Happy New Year

As we begin the New Year, I want to tell you something important about me. It is a good thought as we begin the year, because it’s probably true of you too.

It happened when I was doing something else. Frankly, I hardly noticed. I was so surprised when I saw it, I almost didn’t tell anyone for fear they would think I was too arrogant and prideful. But then, I had nothing to do with it. It sort of snuck up on me. So I guess I can’t be proud of it or anything.

I should have expected it. I had been told about it often enough. It was just that I was seeing so much of my own sin, I felt that the hope of anything approaching it was silly. I had prayed for it, but the prayer was one of those prayers you don’t really think God will answer.

Then I looked and found that…..I was starting to look a little bit like Jesus.

I know, I know. You’re saying, “Lou, have you lost your mind? OK, you have arms and legs and Jesus probably had those too, but He had hair too, and you are woefully lacking in that area.”

Wait…..it’s true. I’m beginning to look a little like Jesus. I’m thinking a little bit like Him and loving a little bit like Him. I’m thinking of myself as a servant a little bit more than I used to. And, not only that, I’m a little bit kinder, more compassionate and a little bit wiser…..just a little bit more like Jesus.

In 1952, on a foggy morning in California, a young woman by the name of Florence Chadwick dove into the cold water off Catalina Island. Her goal was to be the first woman to swim from that island to the California coast. She was no amateur. She had been the first woman ever to swim the English Channel in both directions.

She began her effort well enough, but the water was very cold. Finally, after some 15 hours, growing numb with the cold, she asked to be taken out of the water.

Chadwick’s comment to a reporter was profound. “Look, I’m not making excuses,” she said, “but if I could have seen the land, I might have made it.”

If you can see the land, you can keep at it.

January is up on us and we’re looking at another year. I don’t know about you, but I’m not altogether happy with doing it all over again. Seems that I just learned to write “2006” and now I have to change to “2007”.

I’ve found that when you’re over the hill, you start picking up speed and, frankly, age is a high price to pay for maturity. To be honest, I don’t want to go any faster, and I’m not into maturity, at least, more than I’ve got. So, I greet the New Year with mixed feelings…..

…..until I realized that I was beginning to look a little bit like Jesus. He is the “first born” and that means He is the prototype of what is happening to me. I’ve got a long way to go, but God promised He would complete the process and when I finally see Jesus, I’ll look just like Him. The New Year is full of hope, because during this year I might look even more like Jesus.

If you can see the land, you can keep at it.

I’m not going to make any resolutions this year. I can’t stand the guilt when I break them. But I am looking a little bit more like Jesus and you, as a Christian, are too. You really can keep on trucking if you can see the land.

Oh, by the way, even if you don’t look like Him very much now, He will still love you. If you can see the land, you can keep at it.

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Vision

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18)

For twelve years I lived among people with a lack of vision for the future.

In 1989, it was announced by the powers-that-be that approximately one-half of the city of Bridgeton would have to be destroyed in order that the adjoining airport could be expanded with a new runway. This project took many years – the residents of the city were informed well in advance about the eventual destruction of the homes, businesses, churches, schools that had to be eliminated. The most difficult part of the process was watching my community die.

The property values dropped quickly in the community and people had only two choices: sell out to speculators and take a large loss in value on the sale OR wait for the airport to buy them out. But buyouts did not even begin for about eight years as the airport and the city of Bridgeton went into litigation over the right of eminent domain.

Progress and growth came to a screeching halt, improvements and repairs to public, private and commercial property ceased because residents knew what was going to happen in the future.

Why paint and repair a house that will be bulldozed in a few years? Why improve schools or budget for a new playground? Why build churches, businesses or parks? Why plan? Why do anything constructive? After all, within a few years or more half the city of Bridgeton was going to be demolished – so why do anything?

Yes – the city started to suffer from deterioration by neglect, and the physical neglect was accompanied by emotional depression. Residents could make no long terms plans, no vision for the future, because they were in limbo and, in effect, prisoners of the buyout.

The lesson to be learned was this: “When there is no faith or vision in tomorrow, there is no spiritual vitality or energy today.” Oh yes, the airport planners had a faith and vision for a new runway, but the dragged out litigation sapped any vision in tomorrow for the residents.

In 2001, twelve years after the first announcement of the new runway, our home was bought out by the airport and bulldozed down. Thankfully, we did receive a good settlement.

My story is a parable for many Christian communities and churches. Congregations are dying from lack of a vision. Church attendance dwindles from lack of a vision. It’s happening throughout the Western world today. It’s happening in many lives – neglect, decline, degeneration from lack of vision. Our world including much of Christianity needs to be rescued and saved from a lack of vision.

A Vision for Your Life

What about your life? What vision do you have about your relationship with God? Are you one of those Christians who are just “toughing it out” as best you can and, in effect, waiting for that spiritual “buyout” and a new home in heaven? Or are you trying to balance the scales of justice with good deeds slightly outweighing sin so that the Judge will not come down hard on you?

God has only one vision that He wants to get across to every Christian and, in fact, to all people. That vision involves the proper understanding of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

By believing and trusting in Christ as Savior and Lord, the vision involves seeing yourself as born again – radically, completely, eternally changed with a new nature of God because of the indwelling Christ in a living union with your human spirit.

I do not hesitate to say that this vision of Christ in you and you in Christ is the key element of salvation. Jesus Christ in you IS your salvation. (<-- click link) And it is forever (Revelation 13:5) and Christ can never be separated from us (Romans 8:35-39).

It took me about half of my 75 years to get this Christian vision of Christ living in me forever. Before that I was one of those toughing it out, waiting for that spiritual buyout, and in the meantime trying to balance the scales by trying to be good in my own strength. What frustration! What insecurity! What lack of peace! All because I needed God’s purposeful vision of union with His Son.

Don’t you remain in limbo for as many years as I did. Remember the lack of vision in Bridgeton!

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Finding God's Peace

An oxymoron is a combination of two or more words that do not belong together. They may actually contradict each other. Here are a few examples: genuine imitation; plastic glasses; nutritious junk food.

Here is another one – holy war. There is nothing holy about war. Even when war is necessary to oppose tyranny and prevent further bloodshed, human warfare is never holy.

James reminds us that wars come from human lust and greed (James 4:1-2). We humans covet what others have and we hate what they stand for. War is actually an accurate, concise description of the ultimate product of human nature. On the contrary, peace is both a definition and an attribute of God. And Jesus Himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).

Peace is the fundamental disposition of a Christian. We are at peace because Jesus is peace and because He dwells within us (Galatians 2:20).
For my purposes here, let’s consider two definitions of peace: 1) the absence of war and hostility and 2) the presence of God.

The well known beatitude in Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” A child of God is one who has been placed into God’s Family. And how is that done? It is by accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord by a new birth wherein Jesus comes to actually live within us by His Life presence.

The peace of God is not simply the absence of war. The absence of war is one kind of peace – perhaps the highest form of peace that humans can hope for, apart from God. Jesus Himself, the Prince of Peace, told us that He did not come primarily to bring human peace – the absence of war and hostility – to this earth (Matthew 10:34). Jesus came to bring God’s peace – God’s grace and favor which is freely available. Peace, defined merely as the absence of war, is possible apart from Jesus Christ. But peace defined as the presence of God is not possible unless Jesus lives His risen life in us!

Contrary to conventional wisdom, being a peacemaker does not mean that we will be pushovers and easy marks for those who would exploit us. It does not mean that we compromise with everyone, never taking a stand, always trying to keep everyone happy. Peacemakers don’t keep everyone happy. Jesus didn’t.

Living by God’s grace means that religion will oppose us, even some religion that uses the name of Jesus Christ. Religion wants us to bow our knee to its rules, regulations and restrictions. Religion wants to be in charge of our lives with its priests, philosophies, spiritual potions and elixirs.

It isn’t easy accepting God’s grace because it means we must admit that we cannot be at peace, and that we certainly can’t be peacemakers, without His help. Accepting God’s grace humbles us because we are forced to admit that we aren’t big enough, strong enough, moral enough or good enough to take care of our problems. We must give up the idea that we can build enough character, do enough righteous things and somehow produce peace in our life and that of others through our own actions.

Peacemakers bring the peace of God, the presence, of God, as we allow Jesus to live His life in us, as we allow others to see the reflected light of Jesus Christ, the light that Jesus produces on our lives by God’s grace, not by our deeds.

Consider a story of two artists who were asked to paint a portrait of perfect peace.

One artist depicted a lazy summer day, a tranquil lake without a ripple breaking its surface, with couples and families eating and playing near the shore. In the distance was a mountain range under a perfect blue sky without a cloud in sight.

The other artist was a Christian. He experienced the presence of God in his life, through Jesus who lived within him. He knew the peace of God and what it involves. He painted a roaring sea, with a ship being tossed back and forth on the waves. Raging winds caused waves to break over the deck of the ship. The scene seemed to be anything but peaceful.

But the artist was not finished with this scene until he added the captain’s quarters in the front of the ship. This was a beautifully lit scene where a number of passengers and crewmen were seated at the captain’s table, eating and conversing, serene and confident that this storm would be weathered and that the storm had no power over their journey. Their faithful expressions communicated their complete trust that the Captain of the ship would bring them to their final destination, no matter what obstacles the sea might present.

God’s grace is the reason we are confident in spite of the storms of our own lives. If we accept Jesus Christ as the Captain of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10), we not only experience God’s peace but by His grace He will use us to be peacemakers in the lives of others.

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Making a Prickly Point

Hello. My name is Porky. I am a special creature of my Great Creator. I am easily recognized by my black and brownish fur, my strong, stubby legs, my small face and snout, but especially by my 30,000 or so loosely attached quills. I am called a porcupine.

I have been given a unique defense system specially designed by my Creator since I would be otherwise defenseless. I have a coat of multibarbed quills on all parts of my body except my face and stomach. And each quill is controlled by a separate muscle. My longest quills – some as long as 5 inches – are on my rump; the shortest are on my cheeks.

My quills are usually held flat against my body But when I sense danger, I raise my quills upright so that the quills can easily lodge in any unfortunate enemy that brushes against me. The raised quills also make me look much bigger and more dangerous.

When I am threatened and want to protect my vulnerable head, I will turn my back on my enemy, tuck my head between my front paws, and swish my tail. Sometimes the force of swinging my tail can dislodge loose quills, but I do not “throw” my quills as many believe.

Let me tell you, my quills are no chance product of evolution. Each quill is an evidence of phenomenal design. Hollow for most of the shaft, my quills are truly lightweight armor – it takes 4,000 of them to weigh an ounce! And each quill becomes solid as it tapers to a stiff point covered with reverse barbs.

Woe to any predator that gets stuck with my quills. As the victim’s body heat causes the barbs to expand, the quills become even more deeply embedded, making their removal painful and difficult. It takes only the lightest contact for a quill to puncture an enemy’s skin, and many predators and curious pets have been sorry for their interest in me!

I am a strict herbivore. I feed mostly at night, and almost entirely in and on trees, though occasionally I enjoy green plants like skunk cabbage and clover. In the summer I search out the tips of branches to get the tenderest buds, leaves, fruit, and nuts. During the winter I feed on the softer layer under the bark of trees. Am I a threat to God’s forests? Actually I am a friend. By seeking out the weakest, tenderest trees, I thin out overly dense areas, helping forests to thrive and grow. In a sense, I am God’s forester!

And God sure designed me to do the job. Equipped with strong, sharp, curved claws, I am an excellent climber. And like all rodents, my front top teeth continue to grow through out my life, so I must keep gnawing on hard things like tree branches to keep the teeth from becoming overgrown. Another God-designed feature is that my teeth have a thick layer of enamel on the front side and none on the back, so that as the tooth wears down it stays very sharp. Just think! God has given me my own set of built-in, self-sharpening wood chisels!

You might think, “How do I ever live day to day with all these quills?” Wouldn’t it be dangerous to climb around in trees wearing a coat made of needles? You are right. I am a bit chunky to begin with and not the best at balancing, and since I like the ends of branches, I am at high risk for taking quite a tumble and landing on my quills. Ouch! But I am very adept at removing quills from myself, using paws and teeth. And here is where God made special provision for me. My quills are covered with a grey, greasy substance that is actually antibiotic in nature and keeps quill wounds from becoming infected! The antibiotic properties work on enemies as well, and most predators will not die of infection but of being unable to eat due to quills in the throat and mouth.

I know another thing you are probably thinking: How do porcupines make love? I will only answer - very carefully!

Yes, I am all by design. Even though I am a rodent, I am not like any other. And can you think even for a moment that it came about by blind chance – did my ancestors turn their hair into sharp, hollow, barbed quills because they saw that they needed a defense mechanism? Did they develop strong, sharp claws because they were living in trees and found it difficult to move around? Did they start making antibiotic ointment so that their quills would not infect themselves?

No, God made me to be exactly what I am today. He has created everything by design and the variations that make every creature unique to its kind are NOT by chance but are created very deliberately by my Great Creator God.

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Union and Distinction

Have you thought deeply about the relationship between God and man? Man, from the very beginning, has known about his need for a relationship with God – some have worked toward that relationship, others have run away from it trying to avoid it so that they can “do their own thing”.

Let us consider three types of relationship.

First, there is union without distinction. Only the Trinity of God could have union without loss of personal distinction. If you see your relationship with God as a union without distinction, you tumble into pantheism, and we would be united to God in such a way as to be completely absorbed into Him. Many Eastern religions take this approach where there would no longer be a distinct “us” to feel and taste and experience the Life of the Trinity of God.

Second, there is the concept of distinction without union which gives us deism, where God is just up there watching us from a distance, and we never see our humanity as included in the Life of the Trinity of God. Motherhood and fatherhood, work and play, music and humanly creative activities appear to be merely secular, non-divine aspects of our human experience. Much of our Western Christian culture takes this approach with Christ “out there somewhere” and forces us to search beyond our humanity for connection with God.

These first two relationships cover much of the whole spectrum of religion as seen down through the ages. But God’s plan for humanity is spectacularly more than union without distinction, or distinction without union.

God’s plan is UNION WITH DISTINCTION.

In the early part of Jesus’ ministry, He talked about He and the Father being one (in union). The disciples didn’t get it. In the later part of Jesus’ ministry, He talked about He and the Father and each Christian being one (in union). The disciples were even more confused. This whole concept of union was beyond their thought processes.

The two great apostles and theologians, Paul and John, carried forth the union message after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Very gradually, the true gospel of UNION WITH DISTINCTION began to be understood and acted upon.

People began to understand that the whole process of “being born again” involved the new creation of a union with distinction. We were not to be completely absorbed into Him. And we were not to be separated from Him and calling out to Him to come to us all the time. We say “no” to both pantheism and deism.

At that moment of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we are joined into a union with the Trinity of God, yet retaining our uniquely human characteristics and talents. We have union with no loss of personal distinction which means that we matter and that our humanity, our motherhood and fatherhood, our work and play, our humanly creative activity, form the arena for our participation in the Trinity of God. God meets us not in the sky or in our self-generated religions, but in our “ordinary” human existence.

As Christians, we are in union with the Life of the Father through the indwelling Son, Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal this relationship to a mind yearning to understand.

There are many marvelous verses in the Bible, but my all-time favorite is Galatians 2:20 which makes God’s plan come alive to me:
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live – yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

And the best thing of all is that Christ is in us for the long term – for eternity. He promises that nothing can separate us from Him (Romans 8:35-39) and that He Himself will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Yes, UNION WITH DISTINCTION is what we must see as God’s plan for us.

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Evangelizing In Its Most Basic Form

How do we get across to a person about God in the form of Jesus Christ? The first chapter of Romans says that everyone knows deep within them that there is a God. The creation itself reflects a Designing God. Everyone knows it, but some people suppress this knowledge for their own motives and even call themselves “atheists”.

Let’s travel in our minds eye for a moment to a land and culture far removed from the spreading urban, technological society in which we live to the lonely pastoral culture of tribal Africa.

Missionaries to this culture discovered that before they could evangelize these raw peoples, it was necessary to peel away like an onion from the layers of centuries of tribal religion and from the layers of centuries of Western, white European-type Gospel. A Christian missionary, seeking to translate the concept of Jesus in terms these people could relate to, found that he could not speak in terms such as Messiah, Incarnation and other Western theological terms. Even the idea of salvation was often meaningless to them. He had to rethink who Jesus was without the trapping of nineteen hundred years of theological reflection.

Here was his approach:

“God has no arms, no legs, no body,” he explained to these tribal peoples.

“God is like breath, like wind – invisible.”

“But God wanted us to know about Him. How could God become visible in the midst of all the things God created?”

“But you might ask, ‘How can God really know what our suffering is? How can God feel merciful, compassionate toward our suffering? How can God share it?”

“If God wants to be visible,” the missionary went on, “to appear in the midst of creation, there is only one thing God can do. God must take on human flesh. God would have to create human flesh in God’s own image and likeness – and God did!”

“God made humans in God’s own image and likeness to walk the earth, to subdue the earth and to make it whole.”

“And then God came down and took the form of a man, Jesus Christ, who walked and talked the human life many centuries ago.”

“This Jesus has shown us, not only about God, but also about how humans are meant to be like Him.”

“So not only is God different than we thought, but so are humans.”

“Humans are not just like a fire, sputtering for a few moments, then fizzling out – darkness before and after. Humans are not the plaything of the universe – not a thing to be teased with happiness and crushed with sorrow, a thing with no more meaning than the other things of the earth.”

“Rather humans are meant to be, like Jesus, God appearing in the universe, appearing visibly in all the midst of what God created. That changes the meaning of humans, doesn’t it?”

The missionary went on to say, “I can see you people shaking your heads and saying, ‘No! No! – humans are not God! Humans are filled with evil! They fight! They kill! They destroy!’”

He said, “I say to you people, you have not known a human! You have never seen a human! Creation is not yet finished. What you see is creation groaning and moaning and struggling and yearning to be finished and completed – to be the body of God.”

“But suppose that the right time had come and there appeared a human who was perfectly a human according to the plan of God. A real human totally and completely human. Suppose than once upon a time there was such a human who was so completely a human, that there would be no other way to describe that human than to say – this human is God appearing in the universe.”

“JESUS WAS THAT HUMAN,” he told them.

The missionary went on, “Perhaps the really surprising thing that the Man Jesus did in His lifetime was to show us not only what God is, but what humans are. As His early followers, called Christians, studied the life of Jesus, they found that the only way they could describe the man they’d encountered was to say that He was God appearing in the universe.”

“And then this man, Jesus, did a surprising thing – even with all His wonderful power, He allowed Himself to be horribly executed. Brutally killed! Jesus said that it was so other humans might live – He took the punishment for all the human evil, the fighting and the killing that you talked about.”

Then the missionary’s eyes brightened, “As the greatest surprise of all, this Jesus, this human Jesus, ROSE FROM THE DEAD! You’ve never seen anybody in your lives rise from the dead, have you? But Jesus DID IT! No doubt about it. Many eyewitnesses confirmed it. It really happened.”

“Now what has this to do with you people today living in your tribes and going about surviving in a tough world? What you must do is simple really.”

“This Jesus, the perfect man, said that if you believed in Him and wanted to follow His leadership, He had the ability as God to come and live right within you to guide your life, give you power and strength that you don’t now have, and to carry on in union with you forever – after you die and beyond.”

“Is that a good deal or what??”

“Just believe what I told you – you don’t have to do anything yourself to earn it – just believe!”

I often think that we may have made evangelizing for Christ a little too complicated. As this missionary proved, a basic message about God and man can be a powerful incentive for people to turn to Christ. In some ways, the most basic form may be very applicable to our sophisticated urban culture today also.

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