Restored?

I have a question for my Christian friends.

Are you experiencing restoration?

Is this not the mark of God's presence in our lives? Should this aspect of our lives not point to the worth and wisdom of our God, as people ponder why we are more gracious, loving, healthy, balanced, whole... than the rest of this broken world?

Upside Down

The more I try to figure these out and make things work in life, the more disoriented and disturbed I become. I feel upside down. One is not particularly functional upside down. It's unnatural. It's a bit moronic as well. Trust I am describing myself and not anyone else. I will avoid outright accusing others of their depravity for the moment and settle with personal confession.

My mental capacity is horribly inadequate. I cannot attain a satisfying understanding of why the world is as corrupt as it is; the problem is exasperated when the God factor is considered. How can He allow the suffering and evil if He is so good? If He is who He says He is, knowing all and will all in His absolute sovereignty, then how and why the torment of loss and death?

My faculties for improvement fare no better. I will myself to live righteously, according to the notions of good that I judge to be best, only to find I have a skewed concept of right and wrong, or my actions have unforeseen consequences that should have been understood, for they are nothing new. I make the same mistakes over and over again. I do not learn from my mistakes. I trust still that I know best and can dig myself out of the hole.

But then there is the issue of fear. How many wasted years have there been due to the fear of failure, rejection, abandonment, disappointment. The very things we fear come about because of our fear of them. They are self-produced. I fear failing, and therefore, do not do which leads to failure. I avoid loving and being loved because I do not want to be rejected, only to be rejected for my failure to provide the very thing people need and want.

I try so hard not to fail in this Abundant Life promised us and am so afraid that I will miss out on what God has for me, that I accomplish my fears and miss out on Life. I try to stand on my own feet, thinking it is the right way to get to where I need to go, only I end up upside down.

When am I going to believe the Gospel?

When am I going to start to trust that all is taken care of and accomplished for me, and I am freed to live as I was intended to, all because Christ came and died, rose again, and gave us His Spirit to live in us, and quicken us to Life?

When am I going to flip upside down and start living the Kingdom way?

I need to die to find life.

I need to risk loving to be loved. This is not to say I can think of loving acts as a means to the end of getting my needs met, as if I just need to strategize and manipulate others to cause things to happen. I need to truly regard this lingering and compelling drive to control my life as the death of me, and toss it aside, not trusting that I can wield fortune for myself. Only then will I find life when I'm not looking for it. Only then will God have the room to move in me to be a blessing to others. Only then will I discover that it is in the union with my God that Life occurs.

Is this not completely absurd? The world does not comprehend this. It is foolishness. It is fantasy. It is fanatic. It is "unhealthy." According to the world, the Kingdom way is upside down and leads to craziness.

But being upside down is what puts us rightly in place for Life. I am dying for Life.

I am dying for it.

The Good Soil

I wrote a while ago about my basil plant. I have an update and an analogy to the faith.

Last I shared, the woody-stemmed, larger plant was blossoming. The smaller one wasn't doing as well. Both of those produced smaller leaves, but many. But that was about it... my plants plateaued at this stage for months.

I saw a basil plant at the supermarket. It was in the tiniest little pot, but there were lots of shoots and these big leaves. I bought it and replanted it in more soil. It was fine for a couple days, but then it all started to wilt. My new plant died. Now, all that is left are these trimmed stems, turned dry and brown.

Meanwhile, I decided to pay more attention to my faithful plant. I decided to give it more soil, like I did the failed, new plant. I found a bigger container and added more soil.

Something profound happened. The thing exploded, again! Except this time, the leaves grew so much larger. I got out of my plant (grown from seed) what I desired from the one I bought - these substantial leaves!

Not only that, but the smaller plant within the same pot as old faithful, is doing just as well as its bigger brother.

What can be learned from this? I am reminded of a parable Jesus gave. Mark 4 describes how the Kingdom of God is like one who sows seed, and some falls upon the road, some among the rocks, some among the thorns, and some among good soil. The seed upon the road is snatched up by birds; the rocky seed sprouts quickly, but wilts with no substantial roots taking hold; the thorns choke out the growth and the good soil flourishes. This is a metaphor for hearing the Word of God, his gospel, and how our environment affects what response we have to it. I have heard the gospel and for years, I have grown, only to be hindered in some way from thriving. I see how my choices, those things I CAN do, in my freedom, still are not beneficial, though perhaps permissible (1 Cor 10:23). I CAN surround myself with things, and gadgets and flood my eyes with titillation and distraction. But they do not edify. They are thorns. When I sit among vile things, numb to their influence, I rest upon rocks, and His good news will not amount to much, but wither.

Unless I transplant myself among good soil.

I did this with my plants, and they flourished. I gave them a more suitable environment to thrive and grow, bearing good fruit. Why can't we do the same thing for ourselves? Why can't we change our environments to better receive the good news of the Word (John 1:14-17)? What's stopping us? Our selfish pride, not wanting to be told how to live? Fear that the gospel may take us places we are uncomfortable in, losing control of what mundane lives we can live apart from God?

I noticed that in these last couple weeks, I have watched significantly less television. And I've been full of joy! I received more out of television that entertainment. I received a spirit of timidity and sloth, lust and loneliness. I can easily isolate myself in front of a television, and never have to deal with life, people, relationships, work, study, etc. It's an escape from reality, and as long as I plug myself up to its incessant flow of content and flickering images, I can ignore reality. Wow, what abundant life that offers (John 10:10)!

Now, there are other vices in my life that choke out my flourishing. I'm seeing how my compulsion to check Facebook is drawing me into similar patterns as television did (and still does when I feel particularly lazy).

My questions are these: What in your lives prevents you from flourishing? Could you benefit from new scenery? What can you strip from your lives to foster new growth and break free from stagnation and puny fruit? What thorns choke life out of you and need to be removed from your lives?

Are you going to act upon this and thrive?

Born of the Spirit

"Everyone born of the Spirit is blown by the Wind..." -- Jason Upton

I was running my fourth lap around the lake when I passed up, for the second time, an elderly man walking with two canes, named Carroll. I jogged twenty yards past, and felt compelled to stop. Asking if I could walk with him, we continued to around the lake chatting.

I'm glad I didn't keep running. We talked about nature (moose), gardening, television, his wife volunteering at the library, his recent hip surgery, my seminary education... and how his knee is in need of surgery/replacement. At the end, I asked if I could pray for his knee, and we did.

Let me tell you. I could tell that meant a lot to him. He mentioned once how he and his wife went to church, but he started confessing after the prayer his faith in Christ with much humility and gratitude to God!

We need to voice our faith with confidence. We need not be ashamed of the God who saves. We need to be willing to go wherever and do and say as the Spirit compels us.

Have you been blown by God somewhere or to someone recently?

Heaven on Earth Glimpsed

I've been having one of those weeks, where things are just making sense. And it isn't so simple as to say it is just this one way, excluding this or that. I am experiencing the joy of the LORD, and it is as if in His grace, the mysteries of the universe are revealed. If I could sum it up, it is paradox; God is both thoroughly pleased with the unfolding outcomes of His providence and the world's response, and at the same time, righteously angered and vexed with the rebellious and ignorant ways of humanity. I think this is possible because God is infinite and beyond time as we experience it.

I want to share a vision I believe God to have given me in grace, and I hope it edifies those who read this to better grasp the majesty of the Great God. I need to set the vision in context, however, which I will do now through narrative.

My journey of discovering God is going on its thirteenth year. Many of those years have been spent bouncing back and forth between treasuring the grace poured out on me (and fellow believers that we could even know Him) and writhing in the torture of not being able to offer up the level of devotion and honor due Him. This more unpleasant aspect of the Christian journey has found a new dimension of brilliance after spending a season discovering a most true and wonderful aspect of God: I had revealed to me the glory and majesty of God, grasping more fully the splendor of His Holiness. Do YOU comprehend what it means for God to be fully separate and other than you and I? We commit a grave error and dishonor to God when we consider Him altogether like us (see Psalm 50, and note the attitude of God in His frustration and anger toward an irreverent people). No, I'm serious. Stop and read it. I want the gravity of such a posture with God to settle into the depths of your soul. You should feel convicted and and undone, much like Isaiah felt before God (Isa 6).

This season of my life was the most profound I had experienced up to that point. God is OTHER. He burns with an intensity of glory that kills those not extended Christ's covering. To this, we should appropriately fall to our knees (and even face) in awe, fear and reverence to God, as I continually do. But that is not all.

In continuing the story, I must share how these newly discovered gems of truth quickened me and those journeying with me to action, as the Word of God must do. A quick tangent: Imagine God in the midst of creating, speaking things and life into existence! What power is behind the words of God uttered from Him! What transformative and creating power does the Word of God have in regards to us as we receive! Ponder that for a moment. God's Word was having an effect on us who were seeing glimpses of God's majesty, and it was profound. We were given eyes to see how God was and how the world was, and the natural response was to grieve the state of the world, even the Church, as she is still in a state of harlotry, just like Israel before the time of Christ's first coming. We grieved and were compelled to cry out for justice to be done God by crediting Him the glory due His Name. We thought this looked like separating our flock from perceived dangers of spiritual harlotry, that we as a church would not contribute to the state of adultery by partnering with churches with particularly controversial positions on things like abortion and homosexuality. Some of my friends, I fear, are stuck in this position of writhing for fear that they will be judged harshly by a wrathful and glorious God who is serious about the state of sin and the wrong actions born out of that state, if they do not devote their life to warning others of this character of God. While this is true and God remains a God of wrath, I have yielded to God's outpouring of revelation and sense the picture is much more grand than that. I think it was this sentiment that caused alarm and hesitation in the elders of our church to oppose my group and the things we urged to happen. It was a messy and destructive process. Grace should have been extended more liberally on all sides. I pray God redeem and create new life out of the rubble. I pray all sides trend slowly and lightly forward, speaking in humility and receptive to the truth the other side can and does speak for the other. The truth is in both sides, which ties into the vision given me. I'm not there just quite yet, however.

It was my mentor, Jerry Nelson, who I believe summed up well the next chapter of my journey, which I find myself in now and further offers a unifying truth to these two sides of the faith. He said (and I paraphrase) that what is most glorious about our God is the fact that in His Holiness and intense Glory, God is with us and offers the opportunity of relationship with Him through the Son's sacrifice. Immanuel is extending mercy to a depraved people despite how egregious our state is for Him. Remember, God is infinitely perfect and without wrong, without flaw or defect. Our very nature is compromised and it would go against the very nature of God to associate with us if it were not His nature to love gloriously and perfectly. It is for His Name's sake that He relent (Isa 48:11).

You see, what the elders of my church have steadfastly proclaimed and find foundational is the fact that God is loving and gracious and adamant at pursuing us for relationship. We too, can express our devotion to God through relationship with Him and one another. This is all very biblical and beautiful. And you must also see that my small group who had revealed to us the splendor of God's majesty, on an ontological basis - His very essence - was discovering and responding to truths that are very much biblical and beautiful. Even our warnings and desires for pursuing holiness (i.e. separateness) are biblical. What once was seen as contradictory in my eyes, how my elders either had it wrong and my small group had it right, or vice versa, I see that way no more. Now, I see, as in a vision, the persons of our God like a many-faceted jewel, sparkling brilliantly from one vantage, at which the sight makes you lose your breath and you can't help but fall to your face in worship, for He is that gloriously majestic and beautiful. Only, circle about the Jewel, which is our God, and from that vantage you behold a whole different scene, with wholly different truths, yet equal in importance though different in response. It is the same God, but more complex than our minds can conceive. He truly is infinitely Holy and Glorious, full of Grace and Love, wrath and mercy.

Let me tie this to a couple parables that Jesus shared:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had bought it" (Matthew 13:44-46).

Upon beholding God, we experience a revealing of truths: of Him, of our world, and of a proper response aligned with such profound insights, and we are much like the man and the merchant in that such a treasure as God demands response, only there is not one right response. Just like the man is compelled to purchase property (where the treasure is amply located), the merchant is compelled to purchase a pearl, the object of his desire. Depending on one's vantage, a proper response may look differently than what another's response should be. You may need to buy land to build a church to serve God. You may have to adopt an orphan girl and name her "Pearl." It's going to look different depending on where we are with God. The coherence of responses, though, is that sacrifice and self-denial is required. Both the merchant and the man had to sell all that they had. We cannot only partially turn away from our worldly lives, not in the end. The more we gloriously search out the matter of God's persons (Proverbs 25:2), the more we realize we will never be the same. Sanctification is to be conformed to His likeness; do not forget that. God is jealous and will purify His Bride.

Realizing these things this week has been like entering the throne room of God, despite physically being bound to this fallen world. Heaven is a lovely notion, a reality not yet received. It has been glimpsed, however, and it steadies me for more abuse until He takes me home, into His Arms.

A Theological Calibration on Life

So, I'm a seminary student, and part of the curricula is to engage in a mentoring program that fosters character growth spiritually. I chose this semester to work on that aspect of faith for the Christian regarding confidence and identity, where the believer not only knows about God's grace, but responds to Him with adoration and service. I described it as actualizing the Scriptural description of being "more than [a conqueror.]" Romans 8:34-39 says this:

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I wish to start my calibration from the Scriptures with this truth from Paul. We can have the confidence that Paul had (and exhorted the Romans to have) because Jesus intercedes continually for us, who trust in Him. It says that in Hebrews 7:25 as well: "Therefore he [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." The love of God rests on the Son; the love of God is in Christ Jesus! So if Jesus is interceding and acting as a mediator between us and the Father, then who or what can separate us from the intimate love our gracious God offers us? The answer is nothing!

I need to own this more than I do. I often fall into thinking that my sin separates me from God. That even sounds biblical. But the truth is that I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and He dwells in me. In grace, He reveals truth to me and patiently waits for me to truly own it. I can grieve the Holy Spirit in me and silence Him for a time, but grace trumps sin. That is, in part, the gospel.

I started this semester more energetic than normal for me, and sought to completely alter my character, eliminating my flaws through a systematic evaluation of every lie and stronghold from the Enemy. I based this off of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, where it says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." I do recognize that many of the character flaws I have are due to me agreeing with the lies that intend to deter me away from God (at least from my perspective). I planned to use this semester to attack every thought and test it to the knowledge of God, to see if it was contrary to Scripture.

Well, that got exhausting and lost a lot of steam after a few weeks. That, and the excitement wore off. I still think it is a valid and useful practice and that I need to do that often, but I realize now that I was operating more out of my own ability and strength than allowing the Holy Spirit to simply nudge me when I was buying into a lie. I whole-heartedly believe that God gave us the Spirit in order to serve us. He receives great joy from doing so. How often do we feel like a burden to God for being such a mess? I feel this way, as if God will breathe a sigh of relief when we finally arrive and no longer sin. What a lie! My heart, please understand how treasured I am to God!

One thought I have taken captive was this great plan I developed for myself to realize a more godly character. I developed an ideal Michael in my mind as to what I would be like fully living for God. This Michael was joyful, inviting, assertive and outgoing, readily eager to share the good news of Jesus as God with us. I imagined that I needed to be a bubbly extrovert...

I'm not a extrovert. I can't muster it. With the help of my mentor, I began to realize that there are some aspects of my personality that do not need redeeming. I do not need to operate by default as one who pursues strangers for the gospel. This is not to say that I am off the hook from God ever wanting me to serve in that role, but I don't need to become one who feeds off of such interactions... quite the opposite occurs, in that it takes a lot of energy to play that type for me. That yoke would not be too easy.

So what of one of my goals to initiate conversation with random strangers with the intent of sharing my faith (at least twice a month all semester)? I had the grandest intentions... but whenever I found myself in a cafe` or bookstore around such people, it felt disingenuous in that I would more be serving my needs, in fact I'd be using them, to "better" myself. A forced gospel presentation is not authentic and edifying, it is means to a selfish end, if not motivated out of a genuine love for neighbor.

Also, as I found from Scripture, those encounters I imagined having are out of context with where and how the disciples witnessed. Throughout the account in Acts, when Christ's apostles and others were sharing the gospel, there was occasion for it that was fitting to the environment. Peter and others taught at the Temple almost exclusively. In that culture, religious centers acted as a recreational hang out, and the topic of discussion was religion! If I were to intrude on the man at the coffee shop, interrupting his reading to force God on Him, I would not be aligned with the Scriptural model given me. Now if this person was reading a Bible or some other Spiritual literature, and looked perplexed, I have more of a legitimate context for engaging in conversation, as there is a logical link.

So, I am in need of adjusting me contract goal to better suit my purpose. I need to be willing and available for God talk, but within an appropriate context. I have the thought to offer a Bible study and meal at my apartment once a week to my neighbors, the vast majority I do not know or interact with. By offering such fellowship, I anticipate it would meet several needs for my neighbors, and there would be no pressure or awkwardness to respond to a piece of paper. Who knows how many might need and want social interaction who otherwise gets very little? Who knows how many might have questions about God? Who knows how many might just need a meal?

This might flop, but I'm going to give it a try. The point is that I try to be a person I would want to encounter. I feel compelled to share what hope and joy I receive from God, and alleviate the hurt of this world by offering guidance toward the Cure. Is this not the Great Commission, to immerse and submerge and dunk everyone in the Name and subject of the Triune God, to His glory?

Shame vs. Conviction

The distinction was reiterated once more, this time in my formation group. I think I could benefit from meditating on this issue.

Shame = an underlying notion of character deficiency; The shameful person believes there is something inherently wrong with him or her; It is guilt that leads to death.

Conviction = an uneasiness or disappointment of one's choice or action; The convicted person realizes a behavioral failures/mistake; It is guilt that leads to repentance.

2 Cor 7:8-11:

Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

Why is it so hard to "go there"? I can write pages about how the principle should play out in theory, but when it comes to assessing my own life and my own feelings, I hesitate. I think I buy into shame more than I do conviction. It is hard to shake off shame when so often those things we do that we hate seem unavoidable; it is true bondage. It is easy to buy into the lie that there is something wrong with you when you can't measure up to the standard you set for yourself. I don't know who will read this. More than being embarrassed that I often feel incompetent, I wonder if a non-Christian viewing this would be confused, for they view themselves differently than I do myself. I wonder if they feel the pressure to measure up in some fashion, like I do according to the Biblical model of a godly, regenerate representative of God's Kingdom. I wonder if it just doesn't matter, or they have no aspiration for self-improvement, for they don't get their sense of happiness from realizing an increased spiritually healthy state. Are they then free to just be and subsequently find a sense of happiness, or are free to improve without even trying?

What role does Satan play in twisting states for Christians? Does he invest more resources in distorting truth for the Christian, to sabotage the potential witness that believer may bring? Do we Christians have it harder than all other types of people in the world? I get that there are those who face hunger and disease and war, disasters and crime... I realize that my state could be much worse. I realize I could be on the street and not know where my next meal will come from. I realize I could be without a car and dependent on government aid and public transportation to make ends meat. I, however, know for a fact that poverty speaks very little to one's happiness, for I have been in fellowship with significantly poorer people from Nicaragua who were happier than most people I encounter in the US.

I don't expect this shame that I feel to just drop off me (unless, Jesus, you want to do that for me), but what I can choose to do is to proclaim the truth and start the healing process. I am a Child of God, a co-heir with Christ, who has the seal of the Holy Spirit, dwelling within me, who never leaves me and intercedes for me with groans that go beyond words. I am deeply loved. There is nothing that I can do, there is no depths of depravity that I can sink that will render void my saintly status of blessed. Nothing can separate me from Christ's love, not even my ignorance that it is always there, conquering though I'm blind of the results. There is no condemnation for those in Christ, and indeed, I am in Christ. I am abiding in Jesus, my vine and sustenance, for I am continually filled with the truth of God and the ways of the Kingdom. I believe and act on my faith in Christ Jesus by confessing with my heart and lips the glory of my King, who has begun establishing His Heavenly Kingdom of truth and justice. I am free, for Christ has set me free in the inner man. I no longer sin, but rather it is the sin in me, in my carnal flesh, that does evil. I eagerly await the resurrection body that I may be fully free and integrated physically with who I am now, the spiritual new life I have in Christ. ALL of my failures are forgiven and not counted against me. It grieves the Holy Spirit, but God's longsuffering is patient and enduring, able to withstand centuries of offense, for the sake of displaying His glory and worth as Sovereign Ruler, for He delivers His people, those who call upon the Name of Jesus for mercy and grace, which He gives abundantly. My God is mighty and awful. His majesty humbles me, for I am found in His favor, considered a prince. His love reigns. It is His kindness that leads me to repentance, for I trust that He believes in me, and His joy strengthens me.

Even if I amount to nothing in life, and according to the world, I have failed life miserably, I am confident that my Daddy will receive me with open arms and royal robes when this age fades.

Who's Your Daddy?

I was recently struck with the realization that I hadn't a clue what it meant to be a child of God, for deep down, that concept unnerved me and riddled my thoughts with unreachable expectations of godliness that could not possibly apply to me.

So below will be a barrage of New Testament texts that have reference to the sonship of God by adoption. I'll attempt to piece together the beginnings of a theology on the saints' adoption as God's children, which I determine to be greatly lacking understanding in the current Christian milieu. My fears are that the enemy continues to convince us that this is made void by sin and best forgotten. My hopes and most earnest prayer is that the beauty of this rema of God (word or thought for the moment - cf. Ephesians 6:17) will so penetrate the depths of our souls that we find empowerment in our sonship and truly begin to live.

So here goes. I'll comment after each passage.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matt 5:9)

These are Jesus' words from his sermon on the Mount, part of the beatitudes. I am immediately reminded of the words of Paul to the Corinthians: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." The new creation of believers in Christ are in the business of making peace and reconciling God to humanity. They are called sons of God.

...those who are considered worthy to attain to that age [of eternity] and to the resurrection from the dead... cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. (Luke 20:35-36)

Oddly enough, these are Christ's words to the Sadducees regarding a quandary they presented him about marriage and heaven. For my purposes I wanted to stress the fact that such sons of God are given new resurrected bodies and cannot die. They are also made equal with the angels in that day, inferring a glory hard to fathom in our current state and thought.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13)

Faith in the person of Jesus Christ, the one true illuminating and exposing light and source of purpose and existence, is the only means to attain God's favor and the title of child of God, more than an adoption; a rebirth "of God" (cf John 3:3-6). There is no second-rate sonship here!

"You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. (John 11:49-52)

Caiaphas' words, the high priest during the time of Jesus' crucifixion, to his officials. Honestly, this passage perplexes me. How could he prophesy such a thing? What does this say to his culpability in pursuing such a thing if God gave him the wisdom of such a sacrifice? Anyways, I love John's commentary and foreshadowing of the ministry to the Gentiles, that God's children are "scattered abroad" and awaiting the proclamation of the gospel so that they can respond and be made new by God.

For if you live according to... the Spirit [and if] you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us... the redemption of our bodies. (Rom 8:13-18, 23)

I think this is crucial for the Church to understand. A wise man called Christianity a "serious and difficult religion." There are tasks for the Christian, mainly that we must live according to the Spirit given us, not quenching the Spirit (i.e. grieve) but die to the ways of the sinful nature. The contrary is to live as the world does, looking and behaving no differently than the world, in which case we truly have lost our saltiness and hid our light under a bowl.

The Spirit reveals truth (John 16:13) and the truth is that if we are God's we are His children. This is of great comfort to me. When I actually celebrate God's closeness with me, and honor Him, I have experienced my affections changing toward His ways and His thoughts. This of course makes the Christian stand out in a corrupt and evil world, and brings persecution and suffering. This is scary only to the Christian who does not yet comprehend the peace and joy that comes from owning one's sonship and heirship. Princes and Princesses indeed we are who treasure Christ!

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ... And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:24-27, 29)

The Abrahamic covenant is one that through his seed (ultimately Christ himself) Abraham would start the ball for a mighty nation for God, that would bless all the earth. Has this not already begun (see Schmidt's How Christianity Changed the World to discover Christ's profound impact on all of culture, often taken for granted today, e.g. we no longer have the common practice of killing newborns because they are not the preferred male)? Indeed it is the people of God that have been justified and clothed in Jesus, the perfect representation of humanity.

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life (Phil 2:14-16)

Can you imagine a world where this group emerged who were free of complaint, but perfectly content and even joyous in the midst of hardship? Would they not shine so brightly, that the hungry and sick would want to join them and the self-righteous and affluent would despise them and persecute them, but to no avail?!

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure... No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God (1 John 2:28 - 3:3, 9-10)

I would believe that Satan would be very content in deceiving Christ's disciples into thinking that they were not yet considered God's children, that we have not yet been given a portion of our inheritance already, mainly Christ himself! I do not think it is too far fetched to say that the Enemy works very hard to put this into question for many believers, in attempts to discourage and paralyze the Saints. This has been my experience, and yet, I think the days are numbered that I feel defeated by sin and unworthy/unable to enjoy my God and be enjoyed by Him. You see, my hope is rising, and it is found solely in Christ, and I am pure and being purified still. Sin has lost its grip on me because God has called me His own.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments... We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:1-2, 18-21)

Some two thousand years after Christ came, our condition for understanding the gospel is somewhat different than that of the first established churches. There are many "Christians" who believe Jesus is the Christ (Savior), only they are not born of God. This passage can be taken out of context to say all who pray a prayer of belief are saved from hell. This is how I understood it growing up. I think passages like 2 Cor. 11:1-15 show that different versions of the gospel, highlighting slightly varied nuances, depicting a "Jesus" other than the true historical and holy Jesus are the Enemy's schemes to ruin God's work and lead many astray.

Imagine how if Paul, within the first 20 years of establishing the Church in Corinth, was bombarded with false presentations, how much more so will we, two millennia later, have such evil ploys infiltrating our understanding of the gospel. Indeed, I believe that is why the Reformation fractured the Faith into thousands of pieces. God, in His wisdom and grace, has revealed error, and compelled repentance in his saints and disassociation from those who treasure more the kingdom that they established through worldly means and that is reinforced with worldly benefits. But to the credit of Satan, he even used this splitting to distract and cause strife. You see we have admonitions from the epistles to avoid fakers, but Jesus' spoke of how wheat would grow intermingled with the weeds. What am I trying to say with this tangent of sorts? There was a time when the followers of Christ, those true children of God, lived out their authority and so shone in a dark and evil world that they could not help but change the world, because God was with them. We saw this when the early church unraveled the pagan-worship model of religion, and radically redirected the course of culture toward the things of God, with Emperor Constantine as a landmark. Then there was a time when God raised up another son to challenge the corrupted religious institution that was completely void of the essence of Christ's gospel; that landmark was Luther, and there are many who paved the way and supported him in this re-calibration of Christianity...

I believe there is a new time coming and indeed started, where the children of God will rise up to the challenge of being salt and light to the world once again. This is not to negate those throughout the between times who truly grasped the gospel. Those people exist. Indeed, God's grace to reveal truth throughout the age by the Spirit has not been lacking entirely. Is it not, however, becoming so dark that we are due time for the dawn to come once more?

Ecumenism has been a pursuit for decades. But its premise has been to compromise, to overlook heretical doctrine and find the lowest common denominator. There has been very little defining of what "gospels" and "Jesus"s are actually embraced. And that is why even after decades of attempts to reconcile faith traditions for the common good will continue to fail. They are not all children of God, and the love for one another does not come naturally like it does for the children of God, when they own their special place in God and live abundantly through that. I believe there will be children pulled from many different traditions, whom are inclined to the true gospel, for they are hand-picked by God.

What a beautiful day that will be when the children of God raise up in confidence of their status, empowered by their God whom they gird themselves with, and so shine with a most glorious brilliance! Lord, your Kingdom come, and quickly.