Brokenness

No thorough consideration of sacrifice could be complete without an examination of the words of David from the 51st Psalm.  “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou will not despise.”  The scriptures are full of men and women who have been brought, by God’s design, to places of great brokenness.  The victory of the cross was the product of the broken spirit and contrite heart that possessed Jesus and impassioned Him to sacrifice His life for the world.

The survival nature wants nothing to do with brokenness.  Self never seeks contrition of heart.  The flesh does not want to be humbled.  However, brokenness is necessary for true spiritual success and is something that the spiritual man does desire.  This desire was best manifest in the three hours preceding the arrest of Jesus.

As the time of the crucifixion approached, the humanity of Jesus was experiencing the tendency within Him to survive and knew that He must come to a point of absolute submission.  The chosen place for this battle for a resolute mind was a garden… a garden called the “oil press”… that is, Gethsemane.  It was a place to be broken.  Here He would, like the olive berry, be crushed and the oil of anointing be poured out empowering His greatest Spiritual work… death.

The struggle for this mindset that would cause him to lay down his life was not for the faint of heart.  With Him were, by invitation, three of His closest disciples… chosen for their prayer support in these final hours.  Their own natures could not be victorious in this time of eternal battle and sleep overtook their spirits in each of three, hour long, vigils of prayer.  These men of choice could not have been aware of the tremendous decision being wrestled with only a stone’s throw away.  It was the battle between time and eternity, heaven and hell, good and evil, God and the Devil; a battle between the nature to survive and the desire to walk in the Spirit and one side would win and the other would lose… it was a no holds barred fight to the finish.

How true rang the words of Jesus when at last he knew that the battle he fought to move with the Spirit was his to fight and His alone… “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”  Brokenness is a lonely place; there may be sympathizers and even empathizers, but there are no companions.  None, that is, except the Spirit itself… the comforter.

Whether it is Jesus in Gethsemane, Jacob at the brook Jabok, Moses on his face in the tabernacle, or H.G. Spafford looking into the cold dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean where his four children had perished in a maritime accident, no one understands, except the Spirit itself, the depths of loneliness and sorrow some events bring to our lives.  But out of these things rise great spiritual milestones that become blessings to untold thousands and even millions of people.  Gethsemane brought salvation, Jabok brought Israel, prostrate Moses brought the glory of God and the cold waters of the Atlantic gave to all of us the words of a song… “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll.  Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.”

Intimacy does not develop out of the conversation of the crowd, but rather in the shared experience of two… the spirit and you… this is the knowledge of God.  Even though it is painful to His child, God desires to get alone with us as individuals.  It is only in this lonely, painful place that the spirit of brokenness can overwhelm us and bring us to the place of greatest affinity to the Spirit.  Jesus bears forever the scars of Calvary in his hands, Jacob walked the remainder of his life with the limp received while wrestling alone with the Angel of the Lord and we will bear the effects of true brokenness all the days of our lives if we can take the opportunities of misfortune and walk through them in the Spirit.  Could it have been that David had this in mind when he wrote the words “Yea thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me.”

As “walking in the Spirit” is contemplated it must be understood that while this walk is “in the newness of life” because of the Spirit, there of necessity, had to be a kind of death before a resurrection could take place.  Resurrection is a restoration to life after death; not just some kind of better life to be attained.  Death must be experienced.  Paul said, “that I may know (be intimate with) him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”   Philippians 3:10 &11

A visualization of Christ’s resurrection can best illustrate the process that Paul is referring to.  Jesus died.  He was buried. Being dead in the tomb the conditions for resurrection were then in place.  The resurrection is accomplished by the moving of the Spirit into the tomb.  The dead body of Christ is revived to life. This is the pattern of our initial salvation as well as our continued growth in the Spirit.

It is easy then, to see that our survival nature is the main hindrance to walking in the Spirit.  Our nature does not want us to die and yet walking in the spirit is a walk of resurrection.  Resurrection is contingent upon death.  Simply, walking in the Spirit must be preceded by our death to self… and that is against our nature to survive.

The spirit waits for the opportunities that bring brokenness to us… for brokenness is in reality the break down of our survival instinct.  It is the place where we realize that our survival is not the most important thing and that there are bigger causes than self.  This is where the Spirit comes into the tomb and resurrects us with kingdom purpose.

It may have been a traumatic event when John was arrested and transported by ship to an isle named Patmos and the aged Apostle may have felt that he would never leave the island alive.  But the Spirit in him was already moving in anticipation as he arrived knowing that this old man, the last of the twelve, would be in the loneliest place of his existence… the perfect place for John to get “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”.  Thus we read two millennial later that Jesus is going to soon reveal himself with power and glory.  The book called Revelation tells us that he is, and it exists because an old lonely man chose to walk in the Spirit instead of sulk in despair nearly 2000 years ago.

While most often we look at the perfect example that Jesus put before us in matters such as these… Gethsemane for instance, our lives do not always play out in such perfect ways.  The altruistic life of Christ provides a mark to aim for in our Christian experience, and His unselfish sacrifices are to be emulated. However, we do not always measure up to this ideal.  What happens when we don’t?  

When the child of God falls, can a type of brokenness come forth to a positive end?  Referencing a quote from David’s writing began the consideration of brokenness, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou will not despise.”  The author did not gain this insight from his ability to follow perfectly the commands of God into a place of contrition and humility.  Instead, it was the exact opposite of obedience that brought him to this place of understanding and revelation.  David found himself in a place of great need, not of great accomplishment… and in that place of need he cried for mercy for a self-inflicted tragedy brought upon him by selfishness… his own selfishness.  David did not reach this pinnacle of spiritual insight by a Garden of Gethsemane approach, but by committing the terrible sins of adultery and murder and then finding a place of repentance.  The 51^st Psalm is indeed, an insightful writing for the unfortunate people of God that fall victim to their own poor choices.   

This is where the awesome nature of God and His incredible love for His people is demonstrated.  Rather than condemning and laying guilt upon guilt on David we see a compassionate and understanding God.  After the needed rebuke and correction were delivered, God lovingly brought his servant to a place of restoration and of insight that may never had come had David not fallen so terribly.

David was broken by his own missteps, while agonizing prayer and submission broke Jesus.  The place of brokenness was the result of both paths and while the consequences of the one are terribly painful and guilt ridden they both bring the person to the place of contrition and brokenness. 

It seems that, even in the tragedies of sin, spiritual progress can be made if God remains the focus of the person’s heart… for David was a man after God’s heart.  This concept is a vital spiritual lesson.  James understood that there is always hope in tragedy as he points out “…ye which are spiritual restore such a one…” Nothing is more indicative of our true spiritual state than our ability to restore the fallen; even as God restored David.  By the end of David’s life his terrible sin had been relegated to a brief footnote and his destiny was to be one of the most remarkably influential of all bible characters.                  

The Apostle's Parable

There once was man of God who was burdened for the land of Nogos Pel.  He prayed for the people of the land and sought the Lord for help in reaching the lost of the land.  One night in a dream the Lord showed the man of God a vision of twenty five ministers being sent to help him reach the land of Nogos Pel.  It happened that there were twenty five cities in the land so it seemed easy enough to send a minister into each city to become the pastor of the respective cities.  So he sent them and the man of God was declared to be the overseer of the work.

As the ministers worked they began reaching the people of Nogos Pel.  A few times a year the pastors came to gather to vote on who’s who in the land and talk about their efforts and successes.  After a while some of the churches began to grow larger, but some weren’t growing much at all.  The pastors whose congregations had grown larger began to build large buildings and move from their rented store fronts and homes.  They drove nice big cars and were usually the ones elected to the positions of importance. 

But the pastors whose congregations had not grown very much, or in some cases, lost members to the bigger churches began to feel left out.  Some of them stopped going to the few meetings that were held.  They just stayed in their cities trying to do better, wondering what was wrong with them.  Some began to look with envy at the large churches and bitterness began to rise up, especially among those whose members had transferred to the nice, big churches.  And of the largest of the churches there began to arise a spirit of completion. 

It wasn’t long until many of the pastors were not fellowshipping with the rest.  While the man of God watched over the land he seemed helpless to stop the break down that was taking place among the twenty five pastors and their churches.  His heart broke as he watched the progress of evangelism grind to nearly a halt.  Energies of the ministers had become consumed with buildings, the lack of buildings, envy, bitterness, and maybe most of all the loneliness of trying to reach a city by (what they increasingly felt like) themselves.  Each pastor had come to focus on what other pastors were doing and how they compared.  If they were faring better than the others they were lifted up in pride.  If they were doing worse than others they were cast down in discouragement. 

While the twenty five pastors had reached some of the people of Nogos Pel, most of the inhabitants had not yet even heard the message.  After a number of years, the increase of souls stopped… or nearly so.  The man of God who once had a burden for the lost of his land now had a bigger burden for the pastors and their flocks.  It looked to him as he grew older that instead of a thriving, flourishing work of God the effort of reaching Nogos Pel had succumbed to dysfunction.  

One night he was awakened from a deep sleep by the screams of people.  He raced to the window of his house to look out into a night sky that was aglow in reddish orange light that was being reflected by what looked to be billowing clouds.  The screams continued and he could hear them getting louder and closer.  He could see leaping flames reaching into the night as a devastating fire raged through out the land.  With a sadness beyond imagination he watched as the people of the land perished in the fire and beyond the sadness of the loss of the people was the sadness at the loss of the very works of the ministers that were supposed to be there to save the land of Nogos Pel.

Then, as if in a miraculous transformation, the man of God awoke out of his horrendous dream.  As he regained his composure the clear and unmistakable voice of God spoke, “Twenty five ministers are coming, yea and twenty six, and they are called to specific ministries: two will be prophets, eight will be evangelists, eight will be pastors, and seven will be teachers.  These will work together for the sake of my kingdom and my kingdom’s orchestration will be accomplished by the twenty sixth as he hears my voice of direction… He is the Apostle of Nogos Pel.  You, Man of God, are that Apostle… fulfill my will and reach this land!”

Just a thought:  Is it more effective for twenty five ministers to work individually, or as a team?  The five fold ministry is a team effort.  

Looney Tunes

While waiting for our food to come at a local restaurant I arose from my chair and walked to a window to observe whatever might be there to entertain or amuse me.  A small channel ran parallel to the building we were in and a stand of cattails had made a nice forest that shot up out of the slow moving water… water that was making its way to the river barely a hundred yards away.  Whatever places the cattail forest did not occupy in the barely moving water, a green algae was growing and forming little islands for flying insects to rest on for a moment as they fluttered about doing whatever it is that they do.

Surprisingly, the last thing that I noticed (yet demanded my attention for the duration of my observations) was a small water fowl… I was pretty sure it was a loon, a small one… maybe not yet fully mature.  With interest I watched the bird swim around the algae islands dipping its head under the surface of the water… I supposed it was finding something to eat… whether it was plant or animal I had no idea.  This it did several times as it navigated around the floating algae.  The bird swam toward the cattail stands in its search for whatever it was searching for.  Curiously, at one point it dove completely underwater and all I could see was the wake on the water’s surface that sent ripples fanning out in a “V” pattern into the forest and whatever else was there to break up the swells… including both sides of the canal.  As the point of the “V” neared the cattails the bird surfaced… I assumed it had gotten a meal... which was more that I could say for me.  Again, I had no idea what morsel the loon had found to call lunch.  I thought of frogs or tadpoles, but really had no clue.

I knew I was supposed to be having BBQ pork sliders and onion rings, but had no clue about the loon… I did know he was getting to eat sooner than I by being his own hunter, chef, and waiter.  But I was being entertained by his good fortune.  Something else I didn’t know about the loon… what was he doing?  No… I don’t mean literally “what was he doing?”  That was obvious, he was there for the same reason as we were… lunch!  But what does a loon do? 

What is the purpose of a loon?  Looks to me like he was there just trying to find enough food to make it to another day… and if he did, then what?  Find food for the next day?  I guess.  Or, maybe he would become food for some large fish or raptor.  Sure, the loon has its place in the food chain… he eats everything below him in the chain and is eaten by everything higher.  Eat or be eaten… wow, that doesn’t seem to be a great purpose for being. 

Well enough of my contemplations… looks like our food is here.  And what else would be on the big screen T.V. in the restaurant… Daffy Duck!  

The Enemy

Exile is his name… the stripper of dignity.  He wants to banish the citizens of the Heavenly city to a land of intimidation and shame.  He wants to strip them of their robe of righteousness, put on in the waters of baptism (“for as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ”.  (Galatians 3:27)  His efforts are calculated to conceal the Child of God’s true spiritual potential in Christ and to exile him to the land that sees all through eyes of worldly assumptions.  He is the enemy of faith and his name is Goliath. 

He asserts his superior size, his larger weapons, and his more fearsome look in an effort to cause faith to diminish within the heart of the believer.  His booming voice echoes across the separating valley pronouncing his supposed superior position.  It would appear that he is going to attack for the battle is set in array, but he will not attack, he only bellows his intimidation… his attempt to dissuade the believer’s resolve to fight the fight of faith.

His appearance is frightening; his voice chills the soul; the thought of him in battle is terrorizing… but he is a loser.  He is a loser by design… he is playing the part of the overpowering herald who must shortly be silenced by the still small voice of God.

Indeed the Word of God is a still small voice in comparison to the world’s lie dispensing megaphone.  The men of God who voice the word seem insignificant in comparison to the giants of the world’s media; movies, internet, radio, print and TV.  But these ministers of the word are the “giant slayers” of our day and they carry, as did David, five smooth stones… one for Goliath and each of his four brothers.

Swoosh… swoosh… whizzz... a stone is propelled through the air at a seemingly supernatural speed.  Smack… the sound of a rock, splitting forehead flesh and crushing bone of a giant’s skull quickly made its journey through the space separating the giant and a boy.  The unbelieving ears of God’s cowering army were shocked into awareness.  From the vantage point of the fearful army of Israel, the rattling sound of armor, sword, shield and spear followed both the sight of the falling enemy and the sound of the rock reaching its tiny target.  A small spot between the eyes of a bellowing, intimidating man was the one vulnerable mark that would bring this giant down.  A shepherd boy with a stone yielded to a God with a plan had accomplished the impossible and now the stunned army of God was feeling the effects of the faith of a grain of mustard seed and another sound began to rise in the valley that separated two armies… it was the sound of victory… the sound of praise and soon it would become the sound of battle as the space of separation diminished to nothing… as did a Philistine army and its champion of intimidation.

The streets were full of shouts of joy.  A new name was on the lips of the people of Israel and new songs were being sung.  Jubilation, joy and… jealousy were in the city that day.  And four more stones were in a bag that hung by the side of a young shepherd boy named David.  The following pages are a consideration of those smooth stones… and the one that was still lodged in the rotting forehead of a giant whose name means “exile… to strip”.

Spiritual Clothing

The efforts wrought of God on the behalf of fallen mankind have always been to clothe him and deliver him from the shame of his sin.  Man can be clothed by God when baptized in the name of Jesus… he actually puts on Jesus and is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  Adam and Eve found themselves exiles from the Garden of Eden, yet God did not send them forth without first clothing them with the skins of a substitutional sacrifice. 

The desire of God to cover man’s sin and shame is more than evident in the scripture.  The Ark of the Covenant had a covering of mercy, man in the church has a covering of Christ, woman in the church has a covering of her husband, and the saints have robes of righteousness.  God has no desire to expose our nakedness to public scrutiny or even to the private condemnation of our own consciences.  He does want us to see when we are naked, but only for the express purpose of him providing a covering for us.  We must confess before we can be covered, but we cannot confess what we have not seen in ourselves.  While God desires for us to prostrate ourselves in repentance, he does not want to see us grovel for the mercy he wants to pour upon us.  It is his pleasure to forgive so that he can take our sin and shame and cast it far from us and clothe us with his garments of grace.

Satan, our enemy, is quite opposite in his desire toward us.  He, working in cooperation with his worldly system, is the Goliath of our walk with God.  Intimidation, humiliation and frustration are the result of his tactics.  By fear he intimidates, by believable lies he humiliates, and by confusion he frustrates.  The last thing the enemy wants is for the child of God to get a realistic, honest, appropriate view of who they are.  It is the desire of Satan to strip God’s people of all things that are true about themselves… especially those things that are meant to cover us from shame.  “The blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness”. 

The devil (literally: accuser) has accused the brethren day and night until man is so bombarded with the sin and shame of his state that he can no longer even lift his head high enough to gaze into the mirror of the word of God.  The gaze revealing a reality of compassion, forgiveness and restoration is not allowed because we cast our eyes downward in shame.  Therefore, we miss seeing the gift that has been provided for us through a substitutionary sacrifice.  The sacrifice of Calvary has endued us with a covering that vanquishes shame, but the devil wants to strip that knowledge and experience away from us.  He desires us to be beaten down… shameful, sinful, and banished from our rightful existence… the existence provided for by the crucified Christ. 

The effectiveness of this demonic plague is evidenced on every hand.  We are as we see ourselves… that is we have a propensity to become what we think about ourselves.  Spirits of the other side, the evil side, lie to us with thoughts and they lie to us with feelings.  Not every though is true and not every feeling correct.  These are the things that Satan uses to convince us that we are not what God said we are… images of the living God.  Satan has concocted a lying image of each of us and the more we believe that image the more we become that image.  God did not create murderers, adulterers, child abusers, child molesters, liars, thieves, and the like… lying feelings and lying thoughts have perverted the image of God in man into something shameful… something sinful.  We have become a race of sick, selfish satisfiers of satanic desire because we were not aware of the truth.  Psalms 82 declares the need for a different, true perspective of our own image as well as the image of the fallen race; “I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.”  The Psalmist continues, “But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”  The problem with Saul and the army of Israel is that they did not possess a proper image of themselves or of their God.

The truth is we need to discern that the giant bellowing from across the valley is a liar and a loser.  He will do nothing against you until you listen to him and believe... believe the lie that he is propagating about YOU!  Oh, but he is effective, don’t think he isn’t.  He had an entire army believing… not in the strength of a giant, but in the weakness of themselves.  Selves who were created in the image of the mighty God!  You are created in the image of the “mighty one”, why do you believe the lie of the fallen one?  Someone needs to build you up!

Making it to 2017

We, as a nation, seem to be at a definite fork in the road.  The passion on both sides of the isle politically appears to be near an all-time high and it is evident that the electorate is sick of what has been taking place in the upper tier of our government.  A drastic change of course seems to be the desire of a greater and greater percentage of our population as we hear, not just a clamoring for change, but on the outer fringes of the political spectrum on both sides, for “revolution”.   There seems to be a rallying toward the extremes… one side or the other.

This squaring off of the extremes may be indicative of the dire circumstances our nation has found itself in as it has either drifted haplessly from its foundational principles, or worse, has been intentionally weakened through a conscious effort to make this great country more like the other deceived nations of the modern world.  Marco Rubio’s backfired effort to bring this possibility to light during the recent debate may have had much more merit than its delivery seemed to indicate.  He warned for us not to be deceived, “This president knows exactly what he is doing.”

Whether by unintentional weakness in leadership or by deliberate design we are in a precarious position and the world around us is a dangerous place!  The radicals have already demonstrated years ago that they are much attuned to the strength of our presidency, or again in worst case, the purposeful cooperation of it with those who desire to weaken this nation.  They played upon the weakness of Jimmy Carter for 444 days as they held captive 52 Americans after the U.S. Embassy was stormed in November of 1979.  However, minutes after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan these hostages were released.  The message as I heard that news 35 years ago was clear.  Radicals will take advantage of weakness, but they will respect strength… it was a near shock to me as I realized the blatant display of cowardice by the Iranians when a stronger president stepped into the office of commander and chief.

Again, whether by weakness or design our president has placed us in an extreme position of jeopardy, because while we may not have learned the lesson well, it is possible the Iranians have!  We should have learned by the 444 days of humiliation due to a weak leadership that the “hand wringing” situation could have been resolve by one day of strength turning the humiliation upon the heads of the captors.  But as the recent capture and mockery of our 10 sailors has demonstrated we are once more weak, or worse yet, going through the motions of weakness.  The question is now; “Has Iran learned the lesson better than we have?”  They surely are watching our election process with as much interest as we are, and understand there is an excellent chance a stronger and more patriotic president will soon fill the oval office.  They know the possibility of a leader more along the lines of Ronald Reagan will arrive within the year.  They must be at this moment considering strategic plans for that event. 

As the election nears in the fall of this year it is very possible that, as they see a stronger leader in the U.S. begin to emerge, fool hearty acts of radicalism could propel the world into unthinkable disaster.  Because if we make it to January 2017 and a strong, patriotic man fills the White House the same respect that caused the release of 52 hostages in 1981 will at least begin to bring a semblance of sanity to a region of radical lunacy.  But the ultimate question right now is “What might they try between now and next January to keep us under feckless leadership without the resolve to do what needs to be done?”  The possibilities are endless.  I will be on my knees… a lot.  It is the year of Jubilee you know! 

Prelude to Revelation

There are two ways to learn.  In the physical realm we learn by observation.  The advancement of knowledge in this realm is accomplished by science... a process of observing and making conclusions.  In the spiritual realm observation is not the ultimate means of knowledge (although it can verify spiritual knowledge).  It cannot bring spiritual knowledge to the learner.  Knowledge in the spiritual realm comes by revelation.

Revelation is the unveiling of that which is hidden (or covered).  Prelude to Revelation is a consideration of the process of spiritual learning we call revelation.  More precisely, it is the study of the necessary position that must be in place for revelation to come to the learner.  This position is one of curiosity... Spiritual curiosity.  One must have this vital quality in order for the unveiling of hidden truths to be accomplished.

Peter (and the other disciples) was asked by Jesus, "Whom to men say that I am?"  Peter responded with the correct answer and was informed by Jesus that he did not know the answer by "flesh and blood" (i.e. by natural observation or calculation), but by revelation.  Jesus went on to say that this was the means by which the Kingdom of God would be built.  Spiritual revelation is the means of receiving knowledge of the unseen (not observed) world. 

Prelude to Revelation explores this fascinating subject by considering the mysterious ways of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus almost exclusively taught using stories (parables) that were really clues to the invisible spiritual world.  The desire to know the answers to the mysteries He put forth may have been the single most important factor as to whether the student would come to spiritual knowledge and ultimately, eternal life.

It is human nature to desire salvation, but it is also human nature to have answers that are laid out in very precise (dare I say, scientific) manner.  It was not to be the method Jesus chose in imparting knowledge.  His words in prayer were, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.  All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."   (Luke 10:21 &22)

It is, indeed, questions (spiritual curiosity) that set the stage for spiritual revelation and subsequently spiritual knowledge.  The teaching of Jesus was so designed to provoke curiosity concerning the Kingdom of God that it was prophesied concerning it (His teaching) that he would not speak without doing so in parables (stories about the mysteries God).  It was His method of teaching because revelation was His chosen method of learning.  And before revelation can come, curiosity must be present.  Thus the subject and title of this book Prelude to Revelation.

For forty years the Children of Israel were fed in the wilderness by a little round "thing" called manna.  It came during the night by the hand of God.  It came in the darkness (in the realm of mystery), but was available to any and all in the morning.  It literally means "What is it?"  Manna was a question, it was mysterious, it was miraculous, it was their food, but mostly it was God's way of saying, "Don't you want to know more about me?"

Science may confirm many revelations, but it cannot be the source of spiritual knowledge.  If God is to be truly found it will be by the means of the revelation of spiritual mysteries and that must be preceded by SPIRITUAL CURIOSITY!

Prelude to Revelation