Like the sun at the centre of our solar system, so Christ at the centre of our lives allows us to make sense of the many things that impinge upon our existence. Of course, we cannot fully work out all that God allows. To be able to do that would mean that mere man could understand and explain God. What kind of God would that make Him?
Jesus Christ is not a guru. He is not some nameless ethereal entity, but the Lord of all who can be known and be known intimately. Furthermore, He wants me to know that He knows me, intimately. As such He wants to speak with me, converse like old friends. In fact, He wants to sit upon the porch of our lives and for us to watch the sun go down together. At such times, words are not necessary, only presence.
My wife and I spent the last six weeks in England. While old friends made us welcome, the snow did all it could to freeze out our plans. In some instances it succeeded, forcing a change, or at least a postponement, of intentions. Inevitably, such proved frustrating as control was wrested from our grasp by an imprisoning period of weather. So much of those periods of postponement were wasted. With the benefit of perfect retrospective vision I can now see opportunities for porch time. Instead? Being human (lousy excuse, I know), I did human things like trying to catch up on some of the work I took with me. Conclusion: practically beneficial, but very little porch time. Do you think I might have missed the obvious?
When the white blanket was drawn back, we carried on with our plans without so much as a “by your leave”. It is a good thing that Jesus is omnipresent. The amount of times I would have left Him behind if He was not is a frightening fact of my life.
I find Him amazing. He never gets offended or gives me the silent treatment as is the wont of so many. No, quite the opposite. In fact, as a Sunday sailed serenely into view with the realization of ministry on that day, He was ready to assist me in my patchy, at best, preparations. I have always felt so inadequate as regards preparation. Please do not get me wrong, I can do the technical stuff. You know: dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, books, anecdotes. It is that prayer preparation that gets me every time.
Those who raised me in the Kingdom and others I have observed would, seemingly, pray for hours before preaching and teaching in any context. Me? Oh, once I have hunted down and captured my thoughts I will pray until the next mass break out of my mental inmates. My mind, for whatever reason, is not the greatest high security facility. Things seem to get lost inside and much of what remains finds holes in the fence to make good their escape. End of prayer time. Hunt, capture, recommence.
You know, the amazing thing is that He comes through on the Sunday morning every time; each Bible School lecture, Fellowship Bible study, Sunday service, conferences small or otherwise, He shows up and makes me look really good, quite together, not a little eloquent and, on occasion, reasonably funny. He loves me and those He has called to hear what He has to say through me. A miracle.
Jesus is real to me when I am real with myself. I really want to do my best. Honestly, I want to be able to teach and preach so well that no one, no matter how hard they try, could possibly miss the point. You see, that desire sums up my humanity. Wanting what I cannot have and not surrendering to the fact that without Jesus at the centre, I cannot even begin to make a dent in such a desire.
So, how do I make sense of it all? It is a good thing that Jesus was a carpenter, so I can think of life in terms of His workshop: hammers, chisels, saws, planes. Without His hands upon them, they are merely inanimate tools. Good quality tools, no doubt, manufactured in the finest factories with the best components, but, for all that, still inanimate. However, when His hands take hold, His creativity flows in and through them.
What begins as an idea in His mind, flows through His skilful hands and makes the tool do what it could never do. The tool does not prepare, but it is available.
My lesson? Stay available, keep close to the porch as there will be time to talk and wait for His hands.
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Paul, in his Epistles, uses the word “mystery” several times – “the mystery of Christ”, “the mystery of the Gospel”, “the mystery of faith” – and in Colossians 1:26,27, he refers to a “mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations but has now been manifested”. This mystery, he goes on to say, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. We have all known this and, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”, from our earliest ‘born-again’ days but many Christians do not understand it, perhaps because it comes by revelation – not revelation to a select special few but to those who are thirsty for more of Christ and are willing to confess that much of what they preach, teach and listen to may only be half the truth. When we realize what it means to say that Christ is our life, it becomes impossible to “leave Him behind” because He is IN US everywhere we go; He is not ‘a third party’ who we might occasionally invite to sit with us or someone we beat ourselves up about because we have forgotten about Him for a while - that would be like forgetting that we are living! Recognizing that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we do makes Him love us less, deepens our wonder and overwhelming appreciation of His grace – and grace is essential to our knowing Christ in us.
ReplyDeleteThe Epistles also tell us that it is our minds that need to be renewed, transformed, stirred up, fully persuaded, and it is in their minds that many Christians have become enslaved to religion and man-made customs, despite their often vehement denials. Paul tells us that “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16) which would not be possible unless He lives in us (for in what other way can we have or know another person’s mind?) and many are taking hold of what this means. Although it does not mean that we are able to fully “understand and explain God” during our short sojourn on earth (or even in eternity), it does mean that we have such immense security in Christ that, for example, we do not need to seek recognition by speaking about the particular gifts with which He has blessed us. It means too that we have a deep assurance of salvation and peace of mind and awareness of His constant presence in us; for others, Christ’s life in them produces a keen sense of justice and integrity, financial and otherwise; the list, of course, is never-ending because it is Christ’s attributes to which we are referring.
There is a risk of becoming frustrated with Christians who seem not to yearn for this knowledge of Christ in them or who give little time to a Biblical study of God’s grace, and that impatience needs to be confessed and repented. Having done so, and because grace excludes any form of law (which encompasses anything that we do within ourselves to please God and so attempt to add to Christ’s finished work), a challenge can be made to those who want Christ at the centre, to those who seek to be a tool in His hands: Do they long to understand ‘Christ in us’ and to proclaim His grace? Will they forsake religious legalism and acknowledge that some of what they have learned may be at odds with New Covenant truth? If so and I pray so, their life in Christ will never be the same again.
Paul, in his Epistles, uses the word “mystery” several times – “the mystery of Christ”, “the mystery of the Gospel”, “the mystery of faith” – and in Colossians 1:26,27, he refers to a “mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations but has now been manifested”. This mystery, he goes on to say, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. We have all known this and, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”, from our earliest ‘born-again’ days but many Christians do not understand it, perhaps because it comes by revelation – not revelation to a select special few but to those who are thirsty for more of Christ and are willing to confess that much of what they preach, teach and listen to may only be half the truth. When we realize what it means to say that Christ is our life, it becomes impossible to “leave Him behind” because He is IN US everywhere we go; He is not ‘a third party’ who we might occasionally invite to sit with us or someone we beat ourselves up about because we have forgotten about Him for a while - that would be like forgetting that we are living! Recognizing that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we do makes Him love us less, deepens our wonder and overwhelming appreciation of His grace – and grace is essential to our knowing Christ in us.
ReplyDeleteThe Epistles also tell us that it is our minds that need to be renewed, transformed, stirred up, fully persuaded, and it is in their minds that many Christians have become enslaved to religion and man-made customs, despite their often vehement denials. Paul tells us that “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16) which would not be possible unless He lives in us (for in what other way can we have or know another person’s mind?) and many are taking hold of what this means. Although it does not mean that we are able to fully “understand and explain God” during our short sojourn on earth (or even in eternity), it does mean that we have such immense security in Christ that, for example, we do not need to seek recognition by speaking about the particular gifts with which He has blessed us. It means too that we have a deep assurance of salvation and peace of mind and awareness of His constant presence in us; for others, Christ’s life in them produces a keen sense of justice and integrity, financial and otherwise; the list, of course, is never-ending because it is Christ’s attributes to which we are referring.
There is a risk of becoming frustrated with Christians who seem not to yearn for this knowledge of Christ in them or who give little time to a Biblical study of God’s grace, and that impatience needs to be confessed and repented. Having done so, and because grace excludes any form of law (which encompasses anything that we do within ourselves to please God and so attempt to add to Christ’s finished work), a challenge can be made to those who want Christ at the centre, to those who seek to be a tool in His hands: Do they long to understand ‘Christ in us’ and to proclaim His grace? Will they forsake religious legalism and acknowledge that some of what they have learned may be at odds with New Covenant truth? If so and I pray so, their life in Christ will never be the same again.