Resisting the Current

Wrath/power is revealed by the effects of resisting it.

Sin is transgression – resisting, living at cross-purposes with God's ways.

If you are enjoying white-water rapids flowing with the current you can have the thrill of being carried along with the powerful, surging water beneath you. But if you “dig in your heels” locking yourself to a rock or even trying to move cross-wise to the current, you will suddenly find yourself in realization of how intensely powerful and dangerous the water can be if you are not willing to move in synchronization with it.

The last half of Romans 1 is describing this very situation in contrast to the first half describing the very opposite. The identification of each is found in back to back verses 17 and 18 - “the righteousness of God is revealed”, and “the wrath of God is revealed”. Reading all the previous verses before 17 reveals the righteousness of God. Reading the following verses reveals the wrath of God.

But unlike the typical spin that most people assume by projecting their own feelings of wrath onto God's character, what in fact is revealed here is the natural consequences of resisting the powerful current of God's intense passion of love.

Just as trying to stop in the middle of a surging river or even move in a different direction suddenly and dramatically produces life-threatening danger, resistance to the power of God's love and His ways of relating produces life-destroying results. Why then do we blame God/the current for the dangerous consequences of our resistance when we could be enjoying the most exhilarating ride of our lives? In fact, this very penchant to blame God and accuse Him of arbitrarily imposing these “punishments” on those who resist Him in itself will put us in the path of resisting Him. If we chose to continue to blame God for sin's effects we will tragically find ourselves suffering those very effects. And the sad consequence will be that our conclusions will seem to be justified while in fact we are only living under the intense deception of sin and the lies that reinforce it.

Notice what Romans 1 really says about how God's “wrath” is revealed. I notice two important principles emerging here: (1) “they knew God” (v. 21), and (2) “God gave them over”, or released them. These are repeated in various ways throughout the rest of this chapter. What it is saying, to use our current analogy is that (1) they cannot help but notice that there is a strong current underneath their lives and that it is consistently urging them in a particular direction. But when they chose to “exchange” the real for the imitation (v. 23) and refused to “acknowledge God”, then in respect for their choice to resist the current of His love and passion for them God, in the intense anguish of His breaking heart for them “gives them over” to the terrible natural consequences of their stubborn resistance.

Just in case we glibly smile believing that we are safe from that problem, Paul goes on in chapter 2 to point out that when we harbor “judgment” in our hearts against others who are suffering these results of resisting the current we place ourselves in the same situation and will unwittingly find ourselves in the same danger as the ones we condemn.

I want to explore this much more but right now I want to sit in a raft and relish the sun and the spray in my face as the current of God's love surrounds me and carries me through this day.

(next in series)

Touch

Yesterday I spent all day in a seminar from Family Foundations Intl. called Overcoming Anger. It is a very powerful seminar and one that I highly recommend to everyone; it is not just for people who have obvious problems with anger.

As with all their seminars, they have small group prayer ministry between most of the presentations to allow opportunity for people to receive ministry for an issues that may be raised during the presentation. I find this a very effective format that is much better than the left-brain heavy seminars that most people are familiar with. Since this particular event was planned for only those who have been in training to be facilitators for future seminars, everyone there was familiar with the routine and the guidelines for these sessions. During one of the ministry sessions I attended the issue of touch came up and what is or is not appropriate in these settings.

This brief exchange got my mind stirred up to explore this issue in the Bible for myself. So this morning I got on my computer and searched the whole New Testament for every reference to touch that I could find. The results surprised me more than I expected.

What I found was that Jesus touched people a great deal more than many of us may even be comfortable with; and these are only the instances that were so significant that they were noted by the recorders of His story. I am sure they were many other times that were so common that they were simply accepted as normal for Him to do. But the real surprise came when I looked up the original word in Greek to see what its meaning is and discovered an important link back to the concept of “fire” that has been a subject of study for me recently.

The word translated “touch” in most places is the Greek word “haptomai”, with the following definition:

680. reflexive of 681; properly, to attach oneself to, i.e. to touch (in many implied relations):--touch.

Notice that it says this word is reflexive of 681. When I went to see the definition of 681 this is what I found:

681. hapto, a primary verb; properly, to fasten to, i.e. (specially) to set on fire:--kindle, light.

What I am seeing here is a description of touching that is far more than a casual or incidental touch. It is a touch that is connected with the idea or sensation of being set on fire or communication of power. I also found a few references to people wanting to touch Jesus or His garment with the same kind of touch, so this form of touch is not restricted to the touch of God. There were also references to touch that used different Greek words that did not have this meaning and were not associated with the idea of power but more like we think of just touching something.

As I looked through the New Testament at every reference to this word, I was very interested in the very last reference in the Bible. It is this text found in 1 John 5:18.

“We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

This really caught my interest. The message I see here is tied directly to the concepts I have been learning about the “wrath” of God and correct understandings about “fire” and “hell” that I have been researching. I have begun to collect these thoughts on my new blog site called Surprise Ending. The message that I see in all these references is that we need to be in touch with God in a way that will both bring “fire” into our lives and will make us agents to pass it along to others. And the exciting part about this is that when we are in that kind of relationship with God, one that is filled with the fire of His passion, one that is referred to in 1 John as “born of God”, then the evil one cannot touch us with his fiery touch. That to me is really good news.

Deferring to Another Post

Though I have a lot of things going through my head today, particularly as I am trying to get in touch with my heart and head in preparation for the upcoming Bat Barakah in two weeks; instead I am going to recommend another blog post that just enriched my heart this morning when I read it. I have been following this site for quite a few months since I stumbled across it and have enjoyed reading her posts about her life as a research assistant in Brazil. There have been great stories and pictures and insights into her mind that have kept me coming back to check on her regularly, though I never left a comment. But the most recent post from last Friday really spoke to me and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this today. Her name is Maria Susannah Bowman and you can read it on her site by clicking here.

Slandering God

The message in My Utmost this morning was again timed perfectly to address the issues of my heart right now. I have been under pressure to worry, to forget who I am inside, to give in to fear and panic as the date for the Bat-Barakah rushes in and almost nothing is getting done or even planned yet. Those around me are starting to doubt my sincerity about this and, as I suspected from the start a couple weeks ago, the devil is arranging all sorts of external, “important” distractions to keep me occupied. I delivered the THIRD transmission to the shop to get my daughter's car fixed while my other vehicles have serious problems of their own, my multiple jobs are creating pressure to stay busy paying attention to them, other very consuming interests are asserting themselves to my mind and the cat punctured my air mattress the other day so that I lost a lot of sleep slowly sinking to the floor all night until I had to get up at 4 AM to replace it with another. This is only to provide a glimpse of where I am inside right now for context. Yes, there is a lot of pressure to worry and stress about all these competing priorities, but this is nothing new and is experienced by everyone. It is my choices and reactions during all of this that determines the direction and outcome and whether I mature more or regress into the dark tombs of fear and depression. I believe this may be the fight referred to by Paul and the “fight of faith”. I would like to remind myself of some key phrases that God presented to me this morning as reinforcement for His plans to protect and guide my heart today. They are all from today's selection in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers that I quote from so often. “It is possible for us to misjudge our capacity.... We must not measure our spiritual capacity by education or by intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured by the promises of God. If we get less than God wants us to have, before long we will slander Him....” First of all, this reminded me of the “joy capacity” that Dr. Wilder teaches about. Joy capacity is a very real function of our brain and is increased physically by experiences of joy, of people being glad to be together. It is also the very same part of the brain that handles stress and trauma. It is like a flexible bucket in our brain designed for multiple functions. If it is not big enough for the trauma we experience, then our mind will resort to all sorts of other tricks to cope with the experience and hide it away until our “joy bucket” grows to enough capacity to be used to process it effectively. What I find intriguing here is tying our capacity to the immense resources of the promises of God. Failing to establish this connection between our inner life and the external resource of God's powerful promises will always result in anger and slander toward God, holding Him responsible and blaming Him for all our problems. We will end up saying, “'You expect more than You give me power to do; You demand too much of me, I cannot stand true to You where I am placed.' When it is a question of God's Almighty Spirit, never say 'I can't.' Never let the limitation of natural ability come in. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in us.” That is very strong medicine, but I need it right now. I believe that I am being led by the Spirit even though I am very wobbly at many times. God has promised to do His “thing” in me and I hold Him to His promise. I also firmly believe He has arranged and prompted us to plan and go through with this important event in the lives of our daughter's and I want to stay in cooperation with His leading. Most importantly I want to keep my own spirit in line with His Spirit during the process. The next section touches on something I have been thinking about off and on for several days. I have made the observation to a few friends that it seems to me like anger is always directly related to a perception of unfairness, whether actual or not. Unfairness is linked directly to justice and if followed through fully will always end up back at anger toward God for His perceived injustice toward us. While many people do not express it that way, if it were revealed I believe that is what would be found inside their heart. This next paragraph reinforced that idea and really flushed it out more clearly. “The servant (Matt. 25 parable) justified himself in everything he did and condemned his lord on every point – 'Your demand is out of all proportion to what you give.' Have we been slandering God by daring to worry when He has said; 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you?' Worrying means exactly what this servant implied – 'I haven't had a decent chance,' and the one who is lazy spiritually is captious with God. Lazy people always strike out on an independent line.” This is a very important principle for me to remember. Worry equals slander! So the reality of it is that every time I am tempted to worry I am really being tempted to slander God, His attitude toward me and His ability to take care of me. I certainly do not want to find myself in a position of slandering God, but I also have to admit that I really am in that position far too often. Making it clear in this way helps me to see the real issues at stake and reminds me of what is really going on. It removes one more layer of deception that the enemy has had over me most of my life. One more point I would like to share that I have also been discussing with my friends related to this. I have observed that self-justifying is never a part of God's way of living. Not only does God ask us not to justify ourselves, He also never justifies Himself. I know that sounds like heresy, but if we think about it carefully I think we will find it to be true. That is why all through the Bible God talks about us as being His witnesses. God is conducting His part in the Great War between good and evil in such a way so that ultimately He will be justified by His creatures without resorting to defending Himself. That is one of the underlying principles of existence that has been twisted and distorted by sin. Our selfish hearts naturally tend to justify ourselves at every opportunity and therefore we assume that God operates the same way. But if we consider carefully God's ways I believe we will discover that true justification always has to come from another. The real catch in this is that when we resort to self-justifying and defending ourselves, which comes oh so naturally and spontaneously, we actually are precluding God being able to justify us by His grace. That is why the only way we can stand justified before God is by confession and repentance which are the exact opposite of defensiveness and self-justification. That is the irony of the gospel; the only way one can obtain justification is to resist justifying one's self. Self-justification is resistance toward God and His offer of redemption. And as I am learning more and more, resistance in the presence of power results in heat, pain and ultimately death. “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.”

What Must I Do to be Salvaged?

“'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.' And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.” Acts 16:30-32. I found myself asking God this very question this morning. Then I was reminded to think of what the words mean and how that might sound using their more accurate meaning. Since “saved” and “salvation” are the same, and the root meaning is “restoration, returning to an original design and function”, then I see that “doing” something and getting restored to my original design and function are the main elements of this question. Generally speaking, when we ask what we should “do”, the question is coming from the context of our left-brain, external-oriented religious thinking, even if we are not known as being necessarily religious to other people. Religious people do not have a corner on living fake lives. It is our natural response to an exposure of the emptiness of our heart that has been nagging us all our life but we could not satisfy it or even understand it correctly until we see someone else living from their heart in joyful fulfillment. Then our own heart screams out in agony of desperation and we become more aware of how empty we really are and how deep our heart hunger really is. Consider the people who approached Jesus with basically the same question. “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Matt. 19:16. “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark 10:17, Luke 10:25 and 18:18. As I was waking up this morning I couldn't miss the intense hunger of my heart awakened last night when I watched “Tuesdays with Morrie” at a friend's house with friends and family. It has stirred up awareness of how selfish I am, of how much the faults in others that irritate me are only reflections of how I must irritate them. The self-deception of my own hypocrisy is so effective that I find it impossible to see much of the truth about myself and of course cannot receive it from others attempting to tell me about it. But the heart is communicated to by example and demonstration, not with words and logic. Thus my heart was able to at least slightly communicate back to my brain how empty it is as I watched the actions, spirit and transparent unselfishness of Morrie in the way he related to the self-absorbed young man swallowed up by the typical distractions and busyness of hectic living, too distracted to be able to receive or give love with anyone. I saw myself portrayed painfully accurately in the example of the young man far more than in the character of Morrie. And my heart cries out, “What must I do to be saved?” I realize even more now how helpless I am to change myself. My only hope is outside, supernatural intervention by a Power that can transform me from a selfish, pride-filled, self-deceived nice guy (many would even dispute the nice guy part) to a genuine, caring, loving and expressive man with a servant heart spontaneously reaching out to touch the hearts of everyone around me. In the answer of Paul and Silas to the jailer who found himself asking this same question after having his own callous heart awakened by their startling behavior under persecution and abuse; their answer alerts me to the underlying basis for hope. It is not an intellectual answer, though it has often been degraded to that in religious teaching. It is a heart answer – belief in Jesus, the Creator and original Designer who created our hearts and is the only One who knows how to really satisfy them and restore them to their original design and function. Believing in Jesus involves trusting His motives and integrity and passion as well as His ability to change me. This kind of trust does not insist on knowing ahead of time how He will do it or having every question about His past dealings with me answered before I let Him have His way with me. Believing means that I let go of my resistance to Him and allow Him access to my emotions, my pain, my fears and my shame. Believing in God is not the same as believing facts and doctrines about God. That is a left-brain function and often blocks us from allowing our hearts access to true faith. Real faith/belief is a heart response as well as a choice to allow our heart to come out in the open and take the ultimate risk of self-abandonment. In so doing we are promised that we will find true life, true heart-satisfaction, real fulfillment and joy. But now my left brain analytical thinking is hijacking what my heart was trying to express and my heart is complaining that it is being ignored again. That is what a lot of people around me have been feeling as well. My mind wants to find a nice, tidy answer to wind up this post so it will conform to literary expectations and social norms. But my heart wants to scream, “What must I do to be saved, to be alive, to thrive and connect and bond with other hearts around me like I was designed for?”