George Bernard Shaw once said: "We learn little or nothing from rational people, because rational people adapt themselves to the world and consequentially are seldom visionary". I get very excited by the out of the ordinary, and biblical Christianity is certainly not at all rational in any ordinary worldly sense. If we look at the concepts it proposes in a rational natural humanistic adaption we loose the savor. That's why I avoid a intense studious over analyzing of doctrines and dedication to books as that leads to a view almost anyone may approach. There is no end to books and students, they fill the world with a virtual cornucopia of information. If the Word is true then it should be enough that it be simply taken for just what it says. After all God inspired only one book. Why then should we need so many more of them to hear what He is saying to us in the one? Perhaps its for lack of vision! Yes I know and admit I have gained from those who have lent to the understanding of my faith in their writings, and I would never say they have not added a strong element to God's word, in fact I believe many were provided by the Holy Spirit for just that purpose. However lately Ive been reading the bible out loud with a Christian friend at the gym; what a thrill to share the thoughts of the Creator of the universe with another, God's view directly. I always go away with a new incite. I really do not think we need to do a lot of official bible study or memorize scripture, concentrate on knowing prophecy as to end times, seek to find our gift or stand on the unbending ground of a solid doctrine, to enable defining our faith. While these are good things and very recommended and even popular; I believe that the overly concentration of the subjective from the mind of man, leads to a sort of inwardness, like the truth could be wrapped up and packaged by a method, a narrowing of God's truth tailored by another for us. I fear on such a path one may find themselves self contained in a position of pride, mans dilemma. No my friends Ill simply take the awkwardness of my Faith, falling on the two edge sword. I wish now to gain the road to my destiny on the radical path! That's not to say I will never use and appreciate others thoughts or incites, but I see more and more these days the pure value of the Word clearing the road ahead.
The Bible says, " If you were raised together with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God" Col. 3:1. The little word here "if" implies something; "if" we were raised with Him, implying that in fact we were, then we have only one position, one life, which could only be where He is, a position in glory. To be raised is a action word, which the bible declares we have directly participated in. The "things which are above" refer to all that Christ is; where He is in heaven and so by being raised with Him, we are there also! If we are in heaven then there is a contrast, the earth. This could, and I think should, mean we are not to practice the practically of our life in a earthly manner, but instead seek the things in heaven, knowing Christ as everything, our life, and allow that heavenly existence to be our practical influence. There is a most radical concept at the foundation of these biblical truths; it is by the Spirit of God that we reside in heaven now, ["together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:6,"] in the Lord Jesus and this is only realized when we become aware of it in the mind of our faith and then rest confidently in it. Is this not a radical path for the Christian made clear in God's word? Why then do we find ourselves so often overcome by the affairs of the world? Could it be unbelief?
The real intent of the entire word of God, as I see it, is to show that man has been removed from the eye of God. That is, in God's Son all His pleasure is formed. The more one ponders the scriptures directly with this concept in mind, the more ones life found in Christ becomes the influence, and then by that, all things in this life will be governed as to our affairs on this earth; by the position we hold in Him. The great crime is holding this truth inward, that is to our benefit only, a self centered earthly position; not beholding ourselves as The Father does, by His view of His beloved Son, the source of His pleasure; which He has allowed as the instrument for application to our salvation. How then can we see this truth and apply it to our daily lives? Again I purpose the radical path; we simply believe the word of God. We, by that approach will no longer read the scriptures in a sentimental way, even a studious way, or pull out a verse here and there to be applied to perhaps a good and moral application for our earthly affairs. Instead by the radical path we find our rest in the moral perfection provided by God in His Son Jesus Christ and us in that very perfection, being raised with Him. Seeing ourselves in heaven with Him, by the Fathers will! Which is the only way, I believe, we will ever gain the full knowledge of the new life we have where He is, the place the bible firmly declares our citizenship to be. This my friends is not a metaphor or type and shadow, but a spiritual reality we may count upon by faith. When this is counted on and lived by we receive power from the mind of Christ, which overcomes the world, just what Jesus came here to accomplish. Remember dear seekers, He did not come here to make us able to be over-comers by our actions, but so that His Father's will for us to be Holy and redeemed in His sight might be done. For that to be possible we had to be seen by The Father, "hidden in Christ Jesus", We overcome the world by faith in that fact.
Faith is so much More than mere belief. As James said "faith without works is dead". This means true faith requires and will display action. The works here are not necessarily doing good deeds etc.,although they might be included. The essences here is that our faith must take on a life changing character, our belief will then become action, a reality in our life, by that faith. The new creatures we are in Christ will become the dominate life force for the motivation which contains the sustaining value we hold in our presence in the Son, held their by the grace of God, which begun in The Son. I have seen a duel road of faith in my life, which by His Word is just the right prescription for the growth of a new life. The first road is one we will call the lower path, and that one was realized in my own self; there is a Saviour and He is mine. The second, lets call the high road is traveled by coming to know that in addition to Him being my saviour I find that everything I need and that is of value is in Him; that He is all things, in all things, and that all that He is is imparted to me; I am no longer contained in myself. The responsible party for my life is now Jesus Christ Himself, and I must learn how to acknowledge that by the action of my faith. The low road was found by weakness and so by that great principal used by The Father is also found the high road: The loss suffered on the higher, for me far greater; required a loosing of myself to Him, counting all thing as loss, that He may be my gain. His mercy put me on the low road, but knowledge of the Person, The Man, His personal attractiveness, my presence in Him before the Father smoothed the highway for a higher destination. "That I may know Him".
How then do we acquire the higher path? Well I think the answer is a deep desire to seek the higher. My problem for so many years is that I never new the difference: Which has always been the problem for the Church from the beginning, and the cause for most of the letters written by Paul to a weak struggling immature carnal audience of believers. We have been relieved of judgement and fear by the blessings of the lower path, only to be left with a firm connection to all that is earthly, clearly the place Paul encouraged his readers to exit. My heart on the lower path remained committed to experience Christianity from a natural self centered place. I looked from me to Him, accepted the blessings and then held them in me and then like a hungry puppy wanted more, never satisfied! Upon arrival on the first steps of the higher path I found that it was only by my faith becoming willing to engage in a active loss of desire for the things of this world and acknowledge the bibles command for the believer to associate himself with a heavenly Person, who was rejected from this earth, and therefore I also; and, that then I would find myself united in spirit, association and practical experience with the Man in heaven, with whom all who believe were resurrected in spirit. The choice is simple my friends; a Christian must either be connected with the world and the order of things here are he may find himself by faith in the biblical facts that by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ he is dissociated from the natural earthly, sinful, Adam man, and find himself in union with the Lord Jesus in heaven. If you my good and dear Christian friend cannot relate to this in any way it is probably because you have become adjusted to a life, while redeemed and justified and heaven bound, is still very much counting upon the world system for guidance,and still remain associated to the very thing Christ died unto. This does not make you bad, or seen by God in a less elevate position [He can only see you in His Son] but it does mean you are missing out on the freedom and joy Christ's sacrifice provided to all those who would choose to partake of it. My prayer for all those reading this and myself, is that we take opportunity in the sorrow which inevitably comes our way in this world, seeing it for the gift it is from The Father; as introduction to His Son, The Man of sorrows, who sacrificed His Life that His Father might see us contained and hidden in Him in resurrection; and all this we will gain by faith traveling on the radical path He provided by His Word made alive for us in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment