Serving Rascals, Clumsy Disciples, and Physically and Mentally Ill Believers with the Unconditional Love of Jesus Christ
Happy New Years’ to each and every Brokenbeliever follower! I ask for God’s best blessings and that you would know His love, and then walk in His light.
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:31-32, NIV
1 Timothy 1:12-13, NCV
Coming out and thanking God is a critical way we can grow. Paul thanks God out loud. He has in mind, through a modern metaphor, God as a power plant, providing him with everything he needs. He is now being energized by God, and this infusion enables us to do some amazing things that others consider quite exceptional. (Handling this piece of understanding is critical to fitting into the Kingdom.)
Umbilical cord Christianity is the way Paul seems to view his walk and ministry. He seems himself connected with the Holy Spirit which transforms him and his work. Without this deeply vital connection, Paul becomes open to all kinds of evil and atrocity. It’s fascinating, but we actively expand darkness if we are not attached. We will end up doing all kinds of evil. There are many who can’t see this truth.
In these verses we find another issue–that of forgiveness of self. Paul had an ugly past. He had once been an effective tool in the evil one’s hands. On a logical level, this should taint him completely and irrevocably. Paul was marked to be a wicked presence in the early Church. Everyone knew him and braced themselves against his personal darkness. They all thought that Paul was completely evil.
But in a dramatic moment, Paul is converted to Christ on the Damascus Road. This is a radical shifting in the early Church. Paul points to the mercy that God has, and makes it very clear that God has exclusively arranged and administered this miracle. He points to the Spirit’s work that has intrinsically changed everything. Paul is now completely altered by the Holy Spirit.
Another vital point; it was Jesus Himself who was hurt, when His children were hurt. All of Paul’s viciousness and meanness was really directed against God. We seldom think this way. We may admit sin, but we will rarely view it as against God directly. There is an old Yiddish proverb, “If God had a house, people would come and break His windows”. In my own desperate and personal war against the Almighty, I often strain and strive to strike at His children.
There is an immense mercy and grace for sinners like Saul. And nothing is irrevocable. Grace insists on that. All we can do, is change our mind and our heart (repent). Then, we must tether ourselves, reviving that umbilical cord, and connect to Him our very lives (sanctification). The very presence of Jesus will change everything.
I have a definite sense that there are things in this teaching which are touching hearts. I have very few ways to help you. But I can pray, and hold you up to our Father. Let me know, ok.
My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray
and turned them loose in the mountains.
They have lost their way
and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.
Jer. 50:6
Christians who wander away, or led away away, is a frequent issue with the Lord. It’s hard to watch someone you love go in a way that brings them pain and destruction. It hurts doubly when they get turned in the wrong direction. Jeremiah suggests that there is a personal disobedience as well as a pastoral influence from a shepherd.
Influence from confused shepherds runs rampant through the flock of the Church. Voices speak and men posture themselves to lure the sheep. Programs are always percolating and brought out at an opportune time to develop and maintain a momentum and to give the sense of direction and purpose. This sounds confusing but its not.
The prophet sees and perceives. There is grief and pain in his words. He witnesses of a coming judgement. In our time, the necessity of being ‘pastored‘ has been a less of an issue because of the Holy Spirit’s contact with the believer. We have the Spirit and His presence. Now we can turn towards a superintending understanding of the functioning of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t need our pathetic attempts at pointing out our crudeness and foolishness at the situation.
Jesus Christ loves us, and comes at us through the self-generated issues that could move us to a less then a desirable condition. But our “pastor” is Jesus, He pastors us through our confusion and sin. His heart is looking to us. We are to come to Him, not through a man, but through the presence of God, that envelopes us and adjusts our understanding.
We cannot pretend anymore that our issues of redemption and healing can be understood through anyone else but through the direction of our Lord except Jesus. We do not think that our intervention of a pastor, or healer will bring us any closer. We connect through Jesus. He has made himself the only connection of God and myself.
We dare not trust ourselves when it comes at us through so much. He heals and strengthens through His active and present awareness of us. We must turn from ‘deceptive noise’ and grab ahold of the promises of an authoritative voice. He rules over us with authority, and a loving voice of guidance. He comes to us in a very real and definite way. For He is “one on one” to us in a real recognition to us in our personal connection to the Father.
This needs to become our way that we connect. We rest in His plan. Nothing else will placate. Jesus advances Himself to becoming our Lord and Saviour. We turn to Him to save us, and no one else.
“Almighty Father, Son and Holy Ghost, eternal and ever blessed gracious God; to me the least of saints, to me allow that I should keep a door in paradise. That I may keep the smallest door, the furthermost, the darkest, coldest door, the door which is the least used, the stiffest door. If it so be but in thine house, O God, if so be that I can see thy glory even afar, and hear thy voice, O God, and know that I am with thee, thee O God.”
A Prayer of St. Columba, 521-597 AD
We must travel some distance, before something like this will cling to our hearts. Columba’s journey to the presence of Jesus most certainly gave him a perspective that enabled him to pray with this intensity and this humility. We cannot dissuade ourselves of his effort and his overwhelming desire to be near Him. We can only watch, and mark the zeal which took his heart and soul into the burning presence of His presence. Columba becomes a guide of what is possible and what is to be sought. We must become (if we are in pursuit) a people radically changed by the reality of His presence.
Broken Believers 