Solitude

Exodus 33:8-9 NIV

And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.  As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.

What Do You Think God Wants To Do With You?

A few weeks ago, it didn’t go well for me substitute teaching.  The class had acted pretty badly and I struggled to maintain control over the group.  They kept speaking when I told them to be quiet, I had trouble explaining the material I was assigned to cover and several of the kids were disrespectful.  I felt overmatched and inadequate.  Limping to my car, I asked God what was wrong with me.  Everything about my life felt out of sorts and in disarray.  I opened the door and plopped down in my seat, glad to have a few minutes of solitude.  I sat before God in the sanctuary of my little Honda and silently gave Him time to work in me.

Probably you too have needed time alone and it was a welcome relief to find a spot where you could regroup.  Perhaps you have felt psychologically drained and wanted to get away where no one could interrupt your thoughts or agitate you.  Sometimes you have to retreat to the bathroom to find solitude.  Maybe it is your car or your office or a park bench where you gather yourself. Many retreat to their bedrooms.  You might sit in front of your computer without noticing anything that’s there, lost in your thoughts.  Do you need time alone on a regular basis?  What does solitude do for you?  Have you found it helpful?

The Bible makes it clear that we are never alone, even when we are in the loneliest of places.  The book of Hebrews even insists that we are surrounded “by a great cloud of witnesses.”  Yet, due to our lack of awareness of everything supernatural happening all around us, we ignore both angels and demons.  When we are by ourselves with no physical beings nearby, we feel alone and quite honestly are often quite grateful for those moments.  However, our difficulty perceiving the presence of God does not mean He is absent.  The Lord promises He is with you at every moment and solitude is not what is commonly thought.  If you realize that solitude is always you with God and never you just by yourself, a great benefit to your life is possible.

The Gospel of Luke begins with an interesting story that is only told by Luke.  There was a couple that was old and childless and the husband was one of many Jewish priests.  Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the temple and burn the incense in the sanctuary.  Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.  And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. (Luke 1: 8-10 NIV)  Zechariah found himself alone in the inner sanctum of the Temple but what he soon discovered was that his solitude was not what it seemed.  An angel suddenly appeared in the room.  When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. (Luke 1:12 NIV)  After the angel reassured him that he was not in danger, the messenger from God gave him the joyous news that Zechariah and his wife were going to conceive and have a baby.  The angel made it clear that this was an answer to their prayers.  But this declaration was too stupendous for Zechariah to believe, even if it did come directly from an angel!  Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." (Luke 1:18 NIV)

After all these years of praying, Zechariah had become hopeless.  He no longer believed it was possible that he and his wife could have a child. Yet here was the revelation, coming to him in the solitary place where Zechariah thought he was all alone.  We see this same formula again and again in Scripture.  God lets someone become alone and then He shifts that person’s life.  When the Lord wanted to adjust the prophet Ezekiel’s thinking, He pulled him aside.  Ezekiel describes this in the book he wrote.  The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you." (Ezekiel 3:22 NIV)  How did God say this to Ezekiel?  Was it in an audible voice that anyone could have heard or did God speak directly into the prophet’s head?  We don’t know but what is clear is that the Lord sent Ezekiel off by himself to receive the revelation.  This is the normal process.  God waits until someone is alone…or thinks he or she is alone…and then He does something new with that person.

Consider the example of Isaiah.  The Lord got him alone in the Temple and there revealed Himself to the prophet.  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1 NIV)  If God’s presence was not enough, there were flying seraphs and shaking door posts and thresholds and the whole building filled with smoke.  Clearly Isaiah was not alone and the Lord made that clear in a magnificent way.  Immediately, with all the pageantry, what struck Isaiah most was his sinfulness.  He let out a wail!  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 6:5 NIV)  When God meets you in the solitude, you must first face your Sin.  It becomes clear as day when you are alone with the Lord that you sin and sin badly.  You cannot go any further with the Lord unless you grasp the awful nature of your sin and solitude magnifies it so that you see your sin clearly when you become alone.  If you have not seen your sin and grown to hate it, you most likely have never been alone with God.  The Lord forces you to face your sin.  His very presence does that to you.

If you are alone with God, there are two revelations that will come to you and they will carry the force of a great hurricane.  You are sinful and only God can take away your sin.  Whatever was wrong with Isaiah, whatever evil he saw in himself, it had to do with his mouth!  Jesus said that it is not what goes into you that is bad, it is what comes out of you that matters and clearly something was coming out of Isaiah that was ugly and it had to do with his mouth.  Immediately when Isaiah realized just how wicked he was the Lord provided him with a live coal that took away the guilt of his sin.  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  (Isaiah 6:6-7 NIV)

If there is a single lesson to learn from this passage, perhaps what rises above all is that only God can take away our guilt.  God does the work.  Here He touches the lips with the purifying live coal.  This was just a temporary solution for only in the Cross is the guilt of our Sin removed altogether.  When Christ came and became a part of us, He did so to deal once and for all time with our Sin.  You cannot be alone with God and fail to realize your complete dependence upon Him.  In a crowd you can feel secure and confident that you make it on your own.  Alone with God though you know that is a fairy tale, it is like thinking your heart is unnecessary or your brain does not matter.  Dependence upon God and reliance upon Him to save you is the clearest sign you have been alone with Him.  What is so striking about the Psalms is that this is what you see in them at every turn.  You are dependent upon God to save you and there is no greater determination you can make than to rely upon Him in everything you do.

Nearly always when there is a break in your relationship with God, it is because there is a moral barrier that stands in your way.  God would not let Isaiah go any further with Him until his mouth issues were addressed.  Sometimes it is sexual immorality, other times a bad temper or the unwillingness to forgive.  It might be cruelty that you possess or selfishness and greed or the hard headed unwillingness to do what God has said to do.  This barrier, whatever it might be must be taken apart if you are to ever go any further with God.  It is when you are alone with Him that this is done.  God penetrates your heart and works out of you what sin has worked into you.  As you stay with Christ, alone just the two of you, a miracle occurs.  The love of God starts to become your love, the peace of God becomes your peace and the joy that God has becomes your joy.  You cannot generate this within yourself.  Only Christ can do it.  Alone with God, no conversation, no distracting phones or computers, just your mind and the Lord’s mind coming together and in the miracle of Christ, you become transformed.  God will want to make you alone with Him to cleanse your actions and He will want to work out of you your sinful habits. In solitude you will be made good, and clean and like God.  In God’s grip, alone with Him in a quiet place where He can get through to you, nothing will matter that mattered so much to you before; not your accomplishments, not your gifts, not what you want to make of your life.   What will rise above everything else as you stay with Him will be His love becoming yours as you remain alone with Him wherever and whenever the Lord calls you to come to Him.  Why not take a solitude break this week?  Be alone with God for whatever time you can give Him.

Heart in Action

1 Chronicles 29:18 NIV

O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.

How Important Is Loyalty?

I realize that I am now kind of an old-timer and loyalty means a lot to me.  I am loyal to vanilla ice cream.  I am loyal to McDoubles.  I am loyal to Northern California beaches despite how cold they are and loyal to our local jazz station. I am loyal to khaki pants and button down collars and hair gel. I am loyal to my friends and loyal to the denomination I joined years ago.  I am even loyal to our cat even though she wants nothing to do with me except when she is hungry.  I saw this recently in the news and perhaps you also noticed it.  The dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of one of the country’s vice premiers for slouching during Jong-un’s speech because it was to the North Korean ruler a sign that the vice premier was not thoroughly loyal to him.  If it were asked what single human quality is most valued in North Korea probably “loyalty” would be at the top of the list above creativity, ingenuity, compassion or integrity.  How important is loyalty to you?  How important is loyalty to God?

What if God demanded of you the same sort of loyalty Kim Jong-un demands of the people in North Korea?  If you were to quantify your loyalty to God on a scale of 1-10, what value would you give it in terms of your interest in the Bible, your keeping of the ten commandments, church service attendance, your financial support of God’s Kingdom, the value you place on your moral purity or how often you bring up God and the Gospel in your normal conversations?  Loyalty is of course practical and not some abstract idea and if we have read much in the Bible, we would see that God cares very much about loyalty but rather than using the term “loyalty” He speaks more precisely of “love”.  Jesus said that the most important of all the commandments of God is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37 NIV)

How do you do that?  If you were honest, if that was the test of your loyalty, would you have to be blown up if you lived in North Korea because you would fail?  The problem you face when it comes to loving God is your heart!  You can’t count on it.  Jeremiah the prophet, speaking for God spells out your dilemma.  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)  How can you love anyone with all your heart if you can’t trust your heart to love and you have no idea what all is in it?  Because you have so little insight into your own heart, you can be fooled into thinking you are better than you are.  All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2 NIV)  Because you don’t know what is in your heart, you cannot be certain of what you will do or how you’ll react to situations you face.  You can convince yourself that you are good but only God knows all that is in your heart.  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV)

Two examples illustrate this.  Genesis 4 in the beginning of the Bible provides us a fascinating case study that reveals how complicated the human heart is.  When Cain killed his brother Abel there was no clear explanation for his action.  All we know is that when God approved of the offering Abel brought but was not complimentary of Cain’s, Cain became angry and it showed on his face.  Cain invited his brother to meet him out in the field and there Cain killed Abel.  Could jealousy alone have provoked such anger?  Was there something else that pushed Cain over the edge?  What was stirring in Cain’s heart that drove him to murder?  Who can explain this senseless rage?  All Cain had to do if he really wanted to please God was straighten out whatever was wrong with the sacrifice he offered.  Something else within his heart inflamed him with anger so intense he killed Abel.

Another example that is difficult to explain is Solomon’s transition into paganism.  He was the son of the one God called “a man after my own heart”. (Acts 13: 22 NIV)  Solomon orchestrated the building of the great Temple of the Lord and famously met with Solomon by way of a dream and promised the young king wisdom beyond anyone’s on earth as well as riches and honor which is exactly what he had.  When Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, a great cloud filled it and the priests could not do their work because “the glory of the Lord filled his temple.” (1 Kings 8:11 NIV)  Fire even came down and consumed the sacrifice Solomon offered on the altar.  God a second time appeared to Solomon at night and warned the king in gave terms not to turn away from worshiping Him and going after the false gods of the pagans but that is precisely what he did.  As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. (1 Kings 11:4 NIV)  What could lead to such a dramatic shift in loyalties?  How could Solomon walk away from such dramatic appointments with God and become a spiritual traitor?  It was Solomon’s heart that was the problem.

James the brother of Jesus asked an important question but also gives the answer.  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4: 1 NIV)  The Apostle Paul in Romans 8 provides a dynamic explanation of what is really going on within.  Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8 NIV)

There are three terms in this passage that must be explained.  The first is “mind”.  This is essentially what other parts of the Bible call “heart”.  It is who we are for eternity whether we have the body or don’t.  The second term is “sinful nature”.  This is the operating system of our lives outside of Christ.  The sinful nature is the controlling force of our life if God is not in charge.  The third term is more a phrase—“the mind controlled by the Spirit”.  This is the condition of our heart when God is working actively within it.  Our heart, filled with the clutter of a billion memories, the damage caused by countless sins, the good and bad of all our relationships and everything we think and decide about God and the world about us, is operating either without God or with Him and we decide what it will be at any given moment.  What the King James Bible calls the “carnal man” is life under the operation of a heart in chaos.  There is no order to the heart without God; it is a baffling and convoluted wreck that can be kind one moment and cruel the next, corrupt and selfish and generous and moralistic all at the same time.  Anything can spring out of the heart controlled by the sinful nature because it is wild and corrupt.

However when the Spirit of God begins to take charge of the heart, order is established.  The Bible calls this “life and peace”.  It is the condition of the heart when from the heart comes honesty and you can count on it, kindness and it is consistent, generosity and purity and goodness become normal and expected.  The memories that once caused so much pain and bitterness lose their power to wreck the heart when Christ is at work in it.  Life and peace is not a goal we set for ourselves but it is the end game when the Spirit of Christ is given full sway over the heart.

An account from the Bible that often goes unnoticed will illustrate the difference between the two operating systems of the heart.  In Acts 11 is the recounting of the Apostle Peter’s defense of his strange decision to go into the house of a Gentile family and share the Gospel with them.  From the time he came out of his mother’s womb Peter had been taught to avoid at all costs non-Jewish people.  Do not eat with them, do not marry them, do not touch them and do not enter their homes ever.  In fact, Peter’s conscience was organized around the complete disdain of non-Jews.  Then one day while napping, Peter had essentially the same vision three times.  In his own words Peter describes them.   I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.  Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'   "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'  "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' (Acts 11:5-9 NIV)

Almost immediately after these visions three messengers arrived inviting Peter to come and explain Christianity to a Roman centurion and his family.  Everything in Peter’s heart went against this.  He had been taught to despise non-Jews and certainly had from experience plenty of reasons for staying away from Roman soldiers.  His heart certainly would have been against going with the men to the centurion’s home but his heart had within it more than the sinful nature operating.  The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. (Acts 11:12 NIV)  So Peter went.  Can we see a clearer example than this of how the presence of God in the human heart can completely alter the way a person operates?  Memories, bad experiences, poor teaching and sinful habits do not control us when we have the Spirit of God putting our hearts into order.  Yet like Peter, you must never argue with or ignore the Spirit of God within you when He directs you.  We will be amazed by what God does within our hearts when we let the Spirit make decisions for us.  Every time we give the Spirit control in a matter, when we are loyal to Him in us, we become more like God and less like what we would be if our hearts remained broken by sin and all the evil found in this world.

Heart

Romans 5:5 NIV

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

What Is The State Of Your Heart?

You often hear people say, “Just follow your heart!”  But what if your heart isn’t right, if it isn’t operating properly?  The other day I got angry with one of the members of my family and I said some things I shouldn’t have said, some harsh things, some critical things.  Now, at the time, I was speaking from my heart.  It didn’t come from our neighbor’s heart or from President Obama’s heart or from Billy Graham’s heart.  It came from my heart and I am glad it wasn’t videotaped and posted on YouTube.  There is nothing about my outburst that I am proud to have produced and yet I have to admit it came from my heart, it came from me.  Now whenever someone issues an apology and they say, “It wasn’t me, that’s not who I am”, that person is lying.  It came from within that person and just like my anger came out of me and my mean words came out of me, whatever we say or do is from within us, not some pseudo self.  Our problem and it is a perplexing problem when something comes from out of us that we don’t like is that the confusion we have is due to our lack of understanding of our heart…we don’t know what is actually in our own heart.

If I were to ask you what the state of your heart is, what would you say?  Would you describe it as contented or frustrated?  Could it be said that your heart is full of joy or miserable?  Is it somewhat confused, disturbed, or pleased?  Would you speak of your heart as a mixture of a number of characteristics, some of which please you and others a bit troubling?  Your heart is your own; it is for better or worse you and if we are to know who we are, we must take a look at the heart we have.

Jesus made a disturbing statement about the heart that needs to be considered.  He said, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22 NIV)  There is a lot of filth in the list and it would be humiliating if others could see this in us.  What must be noted is that we all have within our hearts the building blocks for the most grotesque forms of evil.  Jesus understood human personality better than any of us and He said that our hearts contain qualities we have at one time or another disregarded, dismissed or defended.  It seems if Jesus is right, that each human heart is corrupted and capable of generating tremendous amounts of evil.  Yet few of us are monsters so what is the problem?  The New Testament has some interesting insight into the heart and it is worth examining.

In Acts 8: 21, the Apostle Peter, aggravated that a new Christian who had been a pagan magician wanted to buy from Peter the ability to lay hands on others and give them the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, rebuked the man strongly, "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!  You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.” (Acts 8:20-21 NIV)  It is within the heart that corruption, greed and the lust for power are developed and nurtured.  The heart is the factory that produces every sin that comes out of us.  Peter did not concern himself with the act on the man’s part of trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit; the attempt to gain by human effort the might of the Holy Spirit was to Peter the sign of the real issue which was the corruption of the man’s heart.  That was where Peter directed his stern rebuke.

We gain tremendous insight from Acts 5:3 and the strange decision of Ananias and Sapphira to sell their land and then pretend that they were giving the full proceeds of the sale to the Church when in fact they were holding part back.  The Apostle Peter’s rebuke of Ananias provides us with critical information regarding the heart.  Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? (Acts 5:3 NIV)  Our question was in regard to how the Christian’s heart can be filled with corruption and not be right with God and we see that the answer is simple.  Satan can fill the heart even when the heart has the Holy Spirit living within it.  We may not understand how this might be possible, that God and Satan can coexist within the human heart but it is clear from this verse that it happens.  Now, did Ananias intentionally give Satan influence over his heart or believe that was happening?  Probably not!  He most likely believed everything was well in his life and that he made a rational and intelligent decision to claim he had donated all the proceeds of the sale of his land to the Church when in fact he had not.  He may have not given a moment’s thought to the possibility that Satan had “filled” his heart.  Yet that is precisely what the Scripture indicates took place.   A human heart that had the Holy Spirit was filled by Satan.

Jesus did something, as described in John 20: 22, that is often overlooked.  He gave to the disciples the gift of having the Holy Spirit but before He became a part of them, they were told to receive the Holy Spirit.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”  (John 20:21-22 NIV)  What is not realized is that this was a command of Jesus, not a statement on His part of what He had done.  The disciples had to decide to receive the Holy Spirit and Jesus told them to do it.  The point is that we are not machines that God reprograms by dumping the Holy Spirit into us.  We decide if we will receive or take into ourselves the Holy Spirit.  He is not pushed into us and that implies we have power to decide how much of an impact we will let the Holy Spirit have within us.  This is a profound consideration.  If both the Holy Spirit and Satan can be a part of our hearts, it is we who decide how much influence either has in our hearts.  Our Lord says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.  Should we?  Do we?

The Bible tells us what it means for the heart when the Holy Spirit is received and allowed to change it.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:22-24 NIV)  Remember that within the heart is what Jesus described: greed, malice, lewdness, deceit, folly!  What happens when the Holy Spirit begins to produce within the heart joy, peace patience and self-control?  Do the other parts of the heart just disappear? We must never forget what exactly takes place through the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Not only does Jesus through His death eliminate the ability of Sin to condemn us before God, the life of Christ resurrected through the Holy Spirit also begins to rework the heart so that we develop the characteristics of God within the heart.  Satan cannot control the heart if the Holy Spirit is ruling there but if the Holy Spirit is not received, then Satan can do as he wishes within the heart.

You decide if you are going to receive the Holy Spirit or let Satan rule over your heart.  Satan’s most effective strategy is to convince you that what is wrong for you is that God has wrecked you.  As long as you have even a little bit of conviction that God has damaged your life and cannot be completely trusted, you will hold part of your heart from God and not receive the Holy Spirit fully.  You are the gatekeeper of your heart.  There is a magnificent account in the Bible of what happens if the Holy Spirit is given permission to rework the heart.  When Saul came to Damascus as a representative of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, he came to find Jewish Christians so that he could take them captive back to Jerusalem for trial and execution.  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 NIV)  As Saul marched with his armed guards up to Damascus, the Lord spoke to a loyal Christian named Ananias through a vision.  The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.  In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."  "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." (Acts 9:11-14 NIV)

Ananias had no love for Saul.  Although Saul had been struck blind by the Lord, Ananias did not pity him.  Every Christian in Damascus had heard how evil Saul was and the atrocities he committed in the name of religion.  What God was asking of Ananias was too much for his heart.  Why would he reveal to Saul his identity as a Christian and for what reason should he help him?  There was not a rational argument that could be made for following the Lord’s command to go to Saul and let the healing of God come to Saul through Ananias’s hands.  Ananias could not have made this decision on his own.  He would not have chosen to risk his life helping a murderer and persecutor of the Christian Church.  It was the Holy Spirit that made Ananias willing to go to Saul and reveal his Christian faith to him by praying for him.  In the book of Hebrews we are warned against doubting God in our hearts.  See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12 NIV)  With the Holy Spirit controlling your heart, all that Satan has worked into you including fear, selfishness, lust, bitterness, depression, jealousy and discontent gets worked out of you by God.  What God develops in you through His resurrected life is a heart braced by courage and overflowing with faith, kindness, purity and love.  The love of God is so great that He has gone to the fullest extent possible to remove all the wrong from you and replace it with His perfect goodness. Never resist the Holy Spirit as the love of Christ is worked in you each hour of every day.  Like Ananias, trust God in whatever He tells you to do!

Suicide—Intervention

1 Kings 16:18 NIV

When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died,

How Can You Help The Suicidal?

The after the election I was teaching in a middle school class and as the students filed into the room a number of them were complaining about the results and several were saying that they were going to move to other countries.  Perhaps they were planning on going with Barbra Streisand or Miley Cyrus.  A few of them, who had never before had met me but knew I was their substitute teacher for the day, asked me who go my vote.  They were too young to worry about whether or not it was proper to ask me and I thought it was funny to be pressed for an answer.  I just laughed and turned away but as I thought more about the moment, I should have told them that I voted for hope, I voted for optimism, I voted for life.  I did not vote because I was afraid of the worst, I voted because I believed that my vote would help our country and even our world.  I did not vote for dread or for gloom or for fear.  I voted for promise.  Not everyone feels that such things exist or can even come their way.  There are many who have no hope and believe there is no good in life…not today…not tomorrow…and not ever.

There is so much hopelessness in our country, it is astounding.  Last year suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S.  Nearly 43,000 Americans killed themselves last year and what is even more painful to realize, there are twenty-five attempted suicides for every person who actually commits suicide.  Another way to put it: there are 117 suicides every day in the U.S. and nearly 13 suicides for every 100,000 people.  Men are 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than women and older people are much more likely to kill themselves than are young people.

What do we do about the massive numbers of people who feel hopeless and broken by life?  How should we respond when we realize a friend or neighbor or co-worker feels too miserable to continue living?  At the risk of giving simplistic answers to complicated and terrifying questions, it would be good for us at least to examine the only example we find in the Bible of someone on the verge of suicide who changes his mind at the last second.  Tucked away in the book of Acts is a most enlightening account of how two missionaries responded to the despair of someone who was ready to kill himself.

As Paul and Silas sang and worshipped in their jail cell in the Macedonian city of Philippi, an earthquake shook the jail and miraculously the prison doors flew open and the chains on each of the prisoners fell off them.  The jailor woke up immediately and saw the prison doors wide open and knowing what would come of him if the prisoners had all escaped on his watch pulled out his sword to kill himself.  Such hopelessness is a key component to suicide.  This jailor was much like millions of others who have looked at what they face and decided they could not bear living any longer.  It does not matter how true the assessment is; they may be completely wrong about how bad it is.  What matters is that the person ready to commit suicide thinks all is hopeless.  Paul the Apostle, one of the prisoners in the jail immediately cried out to the jailer, "Don't harm yourself! (Acts 16:28 NIV)  Literally, he shouts to the jailer, “May you not commit evil.”  When dealing with someone suicidal, it takes a clear and unequivocal voice from a person who cares; this is wrong what you are thinking of doing.  There can be no wavering on this.  If you want to stop a suicide, you must forcefully insist that it is evil, that it is wrong to kill yourself.  Do not leave even a crack open to the possibility that suicide is an answer to the problems faced.  Paul shouted because he did not want there to be any doubt in the jailor’s mind that killing himself was evil.  Of course the jailer could have still fallen on the sword but it would not be because he thought Paul approved.  If you want to help someone who is suicidal, you must insist that killing yourself is not an option and always wrong.

In the instant when Paul intervened he said something else that is critical to preventing suicides.  He cried out, “We are all here!" (Acts 16:28 NIV)  There was in this immediate reaction a burst of reassurance that it was not as bad as the jailer thought.  This is always the way to help someone who has lost all hope and wants to end life.  There is in every instance, more to consider, a reason for holding out and not committing suicide.  Yes it may be bad, it may in fact be terrible what is faced but regardless of how bleak it may seem now, there is someone who needs you someone whose life will suffer if you are not there.  It may not be as easy as it was for Paul who simply had to remind the jailer that none of the prisoners had fled the prison.  Sometimes you might have to pull from a deep pocket to find some reason for hope but you can count on the Holy Spirit to help you.  Perhaps it is the family that is still there who loves you or the possibility of recovery or the encouragement that others can gain from the courage you show.  There is always a reason to live because in every situation one’s life matters and great good will come of it if given a chance.

Immediately the jailer responded to the hope Paul offered and he asked what he needed to do to be saved.  The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:29-30 NIV)  Without hesitating, the two prisoners told him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household." (Acts 16:31 NIV)  Too many Christians think of the Gospel as a message or a new approach to life.  It is far more than that.  It is the power of God to change a life completely.  To believe in the Lord Jesus is the entry way in which the Lord comes into the personality and rebuilds it.  The sin that has wrecked so much within begins to be taken from it so that memories and damaged emotions and broken dreams can be worked out by God and replaced with hope and promise and a fresh start.  The root cause of every suicide is Sin, whether it is brought on by the sin we have committed or the sin that has been committed against us or the physical damage caused by sin.  It is always the Sin that must first be addressed when the immediate threat of suicide is pushed back.  By joining with Jesus Christ in faith, there is no limit to how much healing God can do in the broken and aching personality.

When Paul told the jailer that he and his family would be saved if they believed in the Lord Jesus, it was not a quick fix panacea but rather what each person in his home needed to be made right.  The blood of Jesus Christ is a healing balm that goes deep into the heart of those who receive it and it works into every place of hurt and sorrow and fear and despair and makes life come fully alive at each point.  Paul did not call for the jailer to become Christian; he called for him to be saved.  What every person considering suicide needs is not a new religion but a new life that brings salvation.  The Cross of Christ puts peace and hope and even love into the human heart.   To put it another way, it makes the humanity of the person right.  We know this is the case with the jailer because of what happened next.  He never would have reacted as he did if the Cross of Christ had not worked its way in him and made him new in observable and hidden ways.

When our Lord takes hold of the one who is broken and hopeless, a miraculous transformation occurs that manifests itself in a dramatic way.  We see it demonstrated by the jailer.  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family. (Acts 16:32-34 NIV)  Suicide is the cocooning of the soul so that it becomes withdrawn and self-absorbed and with nothing to lean upon but its own sorrow and brokenness its only way out is death.  All it can find within is sin and the damage caused by sin and in despair it finds nothing but self-annihilation as a solution to its pain.  When healing begins to take place, the soul looks outward and finds a whole world to love and embrace.  The jailer in this case saw Paul and Silas and the wounds they had and so he washed them and bandaged them and even that wasn’t enough to fill his longing to love and bring comfort and so he brought them to his house and made dinner for them.  Eventually, if the despair of a suicidal heart is to be taken away, the movement must shift to an outward extension brought on by love.  The jailer was drawn to the pain his new friends had and did what he could to take away their pain.  This was not a small deed he performed; it was almost supernatural in scope.  No jailer who wants to survive a Roman inquiry and court would take prisoners home and feed them.  Yet his love now could not be bound by the risk he felt expressing it because he no longer was absorbed with his own problems but now free to love the world God had given him

There are two verses worth memorizing and claiming as promises for all those who are broken by despair.  The first is Matthew 11: 28. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (NIV)  Never forget that Christ really does bring rest and comfort to those who come to Him.  The second is Psalm 33: 20.  We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. (NIV)  We do not come to those who are hopeless and wanting to destroy themselves with empty hands and feeble alternatives.  We come with a Savior who is strong and able to save.  We come with hope that is not just trite verbiage but real hope that makes life good and filled with joy.  We come with God, our help and shield...the help and shield of every single hurting person we know. 

Suicide

1 Samuel 31:5 NIV

When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.

Have You Been Impacted By Suicide?

While I was working on my doctorate in marriage and family counseling, I decided to volunteer for a suicide prevention hotline.  After going through the practical training on working with callers, I was given my shift.  Four hours, once a week calls to the hotline were forwarded to our apartment and I waited for the phone to ring.  Sometimes I would go nearly an hour without getting a call and other times I spent the entire four hours on the phone.  Many times the callers were on the verge of killing themselves and I was all that stood in the way of them ending their lives.  Sometimes it was a teenager that called, other calls were from seniors.  Many were from alcoholics who were intoxicated and felt hopeless and broken.  Calls could last a few minutes and others hours. Often I had to first try to convince the caller to put down the gun or dump the pills in the toilet.  It was exhausting and unfortunately I did not get to find out what happened after the callers got off the phone with me.  One of the most frequent questions asked of me was, “If I kill myself, will I go to hell?”  Sometimes I would pray with the callers, other times I prayed silently as we talked.  It was the most stressful moments I ever had encountered; these shifts I took for the suicide prevention hotline and I heard many terrible and heart-breaking stories.  What struck me was how much pain and sorrow there was in people’s lives and I often wondered if someone in the supermarket or on the street as I walked downtown or even in the church where I was a member was thinking about committing suicide because life seemed too unbearable.

Perhaps you have been devastated by the suicide of a friend or relative and had a tough time trying to make sense of it.  Is suicide an acceptable option for someone suffering greatly?  Are there times when suicide is the right thing to do?  Perhaps you have heard someone comment that those with terminal illnesses or elderly ought to end their lives.  Do you know someone who is thinking about “ending it all”?  What would you say to that person?  Have you ever considered suicide?  Why is it that some people take their lives rather than face their problems and try to get past them?  What does the Bible have to say about suicide?  Does God have anything to say about suicide in the Scriptures?

There are seven suicides recorded in Scripture.  The most famous of course is that of Judas Iscariot.  But there are others also that must be considered if we are to have a Biblical view of suicide.  The first recorded suicide in the Bible is that of Abimelech who asked a servant of his to kill him when he received a deadly blow as he and his army attacked a town.  Abimelech went to the tower and stormed it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.  Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say, 'A woman killed him.'" So his servant ran him through, and he died. (Judges 9:52-54 NIV)  Technically this was an assisted suicide but the result was the same.  Pride and the determination that he could not survive the injury led to his decision.  Was he right to demand that his servant kill him?  Was the armor bearer right to run Abimelech through with the sword?

A similar situation is described in 1 Samuel 31.  King Saul led his army into battle against the Philistines and was wounded.  Three of his sons were killed in the fighting and his army was decimated.  Saul called to his armor bearer and demanded the servant kill him but this time the request was rejected.  Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me."  But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. (1 Samuel 31:4 NIV)  This did not kill Saul apparently but along came an Amalekite who later confessed to finishing the job.  When the armor-bearer saw what happened, he took his own life.  We see it here and have found this to be true again and again.  Suicide breeds suicide!

In 2 Samuel 17: 23, the advisor to Absalom who was leading a rebellion against his father, King David decided to kill himself when Absalom did not take his advice and strike out immediately and attack David’s army.  We cannot say exactly why Ahithophel hanged himself; maybe it was the humiliation he felt in not being Absalom’s most valued counselor, maybe it was his sense that the rebellion would now fail.  Whatever the case, it can be certain that his loss was deeply felt by Absalom at least and we assume his family too.  Pride…despair…hopelessness.  These are common threads found in the fabric of nearly every suicide.  Likewise, Zimri who also led a rebellion against his king killed himself when it became clear his cause was lost.  When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died, (1 Kings 16:18 NIV)

A second suicide is recorded in the book of Judges and it could be argued, and perhaps rightly argued that this in fact was not a suicide but rather a valiant act of war.  Samson had been captured by the Philistines when he stupidly let out the secret of his great strength to a Philistine lover.  Betrayed by the object of his lust, Samson’s eyes were gouged and with his strength gone after the Philistines cut off his hair, Samson was chained and thrown in prison. When the Philistines celebrated a national festival in their temple, Samson was brought out to entertain the crowd.  It all unraveled for the Philistines though when the Lord restored Samson’s strength.  Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.  Then Samson prayed to the Lord, "O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."  Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. (Judges 16:27-30 NIV)

Now if this was a suicide, then you could argue that God assisted Samson in it but it seems reasonable that this was in fact an act of war that would be no different than a fighter pilot attacking an enemy ship realizing full well he wouldn’t survive.  Yet the knowledge that many lives on his side might be saved if he followed through with the attack made this not a throwing away of his own life but the “laying down of his life” for his friends.  By taking down the temple, Samson killed the leaders of the Philistines and ended for a while the war between the Israelites and the Philistines.  Judges indicates that this was in fact a great victory for the Israelites, wrecking for a while the Philistine leadership and military strength which God seems to have helped Samson achieve.

Now we must turn to the last clear example of suicide found in Scripture, that of Judas Iscariot.  Only here and with the attempted suicide of King Saul is there given any sort of indication what the spiritual state of the person killing himself was.  With Saul, we are told that many years earlier, the Spirit of God left him and was replaced by an evil spirit that tormented Saul. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. (1 Samuel 16:14 NIV)  Something similar is described with Judas Iscariot.  After Judas went to the Jewish leaders and offered to betray Jesus, he was with the Lord and the other disciples eating when Jesus offered Judas a piece of bread and instantly Judas was taken over by Satan.  As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. (John 13:27 NIV)

In both cases, with Judas and Saul, there is described an evil invasion of the personality that is supernatural.  Both ended up taking their lives or at least trying to do so.  This sort of occurrence is not mentioned in any other of the suicides recounted in Scripture.  Of course not much at all is said about the mental state of any of the other men who killed themselves.  We can only guess at what was occurring internally with them.  What we do know is that the two most important suicides spoken of in Scripture involved people who were dominated by evil spirits.  Jesus says of the devil that he is a murderer.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NIV)  Christ also said of Satan that he comes as a thief who destroys.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)

Before we take up this topic again next week and develop a Christian response to suicide, we must note carefully what the author of Hebrews insists.  The devil is the one who is in charge of death…Satan is in fact the death master planner.  He concocts plans for death, develops schemes to bring about death and pushes death on humanity. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil— (Hebrews 2:14 NIV) The only times we know anything about the internal state of those who committed suicide or tried to do so as documented in Scripture, Satan or demonic forces had hold of them.  If the devil is the one who drives people into death, then we must conclude that Satan is the one pushing people to suicide.  There is not a single instance in Scripture where you find a person of God committing suicide.  Even Job and Jeremiah, despite being miserable and wishing God would end their lives, never attempted suicide or tried to do so.  Despite the poor theology often developed by many writers in of the Middle Ages, they were right about this.  Suicide is self-inflicted murder and it must be assumed that Satan is behind it.  To aid in a suicide is to join the devil in his plans and to commit suicide is to make oneself his instrument.  Any careful assessment of suicide must take into consideration the fate of both the devil and death.  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever…Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  (Revelation 20:10,14 NIV)

Christ Actualization--The Second Force

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 NIV

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Are You Conscious of the Second Force?

Several years ago I was with Mary Jo’s family at a lake and her brother had a ski boat.  It was exciting for our family and the other cousins because it was for many of the kids the first time any of them had ever been in a boat and more pertinently, the first most of them had ever tried skiing.  I was excited to give it a try.  I had gone water skiing about fifteen years before and although it had been a struggle, I had gotten up on my skis and had a great time jumping the wake and bouncing along on the water.  Several kids tried and a number failed getting up on the skis the first time they tried.  Most of the adults had water skied before and although it might have been a while, they all got up, some even using just one ski.  I was one of the last to try and although I was a bit nervous, I was fairly confident I could rise up on the skis and cruise around the lake.  The boat circled around me as I waited in the water for the tow rope and then it passed near enough for me to grab it.  I leaned back, bent my knees, stuck my skis straight up toward the sun and waited for the boat to work its way into position to launch me up onto the surface of the water.  Many of Mary Jo’s sisters and brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews stood on shore watching and our kids were in the boat with Mary Jo waiting to see how I would do.  All of a sudden the boat lurched forward with groaning power, I stood upon the skis, my legs still bent a bit at the knees and I immediately toppled forward, my hands firmly grasping the tow rope handle as the boat dragged me with my mouth wide open through the lake.  Finally, the force of the water pushing against me drove the handle from my grip and I slid back into the water having swallowed what seemed like half the lake in my effort to get up on my skis.  Before any movies were ever developed with this theme, I thought about what it would have been like if instead of the overweight and clumsy body I possessed, my mind had been poured into the body of someone like James Bond.  No one would have been laughing at me flopping into the water like a breeching humpback whale.

Have you ever wished you could possess the abilities of someone else?  Perhaps you would have liked to have had the math skills of Albert Einstein, the writing ability of Charles Dickens, the grace of Simone Biles, the looks of Zach Efron or Beyoncé.  All of us could use from time to time a talent, personality trait or skill of someone else.  Yet it is not possible to take on the qualities of another person because we are limited to who we are.  In a sense, we are trapped within ourselves.   We are bound to who we are and the characteristics we possess…at least that is how it seems.  The Bible though tells us that there can be more to us than the limitations of self. That is why the concept of self-realization is not only restrictive and not very hopeful, it is irrational.  There is more to us that just us.

Before humanity came upon Jesus Christ, we were constrained to just who we were.  There were no talents that could be added to us, no one else could think within us to shape our ideas or decisions: we had no moral strength or integrity other than what we developed on our own.  This all changed when Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.  Jesus hinted at what the three days from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday would accomplish when He promised, "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:5-7 NIV)  The Lord promised that the “Counselor” would be with us always.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— (John 14:16 NIV) What the Counselor would do for us is specified by Christ.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  (John 14:26 NIV)

The most profound change human personality can experience is what occurs when we are born again or as it also can be translated, “begotten from above”.  Jesus stated, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5 NIV)  In other words, it is impossible to be Christian unless a supernatural transformation occurs, described by Christ as being born of water and the Spirit.  Now what it means to be “born of water” has long been debated but it seems clear enough based on the symbolism of water in the Old Testament that it is an idiom our Lord used for cleansing from sin.  I must, if I am to enter the Kingdom of God, have my sin washed out of me and it is the work of the Holy Spirit through the death of Christ on the Cross that takes out of me my sin and makes me new.  It is only after the Spirit of God becomes a part of you and transforms you that you are Christian.  What triggers the transformation?  When in faith we put our trust in Jesus Christ crucified to save us from our sin, the work of God begins in us. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-16 NIV)

We see this phenomenon of the Spirt of God becoming a part of people described often in the book of Acts.  Just one example of the transforming work of having the Holy Spirit join with the personality of Christian people illustrates this.  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31 NIV)  There was something different about these people who were filled with the Holy Spirit that was not them before.  They spoke boldly about God!  This was clearly something different about them.  With the Holy Spirit now a part of them, they were courageous in their evangelism.  In the book of Romans we discover another way the Holy Spirit alters the personality of Christians when He is a part of them.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5 NIV)  The Holy Spirit puts into the personality of the Christian the love that God possesses.  Much like a daughter gains from her father or mother the innate ability to play musical instruments, so the “chromosome” of love comes to us from God when the Holy Spirit becomes part of us.  We don’t just have our capacity to love built in us but God’s also.  It does not just end there.  Christ gives us His very own peace when the Holy Spirit becomes a part of us.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14: 27 NIV)  We are just scratching the surface here.  If God is a part of who we are when we are born again, then there are an infinite number of possible qualities we gain from Him.  The Apostle Paul said that when he thought about the Philippian Christians, he did so not just out of his own affection for them but also because the affection of Christ was built in him too.  God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:8 NIV)

Consider just what is possible for any person who has been born again and has the Spirit of God a part of his or her personality!  We can forgive not just with our own capacity to forgive but also with God’s own ability.  We can be courageous, not just with our own bravery but also with the bravery God possesses. We can be calm and at peace in any circumstance, not just because we have a certain developed or innate ability to stay calm but also because we have now built in us the capacity of Christ to be at peace.  Even the mind of God is ours when the Spirit of God is a part of us.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"   But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV)

Can you see what an inadequate and demeaning goal, self-realization is?  Why would I be interested at all in being all I can be when I can become all Christ and I can be?  It is like asking a ballerina to strive to become as graceful as one of the early prototype robots built fifty years ago.  It is like telling a nuclear physicist to try and become as competent in math as the first grader living next door.  Our goal must never be to try and become all we can be but all God built in us can be.  It is not self-actualization but Christ actualization that drives us forward.  Consider the example of Barnabas who sold land of his and gave the proceeds of the sale to the church.  This of course may have been his nest egg; the retirement he hoped would support him in his twilight years or it might have just been one piece of property among many.  It certainly seems like an extravagant gift and might have pushed him to the limits of his generosity to give it.

Let the full weight of this simple act sink in as you read the complete account of what happened.  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4:31-37 NIV)

If we are to reach our potential as people, we must never give in to the antiquated and insufficient goal of being all we can be.   With the Spirit of God as part of us, we can become as generous and kind, and loving and honest and insightful and good as God in us can be.  Consider this as we close.  As the personality of Christ works His way through us, we become the Kingdom of God moving about in practice.  When His love becomes our love, when His generosity becomes our generosity, when His courage becomes ours, we shall be as we let Christ have His way in us, the works of God wherever we go!  Now that is reaching our potential!

The Two Forces Driving Humanity

Ecclesiastes 2:10 NIV

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.  My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

What Matters Most To You?

This year I have been working as a substitute teacher.  I receive class assignments by going to a website that tracks my workdays on a calendar.  When a teacher makes a substitute teacher request, it pops up on my calendar and then I can decide if I want to accept the assignment or not.  Some are for half a day and other for six full hours.  Sometimes teachers request me personally but usually the assignments go out to all the pool of substitute teachers and the first of us to accept the job for the day gets it.  Recently I accepted a job working in a kindergarten class at a particular school but within an hour, I was removed from the job and the notice came to me that my services were no longer needed.  I was disappointed to hear this as you never know when a job will come available or even if one will.  A week later another kindergarten class assignment from the same school popped up and I quickly accepted the assignment but again, after a few hours, I was notified that my services were no longer needed.  I had heard that sometimes teachers post jobs and then remove them if a favorite substitute of theirs becomes available to take their class and I grew increasingly offended the more I thought about this.  I had never worked at the school that had these kindergarten assignments and so I was pretty certain the teachers there didn’t know me.  Did the teacher pull the assignments from me because I was a man?  It smacked of discrimination to me!  What also bothered me was that once a substitute teacher accepts an assignment for a certain day that person is locked into it and is not notified of other possible assignments for the same day.  One can decide to not take the assignment later but then that person can’t work that day for any other teachers.  If a teacher cancels an assignment too late, the substitute is prevented from accepting another job for the day.  I began to stew over this and I considered sending the teacher that pulled my assignment an email expressing my feelings about her doing so.  It felt like I was rejected and treated unfairly.  I wanted the teacher to know that I was not just a name on a list but a real person who did not like being rejected or considered not good enough for her class.  I counted; my needs were important and I deserved more respect.

Perhaps you too have felt rejected and wanted to make sure others knew you counted, that you ought to be appreciated.  You have been pushed aside or gone unnoticed.  Have you ever wanted to shout, “Look at me”?  “I can do the job!”  “I should get the promotion!”  “Love me too!”  “Pay attention to me!”  “Care about me!”  Maybe you feel that way now; that your hard work and creativity and sacrifice is not given the value it deserves.  You feel frustrated that you might never achieve your goal, never accomplish in life what you think you should.  You are at a dead end and it is maddening to consider that your life is unfulfilled and you may never reach your potential.  What should you do?  How does one respond to feeling boxed into a corner of lost dreams and anonymity?  Should you in some way “fight back” and reclaim your life?

A pillar of modern humanist psychology is the call for “self-realization”.  By humanist, I mean any treatment of psychology that does not view humanity mechanistically as if people are little more than machines.  Nearly everyone who sees people as really free and independent believes that a goal for all of us is “self-realization” or the very similar “self-actualization”.  It is held by nearly all that we ought to make it our goal in life to assert ourselves, to gain our place of prominence among others and fulfil our purpose.  Many Christian teachers believe these strivings are essential to having a good life.  In fact it is assumed by many that self-realization is God’s plan for us.  We do of course see examples of self-realization being practiced in the Bible; it is not just a modern phenomenon…one could say it goes as far back as Adam and Eve.

Let’s consider each of the three strivings that put together are known as self-realization.  The first, the urge to establish one’s worth is illustrated by King Hezekiah’s actions when representatives of the Babylonian government came to visit him.  Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses — the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil — his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. (2 Kings 20:13 NIV)  Most of us would say that there is nothing wrong with asserting ourselves.  We need to let others know who we are and what we have done.  In Hezekiah’s case, he simply pointed out how productive his work had been and the success he achieved.  Hezekiah extended his own reputation by giving the tour of his possessions but forgot something critical in doing so.  He did not gain his wealth on his own. 

A second component of self-realization is the push to gain prominence.  We all believe we should be given the opportunity to make something of ourselves and Aaron and Miriam were not exceptions to this.  The two were frustrated that Moses their younger brother, who was charged with leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land was not giving them enough say in the decisions being made.  The nation of Israel needed their leadership they believed and it offended them to not be more involved in how the nation was run.  Miriam and Aaron wanted Moses to show them respect by deferring more to them when he made decisions and directed the people.  Finally their frustration spilled out in the infamous complaint, "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard this. (Numbers 12:2 NIV)  Is this any different than trying to get a promotion you think you deserve, wanting your husband or wife to respect all you do for the family, being upset that you aren’t recommended for a teacher’s assistant position, getting frustrated for the lack of support you receive in the church motions you present, or being left off a committee because others in the club are move popular?   Who doesn’t want to be known for the good they have done and the insight they have?  The push to gain prominence is natural and normal.

A third component to self-realization is the common goal of wanting to fulfill one’s purpose.  Books have been written on this topic and many have decided this is our most important task in life, fulfilling our purpose.  If we look at Demas from this perspective, we can take exception with the Apostle Paul’s complaint about him.  Paul said of Demas,

“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” (2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV)  No one wants to be accused of desertion but if you take Demas’s position in this, he was simply fulfilling his purpose.  Who knows why he left Paul?  Maybe his family needed him.  Perhaps he wanted to take up leadership in a church where his talents could be put to better use.  It might be that he had always wanted to be a lawyer and so he was following his dream.  Can we really fault Demas for wanting a change?  Perhaps Demas really did know what was best and he was upgrading the quality of his life.  Can that be criticized?

In every example described we have self-realization exhibited in real lives.  None of these people thought that what they were doing was wrong.  They in fact probably were congratulated by friends and perhaps also family members for making tough decisions to put their lives together.  Self-realization is reasonable and even celebrated yet it is not Christian and not even possible.  For those who decide to build their lives without God, self-realization is normal and natural.  The belief that we stand alone in a world that is sometimes for us and other times against us is growing in popularity but irrational.  The push for self-realization rests upon the belief that in the end it is just me and just you who must decide how we are to live and what we will do about the direction of our lives.  But what if we aren’t alone in this?  What if each of us is more than just one?

There is a declaration the Apostle Paul makes that is rarely taken as seriously as its importance to humanity warrants.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)  This conclusion that Paul draws and that we must consider if we are to fully think through who we are and what we are doing with our lives is that each of us is never independent.  Job, despite his misery, realized not pessimistically but realistically the part God plays in each life. Man's days are determined; you (God) have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. (Job 14:5 NIV)  It is impossible to be in charge of what we do with ourselves if God decides how long we shall live and what will come of our accomplishments.  The prophet Daniel told the Babylonian king Belshazzar that it did not matter what he hoped to get done, the Lord would not let him live until morning and the kingdom he so proudly ruled and worked to preserve would be pulled apart.  “…God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end…Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."  (Daniel 5:26-28 NIV)  The prophet Isaiah quoted God when he declared the situation each person faces, For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?  (Isaiah 14:27 NIV)

Whatever we have planned or look forward to getting done must take into account that how long we live is determined by God.  The writer of Ecclesiastes, whose wisdom is unmatched by those not named Christ or Paul, pointed out that no matter what we accomplish or how close we come to reaching our potential, the entirety of our accomplishments slip from our hands in the end and all we will be left with is our souls, the fate of which is determined by our Creator.  The myth of self-realization is as ludicrous as the belief that the moon is made of green cheese.  Every decision we make must take into account God and what He is doing with us.  The thought that is the most reasonable and rational at any moment is the one Paul offers.  “I am not my own.  I am bought with a price.”  Because this is so, self-realization is impossible.  As we shall see, God not only determines what will be the outcome of our lives, He is a part of every action we take and every thought we generate.  We don’t exist as just self.  There is more to us than that.  And we might add, “Thank God it is so!”