Sunday, October 24, 2010

Human Beings

In the beginning… God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible goes on to tell us that He created all other things, land and sea, sky and air, sun and moon and stars. Then He created the things to inhabit these spaces, beasts of the fields, birds for the sky, and fish for the sea. Then He created His “crowning achievement” (if you can call anything that God does, an achievement), He created man, male and female He created them. Of course our evolutionary friends will have great problems with this thesis. To them, two random atoms whizzing through the universe, collided and the spark of life began. At this point, I have two questions: 1) Where did the two atoms come from? 2) Where did the universe come from? There was probably nothingness and then something happened and then the two atoms collided and then the universe happened and then nothing turned into something. That makes it perfectly clear doesn’t it, or does it make it more foolish? I assume that most evolutionists and atheists don’t want to think about the possibility of there being a God, because if He is, then they are responsible to Him for all they do. And they don’t want to do that.

Anyway… back to the future…. We are created and we are responsible to Him. He created us with love and purpose. Love because we were created in His image. Purpose because He wanted us to reign over His creation. Personally, I think that all the created things were created in full maturity. If you would have cut down a tree in the “Garden of Eden” you would have been able to count ten, twelve or twenty rings of age or even more. And the same would be true for the other plants and animals.

I really am trying to get to my thesis, which is human being. We really are His crowning glory, because of being created in His image. Of course, I do not think that God looks like me. There is something unique about this likeness, but I can’t explain it. And neither can anyone else. But, we are something special and love beyond our imagination.

This thing about being human beings is simply this; we are human beings not human doings. I think God wanted us to “be” more than He wanted us to “do”. Does that seem to make sense to you? I’m sitting here writing and listening to some music on my computer. The music combines and enhances what I’m writing. You will probably be surprised to know it is a kid’s album, not by kids, but for kids. Its title is The Polka Dot Bear by Barry McGuire, way back in the 1980’s. But, isn’t that what God wants us to be… kids? We can’t do anything for ourselves, we must rely on Him. And that’s called being, not doing. Unless you become as a child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s a simple love relationship. Do I love Him enough to surrender and submit? Will I say, “Not my will, but your will be done”. If the relationship is not growing, the being is not growing. He breathed life into us, His life, and His being. His likeness should be more and more in control. When he Holy Spirit, I assume you know that the Holy Spirit was given to you when Jesus became your personal Savior. You can find this in the Gospel of John, chapters 14-17; along with some other important things. Anyhow… the Holy Spirit works in our lives, as well as the rest of the world, to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment to come. He convicts us to make us more like Jesus, that being thing, being like Jesus, not doing more things to make “me” feel better because “I” have done all of these great things. When we “be” we “do”. When we “do” we don’t necessarily “be”. But this being happens only by submitting to the Holy Spirit.

Let me interject at this point another side-bar, side light or whatever you want to call it. God revealed Himself to Moses as “I Am”. Thus, referring to Himself as the “ever being one”. Jesus referred to Himself as “I Am”. If we are to become like Jesus, then we need to be in the process of being and becoming. We will never become or be God, but our likeness can be restored. The relationship needs to deepen every day. Do I love God more and more each day? Do I see my sinfulness more clearly every day? Am I sorrowed by that sinfulness more and more? Not that I have achieved the point I want to, but I strive to be less and Him more. Like John the Baptizer said, “He must increase and I must decrease”. By the way… John was not a “Baptist”. (A touch of humor there).

Three books I have recently read or am in the process of reading, The Wright Brothers – Overland Stage, by Tim Wright. This is a book about the local Indy band and its successes and failures, from Tim’s perspective. This is Tim’s own personal striving to “get to the top” of the music industry. So much of self was interjected into life, he and the band forgot about their Christian roots and how to allow God to direct the paths. Another book is Radical by David Platt. David had to go to a Southeast Asian country and see “church” done in such a different way that when he came back to the USA he was shocked to see how he had been following the American Dream and playing “church”, and he was the “Head Pastor” of the church. Now he is in the process of changing the “way he does church”. The third book is The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer. This writer has an interesting perspective, having written his book in 1948. His main thesis is that people, the church, have left their pursuit of God for the American Dream. They have lost their awe of God and replaced it with the comforts of the world. And in doing so have lost the zeal and affection for God. Their thinking is something like this, “Oh I leave the tough stuff for God to take care of, and I can handle the little stuff”. God is not an American. We think that God has to do it the “American Way”. God’s own words are these, “Without Me you can do nothing”. When will we ever get this through our thick skulls? It’s not about me; it’s about Him and Him alone, His will, His way, His purpose. Our part and our only part is listening and obeying.

If we are to become like Jesus and we are, Jesus life was boiled down to this, “Not to do My will, but to do the will of the One who sent me”. “And the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”. We are to serve and to be obedient.

I think I’m done, but who knows? My challenge and questions are few. Are you a human being or are you a human doing?

Ron
Human Beings Part Two

With all of this stuff rattling around in my head, I must continue.
Human beings, they are more being than doing this is the key. Jesus says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. He also says, “I Am the way, the truth and the life”. Thus, knowing Him is the essential part of the entire equation. If you are not in the pursuit of knowing Him, you are not in the pursuit of “being”.

As I have read the book Radical, I have come to some conclusions. I think it starts out strong, but falls away in the end. What do I mean by that? In the first two chapters or sections, David Platt describes his experience in the Far East. He is finding people who have a hunger for God’s word and is amazed at how far the people travel to hear God’s word. They walk or ride bicycles for miles, even a full day just to hear the word, spend several if not many, 10 or 12 hours in listening and asking questions. Then they ask if they could do it again tomorrow. David is astonished and amazed, and also tired from a very long day of interaction. But he agrees to continue to teach the next day. This seems to happen day after day after day. The interesting thing is that these people are not asking how Americans “do church”; they are asking and begging to be taught the word. They are not asking about the latest music trends or what the latest Christian Books are. They are saying, “Teach me the Bible”.

To me this is another part of the “American Gospel” that is lacking in substance. We, the American church look for the next best seller or the next conference, in order to help us in our short comings and our problems. The answers are given to most problems, “Well, just do more, or try harder; you’re not having enough quiet time, you’re not praying enough”. These are not bad in themselves, but how do they help us “be”? Am I interested in getting the next wrist band or the next t-shirt or the next syllabus? Again, conferences are not bad in themselves, but some people have every book and every CD on their shelves, they have a t-shirt for every day of the week, but nothing is going on in their heart. They are not becoming! I also wrote a paper on “Head, Heart, Gut”.

The weak part of the book Radical is that, when David returns home to the USA, he sees a different kind of American church than when he left and a far different kind of church than in the Far East. So he starts teaching on “going into all the world and preaching the gospel”. Here is where I think the departure starts; people are encouraged to look at their lives and see what they can do without and think of how they can reach people in other lands with the gospel. Again, let me say, this is not a bad thing, but it misses the entire point of David’s time in the Far East, and I think David loses sight of what he was being taught by God (not that I know what God was trying to teach him). But as I was trying to think through and process my way through his book, it seems that the emphasis was on the hunger for God and His word. Jesus told His disciples, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Or, are we looking for a way that makes us look like we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Do we know the difference? The Apostle Paul makes the statement, “If I give all I have to feed the poor and do not have love, I am nothing”. Thus, it is a heart problem!

Clean and unclean things…. It is not what goes into a man that defiles him; it is what proceeds from within (out of the heart).

I cannot tell you what God is telling is you to do other than; He wants you to be holy, not happy. Holy is a state of being, happy is defined by situations and circumstances, again, “being” or “doing”. Believe it or not, you can be holy without being happy. One short interjection: The “Be Attitudes in Matthew 5 says “Blessed” this not to be confused with happy. I have heard so many people and even pastors say that it means happy. That word goes far beyond happy, and if I am not happy does that mean I am not blessed?

Back to Radical: Just my opinion… it seems that David jumps off and begins a series on “Going”. And that seems to lead to busyness and not righteousness. The pastors in the Far East were not looking for people to come to build something (even though there is nothing wrong with that), they were looking for people to come and teach them the Bible.

We need to be challenged to read and study our Bibles and be “transformed by it”, the entire thing Genesis 1 through Revelation 21. We need to get to know the God of the Bible; Who He is and how He works, then get to know Jesus and who He is, and then the Holy Spirit in the same way. Constantly asking the Lord who He wants us to become and then what He wants us to do, where He wants us to go.

Would we be willing to walk for a day to hear the word taught? Would we go if the band was not going to play? Would we go in stealth so as to not be seen? Would we feel comfortable packed like sardines in a small room with one 40 watt light bulb hung in the center of the room. Dear friends, this is radical. What would you do if there was no music, no band for worship, just two hours of your Pastor teaching through the Bible? Then you took a fifteen minute break for bathroom breaks and something to drink. Then the teaching would start again for another two hours.

I know I’m short on scripture in this writing, so here goes…. Let’s look at two and maybe more passages to see what the progression is in “being” and “doing”.

Isaiah 6:1-13 (You can read the entire thing for yourself) In the year that King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple… “Then I said (Isaiah) woe is me, for I am ruined. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips… Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I, send me!” And He said, “Go and tell the people.”

First, Isaiah, saw the Lord. My question to you is, “Have you seen the Lord in this way?” Maybe not in the physical sense, but have you had an intimate, eye opening, revelation of the Lord and how magnificent He really is. Second, was your response, “I am a man/woman of unclean lips?” Third, then did you submit to “being” before “doing” or going? Even though Isaiah had been God’s prophet for many years, he had a new experience, which changed him for the rest of his life. God said go tell the people. What was God asking Isaiah to tell the people? “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of the people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim… lest they repent”. You see; God knew their hearts and that the people would not repent, so He told Isaiah to stop preaching to them. Thus and therefore, we must be about going, before God says, ‘It’s too late, stop preaching”. When I first turned my life over to Jesus in 1974 I did not know any of the things I am writing about today. I have grown and changed and have become more aware of how Holy God is and how sinful I am. If you knew me like I know me, you would probably not want me as a friend. But if I knew you like you know you, I wouldn’t want you as a friend either.

The next scripture is from the New Testament: Matthew 18:1-27 (Again you may read the text for yourself). Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane where He was praying before His crucifixion. The soldiers came to arrest Jesus and Peter tried to defend Jesus with a sword. Remember that Peter was a fisherman not a soldier; “doing’ not “being”. Peter followed Jesus to the courtyard of Caiaphas and waited at a distance. This is where Peter denied Jesus three times, just as Jesus had warned him. It is purported that Peter went out a wept (Not in the text); the sorrow of the sin of “not doing” and “not being”.

Our Bible study group studied one of the passages that David Platt uses in book; Luke 14:25-35. Again you can read this for yourself, the essence is counting the cost, choosing to love the Lord more than brothers and sisters, building a tower without calculating the cost whether you can finish it or not, and going to war against a more powerful enemy. David’s conclusion was from verse 33 saying, “So therefore, no one can be My disciple who does not give up all his possessions”. Does Jesus mean this in a true physical sense? Or is He trying to get at your heart? Is he trying to get at “your being” or at “your doing”?

In all of our being and doing, Who’s reputation is at stake? Anyone who undertakes a multi-million dollar building project and can only complete $100,000 worth did not calculate the cost very well and his reputation is ruined. If I say I am a Christian and I love Jesus and I am going to do great things for Him and fall flat on my face, whose reputation is at stake? If I make bad decisions it still reflects on Him.

I thought I was done when I wrote American Dream and the American Gospel. Next I wrote American Dream 2. Then I wrote the paper Aaaaand Their Off. Then I wrote Human Beings. Now with Human Beings 2 about to be finished, I am still in the pursuit of God and His answers for me.

This line of thinking may go on for quite some time, but for now, the summary, not a conclusion, the real conclusion is up to you, is this; I can only take these thoughts and ponderings and musings before the Lord for myself and ask Him, who He wants me to be and then what He wants me to do.

I am wrestling with the Lord on all of this; I think I am beginning to walk with a limp. If any of these writings have moved you, you need to take the information to the Lord and ask Him to reveal Himself and His will for your being and doing. I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
Ron