Exchange and Choices

My perceptions are changing – in more ways than one.

Part of it is due to my preparing my mind and heart for the fast upcoming date for the Bat Barakah for two of my daughters this weekend. I shared with a friend yesterday that I can't remember a period of time in my whole life that I have spent so much effort trying to listen to my heart with my mind. I find it quite frustrating at times because I am so inept at this. But I feel it is very important to try anyway if I am going to be effective as a channel for God's blessing at all. So part of my perception shift is very slowly starting to see both myself and others from more of a heart perspective than I have before. It is so incremental that most people probably can't notice it yet, but I keep praying for God to give me the eyes of heaven and the heart and feelings of Jesus and then I have to leave it up to Him to answer that request in His time and ways.

The other perception change is coming as I have spent more time than ever in the first chapter of Romans. Some time ago I left off my study of Romans in chapter eight and returned to the beginning because I just felt I had missed far too much and wanted to uncover much more that was sure to be there. So far in that experiment I have not been able to leave Romans one for maybe a week or two now and it seems to only be beginning to open up. I had a similar experience several years ago in the first few chapters of the book of John that proved a real blessing to me.

I have to say for context that Romans one and two have always been pretty depressing to me and something to get through as quick as possible so I could get on to the “good stuff” later in the book. Romans one is one of the primary sources of ammunition for those who want to fuel their bigotry and hatefulness against homosexuals. They like to thunder their human wrath against these “wicked” people and firmly attach God's name to their tirades to give it supernatural authority. This spirit of hatred and merciless vengeance is one of the prime examples of very popular lies about God deeply embedded into religion that has little hope of being eradicated. Because most people believe in a God who indulges in the same “wrath” as men are so familiar with in themselves they simply assume that these words in Romans are God vengeful outlashings against those who have offended His sovereign decrees. Of course they don't bother to continue to apply the text just as strongly to themselves as it turns the tables on them in chapter two. But that is another subject.

However, as I have spent morning after morning reviewing, exploring and meditating on the various interlinking truths just in this one chapter I have begun to see a much different picture of God emerging that is starting to get me more excited as I see the true beauty, passion and mercy of God that is quite opposite to what many claim to find there. Each morning it seems that some other word or phrase is pointed out to me that had roots and tendrils that are connected and show up in surrounding verses. These amazing interconnections become more and more fascinating as they weave together to form the outlines of a picture that more accurately portrays the real truth about God.

This morning I noticed even more references to the word “exchange” or its variants. All of them are in the section where the “wrath of God is revealed” which, when properly understood is a very exciting and liberating subject of its own. So far I have found this word in v. 23, 25, 26 and alluded to in parallel concepts in several other verses. Then I was reminded of the idea of exchange that had surprised me in a teaching several years ago from the Old Testament. There is a popularly quoted text in Isa. 40:31 that people find comfort in quoting for difficult times. “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

What surprised me was when it was pointed out that this verse actually may be saying something quite different than what it appears to say in the typical English translation. The word translated “renew” can instead be translated “exchange” which puts a whole different filter on the picture and exposes a truth about the gospel more clearly. There is even a ministry named after this verse called Exchange Life Ministry. What this text can say is that those who wait (trust patiently in God to work things out) on the Lord will exchange their strength (if you can even call it strength at all by comparison) with God's strength. The rest of the verse is simply the results that can happen in the lives of those who exchange their strength, their dependence on themselves, for trust in God and choose to live in His strength.

I find this “exchange” principle significant in the light of Romans one. It is possibly talking about the same thing in reverse. In Isaiah God's plan for exchange of the right kind is laid out and in Romans the opposite kinds of exchange are laid out with the corresponding tragic results. Given this perspective it is easier to see that the dire situations and perversions of life described are not God's “punishments” on those who have offended Him; rather they are descriptions of natural consequences of pulling away from the only source of true life and looking to any other source to get satisfaction and fulfillment.

That takes one right back into the study of worship and what it really means – but that too is a subject for another day that I have been wanting to explore much further and share what I have been learning and experiencing.

What I see in Romans one is a choice for every person: Do I believe the gospel – the good news about God and the real truth about Him apart from what is taught by most “religion” today? Or do I choose to exchange real glory for imitation glory, exchange the truth about God for the lie, or maybe even go so far as to exchange the natural function of my body for lust-filled distortions of God's original design for me and suffer the tragic consequences as some of my close friends have done?

Life is all about choices. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)

(next in series)

Confessions of a See'r

Something that keeps me uneasy at times and that I have written about previously could maybe be called the seer syndrome. It is good that I feel this uneasiness and I welcome it's reappearance as a reminder to once again do a reality check. It might be called an anti-hypocrisy injection or any other number of analogies. It is the feeling I get sometimes when I am thinking about something or convicted about something I have read or has been presented to my mind and I almost immediately began shaping it into words and arranging and outlining what I am experiencing into another piece of writing. At these times I sometimes almost feel guilty, like I am using expression for writing as a premature excuse to bypass actually fully receiving into a deeper heart level the very lesson that I am presently given opportunity to experience. I use the word “experience” quite deliberately here because I try to make a habit at such moments to remind myself quite strongly that it is far more important for me to internalize the “lessons” and principles, or whatever term might better describe them, than to merely “learn” them and capture them with my intellect no matter how exciting or threatening they may be. I am coming to the place where, when I am reading something really convicting I suddenly discover my mind strongly applying what I am reading to one of my children or one of my friends that “really needs to hear this”. I am starting to come to the awareness that most likely that intense desire to apply this to someone else is most likely betraying the presence of a false god inside of me desperately trying to divert attention to someone else because it is about to be exposed. At such times I find it helpful to first of all not fall into the blindness of guilt feelings which usually only produce a smoke-screen of denial or avoidance because of fear. Secondly I deliberately choose to force my imagination to let go of my strong penchant to apply this to a person who so obviously needs to hear this and change. No matter how badly that other person may need this counsel and advice, I am not the conscience for that person so no amount of pressure on my part will help them accept what they need to hear no matter how I try to package it. A good reality check at this point is a call to memory of how I feel when others try to do the same thing to me and how resistant I instantly feel to their attempts to convict me on some point they feel I need to change. It is once again a strong reminder that only the Holy Spirit of our Designer is capable of convicting us while still keeping us in a safe atmosphere where we are willing to accept the conviction and repent. Only the One without sin is safe to cast the first stone, and God is not into casting stones to start with. After I have insisted on ordering my mind to let go of my strong desire to divert attention to someone else, I then remind myself of the principle of recognition that I have been well aware of for a number of years. Most of us are aware of this principle in theory but it is still a bit painful to accept it for ourselves. It is the principle expressed by some as “you spot it – you got it”. I have seen this proven true so many times in my life that I now accept its truth as real, but it still requires a firm decision to force my mind to live by it and redirect my attention to my own life and allow the instruction to do its needed work in my own heart without being diluted or diverted. The overriding truth that I must always keep uppermost in my mind is that my own transformation of heart will have far greater influence in drawing other into conviction on this point than any amount of head presentations no matter how eloquent or camouflaged. We are wired to respond to heart messages far more effectively than “religious” instructions that usually end up primarily producing resistance. That is probably why Jesus told the Pharisees that their method of religion tended to produce candidates twice as ready for hell as themselves because disciples of typical religion are filled with a spirit of resistance. Resistance, when faced with opposing “force” (the passionate love of God) can only produce heat and pain which, as I have written about extensively elsewhere, is the very essence of what hell is all about. (Am I starting to sound like a broken record?) What I am trying to express here without getting derailed too far is the feelings I sometimes experience when I feel a tension between receiving and giving. In reality my “witness”, is only as effective as the level to which my own heart has accepted and is being transformed by the things I am attempting to express to others through whatever means. Sometimes I feel so strongly about this that I restrict myself to simply jotting down a few notes about something that is strongly stirring me but is yet incomplete in personal application. I feel I need to at least capture it in brief notes so I won't forget it (which I very easily do to my great consternation at times), but it is not ready enough at my own heart level to share it with others due to a great lack of credibility. At other times I feel compelled to go ahead and express what I am “learning” even though I realize that I still need the impact of it to change my own life even more than most who may hear or read what I am sharing. In fact, I am aware that the people who may “need to hear it most” most likely will not be reading my posts, so I simply leave them out as gifts(?) to be received by whoever happens to chance on them or those that the Lord may lead to them for whatever purpose. Part of this issue also involves the tension created when people say “I was impressed”, or “the Lord showed me...”. I realize that I use similar expressions myself and I continue to wonder how to relate to such phrases and notions even myself. On the one hand it seems rather arrogant to claim that ideas and concepts and insights that I share with others come directly or indirectly from God. It always has the potential to be interpreted as laying undue claim to the ultimate authority to back up what I am presenting. There is no shortage of evidence for people doing exactly that along with the tragic results of such abuses. Just a cursory examination of the religious tyranny of the Dark Ages reveals the consequences of religious imposition of beliefs on others against their will. Those terrible acts of demonic demonstrations in the name of God will always eventually follow when men try to take the authority of God without accepting His true character. No one is immune from becoming this kind of false witness for God and so I keep in mind that I must be careful how I claim to be inspired by God in the things I say. On the other hand, I also sense that I need to be honest about how some of the “insights” I share have come to me. It seems that if I simply state them as my own ideas that I, in fact, may be claiming that of my own wisdom and superior intellect I have conjured up these things, and in so doing I will diminish the element of the influence of God's Spirit in my life and heart. I am well aware of the smallness of my own ability to think and figure out life on my own. I am also too painfully aware of how shriveled and hardened my own heart has been most of my life and its inability to receive and share joy. I believe that all true wisdom must flow through the heart. The “head”, or left brain where the tools of language reside, is the lesser side of our being that must struggle to express the much deeper and broader emotions, concepts and ideas that defy the simplicity of human language. One of the greatest problems against which all true believers struggle is the fact that almost universally religion has been condensed and restricted to primarily a left-brain set of beliefs, doctrines and rules. Even when it appears that our emotions are deeply involved in fantastic exhibitions of religious fervor, upon close examination it will often be found that this religion still has not taken root in true transformation of the heart but has only become an emotional stimulant and an imitation of the real heart-experience that God has in mind for us. The passage that was stirring around in my mind this morning as I felt prompted to express these things was from James. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. (James 1:21-26) One significant thing I noted while reading this verse some time ago was the apparent fact that the “mirror” and the perfect law of liberty may not necessarily be the same thing, even though that is always how I have heard it preached and taught. I am not trying to be dogmatic or argumentative here, but to me I found this quite revealing. When a person looks in a mirror, according to the text that person sees their “natural face”. I think that most would agree that the “natural” face referred to here is the imperfections of character that we all possess. And while it is indeed very important that we become aware of the truth about ourselves from time to time, it does not necessarily translate that the mirror from which we discover this truth is always the “law”. In fact, given the analogy the way it is written, I am drawn to conclude that the evidence points in a different direction. When it talks about the man looking in the mirror it seems to almost be a casual observation. It is true that he may be intentionally looking in the mirror and may be surprised by the reflection that he finds there in the revelation about his true picture. But that does not carry with it at all the intensity of the expression in the next example of looking intently at the perfect law of liberty. While the law may indeed be helpful in unmasking our faults and failures, I don't believe the law acts so much like a mirror as it does by contrasting. A mirror is a completely passive instrument that can only reflect light and create an image of what is in front of it. That to me is a long way from what I believe is expressed and implied in viewing the law of liberty. The law is a simplified expression of the very character and nature of God Himself – hardly a passive reflector of whatever is before Him. If we take a view of the law of liberty being a reflector of our likeness we have indeed arrived at creating a god in our own image. Maybe that's one reason we are so angry and afraid of God, because we think we see in Him all of our worst attributes and think that He is worse than us. Many of the doctrines and emotions in circulation today about God reveal this very thinking and need to be challenged and exposed for the lie that they really are. Far from being a mirror that reveals our problems by reflection, the perfect expression of the beauty of God, His everlasting loving-kindness and faithfulness and passion is a means of exposing our true condition by contrast, not by reflection. While a mirror may be useful at times for a reality check, I believe that the analogy of a mirror is something more along the lines of our need to occasionally take an honest, hard look at our own hearts and admit the selfishness and depravity that lurks deep in our souls. But if we spend too much time dwelling on our own imperfections we will become overwhelmed with discouragement and will actually end up reinforcing them by our very act of dwelling on them. That is not to say we should live in self-denial and self-deception. Mirrors can be very useful if they are not overused. But to stare in pained realization at our sinfulness in a “mirror” will eventually cause those very imperfections and sins to take deeper root through the principle of feed-back. What James declares is our only hope is to stare obsessively and continuously at the perfect beauty of our Creator and Parent and by “beholding we will become changed”. It is an unavoidable law of the mind that whatever we focus our attention on will influence and shape our thinking and personality and character. And while I still believe it is important to experience “reality checks” rather frequently by looking into a mirror and seeing the truth about ourselves as far as where we are in our growing experience, we need to get away from the mirror without forgetting what we saw and spend much more time intensely saturating our minds with the mesmerizing attractions of the real truth about God and all the expressions of His character revealed in heaven and even in nature here on earth. This is my obligation to myself and to the One who died to give me eternal life. I am reminded of the passionate plea of Moses to the infantile people that he had grown to love so deeply. “"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live...” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

Righteousness Defined

If righteousness is defined in the Bible as believing that God will do what He says He will do, then does that in turn apply to God's righteousness and if so, how? Is it possible that God's righteousness is defined the same way as the Bible defines our (true) righteousness?

If that is true, then it must look something like God trusting us to do what we say we can do. (I am exploring this while I am writing so I am not currently expressing something that I have uncovered or yet understand.) That seems to be what happened in what is called the Old Covenant. The people at Mt. Sinai claimed that they would do everything that God had said they must do. It's pretty obvious that was a complete failure and disaster. But still, God acted in a way all through the centuries that could easily be seen as trusting them to do what they claimed they could do even though He knew from before the start that it was impossible for them to do it.

This thread does seem to remain consistent right on into the New Covenant but with very important alterations. It seems to me that in a New Covenant relationship with God, to be “successful” we must become completely honest and admit that we cannot live a godly life ourself. In this situation from God's perspective it would be consistent with this definition of righteousness that God could still trust us to be what we say – that is, we will be consistent with our own claims. God is trusting us to do (and not do) what we say. So when we admit and agree with God (confess) that we are completely and utterly helpless to change ourselves and live a life that measures with the life of God, then God trusts us that we are in fact what we say we are and that our lives are consistent with what we are saying.

From that point we can move to the next which is called repentance which is a gift from God. Remember, the only thing we truly can do is choose who we are to be slaves to. We will never, ever be able to live godly lives independently like Satan has led us to believe. So our only hope of escape from this body of death is to throw ourselves on the mercy of the only Source of life and exercise our will to become His love-slaves. So when we choose to receive repentance, which means a change of thinking, of direction, of heart-motives, and live in that repentance by continual surrender of our rights to ourself, then the incredible arrangement of indwelling divinity accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus for this very purpose is installed in our soul and a new life is experienced within.

From this position we move on to an experience that theologians call “sanctification” which has its own hazards of misunderstanding. Very many people who seem to “get it right” up to this point fall into Old Covenant thinking at this stage and end up right back in the mire of struggle, defeat and “works religion” that plagues anyone attempting this route. It also puts God in the position, according to application of the above definition of righteousness, of trusting us to do the impossible which is just as impossible now as it was in Old Testament days. In essence, we are putting God in a terrible situation when we believe that we can be “good” through any efforts of our own, even when those efforts are supposedly combined with “help” from God.

In the experience of sanctification we must continue to remain in the same relationship with God as we did when we first came to Him for justification and trusted Him fully to apply the merits of Jesus to our lives in place of our sin and guilt. Sanctification is not discovering new formulas that will now enable us to live perfect lives with help from God. Sanctification is living in total consciousness of our continuing utter inability to live “right” at all from any of our own strength and instead resting fully in the resurrection power of an indwelling Divinity gifted to us in Jesus Christ. It is learning to live from the heart Jesus gives us.

When we live in that kind of relationship with God, then His trust in us to do what we say we can do – which is nothing but choose to allow Him to do what He says He can do in us – is a revelation of His righteousness. This is the gospel, the good news that Paul preached and was so pumped up about. This also allows the same definition of righteousness that is used by the Bible to equally apply both us and to God.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (Romans 1:16-17)

(next in series)

How Am I Saved?

I received indirectly a response to my last post discussing Romans 1:17,18 that has got me thinking about more in there. This person emphasized that the important phrase in this text was about the righteous living by faith. He went on to assert that “the righteousness of God, which is trusting God, is revealed when we in fact trust God. This trust in God is what qualifies us for salvation, nothing more or less.”

I was raised in a religious environment that emphasized this belief so it is not new to me. However, based on what I have been learning over the past few years about the gospel and salvation, this assertion is starting to raise red flags in my mind. I in no way want to enter into a theological debate over the topic, but I do want to know what God's plan really is differentiated from any counterfeit that sounds very plausible, very religious or has been accepted by great numbers of people. I try to maintain an open mind and heart so that the Spirit of God can challenge and correct the many lies about God and His ways that permeate so much of religious beliefs, both in those around me and in myself.

In my search for truth, I am realizing that it has to stand the test of fitting into the heart in addition to passing intellectual tests using the Word of God as a virus check – test every spirit. The world is full of religious experts that can prove all sorts of notions about theology based on stringing together proof-texts, quotations, philosophy etc., but it is much more difficult to find people who are grounded in the Word but just as in earnest to live and grow in their heart-life and be open to learning from other people of like “mind”. I will say that some of the visitors to this blog site have blessed me with this perspective and spirit and are enriching my life.

So – I got sidetracked a little. As I was starting to say, I am quite uncomfortable with the statement above that could just as easily come from my own mouth only a few years ago. I am still learning more in this area and I do not want to make any dogmatic declarations, but based on my deeper understanding of what constitutes the gospel and salvation this explanation cannot work for me anymore. As I look at the context in this chapter, the message emerging is not the one expressed above but something quite different.

The core difference I believe, is where the source and origin is from – the initiative. “Religion” always wants to slip in some percentage of human performance no matter how small, into the mix. Paul was well aware of this penchant and took great pains to expose and denounce it. Unfortunately theologians have taken great pains to try to rationalize what he said to undo and confuse the very points he was trying to get across. Hence there is great confusion as to how we are saved and why. When we believe that our trust in God is what qualifies us for salvation, as I have been taught all my life and was again repeated in the above comment, then we in fact are inserting an ingredient of performance into the equation no matter how subtle it may seem. I have heard many of the arguments about this issue and I am sure this may heat some of them up again. But the Word, when properly understood both with the head and with the heart, simply does not support man helping out God in “saving” him.

Of course some of our problems come from starting with very different definitions for many of the words we are using in our discussions. This adds greatly to our confusion and is one of the major factors in heating up and extending arguments indefinitely. And even when the definitions are clearly spelled out it seems that others do not apply them when listening to repeated explanations. This again, I believe, is a symptom of disconnected hearts and an over-emphasis on left-brain arguments that sometimes demand to be “right” at all costs.

To present what I believe I am seeing here as the real message about faith in relation to salvation, I would like to start out by saying that there is a great difference between “having” faith and exercising faith. I know that at first glance that sounds ridiculous and it certainly exposes the problem of condensing heart concepts down into English words. But in my experience “having faith” always carried with it the subtle implication that somehow I had to work up enough “faith” to convince God to do whatever it was I was trying to have faith about. Usually in my mind the idea of faith was simply believing hard enough that what I wanted God to do would really happen and blocking out any and all doubts from my mind that might give God reason to refuse my request because I didn't have pure enough faith. That's stating it from a heart-perspective more than a mind perspective, but I don't think I am alone in that perception. Most of the religious world is trying to get God to do all sorts of things for them and trying to “use” God to force circumstances and/or other people to their own advantage. Then when God doesn't deliver what they want they assume they didn't have enough “faith”. This even opens up great opportunities for the enemy of God to step in and provide the supernatural power they are looking for and in the process they are deceived into believing that they have “the truth” because their prayers and faith seem to be “working” and they are being “blessed by God”.

I learned something yesterday about faith that made much more sense to me than this typical approach so familiar to us. It was pointed out to me that most of the references in the New Testament to faith in relation to Jesus are referring to HIS faith instead of ours. Different translations of the Bible render it differently depending on the translator's bias, but the original language as well as the contexts support a reading of “the faith OF Jesus” rather than “faith IN Jesus” as is so commonly thought.

This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and insights from the Word. That is a subject for another study, but it has strong implications for this passage. Let me quote the verses I am looking at here.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:16-18 NAS95)

Looking at the interconnections of these phrases I see the “gospel” as the focal point of everything else surrounding it in the text. It is the gospel that is described as the power of God. It is the gospel that is the revelation of the righteousness of God. It is the gospel that is lived out by those with faith. And it is the gospel that is the truth that is suppressed by those who are ungodly and unrighteous.

Since the gospel is defined as “the power of God for salvation”, then it would be very helpful to know what salvation means. Again, we are diverted by the commonly held assumption that salvation is all about getting us to heaven so we don't have to live in discomfort and pain in this sinful world anymore. Face it, that's the underlying belief of most of us though it seems crass to express it that way. If we honestly think about the way most people preach and teach about salvation today, you have to conclude that salvation is centered on human beings and God is just the external Force that must alternately be appeased or induced to make us feel better and get us out of our mess. This is sick and selfish thinking but, in reality, lies at the foundation of most religious systems, thinking and teaching.

What we desperately need is a much bigger perspective on what is really going on. We need the eyes of heaven to see the real issues and keep in mind the much larger controversy over the battle about God's reputation. That too, is another discussion that I try to address on my other web site but am only referring to for context. Our biggest problem is that our view of the gospel and salvation is so small and so self-focused that it corrupts our theology without our realizing it. That is why we find ourselves looking at these verses and putting the emphasis on living by faith (self-focused religion) instead of receiving the revelation of God thereby entering into an experience of real power in our lives.

I am beginning to sense that one of our big problems is our broken “receiver”. One of the tasks of maturity for an infant is learning to receive, and many of us never learned that very well. I know I certainly didn't, and it has been a serious problem for me all of my life. I believe this is a core problem in our relationship with God as well. We are so conditioned and determined that we must give something, that somehow we must do something to EARN, that it filters into our relationship with God and we contaminate the gospel with our faulty thinking and assumptions; hence, our emphasis more on our faith than on accepting the revealing of God's righteousness.

That triggers an even bigger block for understanding this passage because the word “righteousness” is possibly one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. That is not surprising though, because the core problem of the whole great controversy is our misconceptions and lies about what God is really like. So as long as we don't have healthy and truthful concepts of the truth about God we will equally have misunderstandings about the true meaning of the word righteousness.

This passage gives us a window into the true meaning of the word by telling us that, whatever it is, righteousness is revealed in the gospel, and the word gospel simply means the “good news”. If we take the definitions that I have on my definition page and apply them in this passage, it might read something like this –

I am not ashamed of the good news about God, for the good news is that the power to salvage us, to restore us to our original design and function is released in our lives when we begin believing the truth about God. This can happen first in those who have had a better picture of God to start with, but it will also happen in the hearts of everyone else as well who enter into this relationship by accepting and believing the truth about God.

In this good news about God, we find the righteousness of God – His faith and love – revealed which inspires faith within us that responds to His faith in us. It has already been stated in the Old Testament that real righteousness, people who want to be righteous, live in this relationship of spontaneous faith created within their heart in response to God's amazing love and faith in us.

On the other hand, the “wrath” of God, that misunderstood passionate love that appears so threatening to those who don't believe in His faith and love, is revealed from heaven to be working in a different direction from those who resist it. Everyone who refuses to respond to God's love and be brought into harmony with His faith and love for them, who suppress this truth about Him and cling to Satan's lies about God will experience the natural consequences of that resistance that they will believe to be “wrath”.

What I see here is an issue of getting my receiver fixed by God so that faith can more easily be produced in me spontaneously in response to the faith of Jesus in me. Jesus had so much faith in us that He took the immense risk of eternal death, took upon Himself all of the consequences of pain and suffering that happens when we resist God's power of love, and let all that sin and its effects kill Him through unfathomable internal torture while externally wicked men tortured His body and mind on the cross. He did this in faith that some of us would see enough of His love for us that we would allow Him to work and live in our hearts and restore us to the original intimacy and family relationship that God originally created us for.

If I am willing to believe with my heart that God indeed has this kind of love, that He is passionate about restoring me into close association and fellowship with the Godhead, that He trusts me enough to give me complete freedom to choose His love without any coercion, to even go so far as to offer an arrangement of marriage to God and all the privileges that that implies – then I will discover that faith will grow spontaneously in my heart, which was designed for this very purpose. I will discover that if I receive first, then I will find myself beginning to give to others and back to God.

But nothing that I give has anything whatsoever to do with “saving” me. That is absolutely preposterous! The only thing I can do to participate in salvation is to exercise my power of choice to give Him permission and authority to live in my heart and face the mirror of my heart in His direction. I surrender my “rights” to myself and abandon myself to His love, just as lovers give themselves unreservedly to each other in the act of making love. In that surrender I will find the abundant life that is found only in connecting to the one true Source of life. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)

(next in series)

River of Joy

Why, if we can be carried along by a surging current of God's passion, does it seem so easy to be distracted by illicit diversions? I thought of the rocks and obstacles that are found in white-water rapids and then remembered what happens when the water level is too low. The less water there is the more difficult it is to get downstream and the easier it is to get hung up on the rocks and debris.

The thought then came to me that the river is joy – yet another fine analogy for this most important ingredient of life. And this too would explain why it is so urgent that we raise our level of joy as we near the end of time. Satan has strategically placed all sorts of obstacles in our riverbed, some of them quite sharp and some quite large. Many times they seem to be insurmountable, but that is because our water level of joy and intimacy with God is so low that we have to get up and carry our raft much of the way. We seem content to just enjoy ankle-deep levels of the joy of the Lord and think that all this work and all these “trials” are just what must be normal and we have to just live with it.

But I believe God's plan and desire for us is to open the floodgates of heaven by opening our hearts to become open channels for His love and passion to flow through us. Then we will discover to our amazement that many of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our path before have disappeared underwater and we find ourself riding the wild whitewater with abandon and excitement as we rest deeper and deeper in the confidence of God's love and protection.

If temptations seem to be overwhelming, faith to be always just out of reach and depression and discouragement seem to be too often destroying all our peace, I would venture to say that a strong indulgence in our hearts being ravished in the passion of God just might change our perspective a great deal and even elevate us from being slammed around by rocks and obstacles to riding the waves with the thrill of adventure. We might even look forward to the trials and learn to rejoice in them as we are instructed in James if we saw them all as opportunities for making our ride exciting. And that is all very much dependent on how much joy we allow to pass through the gates of our hearts.