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| JAMES LESSON #33 Read John 1:12-13 But to as many as what? �receive� �to accept as valid, as true � so as to own or devote oneself to: Him- to them (me � you) He gave the right to become the children of God: Ok- the �Receiving� is man�s responsibility � but we�ve been saying all along that the journey with God is a �joint effort� journey right? So where does the �sovereignty of God� fit into this picture? What�s God�s responsibility? Look at verse 13: What were we born of ? Ourselves? No. We were born of God. God uses the Word of God to bring us to Himself. Birth � is just the beginning. The journey only begins at birth. Step two � is a process called �sanctification.� Big word, lots of meaning. Sanctification means to become holy. God said through Peter, �Be ye holy, just as I am holy.� THIS, is where many young believers fall into a trap. This is also where many unbelievers get distracted and uninterested. Why? Pretty much for the same reason in both camps. The believer gets caught in the �personal responsibility� trap � �working out their salvation- trying to be good enough to be good enough to measure under the scale to try to be good enough again� � and usually ends up burned out, resentful and running on empty most if not all the time. The unbeliever looks at the young zealous street corner preacher and hears nothing but �expectations� that they know they�ll never measure up to � and turn and walk away. Both, are missing the mark. The believer can not ever make himself �holy enough� to measure up to God � and God doesn�t expect that of him. The unbeliever can never walk in holiness on his own � and God doesn�t ask for that. Our part in the �joint effort opportunity� is to �receive� what? HIM. End of sentence�that�s �our part.� Now we�re going to look at God�s part of the deal. James calls this process the �saving of your soul.� The minute you ask Jesus to take control of your life, and believe that He died for your sins � asking Him to forgive you, cleanse you and begin to direct your life, you�ve been �born� again. Same old body for now, but brand new insides. You�ve been �redeemed� � that means �paid for in full,� body, soul and spirit � although all of that hasn�t take place. When you die, you have Christ dwelling in you. What happens to your body? Someday your body will be resurrected, and then transformed into a new one. That, is a guarantee. The scriptures say that �He who has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. We�re not going to look at that in great detail today (eventually we will). I want to focus on the �in between� being born and dying time. Between receiving Christ and dying and being caught up there is the restoring of your soul. The word for �soul� is �life� � and refers to the saving of you- the inner man- the stuff that makes you, you. When you are �born� again you�re just that, a baby. There�s a lot you don�t know � and much for you to learn. You have not been �brought to maturity� � there is a process of santification- a process of �growing you up.� The trap in this? We think WE are responsible for the �growing up� journey: Wrong. We�re �born� and suddenly surrounded by �expectations� � usually well meaning � but unreachable. There are many voices that surround us with �correct this, fix that, change this, change that, attend this, give here, serve on this committee � and the list goes on: all well meaning, but bearing little to no fruit in our lives. If however, those same voices would grow silent and pray � earnestly interceeding on your behalf-in recognition that they are not the Spirit of God � and that God�s Spirit is what will �correct, fix, change, strengthen etc.� and then open their mouths to �encourage� and �support� � the fruit and growth that would happen would be overwhelming. We forget that �sanctification is a process� � one that GOD orders � one that GOD directs- and one where God teaches, disciplines and refines. You�ll find ironically, that God does not issue a list of �expectations.� He has only ONE request: �Follow me.� Your response is one of obedience, or one of disobedience. Your response to that �one� request will determine your journey. �Follow me,� requires three things: honesty, obedience and dependency. Unfortunately after we�re born again, we are in awe, just as a baby is in awe, with the process of �discovery.� Just as a baby is easily �distracted� � so, are we. Because we�ve made a choice - �Jesus come into my heart and direct my life-� we automatically assume that we now have to �measure up.� The trap? We sense that if we �bare our souls,� we�ll be abandoned by friends and made fun of by our enemies. We learn young to hide, grabbing the make-up bag so that our outward appearance stays in tact, while inwardly we�re falling into a million pieces. We cover up our �unstated distrust� with a smiling face, bury our fears with an �I�ve got it all together strut,� and go out to face the world with a false self that�s something to be admired, and in all appearances, happy. Then, silently we hate what we are because dishonesty controls the image we�ve created. What are we doing wrong? Follow me. Not a lot of �personal responsibility� in that picture � but tremendous �personal risk.� Why? Because where He goes will never fit, never make sense, and never follow �reason.� Who do we turn to? Turn to John 15:15 Jesus say, �I call you my friend.� What�s that mean? A friend is someone who knows EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU and totally accepts you as you are. Everyone longs for that: Someday, somewhere, I am going to meet that person who really understands me- understands the words I speak and even the words I leave unspoken. Jesus � is the fulfillment of that dream � the only fulfillment of that dream. The stumbling block is not found in Him- it�s found in us. As I stated earlier through Paul Tillich � �trust� is the courage to accept�acceptance. You know, for some of us, that�s a really tough nut to swallow. We�re so overwhelmed with what we see ourselves to be that we actually become our own worst enemy. We spend the majority of our lives vigorously pushing away �acceptance� because ironically, it�s more comfortable to try to earn it: WHY? Because when we�re earning it � we�re in control. We�re not following..we�re leading. IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. Raw honesty with Jesus about our doubts and anxieties, our lusts and laziness, or pathetic prayer lives and our forced �religious masks,� � our selfish motives and divided hearts is the BIG RISK we take in reaching for the acceptance that Jesus offers. We have to let go of �pretend� and bring to the altar what we are in order to have hands that are empty enough to reach for �acceptance. �Raw honesty� is the full expression of pure trust. Jesus is the friend who will never fail, the faithful one who will never be lacking in His part of the commitment, even when on our end we royally blow it, the stranger to self-hatred who keeps us away from self hatred. We take on the �saving of our souls� as if it is our ultimate sacrifice in service: and in grave error, fall prey to battles we were never meant to fight. Get this: We were not made for ourselves. We are made for that which is too big for us. We are made for God, AND NOTHING LESS WILL EVER SATISFY US. As Manning suggests: Accepting no substitutes for what we really want leads to simplicity of life: Follow Me. The problem? Distractions � and expectations cause us to lose sight of �what we really want� � and deceive us into believing that �Follow Me, means Following them.� The result? We walk around on empty: and live in a religious pretend world, wondering if there�s something more we�ve missed. READ II Corinthians 3:15-18 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; (Moses, is the law: the rules and regs) but whenever a man turns to the Lord, (Follow Me) the veil (of thinking that you can be made holy and become good enough for God by keeping all the rules and regs) is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. (from all the rules and regs) But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, (But we, who are �following Him� look into a mirror and see the glory of the Lord �why?) because we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So, as I am in the �law of liberty- which is the WORD� � I am being transformed and transformed and transformed into what? The image of God. AM I THE ONE DOING THE TRANSFORMING? NO. Who�s nurturing? Who�s correcting? Who�s confronting? Who�s strengthening and encouraging? Who�s protecting? Who�s Mother? The WORD. What�s our responsibility? To RECEIVE IT. Follow Me. The trap- �assuming personal responsibility� � the risk? �total honesty� �removing the mask and allowing God to love what we truly believe no one could ever love. Birth, is just the beginning. The process of sanctification (being transformed is next in line.) In the process of �saving your soul� as James puts it, God uses tests and trials of various kinds to train your response to become immediate when you hear �Follow Me.� It�s a lifelong process � a journey that doesn�t end this side of eternity. When the tests begin they will frustrate you, and make you angry. Why? Because you begin to see what you are not. They expose your failures. You quickly see how far from who He is you are. Anger is a big big big deal in all of our lives. How we work with it and respond to it can make or break our spirits. Have you ever gotten angry because somebody else is what they ought to be and you aren�t? Have you ever gotten angry because somebody else is telling you what you ought to be, or they point out merely with their lives what you are not? Have you ever been walking around doing just fine and someone confronts you with a scripture and it ticks you off? What does your flesh want to do? It wants to justify itself � to excuse itself � so you get angry and your mouth kicks into high gear. We�re going to go there..but not until tomorrow. For today, I want you to commit your heart to �raw honesty� with God � risking the reach for His acceptance: and respond to the cry of His heart: Follow Me. Loving you, Robin �copyright 2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman |
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