You Are Internally Wired In Your Genes With the "Will of God"

"...Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Ask most any Christian what he wants to do with his life and the most likely response is that he wants the will of God to be done. Whatever God wants is the Christian desire.

I spent many years of my Christian life searching and waiting for a "will of God" that was outside of me. My eyes were always on the future, waiting for a mysterious will to happen. BUT, AS CHRISTIANS, THE WILL OF GOD IS BUILT-IN RIGHT WITHIN US! When you think it through, you realize that this concept fits the Scripture a lot better than what many believe. Let me explain further what I mean.

God has made us marvelous individuals:
"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!"
(Psalm 139:13-16 Living Bible)

When it speaks of us being knitted together before our bodies were formed and all our days being written in His Book, I believe it is making reference to our genes, the basic personality that we were wired with by God through our parents.

Think of it! God made you who you are in your likes and dislikes, your talents and inner desires. The fact that you enjoy fishing or get excited at the prospect of building your own house, and the fact that I enjoy sports and have a desire to create with words, were all there before we were born.

Then sin came along and so distorted man that frequently the desires are warped and the person turned inward as a self-willing self.

But in the salvation that is in Christ, not only does His blood cleanse from sin, but by His Spirit He comes to live within us. He lives within YOU – your personality, your natural talents and all that you enjoy. He doesn't come in to make us into someone we don't enjoy being! He unites Himself with the personality you have basically been wired with and expresses Himself through our desires.

Every Christian is a unique expression of Christ; the uniqueness of Christ expressed through the uniqueness of me.

I know this sound almost too good to be true. Most of us think of God's will as that which is going to block our desires, not fulfill them. But remember that if you: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the DESIRES OF YOUR HEART" (Psalm 37:4).

So often, you will hear Christians speak of their childhood dreams and ambitions in negative terms, as something to be given up and rejected. Those dreams were an expression of the you He made. They were not to be rejected, but CLEANSED AND LIVED IN BY TRUSTING IN CHRIST. Through THEM Christ would live out His purpose.

Do you remember Philippians 2:12, "For it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure"? The only way I can make sense of that scripture is by understanding that my will and desire are one with His, and He now wills His will in my will.

But certainly, anything a person wants to do could not be God's will. But the fact is that God put the "wants" in us at our conception, and then cleansed and redeemed them in Christ. GOD HAS WRITTEN HIS WILL INTO OUR GENES FROM BIRTH AND MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO FULFILL THEIR HIGHEST POTENTIAL IN UNION WITH CHRIST.

Think of it this way. There are probably two motives among Christian missionaries in Africa. One group sees no sacrifice in leaving the U.S. to go into the jungle and build their homes – they were wired and cut out for that kind of life. When Christ came to live within them, He willed His will through their basic desires. These missionaries love every moment of what they are doing. The only sacrifice is when the mission board insists that they return to the U.S. for a speaking tour.

But other missionaries are wired differently. In spite of their built-in desires, they decide that, to please God, they will go to Africa. They complain of the heat and conditions and always look back to the job they left in the States. They are in Africa because they thought that was the most spiritual thing they could do FOR God.

It is interesting to read the book of Proverbs and compare the wise man and the fool (the term "fool" means lack of moral sense, not mental lack). The fool is always likened to the lazy man or sluggard. You will soon see that the world is full of lazy fools who never get to the purpose for which they were made and wired. Unfortunately, Many Christians use different terminology but have much the same attitude to life as the world.

We live in the age of the TV game shows where our children watch wealth and possessions fall into one's lap by chance. They walk out into life dreaming of the ultimate show host handing them a check containing all their wishes and dreams come true.

The age also contains "gambling fever" – wager your possessions to hit the big jackpot – ignore your God-wired desires for a genuine life and look for the fun and excitement of a dream life. This is a generation of dreamers whose life is a fantasy of tomorrow.

Many Christians are the same, because they wait for the elusive will of God to be made known. They constantly wait for "what God will do some day". This way of thinking produces crippled Christians. They have little because they never set out to really use the talents and desires God wired them with. And so, rather than using their abilities FOR others, they lean ON others as they dream of the day they will someday have.

"The sluggard is full of excuses: 'I can't go to work!' he says. 'If I go outside I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!'" (Prov. 22:13). This gives a vivid picture of a man in mental and spiritual inertia, paralyzed because he has no purpose and therefore no reason to be doing what he is doing.

Let me ask you – where are you going in life? If you don't know or aren't following your God-wired desires, you are drifting dangerously near the fool of Proverbs. You are wasting the unique life that God gave you in which to celebrate Himself. What have you always wanted to be and do?

What urges have risen within you SINCE your new birth? Think about it, and realize that within those dreams is God's purpose for your life. Don't be led astray by that prayer meeting you go to where they are praying to find God's will like a mysterious bolt out of the blue. That may actually be leading you away from the purpose of God that is already built in within you. Don't let a pseudo-super spirituality lead you from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Let me give you some practical instruction as to how you can exit the world of dreaming fools and become a wise man.

First, get some time alone, maybe a walk in the woods, a day on the beach, or whatever, away from all distraction. Listen to who Christ is in you. In doing this, it will be helpful, for that day at least, to forget the expression "the will of God". In fact, stop thinking about what God wants because that leaves you dreaming and waiting for a revelation. Remember, He is ONE with you; so you are listening to the desires He has placed in you from birth, now cleansed and made His own in new birth. Ask yourself, "What do I (in your genes) want to do? Where am I (in your genes) going in life?" After a while, the purpose wired within your genes will be sorted out from all the foggy wishes and dreams that clutter up your mind.

In doing this, do not be phony! Some Christians would come back from such a retreat saying that they want to enter some form of full time ministry. Do you really? Realize that all born-again Christians are priests (1 Peter 2), which means that whatever we do in life we are doing it unto God, a MINISTRY for His glory.

He expresses Himself through our basically wired desires, whether that is by a housewife and mother, businessman, accountant, dentist, sailor, farmer, fireman, secretary, professor or whatever. Whatever is your true heart's desire, God is saying that is THE particular world He wills to express Himself in, through you.

We are made in God's image. We see in Genesis and onward through the Bible that His wisdom called on His Almightiness to bring to pass what He had purposed. We function at a finite level in exactly the same way. You must know by how you are wired where you are going in life, then go and bring it to pass.

Formulate your purpose in life by opening yourself to the mind of Christ, by nakedly and honestly avoiding all religious terminology that keeps you from the truth of how you are wired. You now call upon who you are to implement that. Remember, Jesus Christ lives in you, strength of your weakness, and you are going to draw upon His ability to carry out your built-in desires.

God did not keep His purpose locked up inside Himself. As each step was to be accomplished, He announced it. God created the world and each day announced to Himself what was going to be that day. He then announced to Adam and Eve what He was going to do in terms of the salvation of man. He did this with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and each generation that followed. We call it prophecy. But it was really God announcing to Himself and those it involved the next step to be taken in bringing about His purpose.

Similarly with us. We set out to put the purpose into practice. We then ask ourselves what is to be done this year, this month, in order to bring our life's purpose to pass. Sit down every week and ask of yourself what must be done during this week, and finally bring it down to what must be accomplished this day.

In setting out our wired purpose clearly and going out to achieve it, our built-in desires are fanned into a furnace. The simple commitment of ourselves to do it will release untold energies in Christ that will bring it to pass. WE WILL NOW BE FLOWING IN HARMONY WITH OUR GENES IN UNION WITH LIFE HIMSELF. People will come into our lives to help us on our way. Opportunities will present themselves, resources will become available to us. Creative ideas arrive in our head out of nowhere that bring us continually closer to the fulfilling of the purpose.

In all our doing, we REST in the fact that God is at work in us and using us the way He made and wired us. And we are resting in the fact that He is our ability.

For the Christian FOLLOWING HIS GENES, every detail of life becomes exciting. An inner dynamic energy, not present in the dreamer, fills his mind and body.

Our English word "enthusiasm" is made up of two Greek words, en theos, which mean God in us. The wise man who follows his desire and God-given wired-in purpose lives his life with ENTHUSIASM – with trust in the power of God through Christ within.
Harness your genes to a purpose.
Grab on to your built-in desires.
Then trust in Christ within.
And you will celebrate life!

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The "Suicide" Religion of Iran

Is there another Winston Churchill in our midst? Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed on Headline News Nov. 17, 2006. Mr. Netanyahu said:

“Iran is Nazi Germany, and this is 1938 – which was one year before World War II. We are dangerously close to World War III.
“Iran is the king of Middle East terrorists. The dangerous Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will provide terrorists with nuclear weapons – it’s only a matter of when. Here are Ahmadinejad’s religious beliefs: Israel is just the first weigh station en route to you, America. So there is this fundamental fanaticism that is there. It’s a messianic cult. It’s a religious messianic cult that believes in the Apocalypse, and they believe they have to expedite the Apocalypse to bring the collapse of the West. If the lunatics escape from the asylum, that’s one thing. But if they can get their hands on a nuclear weapon, that’s another. And this is that kind of a cult. It’s the cult of the Mahdi, a holy man that disappeared a thousand years ago. And the president of Iran believes that he’s supposed to, that he was put here on Earth to bring this holy man back in a great religious war between the true Muslim believers and the infidels. And millions will die in this Apocalypse, and the Muslim believers will go to heaven. That’s dangerous, if they have nuclear weapons to realize this fantasy. And that is where the world is coming to.
“Now, people said that of Hitler in the 1930s. They said this man has a mad ideology, very fanatic, very dangerous, and if he gets his hands on a military power, he would use it. Hitler did use it; but Hitler tried to develop atomic weapons only after embarking on the world conflict.
“Ahmadinejad is first trying to develop nuclear weapons and then going about his mad fantasy of global conflict. So he has to be stopped. I think when you have something as fanatic and as dangerous as this, the question now is not whether he should be stopped, but how’s the best way to stop him.
“Someone must stop Iran or this number-one sponsor of terrorism is going to put nuclear weapons into the hands of terrorists. And America is their primary target.
“No current nuclear power in the world is suicidal, but the Iranian leaders are. That is why you can’t stop their terrorism unless you stop their “messianic cult of death” – which would probably mean destroying Iran. I think the most important thing to understand is that, you know the best sign of how dangerous things are? That the president of Iran is not even trying to fake it. You know, normally, if he wasn’t as fanatic as he is, he’d say, ‘Well, you know, yes, I think we could recognize Israel if it made the right concessions to the Palestinians.’ He’d play along; he’d play the game. He’d say, ‘We’re not really developing nuclear weapons. We just want nuclear energy for peace.’ You know, he’d say all that.
“But that’s not what he’s saying. Listen to him carefully. He’s saying, ‘We’re going to wipe Israel off the map. The Holocaust didn’t happen. America’s the great Satan. Iran will have the power to reshape history.’ Now a normal person would not say that. An insane person says that. “In the 1930s an insane person wrote in a book called Mein Kampf, ‘My Struggle’, and that was Adolf Hitler. He said exactly what he would do. He was stark raving mad, but he communicated. If you asked for a sign, that was a sign – 300 pages of signs, OK? Ahmadinejad every day is writing a page. He’s saying what he’s going to do. That’s the best sign. That tells you that there’s a fanaticism at work here which is not even calculating. He’s just going to do it. And let’s not enable him to do it. Let’s stop him. A Holocaust survivor was asked what lesson she learned from that experience. Her answer was, when a powerful leader says he is going to annihilate you, believe him!
“Ahmadinejad is in the process of doing exactly what he says he will do, but few people believe him – perhaps some are even laughing. That laughter could soon be silenced, just as the scoffing at Hitler stopped before and during World War II. Winston Churchill was a strong leader who stood up and led the West in conquering Hitler. But the British were almost beaten before they voted Churchill into office. That is because almost all the journalists, educators, politicians and religious leaders rejected Churchill’s warning in the 1930s.
“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a strong dictator, much like Hitler. He is moving events along at a dizzy pace in the Middle East. Oil profits have made his country incredibly wealthy. He is going to cause a global crisis in only a few years – perhaps even months. He has virtually taken over Lebanon as the world does nothing. Iran’s efforts have helped Assad of Syria turn his nation more toward terrorism.
“Before World War II, Churchill tried to rouse Britain from ‘its sloth and trance.’ But it took what he termed ‘a series of horrible shocks’ to awaken the British people.”

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A Mediocre Christian?

A friend recently said to me, “I’m beginning to understand this grace thing that they preach about here at Grace Church. But what does it mean to really accept grace? If I literally take God at His word, if I believe it’s really all about Him, and that Jesus has already done what I can never do for myself, then it seems to me I have no motivation to do well in my life. If I take grace seriously, it seems that I’m just going to be a mediocre, goof-off of a Christian.”

My friend isn’t the only one with questions about the implications of God’s grace. His question is important – are those who live by and in God’s grace spiritual slackers? Does grace mean that we will be content to sit in the grandstand watching God do all the work? Does grace mean that we will lack motivation to succeed and thus settle for less than our spiritual potential? Did Jesus die on His cross, paying a debt He did not owe, a debt we could not pay, so that we might live like so many spoiled spiritual brats – God’s rich kids who have no incentive to do anything? Is that the implication of grace for our lives?

I suggest that we base the implications of God’s grace on the Bible – specifically the book of 1 Corinthians. Let’s consider passages in three well-known chapters of this book:
1) chapter 12, which teaches us about spiritual gifts that God gives to each of us and how each of us fulfills a role in the body of Christ,
2) chapter 13, the love chapter, where Paul grounds our faith in the practical and visible outworking of God, His love that He produces in our lives, and
3) chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, a chapter of hope that gives us a glimpse into the eternity that God give us.

The last few verses of chapter 12 are the bridge to chapter 13, and there Paul reiterates that while each of us has an important role in the body of Christ, we may not see that assignment as exciting or rewarding as that of others. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Paul reminds us that whatever God calls us to, we should “eagerly desire the greater gifts” (12:31). Then just before the powerful and beautiful description of the greatest gift of all, the love of God given to us by His grace, Paul writes ten critically important words.

“And now I will show you THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY” (12:31, my emphasis). This is the all important set up to what we so often call the love chapter. This love chapter is “THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY.” Then Paul says this:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Let’s really think about what Paul said. Thought I study my Bible, though I pray without ceasing, though I volunteer to host a study and prayer group in my home, though I go out of my way to help those in need, though I give generously to God’s work, though I read and maybe even write Christian books and articles, though I serve and work and volunteer… I’ve accomplished nothing if love is not the foundation of my life.

Paul is calling us to THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY, but he insists that the only excellence that counts is excellence in love. Paul is grounding his call for Christian excellence in the love of God through the indwelling Son, Jesus Christ. He certainly is not telling us that Christian life is filled with hum-drum mediocrity, but neither is he calling us to excel simply in order to excel. Paul is not teaching some positive thinking, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps seminar. This teaching is not the excellence defined by material, corporate, social or political success, or the excellence of riches, fame and/or beauty.

Let’s combine this insight with the message we see in 1 Corinthians 15. At the end of this magnificent resurrection chapter Paul explains the victorious resurrection of Jesus and what it means for us:
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (15:57-58).

We are in the flesh, and therefore incapable of achieving lasting victory in this life. We are incapable to achieving the lofty heights of perfection. If our flesh represents our best resource for success, then we will only go so far, but no farther. God’s love – the most excellent way – is the only way of eternal excellence. Everything you and I accomplish, apart from the power of Jesus Christ the risen Lord who lives His life in those who believe in and trust in Him, will one day be “left behind”. You may be in excellent health. You may exercise and you may eat a careful, balanced and healthy diet. I hope you do. But one day, your earthly body (and mine), will decay and die. You may have worked your way up the corporate ladder. You may have worked hard in your chosen profession. That’s great – but one day you will leave all of that behind.

The good news is that the love God gives to us by placing His Son, Jesus into us by a new birth is eternal. We will not leave God’s love behind. According to 1 Corinthians 13, love never fails. It never passes away. Spiritual perfection – the excellence of love that God gives us because of Jesus is eternal. Not only is it impossible for humans to attain perfection, as Christians we don’t have to. Perfection has been attained for us. Through the indwelling Christ, we are given the victory. We do not need to earn salvation or attempt to make God love us. We are given salvation, we are given God’s love, by His grace and because we are in union with Christ living in us.

What then? Christians don’t live slip-shod mediocre lives. IN and THROUGH and BECAUSE OF Christ joined to us we achieve our best. We don’t settle for second best. We don’t just sit back and watch God “do it all.” As Paul also says in Philippians, “…if anything is EXCELLENT or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, my emphasis).

Because the risen, victorious Lord lives His life in us we don’t just do enough to get by, but we boldly face our challenges and trials in faith – for we know that God, in some way, always gives us the victory. As Christ lives in us and fills us with His love, we live the most excellent way.

By God’s grace we know that there are only two things that really count in our lives: 1) our relationship with God through the indwelling Christ (our love for Him and His for us) and 2) the spreading of God’s love through our relationship with others. This is true, lasting, eternal excellence. And there is nothing mediocre about it.

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My V.A. Moment

I recently went to the V.A. hospital in St. Louis for my six-month checkup. You may hear horror stories about the care at V.A. hospitals but my experience there has been very positive. The doctors I have met have been very caring and personally interested in keeping me well. The accessory personnel that I have dealt with have been cordial and helpful.

On this last visit, I signed in and went to wait in the reception area. The seats in the main reception area were mostly taken so I sat down on a bench in the hall outside the area where I could still hear my name called. Near me on the same bench was a young, good looking blond man with his head down in apparent thought.

All of a sudden, without looking at me, he said, “I’m dying!”

Almost instantly, three words came out of my mouth, “So am I!” I hadn’t thought about it; I hadn’t planned on saying such a thing – I just said it.

The young man looked up at me and said, “You are?”

I continued, “Yes. Here I am, seventy-five years old, and there you are, probably about thirty years old – and we’re both dying. The only difference is that you have more information about “when” than I do.”

He was quiet for a moment and then replied, “Yes, I guess you’re right.”

I surmised that this man was not taking his immanent death very well. I decided to talk about God to him. I have only done this with strangers a couple of times in my life – I tend toward an introvert personality.

I said, “What do you think about God?”

He replied, “I don’t know much.”

I said, “Have you ever looked around you at the beauty and complexity of nature and thought there must be a Creator?”

He said, “Yeah, I guess so.”

I continued, “Well, human beings are the height of God’s creation and God has made special provision for us to continue on in life after death. You may be unsure and even fearful of what happens at your death, but you don’t have to be!”

Wow! I couldn’t believe how I was speaking to a stranger!

I went boldly on, “God loves you and God loves me, no matter what in the world we have done. And because of that great love, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as a Savior for us to make payment by His death for all the wrong things we have done, you and I.”

The man said, “Yeah, I know about Christianity and, from what I’ve seen, there’s a lot of phoniness there.”

I said, “You are right! But that doesn’t make the true message of Jesus Christ wrong. He came as Savior so that we could live on in life after death in the presence of God. And it’s really simple.”

The man questioned, “What do you mean, simple?”

I said, “Because of Jesus, life after death with God is a free gift, given once and for all with no strings attached. You can’t earn it by the good things you do in your life, and the gift is still offered to you is spite of all the bad things you have done. The gift is free and unmerited.”

He said, “Aw, that sounds too good to be true. You must have to do something to please God.”

I said, “As crazy as it may sound, you just have to BELIEVE that what I have told you is true. No, rather, you just have to WANT TO BELIEVE that what I said is true. I know you want to believe that you will have some kind of a good life after death. Well if you believe your Creator God, you can.”

The man looked me in the eyes with his own teary eyes and asked, “You’re not kidding me are you? Is it really that simple?”

I said, “Man, it is! In the Bible, a man came to Jesus and said, ‘I believe! Lord help my unbelief!’ That’s all it takes. Just close your eyes to keep out the distractions and say to God, ‘I want to believe that Jesus came as my Savior; I want to believe that I can trust Him to guide my life (whatever is left of it), and I want to believe that I can live after death in the presence of God. I receive it as a free gift because I sure didn’t earn it and don’t deserve it.’”

That man, so dejected before, raised himself up straight with a smile on his face. By all appearances, there was that day one more child of God in His Family.

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Don't Lose the "Wow Factor"!

I recently spent a cool evening at our old family place in the country. As I checked out the night sky, I was amazed to be able to see the Milky Way, a rare treat for this city person. As conversation ebbed and flowed we managed to identify the Big Dipper and the North Star which were the sum total of my companion’s knowledge about astronomy.

I am an amateur (very amateur) astronomer. I don’t even have a telescope – I just have a good set of binoculars. But over the years I have studied star charts and other astronomical literature and can find my way around the constellations pretty well.

Viewing that sparkling velvet canopy at night, I always feel very small, humbled by the vastness, yet at the same time, somehow very safe.

I once was invited to attend an astronomy party at a local college campus. Club enthusiasts had telescopes pointing skyward and trained on points of interest. We admired star clusters and the moons of Jupiter. Foreign-sounding names of stars and nebula rolled off their tongues. They knew their way around the heavens like I know my way around my home. As I stumbled back to my car in the dark, I was impressed with how much they knew and how much I didn’t. The contrast suddenly hit me. Id gone from awe and wonder to ignorance and inadequacy.

What had happened to my childhood sense of wonder? Could it be that children experience wonder because they don’t yet understand how their world works? I call this the “wow factor”. Waves on the seashore provide a fascinating playground until someone explains the rotation of the earth and the gravitational pull of the moon. Now I can predict when the tides go in and out and exactly how many hours I have to build a sandcastle. Handy information, but the wonder and adventure (the “wow”) have been jeopardized. Suddenly it makes seashore walks and sand art projects more calculating.

Ancient cultures worshipped the uncontrollable nature that existed around them – fire, wind, rain. We’re more sophisticated. We understand global weather patterns and can track severe weather, tornados and hurricanes. We don’t just admire birds in flight; we design and build jets that fly us coast to coast in a matter of hours. From the comfort of my couch I can tour the Earth and the heavens on an electronic screen. At the push of a button I can listen to a symphony orchestra or “read” a book while strolling along my park’s walking trail.

Progress? Undoubtedly. I’m thankful that we can improve and save lives via science and chemistry. But as we focus on details and reduce everything to its basic elements, I fear we too easily strip life of some of its mystery and wonder – the “wow factor”. How often do I allow myself to revel in the power of rain pounding on my home roof, to be enchanted by wind sculpting dancing motions in my trees or mesmerized by the flames of a late night campfire?

I never want to come to a point where I won’t see past scientific facts and figures and explanation to the astounding beauty that God has created all around me.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a sunset out back that’s begging to be admired. I’m not going to think about the rotation of the earth, water droplets in the clouds and air-borne dust particles refracting light.

I’m just going to enjoy the spectacle and allow God to WOW ME!

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Seeing God

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall SEE GOD!” Matthew 5:8

The whole purpose of life as a human being is to come to a knowledge of God in our own life and to be used by God to spread that knowledge to those around us. That is, our human existence is to “see God”.

Most people go through several stages of seeing God.

1.) SEEING GOD IN NATURE

In our unconverted days, God usually begins to deal with us by a recognition of Him in the beauties seen in the world of nature around us. I begin to see the beauty of the spiritual in the beauty of the physical - the flowers, the animals, the mountains and the meadows, etc. I come to an understanding that there had to be a Creator to account for the complexity and yet the simple interaction of all of the biological species. I see God in the rhythms of nature. I recognize that blind chance could not have produced our intricate material universe.

2.) SEEING GOD IN SIN JUDGMENT

The next step most take is seeing God as a judge for what I come to recognize as total lapses in my ability to live morally. The Holy Spirit of God deals with the soul of each person to recognize his immorality. I see that I just do not have it within myself to live as my conscience tells me I should. I try, but I fail! I hear about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I call out for a Savior. God applies the death of Christ as the penalty for my sins. I begin to see myself as a “converted” person who the Bible calls “born again”. I begin to see myself as a brand new person, forgiven and ready to build a whole new life-style. At this point, I know very little about HOW to be a “Christian”, but at least I know that I have made contact with my Creator and that He can “help” me.

3.) SEEING GOD IN MYSELF

At conversion and the new birth, Jesus Christ comes to dwell in my human spirit, right here within me. But I didn’t KNOW THAT, and most new converts don’t recognize this awesome happening. Through the Holy Spirit Teacher, now within my soul (intellect, emotions and will), I begin to see God IN MYSELF by a living union of the Spirit of Christ and my human spirit. I begin to see that I must TRUST Christ to direct my life in order to be successful. “Independent-I” does not have the power to live life by God’s standards. But as I come to the awareness of Christ’s ability living within me to direct my ways, I grow in the “Dependent-I” recognition of living. I can’t do it! But Christ in me can do it! Therefore “Christ-I” can do it!

4.) SEEING GOD IN OTHER PEOPLE

As I see Christ in myself as a Christian, then I begin to see God in other people. I begin to see every other Christian united to Christ and thus united to me in Christ. Christ is the Head of His Body, the Church. When I see other Christians not acting very Christ-like, I accept God is dealing with them and will turn their actions and attitudes for the good. I see in my own life that when I fall into independent thinking and sin, Jesus calls me back to the awareness of union with Him, probably even stronger than before. And I expect the same results of independent attitudes in my fellow Christians. Their sinful actions will be used by God to draw them closer to Him. No longer do I focus on the human weakness of my fellow believers for I see Christ’s strength made perfect in that weakness. When I see need in a brother, I confess supply - that God will manifest His Positive in apparent negative. No longer do I fret over my brother’s apparent “sins” and “worldly” tendencies, for this mentality is destructive and useless anyway (John 8:1-11). I rather focus on the Christ in my brother, and expect in faith to see Him manifested in God’s time, knowing that even his apparent slip into sin will have redemptive purposes in “growing him up into Christ”. Certainly this is what Paul meant when he stated that “henceforth, I will know no man after the flesh”, for rather than concentrating on the vessel, I point out it’s precious content.

And then, even further, I begin to see God in every human being, whether converted or not. Paul said in Acts 17:28 to a group of pagan Greeks at Athens: “For in Him (Christ), we live, and move, and have our being.” Rather than thinking negatively regarding a person’s awareness of the spiritual, I want to see everyone as God sees them - being dealt with by God on GOD’S OWN SCHEDULE! Jesus was the friend of sinners before He could be their Savior, and we must be the same. We have often driven away those whom we should be drawing close by our foolish and hypocritical condemnation of lifestyles and habits, for the Holy Spirit of God is already in the world convicting of sin (John 16:9). We beat a dog already dead by constantly pointing out sin in the lives of the lost, for we are solution people bringing hope to those who know that they have a problem (regardless of what they may say). No doubt, there will be times when, in compassion, we state what is true about sin to honest seekers, but our main mission will always be to announce to a thirsty world that “whosoever will, MAY COME AND DRINK”.

OUR MESSAGE IS NOT THAT IF SOMEONE BELIEVES, THEY WILL BE FORGIVEN. THE MESSAGE IS THAT THEY ARE FORGIVEN, NOW WILL THEY HAVE IT??!!

When I look back on my own life before conversion, I can see God dealing with and drawing me by trial and error to the knowledge of my need for a Savior. And I see that acceptance of a person where they are - which is love - is what wins people. God in His wisdom happened to reveal this to me before revealing it to someone else. So what? It is just a different human time schedule. Time means nothing to the eternity of God. Every unconverted person is being brought to the end of his rope. But we all have different lengths of rope. Some can hear God in their conscience and rather readily accept His message. Others must go through the school of “hard-knocks” before they will even BEGIN to listen. So we learn to “hate the sin but love the sinner!” And sin in nothing more than trying to live independently from self-effort - doing our own thing.

As long as we keep in the front of our mind that God is dealing with and drawing everyone to Him, to accept Him, to accept Christ’s sacrifice for sin, to see and understand the spiritual reality of the living union of Christ in our spirit, then our actions toward others will reflect that. We can deal with everyone on the level that GOD IS DEALING WITH THEM! And we can TRUST in God’s time schedule.

5.) SEEING GOD IN CIRCUMSTANCES, SITUATIONS AND TRIALS

As we grow in our spiritual awareness, we reach what I consider the pinnacle of SEEING GOD. We see God in everything that happens to us. I want to spend some time here considering God in our trials and sins. The knowledge that Christ is now living our lives totally and spontaneously is so liberating that we sometimes forget that there are “interruptions” in our liberation, occurrences which the Scriptures call “trials” and “temptations”. “Every man is tempted,” said James, and we who know Christ as Life are not excluded.

Of course, the matter is now seen in an entirely different light than when I labored under the illusion of separation and self-effort. I begin to realize that everything, even my sin, is used by God to draw me into greater awareness of my union with Christ. Therefore, I no longer fear temptation as if it were some “test” which I may or may not pass. I no longer fear a “problem” in my life as some “hurdle” which I may or may not jump over. I see temptations and trials as “negatives” which, through my faith and TRUST in Christ, bring forth the “positive” of the Living Christ.

But, as Paul said, “Therefore should I sin all the more so that God may be glorified? Absolutely not!” Even though we are drawn back to Christ and forgiven of our sin, there are lingering physical effects in our life: possible disease from sexual encounters; emotional problems from hatred, anger, pride, envy, etc., physical deterioration from alcohol and drugs. So we want to avoid sin, if for no other reason than to stay physically healthy.

There are many places where we want to see God, but also many places where we don’t. We want to see Him in all the good things, the beautiful things, the pleasant things, the “righteous” things. However, we don’t want to see Him in the bad things, the ugly things, the unpleasant things, and yes, the sinful things. BUT HE IS THERE. David said, “If I make my bed in hell, You are there” (Psa. 139 :8). Through Isaiah, God Himself said, “I am the Lord, I create evil” (Isa. 45:7). We are uncomfortable in the absurdity that a loving God could author suffering. We recoil at the idea that a beautiful God could produce ugliness. And we Christians totally reject the “sacrilege” that a holy and righteous God could “create evil”.

But He said it - and more than that, He showed it. Who nailed Jesus Christ to a cross of shame and death? Who committed the greatest crime ever perpetrated? Who sponsored the worst thing that ever happened in the universe? Roman soldiers? Yes. Jewish Pharisees? Yes. Satan? Yes - and one more guilty party. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of GOD, you ... have slain” (Acts 2:23). Can it possibly be that the worst thing that ever happened in the world, the greatest injustice, the most heinous crime, was perpetrated by God Himself?! Can it be? Did God kill His own Son?!

Of course, we know the answer is yes. But we also know the flip side of the story. We who have believed know that the worst thing that ever happened is also the best thing, for “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”. We know that apart from Christ’s death, there could be no life for us. And so we see through the appearance of evil and are absurd enough to call it the abounding love of God, the reason of our faith and hope. We who have believed have been silly enough to not live in the appearance that the cross was shame, and evil, and devilish. We have decided to see it as life, as beauty, and yes, as God, and we have experienced salvation for having done so.

Therefore, our faith sees through everything to God. No longer do we blame ourselves, others, or Satan for the situations and events in which we are involved. No, we “blame” God — in the form of praise and thanksgiving, that the One who “does all things well” is at work through human and even devilish agencies.

We say that WE ARE SEEING GOD - in nature, in sin judgment, in ourselves, in other persons and even in everything that happens to us. And we find ourselves at perfect peace because we have said it, and wonder of wonders, we begin to see that what we have said comes forth in open manifestation. We see that our temptation to believe that this or that is the devil, or the flesh, or the world, is really our wake-up call to SEE THAT GOD REALLY IS (AND HAS BEEN) ON THE SCENE NO MATTER WHAT THE APPEARANCE.

The key of simply SEEING GOD is in our hands, and when we learn to use it, all of life becomes a seeing of the “glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. Perhaps the world will tell us that “no good thing comes out of Nazareth” (John 1:46), but we know Joseph’s secret, that, “YOU THOUGHT EVIL AGAINST ME, BUT GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD” (Gen. 50: 20).

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Two Kinds of Animals

Before we talk about the nature of the animal world around us, let’s get it straight in our minds about the composition of humanity.

The Bible states that man is composed of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The human spirit is the “image of God” mentioned in Genesis One. It is our connection with the spirit dimension of God. It contains our very nature of who and what we are.
The human soul is located in the human brain and is the control panel of the intellect, the emotions and the will. And the body, of course, is the material part of us which relates to the material world around us and is controlled by the decisions made in the soul.

I like to say that I AM a spirit, I HAVE a soul and I LIVE IN a body.

Now where do animals fit in to this scheme of spirit, soul and body? Let’s start with the body – that is the simplest. All animals have material bodies, duh! No problem there!

Contrary to the American Indians and some Eastern religions, the Bible nowhere states that animals have spirits. Animals are not connected with the spirit dimension with the “image of God” as humans are.

This brings us to the “soul”. There has been much debating over the centuries over the meaning of soul and spirit. But they are different! Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God (the Bible) is capable of showing us the division of soul and spirit. Do animals have “souls”? My interpretation of Genesis One is that some do have souls and some don’t have souls. I believe it all has to do with how God’s creatures around us relate to human beings.

There are the domesticated animals which can establish a relationship with man and HAVE A SOUL of intellect, emotion and will. These have been called “soulish animals”. They consist basically of mammals and a few kinds of birds such as the parrot and macaw. These soulish animals are called in Genesis 1:24 as “cattle” in some translations and as “livestock” in other translations. We especially see these soul characteristics in our pets – our dogs and cats.

Then there are all the other kinds of creatures we see around us which DO NOT HAVE SOULS. They have no personal relationship with man. They are called in Genesis 1:24 as “creeping things” or “creatures that move along the ground” (insects such as ants, mosquitoes, lizards, etc.). There are also what are called “wild animals” or “beasts” which have no soul and no personal relationship with man. All of these creatures without souls are governed by an implanted “instinct” in their brains. They are programmed by God to do exactly what they were made for and nothing more.

I make this distinction between animals with souls and those without souls in great part because of the Hebrew word “nephesh” which is most often translated “soul” in the Old Testament. This word “nephesh” is used four times in Genesis One for lower life forms before it is ever used for man. This indicates to me that at least some animals have “souls”.

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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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The Lives of the Screen People

Humans certainly have a hard time relating the material realm of the universe to the spiritual realm of God. We come to the realization that there IS a higher realm or dimension of living, but with our four-dimensional outlook (three of space and one of time) we have a real difficulty understanding the relationship of these dimensions.

God has to exist in at least one more dimension of space and one dimension of time in order to have created the universe we are in. But science now says that the universe itself contains ten dimensions (nine of space and one of time). So this actually places God in at least a twelve-dimensional realm (ten of space and two of time).

This is too much to comprehend totally. But an analogy can be very helpful.

Picture a computer screen. Mr. and Mrs. Screen are two-dimensional beings confined to the plane of length and width on a computer screen. A three-dimensional being can approach their plane from the depth dimension and place a fingertip a hundredth of a millimeter from the body of either one of them. Despite this close proximity, the Screens would be unable to detect the fingertip’s presence, much less understand and describe its physical characteristics.

We can picture in our mind’s eye the kind of relationship we could develop with some characters we design on a computer screen. Given the right software, we could give them color and animation, and we could create splendid scenes for them to move around in, all the while sending electronic signals to let them know of our presence. In reality, of course, these two-dimensional beings would not possess the capacity to think, feel, and know anything in a physical sense like we do because atoms, molecules, brains, nerves, and so on require three large space dimensions. But, for the sake of the analogy, we can pretend they are able to physically think, feel, and know.

As their designers, we know everything about them. Whatever capacities they possess, we gave them. If we enable them to move about the screen, we know the possibilities and the limits of their mobility. Whether they come to recognize the fact or not, their existence depends entirely on us. They have no control over the power supply, the “on” switch, that keeps electricity flowing into the system that is their universe.

We can imagine the difficulty these screen people would have in comprehending us and relating to us. Could they be certain of our existence? Perhaps reasonably so, if they came to recognize their incapacity to create themselves or anything else in their screen environment, and if they discern that their power source is located outside their realm. Could they perceive our three-dimensionality and how it compares with their two-dimensionality? Given adequate research, they may discover enough about themselves and their environment to recognize that a third dimension must exist for them to exist, but they will never fully comprehend what a difference that third dimension makes, nor will they be able to visualize more than two dimensions at a time.

As close as these characters may come to each other on the screen, they will remain unable to detect certain things about themselves, characteristics that we can easily observe from our three-dimensional perspective. Because we experience depth, we can stand back from them and instantly see their complete outline or shape. All they can perceive of one another are various lines. If they are round, they may figure out that their bodies are circular by carefully moving around one another, but they will not see each other’s circles as we who look on from outside the screen see them. We can program them to rebound off each other and to make a certain sound when they do, but they have only growing or shrinking lines to indicate movement.

Even if we put our hands or faces right up to the screen, perhaps covering them up completely, they cannot see or hear or feel our nearness through the glass barrier. Sending strong vibrations through the glass might only confuse or frighten them – given, of course, that we have endowed them with emotions as well as sense receptors and minds.

We observe something else about the screen people that they can never see. We can see what is inside them. The details and workings of their interior body parts, for example, are fully exposed to us. The amount of information we have about them is at least an order of magnitude (that is, at least a factor of ten times) greater than what any of them possesses.

In this simple analogy, just one dimension separates the screen people from us humans. And yet, the advantage of that one extra dimension suffices to explain how we could be closer to the screen people than they are to each other, fully comprehending them inside and out, while remaining invisible and untouchable to them. Knowing the value of seeing and touching, we could give them the capacity to detect and contact each other, but they would be unable to understand how much more limited these senses are for them than they are for us. They can only detect and contact outer edges, whereas we can see and electronically “touch” every part of them.

God’s dimensional advantage over us goes far beyond this one-dimensional difference. He can operate in at least the twelve dimensions mentioned previously – and even beyond. His capacity to maintain close and comprehensive contact with us – despite our incapacity to experience Him physically through our space-bound dimensions – becomes a comprehensible reality. We cannot begin to picture it, except by analogy, but it does make sense.

Making sense of His nearness (in fact, His living right within us as the Bible states) is more important, for now, than physically sensing His nearness. Pleasure is something our senses can give us, and it is temporary; but joy comes from a source beyond the senses, and it lasts. Pleasure and physical nearness are good, but the joy and nearness available to us in His extra dimensions go immeasurably beyond what we can think or imagine, as His written Word declares. In one sense, God’s invisibility and untouchability keep our yearnings focused where they rightly belong, on the supernatural realm that exists for our benefit now and that awaits us.

The Bible states that upon our death, we will receive new “bodies” with individual identities in the realm to which we are headed, but these bodies will no longer experience fatigue, disease, or decay. Our new bodies will be suited to our new environment. Imagine the screen people’s two-dimensional bodies trying to support the screen people anywhere but on the computer monitor’s surface. Such bodies would simply be too unstable, too limited and limiting. The same could be said of our present bodies in whatever dimensional realm He intends to place us. When we see Him with our own eyes, we will be seeing Him with a new and indescribable sight capacity. All our other capacities will be new, too. In fact, they will in several ways be capacities like His, capacities beyond our comprehension, capacities that enable us to participate fully in His Family.

Yes, God has a relationship to us as humans somewhat like the analogy of our human relationship to the screen people.

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Elton John and His Gay Lifestyle

The following is a reprint from the November 27, 2006 PTM Update letter.

QUESTION: Recently Elton John made a statement about organized religion, that it should be done away with (how that would be accomplished is beyond me). Undoubtedly there is some truth to his statement that some churches and religious people lack compassion for gays such as himself. My question is, compassion for what? Certainly no one should be judging or condemning gay people. Of course “throwing the book at them” and condemning their lifestyle won’t make them repent of their lifestyle, but rather turn them away from Christianity altogether, and sadly that is what some Christians feel should be done.

My problem with gays is the militant way in which many strongly defend their lifestyle. But I truly believe that we must stay clear of the gay bashing and try to find some common ground with them. I find it a very touchy subject and a real tightrope to try to relate as fellow sinful human beings to them while avoiding them and at the same time somehow befriend them.

ANSWER: Correct - We have had comments and expect more about Elton John’s statement. Before tackling this subject I need to say at the outset that I have been a long time fan (almost 40 years) of Elton John’s music, even though I have known for most of that time of his sexual orientation. I expect to continue to be a fan of his music. A few years ago, for a special occasion, my wife and I went to an Elton John concert, thinking we would enjoy his music, and while we did enjoy his music, we found that we did so in spite of the fact that the staging seemed to be specifically directed at those who participate in the gay lifestyle (which of course my wife and I do not!). So we spent most of the concert glued to our binoculars, from our seats that were so far from the stage, focused only on Elton and his piano, and attempting to avoid all of the other “special effects” and staging.

Undoubtedly some will be upset that I enjoy Elton John’s music, and that I separate his lifestyle from his music. Some readers will feel that I should have stormed out of the concert. Some might say I didn’t because I paid too much for the tickets!?! If another Christian told me that they actually left the very same concert because they were offended, I wouldn’t disagree with their decision (depending on how high-and-mighty and holier-than-thou they acted in telling me what they did, and whether they insisted on trying to impress me about their “no nonsense, I will not put up with that stuff, self-righteousness posturing). If that were the case, then I would feel that they had only found yet another reason to trumpet their righteousness (which is not necessarily the same as God’s), and had they not found a reason for storming out of that concert, they would have found something else – for when we are intent on showing the world that we are holier-than-thou, there will always be opportunities to do so. In retrospect, before God, I do not feel badly about remaining at this concert, enjoying the concert by ignoring the visual effects and concentrating on the music. I have no regrets that I enjoy his music, and will continue to, but I have no plans to attend another of his concerts, even if I am given free tickets.

I share this since you have asked about Elton John, and I feel it is appropriate for me to share some of my own history with Elton John and his music. Some might get upset at the fact that a Christian (if they continue to think of me as a Christian) can enjoy music by a person who is an avowed, practicing homosexual. I would point out that if Christians stopped attending classical concerts, symphonies, concertos and opera simply on the basis of composers and artists who were/are practicing homosexuals, then Christians would attend few events featuring classical music.

I think that we all need to challenge our recrimination, condemnation and judgmentalism. I believe that I am free in Christ to enjoy Elton John’s music – and I will continue to. His “Candle In the Wind” always invokes strong feelings in my soul. However, as I said, I will never again attend one of his concerts for I only wish to enjoy his music, not subject myself to the “alternative lifestyle” trappings that seem to be pushed, at least during the concert we attended.

I would agree with Elton’s comments about oppressive, judgmental religion in the sense that he is talking about judgmentalism and condemnation. In the same interview to which you refer, I was interested to see that he did say that he found the teachings of Jesus to be inspiring. Perhaps that’s a key to reaching people who are so obviously trapped by some sin, dysfunction, addiction – whatever it may be. The best thing we can do for anyone is to direct them to Jesus – for Jesus alone can provide the answer that so many desperately need – including Elton John. May others see our Jesus, not our religious stuff.

Sadly, and this is something all Christians need to take to heart, our own diatribes and invective in the name of God about homosexuals have given many practicing homosexuals the justification they so desperately seek, so that they can feel vindicated, and declare God and the Bible as irrelevant, hateful and vindictive. There is absolutely no biblical warrant for placing practicing homosexuals at the top of some religious hit list of sins (as some in Christendom do), thinking that if we can just get rid of the “gay problem” then we will be one step closer to society being the way it ought to be. After all, if we could just get rid of all sinners, the world would be a better place, wouldn’t it – but then you and I wouldn’t be around would we? A world without sin would be a world without humans. God’s grace does not lead us to hate gays or reserve a special place in hell for them.

On the other hand, it is true that some gays are militant, they push their agenda, they agitate, which ironically seems to be the very thing that some in Christendom do in response to gays. So we have the classical eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth scenario, of which Jesus speaks in the Sermon On the Mount. As Christians, we of course do not condone sin of any kind (including in our own lives whatever that sin may be), and we do not hesitate to draw appropriate boundaries when we feel biblical values are being openly flaunted or compromised. How we do this without being hateful or judgmental is critically important. It seems to me that the secret of doing so is realizing that only Jesus can produce this kind of unflinching, uncompromising, unconditional love in our lives and our behavior.

There is no Christian/biblical reason to condone or promote gay lifestyles – but instead to invite all those who are trapped in the gay lifestyle (along with all of us who are sinners in our own right, in our own way for we all fall short) to repentance and to the spiritual perfection we are offered in Jesus Christ. There is no way that Christians may tell gays that it is OK to be gay, to practice a gay lifestyle – there is every reason that we have to invite them to God’s grace, which means that in Christ the gay lifestyle will be overcome and left behind, for it is not consistent, according to the New Testament, with the new life in Christ that He lives right within us.

In Christ, Greg Albrecht

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Religion, Hierarchy, and Celibacy

Religion only sees truth that it chooses to see. My definition of religion is a system where humans do something within themselves to please God, relying on their own efforts instead of the work God the Father and God the Son have already completed.

There are many religions in the world – many man-made attempts to please a Divine Being. Down through the millennia of man, most people have come to the truth that there is some Divine Being higher than themselves. So they begin their forms of religion by working to please this God or gods.

Yes, there are many religions but only one true FAITH. We Christians believe that Christianity and the three Persons in One God is the true faith.

BUT, WITHIN CHRISTIANITY THERE IS STILL “RELIGION”! From the very inception of the Christian community, there have been many who have attempted to live by my definition of religion given above.

Religion stands against seeing truth in total – Jesus Christ as life. It knows that, if it were to see Jesus Christ in that way, most of its religious structure would end. In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders – priests, Scribes and Pharisees – knew that if they embraced Christ as Messiah, their religious system with all of its positions and pageantry would end, and they would “lose their place” (John 11:48).

The situation in Christianity down through the centuries since then hasn’t changed much. Jesus as Savior is embraced, oh yes. But Jesus Christ as all, in all, who is our only life, is rejected. A system of priests and pageantry was created just as the religion of the Old Testament Jews. Jesus as Savior and His death for our sins was promulgated but the priestly mediation between man and God was reinstituted just as in the Jewish system. But a hierarchy structure of mediation between God and man for the Church established by Jesus Christ was never meant to be.

As seen in the structure of the churches in the book of Acts, groups of Christians would assemble in local congregations with locally elected pastors and leaders of the church. There were only loose connections between local churches.

Down through the ages, many abuses developed in the organized church because of the hierarchy structure and the need to keep power within it. The church preached celibacy of the clergy but the majority of the clergy did not live celibate.

In our present age, much has come to light about the abuse of minors by church clergy. Unfortunately this crime – and that is its proper name – has been an open wound on the Body of Christ for as far back as records are kept. History shows that in practically every century since the organized church began, the problem of clerical abuse of minors was not just lurking in the shadows but so open at times that extraordinary means had to be taken to quell it.

At the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther and the other major reformers such as Calvin and Zwingli all rejected mandatory celibacy. The rejection was motivated in great part by what the reformers saw as widespread everyday evidence that clergy of all ranks commonly violated their vows with women, men, and young boys. In reference to life in the monasteries on the eve of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, Elizabeth Abbott in “A History of Celibacy” says that the monks’ “lapses” with women, handsome boys, and each other “became so commonplace that they could not be considered lapses but ways of life for entire communities.” Up to this time, the church’s ecclesiastical leaders continued to advocate the long-standing remedies of legislation, spiritual penalties, physical penalties, and warnings, none of which worked.

In rejecting celibacy, the reformers attacked the theological basis of the discipline, arguing that it had no foundation in Scripture or ancient tradition. The major force, however, was moral outrage. Living in the midst of a clerical world of non-celibate behavior, the reformers believed that it caused moral corruption.

An attempt at conciliatory legislation was made at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) but this legislation was hardly original in any way. It provided no reason to presume that it would be any more successful in getting clerics to accept celibacy than had prior laws of the church.

This council, however, was able to bring about a far greater observance of celibacy than any other, at least for a time. The reason was not in the canons themselves but in another conciliatory innovation, namely the establishment of seminary education for prospective priests. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the education of candidates for the priesthood was uneven and random. Parish priests had little more education than the people they served. The learned among the clergy were generally not those priests dealing directly with the people but those who belonged to the monastic orders.

While the seminaries were responsible for an initial reduction in the widespread violations of clerical celibacy, They also had a long-lasting downside of a profound though not so obvious nature. They isolated prospective clergy from an early age to the time of ordination in an all-male environment. Formation in celibacy involved convincing the young men that life without sex of any kind was highly preferable to marriage. The spiritual benefits were openly promoted while the practical consequences remained mysteriously unspoken yet ever present and operative. Celibacy presented a path to spiritual superiority, which in turn supported the mystique that the clergy were somehow made of much stronger moral fiber to be able to withstand the urges of the flesh and devote themselves so totally to God. This mystique further isolated clergy and fortified the clerical caste as a social and religious elite. All positions of power were filled by celibate clergy.

The reformers understood the problems within the clergy of the organized church – the prevalence of non-celibate behavior along with doctrinal errors concerning salvation by faith AND works. But the reformers continued the error of having a hierarchy structure within their new churches. This is where the problem was from the beginning but the reformers failed to recognize this basic failure.

So just as the original organized church built a man-made hierarchy structure of religion, so also did the reformers perpetuate it.

Am I saying that those Christians within organized hierarchy-type churches are not saved? No. There are saved people everywhere throughout Christianity. Anyone who truly believes in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is born again. But the problem for those in hierarchy systems becomes their supposed need for priestly mediators between God and man and their need of much law structure to work to please God.

Am I saying that Christianity has always been a “religion”? Much of it has, as I have demonstrated. But throughout history there have always been local churches which have kept basically to the local structure of the first century apostolic churches. These local congregations were often persecuted by the organized church as “heretics”. The organized church usually became agitated when someone endeavored to challenge the apparent mixing of law and grace of the hierarchy body of doctrine and teaching.

These so-called “heretics”, in many cases, understood 1) that there should be no priestly hierarchy creating a power structure 2) that Christ comes to actually live in a born again person and 3) that we cannot ever please the Father by our human works, but the Father accepts us and saves us strictly on Christ living in us and when the Father looks at a born again Christian, He sees only the righteousness of Christ living in union with the human Christian.

So I say: religion is not God’s way. And there is much religion right within Christianity. Watch out for it.

For two articles on the same subject, read "Watch Out For Religion" here, and "Simply Christ" here.

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