But I fear a group of stalwart people who are truly
dedicated to a purpose they will not turn away from. Christ spoke of these people in terms of the
final judgment. They too knew who Christ
was, in fact, they preached in His name, Healed in His name, did miracles in
His name – and truly loved no one. They
were Christians. Their actions were all
good from our point of view. They had
the right doctrines from what we can tell.
They knew of truth. They even
went farther than most of the nominal Christians of our day and performed
miracles in the name of Christ that worked.
So where did they screw up? Why
were they left out of the Kingdom for so rudimentary a concept as love?
How does one gain the power of Christ and know so little of
the heart of Christ? These people were
confident in their pending reward of heaven.
They expected to go. They
believed perhaps they had earned it, given their defensive responses to the
dictates of their leader. But they had
no defense when Christ sited the examples of love they had never been involved
with, never performed, never knew.
Stalwart, faithful, upright Christians, doing deeds of greatness in the
name of Christ – on their way to hell for a complete lack of love.
Although perhaps it was not a complete lack of love they
were afflicted by; there was one they clearly loved, themselves. You see even within Christianity can lie the
greatest danger the world has ever known, the service of self. While performing miracles in the name of
Christ these folks took the honor that comes with that. Instead of humbly accepting the gift of
Salvation, they came to believe they were partners in some way. That in some way based on their excellent
deeds, they had come to earn a place in His kingdom. Their sense of comparative righteousness was
off the scale as they looked at the pathetic folks around them. And spiritually they considered themselves a
bulwark, a masterpiece, an example to aspire to. When nothing could have been farther from the
truth.
Flash a bit further forward in time to the final moments of
these souls resurrected lives. They sit outside
the descended city of heaven which now rests on the ruins of old Jerusalem in
the Middle East. The earth has been
dormant for over a thousand years, completely desolate until now. The risen wicked dead number in the billions
and have laid siege to the city planning a massive final attack designed to
kill the creator and his followers and replace them for eternity. Among these are the ones Christ identified,
the ones who had performed miracles in His name, the ones who thought they
deserved heaven while loving no one but themselves. Here they are.
The sky opens and reveals the biggest iMax the world has
ever known, all can clearly see the story revealed from the war in heaven to
the cross of Christ, to their own individual lives. Everyone’s motives are clearly revealed,
every deed laid bare for all to see. At
this ALL HUMANITY bows their faces to the ground and declares the worthiness
and justness of our God. The righteous
within the city throw down their crowns, and weep at the magnitude of love
displayed for their redemption. The
wicked outside are overcome by this display of love and are forced to utter the
truth that God is just, and God is love.
But upon uttering the truth, they immediately resume their evil
purposes. Their constancy resumes once
more and they rise to their feet shouting “kill the creator”.
The rebuke of Christ did not inspire change in these
people. It inspired hatred. It revealed that self remained the central
focus of their lives, even though they cloaked it in Christianity. They did not fall to their knees and beg
forgiveness and ask for change. They
walked away mystified that this chain of events could occur at all. The constancy of sin. The consistency of evil. And the pride and self interest that covers
it all.
But this does not have to be the case. Saul of Tarsus was also a devoutly religious
man, stalwart, upright, and a member of the established church of his day in
good standing. He too persecuted truth
he did not understand. He too murdered
innocents in the very name of God. And
he too was struck with the blinding revelation that his life and his faith, and
his actions were all a huge mistake.
Instead of persecuting truth he was to be a carrier of it. Instead of condemning Christ, he was to
humbly accept the gift of Christ. A
stalwart constant man would have been broken by this, but it turns out Paul was
pliable, and thus he was changed.
Peter too was a great man of faith; constantly taking action
to demonstrate his faith, walking on the lake, etc.. But Peter too carried the disease of pride
and it had to be broken within him before he was made fit to serve. His 3 timed denial of even an association
with Christ on the night of His death, broke what was left of pride inside of
Peter. From then on only Christ would
get the glory. Peter had to learn to
bend his will to the will of His Lord.
The problem with our perceptions of constancy is that we are
most likely to be constant about our mistakes, our misconceptions, and our
service to self. What we see as an asset
in our Christianity is probably much more of a detriment that we realize. We tend to be constant in performing evil,
and what is worse, in desiring evil. I fear
this constancy leads one to find themselves joining with others to shout “Kill
the Creator”. If something must be
killed by me, then let it be me. If
there must be a death in my world, let it be the death of self. To do this, I must realize that I must be
pliable. I must unlearn what I have
learned, and start anew learning the truth.
To find love I must learn to be pliable like Paul and Peter,
who after their conversions were bathed in love that no one could have words to
describe. Their lives were a testament
to the love of Christ. They showed us
what it meant to be free from fear, liberated by Christ, and honored to work in
His service. Miracles were not the point
of their ministries, they were but tools along the road to conversions of
souls. They used every tool in their
power to bring people to Christ, not to themselves. They called out the proud, and praised the
humble.
If we are to be clay in the hands of our Master; if we are
to be molded to the shape of His will; then pliability is our only asset. We must be willing to be led. We must be willing to be taught. We must be willing to change our minds on a
topic. We must be willing to give up
what we desire, and allow what He desires to become our will, and our nature. Clay that has hardened cannot be remade. It must be broken. While on the wheel, we may look a lot like
mud, but with His hands upon us, our destiny will serve the function He
intended for each of us, no 2 alike.
This is the beauty of pliability in His hands. Let us remember that even our Christianity is
not the ultimate defense against evil and self, Christ alone can perform this
function. It is not our arrogance that
defeats evil; But our humble recognition that Christ alone can defeat the evil
of self within us. Above all let us
remain pliable to His will.
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