4SpiritualSecrets

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

 In this verse the Apostle Paul is informing us that we have boundaries of responsibility.  The J.B. Phillips translation puts it this way: “In as far as your own responsibility goes, live at peace with every man.” In all our relationships we have a responsibility.  That responsibility has a point at which it begins and there is a terminus where our responsibility ends.  We can’t control what the other person in that relationship does or does not do.  We can control, and we are responsible for, what we do in every relationship.

This is not only true in our relationships but in every other area of our life.  There is a hymn which laments, “Oh what needless pain we bear…” I often think of that phrase.  We bear so much needless pain because we do not accept the boundaries of our responsibility.  Into each life some pain must fall.  I have my share and I’m sure you have your share.  But nobody should tolerate the thought of needless pain!

There is so much needless pain in our life because we do not accept the limits of our limitations in that dimension for which we are responsible in our relationships.  This truth can set us free from so much pain in difficult relationships.  Paul is prescribing that we must acknowledge and accept our responsibility boundaries.

Someone has written that all nature is red in tooth and claw.  If we will fill and take Paul’s prescription we will be saying to the one in relationship with us, “Life is not a rat race or a dogfight because I am not a dog or a rat.”

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

The author of what is called the faith chapter of the Bible presents what we might call “The Hall of Faith.”  He parades by heroes of faith who showed us by the way they lived what faith is.  Before he exhibits these walking definitions of faith, the author writes some introductory thoughts about faith.  He writes that without faith it is impossible to please God or come to God.  He adds that if we want to come to God or please God we must believe two things about God: We must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

In two places (in Matthew 7 and Luke 11), Jesus taught that we should continuously – and with perseverance – ask, seek, and knock.  He gives a great promise with this exhortation.  He promises that everyone who asks in this way will receive, and everyone who seeks in this way will find, and the one who knocks in this way will discover that the door on which they are knocking will open to them.  Seeking is intense asking and knocking is intense seeking.

Jesus was not talking about salvation when He gave this exhortation.  He was teaching us how to diligently seek God. According to the author quoted above this is a prerequisite to pleasing God and coming to God.  Can there be such a thing as an authentic believer who does not want to come to God and please God?

If you want to come to and please God find out what it means to diligently seek God.

He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

The Roman Empire used the word “Tetelesti” when they crucified someone, or when a prison sentence had been completed.

Crucifixion was one of the favorite methods of execution by the Romans.  They crucified whole villages that did not pay their taxes.  Almost any act of what they considered a refusal to obey them could be punished by crucifixion.  They left the naked crucified bodies on crosses for weeks until the vultures picked the bodies clean to inspire terror in the lives of those they had conquered.

Jesus was obsessed with the work the Father had given Him to do.  He told His apostles that His meat was to do the will of His Father and to finish His work.  He said that He must do the works of His Father while it was day because the night was coming when no man could work.  When He was about to be arrested and taken to His death by crucifixion, in prayer to His Father He told the Father that He had glorified Him because He had finished the works He was given to do.

When He was convinced that His suffering on the cross was a sufficient sacrifice to forgive the sins of the world, He announced that glorious reality with a loud cry which in English translates “It is finished!” By providential irony for this glorious reality He chose that word “Tetelesti.”

By devotional application this means that there are no works we can add to what He finished for us on that cross.  Another application would be to ask, “What has begun in our life because of what He finished for us on that cross?”

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer …let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

Have you ever heard any one confess,“I guess I’m a control freak?” My response to that confession is “Welcome to the human family!” The truth is we’re all control freaks.  Both Jesus and Paul taught that we should not be anxious.  What they both meant was don’t worry.  They also both taught us not to worry about the things we cannot control – like the height of our body or the lives of other people.

Speaking as one control freak to another, the thing that really freaks us out is what we cannot control.  In what the Alcoholics Anonymous people call the “Big Book,” there is an illustration with which all of us control freaks can resonate.  We think that life is a stage on which we are directing a play.  The people in our life are characters in that play.  As the play director we give them their scripts and their cues but when they don’t respond to our direction, our frustration drives us into a bottle or some other addiction.

When I was a student I had a mentor who wrote a poem with these lines: “You can’t control the weather or rainy days, but you can control the emotional climate that surrounds you.  You can’t control the height your head will be from the sidewalk, but you can control the height of the contents of your head.”

After quite a few of those his punch line was “Why worry about the things you cannot control? Accept the responsibility for the things that do depend on you.”

Follow the advice of Jesus and Paul and don’t worry about what you can’t control.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption … What counts is a new creation.” (Galatians 6: 7, 8, 15)

The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Galatians.  The first part of this passage is often preached to unbelievers, but Paul was addressing professing believers.  As believers this is a spiritual law of our life in Christ.  Every day we can sow spiritual seeds in the garden of our life, or we can sow seeds of our flesh in that garden.  William Barclay, a professor of Bible at Edinburgh University for forty years, wrote that when the Bible refers to our flesh it means “human nature unaided by God.” According to Paul, human nature unaided by God is a seed that produces corruption.

We have the option to sow spiritual seeds in our life every day.  Paul writes that these spiritual seeds produce a continuous creation.  David prayed “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me” (Psalm 51:10). In the New Testament the apostles refer to being born again as a miracle of creation.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God…” (2Corinthians 5:17, 18).

This means we have two awesome options before us every day: creation or corruption.  We can sow spiritual seeds in the garden of our life which continue the act of creation God is miraculously performing in us, or we can sow seeds that produce corruption.

What seeds are you sowing in the garden of your life every day?

“Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)

In the book of Numbers we read that twelve Hebrew spies were sent into Canaan to determine the strength of the enemies they would face as they invaded that land.  Ten of the spies reported that, “The people in that land were such big and fierce looking giants they made us feel like grasshoppers.  And the cities are mightily fortified with walls so thick they build houses on them!”

However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, reported that they had never seen such fruitful soil in their lives.  They described how two men had to carry on a thick pole one cluster of grapes from a vineyard in Canaan.  Furthermore, they proclaimed that since they had the Lord with them they were well able to conquer the land of Canaan.

We might say the ten spies with the negative report were experts in “giantology” because they saw the giants, while Caleb and Joshua saw the Lord – they had a vision that their Lord was well able to give them that exceedingly fruitful land of Canaan.

When we “committee our way unto the Lord” and are challenged to take on a project that has great potential for being exceptionally fruitful and there are many obstacles and risks involved, we often have a split committee on a ten and two basis.  Ten are experts on the obstacles and the risks involved in that project and two are like Caleb and Joshua.

When you are faced with challenges that involve risks, but great potential for God to bring great glory to Himself, are you an expert in “giantology” or do you see the Lord?”

“For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2 Corinthians 2:2)

Every relationship we have is a two-way street. According to the Apostle Paul whatever we send down that street comes back up that street and has a dynamic impact on that relationship.  Jesus states this same truth with a positive spin on it when He teaches hypercritical people, “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

This was a marketplace metaphor in the culture to which Jesus came.  If you were selling oats and a fellow merchant in that marketplace was selling wheat, when you bought from each other you could request them to use their bushel standard of measurement.  Paraphrased, this was saying that whatever standard you use when you give to the other person in a relationship, they will use when they give to you. All of this means that we cannot control the weather or rainy days, but we can control the emotional climate that surrounds us in a relationship.

Communication is not only what is said but what is heard.  It is not only what is said but what is felt.  How does the communication you are contributing in a relationship make the other person in that relationship feel?  If you’re sending negative waves into that other person’s life, is that likely to inspire them to send positive waves in your direction?

Paul gave us another great teaching on this subject when he wrote, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for the building up of others, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)

I challenge you to apply these teachings of Jesus and Paul in your relationships.

Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” (John 9:41)

Jesus spoke these words to the Bible experts of His day.  He had just healed a blind man and then preached, “I am the Light of the world.”  He explained that this Light He is gives sight to those who know they are blind and it reveals the hard reality that some who are proud of the fact that they can see are actually blind.

Let me illustrate what I believe Jesus meant: There was an explosion in a coal mine that trapped miners for many days.  When the rescuers broke through to the trapped miners there was much jubilation and celebration until one of the miners asked, “Why didn’t you guys bring any lights?” The rescuers had actually brought many lights.  This miner had been blinded by the explosion, but he did not know he was blind until the light came.

The intriguing part of the verse above is the declaration of Jesus that if they were blind they would have no sin.  This means His declaration that day was “No light, no sin.” By this He gave us a definition of sin.  Sin is a rejection of the light that was brought into this world by the One Who was – and continues to be – the Light of the World. Our response to the light we receive is therefore critically important.

We can conclude that it would be better for us to not receive light than to receive light and not respond properly.  You can see why Jesus taught that doing is more important than knowing (John 7:17).

Does the Light of the World cure or reveal your blindness?

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:36)

Many people refer to the Disciple’s Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13) as “The Lord’s Prayer.” However, the verse quoted above should be called “The Lord’s Prayer.” The Disciple’s Prayer was given with this instruction: “When you pray, you pray after this manner.” Jesus never prayed that prayer.  For example, He would not have asked God to forgive His debts or trespasses.

But Jesus did pray the prayer quoted above and that prayer is a model prayer for every believer.  God will often call us to do things that are difficult or even impossible.  He will call us to do things we do not want to do.  When that happens we should remember and then pray this model prayer our Lord has given us.

One of the Four Spiritual Secrets that form a grid through which I view my faith journey is based on this prayer of Jesus.  That spiritual secret is “I don’t want to, but He wants to.” The ignition that makes it possible to implement the answer to this prayer is “I’m in Him and He is in me.”

If you are facing a crisis today that involves doing His will, and not your own, I strongly encourage you to pray what someone has labeled “The Prayer that Never Fails.” Realizing and believing that God can do anything He wills to do, you have the right and a responsibility to ask Him to take this cup from you but then you must finish the prayer by surrendering to the prayer that never fails.  Pray that the important thing is not what you want, but what He wants.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 9)

In one of the most important chapters of the Bible Isaiah shared what we might call his “philosophy of ministry.”  Isaiah, who is called “The Prince of the Prophets,” declared that he preached the Word of God because there is as much difference between the way God thinks and acts, and the way we think and act, as the heavens are high above the earth.  Isaiah believed the Word of God can bring about an alignment between the thoughts and ways of God and the thoughts and ways of man.  Therefore, he preached the Word of God.

As an application to this profound declaration of Isaiah, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, asked the question, “If our steps are ordered by the Lord, how can we always expect to understand the way we are going?” (Proverbs 20:24)

It is so very important that we have this profound truth declared by Isaiah engraved in our minds: God does not think and act as we do! This is especially true when we are baffled by events and circumstances that overwhelm us and have us obsessed with “Why” questions.

A devout Christian surgeon I know says, “The word we use most in this life is ‘Why.’ And the word we’re going to use most in the next dimension is ‘Oh!’”  That’s because when we have eternal perspective on this life we are now living, in time we will say “Oh” when we see why God’s thoughts and ways were higher and better than the way we think and act.