Here is a matter that I have been pondering lately: If one asked the "man on the street" what he believes being a Christian is all about, what sort of response would we expect? I suspect that for most who do not subscribe to the Christian religion, their perception would be that Christianity is all about living a good life, trying to do good and trying to not do evil. Even most Christians I have encountered would agree that Jesus calls us to live by a high moral standard, and that being a Christian is all about the attempt, however unsuccessful, of attaining that standard.

But is this the gospel that Jesus left us, that the world would know we are His disciples by how well we live up to His moral standard? Not according to the book of John, and the epistle of John. John quotes Jesus saying, "By this will all men know you are my disciples, that you LOVE one another". In his epistle, John writes, "Beloved, let us LOVE one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is LOVE". I Jn. 4:7-8.

So here we have a message that being a Christian is not so much about what we do, but how we love. If we are manifesting the disinterested Love John is writing about, it is because we know the God from Whom all that love flows, for "God is Love". If we are projecting a "self-righteousness" based on our ability to follow a high moral standard, then we don't know God. 

I am hoping one day to call into existence a Christian community here on Maui. I envision a place where all peoples of all faiths and beliefs can feel safe. No, not because we in any way suggest that Christianity is not exclusively true, for we would suggest that the evidence would point out that it is indeed that. However, we need not project this to the hurting world around us. If we know God, we know unconditional love. We do NOT need to wait until someone agrees with us before we will accept them! Knowing first that we are "accepted in the Beloved", we can naturally extend that grace to others, no matter what they believe. I eagerly await the formation of this community. 

I am pondering the mystery as to why, sometimes, it seems like the devil is able to thwart God's plan for us. Answer: Because he can. I look back at my own life, and recall many promises made to me by the LORD. Not many have come to pass. Why not? God is able to do that which He speaks. God cannot lie. Nevertheless, I never see the fulfillment of the Word. The devil has stolen them. He is a "thief and a liar". This is what he does. Hello, saints, he does NOT want true religion to break out on planet Earth! He will tolerate, even encourage, the shallow mishmash that passes itself off as the Western Church, to be sure. But let a man try to come out of Babylon, and, well, "all Hell breaks loose".

So what? Can Satan actually stop God's Word from coming to pass? Of course not. Daniel's three friends calmly told the king, "No way we're going to bow down to your idol. Our God IS ABLE to deliver us from your plot, but even if He does not, we ain't bowing down". How could they say this? They knew that even in the midst of the fire, God would be there with them, for the one promise we always have is that He will never leave us or forsake us. We might NEVER enter that promised land, but we will ALWAYS have Him with us. When we learn to delight in God's Presence, everything else fades away. The devil can have all that stuff he stole; the greatest Treasure is ours forever.

Have we heard God's promises, spoken to us in the inner place, yet not seen the fulfillment of them? This has been my own experience. Why? I have been "ignorant of the devil's schemes". The truth of the matter is, there is a third party, one that works against me. That is why he is called "the enemy". What God has promised, he is able to steal. This is what he does. If I let him.

So then, what is a winning strategy? How will I defeat him? How will I prevent him from stealing what is rightfully mine? In a word, it is PRAISE. Now I do not praise God for the lack, for the emptiness, for the unfullfillment of His Word to me. Of course not. Yet the enemy's very strategy of stealing indicates he knows very well what the LORD would do through me, and he is absolutely terrified of what would happen. So he steals it. So I PRAISE. Not FOR everything that has happened, but THROUGH everything. "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you".

This is not an end all ticket to anything my heart desires. Indeed, I can not claim what God has not provided for me (but He withholds no good thing from those who are His). What I am talking about is a reclamation project, taking back what I have allowed the devil to steal from me. In this I must persevere. 

Much Afraid is invited by the Chief Shepherd to leave the valley of humiliation and come up to the high places. She thinks herself not worthy, but does accept his invitation. Now she does not yet have the ability to go running up and down the mountains with her Lord, for she must develop the feet of a gazelle. The only way to do this is through holding onto Sorrow and Suffering, her two companions in the journey.

Of course, her relatives in the valley are not pleased that she has chosen to accept the Shepherd's invitation to come up to the high places, so they send Pride to persuade her to come back. She listens to him until he begins to impune the character of the Shepherd, then she cries out for help, and instantly He is with her, giving pride a beating he will not soon forget. 

The second visit comes from Bitterness, Resentment and Self Pity. Much Afraid has been led to a path that follows along the sea of loneliness, and away from the high places. Here is a test: Will she remember the little flower she found at the beginning of her passage into the high places, the flower named Acceptence-with-Joy? The sea of loneliness seems  to go on forever. She seems no closer to the High Places than when she left the valley. All is desert around her. She feels very much alone, and does not see the high places at all. Bitterness suggests to her that the Shepherd has made a mistake, or that He is cruel, and has led her down a path of suffering for no reason. Resentment chimes in, adding that the Shepherd has not delivered on his promise to take her to the high places. And of course, Self Pity is her constant companion.

As long as Much Afraid is focusing on her current situation, and looking for immediate relief, all is lost. There is nothing in her current circumstances that answers her desires. The whole land is covered with crosses. Yet she does remember her friend, the little flower Acceptance-with-Joy. Even though nothing in her experience of suffering and sorrow can suggest it, she nevertheless does accept, with joy, the cross, for she knows her Shepherd, that He is a Man of great character, who does not lead her astray. She is not delivered FROM her outward circumstances. She is delivered THROUGH her suffering and sorrow. 

And so it was with Our Lord. He is baptized in the Spirit, who declares, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" - yet even our Lord was led out into the desert to be tested. After 40 days of fasting, he began to be hungry. Just like Much Afraid, our Lord is in the middle of a desert, and he, too, is visited by Resentment, Bitterness, and Self Pity. The devil suggests to him that if He truly is the Son of God, he could command these stones to become bread, and that was undoubtedly true - but our Lord has "food to eat that ye know not of".  Yes, I am hungry, but I will not use my power to provide for my own needs, for indeed a man shall not live by natural bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Natural bread provides sustanance for the body, but God's daily Word to a man is what gives him supernatural life. Like Much Afaid, our Lord accepts, with joy, the lack of the natural, for He is filled with the supernatural bread. He will not give in to bitterness, resentment or Self Pity because he can see through the current situation. So the devil leaves him "for a more opportune time", looking to the ultimate test of Gethsemene, when Calvary looms, and all of his friends will forsake him. Then He will need the utmost revelation of Glory. When it comes, He will be able to say, "Nevertheless, not my will but Thine".

Application:

I head a radio preacher the other day say something so profound I don't think I will ever forget it: If my "happiness" is found in the conditional future, all is lost. I will not find contentment, no matter what my circumstances. If my "happiness" is found in a desire to go back to the "good old days", all is lost, for they are gone, and they weren't so good as I supposed. The essential key is to embrace the present and to fully accept, with joy, the cross set before me. I don't NEED to see a change in my life before I will be happy, whether that be a new job, a wife, a new house, etc. None of those things are evil, but if my focus is on them, placing my hope for contentment in them, then I will spin around hopelessly forever. But if, by Faith, I accept my cross, and practice gratitude at all times, I will find that "all these things" will matter nothing to me, and that they will be "added unto me" - Matthew 6:33. 

Where is the temple of God? The Babylonian prophets assumed that "He does not dwell among men" - but they found out He did indeed dwell in Daniel. Yet in Daniel's time, the Spirit of the Lord was normally in a temple building. The people of God were commanded to go up to Jerusalem to worship. In fact, it was because they built "high places" elsewhere in Israel that Daniel and his friends were carried away to Babylon in the first place.

Y'shua changed all that. Through his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, those who believe have been given the power to become God's children. Now the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us. Paul tells us we are "the temple of the Holy Ghost". As this is true, we can worship there anytime, any place. 

The pundits are already out in force, claiming they know what caused the Korean student to go on a shooting spree, killing 32 people, and how to prevent it from happening again. "Tougher gun laws" cries one. Another calls for cameras on every corner of campus. "This is just the work of a random madman" writes another.

I would respond that this killing was neither random nor unpredictable. We have always had mentally unstable people, yet until the Columbine massacre, we never heard of anyone taking a gun to school and taking out as many of his classmates as he can. So what has changed? Certainly availability of semi-automatic weapons is a factor, no matter what the NRA says. I doubt this otherwise law abiding kid would have had the "connections" to get a Glock on the street. If it were not legal for him to have such a weapon, he might not have gone to the trouble of finding one illegally. Yet even in a perfect world where it is difficult for maniacs to obtain weapons, one would never be guaranteed the guy next door isn't plotting their demise.

There used to be a common sense of connectedness among Americans. Yes, we were all different, but we knew to whom we belonged. One might murder someone with whom he has no emotional connection, but what cold heart would shoot the friendly neighborhood postman? Rampant "me first" individualism has taken over the ethos of America, and she is just now beginning to pay the price.

The intellectual driving force behind this disconnection is evolutionary social theory. That is, as we are told we are nothing but cosmic accidents, we begin to form a society not around a common ethos, but rather the individual's pursuit of vainglory. And why not? If there is no Creator, there can be no transcendent morality, and behavior that "dehumanizes" men will soon be ubiquitous.

Ironically, two days after the Virginia massacres, the Supreme Court affirmed the partial birth abortion ban passed by Congress back in 2003. I see this as encouraging, but little more than a band-aid on our wounded soul. Yes, the conservative Christians were able to re-elect President Bush, and as a direct result, the Supreme Court was able to chip away at abortion. This decision does nothing the heal the cold-hearted individualism that has taken over America, the attitude that makes both the Virginia tragedy and Roe v. Wade possible.

Who knows? Perhaps we will yet turn our hearts away from ourselves, and return to the God our forefathers worshiped. I don't know what it will take. Even the 911 disaster was only a bump in the road down the materialist path, a path that the "religious right" have unfortunately taken the lead in America. I have no idea what will shake us off that path. Is our fate sealed?

What happened in the Garden of Eden? What was the fall of man?

Adam and Eve did not, until the fall, have a sense of right or wrong; this belonged to God alone. 

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;"but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16 and 17.

Of course, Adam DID eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he did not, that day, physically die. From this we would conclude that there was something else that died when Adam decided he wanted to know right from wrong. When he was created, Adam was one in spirit with God: His life was the life of the Creator, flowing through him. 

We would wonder if Adam had no moral conscience, how then did he always do right, and not sin? It's one thing if a man can see where he is going, and is on a very dangerous path. He might well fall, but at least he has a chance. Yet Adam lived for an unspecified amount of time without sinning, even though he had no idea of right and wrong. How? Simply by keeping a relationship with his Creator. Adam was for sure "blind" to knowing good and evil, but there was another Tree in the Garden, and from that tree he freely ate of Life.

Well, along comes B. Al Zebub, AAL, esquire. He beguiles Eve with a half truth: If you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall be as god, knowing right from wrong. Presumably there would have been no temptation if Eve had known the whole truth: Yes, she would know right from wrong, but, as an independent moral being, she would NOT be able to choose the right and not choose the wrong. So she chooses to eat of the fruit, and Adam passively goes along with it. And that day, Adam's spirit, through which he had fellowship with his Creator, died.

Can he get it back? No. Dead is as dead does. Fellowship has been broken, and no manner of religion is ever going to put it back. If there will be restoration, the Creator Himself will provide it.

15  And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Genesis 3:15

Amen and Amen.