2005-10-14
Good Morning Cherished Ones,
In an earlier segment, I wrote about "Called to a Higher Law." That dealt with God's expectations for mankind. Now, I am led to take a look at "Being More Civilized," mankind's response to God's expectations. You'll remember that MT 5: 38-48 is Christ's Sermon on the Mount teaching about revenge. This is the passage that contains "turn the other cheek," "go the extra mile," and "love your enemies," rather than taking revenge on people. What Christ is really saying here is we are to go beyond just the letter of the Law. Later in RO 7: 6, Paul refers to this concept. "Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer to do we serve in the old way of the written law, but in the new way of the Spirit. The differentiation between the letter and the spirit of the Law matters, because being in the spirit of the Law prevents legalistic approaches to its practice. It requires a full understanding of what God is telling us in His teachings and His will. The word "His" here is operational, because it infers that we must make His agenda our own agenda.
Real love and true faith is not occupied with placing ourselves in the center of our lives, but instead, with placing God at the center of our lives. This is by no means the way we were born. We must remember that we inherited sin from Adam and Eve. Being sinful is being selfish; that is the natural state. However, through the Lord's divine intervention and the melding of our spirits with the Holy Spirit, we are transformed gradually away from self-centeredness and toward unselfish service to God by serving His purposes and the needs of others. We must remember RO 8: 14-16 in which we are told how we became God's children and what the Holy Spirit does in this process. To make this new, more civilized outlook on life easier to understand, I will use the metaphor of getting an education. There are people who go to school solely to get a degree that qualifies them for their chosen career. They do that as an expedient. On the other hand, there are people who go to school for the love of learning. These people learn to have a deeper understanding of their lives and how they might make a difference for others. A third group, the one I to which I think I belong, which learn for both reasons, the practical and the theoretical.
Real love, the kind that Christ teaches us to have in the New Commandment of JN 13: 34-35, and true faith demand a marriage of God's teaching and its application without coercion. People with real faith don't have to question: Is God always right? They don't serve because someone else is forcing them to serve; they serve because they not only choose to serve but find real joy in it. I've always said that God equips us to do any task to which He calls us. Part of that equipment over and above giving us the talent to carry out the task is gifting us with a unique joy derived from nothing else in life that comes from this service. That joy is what keeps us focused on continuing to serve, because we love to experience it. Some descriptions of it are affirmation, solace that comes from knowing the Father is being pleased, happiness in knowing you are blessing another person who needs your service, and the peace that goes beyond human understanding [PHIL 4: 7]. Even these descriptions pale in comparison to the experience of this joy itself. We are children who crave our Father's approval and who desire to bring Him pleasure-that very reason we were created by Him in the first place [RO 8: 28; EPH 1: 4-5]. In the recent response to Hurricane Katrina victims, I have seen this kind of loving service first-hand. Viewing God at work through His servants is one of the great benefits of being on our congregation's prayer chain. God has generously given us 180 people who take time out from their busy schedules to pray for others every day and to keep things confidential. My job is to receive the requests, write them for this group, and let the Holy Spirit guide me to Scriptures He wants me to include with each request. If I sound like I'm bragging, it is not meant to be about me and my job, but instead, what God is doing through all of us. PS 115: 1, "To You alone, O Lord, to You alone, and not to us, must glory be given because of Your constant love and faithfulness."
In RO 12: 2, we get a view of the supernatural work that God's power enables Him to do on the human heart. "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is pleasing to Him and perfect." That work doesn't stop at this point. It enables us to receive God's instructions in our mind, feel them and their benefit in our heart due to our faith in Him, and then translate these thoughts and feelings to apostolic action. That is what so many people from churches and even some businesses in our country are doing right now, when they take time off from their daily lives to pray, load trucks with money and supplies, drive them down to the devastated areas of our country's Gulf coast, and bring them with helping hands to those in need of this relief. I know in my heart that God is pleased with this kind of loving service.
PRAYER: O Lord, we tend to become very cynical at times, especially when we don't understand fully such intangibles as miracles, Your awesome power, our need to believe in the Son, and our need to submit to Your will. You have never been a God to bring about Your will by mean-spirited, self-centered force, as some humans do. It is easy to become cynical if we take a self-righteous attitude toward the evil that we can all see. However, Your way for us is true faith, real piety. To bring this about, You exercise Your awesome power to inwardly transform our minds by their renewal. You direct the Holy Spirit to meld with our spirits, lifting them up and giving them a willingness to submit to Your will that can only lead to eternal life, bliss, and fellowship. The net result of this is a miracle performed by You, one that is wholly altruistic and beneficial to mankind. There is no evil in You, and we praise and thank Your for that. You are our Mentor, teaching us to love as Jesus Christ loves us. Even one who was a sinner in his early life [2 SAM 12: 9-10] and who had so much blood on his hands that You directed that His son build Your temple [2 SAM 7: 12-13], David, could write PS 66: 5, "Come see the glorious things God has done; what marvelous miracles happen to people." Dearest Abba, You use the same power to transform us that You used on David. [Personally, I would have been mystified as to why David was held in such high esteem, had I not been given the gift of the opportunity to view his inner self through the Psalms]. Your love for us is so great that, if we allow it, You will lead us to do good that we never thought we could do. PS 107: 1, "O thank God-He is so good! His love never runs out." PS 119: 93, " I will never forget Thy precepts: for with them Thou hast quickened me." While the language of the KJV is archaic, it's beauty shouldn't be missed. "You have quickened me" means "You have made me come alive to the potential You created me to have through the faith You have given me." And at last, Dear Father, we can say with conviction, PS 34; 8, "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth [takes refuge in] Him!" In Christ's name, amen.
Being more civilized, in the sense that God means it for us, requires some considerations, and discussing them will be the goal of this segment of messages. Next week, I'm led to pick up on further discussion of the difference between the letter and the spirit of the Law. We must remember that true faith and true love mean ability to place the wellbeing of others and pleasing God before one's own selfish desires. Unselfishness is a necessary part of living "in Christ"-according to the Law as God meant for it to be practiced. And yes, the supernatural alteration that God affected in our lives is a big part of it. Our part is in submission to Him and willingness to faithfully obey Him. It also involves recognition of the greatest gift of all, God's sacrifice of His Son on the cross for our salvation [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. While God doesn't keep score as humans do, He is nevertheless very aware of what we do and the attitude toward Him and others that we have. I often kid my husband, Peter, when it appears that he is being cynical that it's time for him to serve on another Via de Cristo team. [Via de Cristo is the 4-day spiritual retreat program to which we are both very committed]. That's because I know this kind of service helps us get righted again after the cares and concerns of our daily lives try to rob us of that joy and inner peace that true faith gives [mentioned above]. We both know that God brings opportunities like this into our lives exactly for this purpose. If we were perfected, the world would never be capable of moving us further from God and His view of things. Our God will transform everyone's mind who allows it, and He will persist in giving every person opportunities that will produce true faith who opens his heart and spirit to Himself. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn