One Scripture which, for reasons I can't fully explain, came to mean so much to me, was the one about John the Baptizer. He described himself as the "voice of one crying in the wilderness."
This conjures up images in my mind of one crying, but no one is listening. I know this is not, all together, a theologically correct understanding of the text. But John had a message. He went out to share it. But he was rejected by the religious establishment. He was the voice of ONE, crying ALONE, in the wilderness. I felt this described me. I wouldn't dare compare myself to John in intent. But I could identify with him to a degree. I thought of myself as one crying alone. No one was listening in the religious establishment. They knew their legalisms. But they didn't know life. They knew religion. But they didn't know soul, and passion. I was the guilty one. There was no way I could dare to blame them for any of this. And, to this day, I have no wish to blame anyone other than myself. But it made me think of possibly hundreds, and thousands, and even millions of others, who sincerely wanted to do good, but who may have been rejected by the religious establishment because their daughter conceived, and bore a baby out of wedlock, or because their marriage failed, and they remarried. There may be people who have everything this culture says is good to have, but are inwardly lonely and afraid. They are eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, but they are dead inside. And they didn't even know until the flood came and took them away.
I am amazed how God brought about circumstances which led to my recovery. I was fighting God with all my heart. I hated Him, not because I couldn't have what I wanted, but because I had come to think of Him as a legalistic Judge who was just waiting for His children to step out of line so He could punish them. But, for some reason, He was the very One I turned to. In my heart I know the reason. It was not because I went seeking Him. It was because He came seeking me. I let go of Him. But He never let go of me.
I was so dismayed by what had happened to my heart, and by what I had done to my wife, and to others who loved and trusted me, that I turned to the Bible to see what it has to say about marriage, and passion, and life.
The truth is, the Bible has more to say about real life than anything I have ever read. The Bible says God formed a person from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and that person became a living soul. The word "soul" translates a Hebrew word which means "passion, vitality, emotion, heart." God made us this way. The reason He made us this way is because He has a purpose for each one of us individually. Without passion, we can have no desire to fulfill His purpose. But passion is strange. It can manifest itself as passionate love, or passionate hatred. It can be revealed as love, or as lust. All of these are passions.
There is something else the Bible says about us. It says that God created His image in us. The idea here is that He made us to be capable of communion with Him.
Life, as God intended, is when there is balance between body (the senses), soul (the passions), and spirit (our natural inclination to know spiritual reality beyond ourselves). If either of these is lacking, we fail to know all that life can be. God made us free. How wonderful that God made us free. We love freedom. We embrace freedom. We use the idea of freedom to justify a host of desires and lusts. It's all in the name of freedom. But then we crucify God for giving us such freedom. We say, "If God is love, then He wouldn't allow war, and hate, and murder, and all the sins we hate."
We can't have it both ways. So get over it. God made us free. We are free to reject Him. But if we do, we will suffer. We do not suffer because He hates us for rejecting Him. We suffer because we have upset and destroyed the balance which produces joy and happiness in life.
The spiritual reality He intended for us to embrace was/is Himself. When we love Him, our wills (passion, vitality, soul) are aligned with His will. We WILL yield our bodies to Him. We will yearn to do His will. We will give our physical bodies to love rather than to lust. But if we choose to align ourselves with some other spiritual reality we will yield our souls and bodies to that purpose. The end of this is destruction. I do not wish, or care to argue this point. I have been there. I have rebelled against God. I have seen the results. I have come to believe again in Him. And I see the results of that as well. No amount of persuasion or reason will change any mind which is set against God. I do not wish to argue the point.
We are to live our lives in the context of a world which seduces us to conform, and to fantasize about having all. God put us here. I have been down that path. I have blamed Him for putting us here in the first place. But I was wrong. He cherished us enough, and loved us enough, to put us here, in the midst of forces which would seduce us to reject Him, and He has called us to take authority over those forces. He has called us to maintain order in the midst of chaos.
In this context He said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a comparable helper." The term "comparable" translates a Hebrew word which means "extol." In other words, God has prepared for us a person who will encourage us, and help us, and believe in us, and love us. He has made for us a person who will lovingly see what is wrong in us, and will help us overcome it. This person will see what it good in us, and will help us live it. This is God's gift.
When, in the Biblical account, the man and woman rebelled against God, the first thing they did was to hide themselves from each other and from God. In hiding, there is no way we can fulfill God's purpose. When we hide, we deceive. We present something which is not real. And we distort what is real. What we hide is that which is most basic to ourselves... our souls, our passions, the very thing God gave us to make us who we are individaully. When this is distorted, we present to each other, to the world, and to God that which is not real.
Consequently, we are ALL voices, crying ALONE in the wilderness. We are crying for someone to love us. We are crying out to love. We are searching for someone, that special someone who will extol what is good in us, and who will lovingly see what is wrong is us, and will love us to spiritual and emotional health and joy. But because we have hidden ourselves in shame and guilt we are all too ready to embrace anyone who will satisfy an immediate desire to be happy for the moment. We give up any thought of eternal joy, and settle rather for momentary satisfaction.
In April of this year (2005), I stood before a spiritual life group and asked them to pray to the LORD of the harvest to send me to those who are distressed, and downcast, and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. And they did. And He did. He has allowed me to see the plague which is destroying us. He has caused my heart to yearn for those voices which are crying ALONE in the wilderness. I have FINALLY come to understand my calling.
I am no longer a minister in an established church. I have been forced (because of my complacency) to go into the highways and hedges which I wouldn't have chosen on my own (nor have any of us).
People, what I knew from the beginning, I am now experiencing first hand. The distressed, the scattered, the lonely, the hurting, those like sheep without a shepherd, are all of us. We sit in the pews every Sunday morning. We have rejected established religion. We have rejected religion all together. We have given ourselves to open rebellion against God. We have hidden ourselves behind religious facades. All of us. We are the ones.
My heart is for you.
I have had opportunities recently to babtize people who have been pushed out of the church, or who have decided, by their own choice, to be outside the church. But the church told me I couldn't do this. I no longer have their blessing to take this authority. I love the church. But I have to stand up and say, "It is enough." God has spoken to my heart. He said, "Hold My people in you heart."
My heart is to reach out to ALL voices crying ALONE in the wilderness. They have a yearning to know the true God. But because of their sin, or for some other reason, they have been rejected. Come. Come. Come home.
Jesus Christ is STILL the King of kings, and the LORD of lords. He is not merely one expression of the grand theological myth. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life. No one can reach the Father except through Him. But through Him we can all have hope, peace, and forgiveness. He is God with us. He is the propitiation. This word translates a Greek word which is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word used in Exodus for "mercy seat." In other words, by His blood, He is the mercy seat which covers the condemnation of the law we deserve because of our sins if we trust Him to be and to do so. He died for us. If, and when we come to Him in faith and trust, the old sin nature which once enslaved us is crucified so that we are no longer bound to the sinful desires of these fleshly bodies. Because He conquered death through His resurrection, He gives new life to all who trust Him. We have the freedom, in Jesus, to yield our bodies in service to God, to glorify Him. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not obey the lusts of the flesh.
In Him there is forgiveness, there is hope. The guilt is eradicated. In Jesus Christ, our past sins are forgiven if we trust Him. This means we do not have to carry the burden of guilt which results from past failures and sinful deeds. We can give to Him the broken pieces of our lives which remain, and He WILL take the pieces and shape our lives into beautiful vessels of His love and mercy. He is our shield and fortress. He is a very present help in times of trouble. He loves you. He loves me.
He has made all who trust and love Him one body. We are His family. We are sisters and brothers in Him. We are His body. We are His lips to speak comfort and truth. We are His ears to hear the lonely voices crying in the wilderness. We are His feet to run to each other in times of trouble and times of need. We are His arms to hold each other.
If you are one of the countless voices crying alone in the wilderness, and you feel no one is listening, someone is listening. Please feel free to contact me. [email protected]
Come home. Come home. Come home.
Sincerely, David Francis
