LOOKING FOR PASSIONATE PEOPLE

To have passion is to have strong feelings about something. It exudes an intensity that often makes others uncomfortable. It consumes us – our time, our money, our energy, our creativity. We are more familiar with the object of our passion than with anything else. We praise it, write about it, read about it, talk with friends about it, attend its showings or events. It compels us & motivates us. It drives us to unusual sacrifices and is attended with the utmost enthusiasm. It knows no moderation, luke-warmness, restraint, or self-consciousness.

One of the most significant of our contemporary choruses says:

Give me one pure and holy passion;
Give me one magnificent obsession;
Give me one glorious ambition for my life –
To know and follow hard after you!

When I inspect Christianity, it often seems less like a passion than it does a pursuit. But someone in pursuit of something has yet to lay hold of it. Passion halts our pursuit and commences our feeding frenzy. If I were to evaluate Christ's devotees by their devotion and then tally the sum, few would make the cut. I'm not sure if I would make the cut.

How can we be so measured? What is dignity when it comes to Christ? An older gospel song said:

To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry;
Nor could a scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Superlatives fail us! Finitude stands in our way! The zeal of our best days has not yet "eaten us up."

A DIFFERENT WAY TO LOOK AT PHILIPPIANS 4:13

I think this biblical reality can be conceived of in two different ways.

Both ways see a believer faced with some kind of life-difficulty. In the first way, the believer prays and asks God to give him the strength to meet this difficulty. His view, or sight, of the difficulty has not changed. It is still seen as problematical in some fashion. Through faith in the Lord, expressed through prayer, the believer assumes that God will infuse him with the power needed to meet the challenge posed by this life-difficulty. I would see this as the "sight" way

In the second way, the believer still expresses his faith in prayer, but rather than asking for strength, he asks for spiritual eyes to see this life-difficulty as a blessing to be welcomed and boasted of, because it will not only be good for him (Ja. 1:2-4), but will showcase the Lord's great power (II Cor 12:9-10). In this way, the believer is strengthened, not to victoriously beat the problem, but rather to view the problem through the eyes of faith, contrary to how the eyes of flesh are seeing it. I would see this as the faith way.

In summary -

The first way looks like this:

1. A believer encounters a life-difficulty.
2. He prays, asking the Lord for strength.
3. The lord infuses him with "strength" to address this life-difficulty as a problem to be solved, overcome, or endured.

The second way goes like this:

1. A believer encounters a life-difficulty.
2. He prays, asking the Lord to be able to see this life-difficulty, not by sight (a.k.a. as a problem), but by faith (a.k.a. as a blessing).
3. The Lord strengthens him to believe that this situation, which sight is telling him is a problem, is actually a blessing in disguise.

In the first way, strength is believed to be a product that comes directly from God, making the believer strong.

In the second way, strength is a by-product that comes indirectly from God whose power is showcased through the new eyes given to the believer.

In the first way, what is seen is the believer's strength.

In the second way, what is seen is the power of God that once again causes the blind to see.

THE BIBLE'S NOT A MAGIC BOOK, BUT GOD IS POWERFUL!

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the scriptures. I live in my Bible, but some people treat it like some kind of magic book. It doesn't claim to be that. It claims to be the word of Almighty God. It's powerful, not because it's magical, but because God is powerful, and His word alone is creative.

Only God's voice can bring something into existence that was never there before. Only God's voice can transform one thing into another. And only God's voice can separate the indivisible or join solitaries.

Practically speaking, the promises, commands, principles, truths, mysteries, et al do nothing at the intonations of the superstitious. They are inert to the ritualist and, like the little child who won't perform for strangers, dormant to mere onlookers.

Faith is the connecting grace, linking us less-than-specks to awesome cosmic power, us bag-of-needs to a bottomless abyss of supply, us pick-of-the-litter dullards to galactic genius and wisdom.

The Bible impresses me, but the Bible's Author is impressive!

FAITH IN THE "WIGGLE ROOM" OF LIFE

The Bible says, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." But what does someone do, if even the spirit seems "weak" and no longer "willing?"

The Bible also says that God is at work in his children "to will and to do" his "good pleasure." But what if this also seems not to be happening?

The sight of man, at his sanctified best, only "looks on the outward appearance." Only God can be trusted to see things as they really are. Sometimes faith only has the "seemings" as its wiggle room. Faith is most needed here, because its enemy (under the curse) is "sight." And under these circumstances, everything we seem to see is telling us exactly the opposite of the truth. What (or Whom) we "believe" at these times, defines us!

OUR PROPENSITY TOWARD PRECISION

Sherlock Holmes once said, "To the logician, everything must be exact." He said this indignantly when Watson referred to Holmes as "modest." He meant that what he had just said about the superior skills to his own in the observation and retention of facts that were possessed by his brother, Mycroft, was a matter of accuracy, not modesty.

In this age of scientific and engineering precision, we admire accuracy and precision in everything. Yet, I think in the process we have lost the ability to appreciate generalities.

Some would ascribe verbal precision to the scriptures as a part of what is meant by "verbal inspiration." After all, doesn't God speak precisely? No! I believe that precision is not a prerequisite of accuracy. God is always accurate, but is not always precise. The two words, "accurate and precise" do not mean the same thing.

On the original Star Trek Series, "Bones" was correct when he said it was three minutes after six o'clock. But Spock countered with the fact that it was actually three minutes and 20 seconds past six. Who was accurate? Who was correct? Both! Spock was more "precise" than Bones, but Bones was just as right.

Precision has its place, as in the "bore" of a cylinder. But precision is over-rated and often misunderstood in communication.

For instance, God's Word says in Exodus 1:5 that 70 persons went down to Egypt from Jacob's family. But, Acts 7:14 says it was 75. Mockers have often seen this as a contradiction in the Bible. After all, which account is correct? I sat both! As a round number, 70 is accurate, even though 75 has greater precision, but is no more correct.

I've read books that do some mathematical gymnastics to reconcile these two numbers. I just don't think they need reconciliation any more than "Bones" and Spock's different numbers needed reconciliation. In both cases, both numbers are correct. It's only because we require the Bible to have a "precision" that it makes no pretense to have.

In general, what I am trying to say is that the level of precision that we have become almost addicted to in the 21st century, in science, history, reporting, medicine, etc, leads us down paths of confusion when it comes to reading the Bible.

How many persons went down to Egypt? I think Deuteronomy 26:5 states what God accurately is seeking to communicate: "…few in number, and there he became a great nation.…" Ah, the beauty of the general!

INNOCENTS TO THE SLAUGHTER

They come out in droves – children, some old enough and excited enough to walk, some being carried in the arms of loving but naïve parents. Like hordes of locusts they descend upon us for treats and to show off their costumes. Such fun, such glamour, such festivities for the Prince of Darkness.

As a believer, I know that the entire world has been mesmerized by the Devourer of Souls. But many of those who have had their eyes opened to spiritual things seem to either be enthusiastic supporters of the day, or reluctant participants in its reverie.

I, who staggered through my parenting years in a glass house, shouldn't throw stones. I vacillated between the above mentioned options most of the time. I remember the smuggness of the latter and the enjoyment of the former. But in either case, my conscience never experienced any angst. In fact, I used to suffer the "fools" that think like I do now. All of them seemed like superstitious bigots.

Now, amidst the "tomfoolery," all I can see is a celebration of a predator's world – the one who keeps so many blinded to the misery he inflicts and to the Judgment he ridicules. And my heart wants to cry!

IS GOD SOVEREIGN - SOMETIMES, YOU SAY?

Most believers ascribe to God a sort of limited sovereignty, when it comes to evaluating how often God's hand is responsible for things in their lives. God is credited for the good things that happen to them, but not the bad things – that would be cruel, after all, or so they think!

That means that they would praise or thank the Lord when something happens to them that is advantageous, fair, freeing, or constructive. But if something happens that seems unfair, oppressive, abusive, or destructive, Satan or evil is blamed, depending on whether they gravitate toward the notion of a personal and malevolent Being or to an impersonal (and unbiblical) sense of Fate.

When you consider how many bad things happen in this world that evidently God is helpless to keep from happening, and when you consider how few truly or purely good things happen, the notion of God's sovereignty would seem quite limited.

That would make me very uncomfortable, to think that God is helpless to prevent bad things from happening to me. Bad things will, and do, happen to me. God comforts me with the knowledge that I can know that (not how) they happen by sovereign design and for good reasons.

Do bad things still hurt sometimes? Yes, but they do me no harm. You mean I can be hurt without being harmed? Yes! Hurt involves mental, emotional, or physical pain. Harm involves my standing in grace. Let life bring us what it will. Let it deprive us of its smile – even unto death. It cannot harm those God has sworn to protect, even if it kills us.