Will

John 6:21 NIV

Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

What Are You Willing To Do?

When I was in college I attended a mini conference on prayer.  The speaker was not particularly charismatic and he didn’t fascinate us with his stories.  In fact his method of presentation was much like a lecture and all of us had little booklets that we used for note taking.  The auditorium was filled with college students though, all wanting to know more about praying.  At the conclusion of the seminars, we were challenged by the speaker to make a commitment to an hour of praying a day.  That was of course a stupendous challenge!  He laid out for us a methodology for praying through an hour using a wheel diagram.  As I looked at the parts of the wheel, I could not find any one of the sections that I could in good faith say needed to be eliminated to try to whittle down the time from an hour to something more manageable for me.  It was of course ludicrous for me to take an hour of my time each day to pray given my college workload.  Yet something happened to me that evening that changed the dynamic of my evaluation of the challenge.  Christ met with me and I could not deny His presence.  It was Him, not the speaker who called for me to rewrite my priorities and begin praying an hour each day.  Billy Graham could not have convinced me to make such a profound and grave commitment.  Only our Lord Himself could “talk me into it” and He did but not with His finely conceived arguments, rather He came up to my will and addressed it there.

We each have a Will and it is not some separate part of our personality; not a segment of who we are like we see with the spirit and the body and even to some degree with the soul.  It is you in totality deciding what you will do, the ruling force over your actions.  You cannot give your will to someone else any more than your body belongs to another person.  You may let people tell you what to do and you might use your body for the purposes of others but it always is your body, your spirit is always your spirit.  No one else can borrow it or live in it.  It belongs to you.  The question is never whose will is it; it is what you, your will has decided.  Your will is you choosing how to act at any given moment.  The will is a most precious and critical gift you possess and many fail to realize how valuable their will is.

Solomon, the ancient king of Israel is a classic example of how the Will can be corrupted by the lack of a clear devotion to anything.  Just as his reign began, Solomon had a momentous encounter with the Lord in which God famously asked him what he wanted as a gift.  Solomon acknowledged how difficult it would be to rightly govern the people of the kingdom and so he called for the Lord to “…give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.  For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" (1 Kings 3:9 NIV )  This request was an act of Solomon’s will and it certainly was not in keeping with how most people would respond if given the options God provided.  God graciously granted Solomon’s request and made him the wisest person on earth.  Later Solomon, in keeping with the mandate his father gave him, built the Temple to the Lord and it was lavishly constructed.  Again God met with him, this time following the dedication of the Temple to the worship of YHWH.  "As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.'  But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.” (2 Chronicles 7:17-20 NIV)

The Lord laid out for Solomon clearly the terms of a covenant with him.  God would establish Solomon’s rule as a lasting dynasty if Solomon kept the Commandments and lived with faithful commitment to the Lord as his only God.  However, if he didn’t, the Lord would eventually wreck Israel and destroy the Temple that was built.  This was of course simple enough and Solomon certainly understood the ramifications of the Lord’s agreement with him.  Yet Solomon never settled this matter fully in his heart.  His Will wavered between loyalty to God and rebellion against Him.  Solomon, in opposition to the clear commands the Lord gave his kings, made himself extravagantly rich, married thousands of women, married women who were not Jewish and most egregiously of all, he joined with his wives in their worship of idols which we all know is in actuality much more than bowing before a dumb rock or statue, it is in fact a pledging of loyalty to demons and the Satanic realm.

Solomon’s Will made decisions and led to specific actions.  His Will built a Temple to God.  His Will also built altars to demons.  By his Will he wrote the Proverbs which have inspired billions in their life with God.  His Will drove him to greed, selfishness and lust.  By the determination of his will, Solomon destroyed his relationship with God and joined forces with Satan in the corruption of his kingdom.  Solomon decided to do all this not because he was forced but because His will was not thoroughly loyal to God.  In the end, Solomon died a miserable, bitter and angry man who gave up the joy God had for him because his Will stubbornly refused to be joined with the God who met him at the Temple.

To show the contrast between Solomon’s Will and the Will of others in the Bible, let me point out the surprising actions of a man who had been possessed by demons.  When Jesus met him, this fellow was wild and violent and uncontrollable, not even chains could hold him.  The Lord drove the demons out of him and in his right mind, he had a simple wish.  The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:38-39 NIV)  Rather than argue with Christ over this “rejection” or angrily pout that he was turned away, the man’s will determined a new course of action.  He told everyone he could what Jesus had done with him.  It did not matter to him what others thought of his message, the man who had been healed by Jesus turned his will toward what Christ wanted and we can only imagine what happiness it brought him.

The same could be said of Mary who had a jar full of expensive perfume, worth a year’s wages and generously poured it on Jesus’ feet and used her own hair to clean them.  When questioned about the action, Jesus retorted, "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "[It was intended] that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." (John 12:7-8 NIV)  The point we have to make here is that it was the Will of Mary that decided how she would act at this gathering.  With Jesus present, she decided to be extravagant in her love for Him.  She didn’t have to use up all the perfume or any of it on Jesus’ feet.  But her will, the ruling force over her actions decided to do it.

We see this in Paul also.  Raging against Christianity and using his authority as a Jewish leader to have Christians imprisoned and executed, Paul literally met Jesus on the road as he was traveling with companions and the force of that interaction with Christ changed the way Paul saw things.  He immediately joined the Christian Church and became its most important missionary and teacher.  He was not brainwashed or talked into giving up his life of murder and hatred.  Paul’s Will decided, once he met Jesus, to act differently.  It is the same for each of us.  None of us become Christian because we are convinced we had been wrong.  No argument seizes your will or overthrows it and forces it to capitulate to Christ.  Only when Jesus breaks through in the supernatural way He does and enters your inner world, goes where your Will is and meets you, then are your free to be Christian.  He must meet you, He must come to you and then and only then can your Will truly change its course and you become Christian.

It is wrong for us to think our goal as a church, as Christian people is to talk others into following Christ.  It is not.  Our goal is for each of us to introduce others to Jesus.  He must meet them if any good is to come of their lives.  We cannot force anyone to change.  It is your Will that must decide to do something differently and follow Jesus whole­-heartedly.  The same is true of me and of each person around the world.  You decide in your Will if you will love others, be kind and generous, forgive and worship Christ devotedly.  Your Will is the great power that holds you back from the peace of God that passes all understanding and it is the force that opens the door so that the life of Christ can fill you with all the joy a soul could ever want.   

Surprise Ending

John 21:21 NIV

When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?"

Are You Surprised By How Things Have Gone?

I like a story with surprising twists and turns.  Whether it is a book or a movie, I want it to have some unpredictability to it. I have recently been reading To Kill A Mockingbird.  It has been fifty years since I read it the first time and I had forgotten enough of the storyline to be caught off guard by parts of the book.  Yet based on popularity alone, it seems that most Americans want their stories to go as predicted.  The cute couple eventually gets together, the villain is caught, the aliens are destroyed, the good guys survive and win in the end.  Every once in a while a La La Land comes along that catches me by surprise but generally like most, I want stories to end the way I expect them to end.  There is comfort in predictability.  I get Campbell’s Tomato Soup because I know how it will taste and it is good enough for me.  That is why I choose Gala apples and vanilla ice cream.  I know what I will find when I bite into it.

When I was young and studying chemistry I was surprised to discover that electrons did not revolve around the nucleus in simple and predictable orbitals.  New information threw the old pictures of atomic structures out of whack.  It turned out that electrons move about chaotically.  One can never predict where a given electron will be.  It might be within a certain area but its action is irrational and chaotic and you cannot even know where it is when you try to find it.  Many philosophers describe the universe in a similar way.  There is chaos and unpredictability to it.  “The universe is irrational without any intelligence behind it”, they contend.    Some people are comfortable with that notion.  They like the idea that nothing is certain or trustworthy.

When it comes to Christianity, the majority of church people believe there is one place of certainty and predictability.  It is God.  They speak of Him in ways that a mathematician speaks of her field.   We want our God to be predictable, mathematically determinable.  If we do this, God does that.  When this happens, it is because God has this in mind.  God is stable.  He goes this way or that but always in a logical and understandable process.   We want God to be reasonable and sensible to us.  There must be formulas that he follows, certain equations that determine His actions.  No one would design a god who can’t be counted on to run smoothly, to make His payments and provide His dividends.  The world has its eye on a mathematical God.  Do you?

Job and his friends were certain that God was bound up in rules and obligations…that there were formulas they could use to predict his actions.  What makes the book of Job so disorienting is that all the main characters discovered the Lord was not programmable.  He did not give Job an easy life because Job was honest, moral and generous.  Job’s friends knew God had to behave in certain ways and when He didn’t, they decided something must have been wrong with Job.  Like the jurists in To Kill A Mockingbird who could not recalibrate when the evidence went against their determinations, Job’s friends could not comprehend that God would put Job through so much pain and suffering it Job was not a bad man.  They thought God was mathematical when He isn’t.

Jonah had the same problem.  He had in mind a mathematical God when he heard God tell him to go to Nineveh and preach judgment to the people there.  Jonah did not expect that kind of job.  The Lord was predictable to him.  A terrible and cruel people like the Assyrians would be burnt to a crisp by God.  They didn’t need any warnings…just fire from heaven.  Yet that was not what happened.  God gave the Ninevites a chance to repent, they took it and God mercifully gave the Assyrians the opportunity to try again.  That did not fit Jonah’s God formula and he fell into a deep depression over his miscalculations.

Consider the strange case of Josiah, one of the last kings of Judah.  He was young when he became king, just eight years old.  His grandfather was perhaps the cruelest and most ungodly king Judah ever had.  Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end — besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.   As for the other events of Manasseh's reign, and all he did, including the sin he committed, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?   (2 Kings 21:16-18 NIV)  His father was no better a king and after two years of reigning, the people were so fed up with him that he was assassinated.  That left Josiah as next in line.  After eighteen years being king, Josiah ordered that the Temple of God be cleaned and restored.  For nearly sixty years it had been a center of pagan worship and it fell into ruin.  Josiah though loved the Lord and when a book of the Law was found in the wreckage, Josiah turned his life over to God and dedicated himself to following Him wholeheartedly.  Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.  He went up to the temple of the Lord with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets — all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord.  The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord-to follow the Lord and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.  (2 Kings 23:1-3 NIV)

How would God treat such a man as this, let alone a king like him?  It would seem that God would do with him as he did with Josiah’s great-grandfather who also was faithful to the Lord.  When faced with a great international threat and insurmountable odds, the Lord intervened on Hezekiah’s behalf and wrecked the army that came against him and the people.  That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning — there were all the dead bodies!  (2 Kings 19:35 NIV)  Plug in the variables, use your God formula and you have your answer for how things will go.  When the Egyptians formed a great army and posed a threat to Josiah’s kingdom, Josiah pulled together all his fighting forces and went up against the Egyptians in battle.  Everything would turn out fine he probably told his wife and kids as he left to go battle the Egyptians.  His generals he reassured that if they fought hard, the Lord would bring them victory.  Everything fit the God formula.  Good king.  Growing faith among the people!  What could go wrong?

While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.  (2 Kings 23:29 NIV)  So what do you make of that?  What should any good Christian brother or sister just trying to follow Jesus faithfully make of it?  How does that fit into the mathematics of God?   Even the Apostle Peter wanted to know what algebraic equation to use when trying to calculate the Lord’s plans for him.  As he and the other apostles were meeting with Jesus on the shore of Galilee after Christ rose from the dead following His crucifixion, the Lord revealed to Peter what would come of him.  “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."  (John 21:18 NIV)

This  was in fact Jesus’ way of telling Peter how Peter would die.  That certainly didn’t fit into the equation Peter had of how God would deal with him and it must have thrown him.  It would have thrown you.  He then asked the Lord about the Apostle John, "Lord, what about him?"  (John 21:21 NIV)  He wanted to recalculate God with a better equation.  He thought He knew and understood God but now He realized he didn’t.  Christ’s reply took it all out of the realm of mathematics.  Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."(John 21:22 NIV)  In other words, “Don’t try to predict what I will do.”  “Don’t think I can be understood with a calculator.”  The Lord is not bound by the rules of physics or logic.  His actions are not determined by what you think is best.  He does as He pleases whenever He wants.  He is absolutely free. 

There is only one way to think along God’s lines.  There is only this law through which He operates.  It is the Law of Love.  Not your love.  Not my love.  Pure, undefiled love is how you see into God.  John the Apostle, who knew Jesus as well as anyone has made this clear when He stated,  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1 John 4:7-8 NIV)  The only way to get into God’s mind is to love His people.  You are as confused about Him as a rock in a creek bed if you do not love.  Love is the map to His personality, it is the glasses through which we understand His actions.  The lowest of minds can think along the lines of Jesus if love is at play but the great intellects of the world are at a complete loss to comprehend even the smallest thing of God without love.  How can you understand God and know what He is doing with you?  Stare with fixed attention upon Jesus crucified, His hands riveted to the horizontal beam with rough iron nails, His feet fixed to the vertical wooden beam with another nail and the blood drops oozing down from his head.  That is how you understand what He is doing with you.  Watch Him as He dies to take from you your sin.  Gaze upon Him as He dies to give you a new and perfect life.  That is how you figure Him out.  It is love through and through that decides for Christ what He will do at any moment.  It is love that determines His actions.  Take heed to this.  The only ones who get a grasp on God and understand His ways are those who love and invest with love in the lives of others.  Let this be the way you think about all you see of God and hear about Him.  Let it be your rule of thumb whenever you look for what the Lord may be doing with you.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. (1 John 4:16 NIV)  It may be a surprise ending when it comes to what happens next for you but you can be certain of this.  It will be because God loves you and died to save you from your sin.

Exploring Love

John 15:12 NIV

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

What Does Love Have To Do With It?

When I was in seminary a group of us used to play a board game called Risk.  It is a military game where each player has an army and tries to conquer the world.  It involves rolling the dice and strategically placing your army pieces in such a way that you can best take the armies of other players.  For a while we were playing once a week and it was quite competitive.  I was the new kid in the group so for a number of weeks I got beat rather soundly but after catching on to it, I did pretty well.  After a while, I got too busy to play and had to give up on it but long after I graduated, I maintained a love for the game; I just didn’t have a group to join me in it.  Several years later our church had a picnic and I brought the game just in case I could find three others to play it.  The game takes about two hours and sometimes longer to finish but I figured that since we were all there to relax and enjoy the day, perhaps I could put a group together who would join me in Risk.  I was able to find three others who liked the game so we sat down on blankets and began to play.  Now, the object is to conquer the world, and although it was done with plastic game pieces and no actual weapons are involved, to win, you have to one by one eliminate the other players until it is just two left and then you try to destroy the other player’s army.  This is just nice friendly fun, in theory.  The problem is you have to publicly wreck one player and knock that person out of the game if you are to have a chance at winning.  That is not fun for the players being conquered.  As I destroyed one player’s army and then another and finally the third, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with what I was doing.  I was after all the pastor and as I watched the forced smiles get thinner and thinner as I took out one church member after another, I found it nearly impossible to enjoy my successes.  No one stuck around to see who won.  Actually, no one wanted to see who lost.  It was too painful.  I went home that evening and wondered if it might have been better to have thrown the game so that I did not risk hurting anyone’s feelings.  It is hard to feel like a loving person when you are destroying someone’s army.  It is really hard for that same person to feel loved.

Perhaps you are like me.  You don’t feel like much of an expert on love.  If you took a bucket and it was a “love bucket”, how full would you say yours is?  I would have to admit that mine is pretty shallow.  Do you love like Jesus?  Is your bucket overflowing with love for others or does it have to be tipped way over to get anything out of it?  Are there only a few people who get to take any love from your bucket or is it available to everyone?  Do your enemies get any love from you?  How about relatives you don’t really like?  Does your love bucket have a lid on it or a narrow spout?  How much love do you have for others?

Perhaps the third most famous verse in the Bible mentioning love is found in 1 John 4: 16.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (NIV)  What does that really mean that God is love?  Love, of all the spiritual qualities we can consider is the one most dependent upon relationship.  Faith, hope, courage, honesty, purity and a dozen other qualities can all be expressed without another single being in existence.  Love however requires others for it to exist.  You can “love yourself” but what does that mean?  It is a fruitless endeavor that erodes into self-absorption and selfishness.  Love to exist must extend out to others or it rots and then dies.  You might ask how it is possible for God to be three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but then you must in turn be asked, how it is possible for God to be love and not exist eternally as at least more than one person.  He cannot be love eternally if He is forever by Himself.  Jesus Christ has to be eternal God with other persons as God if He is to be love and to love.  The same is so for the Father and for the Holy Spirit.  No one of them can exist alone and still be love.

Love is the most profoundly Christian character trait there is.  It has no rival.  As the Bible says, And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV)  When the Lord was giving some of His last instructions to His disciples before He let Himself be crucified, He told them, My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12 NIV)  Later He underscores His demand of them.  This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:17 NIV)  It is His solitary directive.  He does not tell them to be sure to pray more or to take a bold political stand or sing more worship songs or listen to lots of sermons or give lots of money to good causes or study the Bible diligently during these last moments with them.  He says “Love each other”. 

Of course there are all sorts of good things we can and should do to be faithful to God but it is all to no avail if we do not love each other like Christ has loved us.  The Bible makes a clear declaration of how important it is to God for us to love each other on His list of priorities for us.  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV)  Every single ounce of Christian behavior is tied to this one command, “Love each other”.  Listen to this clear affirmation of how Christian people are to live.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6 NIV)

Let us be clear about this matter of love.  It is a way of doing things, not a way of feeling about things…at least as it is found in the Bible.  When Jesus clarified what it means to love Him, our Lord said it was behavioral.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:13-14 NIV)  Love for God means to do what He tells you to do, not feel good about Him or be attracted to Him.  That may and probably will happen if you love Him but without obedience to Christ, there is no love for Him.  Martyrdom or laying down your life for Christ means that your life becomes God’s to do with as He wishes.  Whatever He commands, you do and that means you love Him and are His friend.  There is nothing abstract about Christian love.  It is practical and concrete.  If you love as a Christian, it means you do something; something for someone else that is a specific act that God would say is loving.

The Bible makes it very clear what sort of behavior is love behavior.  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV)  If you wish to fill your love bucket and please God, you need to pick one of these practical ways of being loving.   Perhaps it would be to keep “no record of wrongs.”  How would you do that?  You just don’t bring up any grievance you have against someone and you stop thinking about it or pray for God to bless that person every time your complaint comes to mind.  Maybe you choose to trust someone who has made the same mistake over and over again. This could cost you…you might be frustrated or irritated by being let down again…but consider how many times Christ has entrusted you with something and you have let Him down.  You might do something kind for someone, something that is even extravagant and because Jesus just does kind things for you without expecting anything in return, you too do your kind deed without expecting anything back or even hoping you will get something back.  Perhaps you fight against your tendency to get angry with certain people.  Relax, say a prayer and smile when someone irritates you or inconveniences you.  Let someone get in front of you, pay someone’s bill, give a back rub, provide a warm compliment, take time to listen to someone else’s story, refuse to make a disparaging remark about someone else.

Love is quite simple.  Loving because Christ loves you is even simpler.  Choose something off this list of love bucket behaviors and do at least one of them today.  Ask Christ to fill you with His saving love for all people and make a choice who and how you will love a person you know or don’t know.  Perhaps something as easy as deciding to pray for God to bless an irritating or frustrating person through the day would be what God wants of you.  Instead of having a “good day”, have a “loving day”.

The Loss of Self-Realization

Ephesians 4:17 NIV

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  

If You Could Do Anything With Your Life, What Would It Be?

You may know that my first year of college I decided to be a chemistry major in an effort to qualify for medical school.  It was of course a respectable degree to pursue…at least if I could do it.  It required lots of hard work and many who choose chemistry as their major don’t complete it because it is so challenging.  What interested me most about this selection of a major was that it was respectable and would push me to maximize my abilities to accomplish the goal of being a medical doctor.  No one tried to discourage me; I was generally told to pursue my dreams and that I could accomplish whatever my heart desired.  Few of us would not want to pursue our dreams and I was no exception to this normal approach to life.  If I could not be an NBA basketball player, I might as well be a medical doctor.  It seemed reasonable to me and I believed I could achieve this goal.

You could say that the expression that defined me at this point in my life was, “I got it.”  You hear “I got it” often in sports.  If a fly ball is hit to the outfield, one of the outfielders yells, “I got it!”  Volleyball players scream out “I got it” to let their teammates know they will receive the ball.  If a fish is on your line, you might yell, “I got it” to let everyone in on your impending accomplishment.  But you also say “I got it” if you are going to answer the phone or open the door for whoever is there.  Psychologically, “I got it” means that you can handle your problem; you don’t need help.  You may tend to like the independent type, the “I got it” you who relies on yourself to “get the job done.”  The term for “I got it” is “self-realization” and it is now about a century old.  Self-realization or “I got it” is generally the object in therapy of nearly every worker in mental health.  “Be all you can be” which is nearly the same as “you got it” has a noble feel to it and who would argue that it should not be your goal in life.  Yet you know that just because everyone else seems to hold to a particular view does not mean that it is the best way of seeing something.  Could it be that “be all you can be” is not the approach you should take to life?  Is there the possibility that you ought to evaluate this philosophy critically…maybe self-realization is not what is best for you or me?

There are several ways self-realization is practiced.  I have a talent and I want to maximize it.  I have an interest and I want to pursue it.  I have an opinion and I want to express it.  I have a goal and I want to chase it.  This line of thinking is often found in the Bible and although the term “self-realization” is not used, the expression of it in normal sorts of ways is often described in case studies that are provided in God’s word.  Lamech is not a familiar character in the Bible but he certainly was a dramatic figure.  His life is well summarized in his own words.  Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.  If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times." (Genesis 4:23-24 NIV)  Although this is rather extreme, Lamech is expressing precisely the spirit of self-realization.  Self-realization is the determination to assert my will over my environment both internally and externally.  In this case Lamech decided that when he was wounded he had every right to kill the man who wounded him and then he did it.  He expressed himself and his morality by extending outward his influence.  Without independence, self-realization is not possible.  For Lamech, he took self-realization to the outer edges by killing the man who put limits on his happiness and comfort.  He referenced God but certainly never consulted with God nor did he act in conjunction with God when he decided to kill the young man who hurt him.

A second example of self-realization is also found in the book of Genesis.  The strange account of Jacob stealing his father’s blessing from his older brother illustrates how far some will go to extend the boundaries of self.  Rather than being satisfied with what he had as his mother’s favorite and heir to much of his father’s fortune, Jacob tricked his father into giving him the spiritual blessing the father intended to pass on to Jacob’s twin brother Esau.  Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing." (Genesis 27:19 NIV)  If it were not for the murderous anger it provoked in Esau, this could be labeled typical sibling rivalry.  Take it out of the context of family relations and you might make the case that Jacob was just fulfilling his destiny.  God had told Jacob’s mother that Esau or Esau’s descendants would eventually serve Jacob or Jacob’s descendants.  Jacob was following his dream of rising beyond his brother in influence and power by snatching away the blessing of his father.  One must wonder if Jacob ever gained much satisfaction in stealing his brother’s blessing as he immediately had to flee for his life and then spent twenty years living under the domination of his future father-in-law.  How far should one go to live out one’s dream?

A third example, this time from the New Testament, illustrates the reason why self-realization must never be our goal.  The often recounted attempt of Peter to correct Jesus is on the surface rather comical but Jesus did not treat it lightly.  The disciple “meant well”.  He thought Jesus was not trusting the Father enough when our Lord told the disciples that He would soon be killed by the religious authorities.  Without noticing at all that Jesus promised He would on the third day after death be resurrected, Peter made sure his opinion was voiced.   Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" (Matthew 16:22 NIV)  Jesus’ response was not pretty.  “You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23 NIV)  Here we have precisely put the essence of self-realization.  There is in Peter a disconnect between himself and God and he is not aware of it taking place. Peter means well.  He has what he thinks is good advice for Jesus but he is thinking without God and becoming spiritually a part of Satan’s rebellion.  It seems so innocuous, self-realization.  All you want to do is make something of yourself, build something you care about, use your mind to be creative, enjoy life.  Who could argue against that?  Peter had a good idea and it made sense to him yet our Lord blasted his advice out of the water.

Consider the rebuke of Jesus carefully.  “You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  This may seem so minor a criticism but it is actually the sin that defines all Sin.  Take note of Jesus’ warning in John 15.  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:5-6 NIV)   If you rationally contemplate this statement, it would seem that the most important determination you can make is to live your life out completely aligned with Christ.  There is no warning in scripture more severe than this that one might be “picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”  If this is disturbing, this possibility of being thrown into the fire and burned, then the goal of being attached to the vine, of remaining in Christ should rise above every other concern one has.  What good is it to realize your dreams, utilize your talents, enjoy your days and speak your mind if by doing so you are not remaining in Christ…if it all is completely outside life with God?  In self-realization, you take charge of your life and do as you see fit but that is not Christianity; that is a meager and impoverished alternative to Christianity.

Paul expressed perfectly what a normal Christian life is.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20a NIV)  When you put your faith in Christ as your Savior, Christ becomes a part of you.  Your personality, who you are, is now Him and you and that is you as a person.  It is no longer just you; that person is dead but the you that exists as a result is Christ and you.  As you go about your day, you become conscious of Christ in you and it matters because He gives you wisdom, He strengthens you and encourages you and as you trust Him with what is happening with you, God’s peace takes over and His joy gets worked into you and it makes sense to remain in Christ because that life with God is grander than you ever imagined.  The life without Christ is an inadequate, empty and insufficient life that becomes nothing more than rubbish.  The life with Christ is a miracle of God and you.  The bigger Christ gets in you through your obedience to Him, the bigger you become.  Self-realization will only take you to the edges of you and the sin you have corrupting you.  Christ in you is you without limit and becomes closer and closer to perfection as you build your life with Him.  Just look closely at how Jesus lived His life; without worry or fear, full of love and forgiving, kind and having not an ounce of envy for what others had.  That is where we are heading, that is the direction we are going…for with Christ joined to us, we will become perfect.

Let us consider just one aspect of what it means to have Christ be a part of us.  He said, “my peace I give you”.  What does that mean?  Think for a moment about the time Jesus was in the boat with His disciples and a furious storm arose that brought terror to the disciples.  Meanwhile Jesus slept without a care in the world, unperturbed by the winds and waves raging.  When the panicked disciples awakened Him, Jesus calmly replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" (Matthew 8:26 NIV)  Now, what kind of life could you and I have with that peace available to us?  It is astounding to think just how big our lives could be if we let Jesus, living within us, play a bigger role in us! 

Praying or Fantasizing

Mark 11:24 NIV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

How Confident Are About Praying?

A number of years ago we went to Disneyland and our daughter was only three.  She loved to dress up in princess outfits and she had a number that she brought for our trip there.  One day she could dress as Cinderella, another as Snow White and the next she was prepared to be Belle.  In fact she could change in the middle of the day and be a different princess at lunch and dinner.  Her face would light up when she spotted Arial or Belle or Pocahontas mingling in the crowd.  We had to wait for Rachel to stand in line and greet each of the princesses she came across. There was even a lunch meet and greet that Rachel attended.  Rachel was mesmerized by the parades when the princesses all came together in one place and she stared at them all wide-eyed.  Reality and fantasy came together in a mystical union.  That is until reality rose up and trampled fantasy one cloudy afternoon when Rachel spotted one of the Disneyland princesses standing out behind a building smoking a cigarette.  She was stunned and she never forgot the disappointment she felt at the unexpected sight.

Many have given up on Christianity because they believe it is like the Disney princesses; it is all a dress up that in the end is a sham.  Perhaps you have struggled with believing the Bible.  There is much about it that is interesting and helpful but some of the stories in it appear to be too good to be true.  The promises about prayer in particular hang you up as it does not seem like God holds up His end of the bargain.  You pray but the outcome is not what you had hoped.  Or worse, your praying seems to have been a waste of time and left you discouraged and feeling snookered by empty promises of God’s help.

Two case studies found in the Bible shed a bit of light on our discussion.  When Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus, became deathly ill, his sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." (John 11: 3 NIV)  When Jesus did not do anything about Lazarus’s condition and he died, both sisters were dumbfounded by His lack of help.  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:32 NIV)  How closely this mirrors the experience of many who have prayed and been disappointed by the results!

Prior to the birth of Christ, an elderly widow lived at the Temple and spent her days praying.  There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. (Luke 2:36-37 NIV)  We have no idea what sorts of matters were on her prayer list but we must say she had to wait an awfully long time before meeting the Messiah.  Not only that, should we just ignore the fact that this woman of prayer lost her husband after only seven years of marriage?  How much disappointment with prayer was locked up within the heart of this elderly widow for all those years!

Our problem, when it comes to praying, is not just the seeming slowness or even lack of responses to prayer.  We face a much more daunting task when it comes to believing in God.  We lack a physical connection to Him that can make trusting in Him more reasonable and sustainable.  We can’t see Him, hear Him or touch Him and that is not normal when it comes to relationships.  It can be argued that we don’t, hear, see or touch those we meet online and yet believe they are who they say they are but experience with fraud makes many such “encounters” impossible to trust completely.  When it comes to God, we don’t even have a picture profile to consider!  Yet, is it insane to believe in a God we cannot see, touch or hear?

Author Philip Yancey suggests we should consider the case of the woman who has been blind since birth who has never seen light and cannot see it.  How would you prove the existence of light to her?  You could present her with products of light such as heat or plant life but that does not prove light to her.  Light is real and not at all imaginary but to the one who has no sensitivity to it, light is just hearsay, only taken on trust.  If everyone in the world is blind from birth, men, women and children, light as described in books is to the entire crowd “religious” or “unscientific”.  It might be considered “mythological” and yet it is as real as the birds chirping in the trees.  The doubt in the minds of those who cannot see that light exists would not mitigate the reality of light.

We certainly lack the Spiritual sense needed to scientifically “prove” the presence of demons and angels, God and Satan but that is what we must accept when we speak of God and prayer.  Jesus did not try to pretend something else was the case.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24 NIV)  Rarely does God make Himself available to our physical senses.  Yet He has done so and many of the blind in our world just won’t believe the accounts given of His presence being seen, heard, touched or smelled. There is something else we must consider when it comes to knowing about the existence of God and believing in prayer.

The American Journal of Psychiatry reported a study of Harvard students who had experienced a “religious conversion.  They discovered that these students showed a dramatic change in their lifestyles.  Their use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes went down spectacularly.  What is more, they did much better academically than they did before their conversion and were less likely to suffer from depression and despair when compared to the rest of the student body.  What does it mean when an internal transformation which is attributed to God results in an externally proven outcome?  Religious Americans are proven to be more likely to give money to someone homeless, spend time with someone depressed, return excess change to a clerk, help someone find a job and donate blood.  At what point do those who do not have the sensory equipment to see or touch God begin to consider the facts regarding the accomplishments of the God they cannot see?

Faith is the operating system of our relationship with God and that is not going to change!  We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV)  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)  Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6: 29 NIV) 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 3:16)  This is the way God works with us.  We must have faith in Him that He exists if we are to have a relationship with Him that transforms our lives.  It will not be altered; this plan of God.  No amount of complaining that God does not let us see, hear or touch Him will change His mind.  The Lord will do in us and through us what our faith in Him permits.  It has been shown that with God operating in people’s lives, crime, drug use, violence and gang activities go down.  What proof do you need to recognize that you pray to a God who changes people’s lives and literally is a part of what they do?

When you pray, the Lord will transform your character, create in you a hatred of your own sin and generate a growing desire to be close to Him.  He will guide you so that you will be able to make sense of what to do.  He will work in others and change them too.  God will alter your circumstances so that in the end all you face and encounter will turn out for your good.  To pray, you must have faith to pray.  To communicate with God who is real, you must believe that He is real.  You will never be certain that God exists or that He is part of your praying until you actually decide to believe He exists and then pray.  Once that transaction takes place, the Lord will move Heaven and Earth to keep you close to Him supernaturally and coherently.  You may not yet believe God loves you fully but that will come as you trust Him enough to pray.  Faith opens your mind to pray; miracles always follow faith…they don’t come before it.  A miracle is nothing more complex than this.  It is the discovery that God is in actuality a part of your life and giving you the very best He has to offer in response to your praying.  So pray.  Pray often.  Pray with your mind on God and your heart open to whatever He gives you.

The Fullness of You...Touching

Mark 1:41 NIV

 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"

                                         Does It Matter Who Touches You?

More than thirty years ago Mary Jo and I started doing things together.  We went to movies, went out to eat, her family had me over to the house for Sunday dinners, we went to the New Orleans Jazz Fest, walked along the Lakefront, hung out in the French Quarter and played on the same volleyball team.  Although Mary Jo didn’t have a boyfriend and I didn’t have anyone I was dating, we had a friendship that was not in a sense romantic.  We had never kissed, we didn’t even hold hands.  Then after a year and a half of maintaining our relationship this way, we both started working at the same Christian camp in North Carolina.  Mary Jo had arrived a week before I did and so we both were happy to meet again after being apart.  My first afternoon there the two of us went hiking along a trail that went through the woods on the campus and to my complete surprise Mary Jo took my hand and held it as we walked.  It felt like electricity flew through my body.  We had never held hands before, not even when we prayed and I was stunned by the sensation of being touched by her.  On that day, touch, even as benign as holding a hand, initiated a chain of events that completely changed our lives.

Touch is perhaps the most powerful of all our senses as it is the only one that impacts the entire body.  As a result, touch is a dynamic force that fuels a wide range of emotions.  Even our use of the term “touch” in its metaphorical suggests an effect that is significant.  If you say that “she touched you” it implies something much deeper than the gathering of sensory information, it means that somehow the person impacted your heart….the center of who you are.  Are you comfortable being touched?  Do you like to touch others?  Do you find that certain people like it when you touch them?  How important is touch to the Church or even to the practice of Christianity?

There are reasons to mistrust the use of touch and the Bible gives several examples of how touch is misused.  Old and blind Isaac wanted to give a blessing from God to his oldest son Esau but the younger son stepped in without the father’s knowledge and pretended to be Esau.  He put lambskin on over his arms and neck so that when his father touched him, he would be tricked into believing he was the older and hairier brother.  Jacob got away with the ruse too and stole the blessing from his brother.  Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."  He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him. (Genesis 27:22-23 NIV)  Both Isaac and the older brother were devastated when they discovered what Jacob had done.

Have you ever been fooled by someone’s touch?  You thought you were loved but you actually weren’t.  You believed the touch meant you could trust the person; assumed the touch would be good for you.  How many have been touched for evil reasons, corrupt reasons.  When Amnon touched his sister Tamar, it was because he lusted after her but had no love for her.  His touch destroyed the personality of Tamar and left her emotionally crippled. 

But he (Amnon) refused to listen to her (Tamar), and since he was stronger than she, he raped her. Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, "Get up and get out!"   "No!" she said to him. "Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me."  But he refused to listen to her...Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went…And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom's house, a desolate woman. (2 Samuel 13:14-16, 19, 20b NIV)

In contrast, when Jesus touched, He healed.  His hands brought joy and comfort.  When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. (Luke 4:40 NIV)  Children were blessed by His touch.  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:16 NIV)  The elderly were comforted by the feel of His hand.  When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity."  Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.  (Luke 13:12-13 NIV)  Crowds thronged to Jesus, the people wanting to touch Him because of what they believed would happen if they did. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. (Matthew 14:35-36 NIV)

The Apostles, following Jesus lead also used touch to bless and change the lives of those they touched.  Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:17 NIV)  Even non-Apostles were instruments of God’s work by their use of touch.  Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."  Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. (Acts 9:17-19 NIV)  Touch became the way believers in Christ confirmed God’s calling to ministry and service.  In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: …While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  (Acts 13:1-3 NIV)  Paul the Apostle especially used touch to bless and heal.  When Paul placed his hands on them (new Christians in Ephesus), the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:6 NIV)  Paul followed Jesus’ lead and let touch be the instrument though which God healed many.  There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably.  His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.  When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. (Acts 28:7-9 NIV)

Touch has been lost as a way to bring the love of our Savior to the world.  Many have been psychologically damaged by touch and are afraid of what it might do.  Others have lost their confidence in God to help them and aren’t interested in being touched by the Lord’s people.  Mostly though, Christians have stopped believing what God can do through them when they touch others.  We find in the book of Hebrews that touch is one of the rudimentary ways God uses His people to change lives.  It is “basic Christianity”.  Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  And God permitting, we will do so. (Hebrews 6:1-3 NIV)

Let us not worry ourselves much about why Christians don’t use touch as instruments of God.  They have the Holy Spirit in them so as they gain experience as believers, they will gradually learn how to live with God as part of them.  A critical component of Christianity is touching people and believing that a supernatural work of the Lord will happen when doing so.  Recently I was stunned by how someone I touched through the Holy Spirit was healed by God.  Years ago the Lord told me to pray by touching a couple who for years had been childless.  In three months they called me to say that the next month they conceived.  We have no right to give up on our ability to touch people who need God’s help!  If God flows in you, He will flow out of you and your touch is what He wishes to use to bring comfort and help to the world.  Touch the weak, touch the broken, touch the proud and touch all who feel like they have lost.  Touch and God will touch through you.

You Are Not Alone In This

The world is in desperate need of holy people.  It doesn't need any more sanctimonious prigs who make the world bristle at their rigid opinions.  Genuinely holy people who uphold righteousness in their personal affairs, who laugh joyously in trying times, who have confidence that God will see them through any painful circumstance, who hold the hands of the broken-hearted and forgive with genuine love and humility are the pivot upon which all radical movements of God turn.  When Elijah complained that he was the only faithful servant of God left, he did not realize how many others were walking along the same path he was.   You are not alone in your longing to have Christ built into every part of your day.  Others also want the Savior flowing out of them in contagious ways.  There is a growing desire to be truly good and the only way that is possible is if our Lord is living within us and His holiness is entering every nook and cranny of our hearts.  There are deep hidden places where we have resisted God and settled for a form of Christianity our Lord never intended when He saved us.  We have habits we have not let the Holy Spirit touch; memories we have kept in gilded cages so that the Savior cannot approach them.  Today, with your hands stretched to the heavens, surrender your life to God and give Him permission to invade every part of you and put His crucified life at work wherever He sees a need for redemption.  The atonement had one purpose, to make you so completely God's that it becomes nearly impossible to see where you end and the Lord begins.   Holiness is not what you do; it is who you are.  When you are made right with Christ, everything you do will become the fragrance of God in a world looking for evidence our Savior really does make a difference in those who join with Him!

Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 1 Kings 18:22 NIV

Theological Christianity

There is nothing "philosophical" about Christianity.  It is not even theological unless your theology results in Godly living.  Jesus did not command us to "think" about what He said but to do what He said.  The chief criticism of Christianity, and there is validity to it, is that its advocates don't look very much like the picture the Bible presents of a Christian.  The only way we can actually live out Christianity on a daily basis is if we have the Holy Spirit working in us and out of us.  There are certain people that are impossible for us to love, certain lusts we cannot control and decisions to make that we are unable to adequately process.  The Christian, who does not walk in the Spirit, will make a mess of her Christianity.  It will be a continual headache; trying to do what one does not have the capacity nor real determination to do.  The reach of the Christian always falls far short of his intention if the Holy Spirit is not fully active in Him.  We must invite the Holy Spirit to take authority over our lives and let Him decide for us what we will do or not do.  This demands an act of the will.  We consciously tell our Lord that He is in charge of us and that we want Him to have rule over our lives.  When that happens, God will begin to test your resolve.  You will face a difficult decision, Satan will tempt you to ease up on your determination to follow the Lord, and you will have to "get into the water".  It could be that the Holy Spirit will demand you back down from an argument or act kindly toward someone who has betrayed you or go visit someone who is prickly but needs a friend.   It may be that the Holy Spirit will call for you to talk about Jesus with someone you just met or give far more than you ever have as an offering.  It will be out there for you, this call of God to obey and you will either grieve the Holy Spirit and push Him out of your consciousness for a time or you will bless God and gain greater access to His work in you.  The joyful Christian is not the one who has all the irksome difficulties plucked out of her schedule; the joyful Christian is the one who truly walks in the Holy Spirit and can with great hope and patience face whatever Satan throws at her without turning aside from how God is leading at the moment.

Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.    Ephesians 5:15-18 NIV

Sponge

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

What Is Inside You?

When I was teen, I began to make rapid progress as a Christian.  I read my Bible daily, prayed, attended church services faithfully and was an active part of the youth program.  I didn’t smoke or drink or use drugs.  I was made a children’s Sunday school teacher and served as narrator for our church Christmas Cantata.  (They wouldn’t let me sing)  I had become intrigued with contemporary Christian music and was starting to read books about the faith.  During one of my daily Bible readings, I came across a verse that sent me reeling.  There was nothing profound in it; the simplicity of its message was like a hammer though.  Up to this point and even much longer I played lots of basketball and I was on the court no different than any of the other players.  I talked trash and I used lots of foul language.  Now I justified my cursing by saying that I was just expressing myself; that just like adjectives and adverbs make language more colorful and expand on communication capabilities, so too curse words were an effective way o making my points stronger and more demonstrative.  But then I came face to face with Colossians 3: 8.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (NIV)  I was now up against it because I realized that God was not pleased at all the cussing coming out of me.  Profanity was clearly prohibited by the Lord.  But that profanity was within me…it did not spring out of a vacuum.  I had to decide not only how I was to deal with the swear words coming out of me but also the cursing that was within me.

If you were a sponge and were squeezed, what would come out of you?  Would it be love and mercy and kindness or anger and frustration and worry?  How do you look on the inside?  Where no one else can see, what do you find there?  This is not a matter of what have you hidden from others.  It is a question of what actually you are right now.  Much is made in the field of psychology of how we mustn’t bottle up our feelings and that may or may not be important.  Our concern today is much more profound.  What shall we do about who we really are?  What will you do about who you really are?

The Bible makes much of what you really are rather than what you or others think of who you are.  Paul the Apostle took seriously this matter of what is inside you and said, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)  There is something that happens to us when we put our trust in Jesus Christ to make us new people.  Through Jesus’ death on the cross, a profound change occurs in us.  The Bible calls it “salvation” and that is a good term for what God does in us through Christ.  Jesus referred to it as being “born again”.  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3 NIV)  A miracle occurred when Jesus gave up His life on the cross.  It opened the way for God to come into us and become a part of us, His personality merged into ours.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NIV)

Now it is strange to think of Christ being a part of us and we have to adjust our thinking to accommodate this.  If Christ is in you, then that impacts every bit of your life.  You think with Christ being a part of your thinking, you have emotional responses to situations and Christ is a part of that too.  Even your actions are done with Christ as a part of them.  Through the work of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, this is actual and not symbolic.  The life of Jesus Christ is joined to yours and the two lives become one new life.  Paul put it this way.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3 NIV)

We are like a sponge filled with Christ.  The way He comes out of us though is if we obey what He tells us in Scripture or by direct revelation at a personal level.  That is what Paul means by “as you have always obeyed.”  Our salvation is worked out of us when we do what God tells us to do.  For example, when the Lord told the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them, they could have decided to go other places…to Bethel, to Capernaum, to Nazareth.  It would have been logical to leave Jerusalem because the opposition to Christ was strongest there and it was potentially deadly.  They stayed though and the Holy Spirit did come upon them and Christ came out of them through speaking in foreign languages and preaching that changed the lives of those who heard it.

Another example would be when Peter was told to go meet with a group of non-Jews and answer their questions about Christian faith.  This would have been absurd to Peter before Christ became a part of him.  Peter had thought that God didn’t want Jews to have anything to do with non-Jews but with Christ joined to him, it became clear that God loved non-Jewish people and they too were to gain salvation.  A Roman soldier was told by an angel that he needed to hear the Christian message from someone he did not know, Peter.  Cornelius stared at him (the angel) in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.  The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.  Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. (Acts 10:4-5 NIV)  When the servants of the Roman soldier came to the house where Peter was staying, the Lord spoke to Peter about going with the servants to meet with Cornelius the Roman.  Peter obeyed and like a sponge, the Lord was squeezed out of Peter and Cornelius and his family and friends became Christians.  This would not have happened though if Peter had disobeyed God.

Another example is found in the book of Acts.  Paul and Silas were traveling through what is now western Turkey when the Lord spoke to Paul in a dream to go across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia.  There they began preaching and even saw a few people become Christian but soon Paul and Silas were arrested and beaten and thrown in prison.  It was a terrible situation for them yet because Christ was living in both and had changed their personalities, like a sponge, Christ was squeezed out of them.  They joyfully sang praise songs and worshipped God in their cell.  This sort of happiness and contentment would not have been possible if the Lord was not a part of them, joined into their personalities.  When the pressure of being beaten and imprisoned squeezed them, out came the joy of the Lord.

Obedience to God brings out the best of us.  Take any command the Lord has given us:  do not judge or criticize, love your enemies, be sexually pure, pray and don’t worry, tithe.  Whenever we obey one of the least of God’s commands, Christ is squeezed out of us and our salvation is put into effect.  Your salvation is meaningless in the world about you if you don’t do what God tells you to do.  Every common act of obedience to Christ on our part is a miracle in the world.  Just think what our Lord will do through you if you do what He says!  Who knows what lives will be changed by the power of Christ working through you!  Consider just this one act of obedience.  Our Lord tells us to forgive what someone did to hurt us deeply.  We do forgive that offence.  As a result, that sin is no longer attached to the person.  You would stop talking about that sin and wrecking the person’s reputation.  People who would reject and maybe even despise that person would be open to loving and encouraging her.  She no longer has to live with the pain of what she has done…doesn’t have to hang her head in shame when she thinks about you.  Salvation has come to her and to all who could be hurt and angered by what she did.  It is not overstating this to say that generations could be impacted by our simple obedience to the command to forgive those who hurt us.  Salvation slips into lives through forgiveness.  It is a basic axiom of Christianity.