Extrication ...

Due to the constant bombardment of evil’s marketing campaign, combined with our own innate tendency towards doing the wrong thing, we sometimes find ourselves in ‘impossible’ situations.  Logic fails us.  Options reduce to zero.  We seem doomed to a fate we chose, and boy-oh-boy were those some poor choices.  Has hope left us?  Not yet, now that we realize the depth of our weakness and our inability to affect change, something wonderful is just about to happen.  God performs his intricate work of extrication.  Here’s how it works …

In life, most of our problems are self inflicted.  We make bad choices, even when we know what the good ones should have been.  We listen to others whose opinions are steeped in the same evil we bathe in every day.  We rationalize that we make the choice of lesser of two evils.  Or we conclude that it is better for us to indulge this sin to prevent us from indulging in a much worse one (somehow we construct a doctrine of preventative sin).  And what is the net result; our pain, others pain, the normal results of the cancer of ANY evil we choose to embrace.  But sometimes beyond just a one-time punch in the face, the evil path we have followed may have lingering effects.  We may find ourselves bound to it.  Linked indelibly with evil itself, and now powerless to free ourselves from it.

Lest you think this cannot happen to you, consider the case of the demoniacs, or demon possessed people in the Bible.  Do you honestly believe these were simply devil worshippers who got too far into their own religion?  No, more than likely these were simple Jewish folks who had some knowledge of the true God.  More than likely they knew about God, but did not truly know God.  They were acquainted with the concept of God, but likely had not embraced him.  When the supernatural of evil design first confronted them, they did not run in fear.  They did not call out to the supreme God of the Universe to save them from Satan.  They wondered at the impossible they were witnessing with their own eyes.  The supernatural defies logic, and sometimes bends the apparent laws of nature.  Instead of trembling, they explored, they indulged their curious nature – attempting to find the source of this power and adopt it for themselves.  They may even have believed this power was a manifestation of God, though it was not.  And at some point while trying to harness a power God did not design them to have, they find themselves yielding control to a spirit with no intentions of leaving, or of doing good in any way.  They are then demon possessed.

What is the response from the ‘religious’ community around them?  They fear these demon possessed and drive them away from any ‘civilized’ areas.  They try to capture them with chains, but supernatural power easily breaks chains made of simple iron and steel.  And supernatural strength can easily keep at bay men of human strength.  So there remains an uneasy tension between ‘religious’ believers and the demoniacs.  As long as they remain separated by distance each seems to live-with the other.  Until Christ comes along, that is.

When Christ enters our world He has absolutely no fear of any demon.  He walks right through demoniac territory and predictably they attack.  His disciples first instinct is to flee in terror.  But Christ meets them calmly and with only words.  The demons recognizing the divinity of Christ masked in this human form, ask the first logical question, - “art Thou come to torture us before the appointed time?”  There is no answer.  But Christ drives them out by commanding it to be so, and out they go.  On one incident they were driven into nearby pigs that immediately committed suicide.  These men who had so long endured the captivity of the demons, were now free from their control.  They were beyond hope, and yet now free.  Up until Christ had come into the world, theirs might have been a permanent death sentence, but now that is no longer the case.  Christ went on to give his disciples (almost 70 in number at that point) the ability to cast out demons in His name, and they did so.  The Catholic church today seems to be the only formal organization who maintains a group dedicated to casting out demons.  Though the demons have not ever gone away.  What happened before, can happen again.

But our problems seldom rise to the level of demonic possession do they?  More often they intertwine the feelings of loved ones with the reality of our deeds.  We mistreat a loved one for such a long period of time we drive the love out of them, and then bemoan the loss we have caused.  We lie, cover it up, and try to keep hidden our real feelings for fear of hurting another and develop false lives for ourselves as we lack the courage to confront the truth.  We nag, pester, procrastinate, and otherwise annoy the person we love so badly we see health affects in them go wrong.  Grey hair, wrinkles, and heart ailments do not always simply appear from age, sometimes they are sped along by a partner who chooses not see their own negative influence on their loved one.  Then greed, selfishness, fear, or other emotions hold us in check, and ‘prevent’ us from rectifying the situation.  Truly it is our weakness that holds us hostage.

But this is the beauty of our God, our weakness, and our recognition of it, is His strength.  When we realize our own powerlessness, we realize the true power of God.  For it is NOT us who suddenly changes the world around us to get us out of the situation we created – it is God who does this.  In ways we could not have even imagined.  All of the sudden the strength of our God is revealed.  Attitudes and feelings change for the better.  A long time enemy becomes our closest friend.  Forgiveness descends like a blanket and covers all who have been wounded from our offenses.  Demons look on this and literally run in terror.  It has been evil’s job to blind us to God’s strength, and make us believe we have all the power we need.  After all, if it is our weakness that has held us here, cannot our own strength bail us out?  Quite simply, NO.  Evil is greater than us.  But God is greater than ALL.  We are not to rely on ourselves, but in humility to realize our need of God, and call on His infinite strength.

Evil intends for us to see the magnitude of the problems and grief of our situations and give up hope.  Evil tries to overwhelm us with our own deeds, guilt us to death with our own choices, for it is in fact our responsibility we find ourselves in the situation we created.  Evil wants us to die in the conditions we have created.  But not so.  Look up, and find a Savior who again will live up to this term.  Our God descends at our invitation and carefully as if pulling us from the middle of a bush coated in sharp thorns, He removes us from the situation we created.  He provides a way of escape.  Might it be painful, and could we bleed a bit along the way?  Yes.  It may not be pain free, for we may have caused MUCH pain in the creation of our conditions, but the pain will be managed by the God who knows our limits of endurance.  It will be reduced by a caring Father whose number one concern is with the well being of His children, both of us, and of those we have wounded.

While sometimes we see the pain of another, we are powerless to remove them from it.  This is not a work we can perform for each other as we lack the skills, abilities, and control to succeed.  Only God can do this for anyone.  What we must do when we encounter another in self-inflicted painful situations is to love them first.  Do not add misery to their pain by condemning them for something they are already self-condemned for.  Do not throw gasoline on a fire, by attempting to convict them of wrong.  Instead be a bandage of healing by offering your love, your acceptance, and the source of your healing.  Pray with the wounded and for the wounded if they refuse to pray with you.  But do not curse the wounded with your pride, your condemnation, and your arrogance.  You act as Satan when you adopt the role of accuser of the brethren.  Instead act as Christ, forgive without them asking, accept without them understanding how you can do so, and love them no matter what they respond to you.  If they spit in your face, wipe it off, and point them to Christ.  If they curse you, apologize for their anger, and remind them He can really help them out.  If they strike out at you, remember it is their pain and guilt that drives them, have patience with them, retreat from them but remind them you go to pray for them and have already forgiven them for today’s activities.  This is what a Christian can do for another.  It is what Christ does for you, yes you.  You have done these things to Him in your past, yet He stands at your side ready to bail you out of the worst of problems and all you have to do is ask.

Our gospel is about salvation.  The act of saving us.  Extricating us from the evil we have setup.  Saving us from ourselves, from our pain, from our fate, from our natural inclinations, from the bad choices of others, and from evil itself.  The gospel is GOOD NEWS because it teaches hope, not condemnation.  It teaches reconciliation, not division.  It teaches unity and humility, not self-reliance, and individuality.  We are all unique, yet all infected with the same disease.  And we can all be saved with the same cure.  The cure of Christ.  To abandon self, and embrace Christ, this is the power of the gospel…

Getting Ready ...

Ever had to prepare for something important; perhaps, your wedding, a formal banquet or dinner you attended, or something that was far out of the normal and required special attention?  When Christians pose the question … “are you ready for Jesus to come?”  Is it just me that infers this is a loaded question somewhat like the old … “have you stopped beating your wife?”  Answer yes, and it implies that you were beating her before but have now stopped, answer no, and it implies you continue to beat her – i.e. no win.  The same is true of the Christian question.

To begin with the question is loaded with implications of guilt – i.e. “have you stopped sinning yet?”  If so, then perhaps you are deluding yourself with your “supposed” perfection and are therefore doomed to discover your sins after it is too late to do anything about them.  If not, then what the heck is wrong with you, don’t you know there will be no sinning in heaven.  Either way, no win.

Those Christians who are assured they will be saved by the grace of Christ are free to answer a resounding yes … at least orally.  But then a strange phenomenon sets in, they realize that while “saved” they remain sinners who continue to sin – seems to counteract the idea of readiness.  Those Christians who believe that the accumulation of all their good deeds proves that they have faith, and therefore they deserve to go to heaven – experience the same deep dark reality as the former group – they remain sinners who continue to commit sins.  Both groups may ask for and get forgiveness, but that has not changed the pattern of sin in their lives as yet.

The basic problem with Christians “getting ready” is that the question makes NO sense when salvation is understood properly.  It is like smelling the color green, or tasting the number nine, it does not make sense.  Salvation is a gift.  How does one prepare for a gift (something they do not deserve, but are given anyway)?  How do you prepare to be perfect, before you even enter the process of making you perfect.  It is like George Carlin’s famous analysis of the silly term “Preboarding” in airline jargan – “how do I get on, before I get on?”

What the question really is asking is … are you “ready” for heaven, not salvation.  And again how could a mortal in this world ever really know the answer to that question?  Ready may imply forgiven to some, but may imply perfection to others.  At some point in the Christian experience forgiveness is not enough, what is really desired is reform.  A change in behaviors that result from a true change in the heart and mind, as only Christ can recreate within this pitiful form.  Rebirth is more than analogy, it is a statement of the death of the old, the carnal, and the full of pain – to be reborn into joy, into intimacy, and into love.

Understanding the nature of evil makes one want to avoid it.  No-one truly likes inflicting pain on themselves and everyone who cares about them.  Understanding further that you CANNOT end evil in your own life, that only Christ can, means you need to daily surrender your will, your perceived control, your very character into the loving hands of He who can recreate you and eliminate the pain you have fostered all your life.  Experiencing this is life changing.  It is personal, meaningful, and real.  You cannot help but become someone new, and someone better.

But even in the success of seeing Christ eliminate sin in your life, comes the temptations the evil one has prepared for the few that begin to find their way back to God in the here and now.  Remember Peter, who during a storm on the sea at night, while terrified they were seeing a ghost, called out to Jesus who was walking on the water towards the boat at the time.  He asked Him if it were truly Jesus, to call himself out to meet him on the water as well.  Peter reasoned if this were truly Jesus he would have no problems.  He probably also reasoned that this honor for exercising his faith in his relationship would accord him more respect among his peers.  So out of the boat he went walking on the water just like his Lord.

Peter had experienced interaction with the divine.  He was living, breathing, and walking on water just like Jesus.  And immediately human nature kicked in and he turned around to look at the guys still in the boat.  I’m sure he was thinking “look at me”.  Peter was proud of where divinity had led him.  He might have even thought that this was some sort of gift or ability Jesus had granted him because of his faith.  But no matter.  Immediately down he went.  And his first thought became once again centered back on Christ as he utters, Save me lord.

Jesus was still right there.  He called Peter out the first time.  He knew what would happen.  And He watched it all take place.  He allowed Peter the freedom to choose to center his thoughts back on himself, instead of remain fixed on the source of the miracle.  Had he remained focused on his Lord, Peter would have remained above the surface.  Jesus does immediately pull him up again, and brings him into the boat whereupon the storm disappears.  Peter is both wet and amazed.  But the lesson is for more than just Peter.  It is for us.

When we begin to experience the relief of long held sins in our lives, when we finally get to experience the joy from the lack of pain; we are tempted to turn inwards rather than remain focused on the source of our own miracles.  We are tempted to feel pride over our victories even though we know we had nothing to do with them.  Christ alone is the source of any victory in our lives, but we tend to want to process the credit differently than it is deserved. 

We want to share some of the glory in our victories.  As if we had something to do with it.  Even if it is just to say because of our great faith, we were able to surrender and overcome.  Or perhaps because of our perseverance with the Lord, praying for victory until He finally heard our prayers and took the bad thing away.  But faith is also a gift, nothing we can credit in ourselves.  Perseverance too comes from the Lord, as do ALL good things.  We originate nothing good.  We are rotten trees growing rotten fruit, we must be made new, before our fruit begins to be edible.

Just like Peter, we turn away from Jesus, and begin looking at our brothers in the faith.  Just like Peter we take for granted the gift of freedom from sin we were granted, and assume it may be some new ability Jesus gave us.  And all too often as a result, just like Peter, we sink right back into the same sinful waters we were just pulled up out of.  Lack of focus on Christ is a recipe for seeing the bottom of the sin ocean.  Pride in victory and accomplishment we did not even have any part of, is blasphemy, arrogance, and of course pride the mother of all sins and precursor to a fall.  What is required to avoid this cycle is vigilant humility.  And we need not fall into dark waters and like Peter become publicly embarrassed to achieve real humility.

There are some things about your relationship with God that are allowed to be a secret between you and Him.  This is one of them.  You do not need to go around the church announcing your victories over your various sins as you begin to experience them.  You can praise your God in secret for the work He is doing in you.  It is best to remember that this work is probably not complete just because 1,2, or 3 things are gone.  We are all plagued with a massive level of sin disease that infects us in many ways, some of which we do not even consciously recognize.  This work may continue for some time, probably longer than you expected, and surely longer than you would have wanted.  Remaining quiet and humble about it, will only make it easier for you over the long run.  The Lord rewards secret prayers, and this is something deeply personal between you and Him.

Remain a humble sinner to your brothers in faith.  And share only that the source of removing pain is surrender to God’s will, giving up control, and trusting in His mercy.  Over time the changes will become self evident, and your brothers will want to know why and how you could be so different.  It is important when asked these questions that you remain humble, take no credit, and direct them to the source of light.  Do not turn around for a second to answer their questions, or to preach to them, or to teach them – instead point them to the source while keeping your own eyes fixed on it.  You have no power, but God has more than enough for everyone who seeks Him.

At the end of this process is perfection in Christ, because of Christ, through Christ.  At the end of this process is your life saved from evil, reconciled to intimacy with a loving personal God, who performed a unique work, to save your unique life.  A story you will never tire of repeating in the city that lives forever.  This is the secret to the power of our shared beliefs.  It is not that we are given super human powers, or abilities, or even victories over evil – but it is that we can be vessels for all these things as we yield up our wills and allow God the control He seeks in our lives to make them better.  This is the power of a Creator God.  It is personal, available and real.  I cannot conceive why anyone would choose to remain in pain, when there is such a clear and distinctly better alternative at the ready…

Who Can Be Saved ...

One horrible image of God comes from Christians who believe they are qualified to decide who gets to be saved and who must be condemned to eternal separation and non-existence.  The Bible outlines a very clear plan of how Salvation works, and the role we play (accepting the gift), the role God the Father plays (judging the merit of His Son’s sacrifice to see if justice has been served), and the role Jesus plays (being our Creator, He elected to take on our ultimate punishment and offer us his perfect record as a gift to save us, both now and forever from evil and its effects in our lives).  What is seldom discussed at all in the Bible are people who have never heard the name of Christ other than a reference to “Sheep who do not know my name / Sheep of a different fold”.

Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Vikings, Aztecs, Zulu – many societies were started after the debacle of the Tower of Babel.  People grouped together by language and migrated to far corners of the world.  Many of these societies had little or no contact with Judaism and therefore no knowledge of Christ at all till well after His servants began to scatter across the globe.  Many generations lived, worked, and died without exposure to the written word, or any personal witnesses to the events being conducted in the Middle East.

So what happens to people who never knew the name of Jesus?  Accountability for truth comes only to those who experience it.  It would be unfair to judge someone’s ignorance.  But then too our understanding of Salvation is not confined to some future trip to Heaven, it begins now by learning to avoid evil.  Those who lived without ever knowing this precious truth are not to be envied, they are to be pitied.  Imagine the amount of pain to be incurred when left ignorant of the love, forgiveness, and hope found in Jesus.  Given how much God loves us all, I personally believe He would do everything in His power to demonstrate His love to those unaware of the goings on in Israel.  And I personally do not believe that all those ignorant of Christ will be condemned never to meet Him.

Herein lies a very important principle we keep re-emphasizing; it is never our place to judge others.  Only God is fit to judge, therefore to assume we were qualified is a form of blasphemy.  Getting rid of that judgmental impulse that plagues Christians is a top priority.  It would go far in eliminating the negative images we paint of God, that are usually steeped in our own bias.  Part of the problem here is rooted in the idea that you get rewarded for your good deeds and punished for your bad ones.  This is more than just a cause-and-effect view of your works; it is wrongly applied to your spiritual life as well.  You are not saved because of any of your works (good or bad), you are saved from accepting the gift.  Yet the idea of punishment and reward persists, and neither is true.

It is not punishment when you suffer the effects of choosing evil, those are usually known consequences.  God does not need to add to the misery you have already brought upon yourself by your own choices.  You make enough trouble for yourself on your own when you choose against good.  Neither does God wait for you to perform some random act of kindness before deciding to grant you favor.  He is NOT Santa Clause.  God gives you many blessings and gifts without you ever doing anything to deserve them.  This is because He loves you.  If all God did was reward good behavior (he would be fairly inactive), and we would likely die from lack of attention.  Besides the good things we choose are in themselves all the reward we need.  The joy of doing good is its own reward.  If you only gave in order to get back, you are effectively working/earning your paycheck not really experiencing giving.  To truly give, you must receive nothing in return.

But there is an equal danger many people fall into which is the trap of “being a good person”.  These folks have no need of religion, or Christ, as they believe themselves to be ‘moral’ people who try not to hurt others.  Since they are ‘good enough’ on their own, they reason this is enough of an accomplishment.  No need to further muddy the issue with religion or God.  The problem here is the standard of what is good and moral is completely subjective to the person measuring themselves.  They generally compare themselves with others they know, and determine they are relatively as good or better than the next guy.  Given that most people do not absolutely define good or evil, they are a complex mix of the two components, they ALL think of themselves as good.  The guy who steals your car reasons he is better off than the rapist, who is better off than the murderer, who is better off than the child molester.  No matter what level of bad behavior someone is engaged in, they refuse to see they might not be all that good.  Since there is no objective standard, they are comfortable with the comparative measurements, even though they hardly reflect the view of others.

This is the most dangerous of human conditions; to believe you are good enough on your own, that you do not need a savior.  It is the equivalent of a hardened cocaine addict refusing to see himself as others do.  If you refuse to acknowledge you need help, you will not ever seek it.  Some refer to this condition as the ‘unpardonable sin’.  It is unpardonable, because no pardon will ever be sought for it.  People convince themselves they are not doing any wrong to be repentant of.  They believe the condition they find themselves in to be somehow God’s fault, and therefore believe they need do nothing to alter it, despite what God may tell them.  Rather than admit our mistakes, we arrogantly cling to the notion, they are not mistakes in the first place.  This is very dangerous, as this pathway is the one the father of all evil walked.  Pride did not allow Lucifer to admit his error, and he thus degenerated into Satan.

Better to be an addicted sinner, than an unrepentant righteous person.  Better to know your need, than deny you have one.  This is why God is able to work with humble so much easier than with the proud.  The humble know their own need, and beg God to change them.  The proud deny their need, and trust in themselves and in their own wisdom to save themselves.  Both the humble and proud may actually suffer from the same condition of sin, they may both actively embrace evil to their own detriment.  But the humble hate themselves for their failure.  The proud just refuse to look at their failures.  They make excuses.  Or simply deny the problems exist.  This is why learning to listen to what God tells you is SO important.  We need an objective benevolent voice directing us, advising us, convicting us when we need it.  We need help beyond our own wisdom to save us.  If you find yourself not living up to what God asks of you, do not deny He ever asked – instead ask forgiveness and strength and try again.  Don’t fall into the trap of trying to change God’s word to accommodate your choices; instead learn to make better choices.  Give God control of the desires of your heart, and let Him take the ‘need’ out of your evil actions.

And what about ‘lifestyle’ sins?  What about people who fall into the categories of kleptomania, paranoid or violent schizophrenia, chemical addiction (alcohol or drugs), and the like?  These kinds of habitual behavior that are a core part of the personality present an unusually difficult challenge for the person looking to follow God.  They may be convinced of their error, but feel powerless to alter it. 

Homosexuality is a hotly contested condition with respect to Biblical teachings.  In short, it is a type of sexual expression that is not considered good, the Bible condemns it.  However, many claim to be ‘born’ with these tendencies and completely unable to alter them.  Others are victims of abuse at early ages and are driven into this behavior as what would have been ‘normal’ sexual expression has been permanently corrupted for them.  Still others simply experiment with their sexual expression until arriving at this lifestyle as a pure matter of choice.  Regardless of motive, once arriving in this lifestyle, few rarely decide to change it.  Then a sort of weird phenomenon takes place with those who still seek to serve God, they try to bring all the basic principles of Christianity into their gay lifestyle.  They attempt to live monogamously.  They attend church, try not to be judgmental, and work with their other sins the same way everyone else does. 

Does God love these people?  Decidedly YES.  Can they be saved?  Again YES.  Will saving them change who they are and their sexual orientation?  Maybe not.  This part is up to God.  The biggest issue a gay believer will face is their own willingness to allow God to control their sexual desires and expression – just like a straight believer (it is a difficult thing for everyone to give up control to God).  If God never leads them to be any different than they are, who are we to judge?  But refusing to allow God control, and insuring that He never gets access to this part of their lives by trying to make homosexuality as nothing more than ‘alternative’ is the beginning of danger.  It is just like what happened when a straight believer, decides to keep God out of his affairs, multiple sexual partners, adulterous rendezvous, etc..  Not being able to alter your own behavior is different than not acknowledging if your behavior is what God wants for you.  The most important thing to remember about who can be saved, is that we are all the same in God’s eyes.  He loves us ALL equally.  We cannot judge, only God can.  And His gift of life is available to all.

Referential Integrity ...

How often have you heard the word “God” in front of the word “damn”?  It can make a believer cringe at the idea of taking the name of (or reference to) our God, and combine it with a literal curse, or worse yet, simply reference Him in vain.  While Christians have relative disdain for this common practice in our language, they think nothing for how else they reference God, either in absolute opposition to His principles, or worse yet in pure vanity.

How do you have a discussion with someone about the wonder and love that define our God, if they have never heard him referenced in that way up till now?  If I told you about a friend of mine, who most of you have never met, a friend who I have known since childbirth (we were neighbors) and grew up together.  We went to the same schools.  Were interested in the same girls.  Faced similar challenges.  I would say that as far as one person can know another, I pretty well know my friend.  If I further described him to you, as the biggest S.O.B. I had ever met.  If I told you he regularly kicked his pet dog, went to the bathroom on my lawn, and tortured babies for fun – would you really want to meet him?  If all you ever really heard about my friend was from me, and I was constantly telling you about how he misbehaves, and is a horrible human being, what interest would you have in anything to do with him, except as to avoid contact with him.

This is what 20^th century Christians have accomplished with our God.  We as a group of believers have consistently referenced God with a constant stream of negativity that would dissuade the most ardent believer.  We use His name to justify our wars, our murders, our thefts, … our evil.  We use His name to condemn.  Constantly to condemn.  To judge others.  To condemn those who do not share our beliefs.  While most Christians will not state publicly that they believe they get to go to heaven due to their good works – they will almost always accept the idea that you do get to go to hell for all your bad works.  In fact, bad works are the only reason for anyone to go to hell, right?  That is the false idea we have taught for years. 

The tender words “Jesus loves you” are said in context of hurling them at young women wrestling with the hardest decision they may ever face in their lives while seeking knowledge or counsel at an abortion clinic.  Screaming “Jesus loves you” while carrying a sign that states “abortion is murder” seems a bit inconsistent, and does nothing to say WHY the idea that Jesus loves you is going to make any difference to the poor girl wrestling with this decision.  It is certainly NOT an example of Jesus’ love.  In point of fact, Jesus would forgive her decision regardless of its outcome, and would truly seek to support her, love her, and show her real alternatives – not placards, slogans, and condemnation.  Consider further that Jesus might even have a different idea than you do about when exactly life begins.

But it is not just outside of abortion clinics where Christians reference God in negative ways.  They do it in their own speech.  They make regular statements like … “this must have been an act of God” to describe horrific events that ruin others lives.  They blame groups of people who do not share their own beliefs for the calamities that affect the world such as … gays responsible for aids, greed responsible for 9/11, lust responsible for hurricanes, abortion responsible for economic catastrophe.  In this way they depict God as vengeful, angry, and out for blood.  They use God and reference God to condemn the behavior of others, while never fully examining the behavior of themselves.  In this, every method of reference is negative.  So far the world of unbelievers, witnesses the world of believers, as the groups who lives life by condemning others, and having nothing of real value to offer them.  Sounds like we have described my fictional friend as our God, to the world around us.

Where does all this negativity come from?  How is it that Christians seem to only reference God in these terms?  It is because we as a group, have adopted the same philosophy as every other false religion in the world.  We have turned our doctrines into paganism through the elevation of the importance of self.  Simply stated, we have put the burden of salvation, from off of Christ, and on to our own shoulders.  In every other religion in the world, man serves God to earn his favor.  Only in Christianity does God serve man.  Only in Christianity does the God of the universe so reflect love that He defines it by giving up His own life, to save fallen man from his own fate.  Only in Christianity can a God be defined as pure and absolute love.

But unfortunately Christians as a group, are all too willing to accept the idea, that this doctrine is just too good to be true.  There must be some part we are required to play.  There must be something we are required to do.  Some work left on our doorstep so that we can earn the right to be saved.  Since we all know salvation is a gift of Christ, we will focus on the idea of getting rid of the sin in our lives, as the “work” that “we alone” are responsible for.  This work becomes our banner, our ability to judge others, and the reason why we look no different to an observant crowd than the next guy in line who does not share our beliefs.

The truth of the matter is far from this thinking.  It begins by understanding that the act of “salvation” is not our ability to go to heaven and live forever.  The devil has lived forever.  And for the past 6000 plus years being immortal and living in sin has been the definition of what Hell truly is; Separation from God.  To live forever in the condition of sin, is to live forever being tortured without rest.  Going to a city with streets of gold, and gates of pearl is NOT salvation.  That is the reward for the saved (who by the way will care less about what construction materials are used when you could be close to Jesus).  This is not salvation.

Salvation is being saved from evil itself.  This act only Christ can do FOR you, sometimes in spite of you.  To be saved then, is not to work to get rid of the sin in your life.  It is to work to let Christ do it for you.  It is the work of surrender.  The realization of your own unworthiness, combined with the acceptance of this condition.  To be saved is to submit even your will, your desires, the core of who you are to Christ alone.  The only way you survive, the only way you can be different, the only way you will ever have something of value to offer – is to learn how to surrender it all to Christ.  To give up on yourself.  To stop fighting to win it all, and accept the victory that Christ will do on your behalf.  You are not a partner.  You are not the worker.  You are not going to be able to claim an ounce of credit for the salvation you experience.  Your only claim to fame will be the statement that you gave it all up.

Christians have such a hard time with this idea, because they lack the faith that God will indeed do as He promised.  They fear (because evil insists on it) that were they to let go of their self-control, and self-discipline, sin would simply overwhelm them.  But not if it has been surrendered to God.  For God beats Satan every single time.  And the submissive, pliant heart, can be molded to abstain from even the thought of sin.  This is where the victory lies for every Christian life.  This is where real, and lasting differences and changes are made.  Not through the fires of adversity, through these may be a catalyst to start the process, but through the constant willing submission to God to remake you completely in His image.  It is putting your faith in God that He will not allow you to fall into sin you cannot shed yourself from, but that He can clean up the worst mess of it you have ever made in your life.  This is the power and love of God in action.  NOT to condemn you as you surely deserve, but to SAVE you from the fate you would otherwise find yourself in.  That is salvation.  That is what God’s plan and the Christian religion is all about.

When a Christian experiences this, they become changed.  And God is no longer referenced in terms of hate, cursing, or condemnation of others – but in gratitude, humility, and hope for ALL mankind.  When we start describing God as He truly is, and start referencing Him with the Integrity He deserves, we will see a fallen world embrace a love it could never find on its own.  We will see a fallen brother lie prostrate before a throne of grace, from the eye-level position of our own prostrate bodies who lie there right beside them.  We will see the prostitute, the thief, the murderer, the homosexual, the adulterer in the mirror as a mere image of what we ourselves used to be.  For All of us exist in this form right now, but through the grace of our God, the only God who serves His own creation, we are to be made anew; not to judge those who have not endured this transformation as yet, but to pray in earnest for them and for our own continued journey towards the perfection that defines the LOVE of our God…

A True Gift ...

There is a big difference between earning something and simply receiving it for free.  God recognized our complete inability to ‘save’ ourselves from our current condition.  He knew He would have to do all the work to restore us to perfection.  The effort and price that must be paid in order to reconcile us with Himself would be a burden He would have to bare without our help.  Therefore the plan of God to ‘save’ us from our condition included paying all the costs for us, and then providing us with the results as a free gift, we would never deserve.  This is a premise that man has historically had such a hard time accepting, the idea of getting something of infinite value for nothing.  All we have to do to receive it, is simply accept it. 

Here in America, we are fiercely independent.  We take great pride in our American dreams of working hard, and attaining the goals we set for ourselves.  We relish the idea of earning whatever we get in life.  And frankly we tend to condemn others as ‘lazy’ who appear any less fortunate than ourselves.  Accepting this gift, implies we did nothing to earn it, an admitted loss of control.  Accepting that God had to do ALL the work, means we do none of it.  A gift therefore, humbles us.  It becomes a sign that we indeed are NOT equal to God, but are in fact inferior to Him.  We need help to save us, beyond what we could ever do.  Even some Christians are completely reluctant to accept this idea.  They agree you have to take the step of accepting it, but then state in order to keep it, you have to perform a certain number of rituals, or good deeds, otherwise you lose it.  I don’t recall God ever asking for this gift back.  We are able to reject it, many do.  But it would not be a gift, if you accepted it, and then in order to keep it, had to begin working for it, to somehow earn it afterwards.  Get it straight Christians, there is no working on your part to be saved, it is a gift, pure and simple.

So what is the nature of the gift we are being given?  What does it mean to be saved from our current condition?  It begins with discernment.  The process of bringing us closer to God begins with learning what is truly ‘good’ and what is truly ‘evil’.  Think about it, if you knew which choice would ALWAYS make you happy, and which choice would consistently hurt you and those you love, wouldn’t you always choose the good one?  It would take a masochist or a junkie to choose something that always hurts you.  Understanding what is good is the first step in reconciling us to a perfect God.  This seems relatively obvious, doesn’t it, to want to choose good – so what’s the catch here?  It’s marketing.  Turns out, ‘evil’ has produced the greatest advertising and marketing campaign ever devised in the history of the Universe.  Its goal is to distort the sharp differences between good and evil – to make things that are evil seem cool, sexy, risky, and fun.  Then it makes what is actually ‘good’ for us to seem boring, a horrible sacrifice on our part, a waste of time, and dull.  And evil has had unparalleled success at this campaign.  Just look around you, everything that will probably wind up hurting you, are the exact things we all crave.

Why would ‘evil do this you ask, what’s in it for ‘evil’?  It seems ‘evil’ does know the real score, and ‘evil’ is destined to lose.  At some point in the not-too-distant future, evil will be eradicated, never to be heard from again.  And knowing this fact has pissed evil off.  Evil will not go down without a fight.  So how does one get back at an all powerful Creator God?  By attacking, torturing, and killing His children.  How could evil make even this heinous crime worse?  By having God’s children blame God for all the pain and sorrow, and then set about committing these crimes on each other (sometimes even using the name of God to justify their incredibly evil acts).  Evil is on the attack with rage and passion, and desperation as the time of its own doom gets closer and closer.  As the extinction of evil approaches, its fury intensifies, and we are in its line of fire albeit an indirect target.

To see just how effective evil has been in its marketing campaign to distort the judgment of an entire species (humans), take cigarettes as an example.  No, I am not saying that cigarettes are inherently evil, nor am I saying that the people who make them, sell them, or use them are ‘evil’ people.  (We’ll spend some time on another post talking about the dangers of ever judging someone else.)  I am simply calling attention to how the marketing campaign works in this case.  When you examine a cigarette physically, it is nothing more than paper, and tobacco (a plant grown on the earth).  There is nothing spectacular about a cigarette, no diamonds or gold produced from its consumption; it’s just plain old, paper and tobacco.  But how are cigarettes portrayed in this marketing campaign, they are associated with being cool, sexy, suave, and sophisticated.  Advertisers want us to believe that smoking will turn us into something more than we are today.  We will be better looking, more attractive, smarter, even richer from smoking – just look at all the imagery an advertiser uses to convey this message.  And it works.  But reality check here smokers, it is still nothing more than simple paper and tobacco.  It does not change ‘who’ you are.  A cigarette cannot take you from geek to chic.  Despite what marketers would have you believe; nothing you can buy, will actually make you more than you already are.  You were you, before the cigarette.  You will still be you, after it. 

Determining the true motive of evil is often quite hard to do.  Evil is very acquainted with the concept of lying.  Evil knows how to exaggerate, omit, embellish, and of course use the half-truth-half-lie approach.  And these tend to work very well in increasing confusion, obscuring the clarity of good decisions.  You see to continue our example a bit further; it would appear that cigarettes contain a chemical called Nicotine.  This chemical works directly on the chemistry of the brain to alter it (much like any other addictive stimulant or behavior), in order for you to begin to ‘crave’ the cigarette.  Now, smoking is no longer a matter of conscience choice, it becomes automatic or second-nature.  Instead of being something we choose to do, we pick it up ‘naturally’.  And we will not stand it long, to go without it.  We don’t even need the constant barrage of a marketing campaign to change our opinions after this happens, we self stimulate at this point.  And what is the problem with an addiction to cigarettes?  Tar, carbon monoxide, and half a dozen other far more dangerous chemicals that were also lurking around in our simple cigarette.  These far more dangerous chemicals will give a smoker a guaranteed change of life in the form of lung-cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer, heart attack, stroke, and premature, deformed babies just to name a few.  How ‘cool’ is that?  And wait there is more.  Yes, it turns out that just 2^nd-hand-smoke can also give your partner or your family, or those you love around you – all the same diseases you got from smoking, even if they never touched the stuff themselves directly.  This exposes the true nature and agenda of evil; deceive the victim, alter his brain chemistry to make him a habitual victim, then torture him and everyone he cares about with monstrous pain and suffering and eventual death (and if possible blame God for everything).  This is the agenda of evil.  And again, it has been very successful.

The ability to see evil for what it is truly, is the first part of our reconciliation with our Creator God.  The reason we seek the counsel of God is because we are able to trust Him completely.  God NEVER lies.  God wants us only to be happy and completely fulfilled in our lives – God HATES it when we suffer and experience pain. It is especially hard on Him when the pain is often so unnecessary, and seemingly crazy.  I believe this is what the Bible refers to as “the Mystery of Iniquity” that any intelligent life would actually choose evil on purpose.  Yet people do it all the time.  Some just do not see past or through the marketing hype of evil.  We have bought in to some of the most hurtful lies in existence.  God did not ‘save’ man from his happiness, and freedom.  God ‘saved’ man to give it back to him.  God does not want little robots who go around worshipping Him out of repetition and fear.  He wants real people, who think, reason, and love.  He wants your love because you freely choose to give it to Him, like He has chosen to give it to you.  Our ‘Salvation’ then is not some distant reality, it is a present one.  We are saved from the conditions we are experiencing right now.  We are ‘saved’ from choosing evil in ignorance.  We begin to reconcile with our God starting right now.  No need to keep on suffering in darkness, but to leave pain behind and walk in the light.  To find truth that has never been hiding from us, but has merely been obscured by evil in an attempt to keep us in a constant state of self-inflicted pain.  This is Salvation.  And it begins with us simply accepting it.

It continues to mystify me that there are those who say, “I do not need to accept God’s salvation today.  I will put it off until I am old and about to die.  Then on my death bed, I will accept God’s gift and get the best of both worlds.”  This is ludicrous (not the rapper).  What this is really saying is – I choose to be in complete misery and pain, to wander around aimlessly in the dark, hurting everyone I claim to care about until I am just about to die.  Then I will finally leave all this misery behind and find compassion, healing, forgiveness, and joy for a few brief minutes right before I die.  How ass-backwards is this?  Why would you delay fulfillment, and meaning, and joy in your life until sometime in the future.  To do this is to have completely lost sight of what Salvation really means.  Reconciliation with our God is a journey, not a destination per se.  We will ALWAYS be learning more about Him, about what Love really means, and the learning will become our source of joy, wisdom, and contentment.  Everything ‘good’ that has ever or will ever exist is being offered to us freely, and immediately.  There is not a second I would waste grabbing hold of this free gift.

So what do we do, once we accept the gift?  How do we learn more about our God?  How do we figure out how to be closer to Him?  Excellent subjects for our next few posts.  Stay tuned …