Post date: Feb 15, 2014 5:50:21 PM
Some time ago, a person online asked me how I’ve been doing recently. I cannot help but imagine that they wish they had not opened that particular door, given the nature of my response. And yet, since having posted the reply that I did, the discourse there has been more respectful, my reply having consisted of the following:
Get this:
The period during which I became a Christian involved 14 months. The period after that, of unyielding doors, involved 14 years. Since being here, the period of gradual uplifting has been about 14 months.
The place where I am now serving just celebrated its 42nd anniversary.
14+14+14= what, exactly?
I have no income, but I have food, a roof, a bed, and a room, in exchange for my service. I find myself filming, editing, directing, producing, and scheduling television shows for the ministry’s television station here in St. Louis.
When I arrived, my belongings on my back, I spent 7 days as an overnight guest, then 3 weeks in the 30-day transitional housing program, then 7 weeks as part of the ministry team at the ministry’s Veterans Coming Home Center in Springfield, Missouri. After that, jaws were dropping all around me when it was made known that I was being called back to St. Louis to be part of the television studio team and that they were going to train me as a TV producer.
I enjoyed my time in Springfield so much so that they had to convince me to return to St. Louis, and when I first arrived back in St. Louis, I found myself quite ill, even to the point of an emergency room visit. I have since recovered.
As you might know, I have been writing hymns almost since I became a Christian, all those years ago, but since last March (the last week or so of it), I have been writing at least one hymn every day. The total is, well, close to 600 hymns, now. To think, when I had my own apartment, I thought I had to beg God to let me make it beyond 150 of them.
It has truly been an eye-opening journey, to be sure. I used to think in a very frustrated way, that God was being unfair, not allowing me to accomplish for Him. Now, though, I see how thoroughly He has always been protecting me all along the way. I loved where I was living before, down in south St. Louis County and I marveled at how peaceful a place it was. Not long after coming here, I discovered that where I had been living had become quite a violent place since my departure. While I was in Springfield, that same shield of protection was over that place, as well, being lifted only after it became known that I was leaving there.
Before I was a Christian, I was such a person that not even those who were pouring their hearts and lives into praying for my salvation had the courage to witness to me.
Ponder that. What kind of person does that mean that I was? No one would witness to me.
It came to the point that I began having thoughts of suicide, and it was at about that time that a new friend (whose name sounds like the Greek that could be very roughly translated as “You have found favor with God”) was quite literally dropped into my life.
In the third year of that life-saving, and soul-strengthening friendship, I had a morning from which I was sufficiently broken (by my own actions) that God Himself came and witnessed to the one who had been so wicked and evil that not even the most prayerful and faithful of Christians had the courage to witness to him.
Realize this about the God that gets so horribly attacked and slandered in this place: When God the Son willingly placed Himself on that torture stake of a cross, having first allowed evil men to flay His very skin from His bones, those He did it for included that horrible, wicked, filth of a man.
He did it for me.
There is no one among you that He would not do it for, should you turn to Him in genuine faith.
He did not turn me away; neither will He turn you away.
I am better than I deserve, and always will be.
Praise be to God!
Such were the words that I wrote in reply that day to that cordially worded query.
The Scripture tells us that we are to be ready in season and out of season (at all times, in other words) to give a defense for the hope that lies within us. We are not to crawl under a rock and hide when people challenge us. We are to give a defense for the faith that rests within us, within our very soul.
Too often, those who claim Christ try to decide for themselves whom to give that witness to, inevitably resulting in everyone just going for the low-hanging fruit, the easy pickings, and those who are hard, who are intimidating, who are frightful to think on, get left to travel the road to hell because those who claim to have true αγαπη (which is the word John used) instead are wallowing in the pit of fear, too terrified to face the one who has already been defeated by the One they claim as their God.
What does that say about the level of their trust; about the level of their genuine faith, in other words?
It is a dangerous thing to lay claim to the Living God, and an extraordinarily foolish thing to do if He does not claim you. It is not sufficient to believe that He is. It is necessary, as well, to believe Him; to trust Him, in other words—even with your very life, in fact.
How can you say you believe Him if you will not trust Him? How can you claim to love Him if you refuse to go where He commands you to go? How can you claim to be Christian if you are yet in rebellion against that Christ?
I know that when I say, as I did above, that God Himself witnessed to me that puts me in rather rarefied company. Many are the impostors of God; few are those that God has actually chosen.
In this nation it is still the fashionable thing to claim Christ. More terrifying to ponder, though, is the thought, “Does Christ claim me?”
On what, exactly, do you base your claim? Did you pray a prayer? Do you read the Bible? Do you go to church? Do your parents make the claim? Do you know how many of these actually sets the Christian apart from the world at large as what they do not do?
Zero.
Not one.
Instead, consider this: have you actually and personally lived through something like the example set forth in Isaiah, Chapter 6? Have you had a personal and visceral encounter with the Living God? Has God Himself witnessed to you?
Has God claimed you?
Has God claimed you or are you living a lie that will be exposed on the day of judgment? Look upon your life and be honest about its testimony, for “you shall know them by their fruit” and not by their claims. Your Life’s testimony marks out your fruit. Take care that it testify to the grace of God.
Now, this is not an easy article; I know that. Before you accuse me of condemning anyone, though, consider this: I do not know who is reading this. Since I do not know who is reading this, I also do not know the details of their life or their walk in it. How, then, can I be condemning?
Take this, therefore, as a warning and an admonition to “work out your own salvation”. In other words, make certain that the claims you make are claims that the Lord will provide witness for and not against.
There is a parable that pertains to this. Jesus recounts it. I will leave you to study it for yourself and let the Spirit speak the truth in your heart. A father had two sons. He told one to go out and work the fields. This son said that he would, but he did not go. The father also told his other son, and this son said he would not, but later did go. The question gets asked, which son obeyed his father? One of them made false claims, while the other lived out obedience.
It is not condemnation to warn people against living a lie. In fact, it might be the very thing that leads them to a genuine repentance in faith and trust of what God has commanded.
The Apostle warns, and Christ warns. God warns people not to live a life of self-deceit, and the Apostle echoes the cry. Those whom you claim to follow warn people against living a lie. It is not condemnation to do so, but a warning cry to evade the precipice that would lead to an unending fall into hell.
Warning people to live the truth is an act of Love.