Since the universe is unfolding as it should; so should you! Are you unfolding as God desires for you to unfold? What prevents us from this unfolding process? While the answer may be simply to go with the change; the reality of changing is loaded with frustrations and confusion. Beginning as children we are asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I still ask myself that question! Just what do you want to do when you grow up? The first assumption is that you will grow up. More than physically at least. Whether that happens or not is up to you. Just like being a vessel for God here on earth, you have the choice. No one can take your choice away. You can GIVE your choice away but no one can take it from you. People give away their choice in any number of ways. In reality when we give our choice away we are giving away our world and someone else begins unfolding your life the way they want it to be.
As parents we are to train up our children so that when they are old they will not depart from the way we have raised them. I know this refers to their spiritual heritage and am also understanding God’s part in this unfolding. Part of the unfolding process means letting go so that our children can blossom and be who God has created them to be. It’s a delicate balance as we push our children out of the nests but only when they are able to fly. The wise parent will make sure that the life lessons have been learned so that they can indeed make it on their own. This applies in the same manner to your work and working environment. How you were raised has huge implications to how you work, whether you work, and for whom you work. Again, wisdom plays an important part in this unfolding process. We are ahead of ourselves so let’s set a few of the rules of living in place before we go any further.
Simply put (the situation is anything but simple), there are two instructions that God gives us for a successful and productive life. The first is that we are to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, and soul. The second is like unto the first in that we are to love others as we love ourselves. These are two very successful ventures if you are able to do them. When I have asked people if they love God they often say yes. Just saying "yes" isn’t enough. Knowing God doesn’t mean you him.
Knowing God means you know of him and may have a connection but no commitment. How can that be? Well, look around yourself and you’ll see so many different things people say they love with the same definition. Sometimes people say they love this or that and their lives show it has more depth than their love for God. Let’s skip to the real test of your love for God. Would you give up your life for him? Faced with the choice between physical life and physical death; which would you choose?
There is coming a time in the future where this will be a serious question. Not that it shouldn’t be serious here and now as it should be. The future may play out like this. Your son, daughter, wife or other loved one is being tortured in order to get you to deny Jesus. You are in charge of making a decision that will relieve your loved one’s suffering proclaiming your love for them. Or, your decision will prove whether you love God more than anything or anyone else in your life. Both decisions are yours. Would you let them torture and kill your loved one or would you deny Christ in order that they might live? People don’t like to think about things like this. The person who proclaimed the Gospel to you prior to your salvation most likely did not mention this little part. Yet, the Bible is full of stories of saints who had just that choice before them. You may be doubting what I have just written. I’m sorry you’re doubting. Read the book of Revelations and then come back for the rest of this chapter. It’ll be worth the read. What decision are you going to make?
What decisions we make is evidence of the depth of our love of not only God but also our fellow man. So, how does the Christian show their love of God? Many books have been written about this very subject. Yet, the result of those books resulted in head knowledge for most and heart knowledge for few. Counting the costs as we follow Jesus is a serious venture intended for those who mean business. Coupled with that decision is the decision that our lives no longer belong to us. The decision making for us now is accomplished by the Lord. We are "sold out" completely to God. He says we do this, we do it. He says we don’t do this, we don’t do it. He tells us to go there, we go there. He says we speak out here, we speak out here. As Paul said, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." You see, when considering the decision using the Holy Spirits wisdom (we have none on our own) we make a decision that encompasses all of us. Too many people have begun the race without a horse to ride on. Have you? It’s not too late for anyone to begin to lose their life and gain Jesus. You can do that right now. If you are not sold out to God, your life will show it. Your "wisdom" comes from the world and not God. The fruits of your life in Christ are either little or non-existent when directed by the wisdom of the world.
When put to the test, what do you do? Is it more advantageous to hold true to God or yourself? There are only two choices. God or you? Just who’s universe is it? Does your universe unfold with or without God? If you are the "captain of your own destiny" then your universe is unfolding according to your plan. You may say that it’s God’s plan but it’s really yours. How can you know? Go back to the test of your love of God and the torture of your family. My kids think I’m nuts sometimes. Okay, maybe a lot of the time. I’ve had the conversation with them about life. No, not sex, dating and marriage. I’ve had the talk about who Jesus is, was and will be. THEN, I have had the talk about their never denying their love of Jesus. I’ve had the pleasure of praying with my kids (and many other people) to receive Christ as their Savior. Along with that responsibility is the responsibility to maintain that faith regardless of what the world throws at you. I’ve told them that regardless what is done to me that they never deny Jesus as Lord of their lives. I’ve been very descriptive of the torture of the Apostles in their death as they held fast to the Gospel. Have you ever thought of the time coming when the question may be put to you? Would you deny Christ for any reason? If you say this is ridiculous to think this way, your faith is either little or non-existent. Which is it?
Remember that living for God is always my choice.
Should your universe be unfolding according to God’s plan there will be evidence called fruit. Does your orchard or vineyard produce fruit? Is the fruit good to eat or not? What do you do to tend the orchard? Is there an orchard to tend? Use this simple test to determine whether or not there is fruit. If you were to die and go before Jesus today, right now, would there be anyone who would testify that you loved God more than anything in the world? I have plenty of people who would testify that I did not. My choices have not been putting Christ first in many cases. How about you? If you claim to have the love of God in you, who will testify of that? Now there may be some who say, "That’s not Biblical!" Well, yes it is Biblical. John 8:1-13 tells the story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. If you don’t know the story take a moment to read it before you go on. The story is of those who bring this woman to Jesus in order to trap him. They tell of her crime and the mandate of punishment for her crime. This is classical in the lives of those who think they know God. They focus on others’ lives and their sin without any knowledge of God in their own lives. The story goes on to say that Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground. I believe he wrote the names of those in the group. He then tells them, "You who have no sin can cast the first stone." He again bends down to write in the dirt. One by one you can almost hear the stones dropping to the ground. Why? Because they were not without sin. I believe that the second time he wrote on the ground, he wrote their sin beside their name. Judging others’ sin doesn’t have any part in the Christian life. Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more.
When I was a police officer I was charged with arresting criminal offenders and charging them with their crime. It required training so that I could be a good police officer. One of the lessons taught to me was that there is a "lesser and included violations" in the larger charge. For instance someone who is arrested for burglary would have committed trespassing, vandalism, and maybe a few other crimes as well. The charge of burglary included those crimes so there was no reason to charge all the others. That’s the way we come before God. We are guilty of so many violations and yet they are all covered by the word "sin". The punishment for sin is death. There are two deaths listed in the Bible. The first death is for the unbeliever and their eternity in hell. The second death is for the believer in that they die to self. In either case there are either fruits or the lack thereof which are evidence of our guilt. Would God see enough fruits in your life to believe that you love him? For centuries the world has been giving us excuse after excuse in exchange for our denial of Jesus in our lives. The "Christian" church speaks for all who claim God in their midst. The Christian church denotes all those who exhibit fruits of the Spirit in their lives. A dead tree bears no fruit. A live tree is fruit personified.
We will fail. It’s a fact. We will fail God. We will fail others. We will fail ourselves. We are human and steeped in sin. However, we don’t need to stay there. We don’t need to let our past control our future. That is part of God’s unfolding process in each one of our lives. Wisdom is knowing that we have fallen and then asking forgiveness from God and going forward. Often our past record "guilt’s" us into thinking we are no longer able to be a servant of God. It’s a lie straight from the pits of hell. Sometimes Satan speaks through humans who are in our life at one level or another. If this is true for you consider removing that person from your life. We need people who love Jesus and love us in our lives. With them in our lives there is sure good fruit to be produced. What we see as a failure we can and should learn from. Our kids, friends and relatives need to see that when we fall we get back up and move forward. Otherwise they see having a relationship with God as something to not die for.
Change is bound to come in our lives. In order for God to unfold our lives in his universe, we need to embrace change. To embrace this change we need to hear and receive the truth. We have no problem letting our friend know that she has toilet paper attached to her shoe. Why do we have problem letting her know that her language or jokes are not appropriate? There seems to be no problem giving unwanted criticism to others on any number of areas in our lives. Yet, when confronted with the chance to encourage and strengthen, we fall down. Change in Scripture comes when we surrender the things that hinder our walk. The Scripture says that we need to put childish things away and be mature. Yet, we see churches full of babies. Not a good reflection on God. We are called to be intolerant. What? We are called to be intolerant as Jesus was intolerant. No way! Yes way!
Okay, intolerance is a touchy subject but still merits discussion. God has provided himself in Jesus to our world with an intolerant attitude coupled with grace. God hates the sin of mankind. God loves the repentance of mankind. Our world yells at us to be tolerant of others and others choices. God tells us that we need to hold the line, stand for what we believe and fight the urge to buckle to the pressure of the world. Part of the problem with the world’s choice of tolerance is found in those who profess to be Christian. Granted we are called to be loving even as God is loving with us. Standing "his" ground is the obligation of the Christian if he indeed wants to see God unfold his or her life. God is intolerant of sin in any way, shape or form. Sin keeps our lives from unfolding in his will. If we aren’t doing his will then we are not counting the cost of living for God. When we do not count the cost of living for God we are quick to hide or even deny out faith. Should that drastic measure exist and we don’t exercise our faith, we choose to sin. Sin leads to death. Dead "Christians" put the cares and concerns of the world before anything else including God. Be sure that the attitude of not wanting to offend anyone offends God. Consider this; having a tolerant attitude doesn’t bring anyone to Christ. When people don’t come to know Christ through us, his servants, they spend eternity in hell. Is that where you want your friends, significant others and children to go? We think hell is reserved for our enemies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hell is reserved for us if we are unable to die for God.
Matthew 6:33 tells us that we are to be "perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect." If taken literally, I fail daily and there is little to no hope that I will ever be perfect. When looked at through the purpose and direction of Jesus the verse looks a little different. The verse is from the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is a fabulous sermon by Jesus giving us directions on how to live. So many of the teachings of Jesus are offensive "to those who are perishing." Jesus is kind in giving us a peek into how living with his guidance is so much easier than struggling with our world. If we understand this guidance then the verse quoted would most likely have "be being made perfect" as its beginning. Somehow we need to unpack the simple truth of this complex Scripture. Jesus covers the whole life of anyone who would choose to follow him in the Sermon on the Mount. We’re left believing that we can never be what Jesus expects us to be…perfect. Notice that the language I inserted uses the word "being made". Who is doing the "being made" part? Not you or I for sure. We are being made perfect by God when we choose to surrender our lives. In this posture of surrender we can reflect the perfectness of God to those who are perishing. Consistency by our lives will support that reflection and gain belief on both our and the hearer’s part.
Remember that the universe will unfold whether you or I want it to or not. The universe is put together and put in motion by God. That includes everything around us. God wants to include us in his motion among his creation. God also wants to increase the number of joint venture participants in this process. God put down a hostile takeover attempt by Satan and his demons once. He did so again in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to go forth and make disciples of all nations to the glory of God. All of this God will accomplish whether we are part of it or not. God wants us to voluntarily come to him and enjoin his will for our lives. With this our universe is unfolded and produces fruit. You see, wisdom is required to begin any of this. God has thought it through and made the choice of life to you and me. What’s it going to be? Choosing God’s wisdom or our foolishness has immense implications for our future and the future of those whom God loves.
Yet, we waste away the hour, day, week, month and year after year doing nothing. Status quo all the way! Don’t upset anyone. Go along with the masses. Live your life as others wish. Teach your children to do the same by example. Learn too late that your life has been lived in vain and your thinking you were saved isn’t true. Those are the ends of ourselves. These are not the ends that God wishes for his creation. "This is such a harsh thing to say." you say. It’s not what I say but what God says. He says that if we know what to do and don’t do it we sin. He says that sin is what keeps us separated from God. He says there will be fakes who will deceive the very elect (that means the believers). Who do you think you are to not be subject to the wrath of God? Why don’t you do what is right, accept Jesus, die to self, and live a resurrected life in Christ? Watch the universe of God unfold in front of you. Observe the world from God’s view, have mercy on others and introduce them to Jesus that they too might be save. Let others see that you belong to Jesus.
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