All In God

For by [that is, by means of or in] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether  thrones or  dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created  through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. -- Colossians 1:16-17

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high -- Hebrews 1:3 (emphasis added)

I don’t know if we can fully grasp how much different the world is now from how things were before the Cross.  Teachers and preachers and Christianity in general have latched onto some statements in the New Testament that point to degeneration.  People are going to get worse.  The world is going downhill.  Evil is becoming more powerful.  God is going to have to come back and rapture us out before cleansing the earth as He did in the days of Noah. 

That is all true on one side.  I think those who choose to reject God and willingly sell themselves to the spirit of antichrist will get worse.  The division between the righteous and the rebellious will be greater as time goes on.  Evil will become ever more desperate and extreme its manifestations.  That’s because it is cornered and has its back to wall.  Evil is not exalting in triumph but thrashing and flailing in panic.  The battle can go on for a long, long time, yet both sides know, or could know how it is going to end.   

The coin has another side, however.  God is working in His children.  His kingdom is growing and expanding like dough rising as the effects of the leaven permeate it.  The Body is maturing into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  It may not be a linear process.  There is growth followed by pruning.  I believe we are entering or have entered the stage where there is going to be some cutting back.  We may not like this phase very well, but as far wiser people than me have said, the Church is strengthened and renewed by persecution. 

God is working in His creation.  Panentheism, the concept that “all is in God”, is reflected in the statements highlighted above.  He is immanent as well as transcendent, His life percolating and permeating through all of the Cosmos and especially through us, seeing through our eyes, hearing through our ears, and, perhaps, at times, whether we know it or not, speaking with our lips.  This is the difference from the old world, the world that existed before the Cross – that which has passed away. 

This is that, Peter said at Pentecost, prophesied by Joel.  The Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, sons and daughters prophesying, seeing visions, dreaming dreams, even among those thought too lowly and too distant, there may be an anointing.  We are fully accessible to God because Christ has made “purification for sins”.  In Christ, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him (Ephesians 3:12).  Our Father knows and understands our fears, our doubts, our troubled hearts.  We cannot deceive Him, but neither can we be separated from Him.  The cries of our hearts, even those that cannot be formed into words, are heard by Him and answered. 

If you get a chance in the next couple of days, read Ephesians chapter 2, especially beginning in verse 11 through the end of the chapter, with this awareness of the presence of God in your life and in all that is. 

Be Hatin'

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

and speaks truth in his heart;

who does not slander with his tongue

and does no evil to his neighbor,

nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

in whose eyes a vile person is despised,

but who honors those who fear the LORD;

who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

who does not put out his money at interest

and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

 -- Psalm 15:1-5

We generally think we ought to be kind and forgiving and tolerant of everyone, but are there people we may despise?  Paul warned the church at Corinth about be too accepting:  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:11)

Jesus did not despise those who were in need of the Great Physician.  He did, though, tell us that we could not follow Him unless we were willing to hate:  If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  (Luke 14:26) 

Wait, “even his own life”?  Jude, of all people, might help us out:  And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. (Jude 22-23)

It’s the flesh that is the problem.  The old nature, my old nature is vile and to be despised.  In each one of us, even the most fallen and wicked, is the potential for the new life.  It is bond and imprisoned by the carnal mind and worldly ways of thinking.  Do we not hate and are we not right to hate those who oppress and enslave others?  We ought also to despise the self which denies liberty to the spirit. 

A Forked Process

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. – Galatians 5:16-18

As high and holy as the Law is, as perfect as it is as a revelation, the Spirit is higher and holier.  The Law is derived from the Spirit and not the other way around.  The Law is descriptive where the Spirit is creative.  A level does not lay a beam straight; it just lets you know when it is straight.  We are at liberty, not because we are lawbreakers, but because we embody the Law:  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

There are decisions we have to make, based on imperfect information.  We can pray as long and as hard as we like.  We may have peace about what we do, yet it may not work out as we expected.  These things happen because we live in a fallen world with fallen fellow travelers who sometimes make stupid choices.  On the other hand, I think I always know when I let the old man have his way.  It’s rare – so rare I can’t think of an example – where I genuinely thought my motive was purely spiritual, and it somehow violated God’s Law. 

I am generally skeptical when I or anyone says that he had no idea that operating out of the flesh would lead to a bad outcome.  Just as an example:  do you know how much trouble it is for two married people to commit adultery?  And it’s almost as tough for a single and a married person – at least if the married one doesn’t want to get caught.  It’s not like you can go out on the town or just meet indiscriminately.  You have to think about it, plan it, and work around roadblocks.  It's quite a lot of trouble.  I attribute my own record of fidelity at least as much to laziness as virtue.  So, when someone tells me that something “just happened”, I tend to think that person is fooling himself or herself and/or trying to fool me. 

We are or should be aware of the battle that goes on within us, the incessant warring of the flesh and spirit.  I do not ever remember that not being the case in my own life.  Sometimes it seems I have the situation under control, and sometimes I feel like the Bayonne Bleeder.  What round is this?  Perhaps for some who never heard or thoroughly rejected the Gospel a false peace may be possible -- so long as they stay on their side of a DMZ, which is probably why militant atheists are militant.  For the rest of us, only a surrender to the dominion of the Spirit offers us any hope for lasting tranquility and a satisfactory resolution to our internal conflict.  It doesn’t stop the old man from offering his opinions and telling us that we be fools for not letting him run things.  But the more we live under the Spirit and the more we listen to the voice of the new man, the more at home we become, for he is aligned with the Law, and things stay where we put them. 

Kings and a Kingdom

Everyone who knew him previously and saw him prophesy with the prophets asked each other, “What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” -- 1 Samuel 10:11

After Samuel had delivered Israel from the Philistines, the Israelites began to demand a king to be like the other nations. This was contrary to God’s will, perhaps – at least Samuel thought so. When he took the matter to the Lord, he was advised that God would select a king for the nation and that He would use those leaders for His own purpose. Samuel did not need to worry about the matter as an affront to his leadership, but rather it was up to God to be offended by the rejection; He had other plans.

We are told how God chose Saul, an obscure, and apparently humble, young man from the small tribe of Benjamin to be the anointed king. Through an almost whimsical adventure in pursuit of lost donkeys, Saul meets Samuel. The prophet is told by the Lord that this is the new king, and Samuel anoints the man. He tells Saul that as he returns home he will encounter a troop of prophets and signs of his transformation will follow. All of Samuel’s words are proven true as the Spirit falls upon the chosen one. Saul begins to prophesy. This possibly involved glossolalia, but it is clear that, whatever phenomenon was exhibited, observers thought Saul the son of Kish was no longer “himself”.

The process is begun, but it isn’t finished. Saul has to be revealed to the entire nation as their new king. His reluctance is again evident as he hides among the baggage knowing his name is about to be called. While this show of humility is promising, there is something about “God taking control” of him, as Samuel said, that Saul cannot handle. Saul is very much like my old natural self. Self is unsure about the whole God thing. It will reluctantly agree to go along with the program, perhaps, but it holds back. Self tries to hedge its bets. It is unwilling to wait on God; it tries to manipulate God or handle things on its own, and so, in the end, self is rejected and condemned.

I have experienced this same false humility. It is a danger signal, and we should recognize it for what it is: a refusal to fully surrender to the Spirit and His work in our lives.

I’ve mentioned before the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards (Of Arugula and Kings, which includes evidence of my failed prognostications) wherein we read about Saul, David, and Absalom. If Saul represents self, David represents our spirit. David, the spirit man, knows getting rid of self is not his job. Allegorically, spirit is brought into the service of self which becomes, in turn, enraged by the spirit man’s victories. The natural man both fears and loathes the spirit man while recognizing, in self’s better moments, that the spirit man is the rightful successor and ruler. Eventually, God does away with the self and places our spirit on the throne just as we see pictured through the life of David.

David became of a victim of his own success. Though “a man after God’s own heart”, he chose to do things that were not necessarily wise. He gave birth to beauty that became wrapped up in its own arrogance and jealousy. Once we are “spiritual”, our sins have more far-reaching consequences because we are operating in a different realm. Disobedience is the seed – destruction is the weed. Something of beauty and innocence, peace and power is going to be lost to us. David’s son, Absalom, should have been “the father of peace” as his name implies. Instead he becomes enamored of his own gifts, embittered at his father’s sins and apparent indifference toward injustice. He murders – some would say justifiably – his brother and flees into exile. His return does not bring peace but manipulation and rebellion leading to his own destruction.

I like reading through First and Second Samuel in a modern translation or even a paraphrase. This epic, sweeping story of the founding of the kingdom contains much that is historical fact, no doubt, but even more that is psychological and spiritual truth -- true myth. If we find those truths sometimes discouraging – I think I’ve made every possible mistake at least once – we can recall that Christ comes to the throne of David and the tabernacle of David, to renew, restore, and make right.

Love You Long Time

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42:1-2

For the vast majority of man’s time on earth, the main concern must have been lunch. At least that’s what Maslow’s hierarchy of needs postulates. The physiological needs, such as air, water, and food, form the base of a typical pyramid. The base includes all the “animal” aspects of life like sleep and sex. As best I can figure, sex is the only thing in the base that we can live without for very long. Of course, if you assume that the reason for animal life – including humans – is reproduction of selfish genes, then those that do not have sex to pass along their DNA do not live as long as those who do.

Some critics of Maslow’s pyramid argue that the hierarchical structure is a false. While all the listed needs may be more or less legitimate, the idea that sleep is more basic, somehow, than friendship or security is misleading. In real life, most of us have given up a lower level need for a higher level need. Morality is on the capstone of Maslow’s pyramid, implying that morality only becomes important when all the lower level needs are met. In a coherent, sensible society, the satisfaction of lower level needs is controlled by morality. A desperately hungry man may violate his morals to eat, but he knows he is doing something extreme.

God is trying to make us whole, to put us back together, to defragment us. If we are only a body, then we are mainly concerned with satisfying animal needs. If we recognize that we have a soul, then our needs change to emotional and relational objects. At the innermost is the spirit man who recognizes that the most intense hunger and thirst we can experience physically are but a mirage compared to that which gives us true satisfaction in life -- that gives us life.

For the person who seeks after God, hierarchies become meaningless. Needs are more like ripples in a pool, concentric circles leading us back to the point of origin, created by our entrance into material existence. The only thing that matters is His presence in our lives, His voice speaking to our spirit, His life flowing through us and out of us.

“… out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water …”