who has determined with his will that He is the Temple of God will do more good and have longer lasting benefit to mankind than the greatest personalities of our age.  You may not be known here and now but the Temple of God is known in the corridors of heaven and your impact will reverberate throughout eternity if this is decided by you.  Settle the matter.  You are the Temple of God.  The Holy Spirit is in you and therefore there is nothing trivial or little about your place in the workings of God.  Each of your actions is critical and measured within the activity of the Lord who by His death resurrected your life and has recreated you into the liveliest and loveliest of treasures.    You realize don't you, that you are the temple of God...1 Corinthians 3: 16 MSG

The Patience of God

The Christian who walks with God has all the time in the world.  He has no need to be impatient with a single soul for he recognizes the pace at which God works in all people.  It is the clearest sign that we have lost our grip on eternity when we grumble and growl over some inconsiderate or immature soul who aggravates us.  As soon as we jump into the fray, either with our condescending self-righteous attitude or our caustic comments, we have veered out of our lane and run the risk of plowing into a tree planted there by Satan.  God is working just as patiently with that other person as He has with you and it does no good to get aggravated.  All you do is make yourself into something worse than Balaam arguing with his donkey.  Give the Lord time and he can transform the most obnoxious and lazy soul into a saint that would rival the Apostle Peter.  Pray with fervor for your enemy; let him have as much cover as you have gained from God and you will be surprised by who you see springing out of the weeds.  It could be your most crucial and happy ally in the faith.            Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34-35 NIV

Sensible

The sensible Christian is a bit of an oxymoron in the Kingdom of God.  You will not be of much use to Jesus Christ by taking things sensibly.  There is nothing sensible about being crucified with Christ, nothing sensible about leaving one's fishing boats and tax booths and following after a King who has no place to lay His head.  The sensible Christian cannot forgive his neighbor and will not give his last dime to God.  The sensible Christian has no time for the bleeding woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment or the quitter John Mark.  Jesus Christ did not accept the beams of Pontius Pilate because it was sensible; He did so because the Father wanted it done.  There is nothing so absurd as the Christian who says he won't while staring into the face of a Scripture that says he must.  Caution is fine if you never want to walk on water or dismantle Jericho.  No one who is sensible goes the extra mile or gives his cloak when only a friendly handshake will do.  The Kingdom of God is not made of sensible people but rather of those who are so feverishly loyal to Christ that they will stop at nothing to please Him.  ...but even if I am being poured out like a drink offering...I am glad... Philippians 2:17

The Unseen Line

At what point do we cross an unseen line when we no longer hold our things but they instead hold us?  Nothing confounds the Christian quite as much as the tight grip some desire or want maintains even as he sees himself free and on his own.  We sometimes mistake disappointment over not having with careless indifference to the thing.  Children play the game easily and we see through the charade.  "Oh, I didn't want do that anyway", they strut after the privilege is taken from them.  "I never did like her", is mumbled when the friend turns to someone else.  Yet are we so free of treasures on earth that we can happily disengage from them if the Lord breaks their grip?  Can we say farewell to the career if God were to call us to a mission field?  Are we really able to go wherever He leads even if it means leaving behind that home and car?  What is the price that is too steep to pay to follow Jesus?  Is it the respect you have gained or the comfort you enjoy?  How closely allied are you to the philosophy of the rich young ruler?  No dawn shines quite as brightly as the beginning of a day filled with the wonder of following Christ without thought for what it might cost you.

Noticed

The Kingdom of God is not about you or I getting a footing with God through some skill or talent we possess.  We are not here to make something of ourselves; not here to show ourselves off but to exalt Jesus Christ crucified.  This is no small task as it requires all of our effort.  Our soul is so bent by sin that we cannot naturally give Jesus Christ center stage and few ever really try to make a go of it.  But the disciple will; the one who has latched onto Christ and loves Him dearly will.  Take the resurrected Lord into your mind and let Him rule over your will.  You will know that Christ is not yet ruling over your abilities and talents if it matters that critics come after you or your friends or family hardly notice your "good works".  It is your opportunity to watch the Lord Jesus work His way through your disposition each time you see your effort go unnoticed and unrecognized.  Sometimes you choose this, sometimes it chooses you but either way, let out a quiet sigh and be thankful God has let you be a bit more hidden in Christ.  For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3: 3

Cornerstones and Cobblestones

The cross of Jesus Christ accomplished in one fell swoop the challenge of all mankind.  Without a cornerstone, a place from which to build perfect peace, we all flail about trying to make the best of a variety of bad situations.  Even the great optimists with a pot of gold at their disposal realize at some point how empty and vain it all is.  Yet at the moment Christ made it possible for recreation to take place with the act of crucifixion in a specific spot in history, the cornerstone for perfect peace was put in place.   You have as a born again Christian all you need to be done with anxiety, ongoing discouragement and despair.  The Holy Spirit will, as you keep your mind turning back into Christ and your behavior is steeped in the Word, give you a superstructure of peace within your whole personality.  Perfect peace is not a dreamy intellectualization, it is the way of the Christian whose life is stone by stone built upon the salvation of the Cross of Christ.

Tattoo Regret

The Lord's harshest criticism was reserved for those who would not believe Him and His warmest affirmation was for those who trusted Him at His word.  The promises of God secured within the Scripture are held there for you to accept and adjust your life.  The contrast between Zachariah the father of John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus is stark.  Struck dumb by the angel Gabriel for his lack of faith, Zachariah had to carry with him for a time the tattoo of unbelief and it was not removed from him until his faithful wife Elizabeth gave birth to the child.  And even then he first had to declare the name of their son publicly as assigned by God before his voice returned.  You cannot say you have faith until you actually do the thing God has said to do.  Don't treasure your doubts like some sort of badge of honor.  They are the silliest and most ridiculous parts of Christians, the pious questions that mock God's faithful righteousness.  Put aside your doubts and do the thing God has assigned you and enjoy the favor of Jesus as He commends you for trusting Him in the matter.

The Twists of Life

The element of surprise is pronounced in even the most dreary life but it should never be frustrating or cause for despair in the Christian.  The Christian is the one person who has certainty that each facet of life is in the hands of God and always being guided for his or her good.  It is never otherwise...whether it be the car wreck or the identity theft or the throbbing in the shoulder.  If it is not true that all things are being worked by God for our good, then it is the great farce, this Christian life. Decide for yourself with unforgiving ferocity.  Jesus Christ loves you and is making every twist of your life beneficial to you, no, more than that, every part of your life is the gift of God to you and it is as lovely as the morning dawn.   Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession? (Song of Songs 6:10 NIV)

Imitation

Have you taken serious stock in your ability to be imitated?  It is the simplest thing in the world; to have someone watch you and then do the very thing you did.  It is happening carelessly in your daily routines.  Adam imitated Eve without giving it much thought.  You too are emulating the very ones who seem silly or irritating as well as the models of competence.   Keep your eye on the prize even as others watch you out of the corner of their eye all the while looking for the prize too.  If you can imitate Christ just this one time, it might make it easier for the person next to you to do the same thing.  Love is rich with observable declarations of your real intention.  Even if you spend your time imitating the love of others, eventually it will be yours and then someone near you will make it theirs.  Actual love starts with Christ and at some point ends with Him. too.  The imitation of Christ will eventually be worked out as an overlooked offence or a swallowed criticism that could be justified if it were not for the criticisms Christ has held back from you.  Love never fails...(1 Corinthians 13:8)

The Turning of the Head

The difficulties we encounter, the daily aggravations we face do not make us spiritual or not spiritual.  They awaken within us a nudging to turn from or toward God.  The Holy Spirit will not force your head one way or another.  You must decide to do the work, to actually face your will and live at the moment in God.  Nothing can take you away from simple contentment and peace in the Lord.  You are the one to decide if God is good enough to keep your peace intact or if you need to let some emotion or distraction hold sway over you.  Perfect peace is not an ephemeral concept: it is the way it is for the one who keeps his mind fixed on Christ and his actions decided by the direction God gives at any specific spot in time.  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3 NIV)

What Really Is Before You

At some point you are going to be forced into the decision of your life, to fight against spiritual forces in high places or ignore them and go on as if they don't exist.  The Christian is never inept in this; unless of course he or she completely disregards Who lives within.  It is Christ in you that makes the difference in every temptation and trial you face.  You have the power to change the course of generations by giving Christ complete sway in your battle against the great enemy and all those spirits lined up before you intent to wreck and pillage your heart.  Be icy in your disregard of the insults and injustices you face but fiery hot in your hatred of Satan who is doing his best to make you a blind adversary at the moment you take your eyes off Jesus and gaze into the blinding darkness of some frustration or depressing hardship you have before you.

Prayer As It Comes

Our problem in praying is not that we don't know how to pray.  Even the atheist knows intuitively how to pray.  Our problem is we don't know what to do about our praying.  We misunderstand the interaction.  We never pray because we decided to pray, we do so because God wooed us into prayer.  The point of praying, even if it is for our daughter suffering from leukemia is to eventually hear from God Himself.  It is pointless just jabbering; we are there for God to interact with us at the most critical level.  Being born again is more profound than we guess.  It is transformation and that transformation includes being able to hear God.  Never stop praying because you didn't get what you wanted.  That is the place where you most need to pray; more than any object, you need God soaking every part of you and that will not happen with just a God list checked off and granted.   And as he was praying, heaven was opened... Luke 3:21 NIV

Knowing versus Knowing

We are as far as self goes at the center of the universe.  It is hard to get beyond the notion that everything revolves around me.  It isn't perhaps that we are so selfish...I want everything, but it is that we live within a certain head that is ours and we always grasp the sights from that head's perspective.  The Holy Spirit alone can take us outside that view where with God living within us, we can finally see what before was but a dimness.  The Lord Jesus Christ opens up to us a horizon that was always before lost...the life of God and all He sees living within us.  The vast world you do not know about yourself is visible to God and He will let you peek in and view it as you trust Him to guide your way.  But more importantly, as you listen, the Lord will "show" you others and your capacity to love will grow exponentially.  The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 1 Corinthians 8:2-3

Walking in the Light

What does it mean that we are not our own, we were bought at a price except that we are not our own.  (1 Corinthians 6:19)  It is paganism at its core to struggle out of the grip of the Holy Spirit and venture off without a single thought what God who is truly God might want.  We are certainly free to say what we think and do as we wish but if we are in Christ we are not our own and that will become perfectly clear to us in the workings of God in our daily doings.  The things we ask of Him and the gifts we desire will lie neglected until we get this matter straight.  We are not our own.  To walk in the light requires we stay away from the dark places of independence and rely upon the Word to direct our steps.  Of course it isn't easy but it is the One Way that makes the love of Christ fill our hearts with lasting gladness.

The Crisis Point

The crisis point is not at the moment you find some part of your life out of control; it is when you must accept that every part of your life is actually beyond your control.  We try desperately to calibrate this and modulate that but it is in the end not ours to fix or determine.  The Lord does not intend to make you more differentiated from your environment...He is using it (that wild and unpredictable world where you have been placed) to add to the supernatural work of being born again.  The more we try to squirm out of our predicaments and fix our dilemmas, the more sustained the rough edges of our personality.  You cannot love unless God surgically removes the bumps of hate and jealousy, you cannot trust unless he sculpts away the scared ridges of doubt and self-confidence and you cannot hope unless he rubs off the fear and bitterness caked on your too fragile psyche.  You have been placed at your spot so that the Lord can perfect His work in you.  Rest your soul in God who loves you enough to keep you where you are.

You and Clyde

Evil is not the Bonnie and Clydes and Joseph Stalins of any age.  They are aberrations from the common stock.  Evil is the gaze shifted off of Christ and onto something else that seems just as noble and worthy.  It is the Christmas present that makes the want rise above the Will, the fresh start that really isn't a fresh start but just the same oblivious disregard for the Holy Spirit prompts, it is the safe way out when the open door of God stands before you.  Adam and Eve didn't move far from God, they just turned their head slightly and looked past Him to Satan.  Fix your eyes upon Christ and let the peripheries remain the peripheries.  You cannot go astray with your mind determined that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. 

The Dawn Is Upon You

At what point do you begin to question the sanity of chasing after Jesus, of wanting to please the Father, of listening for the Holy Spirit to guide you?  Is it after the disastrous decision you made, during the long wait for the hope you had being fulfilled or while you sing dispassionately of the God you once trusted.  Nothing speaks more of your faith than your determination to shake off the conundrums of misplaced affections.  The Lord who saved you will not allow any desire or longing replace Him as King of your hopes and dreams.  You were not called out of darkness to stay in the shadows.  The light of Christ will shine brightly within you but only as you give Him access to the dark places where lurk the aspirations you have for getting your way, your way.  The Lord must put a halt to your self-reliance before you can progress much further in the joy of your salvation.  Rejoice, the dawn is upon you!    The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn...Proverbs 4:18 NIV

Spiritual Leakage

When once we start to question our ability to do a thing or give up a thing, we should always ask if we have let a habit or a behavior sap our strength and diminish our spiritual vitality.  God will never give you a task or a challenge that He has not already empowered you in the matter.  You have all the ability you need and all the creativity necessary for the task.  But if you lack power or will, you need to first go back to the beginning point when you started leaking the Lord's oil and plug the leak.  Renounce the act, stop the habit, get rid of the subtle rebellion and climb back into the arms of Christ with determination to trust Him in the matters that have caused you to turn your back on His help....he should do it with the strength God provides...(1 Peter 4:11 NIV)

Good...

Jesus made a disconcerting comment as he talked with the famous “rich young ruler” of Luke 18.  When the young man approached the Lord, he addressed Jesus as “Good teacher”.  Now this was certainly a respectful form of address but Jesus was not so impressed.  His reply was biting.  "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone. (Luke 18:19-20 NIV)  This is most informative if we can get past the seeming rudeness of the retort.  Jesus made it perfectly clear without any wiggle room that there is no one good…just God.  This is not self-deprecation: it is stating the clear fact.  Nothing good exists except what is in God, from God and with God.   The source of any good is God and without Him there is no good.  Good is not a relative term; good compared to not so good.  Good is determined by its source.  From God and it is good, outside of Him and it is not.  You and I are not the source of good and we do not decide if something is good or not.  Good is not an arbitrary assessment we make; good is determined by how anything at any moment relates to God.  Take the Lord out of a thought, out of an idea, out of a behavior and it is no longer good.  Regardless of how an event may turn, how a circumstance may look, it is good if your eyes are fixed upon God and your heart is determined to follow Him.  The command of Hebrews 12: 2 to fix our eyes upon Jesus is not a symbolic gesture, it is an act of the will to look to Christ for everything from how to think about something to how to act.  Take your eyes off the Lord and what can seem good, like Peter walking on water can become a disaster in a moment as he began to sink with his eyes on the waves.

Have You Been Tempted?

A temptation is never unreasonable.  It is always a sensible alternative to God's clear direction.  The temptation for Adam was not at the point of command, it was later when he had the new option of gaining insight into right and wrong.  You are not tempted by the wallowing pig or the disgusting vulture but rather by the smooth lined gazelle or the regal tiger.  Your temptation will be filled with light and color rather than the drab black and white and gray.  Don't underestimate the power of the temptation nor its crippling effect.  It is never just a matter of the bad decision; it is a poisoned option you face and once you have been struck by its power, you carry the effect within your body until you are raised perfectly by Christ on the last day.  Take a moment to pray the simple prayer God gave you..."and lead (me) not into temptation!"  Let the punctuation remain  there for a moment as you make the great step of faith for your day.

What Do I Do?

The problem with Christianity is not that it is too difficult to practice, it is that Christianity is too easy to believe.  Nothing is simpler than following a GPS turn for turn and the allowance of the Holy Spirit combined with the clarity of the Bible to direct each step is just as effortless. Where we stumble out of the gate is the frozen unwillingness to do what we are told.  "Turn right!"  We turn left.  "stop!" We go.  The grace of God is too astounding to believe, the fact that Christ really died for us is nearly unbearable.  How can that much love be poured into us?  We simply do not in the crunch of time accept it.  Otherwise, how can we explain the knee jerk response to bear outside the lanes of God's clear directions.  Don't complain any more about not knowing what the Lord wants you to do.  Simply do what you know He has said and let Him work out for you the instantaneous flow of your momentary actions.  The one who keeps His eyes fixed upon Christ is the will of God.

The Wandering Reality

The moment you begin to question the reality of your experience with God, question the presence of the Holy Spirit, return to your root.  The Cross of Jesus Christ happened at a specific moment in history among an actual crowd of people just as reliable as you.  No one ever questioned the crucifixion of Christ and the empty tomb was never doubted.  Return to the physical moment when Jesus Christ died for You and let that spot in time steel your resolve to follow Him anywhere.  The Cross is the power of your faith in God and it is your anchor that keeps the stormy day from swamping you.  Let the Cross of Jesus Christ be the source of your strength and hope.  Ponder it rather than your doubts.

The Defining of Pressing Forward

Have you thought much lately about the extreme agony of God as He stood at the brink of the Cross...taking within His body the terrible sinnings you have been working out moment by moment?  Nothing troubled the Lord in His daily dealings with us.  He was not maddened by the rejection nor was He discouraged by the flip-floppings of the crowd.  He pressed forward with the joy of doing everything within the Father until He came to the Garden and He stopped dead in His tracks and His anguish dripped out of Him.  He was not afraid.  He wasn't disheartened or depressed.  He swelled with sorrow as the sins of us came upon Him, as the agony of our precious independence scored a direct hit within.  Ponder the pain of Christ when you take that left turn off the road, when you screech to a halt as the Holy Spirit calls you forward.  Take the moment here to breathe in the air Jesus exhaled as He bore your sins within His body.  You are not the only sinner for which He died but you are the only one living at your spot and that sort of love cannot be taken lightly.

Real Freedom...Real Thanksgiving

Why is it that so many who turn away from Christ and the salvation He alone offers do so because they want to be free?  There is no freedom outside of the life hidden in Christ.  Don't we see it in the laboratory of daily activities?  The one who drifts away from God is not free of anger, not free of selfishness, not free of jealousy and craven desires!  He is not free of self deception and mistaken longings.  The one enveloped in the love of Christ loses her bitterness and prejudice and mad strivings and wounded ego and is no longer a prisoner of any desire or shattered want.  Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ can and does take the entire person and make her free to love and free to be at peace.  The turn into Christ is always a turn out of bondage toward unpretentious freedom.

The Curses of Good People

When you lose your sense of comfort in any situation, it usually is because the Cross of Jesus has become too small to you.  Everything that could ever wreck you is crushed by the destruction of sin within the body of Jesus Christ.  Pious worry is still worry and contrary to the state of things for you.  There is a reason why the Lord commands us not to worry.  Worry is the expletive in the conversation, the unnecessary and ridiculous adjective that makes all thinking fuzzy and distorted.  Think a bit more about the terrible suffering of Jesus that you might live with Him forever and then if you can, get back to the absurdity of your worries.

Let Go, Let God?

Have you thought about what it would really be like if you let go and let God?  Would your mind collapse in a rubble of deserted dreams and desires?  Would you feel the need to pick up the pieces after you went with God for a while and saw where it left you?  Could you think clearly if you let your world be God's in every way?  God does not have any interest in working with you.  He only wants to live through you.  Welcome Him into your kingdom!  The Holy Spirit has never been your servant...our confusion is often tied to our hope that He is or might be.  Let Him teach you how to pray and you will gain access to the bounty found only in Christ...a bounty limited only by your resistance to the working of God in your every day life as His child and beloved home.

Nothing settles the Lordship question more firmly than hardship.  It is there that you see the thing most clearly: follow Christ or abandon Him.  Once you know where you stand, everything else falls into place.  Forgive or not.  Complain or not.  Believe or not.  Take the forbidden object or not.  As long as we waver between one or the other, hardship will work its way back into our soul and make the object clear again.  The heart of every situation that startles our sensibilities is the great decision.  Follow Christ or abandon Him.  We rarely settle this absolutely; more often we do so time and again.

The Moment...

The moment of surrender is not just before the big crisis or the courageous endeavor but it is at the breakfast table when your wife scorns your advice or at the school when your son barks at you for being late to come get him or in the evening when everyone walks away from the dinner table and leaves the dishes for you to clean and put away.  The moment of surrender is at the store when the line to check out is ten deep or as you take out the trash and discover your husband threw away your mail without checking with you first.  The moment of surrender is the point at which you decide you have been crucified with Christ and you no longer live but Christ lives in you and you let Him steal your self-righteous indignation and your justified frustration and replace it with real forgiveness and actual rejection of the grievance.  Christ died for those moments when you want to scream in despair but you don't because the Lord Himself has enough joy to see you through it.  Take care to not take care much and let Jesus live fully in you.

The Rise of Obedience

Salvation through Jesus brings us eternal life but the working out of that new life is practical and daily.  It is when we obey God and do what He says in those moments of clarity that more of us (body soul and spirit) becomes free of the chaos and sticky brokenness brought on by sin.  A little act of disobedience, one that seems trivial, can set a chain of events within and without us that can destroy much of the progress we have made toward heavenly joy and peace.  Disobedience is the great drug that intoxicates us and brings hidden destruction.  We grow in grace and freedom and joy as we simply by faith do what the Lord tells us to do.

The Movement Past Conscience

At what point do you suddenly realize you have gone too far, looked too long, reacted too harshly, listened to too much, pushed past where you should have stopped?  Is it when you heard something telling you to stop, when you felt a tug to quit, when your mind began to cloud over with guilt?  When is too much too much? We speak of the conscience as the perpetual nerdy friend who doesn’t like to have a good time.  Or else the conscience is the ultimate arbiter of good and evil, the one sure scale on which to measure right from wrong.  We hear this sort of statement often.  “Well, it may not be right for you but it is for me.”  The implication is that personal conscious is the guide for right living.

Every one of us has some sort of conscience; it is along with language the mark of being human.  Shades of right and wrong do not slip into the thinking of the beasts; it is we who sink into that abyss, or would it be better to say who climb those heights.  Because the conscience is natural and organic, it is also arbitrary.  There is not a “uniform” conscience; one that defines us all.  Your conscience will not be the same as your friend’s or even your brother’s. Joseph Stalin had one conscience, your uncle another.  It is impossible to say conclusively that Adolph Hitler did not follow his conscience in what he did nor that Mother Teresa always followed hers.  My “too far” probably is not yours and will not be Mick Jagger’s.

Is there though a real “too far”, just as there is a real mile or a real pound?  How do we measure right and wrong, good and bad in actual time and space?  Does it exist…such a true measure? Jesus was asked by the rich young ruler what good thing he had to do to inherit eternal life.  This was not a simpleton’s question.  It was asked by a true thinker who recognized the human condition.  At some point we cannot just rely on our conscience; we need to look into what is always right and what is always wrong because it does matter.

There is something most casual readers of the New Testament fail to realize and that is how Jesus analyzed his own behavior and approach to situations.  He let the scripture and the guidance of the Father determine each step He took.  At the time of temptation in the wilderness, Jesus used the Bible to arbitrate for Him how He should act.  That was almost an unconscious guide because He used His mind to know it so well.  Clearly Jesus studied the Bible enough to know at each space in life what it might have to say about a matter.

But there was another hedge He had in deciding right and wrong.  He constantly communicated with the Father on what He was doing and thinking and facing. 

This statement of Jesus in John is most informative.  “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”  (John 12:49 NIV)  Somehow, and we are not told how, Jesus heard from the Father even in the details of His behavior what He was to do.  At the point of what specific things to say at any given moment and in what tone of voice to use, Jesus had direction from the Father on good and bad, right and wrong.  This is different from the prodding of conscience; this is a direct line to what is really right and what is really wrong.  If we could get past our individualistic and arbitrary conscience to the actual measure of right and wrong, we would know where to start in living.

How was Jesus so perfectly in tune with the guiding of the Father?  He was, like the first Adam free of sin and so had the same ability the first Adam had.  He could and did walk with the Father as He went about His business.  Like the two disciples who went with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and heard the real accounting of how the crucifixion and resurrection fit into the plan of God, we too can “walk with God” and hear from Him as Jesus heard from the Father.  We have the promise of Jesus that the Holy Spirit, God too just as the Father and Son are God, would by faith in Christ be with us.  And Jesus also has promised to be with us always.  What do we make of this?

We have at our finger tips, or even closer always the right and wrong there to know and understand.  It is not a matter of my right and wrong or your right and wrong; it is right and wrong as it really is.  We are within reach at any moment when Christ is ours by faith the knowing of good and bad.  Not just knowing by a swing and perhaps a miss but a knowing that is certain.

How do we get to this point where we know exactly what to say and how to say it, what to do and how to do it?  The caveat is simple.  You must have decided that is what you want to know.  If you do not really want to know, Jesus will let you walk away from it just as easily as the rich young ruler did.  But if you want to know, you must be determined to know the scriptures.  You must be able to tell the difference between what is a really right or wrong and what is merely a tangle of your conscience.  There are miles of issues we can discuss that have a level of right and wrong to them but if we do not know the scripture…really know the scripture, we cannot be certain we are not just sifting them through our conscience rather than the actual right and actual wrong of a matter.  That is why it is so difficult discussing the big moral issues of our age: abortion, homosexuality, integrity, war, globalization, pornography.  The scripture is either ignored or not known well enough to arbitrate between consciences.

There is a bigger issue though before us and that is how to get at the details of right and wrong as arbitrated directly by God.  It is easy to just lay out three bullet points or six directives but if that were the case, we would have far more Christians acting upon right and wrong.  The hearing from God is much more organic and familial.  You must become familiar with the way God speaks to you directly. It is an experiment in holiness.  As God prods you in a right or a wrong, whether by the remembrance of a scripture or some very personal way He guides you, then you act upon it and even if you feel guilty from your conscience or disappointed because of your lusts, you fight through it and do the thing or don’t do it.  The next time you sense the prod of God, you act upon it then and there.  The more you do this, them more familiar you will be with the actual God behind you way of seeing and thinking.  You will become more comfortable with the real presence of God; more alert to Him too.  Every child has a conscience; only the child of God has the true right and wrong within.  You must though like Jesus give God room in your heart to guide you and holiness will not just be something you consider, it will be yours as a real possession. 

Stress and Distress

Have you considered the possibility that your physical woes are the result of turning away from the path God set for you?  I know that with Job and what we learn there, we run the risk of being that poor man's miserable friends ourselves but despite that, we have to explore this possibility.  In Psalm 6, the prayer offered is a whimpering moan.  O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Clearly God does do that; it is not absent from His relationship with us.  He does let our flesh be beaten by fleshly agony to get our attention.  Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint:  O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.  The body is in distress.  It is flailing in pain and the Lord seems to be letting it happen.  But it is worse than that. My soul is in anguish.  How long, O Lord, how long?  We come here to the point where it is worse even that physical pain.  The soul is in torment.  Where is God?  Why has He left me like this?  What have I done?  Have I been abandoned?  Am I caught in a trap with not even heavenly help?  It is the worst of places because the Christian alone knows the agony of the silence of God.  Those without Christ live only within their simplified minds; they imagine they hear God and make it happen on their own if things get rough.  The atheists and those who just

ignore the Divine proddings never concern themselves with it.  They are contented with a lonely psyche that runs wily nilly about; unrestrained and disorganized.  But the Christian who has heard the voice of God, who has lived within the nubs of the Holy Spirit cannot rest in Divine silence.  She has to hear something.  The longer the pain, the more unfeeling the solitude, the greater the desperation...God must answer, must come to my help.  And here we find the Psalmist; at the third level of supplication.  Turn, O Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

Have you reached that point?  Have you come to the spot where your desperation turns not to the fairness of God but to His mercy?  Has it come to that where nothing but the kindness of God will get you through to the place He has set for you?  Are you ready to bend to the will of the Holy Spirit and let Him be all your benchmarks, all your orderings?  It is strange to think that perhaps you are in distress because you have comfortably walked down a side road and gotten befuddled by your circumstances.  It seemed so free and easy, so much happenstance before.  Now you know it is Christ who has struck you down; not for His anger but for His mercy to contain you once again.  Can you take the next step?  Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.  When the Bible, uses the expression, "the Lord has heard", it always means that the matter is settled and His mercy has won the day.  Go back to where you got distracted by fleshly wanderings and look once again for Christ's mercy to guide you.  Our Southern friends can assert that this is true.  At the eye of the hurricane, calm is reawakened.  Stay within the eye; leave the hurricane for those who are infatuated with chaos.

Body and Soul

I was asked recently by one of my children what I thought he would be like if he had a different biological father or mother.  Of course this seems like a sensible enough question except for one misconception.  We don't exist as a person outside the body we have been given. The soul came into the man after the body was formed and not before.  Adam became a living soul or nephesh after the Lord breathed into the body the breath of life.  Before that, there was no "soul" of Adam.   There is no scriptural evidence for baby souls or incubating souls waiting somewhere for God to distribute into bodies.  Rather what we have is that the physical body initiates the birth of the soul.  Thus when the body is formed, the soul comes into place, is breathed into it by God.  The body is picked out and then the soul is created.  When the egg is fertilized by the sperm, it is a mystical moment of conception, not just with the forming of the body but the initiation of the soul as God puts life into place.  We don't exist before the body comes to be but when we are brought to life, we are from the outset God's life.  He breathes into the body its being, its soul.  David talked about the work God did knitting him together within his mother's womb and creating him stitch by stitch as it were.  But moving down just a bit in Psalm 139 to verse 16, we come to the most interesting part of this .  When God saw us in His mind before we were even formed, our days were already established; they were written in His book.  It is as if out moments are a part of our DNA; the days we have written even within our body.  But take this one step further.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 indicates that our bodies also contain eternity in them; the heart is the receptacle of forever.  The body is no mere addendum to the soul...and the soul is not as U2 implies stranded in "some skin and bones".  The body and soul are intertwined as one, each a part of the whole God established when He decided to create good.  The body is either the whipping post or idol of humanist thinking.  It must be neither.  It is created by the Creator to establish the person Christ died to save. You are peculiar in the best sense of the word.  Made by God, particular to God, defined by God, known by God, loved by God.

The miracles of Scripture were never merely a deliverance from difficulty but they always were a sign of God near.  The blind man did not find it smooth sailing after he was given sight; his parents were cast out of the synagogue and his former blindness ridiculed.  Have we come to the point where all we want is a miracle but not the God who shadows it?  If your bill got paid somehow, would you let God consecrate your lust?  If your girl loved you, would you give yourself to holiness?  If your mind became clear and you could suddenly see the big idea, would you bury your clock as you prayed?  If you steered clear of the wreck or your cancer faded, would you give a true pagan your unmitigated faith?  How would you react to a bona fide miracle; an answer to prayer too close to God to be a coincidence?  Would you shake it off...would you take note of it...would you pause in awe of the God who saved you?  What sort of miracle do you need to notice GOD?  Is the Scripture enough for you to love Him and watch for His sway in the moments you have?  I have often wondered how it was possible that nine of the ten lepers gave no notice of Jesus once they got out of sight of Him and His Word.  Perhaps though, given what we see of ourselves and those about us, the biggest miracle of that day was the pivot one leper made when he gazed upon his skin and came running back to Jesus in awe of the Light that was no longer mere shadow.  Each day I make a record of ten to twenty things for which I am thankful God gave me the past day.  I have to do this or else I will go the full twenty-four hours and run the risk of missing the extraordinary gift of moments when Christ drew near to me.

The Road Not Taken...Yet

How often have I wished I didn’t have to talk with a sales rep?  Not yesterday.  Victoria and her assistant (I made up Victoria’s name) found me even though they tried to come in through the wrong door.  Victoria’s father is a Hindu priest and her mother converted to Hinduism from Christianity.  As the Lord opened the way for us to discuss religion, I fumbled about for a while trying to make it reasonable for a bright, charming, educated, lovely, young woman see that she should at least give Christianity a good look before she walked away from it.  Later I wondered how our conversation would have turned if I was her uncle or professor rather than a potential customer for her company.  Perhaps not any better or worse but I know how I would have proceeded.  I would have explained to her as our great friend C.S. Lewis has noted that there really are only two strands of religion in the world and every other one is merely a warping of one or the other.  Hinduism is the first strand but not in terms of time or priority, only as it comes around for discussion.  With Hinduism, there are many, many gods and goddesses all with their own distinct personalities and corruptions.  Some are wickedly good and others are deceptively bad.  They weave in and out of rightness and selfishness and moral depravity.  The universe is built upon the foundation of justice only and every bit of badness gets squeezed out of the soul until there is nothing left to it…even if it takes thousands of reincarnations to get it done.

Christianity is the second strand but not in terms of time or priority.  There is only one Christian God who is perfectly moral and full of kindness and love.  The universe is built upon the foundations of righteousness and mercy and badness is not whipped out of us by our own suffering; it is wooed out of us by the suffering of God who loves us.  We live not to die and live and die and live until we dissolve but we live to live and to know the God who loves us like a bride in a love marriage that always boils with rising heat and desire.  Suffering does come to us as a result of badness we do but it is God Himself who suffers the pain our badness set in motion.  Rather than paying us back for what we have done, God is paid back for what we have done.  Whipped and beaten and broken by the people He came to rescue from eternal death, He died with the sins of us all buried in His own body.  And then, only then Jesus Christ, God in flesh and blood rose from the dead, eternally our only way to eternal life.  It is with this God, this God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit that we find our way and make it home, always alive, always the one who is beloved and known and never oblivion.  

The truth is I might even now be botching it trying to get the truth squared away for my friend.  In the end, it really boils down to this one verse.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one of a kind Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  I hope Victoria finds it.  She at least got to the right door.