Sleeping with the Enemy?

 

 ^"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."  

James 4:4[a]

Social acceptance, prestige, or wealth are all described by James as friends of the world. Divided loyalty toward God is like adultery against one's spouse.
When we say "yes" to God, we find ourselves ushered into a strange and painful reality. Our defiance and self-reliance has kept us separated from our creator. The very one who breathed life into us and planned our life while we were being formed in our mother's womb.
What begins to transpire has been described as Holy Surgery. We were born into a sinful and fallen world as children of a sin nature. Relying on our own understanding of the things we see, taste, touch, and smell. We gather information from those who have been charged with caring for us, and as we grow older, we begin to develop "common sense." I believe this is the most stifling quality to the Good News of Christ we possess. Everything we do in our life is governed by our own framework of "common sense."
Since the beginning of time, man has been searching for the throne of God. We can't find it on our own, so we resolve to create a throne room in our minds or our homes, and we worship the god of us.
When you say the words of Isaiah, "here am I, send me" to God, you've given Him permission to check you into hospital. You are wheeled into surgery and He begins to remove everything that was never supposed to be there.
The greatest misconception of the work of God, is that He must change my surroundings and environment so that I can not be tempted to fall away. Although, that's not a bad idea, it never really deals with the core issue, YOU.
God wants to have a relationship with you, but to do that He needs your trust. Every lesson of self-reliance you have ever learned must be cut out of you and replaced with dependence on Him. God will never force Himself on you, or strap you on the surgeon's table, or even knock you out so that you feel no pain. In other words, this process could last a lifetime. Oh yeah, did I mention it was going to hurt?
John Piper writes that pain is not for nothing, but that it is producing a peculiar glory in us. Oswald Chambers writes, through pain and circumstance is the only way we build character.
As a man, I tend to always seek the affirmation of others. This helps to galvanize my way of thinking. God has been clear in His desire to severe that way of thinking.

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.  

Luke 14:26(b)

Once you take a step of faith in the direction of Jesus Christ, the next thing you will face is the people who should understand you the best. This is where it gets REALLY hard. You've spent a lifetime leaning on the knowledge and experience of these relationships. James makes it very clear what divided loyalties will produce, you will become an enemy of God.
One of the biggest blows to our self-help mentality, is that the pain we experience is not FOR you. When you accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are presented before God blameless and righteous.

 " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...."

Gal 2:20a(c)

So then why must we experience so much trouble?
Your choices and behavior influence everyone who is in contact with you. If your life looked like anything less than the redemptive life of Christ, then the world would never recognize their need for Him.
So how do we reflect Christ to the world?
When we say "yes" to Christ, we enter in to the "undeserved privilege" of the new covenant. Our everyday life is transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Which reminds me of the old hymn:

"Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."(d)

 

I'm too tired to continue.....

      In the book The Dream Giver(1) the main character Ordinary finds himself in The WasteLand. Never mind, he just stepped out of his comfort zone to follow his Big Dream, and he just made it through all of the Border Bullies who tried to stop him, he now has stumbled into the desert of The WasteLand.

      Here is where Ordinary faces the greatest difficulty of his journey. Just when he convinced himself his dream was worth it, his faith in the Dream Giver was to be tested.

      This is an all too familiar journey for me. Two years ago in 2011, I decided to stop being just a cradle Christian. I stepped onto a path God had been waiting for me to see. This was the path designed for me and only me, and it was laid out before I was even "knit in my mother's womb."(a) However, had I known the struggles I would face, I might have chosen a different route.

      That's what I've grown to love about faith. If God told us everything upfront, it would blow our minds. He desires a deep intimacy with us, and I'm not sure we would feel very intimate knowing the circumstances we were to face and how He would engineer them for His glory.

Following a dream or calling is a walk through a series of trials and persecutions, but that refining was never intended for our gain and purpose.

"If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest(Nov 5th)

When I think of persisting in difficult circumstances, I'm often reminded of a speech given by a former college basketball coach. Suffering from cancer, he was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. Here are some excerpts of his acceptance speech:

“But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.”

“…and I always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day.”

“I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality. “
"Don't give up, don't ever give up."
“Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.“ - Jim Valvano 1993 at ESPY Awards(2)

 

Decision #7

The Persistent Decision*

I Will Persist Without Exception.

Knowing that I have already made changes in my life that will last forever, today I insert the final

piece of the puzzle. I possess the greatest power ever bestowed upon mankind, the power of choice.

Today, I choose to persist without exception. No longer will I live in a dimension of distraction, my

focus blown hither and yon like a leaf on a blustery day. I know the outcome I desire. I hold fast to

my dreams. I stay the course. I do not quit.

I will persist without exception. I will continue despite exhaustion. I acknowledge the fact that most

people quit when exhaustion sets in. I am not “most people.” I am stronger than most people.

Average people accept exhaustion as a matter of course. I do not. Average people compare themselves

 

with other people. That is why they are average. I compare myself to my potential. I am not average. I see

 

exhaustion as a precursor to victory.

How long must a child try to walk before he actually does so? Do I not have more strength than a

child? More understanding? More desire? How long must I work to succeed before I actually do

so? A child would never ask the question, for the answer does not matter. By persisting without

exception, my outcome—my success—is assured. I will persist without exception. I focus on results.

To achieve the results I desire, it is not even necessary that I enjoy the process. It is only important

that I continue the process with my eyes on the outcome. An athlete does not enjoy the pain of

training; an athlete enjoys the results of having trained. A young falcon is pushed from the nest,

afraid and tumbling from the cliff. The pain of learning to fly cannot be an enjoyable experience,

but the anguish of learning to fly is quickly forgotten as the falcon soars to the heavens.

A sailor who fearfully watches stormy seas lash his vessel will always steer an unproductive course.

But a wise and experienced captain keeps his eye firmly fixed upon the lighthouse. He knows that

by guiding his ship directly to a specific point, the time spent in discomfort is lessened. And by

keeping his eye on the light, there never exists one second of discouragement. My light, my harbor,

my future is within sight!

I will persist without exception. I am a person of great faith. In Jeremiah, my Creator declares, “For

I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a

 

future.” From this day forward, I will claim a faith in the certainty of my future. Too much of my life has

 

been spent doubting my beliefs and believing my doubts. No more! I have faith in my

future. I do not look left or right. I look forward. I can only persist.

For me, faith will always be a sounder guide than reason because reason can only go so far—faith

has no limits. I will expect miracles in my life because faith produces them every day. I will

believe in the future that I do not see. That is faith. And the reward of this faith is to see the

future that I believed.

I will continue despite exhaustion. I focus on results. I am a person of great faith.

 

I will persist without exception.

 

* The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews(3)