In Search of Martyrdom

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:7,8

A witness is a martyr, or it might be better to say that our word martyr meant witness. This is just a guess on my part, but I doubt that there is a similar word in the Islamic lexicon. The West has adapted martyr to fit the perversion that is suicide/homicide bombing, but such actions could only in the most inverted sense have anything to do with the word as Jesus used it.

The association between being a martyr and dying came about because of the persecution of the early Church. It was necessary as a part of being a witness for Christ to endure suffering, imprisonment, torture and even death. Frankly I find it offensive, not just to myself, but to God, to call some half-wit who blows himself up in order to kill innocent little children a martyr. He is a murderer. If he is “witnessing” for his god, then his god is a murderous and despicable entity. In fact I would equate such a god with “the god of this world” of whom Jesus warns us.

Let me hasten to add that not all of Islam holds to such a belief any more than all Christians are like Jim Jones. The terrorist thugs of Syria, Palestine, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are likely as much an offense to the decent Muslims – Sufis and others – as they are to me.

Jesus said that the believer will be clothed and infused with a spiritual power, like plugging a light into an electrical outlet. It is this power than enables me to be a martyr – if I might be allowed to reclaim a valuable mot. This goes beyond any kind of formal or traditional “testimony”, beyond preaching or public displays. To be a martyr in the sense Christ intended is to illuminate my own soul and the spiritual environment wherein I live and move and have my being.

To be a martyr is to bring God into contact with the world.

I don’t get extra credit for this. I don’t get special privileges in heaven, or a heavenly maid who looks like Ava Gardner. It does not involve going out and provoking persecutory responses from the heathen. Being a witness does not necessarily mean that I hand out tracts in the promenade or pester passers-by by singing into a bullhorn. I don’t have to annoyingly knock doors on Saturday mornings.

A martyr’s calling is to live. “The one who believes in Me,” Jesus told those at the graveside of Lazarus, “even if he dies, will live.” The zombies and the vampires won’t like him, and may well make his life tough, attempt to kill him, or even think they have killed him. Nevertheless, he lives.

The martyr’s reward is life – real life, the life of God, being eternal or everlasting in quality and nature.

Church is not the place where Christian salesmen gather to learn the latest marketing scripts. It is the place where martyrs gather to celebrate and renew life in communion. To use the image from the Motel Zero link, it is where we mend our broken cords if need be and get plugged back into the power.

This next point seems important to me, but it may be important only to me. I don’t think the martyr needs to concern himself with who might be watching him. Hebrews chapter 11 talks about the many faithful who had gone before: the patriarchs, the judges, and the prophets. The chapter concludes with these words -- “All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.” Then the twelfth chapter begins with this:

Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us …

Sometimes I feel just like that light in Robin’s picture. I am forgotten, stuck to a lost wall and useless. Why should I bother? How is my light going to benefit anyone here?

The martyr’s calling is never to the derived temporal world, but, always, his witness is to the eternal realm of the spirit. It may be reflected in the world, but the reality is always a heavenly one. This journey is of necessity one of separation and isolation to a degree. I think if we could see behind the veil it would be a great and terrible sight. Where we walk in shadows there is a blazing light. Where we stand alone there is a vast host.

When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, he discovered an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. So he asked Elisha, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”

Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them.”

Then Elisha prayed, “LORD, please open his eyes and let him see.” So the LORD opened the servant’s eyes. He looked and saw the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. -- 2 Kings 6:15-17

Going Straight Through the Curves

If we must construct the soul out of the elements, there is no necessity to suppose that all elements enter into its construction; one element in each pair of contraries will suffice to enable it to know both that element itself and its contrary. By means of the straight line we know both itself and the curved – the carpenter’s rule enables us to test both – but what is curved does not enable us to distinguish either itself or the straight. – Aristotle “Psychology” – Book I

Man, looking at nature, sees very few straight lines. The straight line is an abstraction, the perfected among approximations. The line exists; everything strives toward it.

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. ... So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. -- Romans 7:7,12 (emphasis in original).

Sometimes I see very little good in the world. I see lies and evil flourishing, deception as the order of the day, and selfishness exalted.

Yet, just as tree seeks to grow straight and emulate an ideal line, so the heart of man seeks after moral perfection – the abstraction of the law, the ideal of truth.

The tree grows to seek maximum sunlight and so, because of the circumstances, it will get a little bent. Down in the wooded gully here, there is a little oak that is fighting its way up among the other trees. You can see over the twenty or so years that it has existed how the environment has changed. First it grew away from one larger tree, then, as it grew taller, it was forced to grow away from a more massive tree on the other side, resulting in an S-curve over about a third of its height.

I can see that because I know there is such a thing as a straight line. My eye imposes that straight line over the tree and I see what has happened. The tree “knows” about the straight line as well and it gets back to it whenever it can. But its life comes from the sun and it must obey a higher law in order to survive.

Those who would call Christ a great moral teacher or the Bible a collection of great moral thoughts must beware of this point. Those things are true and morality is necessary; the human soul seeks to attain it. Nevertheless, it is not the source of life.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. -- Romans 7:24,25;8:1 (emphasis added)

The moral law is not suspended. It still governs the flesh, just as the ideal line still governs the tree’s growth pattern. Life remains a struggle with the old nature, with circumstances, environment, even the demonic.

The good news is that there is a higher law that gives life. I may get a little bent along the way, but, as long as I am seeking the Son, I’ll be straight in the end.

Above that S-curve in the oak’s trunk, it found the opening it was seeking. From there it shoots straight up, triumphant, in the full light of the sun.

That will be me someday.

Rejecting Elemental Deception

Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy or empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of this world, and not on Christ. Colossians 2:8

I know I have spent (probably way too) much time arguing about empty deceits. That is a good description of most of what passes for human knowledge. It keeps the grant money rolling in but it is of little value otherwise. People who desperately want to be materialists are never content in their desperation. Say what they will, they want to pull us down in the darkness with them. You sometimes wonder if misery loves company or if they are just afraid of being alone in the dark.

It is rather like talking to a man who has fallen into a sinkhole. You offer to throw him a line but he insists that the only proper course of action is for you to jump down into the hole with him.

Sorry. I’ve been there and I didn’t care for the view.

I am reminded of a G. K. Chesterton quote, “I am quite ready to respect another man's faith; but it is too much to ask that I should respect his doubt, his worldly hesitations and fictions, his political bargain and make-believe.”

For in Him the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily, and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority Colossian 2:9,10

I can learn a lot by studying the “elemental forces of the world” about how things work, but I cannot learn why things work. The materialist thinks that the only question is how, or rather he only asks how because to ask why is too disturbing.

If I want to understand the material world, I need to know something about the Creator. All of the nature of God was poured into Christ -- and I understand that well enough. What is harder to grasp is that I have been filled by Him.

This is the very purpose of the Gospel – Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection – that we should be restored and partake of the Divine nature. I heard someone protesting the other day about the statement that “God wants to replicate Himself on the earth”. I don’t know what the particular speaker being criticized meant by that. It certainly has the new-agey faux-christian sound to it. Yet I use that phrase, or a similar one, as a convenience.

The Father replicates His nature in His children. What a surprise. That does not mean we are God (though Jesus did quote the Psalm as saying “you are gods”). It does mean that we are carriers of the Holy Ghost bringing the wisdom and power of God into contact with the people we meet and the situations we encounter.

Consider this: our old human nature was subservient to the rule and authority, one might say, of the physical world. The old man is bound and controlled by the gods of forces. When we put on Christ, when we are filled with His nature, the rule and authority of elemental forces are thrown off. Now, instead of being subject to the world’s control, we are submitted to Christ to whom the rulers and authorities of the world are subject. While that is a revelation of a present reality, it is also the promise of a greater manifestation that awaits us.

Barbie versus Jesus

”Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father – to My God and your God.” John 20:17

Jesus met Mary Magdalene near the tomb after His resurrection. The grieving woman did not expect to see Him alive and did not recognize Him until He spoke her name. It seems natural that she would have rushed to Him and thrown her arms around Him, perhaps kneeling before the Master and clinging to Him.

Commentators will tell us many things about this passage, often focusing on the “not yet ascended” – which is significant. There is much here for deep theological discussions about atonement and the blood of Christ. Yet I think there is a simpler lesson as well that can help us in our daily walk.

I have two cats and a dog. I love them and care for them, but they are mostly outside animals. The dog has a very nice house of her own, and the cats like to sleep it the safe confines of the barn. They don’t come in the house often. One of the cats occasionally likes to come into my office and drink out of the toilet bowl in my bathroom. She was in here a day or two ago and I was reminded of her brother. He was a very large, very distinctive-looking creature. In fact the two of them have similar markings, but she is lower to the ground. He followed me everywhere when I was outside, and he had to come into my office every morning. We had bonded and were close. A person who hated me took advantage of an opportunity to kill my little friend. I did not see it but I know what happened, and it oddly corresponded to a dream I had some months before.

I felt great sadness when I realized my buddy wasn’t coming back. Even worse, perhaps, I didn’t have the closure of having his body and burying him. I had no choice but to forgive the person and place my loss in God’s hands.

As I looked at my cat walking around, checking the vents, just as her brother always did, I heard the verse I quoted above. “Don’t cling to Me.”

We focus on forms. Sometimes it is difficult to see past a form. Jack Ingram does a song called “Barbie Doll” wherein he warns a friend against a girl who is “real good-lookin’ but she’s got no heart at all” – rather like Barbie.

I am neither deist nor pantheist. God is in this world, speaking to us, working on us, manifesting His love and will, for the most part, by way of our fellow creatures, human and not so human. My gracious little friend was just such a manifestation, as are those that remain with me.

The risen Christ tells Mary not to cling to the form to which she had been so devoted. He would ascend to the Father, but not just His Father – your Father and your God, and mine. He had dwelt with them, but must depart. He tells them in John 14:17 that the Holy Spirit will not only be with them but in them, and through the Spirit, Jesus remains forever with us.

There are many beautiful things in the world. They are all temporal and passing away. No matter how much we love a cat, a dog, or a person, at some point, we will see them no more, or they will see us no more. Yet the love remains, just as the Spirit of Truth remains.

Despite all the ugliness and disappointment we face in life, there is no such thing as lost faith, lost hope or lost love. Don’t cling to a form. Rejoice in it as it fulfills its purpose. And cling only to God.

The (God) Tracker

Your way went through the sea, and Your path through the great waters, but Your footprints were unseen. – Psalm 77:19

There is a Way before us. We have wandered far and sought diligently for a way that would lead us to home and peace. Perhaps we had almost given up hope when the path appeared right at our feet – almost as if it had been there all along, but we saw it not.

The Psalmist is using one of the common themes in so many of these songs. He references the crossing of the Red Sea. He tells us something by revelation we could have known no other way. Though a way through the sea opened, God left no footprints. Though He created a path, there were no signs He trod it.

How could that happen? The materialist says the reason God does not leave footprints is that God does not exist. That might be one explanation – except that we know ways get made, about as often as maids get weighed. We know that God leads us and guides us. We have seen the works of God, the miracles in our own lives, so you’ve arrived just a little late to tell us that God does not exist. Maybe if you had showed up yesterday with your charts and graphs and equations, maybe then we would have given your conjecture a little thought. Today is too late. My name is Lazarus.

Meanwhile, how can you break a trail without leaving footprints? God is not “of” this cosmos. When He does step into it, He does not operate within the ordinary confines of human thought. He takes the ocean of impossibility and breaks it in two. He doesn’t just mix the metaphor that is the natural life; He drops it in the blender. He creates a spiritual wormhole in the physical continuum. The Real abruptly intrudes upon the derived.

The Way is.

Jesus said, “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

God does not just make a way; He is the Way. He is not the pathfinder; He is the Path. He does not just open the door: He is the Door.

But wait, there's more. You not only get the Person of Christ and the deliverance of salvation, as an added bonus, you get hope and peace in your everyday life. Free!

Because God is big, is the Way, then, always big? Is it always the Door, or are there doors? Christ does the big thing of salvation, deliverance and eternal life for us. Yet He cares for us as we walk through this world. All the little paths that we find in our lives, all the doors that open are Christ – in miniature, we might say – but just as real as the narrow way that leads to real life.

There is no "CSI: Heaven". God does not leave fingerprints. If we want to ignore His presence in our lives, He will allow us to do that. We can use our free will to chase ghost lights through the shadowed wilderness. But, if, stumbling, weary, and empty, we stop and call out to Him, it does not matter how deep into the forest we have gone or how far we have strayed, He will be right there. The path will appear at our feet, though it may be a little faint at first, and we will hear a voice behind us, saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it.”