A Different God ...

Atheists make a point; if there is a God, why does He let “you” suffer?  And Christians set about the task of apologizing on behalf of Jesus.  Mind you, there is truth in the notion that in order for free will to be free, it must permit the choice of that which is bad for us, it must permit the choice of sin.  And sin brings with it pain and death from cause and effect.  It is also true that in a world that recognizes the existence of God, we must equally recognize the existence of His enemy Satan, who has no compunction over causing pain and death to as many as he can.  Stacking up the impacts of our own bad choices, compounded with others, and increased by the deceiver of souls; quite a bit of damage ensues.  Imagine greed unrestricted for a moment, or lust, or anger.  Were there not some level of restriction held back by the four angels of the four winds we might have completely self-destructed long ago.  So even our continued existence is possible only because our God must interfere within limits or witness His creation commit suicide on mass.

But the nature of the Atheist’s challenge is more personal than why does pain exist at all, it is why does it exist for “you”; for someone who claims belief in Jesus Christ.  The challenge is simply why does God who must at least at some level interfere to preserve you, not do a better job at it?  Why does He not answer the most desperate prayers, or prevent the most heinous tragedies from happening at all?  When asked this, most Christians punt.  The most common refrain is, it is a mystery, that only faith can overcome, and trust that whatever happens is in our best interest permitted by a God who we know loves us with a passion we may never understand.  But that answer still leaves the victim a victim.  Rape victims will still have been raped.  Abuse victims still abused.  The dead still killed by others, or by the cause and effect of their own choices.  Our modern faith seems poised to deal with the aftermath, but seems to have a problem dealing with prevention through consistent direct divine intervention.

Now most Christians have a story or two about some point in their lives where divine intervention was done on their behalf.  God keeps us out of the car accident, or keeps our health going when the normal course of events should have taken us out of planet earth.  So the modern Christian, despite not having a comprehensive answer, has at least a partial one.  Our God has been preserving us.  Without Him, we would have been dead already, or in far worse shape than we find ourselves today.  And some modern Christians hold out hope to be favored by the God of Job; who while He permits calamity to occur, He restores our lives after the damage to a much greater point than before the damage began.  But Job’s first set of children were still dead.  Having a new baby is awesome.  But it does not replace the hole in your heart of losing even one of your children, let alone all of them.

Some modern Christians just write off anything that happens in this world as meaning “less”.  From the point of view of eternity, of life without the pain of sin and the death it brings, nothing that happens in this world can ever deter from the infinite bliss of perfection we will come to live in the hereafter.  This perspective is perhaps the most healthy, as it keeps the eye and the priority on what is really important, and what is not.  It also has the side effect of recognizing we need an end to the sin inside of us, to experience and enjoy what an eternity of perfection has waiting for us in the plain of existence God had in mind originally, and is restoring us to.  But even this perspective is lacking something.  It presumes that God will “do a better job” preserving us, only when conditions are finally favorable.  Why does He not do it today, is another question.  And ultimately it is a question where “we” question just what kind of God He is.  It would appear modern Christianity has lapsed into the service of a different God.  Why, and how, spring to mind.

Matthew records for us, in his gospel intended for a Jewish audience, a picture of what sure looks like a different God than the one we have come to apologize for.  The Jesus Christ who walked the sands of Israel so long ago sure presents as something completely different than the Jesus Christ we struggle to make excuses for today.  And if Jesus has not, or will not, ever change.  Then perhaps it is us who have shifted while the rock remained right where it has been all along.  Take as an example the story of the immediate aftermath of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter eight of Matthews gospel.  What Jesus had done was simply preach a sermon.  There were many truths within it, most centered on Salvation, and how following Jesus, submitting to Him, sees that occur within us.  There were no quid pro quo sections in His sermon.  There were no fantastic promises of wealth offered there, or of control, or of fame.  In fact, the antidote of these things are found buried in His words.  What He values is not based in wealth, but in service, not in control, but in submission, not in fame, but in humility.  His entire value system is upside down from our perspective.  But what was the response to it?

Matthew opens chapter eight in verse 1 saying … “When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.”  The people got it.  Rape victims, abuse victims, those victimized by a church whose leadership abused their control, got it.  Salvation was possible through Jesus Christ and honestly that was all that mattered.  They saw a different God than us.  They were certain about a different God than we appear to be.  They began to show it, revealing Him to us, and revealing what we truly believe to ourselves.  Matthew continues in verse 2 saying … “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”  Aids victim, stage four cancer victim, multiple gun shot victim, pick the terminal condition you equate to the most today, and the ancient equivalent was leprosy.  Highly contagious and not well understood, meant complete social ostracization.  No one wanted you around.  You were going to die.  Any remedy had long been forgotten.  You were dirt.  You were less than dirt.

And at least one of them, comes straight up to Jesus after hearing His sermon from afar, and says to Him Lord, “if thou wilt”.  There will be no medication needed, no team of doctors or nurses required.  The man or woman destined to die will come to the Lord of renewal, and state a fact.  This victim knows what Jesus can do.  Jesus need only will it.  No apologies.  No deterrence of faith.  And what happens next separates the God of that man (or woman) from the God of you or I.  Jesus responds in verse 3 saying … “And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”  There was zero delay in His answer.  There was zero equivocation in His answer.  There was zero pre-conditions that had to be met in His answer.  The dead, or destined to be dead, was to be restored in that instant. 

Further, Jesus was not some cold, removed, uncaring person afraid to interact with what you and I are too afraid to love.  Jesus touches Him (or substitute her as many women had leprosy as well).  I imagine Jesus reaching right out to the most infected part of the victim He could easily see, and began the healing right from there.  I imagine seeing not just a cessation of the disease, or stopping its progression, and leaving the scars and missing sections that had already rotted and fallen off.  I imagine Jesus begins re-creating the victim, replacing every missing part with a new one created from the fingertips of the Creator.  I imagine seeing the scars and blemishes fade into the normality of perfection at the time.  Full restoration.  Full recreation.  A point not too subtle for us to see where it comes to our salvation, and the need we have to be re-created from the inside out.

But this must be a different God, than the one modern Christians claim to serve.  There was no delay in what the will of Jesus was.  There was no pondering about it.  It did not take a committee to decide what to do.  It took a man seeing his own need and reaching out to one He knew not only could do it, but would do it.  And Jesus did what Jesus wanted to do for him, and longs to do for each of us.  Jesus then does something that continues to be relevant to us picking up in verse 4 saying … “And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”  The way of healing leprosy had been long forgotten by those who ran the church.  They had been given a method of healing it.  But they forgot it, or abandoned it, or perhaps just like modern Christians, began to doubt what their God wanted done in a situation like that.

The leadership of the Jewish faith in the time of Christ served the same God we modern Christians do.  A God whose will is ever in doubt, or cannot be explained.  A God who does not “do” anything, or does not “do” enough.  A different God.  Certainly a different God than Jesus Christ who did not hesitate a single minute healing the man in need right in front of Him.  That God, that Jesus Christ, did not seem to leave us in doubt as to what He will was.  He was asked.  He healed.  End of story.  No doubts.  No difficulty in explanation, but rather extreme clarity.  Jesus does NOT want us to suffer and die.  Jesus came to reverse those conditions within us.  Jesus is NOT only interested in our spiritual condition (though that is the more important one), He is also equally interested in our physical condition.  He restores us, both body and soul.  This is the work Jesus longs to do.  This is that God.  This would by all accounts appear to be someone different than the God we have evolved in our minds is supposed to be Him.  In asking this man to return to the leadership of the church to be a testimony unto them, He is also asking this man to be a testimony unto us.

The rock does not move, only the sands of self do that.  It is not our Jesus who has changed, or wants something different for us than He did for that victim of leprosy.  He wants ALL of His children restored to Him in perfection, not just in mind, or spirituality, but in the bodies He created us to have.  The rock is still there.  It is us who need to return to it.  To conjure a different image of the God we serve, one absent of doubt, and apology.  An image of Jesus as He truly was, not an image of Jesus today masked behind a cloak of invisibility and doubt of intentions.  His intentions have not changed, only our faith in them.  His abilities to restore have not changed, only our perception of our need.  We no longer ask, either with certainty in what He would will, or with faith that an answer will actually be provided.  We ask with doubt, and with coverage in case what we want is rejected with no.  We offer the excuse of “not yet” to our feeble prayers.  But Jesus did not tell the Leper, I will get back to you.  He just healed the victim who needed the healing right in the moment he asked.

If the health of the body of those who are Christians is in disarray today, the responsibility clearly lies on our own doorstep.  The guidance in His word about what is good and what is not for us to eat is clearly outlined.  We know what we need to do from an exercise, sleep, rest and dietary standpoint.  And when disease comes to us in spite of what directions we follow from the word, we have a God whose will it is to heal us immediately, fully, restoratively and on the spot of our question for it.  That is His will.  That is His will for you, for me, and for the entirety of mankind from Adam to us.  Not just for the good people, but for all of them.  Not just for the folks who understand doctrine perfectly, but for those who are mistaken about nearly everything.  The leper did not have doctrinal perfection, he had a singular belief in the “will” of Jesus Christ.  That is the will of that Jesus Christ who scripture bares witness to.  Who is the Jesus Christ you serve?  Is it the same guy? 

Do you serve that God, or have the shifting sands of your perceptions invented a new version of Jesus Christ, a much lesser version, a version we feel the need to apologize for when the tough questions are posed, because the physical proof seems lacking all the time.  Have we, like our Pharisee forefathers, found a different God; or are we ready to serve the Jesus Christ who even today stands right in front of us as He ever was, His will clear to restore what is broken within us, both body and soul.  Are we ready to ask Him now, seeing our need, and “knowing” His will?  Are we prepared for the yes, we have so long believed was only rarely granted, but now will be our regularity?  I am tired of the different God, I have constructed in my mind, I would rather return to the Rock who has not moved, and the certainty in what He wills.  Is anyone else ready as well?

 

Instructions We Never Really Read ...

Whether you may be a parent assembling a toy for your child, or perhaps a simple piece of furniture, or just attempting to use that new software for the first time; there are many occasions where we pay little attention to, or discard the instructions completely.  This may stem from the notion that we “know” what needs to be done, and the instructions will only slow us down.  Or it may be that the instructions were written in a foreign language, and we figure we couldn’t have understood them anyway.  Finally, it may be that the instructions were just too long, and would have required too much of our time and attention to really read.  So we set about “assembling” or “interacting” with our objective in the manner we think is best.  Throughout that process though, a good many of us find ourselves at a dead end, unable to figure out how to proceed next and our first recourse beyond google … is to check the thing we avoided up to this point, to refer back to the instructions.

The disciples of Christ were simple men, when it came to matters of the Kingdom of God.  For that matter, most of the audience in attendance at the Sermon on the Mount were simple people.  They all understood the need for prayer.  But the mechanics of how to pray, was something no one was completely certain of.  The Sanhedrin had ideas, and they followed them.  Traditions passed down, that no one dare oppose.  But the people sitting on this mountainside, were learning wisdom from the Messiah Himself.  What was coming out of His mouth, was coming out of the mouth of God’s own Son.  So to have their questions answered from Jesus was quite literally, a God send.  The people and the disciples wanted more certainty in how we should communicate with God.  And Jesus sensed their need even before they had occasion to voice it.  Matthew recorded the entire instruction set in only 10 verses in chapter six of his gospel.

Jesus begins his simple instruction set, in a common language of the people, in a way that would easy for them to understand, picking up in verse 5 saying … “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”  This text follows on the previous section that talked about how we should give our alms to the poor, and those in need.  One of the important points of that section was to give in humility, and in secret, not looking for credit, or an opportunity for comparative holiness.  And so to begin, Jesus continues this very theme as it pertains to prayer.  Prayer, designed to draw attention to itself, prayer designed to show off the oratory skills of the person offering it, will miss the blessing of true one-on-one communication with God.

It is difficult to truly humble ourselves in front of others, particularly when our goal is not humility, it is to be “seen and heard” as a person who prays “powerful” prayers.  In the days of Christ, the Sanhedrin ruling class craved this kind of attention.  They did not just want to pray, they wanted to be “seen” praying, to be heard saying their prayers before God in public places in order to gain the attention they deserve.  And we look down on them for that.  But then, we turn around and offer several public prayers in our church services, in front of hundreds or even thousands of other believers.  Those who are asked to pray at these times, are suddenly cognizant that they will be “scrutinized” by the church for how well they pray.  It cannot be too long, or too short.  It must make a point.  It should not be a mini-sermon.  It should be pertinent to the activity that follows or precedes it.  All of the sudden, the Sanhedrin is reborn in us, and while we may not sound a trumpet to call attention to ourselves, the sequence of events published in the bulletin will perform that same function just as well.

And so we miss the benefit of humility, for the sake of seeking credit, for the eloquence of our speech.  Jesus continues to offer His alternative to us in verse 6 saying … “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”  Here we go again.  Our human minds equate this promise to a powerful secret Santa; we avoid public prayer, and our secret Santa showers us with the desires of our hearts.  But then, that is not what is promised here.  What is admonished is prayer in secret, in places where no one will judge us for our eloquence, where we will not be seen at all.  In that place, true humility before God will be possible.  To know our need.  To know how vast our need is.  Is already a blessing that words can scarcely describe.

But beyond having a semblance of how wretched we truly are, and how glorious our God is, while in secret we can pour out our hearts to God, craving the change we so much need.  To lay our sins down upon the altar of prayer in that private place is possible.  We can confess what we would not want other ears to hear.  We can ask, not only for forgiveness He freely offers, but for re-creation within us we do desperately need.  To want something else.  To have our very desires remolded by our Creator, is possible when we are not being watched by our peers, or even family and friends.  Our salvation will be personal.  It will be one-on-one.  It will be Jesus saving you … from you.  This cannot be done in group session.  It cannot be done in public, for we become too conscious of who is watching and what they will think.  It must be done in our closets, in our private places, where no one is watching but our God who never sleeps.  It is there, in private, where our salvation is achieved.

God does not simply grant us the wish list we bring to Him.  Instead in those private moments, He works on the character within us, to re-create our thinking, our desires, our motives, and ultimately as a result, our actions.  This reward is only possible when you are free to pour out who you are to God, in a place where you can do this without the pressure of others watching.   And so what do “we” do?  We hold prayer meetings to pray in front of each other.  We do it again at family meals, or family worship.  And while these practices are not wrong in themselves, they deny us a benefit we might otherwise be getting if we were praying in our private places.  Our problem, is that we replace our private prayers, with only the corporate ones, and then think to ourselves that our prayer life is “just fine” based on the number of times we pray in a week, instead of the passion of our prayers poured out in private with only God watching.

Jesus continues His instructions in verse 7 saying … “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”  Vain repetitions.  How many of the prayers for our food are a complete copy of the last time we said “grace”?  How many other occasions whether public or private, turn out to be carbon copies of our previous prayers, they become memorized speeches instead of meaningful petitions.  Churches use “readings” in public forums that are half-uttered prayers based on scripture we repeat over and over.  Even the Lord’s Prayer itself coming in just a few verses away will become something we repeat over and over, thinking we have said what we needed to say.  But its repetition will make its impact upon us dull, to the point of changing nothing in us.  The idea that we repeat what we say “so that God will hear us” states, that our God is deaf, and uncaring.  Repetition is not the way to gain the attention of God, it is a way to bore Him to tears.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”  And herein is the secret to why we pray at all.  It is not to make God aware of what we need, as He already knows that.  It is not to beg God to provide what we need, that only reflects a lack of faith on our part, and is completely unnecessary when we understand how much He loves us, and can take trust in that love.  His actions precede our words.  There is nothing He does not know about us.  Therefore our prayer life, is meant to show US, our need, and His love.  We do not need repetitions.  We need earnest communication with a God we KNOW is there listening and loving.  We need a method to submit to Him, to lay before Him, our thinking, our desires (yes even the sexual ones), and our motives, to change as He sees fit.  Prayer is a perfect mechanism to do this.  Prayer becomes a channel where we enable God to save us, and ignore our otherwise disobedient lives.  It is a channel where we ask Him to do what we know He already wants to do in us.  Not for us, but in us.  The things He does for us, He is already doing before we utter the words.  What we truly need is the things He longs to do in us, and for that we need to give Him permission using the vehicle of our prayers.

All of these instructions precede the example of prayer Jesus would outline for His people.  It was Jesus Himself who just finished saying we need not offer vain repetitions.  The Lord’s Prayer can become a vain repetition when we have the vanity to think it is the only prayer we ever need offer.  It can become vanity when we seem to only ever offer it in a public place, in front of other people.  These were the instructions we simply find ourselves overlooking in order to get to the easier word-for-word repetition we could find in the Lord’s prayer itself.  And we somehow find a way to look down on our Pharisee forefathers.  Nevertheless Jesus wanted us to know what we could say to our God, and why it was important.

He begins in verse 9 saying … “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”  First we identify that who we pray to is not just a nebulous god such as the Greeks or Romans might identify.  Other cultures have gods that live beyond our sight as well.  But our God, is also “our” Father.  Jesus lifts up humanity and offers us the privilege of calling His Father, Our Father.  Our God lives in heaven, not the heavens meaning the skys, but in heaven the city built trillions of years before our existence, the place He chooses to dwell.  Heaven is a place where other life forms gather to be with Him, and to be close to Him.  They would need a city to facilitate that goal, and so they have one.

Hallowed is His name.  We do not know the name of the Father, but one day we will.  Whatever that name is, it is to be hallowed, spoken with reverence.  This term is to remind us of who we are, and who He is.  For it is His greatness, and His love, that would be willing to part with His only Son to see us redeemed.  It is the greatness of His love that is able to re-create in us what we have broken in our choice to embrace sin over and over.  For that alone His name is hallowed and reverenced.  But not unspoken at all.  We tend to think because God is who He is, we should avoid talking to Him on a personal level, because that would somehow bring God down to us.  But the point of prayer itself is to bring us up to God.  That His name is hallowed, only reminds us of that notion.  It does not keep us from speaking to Him in the words that pour from our hearts.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  In heaven, it is the highest honor of existence to carry out the will of God.  Angels long to do it.  Other creations long to do it.  God does not need us to do it, He can do everything and anything all by Himself.  He permits us to help, because of His patience and love of His creation.  To carry out the will of God on earth, despite our circumstances, bad decisions, and human failings, is no less a privilege to us.  To think of it in those terms, is to be a toddler granted a new toy in the Kingdom of God.  Daddy is going to hold our hand and help us do, what He needed to do.  Perhaps in the life of another, perhaps you will be the tool to reflect the love of God the Father.  In so doing, Daddy gets his will accomplished, sharing with you the joy of loving and making a difference.

Jesus continues in verse 11 saying … “Give us this day our daily bread.”  This part of the prayer is not designed to send God a gentle reminder due to His old age and tendency to forget things now.  Nope.  This simple sentence is meant to address a few ideas in you.  One, we need only ask for what we need today.  There is no stockpiling in this idea, no hoarding, and no worrying about tomorrow.  That is a complete departure from everything in our world.  We work to take care of ourselves, always thinking about what we need in the future.  Here is Jesus reminding us, to quit it.  If we cannot trust God to already know He loves us and was already planning to meet the needs of today, how can we trust Him with the greater needs of our salvation?  We should all be homeless, or at least be ready to be homeless, ready to let go of everything we cling to, and stockpile.  But that idea is beyond our comprehension.  So we work, and convince ourselves that this line in the prayer is nothing more than a blessing on food, and we repeat it vainly every time it is said.

Jesus now changes the subject a bit as He continues in verse 12 saying … “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”  There was a very Jewish notion in this text.  Literally translated it means, all those loans you think you loaned out, go forgive them.  Release the people from their debts, give them the freedom not to worry about them.  Why?  It was in the sentence before, we are already getting whatever we need for this day from our God, we just got finished asking for that.  So if I have all I need from God, why am I asking you to repay loans.  I don’t need your money, I have my God.  I can change your request of a loan from me, into a gift of resources, underwritten by my God.  A chance to do His will on earth as it is in heaven.  And Jesus intended to come back to this one.

But for now, another pressing thought as Jesus continues in verse 13 saying … “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”  This one came from experience.  Those 40 days and nights in the desert being tempted of Satan were very hard on Jesus.  None of us could ever have withstood it.  But that did not happen by accident it happened because the Spirit led Jesus there.  It was necessary to try His gold in the fire.  Here Jesus asks the Father that we experience no such equivalent.  It is hard enough for us to stay out of sin when there is no temptation.  But when temptation comes, too many of us fall to it.  So here, Jesus asks that He and His Father find a way to shelter us from evil and deliver us from evil, changing who we are without the added burden of temptation.  It is the greatest mercy our God could ever show us.  Again the reminder to us, of how great, and eternal is our God, and the conclusion of the prayer.  A prayer we speak so casually now, we have it memorized, and it makes so little dent in our thinking anymore.  The sample Jesus spoke has become the only prayer we take certainty in.  We have increased our inventory of prayers not much beyond this one, at least not with any certainty.  How sad.

But the instructions were not over yet.  Jesus goes back to the trespasses thing again picking up in verse 14 saying … “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: [verse 15] But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  How can we be free when we cling to who we were?  If we cannot release others to be free, it is ourselves we bind.  It is a tangible demonstration that we hold something back from God, a part of ourselves and our greed, that we refuse to let go.  We do not free others and in so doing we do not free ourselves.  We hold ourselves captive to our greed, and refuse to trust God with our daily bread.  Instead we cling to the notion that we can provide our own bread, let God focus on some other need.  And this thinking then permeates our salvation.  We can purify some portion of ourselves, let God work on something else, something we “need” help with, as these portions of ourselves we can do for ourselves.

And so “self” remains at the center of our religion, pushing Jesus to the side in a partnership role.  And we keep our salvation at bay, preventing the heavenly Father from truly releasing us from the past, from who we were.  As co-pilot, Jesus is not granted the access He needs to redesign the aircraft.  While we stubbornly cling to the pilot’s chair and role, we block our Lord from doing what He so longs to do for us, if we would only yield control.  Instead choosing to trust ourselves with our needs, both temporal and spiritual.  We begin to look upon the Lords Prayer as something we say over and over in church, and thereby meet our obligations for prayer.  Slowly but surely we take more of our salvation out of the hands of Jesus, and put it in our own.  Increasingly denying what we allow God to do for us.  Increasingly becoming comfortable with the chains of slavery to our self-love we hoist upon ourselves.  Ultimately we find ourselves not truly knowing who Jesus truly is.  For we have come to trust only us, in any matter of concern regarding us.  We feed ourselves.  We keep our debts.  We provide for ourselves.  And we will purify ourselves, when we get around to it, though that day never seems to arrive.  And thus Jesus is not our savior, for we have never allowed Him to save us … from us.

All because we cannot let go of our past.  All because we are unable to free others from owing us, and in so doing free ourselves from the burden of being owed.  We are unable or unwilling to change loan into gift, because we worry what the financial implications might be, of not having the wealth of another to count on to sustain us.  When we already have a better guarantee than any other human could ever provide, we have the love of a Father God, not just a Father, but OUR Father.  We opened the prayer with that line, and already we have forgotten it.  This ability to release others from their wrong doing extends beyond financials, it extends to every part of human interaction.  Others will do us wrong.  It is human weakness, and satanic evil behind it, but it will occur.  When it does, we have the choice to free them, and in so doing free us from it.  Or we can cling to it, and let it build hate and revenge in us over it.  Until we drown out the idea of real freedom, and become slaves to our slights.

Oh the blessings we forego when we make those choices.  But it need not be so.  Freedom is here.  It is right around the corner for you.  It is as simple as trusting your Father, enacting His will here upon earth, letting Daddy hold your hand, and becoming an instrument of love.  It releases you.  It brings with it, a freedom such as you have never known. 

And the sermon was still far from over …

Union of Church and State ...

Is freedom for real, if I cannot pray, where and when I want to?  Prayer after all, is deeply personal, it is a private, often silent, conversation between myself and my God.  I do not ask others to join, and I do not compel them to.  So if I am unable to pray a blessing over my food, simply because I am in a restaurant in public, am I really still free?  There is no law preventing my expression of prayer in this public place as yet, at least here in the U.S..  Am I still free to pray in my office at work, behind a closed door, and perhaps only with others of like mind – has praying in the workplace taken a step too far?  Why then, if in my home life, at meals, and even at work, if I am free to pray; that I am restricted from praying in buildings and at events where my tax dollar is hard at work?  Why am I not free to pray in schools, or universities, particularly if I do not compel others to do so?

It is as if common sense has been a casualty of modern life.  I pray in my car all the time.  I find it actually an awesome place for prayer as I am usually alone, alert, and able to hold down a conversation (or request session as they too often are) with my God.  “How” I pray is altered, to accommodate the situation driving presents.  My eyes are wide open.  I pay attention to what I am doing.  Just as if I had a passenger sitting beside me.  I easily hold conversations with a human passenger.  I see no distinction with holding a conversation with God.  But, if using common sense, I become too distracted from talking in my car, then as the lives of others are equally at risk, I need to stop talking.  It doesn’t matter whether the person I am talking with is sitting beside me, at the other end of a cell phone, or in heaven above me.  We don’t need a law that forbids me to pray in my car.  Common sense should govern that decision.  And as it happens, very little distracts me while driving (and I drive like a typical old man, at or below the speed limit, and in no particular hurry to get anywhere).

So if we could simply rely upon common sense, I am certain there is a way to accommodate the beliefs of everyone in our schools, not forcing any participation, or denying it either.  Our freedoms should not tolerate the denial of our religious beliefs; BUT and this is a bit BUT; they should not compel them either.  My Atheist friends have just as much right to avoid participation in my prayers, as I do to offer them on their behalf.  My Muslim, Buddhist, or Jewish friends have just as much right to pray in the matter that suits them, with or without my choice to participate, as I do, to pray to Jesus Christ (again on their behalf, J and my own).  Common sense could find a way to make this work, and keep everybody happy.  But where common sense fails, is when any one group asserts dominance over another.  When followers of Jesus begin to think their prayers, and beliefs, are more important than those of other citizens, we get into all sorts of problems (and vice versa).

So instead of using common sense, and courtesy, to govern how we interact in public, we run amok in extremes.  Atheists declare no one can pray anywhere near them, in places where government tax dollars are hard at work.  This is an assertion of dominance.  But is it also an assertion of fear?  What has happened when instead of common sense, the church, that is to say the “right” church has unified with political or legal purpose?  And further what happens when that union represents the majority opinion?  You do not need to look back at the conditions that sparked religious pilgrims to run to our nation to see what religious oppression does.  Nor do you need to look at what history calls the “dark ages” when Catholicism elected to burn what it could not control.  There was a far worse time, a far worse event.  It was something Peter witnessed personally, and transcribed to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen.

Picking up in verse 1 saying … “And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.”  The traditions of the feast frown on stoning this week.  And should the Sanhedrin have stoned Jesus, they would have had to take the sole responsibility for both trying Jesus in their kangaroo court, and killing Him personally with His blood on their stones.  Stoning Jesus, which was in their rights to do as permitted by the Roman Empire, might also spark an upheaval by the people at large.  Should the common people find them doing this horrific deed, the Sanhedrin itself might have gotten the stones.  So guilt, must find a way to kill Truth, and not be seen doing it. 

The Jews did then, what was unthinkable to do.  They delivered a Rabbi, The Rabbi, over to the Romans for Him to be killed.  Imagine how far their hypocrisy had taken them.  They hated Jesus because He did not conform to their authority.  Their version of scripture, demanded that the Messiah, conquer the Roman world, and setup a permanent Jewish Kingdom that would never fall again.  Jesus clearly had no intentions of doing this.  Jesus would not feed the hatred of Jews against the Romans.  Jesus never did a single act that would support rebellion, even against a pagan government, that was horrifically oppressive to His own people.  But then Jesus saw Romans with the same love He was Jews.  And this was unthinkable to the children of Abraham.  They had long lost any love for those who oppressed them, or those who did not believe like them, or those who simply had the misfortune of being born of different nations.  In short, they had universal hate, and very narrow love – but they were in the right religion, using the right Bible, and worshipping the right God (just not His Son).

Being in the right religion is no defense against a hateful heart.  Only transformation of hearts is a defense against hate, and only Jesus offers to do this work for us, for all of us, or each of us.  It is the transformed heart that loves its enemy, not seeks power over its enemy.  The Jews had decided that they must unite with Rome, even if only briefly, in order to kill Christ.  The Jews sought (and would find), the power of the Roman state, to end the life of the Messiah everyone had so long waited for.  But then, being the right religion is no defense against union with the power of the state.  Having the right Bible is no defense.  The only defense against union with the state, is a heart that loves.  This they lacked.  So history records, what it always records when Christians seek the power of politics – namely their downfall and failure.  And it begins with Jesus, and what a united Religion and State did to Him.

John Mark continues in verse 2 saying … “And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.”  Pilate begins his examination of Jesus from an entirely different angle than the religious zealots who delivered Him there.  Pilate is concerned with only one thing; will Jesus oppose the authority of the Roman Empire.  He asks Jesus about His Kingship, but how Jesus acts, how He speaks, and what He says, gives no indication that He is any kind of threat to Rome.  In point of fact, His entire ministry has never been a threat to Rome, not once, not ever.  Conversely, when Roman officers sought the miracles of Jesus for their own families, they found them.  Jesus did not restrict His love for the Roman people, He flooded them with it, even soldiers of Rome, with Jewish blood upon their hands.  And financially, Jesus did not disrupt Roman taxes, He turned crooked tax collectors into honest ones.  Jesus publicly declared that Roman silver belonged to Caesar, that the hearts of men was what He was looking for, not their wallets, or wealth, which mattered not at all.

Pilate immediately senses what this is all about.  Julius Caesar, whose namesake had been preserved in Roman culture, was also betrayed by those who were jealous of his power and popularity with the common people.  John Mark continues in verse 3 saying … “And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing. [verse 4] And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee. [verse 5] But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled.”  The Sanhedrin, the chief among them, then hurl every accusation against Jesus they think will anger Pilate, complete lies designed to make Pilate want the blood of Jesus.  For the church is never honest with the state, it lies to accomplish its goals.  It exaggerates, it omits, it manipulates truth, in order to kill The Truth, and nothing has changed in 2000 years.  Those in whose hearts are found hate, still hate today, for love does not seek power.

The Truth needs no defense.  It needs no defender.  God is self-evident.  Pilate looks at what is going on, he sees through the baseless and contradictory accusations designed to make him want the blood of Christ, but no such desire is found in him.  What develops instead is a state of marveling, as Jesus remains silent at the lies told about Him.  He does not counter the arguments of those bent on His destruction.  He does not yell back at them.  He does not try to hit back at them.  He does not use His vastly superior intellect to reveal to all “who” they truly are, as opposed to who He is.  Humans invariably do this.  Humans do this particularly when their life is on the line, and Jesus’ life was in the hands of Pilate.  Jesus should have been yelling.  He was not.  He said nothing.

How often modern Christians feel the need to defend God, and their own doctrines, at the point of the sword.  They have missed the lesson of redemption, of love that would remain gentle unto death.  Instead they use every story of violence in scripture (taking them out of context), and add a phrase, an eye for an eye, and feel justified in hating or killing what must naturally hate and kill them.  Satan was never going to change; it is why he is Satan.  The world was never going to love Christians; the world by definition does not know Christ.  The defense against the world, and against Satan, is not the sword, but a heart that loves unto death.  The martyrs of the past did more to spread the gospel than the wars to defend it.  Wars and killing in the name of God, only destroy the name and image of God, giving no one a reason to serve Him.  But a God who is willing to die so that I may live, a God (and His people) who love that much, give even that hardest enemy a reason to think twice, look again, and find what those people have.  Pilate is completely convinced.

John Mark continues in verse 6 saying … “Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. [verse 7] And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. [verse 8] And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.”  Pilate has now decided to change tactics.  He is going to play some legal trickery of his own.  Pilate selects the most heinous criminal that the Jews are likely to hate.  Barabbas not only attempted insurrection against Rome, he murdered Jews in the process.  The idea of “no witnesses” is not a new one.  And what is more, the people of Jerusalem were aware of his crimes.  Pilate reasons that if Barabbas is made free his killing spree will resume.  Any witnesses against Barabbas (of which certain of the Sanhedrin were bound to be guilty) would have their own lives at risk.  Comparing Jesus, who does not kill or hate, against Barabbas who is sure to kill and hate, even Jews, perhaps particularly certain Jews who aided in his capture or trial – would be an easy choice.

Mark continues in verse 9 saying … “But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? [verse 10] For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. [verse 11] But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.”   Even at the risk of their own lives, or at the risk of the lives of their people, the Sanhedrin wanted Jesus dead over Barabbas.  They inspire the people to ask for Barabbas.  But they are not alone in their work.  Satan is in attendance, as he often is when hatred is triumphing over love.  Demons come as well.  They move through the crowd delighted at the spectacle of hate on display.  They revel in the irony of having Jesus, the Son of God, standing in a mob of His own creations, bent on killing Him.  They add their screams to the mix, making the noise deafening, but decided.

John Mark continues in verse 12 saying … “And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? [verse 13] And they cried out again, Crucify him. [verse 14] Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.”  Pilate offers the nation of Israel 3 chances to avoid what is done to Christ.  He offers Jesus as an alternative to Barabbas.  He asks what should be done to Jesus after that, which is an opportunity to release Him outright yet again.  He then challenges the mob asking why, what evil has He done.  Three times the right religion could have changed its mind, regarding the killing of The Truth, but it did not.  It cried for blood all the louder.  The cries for blood that come from hate only get louder, in His day, or in ours.  Yet even still Jesus makes no defense, or does not try to out yell the mob.

This section concludes in verse 15 saying … “And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.”  Pilate makes one last effort, as distasteful as it is to him.  He has Jesus scourged unto death, one lash short of death.  In this act, he hopes to inspire sympathy in the eyes of the mob, in the eyes of the Sanhedrin.  But they will not be denied.  They see the pain, the suffering, but they are un-moved.  Instead of a release from the final punishment, this calculated risk fails, and only adds to the punishment.  When later unions of church and state arise, the pain is seen by all, and ignored by all.  People of conscience who believe differently than the majority are tortured and killed in front of many witnesses, and no compassion prevents it.  Compassion becomes yet another casualty of this union, for it thrives on hate alone, hate at the darkest purposes of its heart, hate where only Satan sees.

It seems a long way from my ability to pray at a school or university event, and a driving hate that would kill my Lord.  Christians do not see the path, or connect the dots.  Instead the mantra of our day, is that Christianity is under attack.  As if Captain Obvious had nothing better to say.  Of course Christianity is under attack; it will always be under attack, but it is under attack from within more than it will ever be from outside.  The temptation to crave power, and seek it as a defense, is not a relief from attack, it is a magnification of attack.  The only true defense is love, a love without limits, or preconditions.  A love that is not an excuse for sin, but an escape from sin.  The transforming power of the Love of Jesus on the heart, is the only antidote for a world filled with hate, that would do its best to inspire the same within us.

If perhaps we can resurrect common sense, and learn the lost art of courtesy, then let our love drive us to pray when and where and how it is needed.  Perhaps our love will allow us to be more tolerant.  Perhaps our love will inspire us to look first to the redemptive needs of our neighbors, and we will find a way to be seen for what we are … the followers of Jesus, who are known for extreme love, and a constant quiet connection with Him.

 

So I Have a Brain Aneurism ...

And I could use your prayers.  It is kind of nerve racking to think there is something defective in your head, a kind of time-bomb that if it goes off, so do you.  I discovered this problem while in the shower about 2 months ago washing my face.  All of the sudden it felt like some monster had dug their claws into the right side of my face and was tearing it off of my skull.  The pain was extreme, so bad I thought I was going to pass out.  It seemed to center around my eye so I first went to the Ophthalmologist to seek treatment.  The Ophthalmologist did find a viral infection (non-contagious) in my eye and prescribed drops to treat it.  But every week I kept returning to the eye doctor because the pain was increasing in frequency, and intensity.  The least little thing would trigger it.  If I touched anything on the right side of my face in a downwards direction, the pain would start up.  I could push my face upwards to try to relieve the pain, but down is a no-go.  If I blow my nose, or even touch the right side of my nose, the pain monster returns.

Eventually the eye doctor realized my pain was not from the infection, and thought I might have “tic deleraux” [sp], a rare nerve condition that exhibits symptoms like I describe.  He sent me to a Neurologist for further treatment.  After an MRI, MRA, MRV, and CT Scan to confirm, it appears as though I have a 3.2mm aneurism along the carotid artery in my brain.  I have been given medicine to try to reduce pain incidents and it has worked sometimes very well, sometimes not so much.  The next step is to see the Neuro Surgeon to find out what is the plan will be.  I imagine treatment will be meds to try to reduce it, or surgery to try to fix it.  Either way, the risk remains in my head.  That risk could be fatal in an instant, or it could sit there for a while and do nothing.  Since the pain monster keeps attacking, I have to assume the risk is not a very good one.

So what do you do?  There is not much the patient can do.  I chase doctors to call me back, and testers to schedule me sooner, and produce results faster.  These are things I can do, ironic that I need to do them, considering healing me is supposed to be a top priority for these folks.  But then, I am only one patient in a storm of patients who all have similar needs, some with higher priorities, so really, who am I.  Ultimately you wait.  You wait to hear what is next.  You wait for people to call you back, who promise they will, but somehow never seem to.  You wait with a personal urgency and impatience that health care providers seem not to share.  Thus far, I cannot be too disappointed with my wife’s insurance carrier at Florida Hospital.  They have approved my tests, and doctor’s visits consistently.  The medical staff has all been very courteous, and pleasant.  But when the time-bomb sits in your head, and when periodic pain reminds you it is there.  Waiting is tough.

What do you want?  Seems like an obvious answer, you want to live, much longer, and without pain.  But even as I write this, that outcome could be sadly different.  If for some reason, what I want, is not going to be something I get.  It forces me to ask, what else do I want?  The first thing that comes to my mind, is that I want my wife Laura, to continue her journey of spiritual submission to Jesus Christ, and I want to meet her in that Kingdom that is just beyond our sight.  But this is a bit presumptuous really.  It assumes I will be there, and to date there is no evidence I have earned that fate.  It also wants to avoid the idea that once I am gone, human nature and the need for companionship will kick in, and my wife will find a happiness with another man who may also make it to the heaven we all seek.  What then?  My bomb goes off now and I sleep not having a concept of time.  For me it is one second writing, the next second being escorted to heaven (because I trust Jesus’ ability to fix me spiritually even though I cannot).  I will still love my wife like I did a second ago.  I will be looking for her to resume a life in eternity with her.  But I may find her with someone else, and happy in that situation.  It will take God to fix my heart if that occurs, but I trust Him that much.  Only God can change a heart.

So if eternal intimacy is another outcome that may not go my way, what else can I want?  My next biggest desire is to see my son Alex, find (or perhaps re-connect with) Jesus, and remain with Him until He comes.  My daughter Sabrina find Jesus, and stick with Him.  And my daughter Jennifer remain in the path she already walks.  Again a presumptuous desire on my part.  My parenting skills, and human failures, have left deep scars in the children I lift up to God.  My mistakes have twisted the beauty of having children into something all of my children avoid and do not see a value in.  The grandchildren I would have expected from a marriage I now prize above all else, are absent.  The environment I was a part of in their upbringing seems to have taught them only the lesson of keeping self-sufficient, not to take the risk of loving a little one, who knows only you.  There is no way to avoid responsibility when all of your children share that philosophy.  It has to be my fault in some way or another.  For 2 of 3 of my children to appear to value Jesus much less than I would prefer, or perhaps can see, must also be my fault in some way or another.  My failures must remain keen in their minds and hearts, and His mercy must yet be elusive in their eyes.  How do I plead for the salvation of the children that I damaged (without His forgiveness to even ask anyway)?

I think my parents know I love them.  I think my family does too.  My friends, whether the ones I am connected to on Facebook who I went to elementary school, or high school, or college, or work associates, or just those who accepted a friend request, or sent one themselves … all of you may not know I really feel about you.  It would be easy for me to say I love each of you, particularly in the medical condition I find myself in.  But that might be pushing it a little.  How do you really define love, if you are going to make that statement?  Is love a periodic message to those you knew forever ago?  Is love, reading the posts and status changes of those you want to stay in contact with?  Or does love require something more, something more personal, something more kinetic?  What I can say with certainty, is that I cannot remember a single negative incident or feeling with anyone in my life up till now.  If I ever wronged you, I hope you can forgive me.  If anyone has wronged me, they were forgiven so long ago, I cannot remember the wrong.  I do not feel anything bad towards anyone here.  In fact, I have a great fondness and affection, for so many who peruse Facebook to stay in touch.  I actually like seeing your pics, and watching the your grow, and families spend time together.  My love it appears is lazy.  But today more poignant than days when pain and risk were not so prevalent. 

If this experience is teaching me anything, it is teaching me something I already knew, just not something I did enough of.  It teaches me to love others in a more tangible way, every chance you get.  It teaches me to be a little more inconvenienced in order to meet a need and share a love a little more often.  It should not take a life-threatening issue in your life, to give you the clarity to dispel all the negative thoughts and feelings you hold on to.  It should not take a real risk that any second you could be sleeping in Jesus, for you to find the freedom forgiveness offers.  Spending your time worried about politics, or power, about prominence or wealth, is spending your time on trivia.  None of that matters in the end.  God forbid something like this ever happens to you, but if it does, trust me, what you want, what you really want, will not be to know who wins the election.  It will not be the myriad of things you focus on now.  It will be more personal, much more personal.  When you cannot mandate your own fate, when the illusion of control is finally busted in your own life and mind, what you want is much more about who you love, and how you love them.

Perhaps our mortality has always been that nagging reminder to prioritize our lives better.  Perhaps we were always supposed to love deeper, and find peace in the loving.  If you are reading this, you cannot legitimately say that no-one cares about you, because I actually do.  I hope to see you again, ideally in this world, but if not, then in the next one.  But I continue to believe in the power of prayer.  I would ask that you pray for me, but not just me.  I would ask that you pray for the salvation of my family, and your own.  I would ask that you pray for the salvation of those you are connected here on Facebook with as well.  I would ask that we create a prayer circle like never before.  For there is power in prayer, and I would not wish to be well, and be unsaved.  Nor would anyone I think.  It is us reaching out to each other in love, that is the mission and reflection of our God.  It is that kind of love that melts hearts, changes lives, and makes the world a better place.  Be a part of it, help me be a part of it, help those you love be a part of it.  If there is any further clarity that comes from an experience like the one I am having it is the same old tired mantra that loving others is all that matters.  While that is nothing new, or unique, or profound wisdom from me … it is still the only thing that really matters.  I ask, what do you want?

Your friend in any world,

Kristian

 

The Power of Prayer - Communion (part twelve) ...

 [continued from part 11] - - - Jesus then explains a concept about God and unity that many seem to struggle with as in verse 11 of John’s gospel chapter 17 He prays … “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”  First Christ prays that we be preserved unto God through the power of the name of God and love of God.  In essence He prays that we do not turn away from God or His love.  He prays that the tempter is unable to distract us, and lure us away from the love of God.  But beyond just remaining nestled in the love of God, He prays that we remain “one” as He and His Father are “one”.  Christ is obviously not praying that our molecules bind and we lose our identity, and become a massive blob of combined human parts and brains.  This is not about physical “one-ness”.  This is about the more important spiritual “one-ness” that the Holy Spirit is able to bring to us, as we let go of self.  Christ and His Father were one, in the sense that both were united in goals, in mission, in approach, and in love to effect our redemption.  If only every Christian were also so focused on that single important goal.  If only we would leave judgment to God, and place redemptive love at the top of our list in dealing with each other and the world.  We would then identify ourselves uniquely as followers of Christ and the “one” true God.

Unity does not have to deny individuality.  We do not have to become part of the Borg Collective, to be effective Christians.  Our uniqueness rather allows us to love in a unique way.  In this each of us uniquely identifies another aspect of the love of God.  When we combine all those versions of love, we get a better picture of the love of God, than we look at any one of us individually.  But this is the point, the love must be to others, not to self.  It is our embrace of self-love, that asks all the wrong questions – like … what is in it for me; why aren’t you living up to your half of the 50:50 thing? etc.   “Self” introduces conditions to love, whereas God does not love that way at all.  He loves us WHILE we are yet sinners bound in pain, disease, ignorance, and hate.  His love looks to free us from those things.  His love is the power by which we are freed.  He does not approach us with a righteous assessment of just how bad we are, and rightly condemn us for the bad choices and habits we have formed.  Instead he patiently and carefully extracts us from those bad decisions, and bad habits, and in their place, He offers us a whole new way to live, without the pain of our former selves.  His love does this.  If we are to change the world, it must be done in love, not in condemnation.  Love redeems us from the pain of sin, condemnation only deepens the pain of sin.

Jesus continues to identify His disciples as he says in verse 12 … “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  The loss of Judas is painful to Christ, but it was foretold in scripture, and despite every effort to redeem him, Judas refused and looked to his own wisdom.  The wisdom of Judas led him to betray His Lord, unto torture and death.  This is what happens when we take it on ourselves to “help” God with our ideas of what He should be doing.  It is not unique to Judas.  Abraham took a handmaid of Sarah to “help” God out with His promise, and much pain was the result, and none of his efforts made the promise occur.  Moses decided to “help” bring water out of the rock by striking it rather than speaking to it as God asked, and he was forbidden entry to the promised land as a result.  David decided to “help” bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and without following the proper methods, a life was lost in his efforts.  God does not need our “help” to accomplish His goals.  And often the “help” we offer is more about doing what we want to do, than truly what God wants to do, in His time or His manner.  We rush God, and try to make God do what we ultimately want, and in so doing our “help” bears the fruit of Judas, our forefather in this regard.

Jesus continues to pray for His disciples in verse 13 saying … “And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [verse 14] I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [verse 15] I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”  Christ prays that we might have His “joy”, not our own, fulfilled in ourselves.  Our own ideas about joy and fulfillment are almost always the wrong ones.  But when we allow Christ to alter our desires, we are able to want different things, and find joy in things that have real meaning.  Next He outlines that the word we have received through Christ, does not make us natural friends with a self-centered, self-focused world.  It rubs those notions the wrong way, and puts us at odds with conventional wisdom.  Think for a minute about the notion of the American dream for instance … if you work hard, you can succeed by the power of your determination and hard work.  Whereas our philosophy is … we will be given everything we need from a benevolent God who saves us from ourselves despite our past and present, we can depend 100% on something outside of ourselves, and learn not to ever trust in us, but only in Him.   Those ideas are completely at odds with each other.  The American dream sounds good, and makes you believe in yourself, and what you can accomplish.  This Christian ideal sounds too good to be true, and requires trust that it is possible, and will occur, but in it, your only role is to give up control, not take more of it.  This is why the world does not like what Christ teaches.

For those who believe in isolationism to avoid sin and “contamination” of the pure church … pay closer attention to the prayer of Christ Himself.  He asks NOT that we be taken out of the world, but instead that we be kept from evil.  We are not to withdraw from others who are still suffering from the disease of sin which we have found a Doctor for.  Instead we are to remain in the hospital and share the good news of our Physician with them.  We do not become more holy by removing ourselves from the influence of the evil around us.  Our problem is not with the evil around us, it is with the evil within us.  Our submission is to have Christ remove the evil from within, it is difficult to be tempted by something you do not want, or find yourself despising, or come to see with only pity.  When that occurs, what was formerly temptation carries no more weight.  When that occurs, the evil around you has no more power over you, and instead the love of Christ you reflect changes evil.  This is how His power works.  The goal is not for us to run off to the woods and preserve only our own souls for His Kingdom.  In so doing we lose out on the most valued treasure in heaven – other people, the objects of the love we are learning to reflect.  Isolation is no more the answer for righteousness, and any other self-focused method of curing sin.  Focus on Christ alone kills temptation.  We are to stay in the world, and reflect that light and love, not just squander it on ourselves.

Jesus continues in verse 16 … “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [verse 17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”  Christ makes the distinction for those who follow Him, that they are no longer of the world.  Instead we belong to God.  We present ourselves to Him as a gift, and He gives us more than we could possibly receive.  But perhaps more worthy of note, is the continuation of His prayer where He asks God the Father to “sanctify” us through His truth, His word.  Notice we do NOT sanctify ourselves.  There is no time limit on this activity, He does not ask that we receive this gift over the course of a lifetime, nor does He remind us that sanctification is a process we are supposed to do for ourselves.  Instead He asks His Father to do the work of Sanctification.  It is done through His truth … Jesus said of Himself that He was the Truth.  It is done through His word … John opens His gospel by saying Jesus was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.  We are sanctified through our acceptance and submission to Jesus Christ, a work that is performed for us, by His Father, at the request of Christ.

Jesus continues the mission of our redemption as He continues in verse 18 … “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. [verse 19] And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”  As Christ was sent by God to us, so He sends His disciples to the world.  Our sanctification must also come from Christ.  If we are to be effective, if we are to be remade, it must come alone from the power of Christ.  Jesus goes on in verse 20 … “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; [verse 21] That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”  Our unity in a mission of love is a witness to the world that Christ is real, and our God is real.  As Christ and His Father united in a mission of love in action for us, for others, for His creation – with no thought to Himself; so we can be united with Christ and His Father in a mission of love to others that will change our world.  Families can be healed.  Communities can be changed irrevocably for the better.  Peace that follows love can result.  And all of it can point back to Christ and His Father, a perpetual witness to the unity that is only possible when founded in a mission of love to others based in Christ.

Then Christ does something very powerful and meaningful to us, He extends His familial relationship to us as He prays further in verse 22 … “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: [verse 23] I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”  We are to be bound in love to Christ, nestled in His love, and in the love of His Father.  We are to be made one with God, unified with God, participants in His mission of redemptive love.  In this, we are to be “made perfect”.  Perfection is attainable, it is more than that, it is a guarantee.  But only as we are “made” one with God, one with Christ.  There is no room for self in that equation.  It is the absolute absence of self and self-interest that characterizes the love of God.  It is how Christ lived.  And it is possible for us to live this way as well, as we recognize we do not “make” it happen, we “permit” it to happen.  We submit to Christ, and He “makes” us perfect, makes us one with Him and His Father.  This is a perfect unity we have so longed to see and experience.  It is the heart of the good news of the gospel.

Jesus concludes His prayer with a profound request in verse 24 saying … “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. [verse 25] O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. [verse 26] And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  No longer are heaven and earth to be separated by any distance.  Christ tells His Father He wills that we be with Him, where He is, that we may see Him with our own eyes.  We can then behold the great love that the Father has for His Son, and for us.  Christ declares the nature of His Father to us, and in His life of selfless love, He reveals the Father to us in fullness, that we might begin to know Him, and to know His Son.  This is the eternal life, and eternal gift that is given to us.  A gift offered before our perfection was achieved, a redemptive gift that would see us freed from the power and temptation of sin and self; this is what He puts on the table for us to take. 

There has never been so powerful a prayer uttered in the Bible.  We are offered here a private first-hand audience in the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ to His perfect Father God.  And all throughout this prayer is every imaginable gift He asks for us, and for those few who were still with Him.  Imagine how selfless this prayer was, as it was uttered only moments before He would be tortured to death.  Despite knowing what is about to happen, He focuses the entire prayer on us, and our needs, not asking anything for Himself, except as it benefits us.  This is the power of prayer that cannot be denied.  This was a fitting end to the communion He had with us just before the end arrived …