2022

 

It is a new year!

2021 ended at a high note. But there were also losses. 

It is the saddest thing when the Christians, especially the ones closest to us, choose to stop and say, 'I shall no longer know you. We do not agree in spiritual matters'. 

This happened to my family member. A dear friend stopped and shut the door. So, that was a sad day, and a loss. She will be missed. 

But, we have to respect the decision of the humans. (Besides, even Jesus experienced that. He was God. Although he lived on earth in human form, in our likeness). In John 6, after he had taught about fellowship in His blood and flesh, in verse 66 many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Interestingly, 6:66 signifies the number of a man (and also the number of the beast - Rev. 13:18). 

It speaks about the beast in all of us in the natural, carnal plane vs the supernatural - the new creation after new birth. 

The disciples who had been following Jesus found his teaching too challenging. It was too much for them and they chose to part ways. Yet, they had learned under the hand of Jesus. Not in his inner, but outer circle.

Jesus demonstrated his faith to us by not just loving and including his disciples, but going an extra mile by loving and treating the one who was going to betray him, just the same, till the end. 

When Christians find it hard to walk in unity with our fellow Christians who may have a little different teaching, it is sad. Then again, friendship is a closer relationship, and we do not have to be friends with just anyone. We invest our time and effort into our friends. And we expect them to have our back, being willing to do the same for them. 

In the given context, there was a strong shared spiritual foundation, via one and the same minister. Honestly, there should not have been any difference at all. 

Nevertheless, we are free to pass our choices. 

Also, Jesus had his closest friend John. Then he went to the Mountain of Transfiguration, taking along Peter, James and John the brother of James. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee accompanied him to the Garden of Gethsemane where he needed their company. They accompanied him, but fell asleep (this is another story, but they went along to support him at least in some sense, so it wasn't all bad). And then he had his twelve whom Father had given him (including Judas who was about to betray him).

We are humans, and humans have free will. That was the central tenet of the two trees in the Garden where the first humans exercised their free choice. God pointed out a superior way, but left the end result up to them. He did not create robots. He created humans who were free to choose whether they wanted to go this or that way. God told them which way was better, so they passed an informed choice. Yet, there were mitigating circumstances. They were lied to, and something about this lie made them curious, so they went along and experimented.... and lost their supernatural to natural. That was what the Fall was about. 

God knew the end from the beginning, and had already come out with a rescue plan, which He was going to manifest in due time.

We cherish the people in our life. Some are in our life for a season, and then this season ends. Some stay longer. Some may be lifelong friends. No matter the duration of our friendship, we treat them just the same. When Jesus could treat even Judas - a disciple whom His Father had chosen for his inner - although not innermost - circle, with love and respect, we can treat the ones in our life with love and respect. Their departure, no matter the reason, does not have to mean as if they were somehow bad or the time and efforts invested into them had been useless, just it was a season with an expiration date. 

A lot has been lost due to semantics (or the way we see and read into words). Some see love as the nature of God. The others understand it only on an emotional level. Yet, it was the only commandment Jesus left us. To love God, and our neighbour (as we love ourselves - also this is vital!). God is the very embodiment of Love. To walk in Love (according to 1 Cor. 13:4-7) means to walk with God. Paraphrasing here my former pastor Michael O'Loughlin, 'a step out of love is a step away from God'. 

We may, once again, have a difference of opinion when it comes to the meaning of our neighbour. Who is our neighbour. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then, He told us to go and do likewise. 

Sometimes we have equated showing mercy to something we have been calling as 'humanism', while seeing it as something opposing the nature of Christianity. 

Jesus left us an example, and He was more inclusive than we may tend to think. He loved also Judas, and treated him like the rest of his disciples (while knowing the end result). Maybe he hoped to change the history (and yes, he had come to fulfill his mission - to give his life for ours, ending up at the Cross!). Yet, Judas could have passed a different decision by the end - Jesus was patient and walked in love, not cutting him out, or subjecting him to a different treatment - he loved Judas till the end, and his heart felt pain at his decision to betray him. 

Does it mean that Judas went to hell? Some think that since he committed a suicide, he ended in hell. 

Could the sacrifice of Jesus have covered also Judas? Have we ever behaved like Judas by betraying Jesus who identifies with His church of His believers - who can be also likened to our neighbours (Matthew 25:35-40). Don't we all have a little bit of Jesus-betraying Judas in our carnal nature?

Some are adamant that Sapphira and Ananias went to hell. If that were true, then where would it leave us with some of us being rather liberal with utterances like 'you have a different Holy Spirit in you' (which is according to Matthew 12:32 an unpardonable sin - calling the recreated new creation or a human spirit birthed by the Holy Spirit inside another believer as another spirit ... yet God knows and understands and does not hold it against us when we do it blindly - although we are able to impact the other believers in a negative way if we venture into this territory)... 

Sapphira and Ananias had sold their property, and given a share of the purchase price while feigning to give the entire price - which they did not have to do! simply the others had been doing so, and they left an impression, while doing a different thing - so they lied. How many of us have done something similar....or maybe worse. If they went to hell, which hope it would leave to the rest of us. All of us are humans. And humans, they make mistakes. All it takes, is an understanding. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to help us see. He convicts us. He shows us our mistake, and the moment we see it, the Blood of Jesus removes whatever we did wrong. 

The Blood of Jesus is far superior than we often tend to think. 

The sacrifice of Jesus was the sacrifice God Himself made. He came down to lift us up - in Him. He took our sin which was nailed to the Cross where He died, with us being hidden in Him. Now, no longer I live, but Christ lives in me. I in Him, and He in me. 

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 ►

King James Bible Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We may want to understand that this is a process. 

Salvation and sanctification are not one and the same thing. Yet, many of us make no difference here. 

God accepts us as we are. Then He helps us change, a revelation at a time. Change happens inwardly. 

His solution was to give us a spirit which was created in His image and this is the new creation in Him.

He created us and gave us a spirit which had a different, spiritual DNA with all the commandments of God coded into it. This spirit has been made with a desire to do things in His way. If we yield to spirit, we walk in the spirit. Henceforth, it is behind our choices, and reactions, whether we choose to go the way of the flesh, or the way of the spirit.

Jesus is our Saviour. He did not do a half-baked thing. He completed His mission on earth. It is finished. He promised that His Holy Spirit will come to us and stay with us forever (John 14:16). 

He accepts us as we are, and no, we do not need to clean up our act and become blameless before we accept His free gift of salvation to us. An addict cannot overcome his addiction so easily - they need the power and help of God. A person with a messed up thinking can find new patterns of thought in Christ. Our sanctification is a process - it does not usually happen instantly, while some of it may happen also this way when the miraculous steps in. 

If we preach a conditional gospel (as opposed to the good news - Luke 4:18-19), we deny the people the access to God. We may mean well, but it is best to have our thoughts aligned with the mind and heart of God, and learn to see the world via His heart. We are not called to alienate the world, but we are called to become a bridge. 

Our difference of opinion over salvation and grace and every other thing in the Bible is just what it is - a difference of human opinion, or our translation of God and His heart and His mind. When we focus on Christ, and His Work, and His nature which has been explained and shown to us via the words of the Bible, it is easy to agree. But we have to come to an understanding of Christ, to begin with. 

When we see God as a good God, and a Father, it is a lot easier for us to understand grace.

Many have accepted His free gift grace, and understand it when it concerns themselves, while finding it challenging to be gracious in their attitude and interaction with their fellow humans. Suddenly, grace is seen as a cheap substitute. The application of it to the world around us seems to dilute our Christianity. Then it makes it very easy for us to find our fellow Christians who do different in their Christian walk, offensive and un-Christian. 

The flesh always opposes the spirit. 

There is legalism which is religion, based on manmade ideas and understanding of God. 

And then, there is lawlessness, which is based on the understanding of grace, taken to the extreme.

Our differences are often behind simple semantics or difference of opinion over words/ideas. One has in mind lawlessness, interpreting it as 'cheap' grace, and opposing the concept of grace. 

The other has in mind grace, teaching it and walking in it....

There is nothing cheap about grace. It cost Jesus His life.

Sometimes we may be found talking about the same thing, while approaching it at different angles.

A Canadian Bishop in our previous church sat and sighed and uttered the words, 'Always, when I receive a new revelation from God, I ask Him how many friends this is going to cost me...'

God bless you!

Have a good new year!