Show Me Your Ways Lord -- Part 2

Charles Templeton was a major figure in the Church and a very good friend of Billy Graham. After I heard a sermon about him where my pastor mentioned that he was not a saved man, I remember how the Church was divided on the issue of his Salvation. I was not deep enough in the Lord and I had my own problem that I was dealing with in terms of making Salvation real in my soul. So, I listened to all who approached me and I never made a comment.

About two years ago I decided to investigate this guy. After I read his biography I decided to listen to his sermons just because I wanted to understand why people were flocking to him like a herd. I was able to put my hands on some of his sermons and to my disappointment, his sermons while beautiful were hollow and I felt I was dealing with a slick marketing VP kind of thing. From the emptiness and the absence of the Holy Spirit in his preaching, I concluded this man had head knowledge but the Gospel never made it to his heart mind and soul.  I sadly concluded like my pastor, this man has never been saved. The man was charismatic and a great business man, so all the time he was in the pews preaching, he was selling himself.

 He was sought after by the evangelical associations and climbed fast and high. Isn’t sad that all those leaders of Christianity wanted him, but none could see he was an empty shell. This was not a question of not knowing his heart.  As you read his sermons, even the four gospels kind of commentary he wrote, there is nothing but complete emptiness. The only way you could not grasp the emptiness in him is if you yourself lack the Holy Spirit inside you.

 But while Templeton was going through the crisis of unbelief, he felt it was wise to seek out a pastor who believed in God knows what. Templeton got access to his library and found books like: Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, Voltaire's The Bible Explained At Last, Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian, as well as speeches by Robert Ingersoll, well-known atheist of the late 19th century in his library.  So, of course Templeton studied these books like there was not tomorrow. Needless to say he got out of there, weaker than ever and convinced Christianity was a hoax, until finally he resigned from his thriving ministry in 1957

 When doubts plagued our minds, it is okay to hash it out with God, but resolved to stay the course. What Templeton did could have happened to anyone of us in the Church. Very often you will find those that are sitting in the pews and after years never manage to make Christianity real to them; they do not like anyone singing a different tune. The reason is that if they listen to you, they would have to start examining themselves and actually make a decision. So to make things easier for themselves, they rather seek the company of those in the same comatose relationship with God. (Misery loves company)

I would like if I say that being a Christian is not frustrating sometimes. The reason is that we serve a God who is real and not dead. We serve a God who is GOD and every time you think you got close enough, you realize, you know nothing about Him. The vastness between us and Him will never end, even when we are in heaven. Yet, as a human being it does a number on us and we struggle, especially when life is messy, when we feel like a rat in a cage and there is no way out.

 In fact, just last week I had to wrestle with doubts in my heart just for a couple of hours. They lasted that long because I entertained them and secondly, my doubt is never about God’s Word. I BELIEVE in His Word and I KNOW the Word is Christ Himself. I love this God of mine with everything I am and I cannot imagine my life without Him. But, time like that, even through my doubts, I know that I am blessed beyond measure. And whenever I make things right with Him, I always break down in tears for the lack of gratitude I allow myself to indulge in, even for a few moments.

 Even Moses who was so obedient and so meek ended up displeasing God and his sin was actually, disobedience to God and a lack of meekness (Numbers 20:9-11) As a human being, I understand Moses and the reason he lost it for a minute which cost him dearly.

 In my experience when I deal with doubt, you can be sure three things are present

1)     I am going through something that requires faith and God is testing and stretching me beyond measure

2)     Whenever I feel I have doubts that I cannot ignore, it is because I am in the flesh

3)     Whenever I have doubts, Satan’s presence is so near that I have to be mindful of him and also make it right with God right away because out of Him, I have no power to deal with Satan and if I do not make things right with God to remain in Him, I am giving Satan a foothold in my relationship with Him.

 In my case I found the gratitude I have in my heart for having experienced Him more than the average Christian. Knowing that I have come to know Him so well because He chose to make Himself so real to me, a puny being deserve that I continue the path even if the road is hard and circumstances insurmountable.

 Will we have doubt in this journey? You bet we will.  In fact the lack of doubt would be a good indication that you are not growing in faith at all.

What we do with them will make us or break us.

Show Me Your Ways Lord

As I started walking with God in a much deeper way, I have no idea why, but I felt I could not follow the examples that were set before me, which means to keep making decisions for my life as a Christian and put them before God,  then, ask Him to close the doors He did not want for me. Don’t get me wrong, there are times where we need to do that. But, if this is a pattern we have established as a substitute to carry us throughout our Christian life, well then we are gambling.

 Since I felt I could not keep gambling and I needed a better method, the Hillsong song “show me your ways that I may walk with you” had become my favorite song. After a year or so, I started getting upset a little bit. I could not understand why my situation was getting worse, I had a desire to do God’s will, I was walking the path, yet God seemed to be unresponsive to my prayers . I got mad at Him and said, well, if you are not going to show me the way, I may as well go back to what I was taught before. When you think about it, going forward without God, then bringing all our plans to Him to choose which one He wants is like that little silly game kid play called “mini me Ni mo”

 But, even in my frustration I knew, I already know Him too well to go back to the old ways. I knew there was a better way I just did not know it yet. I decided to keep going with God and of course I had to ask for His forgiveness because I was insolent, and ungrateful. I resigned to take what was coming for me and embrace the mess my life had become. Funny how my life was falling apart and I had ample reasons to be grateful for the riches (spiritual) He showered over me. It was not long after that the Spirit made me understand that He was indeed showing me the way through what my life had become.

 I was not happy about His idea of what the way should be because He had taken all my desires and goals and put them on the back burner as if they did not matter. To make matters worst, I felt lost because I was on a path that I did not recognize. I remember thinking about the story of Templeton as I weigh my choices. God needs to take us to a place where we are shut in and the only viable solution is to deny Him or trust Him. It is not easy to choose to trust Him when in front of you is the red sea behind you is the Egyptians army coming at you with all they have; there is nowhere to run when you look on your right or left. Yet you do not have much time to think, a decision needs to be made and quick, you are sad that you are there, there is such a mess in your head you cannot form one single thought that contain wisdom and discernment.

 At times like that, it is so much easier to reject God and blame Him for all that is wrong in this world while we are thinking it is time to wash our hands off and walk away free. In my mind, I felt if I reject God, then I would no longer be "shut in", the Egyptia's army would disappear and the red sea would no longer be there. I truly felt they would all disappear like in a bad dream, I would wake up and everything would be all right.

In the end, I chose Him. I had no idea where He was leading, I had no map to get out of that maze I was in, I knew for sure the Egyptians army would slaughter me or I will die going in the red sea. I could not understand what God had to gain by getting me there. I could not see His goodness because I was in too much pain and it was too desolate inside me. But I decided, to choose to reject Him was not a viable option to me, even though this meant the worse was yet to come.

 As I was going through the worse, I realized He did not make  a way for me as He did for the Israelites, so like an idiot I said: “God, didn’t you miss a step in my case? Why is it I chose to go forward with you, yet I did not see your majestic power at work?” My thinking process was still wrong. I was still making things about me.  I was expecting Him to do something majestic to get me out, when letting me go through that mess that had become my life, was indeed the path that I needed. It was not my first or second or third choice for that matter.

 Another thing I learned later on is that the place we are at when we are shut in, is real. While everything is happening to us in the reality of this life. They are there so that God can deal with the spiritual life in us, He uses these things to remake us, to deal with our soul and refine us. Finding the reality of the life that I possess in soul and spirit would not have been made so evident and distinctive to me had I chose not go through with it. 

Lord May I always choose your way, even when I cannot see the path. I pray that I will always trust you to provide light, in your own time.

God Is Not Obligated To Us In The Way We Think

Devotion

Read Jeremiah 18:18 "Then said they, Come, and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

The spiritual blindness the Israelites were experiencing was simply gut wrenching and destructive. They were so deep in their presumptuous faith that no one, not even the messenger sent by God could get through them. They were all like a group of herd with no reasoning, going all in the same wrong direction while looking forward to it. They were so devoid of the capacity to see what was of God and what was of men that the message, which was meant to touch their hearts and bring repentance, was lost on them. Their harden hearts contained pure evil thoughts and deeds as such they have chosen the way of the false prophet, and ignored their God. The idea that they could be in the wrong was totally inconceivable to them. So, instead of examining themselves, change their lives around through repentance, they decided to get rid of the messenger.

Our behavior today has become similar to the Israelites. We, in the Western civilization are lost in our own narrow mindedness and the choice we made to stay out of His light we are incapable of seeing what is right in front of our noses.  Like the Israelites we feel if we say things with our mouths go through some rituals in His name, then, we are excused to do as we please, and walk away from Him and His Word to never become what He intended for us to be. When it is convenient for us, we quote some Words in the Bible to show to other people that we are in touch with our spirituality. Somehow, in our feeble mind, we think we deserve a medal because we think we “speak the truth.” In the meantime, we have no idea in our soul to what extend this truth we are claiming that we know and quote all the time is actually a being. The truth is no less than Christ crucified that permeates the soul. It is not just a word that we toss around in our own understanding. The truth is real, the truth is alive, the truth is the ascended Christ

PRAYER: Christ forgives our hard hearts and bring us to a place where we learn to live out a full Gospel like you intended it to be. Revive our heart and help us to walk away from that false sense of security that permeates our lives.

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