To Know the Will of God ...

What are we supposed to do?  Very often we reach decision points in our lives where the path forward seems very uncertain.  Do I go left or right?  Do I vote my heart or my head?  Do we proceed with this mission work even though we do not have the funds?  The answers to our quandaries are also not readily available in scripture.  We try to apply Biblical principles to our decisions, when so often in our modern world we lack a one-for-one scriptural answer.  We pray about our questions and ask to know what the will of God is for what we face.  Prayer is the most awesome tool in our arsenal.  But for most of us, prayer is a one-way street.  That is, we, do all the talking, God seems silent to us.  The prayers give us a sense of hope that our question will be answered somehow.  But this leaves us searching for an answer in the clues of the divine, not hearing an audible response from God directly on how to proceed.

So what to do?  Our God is the same God, from eternities ago, till infinities ahead.  He is a constant.  He is unchanging.  For how could love ever change and still call itself love?  The expression of His love may seem to grow in our eyes.  Our perspective on His love grows.  But His love was always there, it is us that is growing, not Him.  But for humanity, as times change, so do priorities, and methods.  Jesus did not speak to us directly, or prophetically, about our taste in our music.  He gave no dissertations about the use of an internet ministry, or an addiction to it.  He did not directly say whether we should engage full steam ahead in a TV ministry whether by broadcast, or satellite, or podcast.  Jesus never directly spoke about the “issues” the modern church faces in ministry to the world.  Jesus gave no direction about when a fetus becomes a baby.  There are scattered scriptures that touch on this, but no direct sermon from Jesus Himself while He was here.  Nor did Jesus speak directly about homosexuality whether in or out of the church.  These issues that so perplex the mind of the modern Christian seemed to occupy no time at all in His.

So when we face dilemmas in ministry we look to the remainder of the Bible to find direction on what to do.  We apply Biblical principles and come up with Biblical doctrines based upon our interpretation of how to proceed, and what is acceptable or not.  But then, like in our personal lives, our questions seem to take up all the talking in the room.  Listening to God, hearing Him directly, is a long-lost art.  Those who claim to have heard His voice directly, are immediately ridiculed by those who claim His name, because often the messages they report appear self-serving, and reflect a lack of love that Jesus gave no example of here on earth.  Most of those who claim to know the will of God, have a message of condemnation for the remainder of us.  Is this the God we serve?  Has love that was meant to provide an escape from our sins, and our desire to sin, now become a judgment of hatred from God Himself for our sins?  Seems unlikely.  So what is the will of God.  What are we supposed to do?

Things changed after the cross.  Not the questions in our lives of how to move forward.  But the priorities and the methods of His church.  Peter recalls to John Mark in his gospel in chapter sixteen picking up in verse 15 saying … “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  These were the words of Jesus Christ Himself, after the cross, after the resurrection.  He commands His church to “Go”.  But in our age we are content to stay put.  We prefer routine over adventure.  We prefer safety over the risk of movement into the unfamiliar.  We seek the rut of our lives, the routine of it.  Disruption of our routine becomes a fearful thing.  And Satan uses our fear to move, our fear to go, to keep the ministry locked up in the minds and hearts of those who already know it, at least in theory.  It is as the church was when only three women knew the gospel and would not speak it for fear.

If we are to make contact, we must be in proximity with others.  The gospel is not an ethereal concept.  It is a story of love, love that transforms, love that builds passion in the listener for those who have not heard it yet.  If we only crowd the pews we have ever crowded, we restrict the gospel to within the walls of the church, and demonstrate no passion for anyone other than ourselves.  The disciples already loved each other.  They had no need to fellowship together every week, once a week, and demonstrate what all of them already knew.  They had need to separate and spread the message of love to anyone and everyone who had not heard it yet.  Jesus does not even use the word men or women defining His target audience, He uses the word “creature”.  There is no-one beyond the love of Jesus.  He intends for ALL to hear, even the birds, dogs, cats, and nearby bugs if needs be, when spreading the good news of the gospel.  No matter what we think about the person we are destined to spread love to, we are to go to them, and share it.

The expectation is not for the hurting, dying, and erring ones to magically decide to come to church to hear the good news.  It is a command from Jesus that we “Go” to them.  That we take the love of Jesus directly to the person who needs it.  The gospel is a story of the love of God.  It is the story of Jesus Christ.  The life of Jesus Christ is unencumbered by the doctrines of the Pharisees, or the traditions of the Jewish faith in His day.  It is a more pure story, a living one.  It is the story of Jesus Christ, that causes us to re-look at scripture through His lens, not through the filters of our own preconceived ideas.  The story of Jesus Christ is not encumbered by the doctrinal beliefs of our day of our denominations.  Jesus was not a Catholic, or a Baptist, or a Mormon, or and Adventist.  Jesus is God.  Jesus was and is love incarnate.  Jesus carries no denominational affiliation.  He is Jew by birth, but God by religion. 

The story of Jesus, is the story of the gospel.  And what will happen when we Go?  John Mark continues in verse 16 saying … “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”  Those who hear must believe first.  God the author of our faith so longs to spark it in one who has never heard the gospel message, or seen love demonstrated by a follower of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit, so longs to bless the ministry of love to one hearing and in need.  To create belief when none existed before.  When we demonstrate a passion of love for the listener, really care about them as Jesus cares about them, we create a lure of love that our God uses to fan the flames of belief in a heart where none existed before.  But this effort by our God is so horribly dampened, when our message and our example is distant, cold, unfeeling or apathetic.  When we truly do not care for our listener, we represent our God of passion, as a God who could care less.  So far from His truth.  When we seek to meet our own needs before we dare to inspect the needs of another, it is we who need the message of truth.

But a real demonstration of love from a follower of Jesus to one in need, positions the Holy Spirit to fan flames of belief and reception.  When there is no hate in us, and no hate in our words, or our message, our God can work miracles as never before.  This is not a message of judgment and consequences for sin.  This is a message of love, reconciliation, and transformation that Jesus brings to any who believe.  Those flames of belief grow from a small fire to a forest fire in the heart of the new convert.  Until love for God is so strong, the new convert wishes for a public recognition of it through the tradition and ministry of baptism.  John the Baptist held his ministry in the Jordan river.  Jesus baptized there as well.  And now as we Go into the world, we must find places we can dip the new converts into the water submersing their old lives of sin, and bring them forth new creatures and new creations unto God.  The symbolism deepens faith in the one who is baptized and the ones who witness it.  It deepens belief.  It is why Jesus requests it of us.

For the curse of our lives is unbelief.  A refusal to believe will be our undoing.  A resistance against the Holy Spirit who aches to fan flames of belief within us.  Hearing the fantastic story of Jesus Christ calls for faith to believe; it calls for the suspension of human logic, and the embrace of divine logic.  Few accept these stories without a demonstration of what it has done in the life of one who does believe.  If the life of the disciple or follower of Jesus is not one bit better than the life of the unconverted, why should they believe.  Transformation is real.  Transformation brings with it witness.  Our own testimony is what God has done for us, not what we have done for ourselves.  Our own testimony is unique to us.  It is a statement of what the gospel has done for us in practical terms and why we love another so much.  It is what drives us to go, and what drives us to care.  That fire is something tangible that others can see.  It is a difference that is discernable.

The story of Jesus is the story of the Son of God coming to reconcile man to God because of love.  It precludes all other methods of finding God the Father.  There is no method of meditation or self-sacrifice or enlightenment that leads one back to God the Father.  Buddha will not get the job done.  None of the Hindu Gods will do it either.  Attempting to worship God the Father without recognizing His Son as our Jewish and Muslim brothers attempt to do, will inevitably result in failure.  The transformation of the heart to lose the desire to sin, can only happen if you believe Jesus can and will do it for you.  A lack of belief in Jesus cuts off the only source that can relieve you from your desire to sin at all.  Without the embrace of Jesus as the Son of God, there is no mechanism to do it that works.  Those who believe they can be “good people” without embracing any religion, will find their subjective goodness is just not enough.  The embrace of the gospel is about more than just forgiveness, it is about transformation into something else, something better.  And Jesus is the singular mechanism for seeing it done.

John Mark continues in verse 17 saying … “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; [verse 18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”  These signs, these miracles, these tools to aid in meeting the needs of others, and deepening belief in those who have never heard.  All these signs follow “them that believe”.  Think about that for a moment.  Jesus does not restrict this to pastors, preachers, bishops, members of one faith or another.  Jesus does not restrict this to men only, He includes women, the aged, the youth, every race, from every culture.  The only prerequisite is belief in the gospel story.  In the name of Jesus is the key that unlocks these signs.  Not in the name of a generic God.  Not in the name of God the Father even, but in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.  This is a reaffirming of belief once again.

What is done through these signs is casting out the bondage to sin in the form of possession.  This is a recognition that our enemy is real, unrelenting, and no less active in our day than he was then.  Speaking in new languages facilitates communication of the gospel message to those you would otherwise not understand.  Serpents and deadly drinks were common ways in which people were poisoned in those days.  Jesus here offers protection against the assassin’s chief weapon.  And finally, healing others, healing the non-believers in the name of Jesus.  As with the ministry of Jesus, no conversion was required first.  Meeting the needs was done first.  A demonstration of the love of Jesus Christ was done first.  Only then was the heart more open to belief in what seems like the impossible.  There was no time constraint put on these signs and tools.  There was no restriction of who could utilize them, only that we utilize them in His ministry.

John Mark records the post script to this commission in verse 19 saying … “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. [verse 20] And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”  Jesus ascends not long after this commission.  And this time, the church did as the Lord had instructed.  The gospel was spread in that day.  But what about in ours?  Are we asking the right questions?  Given that these instructions are no less relevant than in those days; are our questions we ask of God for His will reflective of this fact.  Do we go left or right?  Does this include the directive by Jesus to Go and to spread the gospel.  Would that fact influence which way we think follows the will of God?  When it comes to questions of ministry, are we designing methods and systems to follow up our electronic outreach with personal outreach behind it?  Are we still going, or now only sitting?

Have we constrained our message of outreach to the pure gospel of the story of Jesus, or have we indoctrinated it with the tenets of our own denomination?  If our testimony is not unique, but reflective of others, then what have we to say personally.  What Jesus did for my mom or dad, or wife, is a good story, but what has He done for me personally is more impactful.  The gospel is an infecting virus that creates a passion to love others.  If it is not creating that passion in me, I have likely lost sight of what the real gospel is.  And this commission was given to ALL who believe.  The signs and tools of the ministry were granted to ALL who believe.  No age limits.  No racial implications.  To both men and women.  Perhaps it is time for our church to refocus on the pure message of the gospel; to Go, to reach out, and find ones that still need a tangible demonstration of what the love of God can do for them through you.

 

Salvation Tutorial 101 ...

New Year’s is a perfect time to consider the basics of how salvation works.  New Year’s Resolutions in particular are a perfect target for consideration in how salvation works.  Each new year typically on January first, we announce to our family and friends, a set of goals or ideals we wish to accomplish in the new year.  It is completely arbitrary why the ticking of the clock from one second to another, and the movement of the calendar from one year to another should provide “the motivation” we need to accomplish these goals but so be it.  But no matter what we announce, or what we set out to accomplish, it just does not seem to get done.  Logic dictates that if we were actually going to reach these goals, they would already be done and historical.  The fact that they remain open is a pretty good revelation they are going to stay that way.  But none the less, many Americans repeat this tradition year after year never seeming to account for an audit of how good they did against previous goals, nor coming up with a new way of attacking the new ones that might lead to a more successful outcome.  The problem in a nut-shell … is you and me.

Call it higher priorities, insufficient funding, circumstantial prohibitions, or just good old “lack of will power”, it is nearly certain that all the declarations we set for the new year are likely to come up short.  The one constant in any new year’s resolution … you and me.  At the base of every declarative, is the person who declares it.  That person cannot control fate, cannot control his environment, ultimately has little control over his or her own health (given the pollution we are all subject to).  So given a complete lack of control over all the factors one would need in order to accomplish a particular goal, how could we possibly think we would do it?  Shifting priorities might be a kind way of saying our species shares the attention span and discipline of a nat.  We move from one obsession to another with the frivolity of ancient Romans (and with the same destiny as well).  Even if control over environment and circumstance could be fully achieved, control over the discipline-of-self is an even greater mountain to climb.  So why bother?  The best resolution I ever made, was to quit making them.  It seems that one, I have had the “discipline” to maintain.

But where it comes to salvation, often the same approach is taken, with ultimately the same result ensuing.  We pursue a path to perfection powered by our own declarations.  When reality sets in, and we realize how far from perfect we are, we determine “perfection” is not worth pursuing, and resign that however, and whoever we are today is simply “good enough”.  We rationalize that perfection must not be required by God, and that the love He extends for us in our sinful condition is big enough to leave us there.  The problem at the base of this form of salvation is no different than the culprit at the base of our New Year’s Resolutions … it is you and me.  Declaring we are perfect is not the same as actually being so.  And performing the actions of a perfect person without the underlying motivation of a perfect person is not really any better.  If you don’t sin, but you want to sin, you lose.  But people who are truly free from sin, are hard to find, and the path to get there must be to quote Oliver Stone … “a mystery, wrapped in an enigma”.  If it were easy, seems to me everyone would be perfect already, so since there are few, it must be hard.  This is sound logic, but wrong logic all the same.

It really only took Christ 5 verses in the whole Bible to explain the entire process.  But like dolts with the IQ and attention span of Homer Simpson, we skim over these passages and write them off as being “too hard”.  But perhaps you and me could take just one more look, and find it might be easier than we thought.  The revelation is mostly quoted directly from Jesus Christ, as remembered by Peter, and transcribed by John Mark in the gospel with Mark’s name, chapter eight, and picking up near the end of the chapter in verse 34 saying … “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”  Spoiler Alert … everything you really need to know is completely contained in this verse alone, the remaining four verses are only added for further clarification of what He said right here.

Let’s begin by looking at the context.  Jesus calls the people to Him as well as His disciples also.  What Jesus plans to reveal is the most important thing we could ever know and so He wants as wide an audience as possible for this one.  He opens with the declarative, then with the goal … “Whosoever will come after me”.  Whosoever might be the most hopeful word ever uttered because it lacks any kind of qualifications.  In essence, this offer is open to everyone, to anyone.  It does not matter what state of sin you find yourself in when you hear it, you can come too.  It does not matter how old you are from as young as it gets to hear Him, or so old you can barely still hear Him.  There are no boundaries around race or skin color.  It does not matter what culture you come from.  It does not matter what sex you are, or for that matter what sex you prefer; in fact it covers single people, married people, or divorced people (good thing for all us heterosexuals).  Jesus could have qualified His offer.  He could have said, everybody but these kinds of people.  He could have said, that you had to believe these particular doctrines first, but you will note, he does not.  This offer is for everyone, and it is not pre-qualified by any condition at all.

Next, is the goal … to come after Him.  If we would like to be like Him, live like Him, serve like Him, go where He goes, do what He does, be like He is.  That is the goal.  To be a different person, that is more like Jesus, than the person we are right now.  If that sounds appealing, it should.  Imagine having no addictions to pleasing self, and in its place, having a burning passion for loving others, and a sense of fulfillment and purpose that no one else can barely understand let alone attempt to take away from you.  Imagine having a relationship so close with God the Father, that health concerns are gone cause you simply heal everything (no exceptions).  Imagine hearing God the Father’s voice audibly in your ears, and knowing His will, and being overwhelmed in how pleased you are to carry it out, finding that one person in need, and meeting that need.  Imagine having no desire to sin anymore, and so spending no time thinking about sin anymore, instead free to think about things you never had time to consider before.  This is the goal Jesus is laying out without a single precondition, doctrinal study, conversion kit, or monetary donation in order to achieve.

Next Jesus lays out the mechanism for how to get this goal … now careful cause this is the part we usually get wrong.  Jesus says … “let him (or her) deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”  So there are three parts to this, and everybody zooms in on #2, but slow the train down, and let’s look at #1 first.  The way this offer is achieved BEGINs by denying that “you” can give it to “you”.  So instead of every tradition in the world you know about; Jesus.  Instead of studying the Bible till you memorize it, and can quote it backwards; Jesus.  Instead of adhering to a particular set of doctrines, in a particular denomination, and in a particular local church; Jesus.  Instead of being celibate, single, married, divorced, or just confused; Jesus.  The problem with every competing religion is that they ALL teach you that salvation, or nirvana, or enlightenment, or perfection, are achieved by what “you” do or don’t do.  The problem with most Christians, is that they take this philosophy and bring it right into our churches and believe that “you” are responsible for your salvation.  Whether in partnership with Christ, or in full on your own, either way does not “deny” yourself, and instead look ONLY to Jesus.

If your perfection relies upon you to achieve it, it might as well be one of those New Year’s Resolutions that you will never achieve.  The only way your motives will ever match your actions, and be in complete harmony with God the Father, is if Jesus MAKES you that way.  If He recreates and restores in you, a new creation He intended you to be.  It will be Jesus that MAKES you free from sin, not you who finds some way of doing it on your own.  If you do not understand the #1 thing Jesus says must be done to obtain His free offer, nothing else is going to make sense either.  But if you understand that you submitting your will, your desires, your actions, and your decisions to Jesus Christ is going to result in Him making you a new creation, then what follows makes much more sense as well.

Once the process of salvation begins (that is, Jesus saving “you” from “you”) you will quickly realize that the life you were living before is not the one you want.  “Who” you are today, is nothing next to “who” you can be after Jesus makes you a new person.  What you want today, will change completely after Jesus gets a hold of your life.  How you love will change, who you love will change from only you loving you, to you loving others completely.  You will love more passionately after Jesus.  You will sympathize and love more people than you ever thought possible after Jesus.  Your desires to sin will fade away, until you cannot believe you ever had them at all.  In short, the life you have today, will come to be a life you no longer want, or could ever imagine wanting again.  The new life Jesus creates for you will be the one you want.  At that point, only after that realization, will you be able to “take up your cross”.  The cross is the symbol of death, in this case, the death of who you were.  We take it up freely, because we no longer want the old life, but the new one.  That becomes our testimony, our witness.  This is not some sort of death cult, but it is a gospel of new birth, of re-birth, of recreation. 

Once we realize that Jesus alone saves us, and we are letting Him do that replacing our life with His new one, we begin to follow Him as the easiest road we ever walked.  Sure sin, and Satan are going to try to bring us pain while we remain on this side of heaven, but the intimacy with God the Father, can overcome anything this world can throw at us.  Following Jesus, is easy once the process He laid out is the one we are following.  Trying to follow Jesus, or pick up your own cross, without denying yourself; is the hardest thing a man or woman could ever attempt to do, and is doomed to failure.  What Jesus says beginning in verse 35 is … “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. [verse 36] For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? [verse 37] Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”  These verses are meant for someone who still thinks that his current life is better than something Jesus could give him.

For the sinner who is still firmly in the grasp of Satan, he is not so sure he wants to be a different person altogether.  He might have to leave his significant other, or stop having that affair, or quit cheating and becoming rich by it.  The temporary “pleasures” of this world might have a hold on the heart deceived by Satan.  Everything he invested in his current life looks like a lot, and the rewards might actually be significant; but Jesus is saying its entire value is nothing next to what He is offering.  Losing someone we “love” might be the result of submitting fully to Christ.  But learning how to really love others, will make the right union be all the richer in the future.  Losing the wealth of this world will cause hardship here, but abject poverty here for a short time is nothing next to the ability to give everything to others and find purpose and fulfillment we have never known before.  The cement is gold in heaven for a reason, it is worthless.  The people on the other hand are priceless.

Some sinners have a hard time when they consider what their “friends” and family might think of them if they pursue this course.  Jesus has council for them as well in verse 38 saying … “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  Those sinners who remains ashamed of changing into who Jesus would make them, will embarrass Jesus when He returns, for He will be unable to take them home with Him.  Jesus does not force you to accept Him.  He does not take control over you, unless you give it to Him.  Jesus can take you from whatever state of sin you are in today, and make you an entirely different person.  But if you choose to stay where you are, He cannot make you change.  Love does not force its will on another.

In these texts are the secret to perfection.  Where you have always failed at changing yourself, Jesus can change everything about you that needs it.  Where you might define yourself as the chief among sinners today, Jesus can turn your life around so you do not even recognize who you used to be.  This is why doctrine does not matter.  This is why sexual orientation does not matter.  Because Jesus will fix, what needs to be fixed, in His time, and in His manner, and no one else has the right to judge.  It is not who you are today that matters at all, only that you are willing to let Jesus’s love fully transform your life.  When He is done with you, you will not regret it, you will dive into it, embrace it, and be so thankful for it.  The process might be long.  The people who are supposed to be supporting you along the way, may throw rocks instead.  But the end product is so worth the journey.  To have your motives and actions aligned with God the Father is the ultimate prize for humanity, and that is what is offered freely, and is achievable in our reality.  This is way different than every New Year’s Resolution you have ever heard about, and way better, cause it works.  What do you want?  Who do you want to be?