More Questions Than Answers Part 2
I admit, I really have a hard time staying on topic. So picking back up with - cornering the market on the truth, there is one subject which I really want to talk about a little more in detail or at least expound on a bit further; sacrificial love.
Consider the following scriptures:
John 15:5 Jesus says to his disciples, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
and Galatians 5:22 in which Paul says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, (v.23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Question: How many professing Christians do you know of whom it could be said have a loving, joyful, peaceful, longsuffering, gentle, etc., etc. spirit? I'd be willing to bet you don't know that many. And no, I do not count myself among those who have completely overcome all the lusts of the flesh. As a matter of fact, more often than not, it is a professing believer in Christ which will plant a seed of discord within me. Now I can choose to let it grow which will bear the fruit of unholiness, or I can, by faith, choose to forgive the one who may or may not have sown the seed intentionally.
Regrettably, many "believers" will let one seed fester into a plant which subsequently produces all kinds of fruit contrary to the will of the Lord. And what happens when one seed comes to maturity? It bears many more seeds which are then distributed to many more people. Hence, "believers" are seen as hypocrites by "unbelievers" and rightfully so. It is not the will of God for those who profess Christ to live like those who do not. However, it is not merely the act of living, but also the reactions by believers when they suffer persecution which will make an impression on those who don't know Jesus. Persecution is not only physical torture, but it is also the battle which takes place in the mind, such as how one reacts when one suffers the transgressive nature of another, one receives a bad medical report (i.e. cancer), or any host of possibilities which one faces contrary to the Will and the Promises of God. It is very, very disheartening to see believers act quite to the contrary of what is stated repeatedly in the New Testament as to how one should act when they have "put on Christ". Frankly, those professing Christ as Lord and Saviour need to do some honest examination of their spiritual life and bring that which does not comply with God's Word out of the darkness and into the light of the truth of Jesus Christ.
One very simple test for believers is this: if it isn't in love, it isn't God. Jesus, I believe in the book of Matthew, said, "Pick up your cross and follow Me." It is important to remember what it was which was nailed to the cross. It was Jesus, filled with all the sins of humanity (when he drank the cup of iniquity) paying the only acceptable price in the eyes of God for the forgiveness of those sins. Jesus showed not only His love to God by allowing Himself to be crucified in our place, but He also showed us His love by doing for us what we couldn't do without Him. Therefore, He tells us, by telling us to pick up our cross, to do for the cause of others what He has done by example for us. It seems to me, if one truly desires to serve God with all their heart, forsaking their own selfish nature would be a goal worth seeking, and I don't know how one could strive to accomplish such a goal without daily desiring to submit unto the Will of God for the sake of the righteousness of Christ (or, as Jesus said, "Pick up your cross and follow Me.).
Now this is the way I understand the Word of God relating to the salvation made available to me by the sinless blood of Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit which reveals to a person those sins which need to be confessed before God. The Holy Spirit reveals them, but it is up to me to confess them. In essence, I am acting by faith in God's Word which says in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confession is the first part of repentance. In my opinion, one cannot repent of anything until one confesses one's sin and accepts responsibility for it. Only then can one repent, and only after the act of repentance can one desire to walk in the opposite direction of that sin. By doing so, one recognizes the sin to be sin, and he or she will earnestly desire to be obedient to God by not submitting to the stimulus which caused the person to sin in the first place. Unfortunately, God doesn't simply accept our desire to do right for that which we have confessed and repented of. Instead, we get tested on it. Now God does not do this with some sort of sadistic intention. God does it so we will learn how to handle those stimuli when they rear their ugly heads. God does not want us to be weak, he wants us to be strong. When one is strong, one is victorious.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I ask you, how will our unsaved loved ones desire to know the overwhelming, agape love of Jesus Christ if we do not seek the Kingdom of God first? Personally, it took me awhile to truly grasp the real sacrifice which Jesus made for me on the cross at Calvary. First, I had to really understand why Jesus did it for me. Jesus died in my place because He loves our Heavenly Father, knowing our Heavenly Father loves us. (John 3:16) I also knew, knowing God to be in fact REAL, I had probably broken every one of God's ten commandments numerous times. It wasn't until I honestly began to seek to know the Lord, committed myself to seek a relationship with Him through prayer, and let His Holy Spirit guide me and teach me through the Word of God, that the Lord said something to me which one would think would be glaringly obvious, "I didn't do it just for you. I also did it for those whom you feel unkindly towards." Now, any time I think, or am tempted to say (sometimes I fail) anything of an unloving nature towards another person, I try to quietly remind myself aloud, "Jesus loves them, too." With that in mind, what would be an acceptable response in the eyes of the Lord which is contrary to His Living Word? There isn't one. God is no respecter of persons.
I remember one time, though I don't remember the specific circumstances, when I was having some difficulty being faithful to the Lord regarding something He had told me to do. After much agony in prayer about the situation, the Lord said to me, "Let me do the work." Take another look at the last part of John 15:5 where Jesus says, "for without Me ye can do nothing." When one tries to do something for the sake of Christ by their own will or strength, I believe one of two things will happen: one will fail completely, or the desired outcome will fall well short of the intended goal. So how does one bring forth fruit acceptable to God? By diligently seeking the Lord through prayer and reading God's Word. Have you ever noticed, after asking the Lord where He wants you to go in His Word on any given occasion, how you'll be drawn to certain scriptures? I believe this is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing you to pay particular attention to a particular type of subject matter. This is one way, in a whole host of ways, the Lord teaches us to rely on Him. When we take to heart the Word of the Lord to which we have been drawn, God's Word begins to bring forth the fruit which His Word will ultimately produce. But if a person does not seek the "seed" from the Word of God which will produce the harvest one desires to see made manifest in their own life, they will inevitably continue to go down the wrong path which will ultimately lead to complete destruction. Thankfully, one can cry out unto the Lord, "Jesus, save me!" when they have failed to receive into their life the "seed of the Word". Of course, this will take one back to square one, and undoubtedly, the process will start over. By the way, I failed to put faith in what the Lord told me to do and changed churches. Guess who is beginning to have difficulty in the church being currently attended? Yep, me.
As I said in the beginning, I don't believe any one church, be it Catholic or all the different denominations of the Protestant Church, has cornered the market on the truth. As a matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure one should go to church to seek the initial presence of the Lord. I suspect, many go to church for a whole host of reasons which has absolutely nothing to do with "where two or more are gathered in My Name." To be blunt, I think there are churches where the majority of the members gather to gather under the guise of Jesus, but are doing nothing more than paying lip service to God. The good news is there are churches in America which are earnestly seeking after the Lord, desiring to let Him do the work instead of desiring to do the work themselves in His Name.
To sum up or bring to an end, the one thing which I have really wanted to express is this: until one comes to that place where they see their own ways inevitably leading them to a place of destruction, I believe (unfortunately) they will not turn away to seek the Lord and the salvation Jesus provided by the shedding of His own sinless blood. However, for those of us who have accepted and received the mercy of God through the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives, it is unquestionably our duty to love those who hate us because we know in our heart we were once as they, and by showing them the Love of Christ even when our flesh would desire to do otherwise, we show by example a more excellent way for them to live, and prove, although perhaps not immediately, Jesus does live because He lives in us. For what possible reason would one choose to live in such a manner if it were not for the Holy Spirit which has been made a witness unto us by our living Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Mike |
