Peace on Earth?

Do not suppose that I have come to establish peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law --- a man's enemies will be the members of his own household" (Micah 7:6) and (Matt. 10:34-36).

 

How are we to make sense of these words coming from The Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ?  How are we to make sense of these words in light of the nearly-universal desire for peace for peace on earth?  in light of the efforts of the United Nations to be an instrument of peace on earth?  in light of those who really, really believe that peace on earth is a possibility if we all just try hard enough?

 

I believe the answer to this dilemma was given by the song of the angels at Christ's birth:  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will.  Peace is possible only among men of good will.  Whether a man is a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Christian, it is not his beliefs that divide the earth as much as the thoughts of his heart.  A murderer is a murderer no matter what religion or culture he adheres to -- and it is clear that no religion or culture is free of evil men, murderers, thieves, traders in human flesh, etc. 

 

Are we, in the name of peace, supposed to keep silent while a man beats his children without mercy?  Are we supposed to extend a hand of friendship and fellowship to the drug cartels in the name of peace?  Are we supposed to live peaceably alongside a man who has three women chained to the walls of his basement?  Are we to watch without interference the verbal abuse of a man to his wife, or a mother to her children?

 

Could there have been peace between Cain and Abel?  Should Adam and Eve allowed Cain to continue dwelling in their household after he murdered his brother?  Those who think peace is possible on earth without peace first in the hearts of men have not yet seen the face of evil.  Could peace be possible as long as Adolf Hitler was in charge of Germany's troops.  Can peace be possible as long as human torture, rape, and the selling of children into slavery exist on earth?  In India today, mothers who give birth to girl babies wail in pain and horror at the future of their babies.  In Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Taliban-controlled countries, women are shackled, stoned, beaten, and refused an education as a matter of official policy. In North Korea, the next three generations are enslaved, beaten, and tortured for the rebellion of one man against the government.  Can we smile, shake hands, and wish peace to these countries?

 

Peace and morality are inseparable.  The famous saying is "If you want peace, work for justice."  Until I began to see the horrors that exist all around us, I did not fully appreciate that saying.  To paraphrase one of the New Testament scriptures:  Can there be fellowship between the children of light and the children of darkness (Belial).  Can there be peace between the angels of God and the demons of hell? 

 

As long as men nurture evil in their hearts and lust after human flesh, to consume it for their own pleasure and profit, we will not have peace on earth.  Jesus said, "The reason the Son of Man came into the earth was to destroy the works of the devil."  He took up the sword, though He was above all a man of peace.  The demons recognized this when they asked Him, "Have you come to destroy us?"

 

Many are those who fit the description uttered by Jesus:  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44-45)....The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10).

 

To wish for world peace without peace in the human heart is fantasy.  The only One who can establish peace on earth is Jesus Christ, who removes fear, hatred, jealously, anger, and all the evils that dwell in mankind.  Our weapons must be spiritual ones, for we are fighting not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in the unseen world (Eph. 6).  But we are not men without hope in the face of evil, for Someone has already conquered the enemy and has set up His kingdom on earth in the hearts of men of good will.

__________________________________________This will be the last posting until July 3.

 



What is Truth?

Jesus said, "For this reason I have come into the world: to testify to the Truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Pilate answered:  "What is Truth?"

 

Our world today is still asking Pilate's question -- What is Truth?  Is it an amalgamation of facts that we have discovered to be true?  Is it the latest discovery of science? (Were that the case, those living at the time of Jesus could not have known the Truth.)  Are we in the 21st century closer to the Truth now than those living in the first century AD?

 

Jesus promised us, "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free."  So, obviously, the Truth is not a collection of facts or scientific discoveries.  Even if we knew all the secrets of the universe, they would not set us free.  Truth cannot be a set of doctrines that we believe, for many who hold religious truths are still not free.  Rather, Truth is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God expressing Himself in Christ Jesus.  When He lives in us, He reveals to us who we are and who God is.  He Himself is the Truth that sets us free.

 

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known, in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (Jn. 17:25).  This is the Truth that sets us free from fear, from slavery to sin, from the world's systems -- the knowledge of God given to us by Christ Jesus dwelling in our inner man.  Jesus promised us the Advocate, who would lead us into all truth, and He told us to ask for that Spirit of Truth. 

 

The new Pope, Francis, has begged Catholics to pray everyday to the Holy Spirit so they can be more sensitive to the things of God:  "If people don't open their hearts to the Holy Spirit to let God purify and enlighten them, then our being Christian will be superficial," said Francis on May 15 to the crowds in St. Peter's Square.  The Pope mentioned Benedict XVI's warnings about relativism, which holds that truth is based on consensus and personal opinion.  "But Jesus is the Truth that came among us so that we could know it," he said.  "Truth isn't seized like a thing," he said; "Truth is met.  It's not a possession; it's an encounter with a Person.

 

From his obvious discomfort in the Gospel, it seems that Pilate did encounter Truth in the Person of Jesus, but he could not convince the Pharisees and leaders of the people to do the same.  They did not want an encounter with the Christ of God, because they did not recognize Him as the Messiah, the One Who came to set them free.

 

Our world has not changed much since that time.

The Sabbath Day

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths.  This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.

Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.  Any who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.  For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord.  Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.  The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.  It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested" (Ex. 31:12-17).

 

What is the Sabbath?  How are we to observe it -- and why?  Any thoughtful answer to that question must begin with a thoughtful reading of the Scriptures, for the Sabbath originates in God's 'plan of action' for the Israelites who had been freed from slavery in Egypt.  The law to observe the Sabbath came in the wilderness -- halfway between a life of slavery and a life of freedom in the Promised Land.  These are the laws given to free men and women.

 

For six days, we are to work for our sustenance, for our existence.  But we are not slaves under the command of another, that we must work also on the Sabbath.  There is one day a week when we acknowledge that our daily bread is given to us by Providence, no matter how hard we work for it during the week.  One day in the week is to remind us that relationships are more important than work -- acknowledging God, acknowledging family and friends as gifts to us as much as our daily bread.  My grandchild calls Sunday "fun-day;"  I wish I had taken that approach with my own children.  I was too busy to stop work, even on Sunday -- too busy to acknowledge them as treasured gifts from God.  I thought if I stopped working, the world would fall apart.

 

Sabbath means "stopping."  We must cease activity and rest in the knowledge that "You will be my people, and I will be your God."  The Sabbath is a visible sign that God will provide for His people, that they are not alone in the universe, dependent only on their own efforts to survive.

 

The Jews, with good reason, learned to "build a fence around the law," so as not to transgress it.  But the fence often becomes an end unto itself, so that we become nit-pickers.  Faith and love teach us to enter into God's courts with thanksgiving, to acknowledge that He is our Source, and to rejoice in the gifts of family and friends.  How we do that is probably not as important as the fact that we do it consciously and with joy in our hearts.

 

[Note:  Science has demonstrated that our bio-rhythms are not on an exact 24-hour cycle, but more on a 26-hour one, so by the end of six days, we are a little "off" in terms of the earth's rotation and our work schedules.  We seem to need the seventh day biologically, physically, as a day of rest to "catch up" our bio-rhythms to the rising of the sun.  Wasn't God smart to give us a Sabbath day from the very beginning?]

the Unseen World

When you approach me in stillness and trust, you are strengthened.

You need a buffer zone around you in order to focus on things that are unseen.

Since I am invisible, you must not let your senses dominate your thinking.

The curse of this age is overstimulation of the senses, which blocks out awareness of the unseen world.

 

The tangible world still reflects my Glory, to those who have eyes that see and ears to hear.

Spending time alone with Me is the best way to develop seeing eyes and hearing ears.

The goal is to be aware of unseen things even as you live out your life in the visible world.

(Jesus Calling-- June 15)

 

When Jesus began His public ministry, He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where He fasted forty days.  When Paul began his ministry as a Christian, he went into the desert for three years; there he was taught by God the things that would change the world forever.  Even Luke Skywalker had to learn the unseen world by going into the wilderness to learn from a Jedi master.

 

If we would approach the things of the Spirit of God, we also need to distance ourselves for a time from the world itself -- not that it is evil and we are 'pure' -- but that we are so much a part of the world that it is hard for us to enter into the world of spirit and of truth.  The reason people go on retreats is to learn to listen to the 'small, still voice' inside, the voice that gets overwhelmed by all the other voices around us.

 

Paul said, "When I was a child, I thought like a child....but now I have put away the things of a child."  We are so much a part of the world's system that we automatically think like the world and not like God.  The only way to begin to see the unseen world is to spend some time away from the world's system and to turn to the Living God who is waiting to show us "great and glorious things of which we know nothing."

 

God Himself wants to teach us; He wants to show us the world He made in all its glory -- but we need to learn how to listen to Him:

 

This is what the Lord says--

Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

"I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you what is best for you,

who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands,

your peace would have been like a river,

your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would have been like the sand,

your children like its numberless grains;

their name would never be cut off

nor destroyed from before me" (Is. 48:17-19).

 

"Paying attention to His commands" does not necessarily mean "obeying the law" only, but listening to the small, still voice that wants to guide us moment by moment.  "If you love Me," says Jesus, "you will obey my commands, and the Father and I will come to dwell with you."  It is their voice we hear speaking within us:  "Not that way; go this way" from moment to moment.

 

I know it's hard to believe, but as gorgeous as is the visible world, the unseen world of the Spirit is even more beautiful.

 





The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Yesterday, I quoted Tozer's prayer to "the God of the prophets and apostles," (not that of the intellectuals and the philosophers).

Today, it strikes me how important is that distinction.  There is a huge difference in the God we worship -- not so much between one religion and another, but in who God is to those who worship Him at all and those who do not.

If we claim that God is not a Person, we with one stroke must eliminate all of the world's three Abrahamic religions -- all based on the premise that there is a Person Who 'hears the cry of the poor' and responds; a Person Who has been in search of not only mankind, but of individual man, that He might have communion with us, both collectively and individually;  a Person who holds man accountable for his thoughts and actions; a Person who is Good, Just, Holy, beyond reproach, and Truthful -- or Truth itself.

If we hold that God is energy alone, not a Person, then we must per force eliminate all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament.  We must eliminate the truth of saints, prophets, apostles, hymnists, musicians, religionists, and the testimony of every Black woman who relies on God to see her through this day.

We can see Moses as saved from Pharoah's murderers by natural means and circumstances; we can see him raised under Pharoah's nose, in his very household, by chance and luck.  We can see his passion to deliver his people as arising from family and tribal loyalty  -- and failing by the usual turn of events.  But then, he goes into the back side of the desert in hiding, marries, raises sons and becomes a shepherd.  By nature, his desire to be a savior of his people diminishes; he has lost hope--and he now has other people to think about. 

But then, he encounters in the desert the burning bush.  Out of the bush speaks a Voice:  take off your shoes, for where you stand is holy ground.  And the Voice has a name (as only a Person can):  I am that I am.  (from His Name comes our ability to say "I am;" from His pure Existence comes our existence). 

That Voice, that Name, that Person has a mission and a purpose for Moses.  He will be sent -- as only a Person can send -- back to Egypt, because Yahweh  -- not simply "El" (God), but God-Who-Has-A-Name)--- has "heard the cries of His people in slavery" and is responding to those cries.  Moses is reluctant; he has no confidence in himself at all to do such a thing.  How will this mission possibly succeed?  He is still on Pharoah's most-wanted list.  "Please, please, send someone else," he says; "I cannot even speak rightly." (It is believed that Moses, like King George, stuttered, especially under pressure.) 

"How can this be?"  Moses wants to know.  "Why would my people even believe me?  Who shall I tell them sent me?"  I Am That I Am has an answer:  I will be with you.

If God is not a Person with a Mind, a Will, and a Heart, then nothing in the Bible can be held as true, for it all rests on His seeking of men, choosing of men, sending of men for a purpose, and equipping of men with His Presence and Power for that purpose.

If God is not a Person, then nothing of Jesus makes the least bit of sense.  He is no greater than a Greek philosopher.  And so too, the Apostles and Martyrs were fools, as was Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and all others who believe they have a mission from God.  All of the Old Testament prophets -- among whom the Jews include Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- were fools and not to be believed.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam all worship a personal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Can all of them be so wrong?

Who is God?

Left to ourselves, we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms...We want a God we can in some measure control.

 (Knowledge of the Holy by A.J. Tozer)

 

A friend of mine is asking on her blog, "Who is God to you?"  The problem with trying to answer this question is that we somehow have to take the language of the heart and put it into words that can be apprehended by the mind -- and, although God can be known by the heart, He cannot be encompassed by the mind of man.  God can be known only by withdrawing inwardly in worship and meeting Him in silent adoration.  In his wonderful book, Knowledge of the Holy, A. J. Tozer says this:

 

The words, "Be still and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century.  

 

Still, when someone asks us, love both of God and of man drives us to attempt to explain who God is to us, knowing all the while that only He can truly reveal Himself to each one of us as He did to Abraham, to Hagar in the desert, to Moses, to all the prophets, and to all the saints.  As Paul said, "Who is equal to such a task?"  Jesus said, "No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him."  Paul, though he knew much about God from his education in Judaism, did not really know God until his conversion to Jesus Christ.  Then he said that all he knew came not from others but from revelation.  He spent 3 years in the desert of Arabia before he met the other Apostles of Jesus; all that time, God was revealing Himself to Paul. 

 

What is amazing to me was that as I began to very feebly attempt an answer to Who is Your God? yesterday, knowing that nothing I could say was in the least bit adequate, this morning during my prayer time, I picked up my Kindle Fire --- not something I usually do.  And what came up immediately on the screen was a book I had never ordered or even known about:  Knowledge of the Holy by A.J. Tozer.    In awe, I did order the book and began reading, finding that Tozer was so much better than I at expressing what my heart already knows.  Somehow, he is able to translate that language into words the mind can understand.

 

He begins with a prayer:  O Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise, but the God of the prophets and apostles, and better than all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express Thee unblamed?

 

For the next few days, I want to just pull passages out of his book because I am so in awe that it was brought to me just at the moment I needed it.  Because it is on my Kindle, I do not have page numbers to cite:

 

"...the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.....Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "What comes into your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.

 

"Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God...That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us."

 

"The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long...The child, the philosopher, and the religionist have all but one question:  "What is God like?"

 

I will continue tomorrow with Tozer's insights.  But the fact that this book appeared on my screen this morning tells me something about the God I know -- He is present at every moment, and where he is, He is acting --- not just an inert observer.  I believe that He Himself has entered into this conversation.

A Prophet for Our Time

Someone should remind George Weigel what happened to John the Baptist – and indeed, to all the prophets before him – although I suspect Weigel is well aware of the consequences of his words.

Weigel is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C.  So he is not some obscure philosopher hidden away in a university somewhere.  He is “out there,” so to speak, in more than one way.

 In his latest article published this week in the Gulf Pine Catholic, Weigel boldly accuses Obama of blasphemy.  It seems that the President gave an address to Planned Parenthood in its fundraiser on April 26.  Weigel calls Obama’s speech “a line in the sand that those committed to the biblical view of the sanctity of human life cannot ignore – and must challenge.”

 Planned Parenthood euphemistically calls its direct murder of over one thousand babies per day “providing quality health care to women all across America.”  “As if,” Weigel comments, “abortuaries that do not meet the health and safety standards required of your local McDonald’s are contributing to anyone’s health.”  In his speech, the President never had a word of remorse for the millions of “beautiful kids” who have been slaughtered by Planned Parenthood, nor for the mothers suffering from post-abortion trauma.

When Hitler’s minions slaughtered millions of Jews, the German people were terrified to speak out, with very good reason.  They, too, disappeared for taking a stand – as many did.  Today, we ask why not more Germans spoke out against the atrocities.  But Americans line up behind Obama’s “compassion for women” for women today with absolutely no compassion for their murdered infants.

Obama ended his talk with “God bless you…Planned Parenthood.”  Weigel calls this statement “nothing short of blasphemy…..a sin against the Second Commandment.”  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that it is blasphemous to make use of God’s name to reduce people to servitude, to torture persons or to put them to death – precisely what happens in Planned Parenthood abortuaries.  And, according to Weigel, “the President of the United States has called down the divine blessing” on our national commitment to the most open-ended abortion license possible.

God bless George Weigel for daring to tell us the truth.  And God protect him.  He will need it.

The boldness of familiarity with God

Yesterday I wrote that we are made to know God, not just to know about Him.  We are made for communion--- Spirit to spirit; we are supposed to come "boldly into His presence, rejoicing," not timidly, fearfully.

And today I read the words of St. Jane Frances de Chantal on prayer:  Let there be no timidity in our supplications; he does not like it....in prayer, we should freely unburden ourselves to God, telling him, our Lord and Master, in the most familiar and confidential way, everything, great and small, of heaven and of earth, much or little.  We should open our heart, pouring it all out to him without reserve; recounting its burdens, its sins, its aspirations; revealing our whole self; seeking repose in his company as with a friend on whom one relies and to whom one confides both the good and the bad.  This is what Holy Scripture calls "pouring out his heart like water in the divine presence" (cf. Lam 2:19), manifesting not only those things that are of great importance but even the most insignificant of things (from A Simple Life).

The Blessed Mother told the young visionaries at Medjorgore to "pray until prayer becomes joy for you," and St. Jane Frances wrote that prayer is "hidden manna, neither known or valued, save by those to whom it is given, and the more we taste it the more does our appetite for it grow."

Only those who pray will truly know God and be able to pour out their hearts to Him boldly, without reserve or fear.  And only those who pray will know the answering comfort of hearing God speaking to them deep within.  God Calling 2 has this entry today:  Confidence must be the finishing chord of every contact between you and Me.  Joyful confidence.  You must end upon the joy-note.

The union between a soul and Me is attained in its beauty and complete satisfaction only when in every incident that soul achieves praise.  Love and laugh and thank Me all the time.

It is a very bold thing for someone to say "he does not like it" about God.  Only a close friend could make that statement about another person.  I can just hear the world screaming back, "Who are you to say what God 'likes' or does not like?  What arrogance!"  But the friends of God do know what He likes and what he does not, for He himself teaches them --  Jesus did say, "I no longer call you servants but friends."  And friends know what their friends like and don't like.

It was said of Moses that he spoke to God face-to-face, as a man speaks with his friend.  And Abraham stood toe-to-toe with God, boldly negotiating with Him for the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.  When we walk with God as did Enoch, sit with God as did Deborah, and stand with God as did Abraham, we soon become familiar with Him and boldly approach the throne of grace and goodness.  It is a great and glorious thing to have joy in His presence, as all the saints have told us.

No longer need we fear the opinions of men when we "fear God," although this kind of relationship has nothing to do with being afraid of God.  All those who have really good marriages 'fear' their husbands, although they are not afraid of them.  What we 'fear' is losing the confidence, the closeness, the respect and communion that exists between us.  We would do nothing we know that would destroy the relationship we have, and we would not take the advice of nor follow anyone who threatens the bond between husband and wife. 

Once we have entered into this kind of closeness with God, we do 'fear' losing that relationship, and we do all we can to nourish it and to strengthen it.  Walking with Yahweh, laughing with Him, loving with Him is the most satisfying relationship on earth, and it will carry us straight into heaven.

What's the Difference?

What is the difference between Jesus Christ and Buddha, or Mohammed, or Hari Krishna, or any of the other world religious leaders?  Until we enter into communion with Jesus, as He promised we would, we might tend to think that there is not really much difference -- that it depends on culture or upbringing.

But there is a world of difference between being a follower, or disciple, of any other "way" but that of Jesus Christ.  There is a universe of difference between my being a good disciple and disciplining myself to follow a teaching, and the Spirit of the Lord entering into me to teach and disciple me from within.  I, personally, never had much discipline to speak of.  My own energy tends to wind down and dissipate very soon.  I could never keep up much of anything on my own steam.  I am very good at starting things -- and then abandoning them as soon as the initial energy wears off.

But with Jesus Christ, I find that He is all my energy, all my 'discipline,' all my teaching and leading, from "glory to glory," as the Scripture says.   I can open the Psalms at almost any point and say, "Yes, that is exactly what God has done for me -- not what I have done, but what He has done!"

The Lord upholds all those who fall

and lifts up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand

and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

 

The Lord is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;

he hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord watches over all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy (Ps. 145:14-20).

 

In all of the ancient Eastern creation myths, the gods created mankind as servants to the gods, but in all of the Hebrew Scriptures, God is seen as serving mankind with His overweening love and compassion.  We serve Him by receiving His goodness to us and passing it on to others like ourselves.  I challenge anyone to find this dynamic in any of the other world religions.  No one else offers "communion with God" or rescue from one's enemies (depression/oppression/evil), or renewal of spirit and strength, delivery from death, healing of illness, raising up the poor from the dust, forgiveness of sins, redemption from evil, crowning with love and compassion, etc.  Jesus Christ had to come in the flesh to show us the Face of God; otherwise, we would have been too afraid to believe that God is really like this.

 

Buddhism offers all of this to those who are disciplined enough to enter into a state of nirvana, shutting off one's own senses to the world around them.  But the disciple of Christ must keep his eyes open and his feet firmly on the ground.  The Spirit of the Lord will fight our battles for us (Ephesians 6) from within.  That is not to say that the Christian does not live a godly life --- but it is in response to what God has first 'lavished on us while we were yet sinners' (Eph.1).  We do not "be good" first and then get the reward of God's mercy and compassion; first he loves us and gives us 'every heavenly blessing" --- and then we "walk in the newness of the life we have been given"  --after we have been made "alive in Christ."

 

I think the Book of Ephesians, taken as an overall pattern, is the best explanation of the difference between Christianity and other world religions.  First, the love of God is poured out on us, then the Spirit of the Lord begins to teach us how to walk as children of the light, and finally, we can "stand," knowing that when we can do nothing else for ourselves, we are protected.  Everything is done for us, not by us. 

 

Knowing this, how could I even think that another way of life is comparable?  Someone once ridiculed the idea of Christians thinking that God was 'our best friend.'  If He is not our best friend, our closest companion, "closer than a brother," as the Scripture tells us, then what is the point?  Would anyone want communion with a god who is not closer than the best the world's relationships have to offer?  Does anyone want to 'walk with God' if he cannot be trusted to be constantly at our side?  Marriage is supposed to be an image of the relationship that God wants with us, though it is often a poor likeness.

 

Can any world religion, philosophy, or way of life offer anything like what Jesus offers us:  I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world....I will send you the Spirit, the Advocate, and he will lead you into all truth....All that the Father has is mine...He will take what is mine and give it to you. 

 

I am not saying here that other religions are not 'true.'  Anyone who sincerely approaches God through one of these other avenues is coming close to him, and the Scripture says that if we draw close to God, He will draw close to us.  And anyone who searches for the truth will find God.  But we are made to know God, not just to know about God, in the same way that we are made for companionship and communion with others, not just to know about others.  And what Jesus offers us is direct knowledge of and communion with His Father: They will all be taught by God (Jn.6:45).  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who you have sent (Jn. 17:3).

 

Once we enter into communion with the Father through the relationship given to us by Jesus, other religions pale in comparison.  Their followers are good and wonderful people and are to be greatly respected and loved, but what another religion offers is but water when we have been given the best wine to drink.

What is Redemption?

The world is obviously in need of redemption.  Chapters 2-11 of Genesis provides us a backdrop, a glimpse, of a world unraveling itself in every way: man against woman, brother against brother, tribe against tribe, the earth not responding to man's cultivation, and mankind drawing further and further away from God, building an edifice unto man's glory instead of God's.

But God is not finished with His creation, thank goodness.  He has not wound up the world like a clock, as the Deists said, and then left it to unwind on its own.  Very early on, He chose Abraham to walk with Him, to learn from Him, to receive blessings from Him, that in turn, Abraham could 'redeem' the world around him--rescuing Lot, his nephew, from the clutches of evil, transforming a barren land into a source of blessing, and "sending forth his teachings like the dawn" to those who would follow him.

God has always wanted to be intimately present to mankind, to "walk [with us] in the cool of the evening."  He has always wanted communion with us, to "pour out [His] Spirit on everyone...your sons and daughters, your old men, and your young men....even on your sevants and handmaids (Joel 3:1-2).  The problem is that, because He made us with free will, he needs those who will consent to His request to be present in and to the world through us.  He needs those who will be empty of themselves and filled with His Spirit, who will love unconditionally enough to redeem the world from its ugliness.

Through us, He wants to shine the Light of the original creation.  Through us, He wants to brood over the chaos as a mother over her chicks.  He does not want us to 'escape' from the evil, but he wants to protect us in its midst.  If we escape, He cannot be present to redeem the victims of evil.  He wants us to be channels of His grace, of His love, of his presence to the world.

Like Mary, we have to be empty/ virginal to receive the grace of God.  He will not "fill the rich," but only the empty.  If we are 'rich,' it means that we are filled with much that is not God, that we are not transparent to Him.  Being "empty" means that we know that God does not demand great things of us; He only wants to be Himself through us.  He wants to be great in us.

Elizabeth said to Mary, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has spoken would be fulfilled in her."  And Mary's response:

My soul does magnify the Lord

and my spirit exults in God my Savior;

because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid.

 

From this day forward, all generations will call be blessed,

for the Lord has done great things for me....

 

Our world will be redeemed only to the extent that we allow God to be Himself in us, that we allow Him to re-create and make all things new through us, that we allow ourselves to be empty and waiting for His action in the world through us.  Where he is, sorrow and sadness and oppression must flee.  Where He is, the earth must once again renew itself and become fruitful.  Where he is, children will be nurtured and women loved, and our weapons will be beaten into plowshares.