MR. PERSONALITY

I was once told that if everybody loved me that meant I had no personality.  Perhaps this was just that person’s way of excusing his behavior and the fact that almost everyone had some issue with him.  I have since learned that you can be a nice enough person that most people will love you, but eventually even the sweetest, kindest and most gentle person will be hated. 

I recall a man who lived quite some time ago who demonstrated love, healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, and eventually asked God to forgive the ones who crucified Him; Jesus was not universally loved!  His love threatened the religious status quo, it threatened those who had power and it threatened the way of life of the entire world; that’s enough to be hated.

If Jesus, who lived and loved in a perfect fashion, was hated by the world is there any hope that those who attempt to live like Him might escape the hatred of the world?  No, there is not; and Jesus tells us this in a straight forward fashion – “The world will hate you.”  Believers should not be disheartened with this news; what should upset us is if the world doesn’t hate us.  Maybe we should question the veracity of our faith if we aren’t persecuted!  Not that I am looking for persecution, but I am looking for genuine faith and the best way to live out the grace the Lord gives me. 

Let’s make this simple: Have you ever been hated because you were a Christian?  Not an obnoxious Christian, a pushy Christian, a legalistic Christian…you see where I am going.  Have you ever been hated because your life was a clear demonstration of Jesus, because you loved like Him, served like Him, or had compassion like Him?  If so, I congratulate you.  If not, get to work and be hated.

I HAVE COMMANDMENTS TO KEEP AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

It’s not really an issue of “can” I do what the Lord wants me to do; it’s an issue of “will” I.  How many times have we acted in ways that we know we shouldn’t, but we just can’t seem to help ourselves?  I know what the Lord commands so why don’t I do it all the time?  I am weak, just like you!

Let’s put it in a way we can all understand: I walk out of the house and my dog goes for the trashcan.  I come back home some time later to find the can tipped over and assorted items on the floor (usually a discarded butter wrapper that has been licked clean).  My faithful dog slinks, and I mean slinks, over to see me; knowing full well that he has done something he is not supposed to do.  I speak to him harshly and send him to the garage.  He knows he is not supposed to get into the trash, he is rather smart, but yet he still gets into it.  Is he really smart?  Is he really stupid?  Why would he do something he knows he should not do?  He is a dog and I doubt his conscience is as developed or as informed by Scripture as is mine.  That’s his excuse.  What is my excuse?

I, like any believer, know what Scripture says, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.”  It’s as easy as that, isn’t it?   Yes, I love the Lord; no I am not always obedient.  This is a problem; not just for me but for every believer.

Perhaps a tool to aid my/our obedience is a greater focus on His love for me?  My love for Christ is obviously imperfect; His love for me is perfect.  His sacrifice for me was without any thought to Himself.  His joy was to do the will of His Father in heaven.  His atoning death was the ultimate demonstration of love.  Perhaps a better application, maybe a fuller appropriation, of His love would help my obedience? 

In The Saints Everlasting Rest, Richard Baxter basically says that a better focus on what is in store for the believer for all eternity will aid our lives here in this temporary world.  He means that if we spent more time contemplating heaven we will be better prepared for it when we arrive because we will have given ourselves over to it while still in this mortal body.  Maybe an emphasis on being obedient is the wrong place to put our focus.  Perhaps our emphasis should be on Christ’s love and sacrifice for us, and from that our hearts will strive longingly to live in the same fashion?  Christ was obedient to the Father out of His love for Him and desire for the Father’s glory.  What do you want most in life, the Father’s glory or more of this temporary world? 

THE SPIRITUAL CANDY SHOP

If you are a chocolate lover like me then perhaps you have had some form of this dream.  You walk into a fine confectionery shop, enjoy a chocolate selection and a coffee at the corner table, close your eyes for a moment and when you awake you find that they have closed the store around you.  There you are, poor soul, locked in a veritable Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory for the night – whatever will you do!  You have your pick: apples covered in layers of chocolate, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, mints, caramels, you name it and it has been dipped, sprinkled with or injected with chocolate.  They find you in the morning, dead, but with a smile and a tell tale smear of chocolate on your face.  Death by chocolate.

Spiritually speaking, some have interpreted John 14:12-14 in a similar fashion as my “night in the confectionery shop” story.  Jesus says that if you ask it in my name you will get it.  If this is so, why have so many of my dinners not ended with chocolate pudding!  Perhaps a more important question would be, “If I ask the Lord for something in the name of Jesus, then why have my friends still died, their marriages fallen apart or their lives been shattered through suffering that I specifically asked the Lord, in the name of Jesus, to relieve them of?”

“In the name of Jesus” is not the same as the magician’s “hocus pocus” and out comes a rabbit from the hat.  There is no magic formula to access the power of God.  There is God’s will, and that is perfect; there is my will and that is far from perfect.  If we are to understand the passage we must come to grips with the distinction between His perfect will and my imperfect will.  We must understand that His perfect will is what we need to have; whether or not we like it. 

I dare you – start to pray for His will and His glory to be done in your life without limiting it to what might be considered good, pleasing, or helpful according to the standards of society or to you personally.  Go ahead, ask the Lord for His glory to be demonstrated in your life regardless of what it may cost you or do to you personally.  Seek His will with all that you are; then you will begin to understand that “God’s candy shop” is not always stocked with what we like, but is filled with what will best glorify Him.  When you are satisfied with that, then you will understand John 14:12-14.  Then, whether it is life or death, it will still be God’s glory – and you will know your purpose.