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Cutting to the Chase
By my fortieth birthday I had made more than enough bad decisions to
assure that my time spent here on earth would wind up being nothing more
than vanity. Not only did I make vain decisions much of that time, but I
made decisions throughout my late teen years which were so bad, that
outside a bleve of miracles there would have been no chance of my living
to see my twenty first birthday. So what am I saying? Am I saying that I
somehow saw the light, came to my senses and am now writing this to
give the reader some insight on how to model their life after my life?
Well, that is ‘kinda” what I am saying “Sherlock” but how does anyone
really know how to make a change that will ultimately wind up being the
real deal for their life just because it seems to be working for
someone else? Again, everybody goes through changes in life but how can
we be sure that the changes we make ourselves are the right ones for the
long haul? For example, there were Jews who got advance degrees and then
started very lucrative careers in 1920’s Germany but then along came the
Nazi’s in the 1930’s. My point is this. It doesn’t take long to realize
that there are more questions than answers when it comes to deciding how
to live life successfully and it gets even more complicated to make good
decisions as life progresses. No, my story is more than just a story
about one man changing his life for what turned out to have the
appearance of a better
life. It is really a testimony confirming the truth about all mankind’s
purpose here on earth including you, “Sherlock”. You see, changes are
going to happen whether by choice or by circumstances, but making
changes deliberately to bring about meaningful lasting results requires
a person to develop an attitude sensitive enough to continually and
successfully adjust to a multitude of ongoing changes around them for as
long as they live. Quite frankly only one person who has ever lived on the
face of this earth has been able to pull "that one" off. His name is Jesus.
For starters, meaningful change only comes when we are finally able to
face up to the truth. Then we have to learn to walk in that truth,
sometimes for quite a while before seeing visible results. A big problem here is that many dead end roads in life look so
promisingly "true blue" when you first start down them. They can feel like the real
deal and yet turn out to be the furthest thing from
the true path you thought they were in the beginning. Now, here you are, a little older and a lot worse for the
wear and left still wondering, "What in the world is right for me anyway"? Family,
friends, teachers, coworkers, clergy, politicians and our own opinions
can and do blind most people to the real truth. Besides, isn’t truth
relative to each person’s beliefs? Isn’t it true that what is true for
you may not be true for me? To complicate matters further, there are
half-truths. A crude description of a half-truth is a meal cooked by a 5
star chef with just a little dog poop mixed into it . If you knew, would you eat that meal “Sherlock”? Well, that is
a very apt description of a half-truth accept the nasty ingredient in
half-truths works more like cyanide than dog poop on those who ingest
it.
Again, if you think the meaning of the word true for you does not mean
the same as it does for me, you are absolutely right because my truth is the real truth and
if you believe differently, your truth is not. It's simply a lie, though
maybe a well disguised lie.
Wow! Did I just call a large portion of the people in this world,
liars? No! I did not call them liars. I said they believe in lies. They,
themselves are fools! Wow! And double wow! Raise your hand “Sherlock” if you are now one hundred percent
sure that I am nothing more than a “bigot” or else how could I make such
a
statement and if this statement hasn’t
seared every conciliatory brain cell in most new age thinkers' minds, then
maybe this next confession will. The word “bigot” is derived
from the expression “By God”. It was a derogatory expression used by the
French toward the Normans because the Normans used this expression all
the time. I am siding with the Normans. I want everything I do to be “By God” so in that way I am a
"bigot" too. You see, when things are done “by God” there are no three
ways to Sunday for you and four ways for me. There is only one way and that way is through his Son,
Jesus Christ. By all means please feel free to call me a "bigot"
anytime. After all It's the truth. I am a self confessed "bigot".
No doubt many readers are long gone after reading
what I have just written. Goodbye. Now, for those who have decided to
stick around, the question these readers should be asking is, "How is
Jesus Christ the only way and the only true path for every single person
who has ever lived or ever will live"? How is he the solution for my needing money to
pay bills, finding the right helpmate, needing a cure for my illness,
needing a place to live, needing an education, needing transportation,
needing parents who love me and needing anything else the reader wants to think
of here? If you are asking these types of questions now, let me say just one
thing. Good questions! Now, here is my answer. A relationship with Jesus
Christ is the answer to every need that you or I have ever had or that you
or I will ever have. Now, if
you would like to know how to start that relationship then by all means read
on. However, just remember this one thing. You must choose to believe
what I am about to say or it won't work.
Let's start by finding out where you came from in the first place. The
Bible says that every human being
has been given the breath of life by the Spirit of God. (Gen. 2:7)
Indeed, every created thing in the universe was created through the
breath of His Spirit and by His word. Isaiah 44:24 goes on to say, “Thus
says the LORD, your Redeemer and He who formed
you from the womb: “I
am the LORD, who makes all
things and stretches out the heavens all alone”.
Psalms 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth”. The Hebrew
translation for “all the host” can correctly be interpreted to mean “all
creation”. It is not limited to mean only heavenly bodies in space like
the moon, sun and stars. However, mankind was God’s crown jewel. Mosses
said, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man become a living
soul”. Job corroborates this same truth in a more personal way when he
said, “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has
given me life” (Job 33:4). Paul also spoke of this quickening by God’s
Spirit, in a general way, when he addressed mostly non-Christian
Gentiles at the Areopagus in Athens, saying, “It is in Him that we all
live and move and have our being”. (Acts 17:23). Here, Paul was noting
the fact that God’s spirit is the life creating force which gives unique
existence to every single human being on the face of the earth. Yes, the
Bible makes it absolutely clear to anyone who has an ear to ear that it
is the breath of His spirit which transforms us from inanimate lumps of
clay into living beings. Without this spirit our body can have no life.
James 2:26 says, “The body apart from the spirit is dead”. Solomon said
in Ecc. 12:7, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the
spirit will return to God who gave it”. So, if we can believe the bible,
the short answer for “Where did we come from?” is this. We all came from
God and are alive at this instant because the breath of His spirit
resides in us. It makes no difference, weather we are a Christian or
atheist. We all came from and are alive because the creative spirit of
God dwells in us.
Secondly, what is our purpose, or more aptly put, the primary expression
of our purpose? I know it is a stretch for most people to
believe that knowing what their purpose is can help solve their
immediate problems but trust me. It can. However, it is impossible to embrace
one's
God given purpose if the reader believes that he or she is just an accident. Knowing we
come from God allows us to be able to understand our purpose. It took years
of being led from a very dark place, although I was born in Spirit, for me to begin to realize my
purpose here on earth and I only began to understand that earthly
expression of purpose better as I allowed the Bible to give me a clearer understanding
of the eternal purpose of mankind in general. Psalms 8:5, 6 says, “What
is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit
him. For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have
crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion
over the works of your hands; you have put all
things under his feet”. So there you have it. Mankind’s
eternal purpose is to reign and rule over everything God has created or
ever will be created. Is this it then? Is this our highest purpose, to
rule and reign? Or is this just a function of a much more profound
purpose. No doubt, I love the idea that the Bible says I am made to rule
and reign. It just has a nice ring to it. Don’t you think? I know many
others too, who love to rule and reign and I bet you know people like
that too. Ruling and reigning is definitely a very lofty purpose which
God has created us to carry out but at the same time this ruling and
reigning thing requires a steep learning curve to be pulled off
successfully. We only have to read about the leadership issues with some
of the Old Testament Kings in the Bible to realize that. Ruling and
reigning is definitely not as easy as it sounds. For example, how’s that
ruling and reigning working out with you and your spouse, your kids,
other family members, your new job assignment, your business partner, clients, your deacon board, your congregation or maybe your constituents
who voted you into office? How about your boss? Can you see yourself
telling telling him or her that you are made to rule and reign? Ruling and reigning? “Ah” yes. It sounds so
good on the surface but when we have to face the consequences as we
begin to actually believe this, it becomes really hard. Let me
let you in on a little secret. It's not just hard. It is impossible. The truth is still the truth though, as strange as it may sound to our natural mind. To have an everlasting successful life, we must first believe that God made us for a purpose and the major expression of that purpose is to rule and reign with him. To get started, we must allow the Spirit of God to teach us daily how to rule and reign while here on this earth. To further complicate matters we must have a relationship with God in the first place to get this ruling and reigning thing kicked off. So, having said all this, let's start at the beginning. How do we begin to have a relationship with God, who is someone whom no one can see, touch or smell?
Well, just for starters, here is what
many people will do and also what I encourage the reader not to do. Many
people will work hard to become a better person and some may even join a
church somewhere and maybe read Christian self-improvement books like Rick Warren’s
best-selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life” or even some of the stuff I
have written on my own web site. In this way, many humans will be distracted
from the "real deal" in some way. You see, one can never begin to start
the everlasting journey that I am describing here unless they can find
the doorway. God has already designed and placed in every one of us the potential for entering into an eternally
purposeful life but that purpose can only begin to be realized by first
“entering in“ through the right door. Until we “enter in” everything else we do or ever will do
is meaningless. At birth, every one of us are just one step away from entering in
this door which leads to an eternally
purposeful life and it is the same door for each of us at that point.
All other doors will eventually lead us down a meaningless path
ending in total vanity. Jesus said in Matt. 13:7, "Enter by the narrow
gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
destruction, and those who enter by it are many”.
Jesus also said in John 10:9, "I
am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go
in and out, and find pasture". He also said in John 14:6, "I am the way,
the truth, and the life". Yes, I know. At this point there
are those readers who are shaking their proverbial heads with eyes glazed
over, and asking themselves, “How can he say this?” They will then go on
to remind themselves of some of the many advances in science,
engineering and technology which have saved so many lives and made life
in general so much easier for countless other lives, curing diseases,
preventing other diseases, growing more and better food supplies and on
and on their mind will race as they also are reminded that many of these
wonderful advances have been made by people who had not entered into any
kind of door at all. For goodness sakes, many of them did not even
believe there was a God, especially the one described in the Bible.
Yes, I am well aware that millions, upon millions of people would agree
that what I have just said here is nothing more than mere foolishness
written to appease the naive mindset of a few fundamentalist Christian
holdouts still living in a fantasy world of their own creation who are
holding up an
otherwise modern and enlightened world with their screwball ideas. You “betcha”. I get it. I have
already thought of many counter arguments to what I have said here,
because I too once had a godless mindset. So, read on “Sherlock” if you
dare. Read on as I continue with what many would call more foolishness!
And If you are thinking this way, did you know that you are not thinking
in any surprisingly different way then those losers who came before you?
The bible has already said that you would think this way. 1 Co. 2:14
"But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God:
because they are foolishness to him: Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned."
I was convinced to enter into the narrow gate when I was eight years old
by an old white haired lady, whom we called mom Cole and who taught
bible study on Tuesday nights in my mother’s home. This was 1955. That
spiritual breath of God which is in each of us at birth was united in
that instant with Christ’s redemptive Spirit, making me become “born
of the Spirit” and at the same time I became a new spiritual creature
which had never existed before. Paul mentions this new creature in 2
Cor. 5:17 when he says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new”.
Simply put, there is no other way to qualify for a purposeful life than
for one to purpose in their
heart to enter into the kingdom of God by becoming this new creature and
that can be done in less time than it takes to pour a cup of coffee by confessing Jesus Christ as Lord of all
and believing that God raised him from the dead. (Rom. 10:9) But you
have to mean it. It's not like trying on a pair of shoes to see if they
fit. You have to mean it when you do it. Jesus said
in John 3:5, “Except a man be born of water (natural birth) and of the
Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. Jesus also said that we
cannot even see it unless we are born of the spirit. If we cannot see,
we cannot enter. If we cannot enter we can never hope to do anything
that will truly last. Sad to say, there are a lot of people who are
calling themselves Christians and doing a lot of good works but good
works are not the same as everlasting works. Good works will someday
fail but everlasting works will never fail because they have everlasting
purpose.
Solomon was a man who learned how meaningless it was to be able to
accomplish only earthly goals and he is a man who purposed and
accomplished more earthly goals for himself than any other human being
who has ever lived. Yet he said in Ecc 12:6-8, “Remember
your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden
bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel
broken at the well”. Solomon is speaking of the natural death here and
he goes on to say, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and
the spirit will return to God who gave it”.
Here, he is talking about that same
spiritual breath of life that is in all living human beings but which
has not yet become a new creature in Christ. Solomon’s conclusion for
any earthly purpose mankind may choose outside of God’s purpose for him
is vanity. “All is vanity”. He says, “Vanity of vanities," says the
Preacher. "All
is
vanity." In other words, Solomon is saying that all earthly goals are
worthless. He ends by saying, “Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God
and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty”.
You see, for much of his life, Solomon saw mankind’s purpose being fulfilled through
performing his legalistic duty, unlike his father, David, who saw his
purpose being fulfilled by loving God with all his heart. In the end,
however, Solomon began to understand that all everlasting purpose is wrought in
God. Why can’t millions who read this also understand that what I am
saying here is not only true but if embraced can become life to their
bones? Could it be because the Bible is concerned with
what is sometimes called eternal truth and the average person including
myself sometimes is more concerned about a truth that will get them
through tomorrow or at the longest, next week?
So there you have it in a nutshell. We came from God and we were created
to reign and rule over everything He creates but how we do that is
revealed one step at a time in everlasting relationship with Him after
we become new creatures in Christ growing in love and trust for the
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ forever.
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