The Rubber Reality

One of the biggest blessings and one of the greatest difficulties of the Christian experience is "The Rubber Reality." What is the Rubber Reality? you ask. Well, in a word, it is that reality which comes from the discovery process initiated by our faith. The Rubber Reality always occurs when the smallness of humanity meets the bigness of God.

For example, consider the record of the Old Testament. During the Jewish Exodus, when the departing Israelites became blocked in their journey by the Red Sea as they fled from Egypt, the normal concrete reality would say, "Oops, this is an impossible situation. We simply have no way to cross this large body of water." But the rubber reality of faith created an entirely different scenario as God miraculously parted the sea and the Israelites crossed.

Again, as is related in the New Testament, if you go to a wedding in Cana of Galilee, as Jesus did, and the Host runs out of wine, the concrete reality would simply say, "Oops, here comes a big-time embarrassment." Yet, the rubber reality of faith created a much better and more insigtful perspective when Jesus turned water into wine.

And one more example of this elastic reality would be when Jesus attended the funeral of Lazarus. In the normal reality, we would normally think that we had just bumped into the most concrete of all realities - death. But, in fact, even this reality became stretchy when God touched it and Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Thus, there is the more concrete reality which we can easily self-interpret.  And there is the rubber reality of faith where we are always playing catch-up to God's reinterpretation of the facts. 

So, this Rubber Reality of faith is much more challenging, unpredictable, and thus, more disconcerting.  Nevertheless, it is only this reality which ultimately leads to the higher levels of one's God encounter.

Indeed, the Rubber Reality is this more uncertain existence where, our faith makes us not quite so sure of the interpretation of the facts - at least at first. It is a reality in which we are often left wondering what God might be up to in a given circumstance.  So, we hesitate to interpret events while we wonder where He might be taking us. 

That's why so many seek to put God in their little logic boxes. It makes Him much more predictable, and saves them the stress of that stretchy kind of reality. 

Normal human logic is always subject to challenge in the reality that faith creates; and people intuitively know that. And, it scares them. And besides, the rubber reality gets in the way of our own, preferred interpretations of life's circumstances.

So, rather than endure all of this uncertainty, many would simply prefer to define and predict God's actions with little simplistic cliché's: "God will never ask us to..." or "God will always..." It is basically the same escape mechanism as a logic box. But, in the rubber reality, to our chagrin, our cliché's don't work on bit better than those little boxes.

So, what is this faith reality all about. Very simply, the Faith Reality is about discovery.

It is about risking ourselves to not only to what God wants to do, but to who God is. It is about exploring His purposes to, ultimately, come to intimately know Him and ourselves - and to know who the two of us are together. And all of this discovery is simply to enable strong, and fulfilling, and durable relational bond between us.

This all makes perfect sense when we remember that, at the end of the day, redemption is really about relationship, about creating a truly durable and viable friendship with God. And, to be sure, such lofty aspirations could never be satisfied by using logic boxes. 

In the Greek language of the New Testament, there is a word: Ginosco, which means "a deep and intimate knowing." This is the word that Jesus used in Matthew, chapter 7, where He predicts that He will say to some at the judgment, who are mistaken about their salvation, "Depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew [ginosco] you." [Brackets added] 

The idea here is that they failed in the judgment because they failed to develop an intimate relationship with God. The rubber reality is all about finding and experiencing that living relationship through a challenging daily give-and-take. And that is why God employs it.

And, in fact, it is true that this less predictable faith reality sometimes brings us miracles. It is also equally true that it sometimes brings us perplexity and frustration. But the good news is - it always brings us God.

As we are forced to pick our way through this unfamiliar reality of God's larger and more mysterious purposes, his divine providence, His "higher" ways, we come to know him on a much deeper level. And, somewhere along the way, as we work through the twists and turns of this elastic reality where faith lives, we stop being spiritual children. We start to understand God - the way He really is and we start to reflect Him in our own character.

As this faith process works, we also stop knowing only what we have been told; and we start knowing what we have personally discovered - first hand. And all of a sudden, God is no longer an entirely mysterious God who lives somewhere off in the distance.  Rather, He becomes the God close up and very familiar. And so, through this faith reality, a living relationship and a true God awareness is ultimately created.

When you think about it, love and relationship, as basic ideas, are not really very complicated. But, both of these ideas, as we actually live them out, always require us to become more invested and more sophisticated in our thinking.

Whether we are talking about husbands and wives, parents and children, or God and the faithful, love and relationship will always call us to new levels of sophistication in our understanding of others. The first time my wife cried after we were married, I started to realize that I had to understand and respond to her differently than I originally thought or risk hurting her through my insensitivity. 

That same dynamic exists in every important relationship.  So, God's way of fanning the flames of this relational growth process is simply to ask us to enter this stretchy reality of faith where he can pose questions that do not have immediate answers. Where circumstances are not always what they seem. Where facts and projections are not so clear cut. 

Indeed, all of this is necessary to stimulate us to search out God's perspective and get beyond merely our own. It is a place where all that we know and are, will be pitted against all that God is and wants us to be.

The Rubber Reality - only the truly faithful walk there for any length of time. And while that reality sometimes makes temporary fools of us, tries our patience, and underscores our limitations - it is the real pathway to God. And when we have successfully navigated this elastic road under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will see clearly, its value. We will truly know God; and we will be intimately known of Him.

It really just comes to this.  The believer has no greater security than an intimate friendship with God that has found its way beyond delusion to a true maturity.  But, before our friendship with Him can become mature - it must endure the stretching for a season.

Pop Preachers, Gotta' Love 'Em

As I begin to write this commentary, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are coming to a close. It is the conclusion of a very long involvement for most of the athletes who have been competing. For them, the process actually began long before the games started.

It goes something like this. The initial invitation to "try out" for the Olympic Games is extended to all athletes who are interested. The Olympic opportunity is open to anyone; but the invitation comes with no guarantees; and the athletes know this, going in. 

They clearly understand that the final selection of athletes to actually attend the games will be based only on performance. If they want to go, they gotta' be good. And so, they seek to excel. And if they do, they get an all expense paid trip to "The Big Game."

Typically, we understand the necessity and appropriateness of this selective process regarding Olympic athletes. For them, it all makes perfect sense. But what sometimes escapes us is that, in the most significant ways, redemption is a like process.

If we look at redemption through the "lens" of the Olympics, we get a very accurate picture of how salvation really works. In fact, it is a much more accurate view than the "whoo doo" (OK - I made that word up), pick-and-choose mess that "pop preaching" and "pop preachers" have left us with, over the last century. Their "pop gospel" is really no more than a shallow "cliché " that dangerously over simplifies the real redemptive requirement.

So, let's just walk through the process and notice the similarities of the Olympic and Divine operations. First, the idea of "going out" for the team. Anybody can do it regarding the Olympics. And anybody can do it regarding Heaven. We are all afforded the opportunity to try for the prize. Thus, 2nd Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

In the authentic redemptive process, the "try out" for Heaven is the opportunity that Christ affords us through His Cross. And, contrary to the pop preacher, that opportunity comes with no guarantees, exactly as in the Olympics. We must merit divine selection by successfully answering the divine performance requirements. Just like the athletes, if we want to go to the "big game," we gotta' measure up.

After the pop-preacher finishes his gasp, let's look at Matthew 3:1 as good confirmation of this reality. Matthew writes, "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!'... (v.5) Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. 

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, 'Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'"

So, no guarantees, no free passes - even in Christ. Ultimately, the deal is - you gotta' qualify to go. And according to John, that qualification involves being personally fruitful. 

Jesus, Himself, confirms this in John, 15:1 and following. There He says, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

So, the plain truth - the pop preachers got it wrong. In their overly simplified gospel, to go out for the team is the same as making the team. It is just kind of an automatic deal with them. 

But, in fact, embracing Christ affords us the opportunity to succeed in the redemptive process. It does not provide us an automatic success. The truth is, we are absolutely on the hook to bear fruit - or be "cut."

What kind of fruit? Well, it's what the Apostle Paul calls "The Fruit of the Spirit." It is, in plain terms, a "character fruit," which is produced as a result of our personal Spiritual merger with the living Spirit Christ. 

Paul gives us a very clear reference to this character fruit in Galatians 5:22 where he says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." 

I know. The pop preacher didn't mention this. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure he even knows about this. He tends to stick with just the Cross, forgiveness, and the Dying Christ - that is, after all,  the simple part - and the popular part. 

And, I don't think the pop-preachers are even aware of the more sophisticated spiritual realities which stem from the Resurrection and the Living Christ. It seems entirely foreign to them that the Living Christ might actually play a transformative role in the here-and-now. They just don't seem to get that the Living Christ empowers a fruitful transformation of the believer's character. But, that's what pop preachers are good for - leavin' out the really important stuff.

So Christ, by His Cross, affords all of us the opportunity to pursue salvation. But, as with the Olympians, it is a serious pursuit involving a serious, no-nonsense selection process.  But if we choose to pursue the prize of God's Heaven and eternal life, we then enter a phase of redemption where the choices no longer lie with us, but with Christ.

In this phase, as in the Olympics, all that matters is the performance requirement. And Christ will make his choice as to who will "go" and who will "stay home" based only in that real requirement. 

This is why He would say on one occasion, (John 15:16), "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained [fixed or established] you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain..." [Definition bracket added] 

So, it's up to us to make the first choice, to go out for the team or not.  But, Christ makes the final choice, the selection choice, based entirely on His performance requirements.

So, let's update. Once Christ affords us the opportunity of salvation by His Cross, He goes even further. As a direct benefit of His Resurrection, the Living Christ is then able to empower us to meet the performance requirement - fruit bearing - through a personal merger with the believer, what the Church calls "the Spiritual Baptism." 

This stand alone event is literally our integration into His divine nature; the energies of which, then enable the believer to produce this godly character fruit. Peter puts it this way (2 Peter 1:3) "...by which, have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature..."

And then finally, after enabling us to meet the divine performance requirement through this Spiritual integration with Him, Christ then ultimately chooses us for Heaven.   And that choice is entirely based in the real character fruit that we have born in His divine energies. 

Sweet success! And it's all Christ!

I know - all of this is a little more complicated than the pop preacher may have lead you to believe. But that is because his overriding desire is to keep it simple and stay, well, popular. 

However, if you listen to Jesus, He makes it very clear that we are involved in a serious and stringent selection process. And not unlike the Olympics, it is absolutely based in a very real performance criteria. In Matthew 20:16 Jesus says, "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." 

Here, then, is the succinct version. God is in a selecting process for His Heaven. And though the opportunity to attempt Heaven is open to all in Christ; yet, to attempt it is one thing, - to make it - quite another. For us to choose God is one thing. For God to choose us is quite another.

So, here is the reality that scares the pop preacher half to death. At the end, God will only find those qualified for His Heaven who have experienced the Spiritual merger with the Living Christ. The reason? Because it is only they who have tapped into His divine faith and energy to effect a profound transformation of the heart, yielding the true character fruit of the Christ essence within.

Not as simplistic as the pop preacher said? Maybe not. But you might want to consider the source.

Here is the bottom line: It is imperative that we get beyond the simplistic ideas of pop preaching and seek the baptism of the Spirit. To do so is to seriously and passionately pursue a personal integration with the risen and Living Christ. 

And, to seriously seek a personal merger with the Living Christ is to stop presuming that this Spiritual integration is an automatic to conversion.  This Spiritual merger is not merely an innate and a mostly imperceptible part of the "redemptive package."

Indeed, this mysterious New Testament appointment is a dramatic, stand alone event, just as it was in the beginning (Luke, chapter 2), that awaits every believer. It is to be sought after and experienced, as a unique and indispensable necessity to our ultimate spiritual success (Romans 8:7-9). 

So, the idea is to pursue, find, and embrace this divine empowerment with the passion of a "Spiritual Olympian." Why? Because a life literally lived in the vitality of the resurrected Christ is ultimately our only real ticket to The Big Game.

*****
Oh, and don't worry. I'm sending out a memo to the pop preachers. It reads, "Yes guys, there is a personal performance requirement for salvation. But don't panic. Jesus has it covered. I'll meet you at the empty tomb, and we'll go over the details."

Choose Your Ride

OK, so here's the simple view of how it breaks down in America when it comes to the Protestant religious ride. There are many dealerships; but there are essentially only two brands of vehicles. Most everybody drives one of these two vehicles as their chosen means of transportation to Heaven. The first is the Salvation Chevy. It is unquestionably the top seller of the two redemptive vehicles.

The engine which powers the Chevy is the Forgiveness Engine. It is a single fuel engine which draws its energy solely from the power of the Cross. And this engine is powerful. It is the stand out feature of the Salvation Chevy. And, if you just sign on for the basic Chevy package, the engine is about all you get as a standard feature, but the good news - it comes with a no-questions-asked, lifetime warranty.

However, there is a Performance Package Option that you can also choose for your Salvation Chevy - at some additional cost. You can choose to add the Lifestyle Upgrade, the Spiritual Sensitivity Package, the Premium Visibility Option, and Daily On Star. But, these options do come with a price. They will definitely set you back a bit in terms of time, energy, and resource investment.  Nevertheless, this marketing plan does allow the Salvation Chevy people to live up to their catchy theme song:  "Drive it your way."

But remember, these are options on the Chevy. They are strictly up to you. And, according to Chevy's color glossy brochure, whether you choose them, or whether you don't, you will still have that unbelievably powerful Forgiveness Engine and the iron clad, Lifetime Warranty that comes with it.

The other ride that you might choose for your trip to Heaven is the Ford Redemption. Ford, a distant number two in sales in America, has taken a more daring approach. The Ford ride is a hybrid, driven by two engine components: Forgiveness and Character Renewal. So, the Ford ride draws its power from both the Cross and the Resurrection.

Admittedly the Ford design is more complex than the Chevy model.  But, its performance is truly phenomenal. It is absolutely life changing to experience this ride.  It will take you to the extreme limits of the performance envelope.  Far Driver Magazine put it this way. "It presses you back in your seat and takes you breathlessly through the apathy barrier. And, when you come out the other side, you are truly changed."

The Ford marketing plan is different too. It has quite a few more standard features, and fewer options. For example, the Ford Redemption comes with all of the Chevy performance options as part of its standard package.  It would seem that the Ford people are also interested in measuring up to their motto: "Performance Always Matters."

So, there you have it - the two main Protestant religious rides in America. Both, attractive vehicles in their own way. And, both brands have a unique marketing plan. All that remains is the choice. And that, of course, is entirely up to the buyer.  

 But, if you are a prospective buyer, do choose carefully. The rode to Heaven is a long and challenging one.  You will need a vehicle which can truly stand up to the riggers of that trip.  And, to be sure, not all rides are equal, no matter what the color glossy brochures say.

Sometimes, great insight comes as basic truth in an unexpected form. -LB

What A Difference A Thousand Years Can Make

The Bible tells us of the last period in world history when Jesus will establish a 1000 year political reign over the earth. It will be His benevolent monarchy which finally brings peace and prosperity to the whole planet. In my own musings, I have sometimes  wondered why Christ would even bother. What's the point.

But, in fact, I have come to see that there really is a point. It is to vindicate three things: His identity, His truth, and His redemptive vision for humanity. It will be a time when Christ will prove empirically that all of His overtures to mankind were true, correct, and good.

Think about it. Even at this very moment, the human species remains little more than an eyelash away from crumbling into world chaos, or even worse, self annihilation.  And, indeed, we have never really been able to put any significant distance between ourselves and our own large scale vulnerabilities. 

And, that reality has only been made worse by our modern technologies.  For all of their worth, yet those technologies have also sometimes convoluted and made all the more imminent those threats.

Consider some of the more important things which chronically threaten us as a species.  For example, religious and political Militancy's are a long running and all too familiar trouble. From the Crusades, to the Catholic Inquisition, to Hitler, to Stalin, to present day elitist ideologues, to Islamic extremists, these arrogant servants of the Darkness have deemed it their right to prescribe bloody paths of change for the rest of us - whether we like it or not. 

So, repeatedly, these intrusive and violent would-be overlords have forced the world to the consequences of their wishes. And, always, the cost is the same.  It is our blood and our children. A huge "death penalty" is always the immutable attachment of their heartless fanaticism.

And then, there is the enemy within.  It is that inbred, "Universal Human Flaw" which we brought on ourselves in the Garden of Eden. It is the "Me Complex." 

 The basic idea flowing out of this complex is simple.  It is this.   "Everything starts and ends with me. So, the benefit must always flow in my direction."  And, this ugly character stain has now ingrained itself in individuals and nations alike to threaten and undermine every corporate human endeavor.

I recently read a disturbing story of how the French have, for years, been draining away the economic vitality out of Haiti. And yet, the French efforts to relieve the present Haitian needs are embarrassingly small. 

So, again, from French colonialism, to the war lords of Somalia, to the presidents of Syria, and Iran, and Venezuela, there is no want of a truly big screen picture of this universal character flaw which constantly produces vast human suffering.

And finally, there are the "Masking Counterfeits." To be sure, there is an exquisite divine truth available to our world which leads to a deeply fulfilling life experience. But, the problem is, it is set in a vast "house of mirrors," hidden among a thousands distorted and twisted images which all brazenly call themselves - "the truth."   

To be sure, there absolutely is a true way to a true God and a truly superlative life to be lived in league with Him. But, to find and experience this true way requires one to successfully sort through all of the lies - truly a task requiring no small effort.  Thus, this vast myriad of bogus values and ideas serves to widely insulate the world from the divine truth, the singularly authentic truth.

Nevertheless, the Living Jesus has, for a long time now, offered, to all those who are willing, the remedy for all of these things which chronically plague our species: the blood thirsty Militants, the "Me Complex," and the lies of "Counterfeit Truth." And, that simple remedy is His enlightened and loving, daily guidance in our heart. 

And, in His thousand year reign over the earth, Christ will bring that guidance to the whole world resulting in social peace and enduring prosperity. And, in doing so, He will entirely vindicate the divine truth. And, Christ, Himself, will be irrefutably confirmed as the unique and singular Savior of the world.

And, when that happens, I hope there will be some glorious messenger, whether angel or saint, who will stand to his feet upon some high and well televised pinnacle of the world.  And, as he confidently cups his hands to his mouth, he will then absolutely thunder to all who doubted the efficacy of Christ, "SEE - I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

 Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - The Apostle Paul. 

The Ugly Gospel

The Gospel that saved my own soul, and that of so many others, had what might be called, An Ugly Side. In other words, it had a dimension composed of things which simply did not fit well into my initial idea of a Beautiful Gospel.


I much preferred that idyllic Beautiful Gospel, of course.  It was a Gospel that I could easily appreciate, a Gospel of forgiveness, and grace, and compassion, and God's unconditional love. But nevertheless, I could not seem to escape those relentless intrusions from that Ugly Side.

For example, when I first encountered Christ through that more pleasant Gospel, the Ugly Gospel insisted that I take the time to actually survey and acknowledge the darkness of my own heart.  What bitter pill to swallow. 

Nevertheless, I was pressed by this more unpleasant Gospel to confront the real depths of my inner darkness. I didn't really like that process. But, as I looked, I was very humbled (the whole purpose of the exercise) to discover that, indeed, my inner darkness actually did run much deeper than I ever knew before.  

It was also this Ugly Gospel which brazenly declared that I could no longer be in charge.  I had interpreted the Beautiful Gospel to be merely a kind of do-over opportunity where my life schemes would now become God-blessed, and thus, much more successful.  

But, the Ugly Gospel was quite insistent on a complete reinterpretation of that childish thinking. That Ugly Gospel clearly stated that the way forward was not at all about my plans, but all about God's plans for me.  It presented as NON-NEGOTIABLE, the idea that I must be wholeheartedly willing to embrace, not only God's directions for my life, but also the entirety of His value system.  

Now, I ask you, what human being would ever want to give up their personal sovereignty in this way? Who would ever be willing to surrender their schemes, and their dreams, and their personal destiny to someone else - even to God? 

Well, wait. I guess, I would. Because, I did.  And really, now, it doesn't even seem like much of a thing - especially when you  consider how messed up my life was and what I got in return.  

I guess it was also the Ugly Gospel which demanded that I recognize my own limitations and my very real vulnerabilities (that humbling thing again). It was the pressure of that Gospel which helped me to finally take a realistic view of life. 

And, being forced to face up to my own frailties helped me to really see the overwhelming complexity of life's treacheries and just how vicious and heartless its randomness can be. And, that, in turn, helped me to see my own absolute inability to face up to and manage life's challenges without God's help. 

And, in truth, I guess it was also the Ugly Gospel which helped fashion my new idea of what I wanted for an outcome to my personal story.  Under the press of that Gospels larger view of things, I was able to see that what I really wanted and needed was a destiny which truly got beyond just the small, now stuff to the big, eternal stuff.  

But, when you wrap it all up in a sentence, what the Ugly Gospel ultimately taught me is this:  The way up is down. The way to rise is to truly bow in thorough humility before God. 

But, what a wonderful surprise to find complete victory and fulfillment through that humiliation.  To be sure, the process of my humiliation did seemed kind of harsh and unattractive at first - but now - not so much.

Now, after a million conversations, tender moments, and profound insights; after debating the issues, crying together, laughing together, and sorting through the complexities of life - I have now confirmed that it is true! A very durable and deeply fulfilling friendship with God does, indeed, grow out of this Ugly Gospel Process.  

So, by now, you probably see my dilemma. My Ugly Gospel is all mixed up with my Beautiful Gospel. And now, I can no longer tell the difference between the two. What is a boy to do?

The Ending

How do we keep the affairs of this life in check? How do we hold to the godly priority which the Apostle Paul gives us in Romans, chapter 2, where he says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

How can we insure that our immersion in this physical / material world will not rob us of the pilgrimage attitude that the Hebrew writer speaks of regarding people of faith when he says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland."

How can we be sure that the divine imperative of Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." will not fade under the long abrasions of a busy life which demands so much?

Well, there are ways. There are some that you would probably expect me to mention: staying in the Word of God, maintaining the good habit of going to "the Garden," and remaining involved in the Church. 

But, beyond those things, I think one of the most effective ways to stay consistently motivated in Christ is simply to occasionally revisit, with some focus and intensity, the seriousness which surrounds the outcome of the human soul.  When it comes to the destiny of our soul, it really helps to regularly reconfirm to our self, this simple imperative: "I must not mess this up!"  

Indeed, there are no do-overs when it comes to our ultimate end.  So we dare not let the Devil, or stupidity, or ignorance, or laziness, or bad theology, or any other thing keep us from our own true success story in Christ.

We must not inadvertently insulate ourselves from authentic truth with a bunch of half-baked, cobbled together, sound-good religious clichés. We must not excuse ourselves. We must not delude ourselves. And we must not be distracted by the siren song of the material attractions that are all around us. 

So, it really helps to occasionally focus on the importance of how our personal story will end.  And, it helps to remember that we are really only here to write that ending.

And, regarding this occasional reality check, here is what we know. We know (at least some in our species do) that God has given us a revelation of redemptive truth in Jesus Christ. And, indeed, He has taken a long time and extended great care to show us the correct redemptive path through Christ. But, we also know that this true path has become shrouded in confusion.

For various reasons and motives, human beings often misinterpret the redemptive truth or ignore it altogether. And when you add to those mistakes, the adversary's half truths and outright lies that have been inserted into the mix of our religious thought life, honestly, it's no wonder so many have trouble writing a successful ending to their story.

Nevertheless, it remains a fact of reality.  A large part of the responsibility for sorting out this informational mess is, indeed, on us.  It is up to us to decide our way through the fog of Satanic lies, ambiguous and phony religion, silly philosophies, and our own demanding "druthers" to arrive at authentic, divinely-given truth.

The decision to reject or embrace an idea, to pick and choose our devotions in life, and to set priorities is ultimately ours. Thus, while it is true that the Holy Spirit constantly whispers guiding truth to each of us; in the final analysis, it remains our responsibility to pick out the ring of God's truth from the rest of life's discordant notes.

And if, indeed, we fail in this vetting task, so that we sort it all out badly, then the correlation is very direct.  In that case, our personal story will also end very badly.  And, no disaster could possibly be worse or more absolute than the final wreck of the human soul.

In that event, we are plunged into an abyss of unimaginable suffering. And worse yet, that suffering will never end. 

Thus, the crushing atmosphere of complete hopelessness will surround us. And we will forever become one of the nameless, faceless millions in a churning, screaming sea of failed humanity - all victims of their own bad calls in this life.

And, to be sure, there are, indeed, a lot of distractions in this life which would take our time and energy away from what is truly important. There is a lot of bad information which deceptively passes itself off as truth to take us in the wrong direction. And, there are many of us who just don't much care either way because we're too busy chasing the toys and trinkets of life. 

But, be assured, standing on that "forever brink," the burning questions will not involve money or hobbies or jobs or ownership. Rather, the questions which will then rise urgently to the top will be those of personal investment, and directions, priorities, and choices. But, in that last terrifying hour, there will no longer be any opportunity to improve our answers, and thus, our end.

So, it really does help to occasionally reconfirm to our self, in the strongest possible terms, that there actually is one issue which truly supersedes all others.  It is this issue of how our personal story ends.  And, we gain even more help when we add to that confirmation, one more:  the certainty that we are writing that ending every single day in the script of our every decision.

                                       ~

     "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

     "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 

     "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

     "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 
     - From:  The Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John

Classic Evil

There is a reason why the Darkness continues to use the same old tired, tattered, and torn tactics against a gullible and/or uninformed humanity. It is because they continue to work well. The simple truth is - we just never seem to "get it." So, generation after generation we "get it" in the neck.

Satan's treachery is not hard to spot, really, as it has been around since Adam and Eve. And it is very well exposed in the book of Genesis. When we read, with godly enlightenment, the account of the adversary's subversion of the first couple in chapter 3 (NKJV), we can easily see what we should be on guard against. Consider what the verses say there...

Genesis 3:1. "Now the serpent was more cunning [subtle] than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?'' (Brackets added)

There are actually four of his favorite tactics revealed in this first verse alone. The first is Subtlety. The adversary's approach is never, never, never straight forward. Always there is a hidden agenda that he begins to pursue from an oblique direction. 

Have you ever met an alcoholic or a drug addict that started out to be one, to ruin his or her life through substance abuse. Probably not. Rather the dark voice simply promised them a "good time" or "relief from the pain" or some other angular enticement from which to begin to move slowly toward his real agenda - the destruction of another human life and soul.

The adversary knows that the gullible will always go for an easy lie over a hard truth.  And, he knows that we are prone not to question personal benefit. So typically, that is the point where his subtlety originates. 

He usually offers the easy, the fun, the gratifying, the immediate, without ever showing the real or extended cost. He always shows the "bait." He never shows the "hook." That is the substance of subtlety; and it still works well on humanity, even today.

The second tactic revealed in this verse is the Characterization of God as "intrusive" to the human existence. The taunting tone in the verse is that of someone greatly offended. It’s more like, "Surely God did not dare to say that you could not eat of all of the trees in the Garden!" 

The idea is to make God appear restrictive rather than protective, which was the real circumstance. So God was made to seem evil instead of good because He imposed restriction. That tactic, to plant the idea that "God is somehow holding us back" has always been very effective and still works quite well on a clueless humanity today.

The third tactic revealed in this verse is Superfluous Dialog. He simply got Eve to talking about something which needed no discussion at all. The adversary has known from the beginning that "truth can be talked literally to death." 

So he merely gets us to talking, for example, the moral tenets of God's word.  It goes something like this. "Well, now let’s talk about this for a minute. Is homosexuality really wrong? Is morality, itself, really all that necessary to the well being of society. Couldn't we have a better and more inclusive society if we were not so inhibited by these archaic ideas. Let’s at least open a dialog on the subject. That is only reasonable." 

Thus, he robs a susceptible individual or society of moral direction and fortitude by simply talking away clarity. So good principles simply die the slow death of "stupid and superfluous dialog."

Finally, the fourth tactic of the adversary that is revealed in this verse is what we would, today, call "Spin."  To add Spin is to present the truth in a way that flatters your purpose and hides any contrary indications. 

The mis-characterization of God that we discussed earlier is a good example of Satanic spin. The benevolent restriction that God placed on the first couple was presented in such a way that it appeared to be a bad thing instead of a good thing. The adversary did not technically misquote the idea, he just used wording and voice inflection to color is presentation in a way that gratified his subversive purposes.  Hello spin.

Verses 2-3. "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'''

So the woman, now caught up in the superfluous dialog, continues the conversation. She starts to clarify the truth for the adversary, believing that she can correct his misconception with good information. 

How naive we sometimes are when it comes to spiritual treachery of Satan's Hidden Agendas. She had no clue as to what was really in play here - as is ofter the case with most of humanity when it comes to the adversary’s destructive plotting.

Verses 4 -5. "And the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil'  [Brackets added]

The adversary knows that to achieve his hidden agenda he must remove the idea of consequence. And, in doing so he reveals his another classic tactic of his subversion. It is to Confront  divine truth and paint it as ridiculous." 

So here, in a brazen confrontation of the God's truth, he completely reverses what Eve has been told. He says, in effect, without presenting any real basis for his statement, It just isn't so. You will not die if you do as I say.  It would seem that Satan's idea is that - if you say it with enough confidence, they'll believe it. And so often, that is, indeed, the case.

Also, in these verses, we see another classic tactics of the Darkness:  the use of entirely lie-based promises.  When the Devil says to Eve, "You will be like God," he is actually using that lie as the means to assure her of a false promise.  He is indicating that  she will no longer have to be dependent on God.  Rather, she can become her own god, and thus, the master of her own destiny. And, apparently, the glitter of that promise blinded her to its baseless nature. 

And, this first lie-based promise was quickly followed by the second one that Knowledge is the key to that end.  Satan says, "You will be like God, knowing good and evil." 

The truth that he does not tell Eve is that the knowledge that he is encouraging her to trust in is not an objective knowledge which is rooted in God’s all knowing wisdom. It is an entirely subjective knowledge. In other words, good and evil will then center entirely around what seems good or evil to her, and for her.

 And the knowledge that Adam gains from that same forbidden fruit will be exactly the same:  what seems good or evil to him and for him. And on and on it will go throughout the ranks of humanity. Welcome to the source of all human conflict and the bane of the human experience - a subjective, a very personalized view of good and evil.

So, Satan brazenly lied to Eve to awaken a false sense of promise in her. Sometimes he lies by omission. Sometime he lies by using partial truths. And sometimes his lies are absolutely brazen, as were these.  

But lying is the very backbone of his classic behavior.  And he is good at it. So much so, that literally countless souls have perished on the rocks of the siren call of his pleasant lies.

Verse 6-8  "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

Finally, we note the outcome of the great treachery when it’s finished. "...And Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God..."  The outcome is always the same.  It is a lonely and guilty isolation from a loving God. 

Adam and Eve turned their back on God’s love and, instead, chose a deluded course of self-determination. It was a foolish choice based in lies and subtle deception with no substantial promise at all.

And sadly, even in this late hour of history, humanity still goes for that same old tattered and torn treachery. And even when Christ clearly exposes this devilish deception for what it is and offers a the better way, still, many choose delusion over God's liberating truth. 

Perhaps the best thing we can do for ourselves  is to simply return to the Program and refresh our memory as to who the Players are:  

     The Good Guy ....................God
     The Bad Guy ......................Satan
     The Child in the Room ......Humanity

Maybe if each generation could simply master this much as they enter the theater, it would make it easier for them to then follow and correctly interpret the true plot of The Redemptive Drama.  

Circles

The Apostle John said, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."  Love is always at least as much what you do, as it is what you feel. And sometimes it is entirely what you do as opposed to what you feel.  

In any case, love, as an action, must never become dependent on emotion to survive or to express itself. And, in all cases, love must always habor its basic identity as a vibrant sense of moral responsibility for the well being of others.

The simplist concept of sin that I know is merely this: Selfishness. And, active love is both the absolute antithesis and the perfect remedy for that flaw. 

Thus, very basic to the new character that we are given in Christ is the reality of a love which acts in devotion to the well-being of others on all of the commons of life: in the family, the workplace, the school etc.   And, it does so always - in harmony with divine truth.

Circles

How long prevails the darkness Lord
That snares our dreams
And rears the head of the ugliest things.

We weep and fight and struggle and kill
To have, and to horde,
Only to find that we weep the more.

We crush the dreams of others
To mortar the tower of our own
And still it does not rise.

On any scale, the circle of one
Is always far too small.
Enduring joy only lives in the broader circle of all.

And though we emerge from the human sea,
One, alone, to scoff at the rest,
Yet time, and wisdom, and the judgment of God will put us to the test.

And finally, far too late we'll see,
That all along, we were but trapped,
In the circle that was Me.

                                         -LB