Anything but that please.

Last Friday morning I was asked to do the meditation on “three encounters with Christ” for Kairos 65 at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution.  The following scripture is the first of the three encounters:

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.  "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"  And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up."  Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

As I read the final line I felt myself hearing my own words echoing back to me.  The words I speak when I hear God clearly tell me that all I need to do is ______________ and life will become so much more fulfilling, so much simpler, and so much more complete.  “Oh, that…..you know, my life is pretty good like it is.  I really don’t know why I was complaining.  That empty feeling, it isn’t really that bad.  You know, I’m not sure why I really bothered you with this.  After all, it really isn’t sin.  Is it?”

Without going into excessive detail, I will tell you that over the past several years God and I have gone through round after round of similar discussions.  First He shows me where I am not allowing Him to deliver me into peace, joy, and a greater sense of well-being.  Then He shows me what I must change about me, what I do, or how I think.  I can look back on countless examples of where my thought patterns and life choices have been dramatically changed.  But, what about those things He just can’t seem to deliver me from?  What went wrong?  I didn’t walk away from God, but I haven’t been delivered from those things and those feelings.  Have I been led astray?  Is it hopeless?  Was I duped?  Is God telling me that He is OK with where I am?

The reality is that I have not been led astray, it is not hopeless, and I was not duped.  The truth is God is not OK with where I am because He loves me and wants me to be free of anything that is less than perfect.  The fact is that these things greatly hinder my ability to do His work and can totally undermine my ability to stand witness to Him; Sometimes to the point of doing more damage to His kingdom than good.

The reality is I am really good at manipulating myself to not let go of what I really don’t want to let go of while claiming I want to.  The amazing thing is how easy it is.  Here is how it works:   “OH, you want me to __________.”  No problem, I’m all over it.  Oh, your strength.  Na, I got this one covered.  Thanks though.”

Simply put…. I know that if I lean on God’s strength I will be delivered.  He has proven it to me time and time again.  At the same time, in my own strength I know I will fail.  So, the easy out when I don’t want to change, is to tell God “I got this one on my own”.  The reality is, I am doing this because I trust my current patterns of life and thought more than I trust God to His word.  The questions are:  Is this something new?  Is it that big a deal?  Who am I hurting anyway?  What does all this mean?

In order to really understand the magnitude of this I think it is really important to break down God’s plan of salvation, the Old Covenant, and the New.  There are so many teachings that provide more questions than answers.  The reality is God’s plan of salvation is very simple.  He wants us to move from “flesh centered” to “Spirit led” so that we embrace the essence of who He is.  Flesh centered leads us to death while spirit led delivers us into perfect harmony with Him.  Harmony with Him is in harmony with how we were created so it is what is best for us.

The fact is that for 2,000 years God attempted to woo the Jewish people into a relationship with Him by telling them the difference between life and death living.  We call this guide to living “His Law and Statutes”.  The intent was that a life committed to His laws and Statutes would help them see that living according to the flesh was death and in accordance with His ways was actually in harmony with their spiritual design.  In time they were to discover that the Laws and Statutes were a light yoke as their fleshly desires were replaced with thoughts and desires that were led by the Spirit and as such the same as His.  In doing this, He could bless them with worldly blessings with no risk of perverting them back to the addictions of the flesh.  The blessings and wealth would be so great, and their likeness of Him would be so perfect that an outpouring of blessings would flow from His people back to the nations.  This would lead those nations to seeing God as the wonderful father He is, and embrace His ways based on the demonstration of the joyous, selfless, and holy life lived by His people.  The world would move from “flesh centered” to “Spirit led” and God’s plan of salvation would be complete.

Only problem…..they just couldn’t get past seeing the Law and Statutes as a burden, they didn’t trust that the Laws and Statutes were given as a gift and for their best interest, and they did not understand the love from which they were provided.  The confusion comes from a desire to hold onto the flesh centeredness which leads us to seeing God’s ways as pointless, useless, burdensome, and of no value.

God saw this and understood that He would have to do something different.  In His love and in His favor He extended a New Covenant.  The New Covenant was a substantial upgrade to the old as it should have made it easier for man to let go of the flesh and embrace the Spirit.  Animals and men would no longer serve the roll of sacrifice and High Priest.  The animal sacrifices failed to move His chosen to a transforming repentance, and the pride of man perverted the High Priest roll leaving it ineffective.  To ensure His plan of salvation would carry forth He added a bonus through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who accepted their calling into the great commission.

This brings us forward to where we are now; Back to the example of me and my relationship with Him.  Let me re-state what I said right before I started the theology summary: 

So, the easy out when I don’t want to change, is to tell God I got this one on my own.  The reality is, I am doing this because I trust my current patterns of life and thought more than I trust God to His word.  The questions are:  Is this something new?  Is it that big a deal?  Who am I hurting anyway?  What does all this mean?

Let’s answer the questions:

1—Is this something new?  No, it is the exact same thing His chosen people did that forced Him to establish the New Covenant,

2—Is it that big a deal?  I have to say yes.  I mean really….God took it so seriously with the Chosen people that He felt it necessary to put them in time out for 2,000 years, take their commission from them, put the salvation of the world into the hands of the very people He was trying to reach through His Chosen, extend a New Covenant, crucify His one and only son on a wooden cross, and make it easier for us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. How could it not be a big deal?

3—Who am I hurting anyway?  Myself, everyone I love, everyone God puts me in contact with, Him, …  Need I say more?

4—What does all this mean?  Honestly, I think we already know the answer to that question.  We just don’t want to see it.  We can’t look at it.  We listen to our flesh centered theologies as they explain away what we know to be true.  We embrace them because we choose to. 

OK…slow down.  I am not suggesting that we all must be brought to perfection in order to have our salvation or do God’s work effectively.  I shudder at some of the things I have thought, shared, and done while believing they were perfect and true.  Maybe someday I will look back on this with amazement at my current blindness through something God reveals to me in the future.  The bottom line is, I believe I am God’s, doing His work, and responding to His Spirit.  I know He will use all things for His good, even in my imperfection.  In Mathew 16 Christ said:

“Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven…… and upon this rock I will build My church

I read the “rock” as the fact that God is the one who brings revelation to His people.  It is by faith that we trust God to bring about what He desires to bring about when He chooses to bring it forth.  I see this process as one of perpetual revelation.  This is a term I heard to describe the work of God and how He is bringing forth His plan of salvation for the world.  I like to apply it to describe the work of God and how He is bringing forth His plan of salvation for the individual too.  This is what I believe Paul was eluding to when he said that we must “work out” our salvation.

Our salvation is a perpetual progression of successes and failures as God slowly convinces us to move our faith from a flesh centered perception to a Spirit led understanding.  This opens up a can of worms on other theological issues.  I will try to simplify.  I see our Christian walk modeled in the life of Abraham.  God went to Abraham knowing exactly how “Spirit led” Abraham would be at the end of his life.  God said to Abraham, “I credit you righteousness” and made many promises.  After a lifetime of transformation Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac, the one through whom all the promises would be fulfilled.  Abraham did not hesitate in listening to the Spirit, God provided a substitute, and Abraham named the mountain “God will provide”.  At that moment an angel of the Lord came to Abraham and said “the Lord has sent me to tell you that NOW He can honor all the promises that had been previously promised”.  I see that if God would have known that Abraham would have never let go of his flesh centered ways God would have never “credited” him anything.  On the other hand, God did know where Abraham would end up so it was no risk to issue him the credit at the beginning of their relationship together.  This is our journey with Christ.  Believe it or not, God does know how far each of us will move on this journey.  He created each of us and as such knows exactly what we are capable of.  He told us “To whom much is given, much is expected.” 

If you are still stumped go to the prophets, go to revelation, read what God has to say about these things.  Spend some time contemplating the roll of the church in the future, the restoration of His people in the future, and why God is going to have to come back and take care of things Himself. 

If you are still not clear think about this for a minute.  Suppose you are a father.  You have a task that needs to be done.  You ask your children to take care of it for you while you are gone.  You give them all the tools, money, and resources they will need.  You even leave them with an expert assistant for them to call if they need help.  When you arrive home you find that your children did not do what you asked them to do, they did not ask for the help from the expert assistant, and they used the money to do the work of your greatest enemy.  As such you are forced to take it upon yourself to do what was not done in your absence.  What would you do to help your children understand the error of their ways?

If that didn’t help you maybe reading this will.  You have an enemy who is fighting you for something that you really care about.  You know that what you really care about can only be secured with the help of a proper wife.  So, you pick a wife and ask her to prepare herself for your return.  You tell her that someday you will be back to get her and the two of you will secure that for which you have claim.  While you are gone you check in from time to time.  Each time you check in you realize that your betrothed wife has moved farther and farther from “being prepared”.  In reality she has actually moved closer and close to your only true enemy.  Over time it becomes apparent that you are still in her mind and she speaks of you often but in all of her ways she has become devoted to him.  How would that make you feel?  Better yet, if you were this man’s father and you watched this woman break your son’s heart?  Especially knowing what He sacrificed, knowing what you sacrificed?  What would you do if she was a part of what you have claimed and so desire to have returned to you?  What would you do to lead her back to yourself?

The sad thing is, it could be so different.  It really isn’t that hard.  The truth is it would be so much easier if we just listened, trusted, and believed.  He tells us that He loves us.  If He is true to His word than everything He tells us is true, His advice would help, and what He says to do would be the answer to our prayers.  If He answers our prayers with a directive for life why don’t we listen?  Why do we choose the desires of the flesh over the voice of the spirit?  Why do we fail you dear father?  Why?  We reach for salvation but it is too far away.  Break this pathetic flesh dear God and deliver me from its lies.