Pain in the Butt Persistence ...

 

Have you ever encountered that toddler child who has already mastered the art of getting what he/she wants from mom and dad?  Nearly all the time “winning” that encounter consists of nothing more than outlasting the other guy.  The toddler asks, and asks, and gives hugs, bribes, promises, then goes back to asking, and asking until the parent is so worn down, they would give up anything just for moment’s peace.  It is not that the parent thinks any differently about the topic.  Their answer may always be a firm no, especially if life worked like it does in a court of law – “asked and answered your Honor”.  But that is not how the mind of toddler’s function.  When they see a thing; if mom or dad denies them, they just start a relentless campaign of “bugging” them until mom or dad caves in and gives it to them, just to shut them up.  Effective.  Now in fairness, a toddler carries the “cute factor” which makes it much harder to resist.  An ugly persistent adult in the workplace, might quickly find themselves on the unemployment line for similar nagging behavior.  But an adorable toddler, can last for days, never yielding an inch of cute, nor a moment’s peace until what they want, is theirs.

So have you ever thought about this where it comes to prayer?  Is it possible we wear God down by asking Him the same thing over and over and over again, until He grants our request; perhaps even if that is not what He would have preferred to do?  Now let’s face it, there are certain parallels in this.  God sees us all as adorable toddlers, no matter how old we are.  We don’t ever lose the “cute” factor as He looks at us.  But we sure take on similar behavior where it comes to getting something we want from God.  We beg over and over again, we throw Him kisses and hugs, we make promises and vows we intend to keep, well at least until it becomes “too hard” to keep them.  And then we go back to asking and asking again.  While it is impossible for us to outlast God in any one of these encounters, we might actually need to be taught a lesson about what it means to get what we ask for, even when God was longing for us to accept His “no” and trust Him over it.  And another similarity, toddlers don’t always ask for the right things.  They very often ask for outlandish things, and things that are decidedly dangerous for them to have.  Yielding to one of those requests could seriously put us in harm’s way.  But we go right on asking, not recognizing we are asking for the wrong things, at the wrong times, and may well be jeopardizing our very souls in the doing.

Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of success, in a persistence that borders on pain-in-the-butt levels.  Whether here with our fellow mankind, or upwards with our God who hears everything.  Jesus offered us a parable to get us thinking about this.  Luke recorded it in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why in the eighteenth chapter right at the top in verse 1 it reads … “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”  Even if we do it wrong, better for us to keep on praying.  Even if we do not immediately get what we want, keep on asking.  The answer from God may never change, but the connection with God is critical to teach us trust, and faith, and look to see our prayers in the context of a reality that cannot be shaken by the words of others who do not believe.  When we faint away, when we give up, our prayer life recedes into a dark corner, and we begin to lose all hope that any prayer might be answered, or that God cares about us at all.  He does care.  And even if He is forced to withhold from us that which we toddlers keep asking for, the connection of the prayers themselves matters to Him and to us.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: [verse 3] And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.”  To begin we are not describing God here.  This particular judge was effectively an atheist who did not regard God in any way.  Moreover, this judge was not exactly any kind of humanist, nor sensitive to the needs of others.  That would leave him a self-centered man only interested in making himself happy, however that needed to be.  Now in contrast to the judge (who most of the time are reasonably wealthy and happy) is the widow.  A widow by definition has experienced a primary loss, the loss of her husband, of her security, of her income stream.  That kind of loss is enough to make someone miserable.  And as we know, misery loves company.  Not long before it finds it.  Turns out the widow has a nemesis, an adversary she does not like.  Maybe this nemesis gossips about her.  Maybe she taunts her at the water well, or makes fun of her in the marketplace, or ridicules her at temple.  And what is more it is likely this adversarial relationship is a 2-way street.  Hard to have an enemy when you refuse to be an enemy.  So the widow plots the downfall of her nemesis, taking her grievances to this judge, to get the judge to avenge her cause.  “This” is not a good request, it is NOT a good prayer.

But how often do we pray the same exact thing?  And every time I hear someone offer a prayer for the destruction of others, I always hear a reference to the prayers of David.  But David was contending with the needs of the nation, in conflict with those who would eliminate the worship of his one True God.  Had David’s life been sacrificed Israel may have completely forsaken God at the end of Saul’s reign.  Our troubles with our earthly enemies rarely if ever have anything to do with forwarding of the gospel.  They are instead purely selfish in nature, where we ask for God to pick one of His children (us) over another (our enemy), even while both of us are in desperate need of His salvation, His transforming love in our lives.  If we were to embrace that transformative love, we might have long since lost the concept of enemy in our vocabulary.  But sometimes we like this widow, let perceived wrong-doing, or real wrong-doing against us make others our enemies we wish vengeance against.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; [verse 5] Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. [verse 6] And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.”  So the judge was not inclined to do what the widow asked.  Maybe because he just didn’t care.  Maybe because he was not inclined to punish the enemy of some widow who did not have a good enough case.  But this widow was not letting it go.  She kept coming back, day after day after day.  She was relentless, always in his face.  And frankly, this judge did not have time for this.  It was eating into his day.  He did not want to be bothered.  He just wanted it to go away.  He just wanted a moment’s peace.  Sound like the parent / toddler situation to you?  I don’t know about you, but I have seen this parable play out in every grocery cereal aisle I have ever been in.  Toddler wants Captain Crunch, or Lucky Charms (still my personal favorites); mom wants Total, or Raison Bran (not sure how those brands are still in existence) – but with some relentless begging, most of the time sugar gets put into the grocery cart.  Mom just needs peace after all, and values it more than vitamins on occasion.  This parable Jesus tells however is made up, an illustration of the same principle carried out in a much more serious way, even with imperfect protagonists.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? [verse 8] I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”  Here is where the parable or analogy gets real and gets very intense.  Persecution and murder are no laughing matter, as one child of God inflicts it upon another allowing evil to reign in the heart, the pain of the victim reaches up to God in heaven.  Those prayers of deliverance come with the intensity of life and death, for they suffer a very real life and death matter.  And not all those prayers of deliverance can be answered.  The heart of God must break as He watches one precious child suffer or die at the hands of another, in a desperate attempt to break the evil in the other, and bring salvation to all.  It is what the faithful would wish, if they could see the tapestry God weaves for the salvation of us all.  But that is decidedly NOT clear when you are under the curse or evil of persecution and facing your own mortality because of it.  And here Jesus says that God hears those prayers.  And while God has born our grief and suffered long with us, in order to save us, His patience has an end.  There will come a time when God says to mankind – “enough”.  Let he who is evil, be evil still (chilling words of revelation to our hearts); and let he who is holy be holy still (mysterious words few can comprehend).  But when those words are uttered, patience will be at an end.  What follows them is destruction brought about by the hand of God Himself.  A very targeted destruction against only the wicked.

Jesus says of this end, it will come speedily.  Perhaps as was just discussed earlier in the analogies of Noah and Lot, speedily because we are all too busy living our lives, getting through our days, and completely unaware that time is upon us.  Then Jesus ponders an even more chilling question of His own.  When He does come back … will he find faith on the earth?  Those are very sad words my friend.  In the time of Noah only 8 souls were saved the destruction that wiped the earth clean of evil.  A proof that evil’s time would not last forever, and its destruction universal.  In the case of Lot, only 4 souls were saved, and even one of those lost later by turning back to see an entire evil city be wiped from existence for the evil that consumed the hearts of all those who lived there.  A second proof offered before the final destruction of all of evil.  But SO few saved, willing to seek the grace of God, or move with faith to follow what God had asked.  The rest, evil to the core, and completely unconcerned with matters of faith – more concerned with matters that please self to the core.  And Jesus ponders out loud, will ANY faith be left upon planet earth when He does return?  That would argue that just like in the time of Noah, or Lot, few, very few souls, look past the lives they live to the prayers they offer and the faith they build.

Jesus began this segment by stating that persistence can accomplish so much more in our own hearts than giving up will ever do.  He told a parable of a desperate widow asking a crooked judge for something that should not even been asked, but finding relief because of her persistence.  To extend, we are not so much looking to change the heart of God by our requests, as we are looking to change our own hearts in the process.  For we are both widow, AND judge.  We ask the wrong things, and care so little about it.  But by persistently coming before the throne of grace, and looking upwards to our loving God in heaven, we begin to see Him more clearly.  By focusing our vision upon God – we begin to change.  We begin to care more, even about our perceived enemies.  We begin to ask less for their destruction, even though they persecute us, and more for their salvation.  As we begin to pray those prayers we are changed even further.  Our hearts become broken upon the anvil of God’s love and our faith is increased tenfold.  Our prayer life becomes one centered on the needs of others.  For our own needs we come to learn have already been addressed by God before we ask.  So we begin to focus on the needs of others, looking to free God to answer our prayers in the lives of others who may not otherwise ever ask.

Free will is a delicate line.  God cannot cross it without permission to do so.  A soul who rejects God pushes God away, and greatly constricts what God is able to do for them.  But when you or I pray for salvation to come to the erring rejecting soul – God is allowed to answer our prayers on their behalf, and try again.  God does not give up on the lost.  But our prayers for the lost, change us, and empower Him, perhaps to reach out to the lost using even us (His broken tools).  Will you find the faith to even care about the lost who surround you every day?  Jesus wonders aloud if anyone will.  Too many of us are consumed by only one priority – us.  We care about ourselves, about our own condition.  But we leave the lost up to God, and find no more care in our hearts about them than we do a piece of garbage that blows across our lawn.  When Jesus returns will He find an entire earth of people so apathetic to the needs and hearts of others?  It is possible.  But it need not be.

The secret, or rather the key, is to continue praying – and not faint or fade away.  Let us make our prayer lives as active as our need to breathe.  Let us remain the cute toddlers constantly bugging our parent God, but begin to see our requests for ourselves, changing, becoming requests for the lost our hearts break to see.  For we have no enemies, we see only those in more desperate need of the love of Jesus.  Let us pray to be the conduits of God’s love, and not the obstacles of it.  Let us trust that our own needs have already been addressed (the Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms are already in the cart, and the cart is already overflowing).  Given this, we are free to pray to fill the carts and hearts of others with the blessings God has already seen to it, we receive. 

In my experience, the prayer “give us this day our daily bread”.  Is answered by God offering me not just bread.  But bread of many varieties, fresh, and delicious.  More than that, sandwiches, and pizza’s, and panini’s that are served with pasta’s and steaks, and vegetables, and fruits.  We ask God for daily bread.  And I find He answers with meals far beyond the asking.  This is how God takes care of me.  Not just in food.  I ask to be loved, and love is poured out upon me from sources I never dreamed would, with intensity I never imagined.  My wife becomes more precious to me than life itself.  So now perhaps I can come to trust that my needs have already been addressed by my God.  And I am free to pray for her, and for the world around me.  And beyond my prayers, I can become a broken tool willing to be used by God in the salvation of others, with a new found passion to see the lost come to Jesus and find what I have found in Him.  This is a process I can testify works, because it continues to work in me.  If nothing else I wish to be the Noah and his family at the end of all things, and I wish you and your family are as much Noah as we hope to be.

 

Fields of Perfection [part three] ...

A journey can sometimes be an arduous thing.  The voyage from point A to point B is not always painless.  But that pain is nearly a guarantee when an enemy works to insure it.  I always find it remarkable that folks who ascribe to atheism do so while blaming God for everything bad that happens in the world (if there was one); but fail to ever attribute any of the pain and suffering to the devil, His enemy.  It is as if there is only one responsible party for anything bad, but the other guy just continues to not exist.  Even in atheism, the devil continues to pull off the great deception of just never being there for anything bad.  But in Christianity, this deception takes the form of “forgetfulness”?  Somehow Christians think there are bad people in the world, but seem to forget they face the chief of all evil in their journey away from self.  On occasion we remember there is a devil, but in general seem to think he couldn’t possibly affect “our” lives (perhaps with disease, temptation that leads to failure, or even death itself).  But he does, and he remains very active as Jesus reminds us so long ago.

Imagine planning a vacation to Disney World (home of the 6ft rat 😊).  But then everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.  Some call that Murphy’s Law (perhaps the devil’s middle name is Murphy?).  Bad coincidence is survivable, though not enjoyable.  It would however not make for a great vacation to say the least.  We think of our vacations as an escape from stress, not a deepening of it.  But now imagine that same vacation plan you create and begin to set in motion.  This time, the circumstances beyond your control are cooperating fully, but your wife is not.  This time, your wife not only resents going, she is determined to make your vacation as miserable as possible.  You do not just lose your wallet, she steals and hides it.  You did not just forget your reservations number at the hotel, she not only stole your paperwork, she secretly cancelled the reservations without anyone knowing.  This behavior is not designed to keep you from going, perhaps she is unable to do that, but it is designed to make every inch of going as hard as possible, and as miserable as possible.  That, is the role the devil plays in your spiritual journey.  He is unable to stop you from movement, but he is unwilling to concede a single inch without inflicting as much distraction, failure, pain, and misery as it is possible to inflict upon you along the way.  And it is not the will of God, it is the will of His enemy.

So the argument emerges, why not just prevent him (Satan) from doing it – perhaps kill him to keep him from this?  But then, without any kind of test, would you ever know what you “truly” believed, and how much you truly believed it?  Without test, would you really know how much you trust God to save you, or would you believe you did it all yourself?  And when the devil uses human agents to accomplish his goal of making your journey miserable, can you possibly consider killing the messenger who needs redemption and reconciliation as much as you do?  Bad children are still children.  You do not execute your two-year-old because she intentionally throws milk at you.  You do not kill her because she hits her sister.  These behaviors are what need to go.  But your daughter remains your daughter even when her actions cause pain to others, and ultimately to you, and God.  In the eye of God, “bad” people, are children He is still trying hard to redeem.  And sometimes your spiritual journey is made more difficult by people who act as agents of the enemy whether they know it or not.  Something that again, is not new.

Matthew documented a parable of Jesus in a continuing line of parables that addressed this in chapter thirteen of his gospel.  He picks up with the words of Christ beginning in verse 24 saying … “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: [verse 25] But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.”  Before we decipher the meaning of this parable which Jesus explains in further texts we will read before proceeding, there are a few other items of notice.  First, this is the second parable in a line of them that uses farming as the analogy.  As stated before farming is not an instant process, it is a growth process.  It takes a farmer’s care if a harvest is to be gained.  The seeds respond to the work of the farmer, they do not work for themselves.  They will need planting, fertilizing, water, sunshine, and earth before what God intended them to become happens.  This is in a perfect world.  This story begins with introducing intentional means of destruction.  Here we learn, that the farmer has an enemy, and the enemy has done something to intentionally hurt the farmer, the seeds are only a mechanism to hurt the farmer, that was the enemy’s only goal, the seeds mean nothing to him.

Jesus decodes this parable beginning in verse 36 saying … “Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. [verse 37] He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; [verse 38] The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;”  Duh!  The explanation of this is kind of exactly what you might expect, but the disciples asked for one anyway.  It is good being stupid.  Think about it, you could have made assumptions about this story, and hardened those assumptions until no other truth gets in.  That is what we do all the time, and we call those assumptions and interpretations – doctrine.  Once hardened in tradition we call it core beliefs and we would rather die than open our minds to some other interpretation of the same set of facts.  The disciples were smart enough, or rather stupid enough, not to make assumptions of their own, but instead TO ASK TO BE LED by Jesus before putting “anything” in their minds.  And this approach works, even today.

As it turns out, the farmer is Jesus the Son of Man.  The field is the world.  That sentence is sometimes one Christians like to forget.  We associate “the world” as being the mission fields, someplace primitive and far away.  But the world includes Hollywood, and New York City.  It includes gay bars, and for that matter, bars of every kind.  It includes places like Kansas, Alabama, and Arkansas.  It includes the families within our own churches, and the people within our own families.  The world is not exclusive, it is inclusive of everyone, everywhere – in places that are primitive, and in places where sins are committed on purpose by people who should know better, like us.  The good seed are the children of the kingdom.  We like to think that is us.  But we forget that word “children”.  We gloss over it like a phrase so often repeated it loses meaning.  There are only “children” in this explanation.  No adults identified and everyone in the world is included in the meaning.  That means you are either following God, or His enemy, and you are not old enough to even think there is a third option.  Folks convinced they are adults, are actually children following the enemy who tells them they are adults and in control, they are deceived and they do not know it, because they do not want to admit the truth, told by The Truth.

These weeds however are not wicked supernatural agents, they are just humans, doing the bidding of who they follow.  And your spiritual journey can be impeded by them.  It is like having your husband hide your purse everyday before you leave the house, or your wife hide your wallet.  People clinging to false ideas, they are certain are correct, and wanting to share them with you whether you want to hear them or not.  Better to both come in surrender and humility before Jesus and ask Him, what does The Truth say in this matter or that one.  That act of following, combined with that acknowledge in humility that we need His wisdom, is becoming children of the kingdom.  It is attempting to become perpetual students at the feet of Jesus to learn, ignoring all other distractions and purported “wisdom” of men.

So let’s go back to the parable in verse 26 as Jesus continues saying … “But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. [verse 27] So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? [verse 28] He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?”  Before we get the explanation a couple things to notice here.  Notice that question of the “servants” to the farmer – didn’t you sow good seed, why does it have weeds?  Nearly everyone blames the farmer, or God, for the weeds.  We do something bad, we blame God for it.  We suffer from the bad actions of someone else, we blame God for it.  But God says … “an enemy has done this”.  There is more than one supernatural actor in this story, and in our world.  Satan tempted Adam and Eve, God did not.  God warned them how to avoid temptation (stay together, and stay away from it).  But we treat the warnings of God lightly believing in strength we do not have, and stumble right into failure without even a second thought, until the guilt of our failure sets in again, or the consequences have immediate effect.

Jesus deciphers more in verse 39 saying … “The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”  In case there was any debate about how weeds get there, they get there because the devil sows them.  The devil tempts people into failure after failure until they no longer believe anything but failure is possible.  In truth it is less the sin he wins them over by, but instead the notion that “they” could control the sin if they just wanted to try hard enough.  Instead of looking to Christ where victory over sin is guaranteed (we do nothing, and Jesus beats it for us).  The devil gets people to try to fight him one-on-one, over and over again.  He tells Christians you must do your best first before God can help you, or will help you.  Christians believe the lie, and so are doomed to a life of failure after failure.  If the world would look to Jesus to save them, truly let Jesus do the work for them, salvation would be assured.  The kind of salvation that changes what you do, because it changes how you think and how you love.  The only thing you “do”, is keep surrendering to Jesus and stay out of the fight.

We return to the parable with Jesus answering the servant’s question about getting rid of the weeds early, picking up in verse 29 saying … “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. [verse 30] Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”  More here than first meets the eye.  The argument about “soon” should have faded a bit.  The servants ask the farmer if He wants to move early to get rid of the weeds, and the farmer does not.  The farmer wants to wait, give it time.  He wants to save everyone, and everyone has that chance.  Only this farmer could turn weeds into wheat, and that is what He longs to do.  God would prefer to return to a world entirely occupied by wheat, where every weed gave themselves to Him to be transformed.  But alas, too many weeds, choose to be weeds, and do NOT want transformation of any kind, even Christians sitting in pews, singing hymns since they were children.  A hardened heart, is a hardened heart – where it is sitting, and what it is singing – are not important.

Jesus interprets picking up in verse 40 saying … “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. [verse 41] The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; [verse 42] And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. [verse 43] Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  Here is where the rubber meets the road.  The criteria for the angels as they sort weed from wheat is perfection.  Things that offend, and they that do iniquity – are the weeds that are cast out and burned at the end of all things.  Notice it does not read, well Christians that only do iniquity or sin on occasion should be spared.  This is not a partial-pass method here.  Those that still sin, that still offend, will be cast out.  It means that our journey does reach an end, a maturity in Jesus where we will stop sinning, and stop offending.  Stop sinning that is our actions and motives coming in harmony with God and the Law.  Stop offending, that is we stop teaching others incorrect methods of salvation, stop teaching them to rely upon self, and rely ONLY upon Jesus, to TRUST Jesus to save them, for only He can.

This is the end of our journey, and there is an end to it.  Those who remain alive at the second coming of Christ will have already reached the end of our spiritual journey’s.  Those who died in that quest, will have the remainder fixed in the twinkling of an eye at the resurrection of the righteous.  But the wheat will be perfect at the end of all things, sinning and offending no more.  He who has ears, let him hear, are the words of Jesus, The Truth.  The criteria of perfection is not a threat, or a death sentence.  It is a promise.  It is hope.  It is a description of what the end of your journey looks like within who you are.  It is the gift of Jesus Christ to you, and will happen within you individually.  The church does not bring it.  Your wife or husband does not bring it.  It happens because you submit and surrender to Jesus one-on-one, and only Jesus brings it about within you.  Your failures do not prevent it, they are but guiderails to point you back to Jesus, to surrender more, and trust more, to let Jesus bring it about in you.  Do not focus on failure, focus on Jesus.  Stay your eyes upon Jesus and He will do everything that must be done to save you.

What these stories teach us, is that there is no quick fix, no instant, no one-and-done.  But what they also teach us, is that the Farmer will see the harvest complete within each of us His seeds, if we but let Him.  The farmer does the work, we become the benefit, and perhaps feed the world, or at least our corner of it, turning every eye back to the farmer Jesus Christ.  The seed is not the hero of this story, the farmer is.  The harvest itself is not the event of this story, the transformation of the seed is, that transformation happens before the harvest can begin.  We must be transformed by Jesus, before our actions matter.  We must love before showing kindness has the full effect it could have.  Our motives behind what we do matter.  And the perfecting of our souls, minds, and hearts IS possible through Jesus Christ as we submit ourselves to Him, and trust Him to do the work.

And there would be more parables in this line before it was over yet …

 

Foreword & Introduction ...

Take a good long look in the mirror and realize one thing; whether you are going to heaven or not, the guy looking back at you will be the reason why.  What is more, many around you may share your fate whether on golden streets in the perfection for which you were intended, or outside the gates, fallen, miserable, and only waiting for the death you deserve.  In this too you will bear responsibility.  The only enemy you face in your quest for eternity is staring back at you in the mirror.  You and therefore I are the enemy.

Christians have lost sight of the most fundamental doctrine of the Bible; what it means to be saved.  For years we have forsaken the doctrine of surrender to Christ and have tried unsuccessfully to do the work only He can do in our lives.  We sin, and we promise not to again, we strive, we fight, we pray, and ultimately we lose our fights.  It is not our lack of faith, or the inability of our God that stands in our way.  It is our obsession that we remain in control of our quest for perfection.  We are our own worst enemy.

To reform this thinking we must go back to the beginning and re-examine why we are here, and what God originally intended for us.  We must understand better the nature of evil, where it comes from, and how we are finally going to be rid of it.  Only then can we face the tough questions that fill our world and our experiences in day to day life.  If we are going to properly represent Christ we must remember it is we alone who are our enemy, and we alone who must die daily in order to experience real victory. 

This volume is intended to provide a pathway for Christians to re-insert Christ into our lives in a life altering way.  It is time we abandon the language of religion and begin experiencing the tangible power of God in our lives.  If our God is real, then our experience must also be real; or we are all just a bunch of fakers.  Instead, let us take hold of our God as Jacob once did in the black of night when the weight of the world was upon his shoulders.  Instead of wrestling with the Lord, let us surrender to Him, and hold tightly to Him until we see His blessing lived out in our lives.  Let us stop being the enemy and find a way to call ourselves His friends.

Friends & Enemies ...

Who do you call friend? How is your friendship defined? Is it based on common values, shared experiences, proximity, or growing pains? How long does it take you to make a friend? I am sometimes humbled by watching small children on a playground. They meet, they speak, and they being playing together immediately assuming there is friendship between them. It takes an abuse of the assumption to change the minds of smaller children. If no such abuse takes place, the friendship is confirmed. The older we become, it seems the longer it takes to move the status of someone we associate with, to the category of friend. We categorize people in many ways such as: acquaintance, fellow employee or co-worker, boss, current client, sales prospect, customer, guest, classmate, church member, family member, friend-of-a-friend, person of interest, date, fiancée ,,, there are many you can name; but few imply friendship. Why?

A true friend puts no demands upon us, so you would think we would aspire to have many of them, not less. You would think we would be working to include almost everyone we encounter in a positive way as part of our friendship lists. Instead, sin or evil has put a crimp in our ability to trust. We tend to be more reserved and cautious when making new friends. We have to assess what the reason for the friendship might be from the other person’s perspective. All of this thinking is practical. It is based on our real world experiences. It is based on the number of times we have been hurt by those we thought to be our friends. And as usual, it is limited thinking that due to Christ and our submission to Him, we are free to move beyond.

How does submitting the will to Christ allow us to make more friends, and take more risks, you ask? First, it teaches us a proper reliance on Christ alone for our emotional needs. It helps to center where we look for reassurance, guidance and even comfort to one who will never let us down. Knowing we can trust Christ 100% of the time, gives us an emotional foundation from which to approach the world and each other. Second, allowing Christ control over our day, our decisions, and our likes and dislikes gives Him the freedom to lead us to who He wants us to encounter. Our interactions with others then become anything but random. If Christ leads us to someone, it may be for us to meet that person’s need, or perhaps for them to meet ours. But we can have confidence that there is a purpose for it. As our faith and trust increases in Christ, our ability to love others deepens and becomes more immediate. We begin leaving the worries with Christ, and start enjoying the freedoms this provides in our day-to-day relationships with those we encounter.

In addition, as our emotional reliance becomes more intimately involved with Christ and as we get to know Him better one-on-one, we begin to have more to offer in a friendship with others. We are less “needy” ourselves, and more suited to “give” in a relationship. This makes us more attractive as a potential friend to those we encounter. As Christ has served us, we are able then to appreciate what He has done for us, and are inspired to share His work for others around us. We are equipped better to offer an encouraging word, take time to notice the achievements or efforts of others, and offer appreciation to those who rarely receive it. In short, our submission to Christ, makes us a better friend to have. It also changes the nature of our enemies.

Know someone who is out to get you? Perhaps a current or former colleague who would spare no expense to see you fail? The friction could have started from jealousy, or perhaps a perceived insult, maybe from real damage inflicted in action – but somewhere, somehow, you developed an enemy. Sometimes those we disagree with politically or religiously we think of as our enemies. But rarely do people who merely disagree with us, take the time and invest the energy required to do us actual harm. A real enemy does not mind investing either in our demise. It is human nature to believe we do not deserve to have an enemy. It is within us to blame the enemy for the source and status of any conflict. We may have made overtures in the past to resolve the conflict peaceably. We may have offered an apology even when we did not believe we were in the wrong. And still our enemy is undeterred. What now?

There is a truism about divorce, in that it takes two to complete one. Even though the fault may seem completely one-sided, and all external appearances may support this view – it is just never that simple. Ignorance, omission, and negligence can play as vital a role in why we develop an enemy as malice, or direct action might. We may have spoken our passionately held opinion in the presence of someone who held equally passionate and opposite views. We may have shared our negative feelings about someone and used improper language, which by the time it returns to the person we were talking about, is made even worse through exaggeration. We are sometimes ignorant of the damage a careless word can cause, and sometimes, in so doing, our enemies feel justified in their feelings towards us. It is nearly impossible to maintain an enemy without active participation on your part.

What does submission to Christ do to change our enemies you ask? It begins by changing us. Through bowing our pride to Christ, we allow Him to lead us to truth. Sometimes the Truth is unpleasant to us as He reveals our part in the creation of our enemies, but it is still His truth. And the revelation may be needed before we understand why our apologies may be needed, and why they should be sincere. When we realize the damage we may have caused our enemy, it melts our own hearts. Sympathy is then possible for someone who as yet may still hate us. Knowing we may have erred, allows us to approach our enemy in humility. We may have to endure insult, anger, and resistance as we approach as this is the conditioned responses one gives to an enemy. But part of our submission to Christ has enabled us to look beyond the pain that drives bad behavior, to the need we all have of love. Through Christ we are able then to obey His council and finally and truly LOVE our enemies.

Love is a hard thing to resist. Trading anger for calm responses, trading wicked lashing out, for considered sympathetic responses – these are hallmarks of a submitted will to our Master. Through His strength our human weakness can go the extra mile, and emulate the behavior of Christ as He used to approach us. For have we not all treated the Savior harshly when engaged in our wickedness? Have we not all barked at Him to get away and leave us in “peace” while we sin? Yet He endures our cruelty and continues to offer us His love. When we yield to Him, we become like Him. We start thinking less about getting even and more about making it right with those we have wronged, including our enemies. We begin to remember that ALL men are our brothers in Christ. We are reminded that our current earthly enemy may well be our closest neighbor on the golden streets without name. And we are humbled and astounded at our ability to entertain negativity. Christ frees us from this. He frees us from the weight of carrying hurt and pain for another. Our burdens are lifted away forever.

Now we are free to work towards the redemption of our enemy. And consistent, constant love is a hard thing to resist. As we reflect His love through us to those who need it, the hearts of our enemies will be touched by His Spirit, and melted by His love reflected through our hands, mouth, and ears. One who may have in the past called himself our greatest foe, can become our closest ally, as Saul was transformed to Paul, by the power of the LOVE of Christ on a country road. Our enemies may resist love for a while, as we did in resisting our Savior, but LOVE remains a hard thing to resist. Over time everyone is instinctively drawn to love. It is in this that our image of God is defined. We are creations of love, and recognize it, and long for it, and deeply need it – every one of us. It is through love, that enemies become friends. It is through love that friends become a precious commodity. For as we alter our thinking, we begin to realize the truth of fulfillment in service. This yields a bright contrasting alternative to the lies we have been told of self-gratification. As a friend who serves, we are fulfilled within us, while becoming something others wish to have around. Love is a hard thing to resist.