I Wish

“I Wish I Were ___________!!!

What?  Dead?  Smarter? Dumber?  Richer?  Shorter, taller?  Calmer or more active?  Able to lose weight?  Better looking, never been born?  What is it that you aren’t happy about?  If you are born, God knew you were going to be born and He has a plan for your life.  Even in the midst of your current difficulties He has formulated a plan to rescue, assist and/or educate you. 

I’m 5’10” and wanted to be at least six feet.  My dad was 5’11”.  I’ve learned to appreciate my nose but it was a source of great embarrassment and teasing throughout my school days.  In the military they suggested I tie a string and hook on it to go fishing.  I find it difficult to focus when I’m bored and I get bored a lot so I’ve learned how to make things like studying interesting and a fun challenge.  School didn’t teach me this because schools don’t work well with people who learn outside the norm.  I’ve learned to laugh when it hurts and I laugh a lot. 

Albert Einstein was a sweet boy but his teachers suggested to his parents that he must be a bit slow since he can’t seem to master the basic rules they were teaching.  His scores in mathematics were horrible.  Apparently they weren’t teaching E=MC² yet.  Oh that’s right, God hadn’t given him that revelation yet.

I know people who married someone taller so their children wouldn’t be vertically challenged.  In the end we are who we are and all the hair care products, lotions, crèmes, pills and wishful thinking won’t change your basic nature.  You are who God created you to be and there is a real purpose involved in that marvelous work.  The fact that you haven’t found your purpose in Him doesn’t change that central truth. 

Let me make this perfectly clear.  You can be Saved down to your socks and not have discovered who you are in Christ.  You might be an evangelist in a pastor’s position or a teacher trying to be an evangelist.  You might be a saved, sanctified auto mechanic who is pastoring a church and miserable.  We sometimes step into roles God never intended and never reap the joy of being in the middle of His will.  Sometimes we are smack dab in the middle of His purpose and just haven’t decided to love it yet.

My observation is that most of us never really try to get to the place God has for us.  Being out of pocket with God tends to make you miserable and miserable people are miserable to those around them.  I’m sorry the young man who killed all those children was so miserable and I wish he could have found his true place in the Lord.  Wouldn’t it have been an ironic tragedy if he was called to nurture little minds into adulthood and the pains and sorrow of his upbringing pushed him another way?

I have raised three natural children and I have no idea how many spiritual children I am still working on.  The fact that all three of my kids still love God is a never-ending source of amazement to me.  I would not have given myself that much credit as a parent.  Having watched decades of children born in the church and walking away when they reached adulthood I think how little I know.  The parents of these children were as God fearing as I am and yet… 

Our lives are a journey of discovery from the moment we open our eyes after that terrible trip out of our mother’s womb to receive a slap in the rear by a well meaning doctor.  I’d like to say it improves immediately after that but we have to learn that dirt tastes nasty and dog poo is a no no.  Disgusting I know, but true. 

This is who we are as humans.  Somewhere in our threes or so we are bright eyed and inquisitive and filled with all the love of God.  Assuming we were born to parents who also love and cherish Him we too will start out with a good beginning.  If we weren’t then it becomes more difficult to find your true calling.  Now I’m sure that there are people of all sorts of religions who are screaming in outrage right now but let’s face it; if I didn’t really believe in my faith, if God hadn’t made Himself as real as the air I breathe to me then I wouldn’t be where I am.

One basic truth of your faith in God is you must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  I don’t serve God out of blind faith.  I’m not blind.  I see inconsistencies in what I read and what I see and ask the question, “Why doesn’t this fit?”  If God is REALLY God He better have an answer.  I’m not ever rude or arrogant toward my Lord but He has set the rules and I am well within them asking these questions.  He wants me to be certain unto death so I can be as certain unto life.  My faith is not only based on the invisibility of Hebrews 11:1 but more importantly to my formative years on Romans 5:1-5. 

I have great patience in the things of God, perhaps because I have been through great tribulation.  There have been years where I have echoed Peter in John 6:66-68.  “Where else will I go Lord?  Only you have the words of Eternal life.”  In those early years my faith was more hope and wish than assurance.  Assurance comes through experience and experience comes through trials.  Now I can say that I know that I know that I know but it has taken work to get here.

In Mark 9:17 we read of a man who brings his traumatized son to the Lord and remarks how no one has been able to cure him.  Jesus tells him all things are possible if he only believes.  The man cries with tears in his eyes, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”  For Jesus and even for some of us this is not a challenge.  In this particular case Jesus saw a scene was developing and rather than see it escalate to something else and almost in an offhand manner said, “Deaf and dumb spirit, come out of him and do not enter into him again.”  We are warned that if we ask Christ to clean us out and then we fail to walk with Him that the original demon may return and bring seven more evil than he is to us (Matthew 12:45, Luke 11:26).  Jesus seems to have inoculated this child from ever being afflicted by this spirit again by simply forbidding him from ever coming back. 

In this circumstance his disciples asked why they could not cast out this demon.  Jesus, who lived a fasted and prayerful life, responded that this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting. 

How much have you really pressed in to see God change your life?  Have you prayed and fasted until your answer comes?  I think I failed somewhat in December of 2012.  It was a difficult year in some ways and a wonderful one in others, but December was spiritually draining.  Did I fast?  No.  Did I pray?  Sure…  I prayed as much as someone who is drained and not fasting can pray.  It’s the Christmas month.  You can’t fast on the Christmas month can you?  Right?  Hello?  Anybody there?  Lord?

If we do not take time to live our life as those who are in constant warfare then we will not succeed.  The Spartans were a great warrior people who had conquered the Helots.  There were 7-8 Helots for every Spartan.  The only way they remained in charge was by the constant study of warfare and personal training.  We too are a people in constant danger of being overcome.  We can be overcome by fear, depression, sorrow, wounded spirit, sickness, grief and many other maladies that are all too common to Christians.

You cannot live this life in Christ as if you live in a gently swaying hammock on the beach suspended between God the Father on one side and God the Son on the other with the Holy Spirit providing the breeze.  We are more likely living in a difficult neighborhood where Satan can drop a flowerpot on our foot from above or simply tempt us with wealth or good things until we decide we no longer need God.  Ultimately, the Spartans became elitist and arrogant to the point they did not grow.  If you don’t grow you die.

As saints of God we forget where we come from and stop relating to the lost and wounded around us.  If we are no longer open to embracing those around us (from a position of strength in Christ), and if we fail to show why our faith is the best (through strength, faith and power to change lives, not by joining the world), then we will not draw a fallen world. 

Most Christians these days are not hungry enough for souls to grow.  Muslims are hungry and growing.  They will win some through fear but far more through life standards that WE are supposed to ascribe to.  WE are supposed to be holy.  WE are supposed to avoid strong drink and drugs.  WE are supposed to have loving marriages where roles are understood and God’s grace will make the union strong.  Love isn’t even an important theme in Islam but it is central to Christianity.  Why is it then that we are the backbiters, haters and covenant breakers? 

Beloved, we need to come up.

Husbands, love your wives.  Children, respect your parents in the Lord.  Wives, reverence your husbands in the Lord and you may find they desire to be found worthy of that respect.  One of the most interesting things I have read recently was a secular woman counselor who was counseling women to heal their relationships with their men.  She told the women to try showing their men some respect and the men would be more willing to show them some love and tenderness. 

We shouldn’t need the world to tell others what is contained in OUR scripture.  We ought to do the telling. 

Trust God beloved that when you speak a word in season He will make it bear fruit.  If you don’t see any evidence of that fruit then exercise your faith and believe for it.  If you still don’t see it…keep believing.  Some things I did twenty or more years ago bore great fruit that I just learned about.  Believe in God and believe in yourself.  Find your niche in Christ and learn to be satisfied in that place.  Stop trying to be what you are not or ought not be and revel in the simple act of being in the right place at the right time.

Christ in you the hope of Glory is not wishful thinking.  God wouldn’t have brought the concept to us if He didn’t intend we walk in it.

Mind your tongue.

Mind your mind.

Mind your heart and emotions.

Mind your spirit.

If you do these things then you won’t mind the other stuff quite so much.

Love yourself first beloved and then love those around you too.

Bishop J