“Let us stop just saying we love each other.”
1 John 3:18
From my Journal 2005
Best to start this story from the beginning @ "Travel Lines-1:Self Train Line-Derailed"
Oil and water—you know they don’t mix. Repelled by each other, unless you shake them together, oil and water will separate.
A dear Brother in Christ provided me with an explanation of God’s will and a descriptive paradigm for resuming a walk towards and on His Perfect Will. My discussion with him regarding God’s will has prompted numerous meditation moments with God where I have asked Him to clarify His will versus my will as I looked back on my experiences—living in the Spirit or in the flesh or a mixture of the two—cloudy like an emulsion of oil and water.1
Water represents life
Water represents live, and without it, all living matter dies. Jesus metaphorically made this point to the Samaritan woman at the well when he replied to her, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”2 Jesus referred to the water from the well when he replied again to her questions, “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”3
If you consider oil representing the flesh—the works of our Self—and water representing the Spirit—the perpetual spring within us, what happens when you mix the two? Try this experiment in the kitchen: You’ll need two small drinking glasses, a bottle of cooking oil and tap water. Place an empty glass in the sink and completely fill it with cooking oil. Partially fill the other glass with tap water. Slowly pour the water into the glass with oil. What happens? The water displaces the oil pushing it out of the vessel. When we drink living water—when we accept Christ as Savior—we are filled with God’s Spirit which begins to push out the impurities in our lives—the oil—and we become a new creation when our mind, soul, and spirit transform to the mind, soul, and spirit of Christ.4 It is in this transformation that we come to know and live the Perfect Will of God.
Two people locked in an impasse
Neither one of us would budge from our individual position. I sought counsel from a Brother in Christ and my pastor, and I concluded from their perception and advice that my position was not wrong and that she should end the impasse by correcting the wrong. Throughout the weeks since the wrong occurred, I sought God’s counsel on whether I should take any action. At each opportunity I faced to give in to her demands—to be manipulated—or to rectify the situation without her knowledge—to be sly, cunning and deceiving—I felt God shielding me from action—either explaining why I should wait or removing my desire to act. “Let her be the one to realize what she should do,” I would hear when I contemplated a move to take matters into my own hands.
After several weeks of waiting, the issue resurfaced, and I responded impulsively—from the flesh. However, my cause was to take a stand and force the issue into the open—involving the Brother with whom I sought counsel—and requiring resolution according to what was deemed right—by this Brother or an elder or our pastor. My question to God was, “Although I acted from the flesh—it certainly looked and sounded like it—could any part of my actions be according to Your will?”
I was reminded of apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome where he writes about the resource of the Holy Spirit we have within us to cope with problems5 and that God works in everything for our good:6
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.7
I love God
I indeed love God, and I have responded to the Holy Spirit’s calling to receive Christ as my Savior. I strive to obey God’s guidance and commands, to put into practice all that the Holy Spirit teaches me and to do as the apostle John prescribes, “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn’t difficult.”8 If obeying Christ becomes a burden, then we aren’t carrying out His ways with our love for Him. If His ways seem insurmountable, we can accomplish them through His power to lighten our load:
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”9
The burden of sin in our lives and the wearisome search for God is lifted when we accept Christ as Savior, which then fosters a relationship with God that can take hopeless circumstances and situations beyond our control to create “spiritual productivity and purpose.”10
I continued to ask God, “Was my objective—the intent of my behavior—according to your will?” I was troubled by the words and actions I heard as I pictured what she would say and do as a result of my stand to make the situation right—to expose the continued practice of the wrong. I felt the accusations even before I encountered them. Apostle John provides guidance regarding the source of the accusations versus the strength of His assurance:
It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.11
I examined my actions, and although I was “right” in principle, I began to feel that I was “wrong” in my behavior. Were my actions with God’s timing? Where my words God’s choice in communication? Was my attitude reflecting the image of Christ? No, no, and no! I was busted. The conviction hit me suddenly when I again read the first part of John’s paragraph:
Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.12
Loving as God loves
I was convicted that my actions were not loving, and although Jesus overturned tables in the Temple to drive out those who turned it into a “den of thieves,”13 Jesus did not do it with a fleshly attitude—a selfish objective reflected by unacceptable words, tone, and timbre—nor with aggressive actions to incite the merchants to respond to Him in a like manner. The next verse of Scripture following the bland description of Jesus’ behavior does not say, “And then a riot took place with Jesus fleeing the scene to escape their wrath.” No, the apostle Matthew continues with, “The blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them there in the Temple.”14 A far cry from inciting a riot. Sounds rather peaceful to me: People gathering around Jesus as he performed miraculous healing while children played in the background. People came to Jesus as a follow-up to Jesus driving out the merchants and their customers, knocking over tables and stalls. Healing was found in the Lamb of God, not in sacrificial doves. Not everyone remaining to watch Jesus perform miracles was impressed, though, “The leading priests and the teachers of the religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the little children in the Temple shouting, ‘Praise God for the Son of David.’ But they were indignant.”15
During Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount—a divine and profound collection of teachings that amazed the crowds that gathered on the mountainside - Jesus "taught as one who had real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”16 Jesus taught about affecting others with goodness—like salt flavors food—and to “let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”17
Humility opened my eyes
I was humbled. My righteous reasons for inciting a ruckus with her boiled down to a selfish motive to respond in the flesh to force an issue to be resolved under my terms. Would an unbiased bystander observing my behavior towards her—although she initiated the confrontation with a question that incited strife—praise God for my conduct? Another resounding, “No!”
This is where the “guilt trip” came into play. I then shifted the burden of responsibility for peacemaking to me, the head of the household, and realized that Christ, the Head of all Believers, provides a pure example of the Prince of Peace18 who taught: “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called children of God.”19 Peacemaking, as its name implies, requires a continued, active effort on our part regardless of the difficulty of the issue or the people involved. This may seem burdensome—to make peace in the face of strife—but it is what God commands, and if we do it out of love for Him, we can find a higher, spiritual purpose for making peace—we become one with Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Reflecting back on the accusations of my conscience, I realized and acknowledged my wrongful behavior, and I humbly prayed,
O God, my pride at times is so thick my eyes can’t see through to your Son’s image—the behavior I am to model because of my love for You—that I act on my selfish feelings, the wickedness of my heart. You know my heart—praying for peace and reconciliation—but I become impatient, wanting the impasse to be over. Although You told me to wait on You, I responded to strife with strife.20 Cleanse my heart of any bitterness and help me to truly forgive, forget, and forfeit—to let go of the wrongs against me, to forget the pain of the past and to put others’ needs before my own. Forgive me, Lord, for I sincerely repent of my selfish behavior. In Jesus Name, Amen.
I then continued reading John’s pastoral letter to all Believers:
Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.21
It starts with your name
Reading the Bible notes, “In the Bible, a person’s name stands for his or her character. It represents who he or she really is.”22 Jesus has these royal names: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.23
Hello, my name is Jeff—the meaning of my name is the peacemaker! Strike two. I was busted again! God gave my mom and dad a name to represent my character, and I was blowing it! As I meditated on my failure to live up to my name, I realized that God may not have gifted me with abilities to sow peace, but rather, my primary representation to others—my role and responsibility—is to make peace and that I must work for peace.24 To be called “Children of God” we must live up to the name—working for peace. To be called Jeff—peacemaker—I must live up to my name.
Fruit or vegetables?
We are what we represent in our behavior. Is it strife or peace? “Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that it produces,” Jesus on the mountainside continued with His teachings about fruit in people’s lives.25 I was not producing the type of fruit represented by the seed that God planted. I sought counsel from Jesus’ explanation of the Parables of the Four Soils and saw the soil that I represented—rocky—and then understood why my tenacious study of God’s Word was not establishing deep roots:
The rocky soil represents those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep. At first they get along fine, but they wilt as soon as they have problems or are persecuted because they believe the word.26
Milk or meat?
The depth of a person’s roots is dependent upon the extent—number of times and duration of the experience—to which he or she puts God’s word into practice. The writer of the letter to the Hebrew Christians refers to those who have “trained themselves,”—those who are sufficiently mature to “eat solid food”—practicing God’s ways in their daily life, teaching others, and setting an example of Godly behavior:
You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right.27
The Giants in the World Series
Strike three! Busted again, and I felt destined for the bench—sitting out this “world series” of battles with the “Giants” of temptation.28 Growing roots sufficiently deep to withstand the problems and persecutions we face requires us to contend for our faith in Christ Jesus. We must stand firm on the foundation Christ provided with His atonement—substituting His crucifixion for our lives.29 We must understand that our battle is not with each other but with the spiritual realm of evil:
For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against spirits in the heavenly realms.30
Consequently, we must prepare ourselves daily to “let our good deeds shine out for all to see”31 by using “every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm.”32
Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.33
My battle is not with another person. My battle is against the temptation to take matters into my own hands when I respond to the strife presented by the enemy with the weakness of my strength rather than the divine power of God’s Spirit.
Am I benched with three strikes? How do I resolve the accusations of my conscience beyond seeking God’s forgiveness and the forgiveness from the person I have offended? Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.34 Reading the Bible notes helped me to put three strikes into the perspective of God’s eyes:
Many are afraid that they don’t love others as they should. They feel guilty because they think they are not doing enough to show proper love to Christ. Their consciences bother them. How do we escape the gnawing accusations of our consciences? Not by ignoring them or rationalizing our behavior but by setting our heart on God’s love. When we feel guilty, we should remind ourselves that God knows our motives as well as our actions. His voice of assurance is stronger than the accusing voice of our conscience. If we are in Christ, he will not condemn us. So if you are living for the Lord but feeling that you are not good enough, remind yourself that God is greater than your conscience.35
Apostle Paul describes the assurance we have from God as believers in His Son, Jesus, for our salvation:
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.36
Living water quenches thirst
My behavior was wrong, but I realized this after I searched for God’s own heart, and in His heart I found wisdom, as pure as the living water that quenches the thirst for understanding, wisdom that defines the Perfect Will of God. I’m not on the bench for playing out the “world series” either; rather, I am reminded to put on the uniform of the team for which I play—Children of God.
If you are wise and understand God’s ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise! But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, don’t brag about being wise. That is the worst kind of lie. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and motivated by the Devil. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.37
—James, brother of the Prince of Peace
As the Spirit Airline took off from its foundation of goodness, little did I know that the next destination would be the beginning of an eternal journey.
Next—The Spirit Airline: Healed…”What is faith?”
Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me.
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2016 Stellar Rhema Ministry, Jeff Cambridge
References
All Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
1. MM oil and water
2. John 4:10
3. John 4:13-14
4. Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 5:17
5. Romans 8:26,27 Bible notes
6. Romans 8:28 Bible notes
7. Romans 8:26-28 italics added
8. 1 John 5:3
9. Matthew 11:28-30
10. Matthew 11:28-30 Bible notes
11. 1 John 3:19-20 italics added
12. 1 John 3:18
13. Matthew 21:12-13
14. Matthew 21:14
15. Matthew 21:15
16. Matthew 5:1, 7:28
17. Matthew 5:13-16
18. Isaiah 9:6
19. Matthew 5:9
20. MM Peace, responding to strife with strife
21. 1 John 3:21-23 italics added
22. 1 John 3:23 Bible notes
23. Isaiah 9:6
24. Matthew 5:9
25. Matthew 7:20
26. Matthew 13:21-21
27. Hebrews 5:12-14 italics added
28. MM Seven Giants
29. Romans 3:25, 8:1-4, Hebrews 2:17, 9:14-15, MM Stand firm
30. Ephesians 6:12
31. Matthew 5:16
32. Ephesians 6:13
33. Ephesians 6:14-18
34. 1 John 3:20
35. 1 John 3:19, 20 Bible notes NLT, italics added
36. Romans 8:1-4
37. James 3:13-18
37. James 3:13-18
No comments:
Post a Comment