Tuesday, June 3

Will you see the glory or only see the gloom?

"So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name." Psalm 63:2-4

We have all looked for a being greater than us, who can explain to us the reasoning behind our very existence and the purpose to which we should strive. We all, regardless of whether we believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or some other facmile of Him created by our imaginative minds; we seek something beyond ourselves to explain the errors of the universe.

And we either accept that there is an Intelligence beyond ourselves or we subscribe to a chance that defies our logical world. It is this quest, this journey through the chaos and destruction that is wrought upon our world that consumes us for most of our lives. We either find the purpose of it all or we spend our years wastedly wandering the desert of our own destruction.

Adam and Eve started this journey of re-discovery and rededication, redemption and salvation, that few will acknowledge but everyone pursues with a life-affirming purpose. We live to have meaning and it is what gives us that meaning that causes us to rise to greatness or fall upon the waiting rocks. I doubt it would've made much difference if Adam, and consequently Eve, would have been informed of their purpose; Adam, created outside the Garden was given to upkeep and defend the beauty and order of the Garden from chaos and destruction in as much as Eve was created in the Garden, amist the order and beauty of God's creation to be a side-by-side helper to Adam, helping him stay on purpose to which God had given him. The Bible doesn't tell us of the conversations that God had with the first two humans He created, just that they walked in the Garden with Him often. So often, it was clear when sin, full of destruction and chaos, entered the Garden proper. God's first call was, "Where are you?"

We have been lost ever since, and the journey home is a long, difficult, and affirming pathway that winds through our lives and the lives of those we touch in a multitude of ways. God has interacted with us in visible and defining ways in the history of this world, broken and moaning for humanity's return to created purpose; through the confusing of languages in Bablyon, the worldwide flood of Noah's days, the wilderness journey of the Israelites, and the crucifixtion of Jesus Christ upon a cross of wood. Like warnings of humanity's straying from the path home, glaring and openly God-impacted events course through our history books.

Yet, each time those moments that have changed the course of human history have happened, only a few have seen the impact and love of a Creator that moves upon the earth even to this day. And those few have made a choice between who they would follow, much like the choice that Adam and Eve had in the Garden some six thousand years ago. One choice; to follow the Creator of all or the created who fell from it all. We either vilify those visible individuals who have faced that choice as evil or praise them as geniuses. But we give credit to them more so than those greatest of our history themselves give, and ignore the true source of everything; Almighty God. This Being we either recreate into an acceptable version that subscribes to our view of how things must work or we acknowledge as far beyond our capability to fully comprehend, there is a Being that we have a broken connection to.

And, if we take the last avenue and open the door to the knock that is quietly rapping upon the wooden access to our heartfelt desire, we find a God that has always been and desires a reunion with His created children. A call that we recognize when we look back upon the history of the world. A desire that echoes within our souls from the moment we breath our first breath of sinful, broken air upon a creation that was broken with our own willful disobedience.

And then our world changes, sometimes with an audible click as the pieces of our souls join together in relationship with the Creator. Or, grows with the disconnection and continued disobedience as we deny the Truth we know in our very depth of soul is truth.

Once that threshold is crossed, for our benefit of gaining salvation and redemption or for our destruction because of our willful denial of Truth, it can never be recrossed. We either begin a journey of discovery or a journey of destructive selfishness.

Carolyn Baker, the devotional writer for AllAboutGod.com says, "The closer He comes to you, the more the fire of passion will ignite within you. You will become like the Bride preparing for the Bridegroom, and you will experience first hand the intensity of His brightness shining through your very human heart. You will become that “contagious Christian” who tears down the strongholds by the power of Christ’s love."

You realize the awesome gift that we have gained through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the love of the Father who send Him to this world to be killed, and the majesty of the glory that is our God. The world opens into awesome displays of created wonders, blessed creations, and promised eternity.

Or you continue to make square blocks fit into round holes. Your belief system is constantly in turmoil, being overturned by others and consumed in deception. You believe life is a waste and chance, nothing more than a sludge mix of luck and 'dog-eat-dog' survival.

The further you wander away from Him, the more the fire of deception and destruction, hatred and confusion consume your life and your morality. You continue to die, unable to stop the process that Christ came to stop. The world becomes nothing more than a force arrayed against you, as promised by God when Adam failed to stand his ground against the enemy and allowed him into the created order.

You either walk towards the glory or journey deeper into the gloom......

A defining moment we all face.......

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

There comes a moment in each of our lives, a pivotal and defining moment that changes in many unknown ways the life we were living and opens broader and more unknown avenues or paths for our lives to take. But it all comes back to that one defining moment.

For Moses, it was the burning bush. He made the choice to follow God's call and led a nation to the Promised Land. For Peter, while many moments could be defined as life-changing in the life of this apostle, I think it was walking on water. He stepped out in faith, questioned that faith, and cried out to Christ to save him.

For the famous trio of the Bible, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; it was the burning furnace. They were called to live their faith and did so, facing the very visible possibility of death by burning. Paul, arguably the greatest apostle of the followers of Christ, we all know the story of his life-defining moment; blinded on the road to Damascus….and called to account by Christ. He would never go back to the life he once lived, even when faced with a host of trials and tribulations.

Daniel faced the lion's den and Joshua, following in the footsteps of a giant in Christian history, parted the Jordan and moved into the Promised Land……

The road to these life-changing moments was different for each. Forty years to just a few. But when they came, these followers of Christ were forced to go beyond themselves to become involved in something they themselves could never do; without Divine assistance. And when they moved outside of their box, their lives were never the same.

But it all began with a understanding of the power of God. For modern-day followers of Christ, we have to face the one defining moment that can change our lives forever; bringing us from the punishment of sin into the assurance of everlasting life.

The Cross.

We are each in three stages of our journey; Followers of the True Christ and those who aren't. You may not have faced the Cross yet. You may still question the doctrine of the followers of Christ and seek the truth. You may not have been brought to your Damascus Road yet, your water walking moment, or realizing the Promise that God has for you.

You may have already faced the Calvary Hilltop and realized that Christ died for you, living in sin, so that you will be redeemed and set free. You are still realizing the journey that God has to unfold for you. You haven't yet reached this life's "Promised Land".

Or you may have faced that bloodied body of our Savior and answered the call to purpose that God has set aside for you. As you grow, are trained, and reshaped, you touch others in the other stages of their journey and God impacts the world in ways that only He can. The "Promised Land" of this world is opened for your living.
But it all starts at the whispering at the door, the shout from the mountain, or the touch of His hand. It starts as we step out into a relationship with God, one we had walked away from as our forefather Adam did in the Garden. It comes when we realize that we have forfeited our purpose and been lied to by the enemy. It comes when we face the fact that we cannot deny God anymore.

We face the fact that we cannot fill ourselves that emptiness that existed from the moment we were born. It is that moment when we realize the powerful sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and become a new creature, full of promise and life.

D.L Moody said, "I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God's law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled."

When we reach that moment in our lives where we are totally empty, abused by the world's lies and manipulations, and at the end of our proverbial rope, that we face the question that we all must answer.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, who died upon the Cross of Calvary for your sins, was buried and rose again three days later……

Your answer will define your life and change it forever.