You are listening to the TV or radio. Suddenly a loud, high pitched sound comes at you. You stop what you are doing and pay attention. After what seems like an excessive amount of time, a voice comes on and says, “This is only a test! This is a test of the National Emergency Broadcast System. If it had been a real emergency, you would be instructed what frequencies to turn to in order to receive emergency information. This is only a test!”
This always makes you stop and think, even if only for a moment, of the possible emergency situations: an air attack?? A tornado or a hurricane?? But we quickly return to the real world.
In the St. Louis area, there is a test of the emergency sirens in neighborhoods on the first Monday of every month at 9 AM. No matter what we are doing when those sirens go off at 9 AM, they always take us by surprise, at least for a moment. We again think of the possible emergency situations until we realize what day of the month it is. We say to ourselves, “This is only a test!” Then we quickly return to what we were doing.
This is the way that God wants Christians to respond to ANY seemingly adverse situation we encounter in the world. All problem situations will create some measure of fear about how to handle them. This is a given fact that we cannot avoid. Living in this world with the problems around us, we cannot help but have an initial response of fear, at least for a moment.
As a wise man once said, “It is not what happens to us that matters - it is our RESPONSE to what happens to us that really matters!”
Everyone has problems! Everyone comes up against adverse situations. God does not create these situations specifically for you as a TEST. The world, yourself, and the devil cause these situations and circumstances to occur. 1. the natural laws of the world, 2. the people around us, 3. our own wrong choices and 4. the specific actions of Satan all cause your problems.
God does not get up in the morning and say, “That guy Lou down there really needs a problem to teach him a lesson. I’11 just zap him with a tornado. Or I‘11 send some virus bugs at him to make him sick. Or I could just deliberately create job situations that will frustrate him. HE REALLY NEEDS A TEST!”
No, God does not CAUSE our problems. There are plenty of ways around us in the world that our problems can come about. But, for a Christian, one who has chosen to be God’s child in His Family, one who has Jesus Christ living within them, God takes the world created problem situation and turns it for His purposes. He doesn’t zap us with it but, once the problem is in existence, GOD USES IT AS A TEST OF OUR RESPONSE.
We can try to use our own weak strength to fight against it, to struggle, to fret and to fume over it. Or we can respond God’s way - relax in the knowledge of who we are. We fall back from the illusion of danger into the awareness of the power of Christ within to solve the situation. What appears to be danger is only an illusion of danger. As a member of the Family of God eternally, there can be no real danger for a Christian.
My two favorite verses about apparent trouble are: “We know that all things work together for GOOD to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). “God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted [tested] beyond what you are able; but will with the temptation, show you a way to escape, in order that you may be able to bear it” (I Corinthians 10:13).
Just as with the TV or radio tone and the siren, our bodies sense danger in the situation for a moment. We live in a material world with material dangers. But a Christian lives also with a more powerful Life - the nature of God. So any apparent material dangers are only illusions of danger. There is no danger for us in the spirit realm.
God takes the adverse situation which confronts us materially and uses it for good. He turns it into a test! A test of what? God uses it as a test of how we RESPOND. Do we act with an independent attitude toward the situation? Satan, the god of independence, would certainly have us act this way. But God wants to see us act His way - in trust and dependence on the guidance and power of Christ within.
After our initial natural fear of danger, we, as Christians, must get back to the “real world”, the realm of the spirit in which we have been reborn. Apparent physical danger? “This is only a test! God protects His children.” Apparent sickness? “This is only a test! By the stripes on Jesus’ back, we ARE healed.” Apparent material needs? “This is only a test! God has an infinite supply for our needs before we even ask.” This is how we are urged by the Holy Spirit to respond.
God knows, we do not always respond God’s way. As His children, we slip up, we miss the mark sometimes. But all children slip up and miss the mark sometimes! This is not the end of the world! We Christians, like human children, learn by how we get hurt. Christ does not leave our spirit when we miss the mark - when we SIN. The Holy Spirit Teacher does not leave our soul when we sin. The situation causes chastisement or correction. God directs His children back to the spirit realm where they belong.
Remember - God does not CAUSE adversity in our lives. But He USES adversity as a TEST of our response.
The world is seeing an increase in the speculation about the “Second Coming” of Jesus Christ back to the world. More writing, more preaching, more discussion is taking place about how world troubles are coming to a climax. Prophecy is more rampant with the conflict between the Western world and the radical elements of Islam. People seem to pay more attention to the possibilities of world collapse.
Throughout civilization, systems have been devised to control and care for people. These systems have been based on a wide range of political ideologies and personal ambitions. Also tribal and communal traditions and religious movements have entered into the systems of the control of people. These forces have spawned governments that run the gamut, from representative democracies to personal dictatorships. A good deal of human history seems to be the story of both the collisions and the harmonious relations of these governments. If much of history can be regarded as a human search for a more perfect form of government, then we as Christians can contribute to the solution by developing a deep understanding of and reliance on God’s government. God’s government does not breathe a fragile existence. It is eternal and always developing. It is strong and beneficial to all who enter into it.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s government and its establishment on earth when he said, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and forever” (Isaiah 9:7).
What is the most perfect form of government? It is a KINGDOM with a PERFECT KING. The world has seen many kingdoms. The rule of a king can be a nightmare if he is evil and uncaring for his people. Human kingdoms have a way of becoming oppressive.
Jesus Christ came announcing the Kingdom of God with Himself as the King. If He was the Son of God, and God is perfect, then this would be THE perfect form of government. The people of His time had seen much human tyranny in government. Could this new Kingdom be the answer?
The Bible not only contains the statement of God’s law and government, it relates countless stories of the struggle to follow in strict adherence to this law. But the Bible is more than just a recounting of the attempts of men and women to interpret God’s government. Its passages reach deep into the truth of our being.
Jeremiah provides certain insight into God’s government when he writes, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:33).
Now the question for the Christian is: What is this law in our inward parts and how can that law in operation help us to improve our relations with and our life in this world? Well, the answer surely comes through the revelation of God’s Word. IN REALITY, THERE IS ONLY ONE REAL GOVERNMENT AND THE OTHERS WE SEE AROUND US ARE ONLY TEMPORARY POWERS. This government is explained to us in the scriptures in the term “Kingdom”.
For instance, in Colossians 1:13 Paul says, “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.” Colossians 1 goes on to tell us many of the attributes that are in the Kingdom by this Person, this King. But, in fact, it is not a tangible, material thing such as we think of when we think of human governments or world governments. This government we are talking about is the government of a Person, and the Kingdom is the kingdom of a Person.
The Father gives His Son to humanity and works by that Son. As John 3:16 so vividly says, “For God so loved the world that He GAVE... “. So the true government of God is nothing but an operation of that Son and a manifestation of that Son; and thus the true Kingdom is the kingdom of that Son. AND THAT KINGDOM IS WITHIN EVERY CHRISTIAN BY A LIVING UNION WITH CHRIST WITHIN.
Speaking of the everlasting Kingdom, John in his epistle declares to every born again Christian that NOW they have eternal life dwelling in them. The Kingdom, the government, is nothing but the life of Christ in the believer. Coming to the knowledge of this and operating in this knowledge makes the Kingdom of God work in the Christian.
The Christian has the Kingdom already working and its government is already intact by the Person of Christ in them. What then is this law in our inward parts? THIS LAW IS CHRIST operating through the believer in his daily activity. It is in operation when the Christian rises in the morning knowing that this is Christ getting up, this is Christ going about the day, this is Christ on the job, this is Christ driving the car, this is Christ keeping house. Only such consciousness as this brings about the rule of the true Kingdom.
This Kingdom is only experienced by those who have been birthed into it, for you must be born again into the Kingdom, as Jesus tells Nicodemus. Birthing into this Kingdom places the creature at the disposal of a government that rules over the whole universe.
Now there would be many who would draw our consciousness away from the Christ Kingdom within us to the establishment of an earthly kingdom at the second coming. Sad to say, many Christians have been diverted from the Kingdom of God within us to the establishing of some human kingdom. The Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others have accentuated the second coming of Christ back to earth. Prophecy is in the forefront of their teaching.
I, myself, back in the 1960’s during the Cuban missile crisis and the confrontational unrest in the world, began to look at prophecy concerning the end time and Christ’s coming. I deeply studied the Olivet prophecy of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. After all, we are told by Jesus to: “Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is ... and what I say to you, I say to all, WATCH!” (Mark 13:33,37). I took the word “watch” to mean getting deeply involved in prophecy, time periods, supposed end time world situations, etc. I had the book of Daniel’s “Time of the Gentiles” and “Seventy-weeks” prophecies figured out almost down to particular years. The Jews establishing a new homeland in Palestine in 1948 became an important consideration in prophesied coming events. After all, it looked like nuclear war between the US and Russia was inevitable. I was concerned for my family and friends. Let’s face it - I was scared!
I had 1975 figured out as the year of Christ’s return, and what happened? - it didn’t happen! After trying to make quick adjustments in my calculations for a few years, I began to come to a knowledge which has carried through to this day.
Sure, we are to “watch”. But the watching is not to be an obsessive dwelling on Christ’s physical return. Christians are to watch the world events only as spectators watching a football game.
Christ did not come back in 1844 as many modern Christians thought He would. Nor did He come in 1914 or in 1975. He may even have already come back in 70 AD as the Preterists propose.
BUT THE TIME SHOULD NOT BE IMPORTANT TO THOSE OF US WHO ARE BORN AGAIN INTO A LIVING UNION WITH JESUS CHRIST WITHIN US. For us, Jesus Christ within US is infinitely more important than any material, physical presence of Christ in the world. For us, Christ HAS COME! We do not need to know a time - it is only necessary for us to KNOW HIM, TO HAVE AN INTIMATE FELLOWSHIP AND UNDERSTANDING OF OUR UNION WITH HIM NOW!
In fact, it would be prudent to forget the “times” (because none of us knows predicted events for certain). But let none of us forget HIM - JESUS CHRIST WITHIN - who made the times and the universe. The lesson God wishes to teach His children is for them to get their minds off of dates and onto Christ within - TRUSTING in His Kingdom NOW to guide our lives.
The trouble with all of us is our impatience. Is it not better to express a patience and internal peace and let the matter rest with God and His Son? If we do, we can then place the emphasis where it belongs. We can trust on a DAILY basis for the guidance, protection and power of our living union with Christ. Christ HAS COME to me, joined His Spirit to my human spirit.
As far as I am concerned, the second coming of Christ may have been in 70 AD, or let Christ come physically to the world tomorrow, or next year - or even the next century. It doesn’t matter!
But Jesus Christ is my King - right now! Your King - right now! We are blessed with His rulership RIGHT NOW - FROM WITHIN!
You hear this question, in one form or another, asked very often. “If Christianity is God’s way of living, then why does God allow so many differences in Christian denominations? Why doesn’t He just establish one way of doing things within the churches?”
First, let’s establish - what IS the Church? The Greek word for church in the Bible is “ekklesia” and Strong’s Concordance gives the following meaning: a religious congregation; a community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both; an assembly.
The Christian Church is composed of all the Christians who have lived, are living now and will live in the future. The Church is a group of people who, by circumstances of life, have chosen Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and are thus appointed by God to be eternal members of the God Family.
What does the Church have to do with denominations? Nothing!! There are members of THE Church in every Christian denomination. Contrary to popular opinion, the Church is not divided. There is not a Catholic Church, a Lutheran Church, a Methodist Church, etc. Christians can get hooked up to any denomination and be members of THE Church.
Then why all the differences between Christians? Why all the differences of doctrine and methods of worship? That is like asking why people in general look different, are emotionally different, and see situations through different eyes.
There is only ONE criterion which determines whether you are a Christian and thus a member of THE Church. The Bible says a Christian is one who repents of his sinful life and believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. That’s it! That’s all it takes! It is a MIND thing. And it is a one time thing. Of course, it must be sincere. You can’t fake it. You may fool those around you but you can’t fool God.
When this mind thing takes place, a supernatural and wonderful event occurs. The sin nature with which you were born and which has been controlling you previously is removed completely from you human spirit and is replaced by Jesus Christ living in a spiritual union with you. Jesus Christ can now be the controlling factor in your life as you allow Him and trust Him to guide you.
And more, the Christian, now having the nature of God within him, is actually reborn a new species and a member of God’s own Family with all of the attending rights, privileges and blessings.
This all happens within through a mind choice at one moment in time. Now, if the new Christian desires, he can be baptized with water as a public profession of his faith. But any physical ritual is after the fact of his new birth.
But, although this is true in actuality, the new Christian seldom realizes the spectacular thing which has happened to him. In fact he may go on many years without realizing the full implications of his conversion and new birth. But to bring the Christian gradually to an awareness and understanding of who he is in the Family of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in and acts on the person’s soul or mind.
OK. Now we know what a Christian is and how he functions. Or do we? There is more. Humanity is general learns to live by depending on their own choices and strengths. After all, it seems like this is all they have to work with. It is very hard for people to understand that the ultimate goal of God is for people to live dependently on God rather than independently on themselves. It is hard for people to grasp this before conversion, and it is still hard to grasp after conversion!
This brings us to my belief why God allows so many forms or denominations of Christianity: Just as God allowed all the Old Testament forms of Judaism to exist so that the people of Israel could try to do many things in their own strength – and fail miserably to recognize dependence of God, God also now allows all the New Testament forms of “Church” to exist for the same reason.
All the forms of legalism within the different denominations are God’s present day way to bring Christians to the breaking point of their independence and be forced into the recognition of their dependence on God through Christ within.
God must see that this is best done by Christians (yes, real, sincere Christians) to join a form or denomination of Christian Church which appeals to their soul faculties of intellect and emotion. Because these faculties are where Christian growth and transformation take place.
THEN God can deal with them on their level on a daily basis to correct their natural independent thinking into the supernatural dependent approach that God desires of His children.
We live in a world of misunderstanding and contradiction involving so many factors in life. Nowhere is this seen more than in the field of religion. Even Christianity itself is divided into hundreds of denominations with each one professing its teachings as representing the essential doctrines of Christ, and that others are wrong.
It doesn’t take much ingenuity to recognize that something is seriously wrong with the present state of affairs. The jungle of religious confusion that exists in our world hardly gives us the security and peace of mind that we all diligently seek. It may seem, at times, that even God Himself has abandoned us humans to the folly of our own inadequacies. But He hasn’t. If anything, it is we who have left God and the principal truths that He gave us to understand. And, those truths are not difficult to understand. IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHERE EACH OF US DRAWS THE LINE ON WHAT REPRESENTS THE ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF GOD AND WHICH ONES ARE SUBSIDIARY IN THE OVERALL TEACHINGS OF CHRISTIANITY.
The Bible tells us that it is God - not man - who is the source of all true knowledge. Christ said of Himself that He is “the way, the TRUTH, and the life” (John 14:6). We should take comfort that Christ is the real truth. But still we often find ourselves (if we are honest) in the same situation as Pontius Pilate who asked Jesus the question “What is truth?” (John 18:38). None of us knows the full answer to that question. And, in fact, the mature person, as he or she continues to grow in the knowledge of God and His teachings, realizes just how little any of us knows.
Many of us have been victimized by numerous religious errors even when we thought we had the truth. We often become unsure of what is truth. To find oneself believing error when it is thought that truth was in one’s grasp, can be a traumatic experience. It almost seems to be a vicious circle of realizing just how little we actually know. This need not happen if we learn to DRAW THE PROPER LINE on personal beliefs.
Is essential truth a mere illusion? I don’t think so. It can be found. I wish to share my experiences with you concerning my quest for essential truth. Perhaps you may have (or find) a similar position of faith which also exists with you. In this article I wish to state my personal beliefs!
In matters dealing with religion, the Bible, and Christianity, I have learned to “draw the line” concerning doctrines and beliefs. ABOVE that line I place the necessary principals of faith which are supremely important to ME - and BELOW that line I place all remaining doctrines which may be interesting and even useful to me to know but which are unimportant in regard to my salvation - my relationship and right standing with God.
For me, personally, I have placed only FOUR truths of faith above the line.
The FIRST is a belief and trust in the unconditional love of God as a Father.
SECOND - I have a firm conviction that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior and Lord because He died for me and rose again to give me eternal life.
THIRD - When I accept Christ, I become a new creature, a new person with Christ coming to dwell right within me and to live out through me as I trust Him (Galatians 2:20). And this is a permanent relationship which I can “bruise” but not “lose”. Christ will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). God does not reject me for a slip into sin but “if we endure correction, God deals with us as with sons, for what son does a father not correct?” (Hebrews 12:7).
Finally, FOURTH, that the two great commandments of LOVE to God and my neighbor should prevail in my life (Matthew 22:37-39).
These are my fundamental beliefs on which I can never see myself changing my mind!
However, there are other opinions I have about doctrines of the Bible which I hold as interesting, and even important, but in no way do they rank with the four points above the line. What are other lesser beliefs?
There are such things as prophecies -even the most profound of prophecies - even those involving Jesus Christ Himself. The apostle Paul put all prophecies below the line. He even said “prophecies shall be done away” (I Cor. 13:8),
There are understandings concerning baptism and communion. These are outward forms within the church which can aid us in our awareness of Jesus. These forms are not essential for salvation - only belief and acceptance of Jesus Christ is (Acts 16:31). But we have our human emotions to deal with. And being baptized or receiving the “Lord’s Supper” can be powerful influences in our spiritual awareness.
Below the line are also matters concerning spiritual gifts - no matter what they are! So many people today place utter importance on such gifts. Among some groups a person can have no evidence of having God’s Holy Spirit unless spiritual gifts are manifested in one’s life. But the apostle also placed such things below the line of necessary things (I Cor. 13:1-13). The only gifts above Paul’s line were “faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13).
In my view, one cannot improve on Paul’s teaching! His faith and hope in the Father and Christ, plus his love for them and love for his fellow man stood supreme above all other things. This does not mean the study of these lesser teachings and their application are without value. They are worthwhile and believers in Christ should pursue an understanding of them in their best capable way. That’s why I write the informational material that I do. But we must have enough wisdom to recognize that the real important factors in Christianity are those ABOVE THE LINE. And we are to be conformed to and transformed by them.
But we should not be fearful of altering any below the line beliefs as we grow into higher principles - for love casts out all fears (I John 4:18). It is obvious that almost all the strife, discord, and hatred which have come upon fellow believers (and the doctrines which have caused various church denominations to emerge over the centuries) have come over matters which deal with subsidiary things. On the other hand, having faith in the Father and Christ, and a hope that their promises to us will be kept, and having a love for them and all mankind, are all ABOVE THE LINE. And these beliefs of faith must be personal to oneself - not institutional, or dependent upon the beliefs of other men and women. These beliefs do not cause strife or hatred among people.
But if one includes above the line many doctrines about external and physical religious procedures (that is, the keeping of days, church rituals, etc.) this is fertile ground for arguments and divisions. And people who trust in such physical forms of religion may find it traumatic if God reveals new truth later that some (or all) of those things are not really necessary. True, there have, in the past, been violent discussions on matters of the godhead, etc., but in most cases, denominational doctrines are based on principles which the apostle Paul placed below the line.
It is my conviction that all subjects of the Bible should be studied (and, if possible, understood), but none of these quests should cause the Christian to detract his attention from those points “above the line”. Arguing about prophecies, resurrections, or raptures, etc., should not be the most important thing to Christians. We are told that the spirit of God will ultimately lead us into all truth (John 16:13), and Christ is the heart and core of all that is truth. Error thrives where reliance on a relationship with Christ is diminished.
So I see this four-fold foundation which I place above the line as the basis of truth in Christianity. With the line clearly defined with concepts above and below, A HARMONY AND PEACE - WITHIN AN ENVIRONMENT OF LOVE FOR GOD AND MAN - CAN BE THE RESULT!
Most people find at least enough attraction in their normal self-interested way of life to be repelled at the thought of any violent change. In fact, we are, as the Bible says, “deceived”, “blinded”, having been born in the delusion - the product of the Fall - that life is at most, a little religion, a few good works, satisfy any inner demand for some place in our lives for God and the service of others.
There has to come an awakening, a disillusionment, A FIRST DESPERATION, a sense of need and lack, to bring us to see that we are off the track. The first approach, therefore, that our Creator God has to make to us to get us within hearing distance of Him, is DESPAIR BEFORE REMEDY. It must be negative before positive; and this approach is what the Bible calls “Law”.
So we humans are challenged and opposed by what should be the natural law of our creation by God, the life of self-giving love. We have been seeking to make life work on the unlawful principle of self-loving love. Law, then, is not God’s frown on us; it is the first form of His love. The Bible calls Law elementary religion. It is the delicate way in which God reaches us on the only level that we could be reached. Being self-satisfied and self-reliant, we would see no point in being told that we need God. Very well then, God meets us where we are in our self-centeredness. “You know what you ought to be. You say you can be it. Well then, be it. Here is the Law. Let’s see you keep it!” We aren’t conditioned yet for true religion, so God lets us have a religion on our own level - the Law.
The effect of this Law on us then stirs up two responses in us, in this order, hypocrisy, then honesty. As a fact, we all start by being hypocrites. That is, we pretend to ourselves and others that we keep the Law reasonably well, enough to salve our consciences. We have enough religion or a philosophy of some kind to cover our tracks.
Honesty is when by some means or other (God has a thousand original ways), we are brought up, suddenly or gradually, to be faced with the recognition that WE ARE JUST PLAIN NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE! We are law-breakers. The moment of truth is when in our freedom we admit that fact. That is honesty, but that is also a total self-humiliation. The false front of our self-justifying religion or philosophy collapses. We see that if we are at variance with God, we are at variance with life itself. We are WRONG!
Now when that is an admitted reality to me, I am conditioned for the truth. I now see the NEED that I didn’t see before, and I must have it met. What then can I do to make amends? But that is exactly what I cannot do as a self-confessed law-breaker with the built in consequences thereof.
God makes it clear that I can’t make amends, but Jesus Christ can! I accept His death and resurrection in my place and become a new creature IN UNION WITH CHRIST. I have come home and begun to be the “image of God” that Genesis said I was created to be. I now contain this new “love of God” and for the first time in my human history the love of someone more than myself.
What Now As a Christian?
However, this has not completed the exposure to us of our mistaken concepts of life as if it is we living it. We are so used to this illusory outlook that, though we have now recognized and admitted that we didn’t live our lives on God’s standards, and in our lost condition needed and found a Savior, we now think that, as Christians, we can set to work and live on a new level. We will seek to keep the commandments, to love God and others, to feast on prayer and Bible reading, to conquer the habits that previously defeated us. We will conquer our hates and fears and lusts and jealousies, to have God at the center of our domestic, business and social life, to attract others to our new-found faith.
Instead, what happens? We begin to find this new life tiresome. We don’t have what it takes to live it, neither sufficient love for God and our neighbor, nor sustained interest in prayer or the Bible, nor victory over our weaknesses.
We even lose the consciousness of Christ’s presence within us. We cannot handle our depressions, our failures, our relationship problems, the stresses and strains of modern life. We cannot handle our self-seeking in the jungle warfare of modern industrial, political, and even social and domestic life.
TO SAY THAT WE APPROACH A CONFORMITY TO THE ABSOLUTE DEMANDS OF LOVING GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART AND MIND AND OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES, IS RIDICULOUS!
Maybe we had better give up. Maybe life was easier and more enjoyable without trying to be a Christian in a serious sense. We seem nearer to a breakdown that to the peace and rest and adequacy we thought the Christian life had for us.
GOOD! - GOOD, GOOD, GOOD! ALL THESE ARE EXCELLENT SIGNS! WE HAVE REACHED THE SECOND DESPERATION. In our former unredeemed life, we had to be so disturbed that we came to a final crack-up and admitted our failure before God, a total failure. Despair is the best word, because despair means that we are finished and there is nothing more we can do about it. We have to come there, having given up completely, before we can have eyes to see that when we could not climb up to Him, He had climbed down to us. What we could not do for ourselves, He had done for us.
Now, again, we have to come to a SECOND DESPERATION. Before, our recognition was that we had not done what we should have done in keeping God’s Law. This time, as redeemed Christians, we come to the discovery that we cannot do what we should do. Before, we learned our GUILT. This time, we learn our HELPLESSNESS. Before, we DID NOT, now we CANNOT.
Our SECOND DESPERATION is to bring us to see that our mistake was the idea that He would give US things, and that WE would thus become something. Actually we humans don’t exist to become something, but to CONTAIN SOMEONE! As a child of God by my new birth, I contain Jesus Christ - He comes to dwell within me in a living union with my human spirit. This transfers my attention from worrying about myself as the vessel not being this, or being that. Leave myself alone. I am just the container. I am containing a totally exclusive Person who gives nothing, but IS ALL.
The answer is the difference between activity from inadequacy which is strain, and activity from adequacy which is rest. If we are pulling the plow of our life’s problems, relying on our own resources, that is strain, because we haven’t got what it takes to meet them.
So the SECOND DESPERATION has brought us to the point of full Personhood. A human being is born with false self-appreciation. We start life by a false attempt at trying to make out that we are all right: “going about to establish our own righteousness”, the Bible calls it. That finishes when we are brought to the first self-desperation and become honest about ourselves in the sight of God. God makes us His children by a new birth.
Then comes the SECOND DESPERATION of Self (S capitalized to show the reborn Self). This makes us aware of our human weakness EVEN as a child of God. As newborn Christians, we are making the discovery that it is not in redeemed Self, any more than it was in unredeemed self, to be what we should be. So we are much more conscious of our failings, our inadequate human selves, than we are of Christ in us. We Stress our weaknesses, we speak of our hunger and need, our inadequate love for God, our sins. We say that if God does anything with our lives, it is in spite of us. This is the temporary phase of self-depreciation necessary for us to learn the truth about ourselves, but only temporary. It is spoken of in the Bible as the “wilderness experience”. This brings us into a beginning transformation of our soul mind into total TRUST in Christ within.
And finally we achieve what God had in mind for our life all the time - a true Self-appreciation. Now we can live as humans, yet really we know, and never for one moment of time cease to know, that the hidden life is Christ within us, the subterranean stream: “our life is hid with Christ in God... Christ is our life.” (Col. 3:3,4). This is when, in the oneness of our union, we have found definitively that we are only the vessels that contain God; but we are vessels who are really persons. And our HUMANITY is now the Self-expression of the Living God. WE are the light of the world. WE are Christ’s life and love in action. The truth is we have moved full circle from false self-appreciation to TRUE Self-appreciation. We have moved from the illusion of “independent-self’ to the realization of “dependent-Self’.
WE are not afraid of using our minds and wills on the daily decisions of our lives. There are times when we will lift up our faith thoughts in anticipation of guidance. But there are multitudes of occasions when we just decide and act, taking it as fact that “we have the mind of Christ”, and acting on the given basis of our Oneness.
This is the “I yet not I” life of Galatians 2:20 in its simplicity — the single eye of liberating Self-activity. This is man in action, WHICH IS GOD IN ACTION!
IF, IN OUR PRESSURES, WE TURN INWARDLY AS LIVING CONTAINERS IN UNION WITH CHRIST WHO IS THE ALL, AND BOLDLY TRUST HIM TO HANDLE THINGS, LIFE BECOMES REST IN THE MIDST OF THE ACTION.
