How the World Works
And What Jesus Does Through Us to Overcome It
Published by Vic Zarley at Smashwords
Copyright © 2006 Vic Zarley
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Dedicated to the work Jesus Christ did on the cross for all of us and to those brave souls who hunger for the deeper Christian life, the abundant life Christ promised, even as they know they must go out on a limb, loving the unlovable, praying for their enemies, and following Jesus’ commands in order to allow the Holy Spirit to root out the infestations that stagnate their souls and droop their shoulders.
Biblical copyright information for quotes in this book
Scripture taken from the Modern King James Version of the Holy
Bible Copyright © 1962, 1990, 1993, 1998, 1999 Used by permission of copyright
holder, Jay P. Green Sr. The Modern King James Version is identified in the book as (MKJV).
Introduction to How the World Works
Throughout the ages members of the human race have often asked, “What is the meaning of life?” and have pleaded with God to reveal what is going on here on this turbulent earth. God doesn’t hide from us nor does He deliberately withhold information, teasing us with snatches of wisdom here and pieces of the puzzle there. I say this confidently from my own understanding of God from the Bible and personal experience of God in my heart. It must be understood that it is we who hide from God. Wisdom is available to those who come to God’s altar, open minded and hungry for Him. I believe there is a purpose and order and continuity to life in this world, that can be seen. Again, I don’t think God deliberately hides it from us but, just as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we have hidden from Him.
How is it done and why, for heaven’s sake, would we do this?
It was done when we disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, we became limited to our tiny perceptions which clouded out God’s knowledge and made it unavailable to us. It is as though we are asleep. Jesus came and from the cross, corrected us from this error, and as we accept this truth, we are awakened yet many still remain unaware that they slumber, like bears in hibernation.
Perhaps we do this because we cannot bear the fact that we have the audacity to run from God. Examining the tiny elements of our lives, searching our environment like detectives, protects us from taking on responsibilities for our separation from Him. We would rather not believe that we have tried to run away from God so, rather than look to Him completely with open mind and heart, we look everywhere else, hoping for clues to the mystery of what is going on here. And, have you noticed, we look everywhere but where the reachable and approachable part of God resides within, in the person of the Holy Spirit. He resides within at our invitation. Because we do not run whole-heartedly back to God, back to the only One who has the whole truth, we wander hopelessly just outside the Promised Land, like the Israelites, grumbling and complaining (even though God is showing us miracle after miracle).
If we would turn within, communicating with the Holy Spirit of our Almighty God and wholeheartedly and open mindedly ask, there would be no question He would not answer for us. I don’t think most people go through this procedure very consistently. I believe people feel as though spiritually, looking upon the face of God brings death. The reason for this goes back to when Adam and Eve ran from Him. They surmised they were in big trouble and the rest of us are the same. But Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son should do away with our need to feel guilty for the squandering of our inheritance. “Dad” wants us back, badly. We were lost but now we’re found (in Christ Jesus). Praise God!
This book shares information gleaned from many hours of prayer and (forgive the presumptuousness) attempts to explain what the world is and how it works. Since our bodies exist in this world, we will touch upon their purposes as well. We will also look at what our Savior, Jesus, does to overcome the world by strengthening us for His purposes so we do not fall into its traps. There will be many times when you will see that we have choices to make in this world. We can turn our heads toward Satan and his conniving, deceitful world or, we can face Jesus in all we do and follow the one who broke free from its heavy chains. The right choice, though obvious, is not the easiest to make. It is exciting to know that we do not have to run from the world. It has no power compared to our Mighty Jesus. All we really need to do is run headlong toward our Lord and Savior.
If you already grasp all this, without struggling or confusion, there is no need to read on. Close the book and dwell in Him fervently and joyfully, because that’s all there is to it. Now on your To Do list, you can check off the task that says, “Try to understand the world today.” Jesus is all we need to understand. But, for those who desire to explore this further, please continue. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to be able to share what my journey has revealed.
Prose for the Mind
The Mechanism of Carnal Anger
I'm upset with all of you! You should know what anger is by now!
(Just joking, everyone. Kind of giving an example of how anger appears. It is heavy, awkward, it wears a frown, it stomps its feet in flower beds, it roars insidiously and speaks harshly at everything it perceives as wrong. It perceives itself as the great corrector -- it feels it knows and no one else does, it feels it is its responsibility to change the world and the only way it can do this is to tell it, loudly, all the things it is doing wrong.) Carnal anger is of the flesh. It, therefore, is one of Satan’s tools. It is never justified.
Through the power that the Lord gives to His saved children, when their minds have been transformed by His renewal, we are asked to be aware that we can and do look at the world from different perspectives, from different levels. On one level, the carnal world, filled with Satan’s tricks and magic, comes at us from all sides and is reported about on all the channels. We must choose to ignore Satan’s constant urging to "follow me." On another level, however, is God's kingdom here on earth, which, through Jesus, dwells within. Jesus also said, "Follow me" and, doing so, by humbling ourselves before Him and totally relinquishing all to Him, we allow God's love to flow into our world, unobstructed.
Of the two levels, which one has more power? Is it the carnal world of flesh that has all power or is it the world of God's kingdom through our deep and humbling relationship with Jesus? Of course, it is through the invincible power of Jesus Christ, Whom we have accepted as our Lord and Savior. It is He that does the work as we merely pray without ceasing to Jesus, and reaffirm our relationship with Him, again and again, which gives us our strength. It is His Holy Spirit whom He gave to the saved which teaches us how to pray without ceasing.
Nothing is done by our will alone. But through the power of Jesus Christ, all things are possible. In truth, it is when we insist on correcting someone NOW, that we are often frustrated until we shake and are red in the face. It is when we might blubber angrily that someone must “wake up and smell the coffee,” that we are trespassing into the flesh and trying to do something by our will alone. Nothing should be done by our will alone. Nothing! It is not that they don’t need the truth. They do. We all do. It is that we can’t be God’s jackhammers, pounding and pounding the truth into people’s thick skulls.
Judgment and forcing our will onto people is a nasty combination. It quite effectively draws a huge wedge between them and our Lord and Savior. It doesn’t drive them to the Lord. It drives them away from Him because, they may reason, if God is like this, they don’t want to know Him. Conviction must be from the Lord’s Holy Spirit within. God says that what we do to others, He will do to us, so we want to remember that love is never overbearing. This will assure us that God will help us on our journey to know Him better in a gentle and peaceful way, just as we are helping someone else on their journey in this manner. We must ask ourselves, how do we want to be taught and then proceed to teach in this way. God tends to give us what we give to others so, if not right away, we can count on God eventually teaching us via a gentle conviction that touches the deepest parts of our souls, in a mighty and extremely effective way.
As a saved Christian, we are given opportunity after opportunity to choose love or fear. Am I willing to learn to see things in a new way by giving Him my heart? Until that time, I am subject to frustration and temper tantrums because people don’t act the way I expect them to.
If I am attacked, I would ask the Holy Spirit to help me not be tempted by the great deceiver to fall into the trap of anger. Anger does not need to sink, like a stone, to the bottom of my heart and, there, build in intensity over time until I explode for "no reason."
My mind in Christ, constantly praying to Him, will view the world with the unconditional, uncondemning love of the Lord or, not praying to Him, the spiteful, splintering withered view of Satan. We can choose whether to humbly take on the mantle of Christ and allow Him to see through our eyes or allow the ever alert deceiver to use our moments of indecision to swipe at the very framework Christ is building in us. Satan could possibly even cause it to topple as we fly into an uncontrollable rage, repeatedly reviewing the damage that was done to us and eventually building a justification for being angrier and angrier.
Let's choose Jesus, wholeheartedly, before the deceiver has a chance to grab our hearts and minds. If we give it all to Him, just hand Jesus the reigns to our thinking, then there will be fewer and fewer times when our thoughts will gallop uncontrollably into the flesh, bringing with it accusations and the pain associated with that act.
The more I listen to Satan and allow him to manipulate the way I perceive, the less I'm fulfilling my promise to the Lord to follow Him. I'm either humbly following Christ and allowing Him to take my will, or else Satan is influencing my will every moment of the day. The temptation to feel the hair at the nape of the neck rise, to feel the blood start to boil, to feel slighted and hurt, is great. Satan truly smiles when God's children are indecisive about following the Lord. He rubs his hands and snickers, "This is the moment I've been waiting for!" The more we are tempted to look for the myriad reasons to justify our anger, the tighter the noose is being made around our own necks. How do we get out of this mess?
Forgiveness. We must follow Jesus to the cross in these situations and ask God to "forgive them for they know not what they do." It cannot be stated too many times that we cannot do this ourselves. Jesus must do it for us. How can we "forgive them?" They've hurt us immensely. It has to be the Lord. But we must be even the tiniest bit willing to have Him help us.
Why forgive? Those who are inflicting pain and suffering on God's children really don't know what they are doing. If they did know they were falling deeper under the spell of the deceiver, and risking spending an eternity in hell, they wouldn't be doing what they are doing. It is not foolish to understand that people who inflict pain in any way, don't know what they are doing and are at least spiritually ill. Are we going to obey Christ’s instructions to pray for those who are ill (whether physically or spiritually) or are we going to build a wall of anger that may be especially hard to tear down later, when our attention is given back to the Lord? It is impossible to pray for someone with whom we are angry. We must go and make amends, then come back to the temple.
One final note on anger. It's not always easy to understand what it is about another person that makes us angry. It could be something entirely different from the incident that triggered the anger. We must realize, Satan is always looking for a way to wiggle into our minds with his temptation, it doesn't matter to him how he gets in, he's just glad to be in control. He is "fulfilled" when we give in to this temptation to be angry.
Our lives are similar to the small boat that carried Jesus, who was napping, and the disciples across the lake. If the wind of temptation picks up and a storm causes the waves to tilt our boat precariously, let’s not leave Jesus asleep but awaken Him, that He might calm the storm and seas that rage.
The Mechanism of Hate
No matter how many generations we have been going at each other's throats, no matter how many circles of fear we have wrapped around ourselves, no matter how deep and dark and dismal and permanent this carnal world looks, all of it will vanish as we do one simple thing: Give our lives to Jesus.
Why?
Let's look at the mechanism of hate. History has given us many individuals who could fulfill the role of "deserving receivers of our hate." They appear quite regularly like pimples on the body of the human race. And, like pimples, they come for a time and then they are gone. Usually, however, even as one is leaving, another is arriving. Time seems to be playing tricks with us. Hate Ivan the Terrible...no, hate the Confederacy or the Union… no, hate Adolph Hitler...no, hate Charles Manson...and hate the Unabomber and hate Sadam Hussein and hate Osama Bin Ladan...and hate and hate.
Besides individuals, we are supplied with large segments of the population to hate as well. In 1944 it was acceptable to hate the Japanese, and the Germans. In the 50s, the Koreans and the Russians, in the late 50s, the Blacks and the Whites. On and on it goes, we are told who we must hate on almost a daily basis. What is really going on here?
In the Prodigal Son story, Jesus shared what happened when one son asked for his father's inheritance and squandered it in a foreign land. Jesus shared this story to illustrate that, though his son had made a really bad choice, when he decided to swallow his pride and come back to his father, his father welcomed him back with open arms. For a while, though, when the son was in exile, the son felt that his father was going to punish him severely. The Prodigal Son story illustrates that, when we return to Him, we didn't need to worry about reprisals from our Father. He, too, will welcome us back into His arms, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
When Adam and Eve fell from the Garden, officially beginning the separation from God, they certainly were guilty, weren't they? We, the tainted ancestors of Adam and Eve, have, no doubt, felt guilty about it ever since. There is a residual shame that has filtered down from the beginning of time. In this world, since Adam and Eve lost their lease, we still feel we are living "apart" from God and, often, still feel guilty about that.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who died for us, to relieve us from all guilt. Once we give our lives to Jesus, the guilt must go. Unfortunately, it is possible to go through the ritual of being saved but still not give our lives completely over to Jesus, and consequently, we still keep the guilt. This, of course, opens us up to Satan, who is empowered when we keep carnality for ourselves. We make our garden fertile for his weeds of self-repulsion. This self-repulsion is unbearable to us as God never intended us to carry the burden of guilt. When we refuse to relinquish all of our carnality to Jesus and, instead, keep some of it for ourselves, guilt happens. We, then, in a type of denial then projection, look for other people to blame for our problems, rather than knowing the truth—that Jesus is the solution no matter what the problem. Satan’s fruit, in the process of our projecting our own unresolved inner carnality onto other people, is more and more guilt. Because we cannot bear guilt, we manifest it as hate toward others.
The fruit of giving our lives over to Jesus, is love, unconditional love for everyone. Even those who demonstrate a complete lack of morals, total disregard for human life, and shun all sense of civilized behavior. They can't be saved or even changed by our hating them. Jesus asked us to pray for those who behave badly or who persecute us. Once again, the result of our listening to Satan and harboring guilt is judgment of others and the fruit of that is hate. Satan tightens his grip on our hearts by tempting us to contribute to the madness of the world. Jesus loosens Satan’s grip, effortlessly because that is why God sent His Son to us. Jesus frees us from all temptation so that we walk, fully aware that God is ruling our lives, not Satan.
When this guilt is festering in our souls, and we have not yet decided to follow Christ to the cross and let Him relieve our burdens, we find ourselves looking around with evil intentions, to find a scapegoat so that our guilt might be removed. This scapegoat works almost like the first scapegoat mentioned in Leviticus, where Aaron had to lay his hands on the goat’s head, allowing all the iniquities (sins) of the people to go into that goat. Aaron would then send that goat into the wilderness forever, thereby relieving the people of their sins.
When we feel the guilt of separation from our Father but are afraid our Father will smite us, we are in a spiritual twilight zone where anything can happen. We look around for someone to blame, anyone, it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter whether the reasons for the blame make sense or not. If the truth be known, and we could step back from this process just a little, we’d see that we simply cannot handle holding onto the guilt of our separation from God, so we must blame someone (anyone, really) so that we can feel relieved of the burden of guilt. The problem with this approach is that it won’t work. As with anything with Satan behind it, it merely provides a temporary sense of relief then, in a mighty wave of self-disgust, the temptation to blame others (for anything, it doesn’t matter), returns again.
When we harbor anything that is not of the Lord, we are opening ourselves up to the great deceiver. It becomes his ticket to ride in our souls as we take control away from the Lord whom we have given our lives to and ponder what to do with our minds. Hate is a choice but there is another choice that can be made.
Jesus is the last choice. If we truly have love in our hearts, we are relishing in the fruit of Christ reigning fully in our lives. If we hate either one person or a large segment of society, then Satan has gripped our hearts, because the door to our souls was left ajar by the guilt we refused to let Jesus take. He died for our sins and guilt. The price is paid. Giving our lives over to Him completely, allows Him to remove the piercing and painful thorns of guilt and its fruit, hate, from our lives. We can be saved AND harbor the guilt that comes from not being saved. If we have found “scapepeople” to unload our sin of separation from God upon, we are missing the boat of Jesus’ salvation and will find ourselves flailing in the waters of the world, trying to save ourselves. This is why we need Jesus. We can’t deliver ourselves. We just can’t.
In truth, it isn’t necessary to understand why we hate either one person or a group of people. The important point is that we be willing to relinquish the Satan induced, call of the flesh, to Jesus so that He can remove it from our hearts. When this is done, freedom through Christ is the result. For some, however, it may be helpful to know why we need to give our resentments, our hates, and our unforgiving stances to the Lord. We do this because He is the only way we’ll be able to get rid of them. And if we don’t get rid of them, they will destroy us.
Acting out these deep carnal desires of our defiled hearts, by killing the people we have deemed are the cause of all our problems, or shunning them or running from them or trying to solve the problems in any other way, other than through the saving power of Jesus Christ, is fruitless. It won’t work. The world’s way of solving relational problems, does nothing but perpetuate more problems. If everyone tried to solve their relationship problems in this manner, the world would be a chaotic mess…oh, wait, it is, isn’t it?
The mechanism of hate will gradually grind to a halt as more and more people give their hearts and flaws totally to Jesus. As this mechanism slows, people will not be so quick to judge. Time will seem to stand still as we take our holy breaths and let the love of Christ remove all guilt. The mechanism of hate that has caused large segments of the population to pounce on individuals targeted by their anger, will be reduced with each changed heart. With each individual who joins God's family through Jesus, the only true healing there is will occur. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” becomes no longer a distant dream but a present reality.
The Mechanism of Carnal Love
Most love songs extol the "carnal love" of the carnal self. "If I can have you, it doesn't matter what the world does to me. Together we will make a bubble of love floating in the muck and mire of this ugly world. Take my hand and we will save each other from this terrible world." Or, "You can replace God for me. I will worship the ground you walk on. As long as you fulfill my expectations, I will love you but the moment you fall short of them, I will cast you aside like an old dish towel." Of course most love songs don't tell the whole story but only portions of the truth.
Love (as observed in the carnal world) is based on perceptions or appearances. Perceptions are judgments. The party that we fell in "love" with only exists in our minds. To them, we must maintain a certain amount of the ideal qualities they originally saw in us or we will become irritants, thorns in their sides, people they can barely tolerate, or even people they actively hate. Odd, isn't it, that "love" can switch so quickly to "hate." Would God have made love this way? No. And He didn't. But, under the influence of the deceiver, we did.
How did we do such a thing? It all comes down to dwelling in a world where God seems strangely absent, where we have to do things for ourselves (in order to even survive). No longer in the Garden, we have to fend for ourselves. Our eyes, no longer closed in worship to our loving, nurturing God, now have to be kept peeled for prey that might attack us. The world has become a jungle and it has become every man and woman for themselves. What kind of love would develop in a scenario such as this, where we have become so defensive and self-serving?
It would not necessarily be a love that was fully sanctioned by God because, although it would be called love, it would be tainted with carnal world traits of possession, envy, lust for the flesh outside the marriage, despondency, underhandedness, lack of trust, and more. In all fairness to God, we can't really call the carnal relationships we often have in this world, love. They, in fact, are very poor imitations of it. The God-established holy institution of marriage is easily dissolved and many opt to skip entry into it at all, settling instead for a “significant other.”
For our relationships to be filled with God's spirit of love, we must, as usual, give all back to Him. He will take our weak attempts at establishing relationships and as we completely submit to His will, He will infuse them with His power and His glory to make them strong and firm and whole. There will no longer be a hopeless attempt to try to make someone else the way we think they should be. There will no longer be a futile attempt to live our lives in some sort of protective bubble, as we cling desperately to each other, hopefully shielding us from the carnal world's onslaughts, and, consequently, as we try to make a world that secludes us from the problems, Christ’s light no longer shines where it is needed.
Relationships that are designed to replace God are destined to fail. We cannot be God to each other. What we can be, however, are living examples of Christ. This is done by, once again, recognizing what is the fruit of the world (Satan) and giving it up to God. We must recognize that we don’t want relationships that exclude God because they are extremely possessive, filled with distrust and steeped in fear. Those types of relationships are the result of listening to the wrong guide. Satan’s answers to our questions about how to live, do nothing but dig our graves and embed us deeper into the world and its fallen ways.
Jesus overcame the world for us so we must follow Him and His teachings. We must allow His love to increase within us and continue to pray unceasingly and grow dependent only on Him, not on any person. If our relationships are not vibrant with God’s love, they have probably become passé. Relationships that have grown “comfortable” can be given a wonderful boost by our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Time spent with Him in prayer is, however, necessary and very rewarding. Not only will it enrich our relationships, but every aspect of our lives.
These are the types of things that happen to love in this carnal world. Our type of love must be changed to agape in order to be saved and who, pray tell, is our Savior? Jesus, of course. If we give our inept attempts of love over to Him, He will radically transform them into acceptable and true expressions of His love. As a couple, you will no longer be struggling to maintain yourselves in a world that attacks and cajoles, twists and turns you, or holds you upside down and shakes you until all the change falls out of your pockets. Such manipulation is devastating to love. It is wonderful to think that with the transformed love of Jesus Christ, you will stand tall in this carnal world, a glowing, vibrant, truly loving couple who recognize their part in God's plan of salvation.
This new couple in Christ are a witness to His love, because they understand it to be all inclusive and they want to share it with a world that may initially reject it (like Christ was rejected). Yet eventually, when the world witnesses your strength which is a strength not of this world and your love, which is a love not of this world, and your firm grip on a peaceful and fulfilling reality (that is not of this world), then those who yearn for what you are offering, will come, open minded and open hearted to you and you will be as Christ is to all of us, a peace and a comfort and a joy to them. You will be a witness to the truth which sets us all free from the strange and confusing and convoluted love the world says is "normal."
God's love is all inclusive. God's love is shared universally and equally among His saved children. It does not separate itself into little splinters of love and decide which person to love and which person to hate. To sum this up, then, carnal love is actually a strange combination of the appearance of love and the appearance of hate which even reverses back and forth in hopeless confusion. Carnal love makes it impossible to know what God's real love, agape love, is by obscuring it in the appearance of love and hate. Oddly, there is a very thin line between the carnal love and hate relationships. Both tend to cover-up God's true love which is the only love that is complete and whole.
Oh, Father, how much we want to give our relationships to you. As our trust in You grows, Lord, we would entrust you completely with what is invaluable to us on this earth, our spouses. We're so glad you gave Your life and took on the burden of our sins. In our continuing acceptance of You, O Lord, wash my mind clean of all appearances of my loved ones so that Your Holy Spirit can help me see them anew. You are first, Lord but in that firm and glorious decision, my relationships are allowed to shine in the Glory of the living God more than they ever have in the past. To You we give all honor and thanks. In Jesus name, Amen.
The Pedestrian Overpass
I tried to remain solemn. That was my mood as I started off on a Saturday afternoon walk and I had no desire to change it. As I sauntered toward the campus of a local community college, the thin cloud cover and the freezing temperatures reflected my mental attitude. I was deep in thought about small things; little aches and pains, little irritants that were sand papering the edges of my life.
Two children, laughing, ran past me. That was rude of them. They had no business interrupting my solemnity. I slowed down so they could hurry past. Walking on, breathing deeply the fresh, crisp air. I was halfway through the campus, then, reflecting about my life.
Soon I came to a major thoroughfare on the other side of the campus and I decided to go north on it. There was a junior high school nearby and a pedestrian overpass just ahead. I decided it would be somewhat interesting to climb that pedestrian overpass and observe the traffic. Above it all, I could watch the cars go under me, each one a shell, holding a driver and maybe passengers, all living their separate lives, all going to their separate places, all doing their separate things. I could get even more contemplative and withdrawn, which was attractive to me at that moment.
I climbed the walkway, circling around, higher and higher, then walked out over the street. Traffic roared under me and I was sure that people in those cars and trucks were completely unconcerned with my observation of them. So what if some clown was up on the pedestrian overpass watching them? What difference would it make to them? What interest could they possibly have in me?
As I watched the traffic flow under me, I began to stare indifferently into the private worlds of the people's vehicles. But then completely unexpectedly, one person waved to me. It caught me off guard. It made me take a quick breath. What was happening? Then, in another car, two more people waved at me. Suddenly most of the people in the cars into which I was staring, began waving and smiling.
I was shocked at first. This wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't part of my plan. I had determined that I was going to have a solemn, isolated moment on this cold afternoon, on the pedestrian overpass. But--as if by magic--I was catapulted into a different state of mind. It was a conspiracy, I'm positive. My sense of solemnity flew away. Any sense of separation I was feeling, dropped from the overpass and dissipated onto the street below. I could sense a meltdown. Something welled up within me that was making me feel, well, joyous.
I waved at those who waved at me and other people in cars and trucks going under the overpass, responded. I had been singled out and zapped by a wave of love from random drivers and passengers, on the street below this pedestrian overpass. There was nothing I could do to stop their assault. I was defeated in my attempt to remain introspective. My battle was lost. I smiled and laughed and waved at the parade of humanity, who may not have even known the depth in which they had touched me, in their travels that day.
Irving the Candle
This is the story of Irving, the candle. Irving was unaware of what he was but he knew he had a lot to do in this world. His defenses were always up because others were always trying to snuff out his light. Indeed, Irving spent his entire day just defending his wick from the snuffers he encountered. Though his light never went out, it did burn dim.
One day Irving Candle picked up a copy of the Bible and began reading Jesus' directions that if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that if someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
Irving was a smart candle. He knew he had a lot of grievances against the snuffers in his life. But it seemed real important to him to fight against the oppression of light, these snuffers laid on him. He felt if he didn't fight them, his light would be snuffed out, permanently. He felt if he didn't defend himself, his light (and his life) would be over.
He put his Holy Bible down, thinking to himself that if he would just fight this battle against the current snuffer in his life, and win, he wouldn't need to fight anymore. "I'll just fight this one and then I'll try to let go of my grievances after that," he told himself. But a strange thing happened. Irving Candle never could fight that "last" battle, because there were always other, more important battles that threatened his light. These battles took his attention away from his true purpose (which was to shine) and made him think his purpose was to defend his wick from the oppressors of light. There never was a last battle, only the next battle. There never was a time when he could realize his full potential of lightness because he was so into defending his wick.
As Irving Candle continued to defend his wick, his light grew dimmer and dimmer. It didn't go out (because God created Irving as light) but because Irving thought his purpose was to defend his wick, he found his goals shifted and changed hopelessly. His purpose was always outer directed. Though he felt justified in defending his wick, he was not really achieving his goal of being the light and he began to be depressed by that.
Suddenly it dawned on Irving Candle, as he thought about his light-snuffer landlord that had bilked him out of some money, that focusing on the light, (his faith in God's provision for him and his family) was more important than focusing on the dark (his resentment toward his landlord). Suddenly it occurred to Irving Candle that the best thing he could do for his family was teach them by his example and fully submit to Jesus' commands to love those who persecuted him and forgive those who do him wrong. He knew full submission to Jesus would invite His light to shine through him completely, healing him deeply. If Irving could learn to routinely give it all up to Jesus, rather than focus on defending his wick, his family would learn how to be better lights, in this world of snuffers.
It was at this point that Irving Candle dropped his previous unattainable goals of defending his wick. He did not want to be in a state of "wick"edness. The wick snuffers were too numerous and they always found his blind spot when they came up behind him, as he walked life's path. He decided to look at the snuffers as opportunities to even grow closer to Jesus. No longer was he going to fight them, but he was going to use them as motivation to catapult him into Jesus' arms. He was going to pray for those who tried to snuff him out and ask Jesus for help in learning how to forgive. He knew, truly, with God all things are possible. He knew, with God, the burdens are lifted.
Irving Candle and his family lived happily ever after. They knew God was their source and they shined brightly, wherever they went. No one could ever doubt that Irving Candle was a child of God.
The Cat Came Back
How do I get home? I sit in my computer room looking out the window at the tall dry straw colored grass in the empty field across the street and wonder about that. In the distance a mighty oak reaches its gnarled branches to the sky. Its branches seem symbolic of my arms, reaching to the sky. I ask, once again, "How do I get home?" But why would I ask that? Am I not home?
What is "home"?
Perhaps it is a place where I raise a family; or, at least, a place where my body resides. It is a place where my friends can gather to talk, to share food, to play games. Home, on this planet, must be where I sleep and eat (most of the time). Home must be my shelter. When the summer sun beats down unmercifully, home provides a cool retreat. When the winter storms of the Midwest send shrieking gusts of icy wind that blows powdery snow into huge drifts, home must be safety from that freezing environment. Home must be warm, cozy, with perhaps a crackling fire in the fireplace, music playing; a place away from the blizzard blowing outside.
Our homes on this earth, however, are always deteriorating. Time takes away their structure and their beauty until, in the end, there will be no sign they even existed. Would God, Who is eternal, supply such temporal homes for His children? Certainly my home is subject to all kinds of disasters. Tornadoes can rip the roof off my home and earthquakes can dislodge it from the foundation and cause it to cave in on me. With that in mind, it is somewhat comforting to know that what I call a home on this planet, is nothing but a temporary dwelling place for this body. And this body appears also to be a temporary dwelling place.
So, when I ask, "How do I get home?" I don't mean to my home on this planet but to the other one--my REAL home?
In The Book of Lists, the 90s edition published in 1995, by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, there are some fascinating stories of cats who came home after being lost or given away. Many of these stories teeter on the outside edge of logic. They simply cannot be true. But they have been verified. Checked out. Confirmed.
Sugar, a two-year old part Persian, was uncomfortable with traveling in a car because of a hip deformity. The family that was moving from Anderson, California to Gage, Oklahoma decided not to take this family pet and instead opted to leave it with a neighbor. Two weeks after the family waved good-bye, Sugar disappeared from the neighbor's home. Fourteen months later Sugar arrived in Gage, Oklahoma at the doorstep of the family that had left her behind. This cat had traveled roughly 100 miles a month to reach a place that she had never been.
I know that I dwell in my Father and my Father dwells in me (as a child of the Living God). I know that much of what I see is a trick of this world and that we are not to judge by appearances. I know that I am completely dependent upon my Father in order to awaken to reality. Is it my decision to do so? Sometimes this world presents what appear to be multiple choices but is it possible that ANY of the choices the world presents could be eternally helpful? Probably not. And, indeed, we can shift from one dream to another many times and never attain God's kingdom come on earth.
Now that I have accepted my Father and He is within, this tired and worn world does not have to have its grip on me. I know I no longer have to walk around with a sad expression on my face. But where, you say, is the road that leads to happiness? I believe with all my heart that even on this spinning planet with all its tricks and magic, God's love and joy can touch us but only through complete submission to Jesus Christ. Truly this road would be a road to a world that is part of God’s reality, not part of the magic and tricks the world presents.
God’s reality? Even here? How do I find it?
There's a large memory bank in our genes. Our DNA reeks of history. We cannot escape it. It took ages upon ages and generation upon generation for us to carefully etch upon our DNA blackboards, all the patterns I currently live by. Am I arrogant enough to think it can be erased in an instant?
Every single thought pattern that is changed with the Holy Spirit's guidance is erasing eons of habit patterns. Every single time I choose to submit to Jesus' love instead of being fearful, I am choosing to be at peace instead of choosing to be anxious. I am finding Jesus and enjoying the truth and being set free rather than dwelling on negativity. I am taking Jesus literally when He says "Come unto Me" (as a little child) and He alone will guide me out of error. I rejoice that this is true.
I have faith in Him. He will always give me all the information I need at any given time. I know that God will make sure (through His Holy Spirit) that I will always know what to say and what to do.
If God can set up the conditions for Sugar to prance 1400 miles to a "home" she's never been to, I believe God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, can show me the way to my home as well.
Hi, Ol' Silver
As we brought my wife's mother, Doris, back home to her mobile home, we discovered that her cat, Silver, had escaped. Doris suggested that Linda and I creep to the front of the trailer and make funny noises. This way, Doris reasoned, we could scare the cat back indoors.
We walked around the outside of the mobile toward the front, making funny noises. I peeked around to the patio and there was the cat, eyes darting this way and that. Silver leaped into the open door of the mobile home. As I moved away quickly, I saw this curious cat's head peek around to see what was frightening it.
Lord, help me keep my head while everyone around me thinks the world's appearances are real. God, help me become curious about Your Light and Love so that I might bring more of it into this world filled with curious cats (and people) who poke their heads into the night to see what's scaring them.
Lost in Love
Five year old Sally was one of the most intelligent in the kindergarten class. She had on her yellow polka-dotted dress. Her short, light brown hair contrasted perfectly with her blue eyes. She was a peach.
After school all the bus riders were supposed to get on the bus to go home. Sally knew that. Sally also knew that she was supposed to get on the right bus, but she didn't. Through a series of incidents (including having a substitute bus driver) all the checks and balances used to prevent this type of event failed that day.
Sally realized her grave error and, at the first stop she got off the bus. Her little mind was overloaded. She simply could not think of what she could do. All the circuits in her brain were busy.
Standing there on the street corner in a residential area completely foreign to her, she started flailing her arms up and down and yelling, "Help!" with all her little might.
"Help! Help!" her little voice sailed down the street and up another. "Help!" her little arms lifting up and down in exasperation.
This was when the roofer came to her aid. He was doing a roofing job for a family when he had heard the little girl's cries for help. He had four children of his own and he easily recognized the seriousness of the situation.
The roofer descended and walked over to comfort and lend assistance to Sally. Sally was able to tell the roofer, in between sobs, who to call and Mom soon arrived to take her little girl with the yellow polka dotted dress home, safe at last.
The next day when it was time to go home, Sally was more careful which bus she entered.
Sometimes I feel I have gotten on the wrong bus. I, too, would like to get off. Sometimes I feel I am only five years old and it is so hard trying to figure out what to do as I'm lost and don't quite know where I am. Where is my Savior, I cry. Where is He?
My desire to get off and my shouts for help are heard by the Carpenter (Who may occasionally do some roofing jobs, too) and my loving Lord, in His gentle way, has picked me up in His arms and is carrying me home. My true home where I am no longer lost, no longer a stranger.
My Tool
My tool is only one, but it is many. Jesus Christ wrenches me free of all negativity and judgments. Jesus Christ is a screwdriver that gently runs my tangled threads backwards, easily releasing me from my problems.
Jesus Christ is a fulcrum, and with His lever of love, He lifts me to the other side of these carnal worldly appearances to the truth which sets me free.
And when I reside in the darkness of the carnal world of appearances, He is my flashlight, ever available, ever ready. He is my hammer, always pounding out the wrinkles in my way of thinking; a saw to sever all unwanted and burdensome attachments I may have to this material world, a level to help establish perfect balance between where I think I am and where I really am so, with the help of the oil of His grace, no matter what the circumstances, I slide quickly into the recognition of where I really am (in His arms), and what I really am, (a child of the living God)
Jesus, you are the carpenter, totally free from any fallacy, the locksmith who has the key, the cross between the carnal world I perceive and God's world which He created and loves. My tool is here. The only one I really need is You, dear Lord.
Play it Again, Sam
The bass notes rattled the picture hanging on my wall. I couldn't hear enough of the song to know what my neighbors were cranking up on their stereo, but it was disturbing me.
I enjoyed the people in the next apartment very much. We had shared many good times--picnics, hikes, and more but with this loud music blasting against my wall, I felt I needed to say something. I began to mentally practice my speech to them as I reached for the phone.
"Hi, Sam. Say, do you think you could turn that music down a little? Appreciate it." No matter how I worded it in my mind, it just didn't feel right. I knew that if I waited, though, the problem would eventually go away so I resolved to endure it.
I began to listen intently. Something sounded familiar. What was it? I put my ear against the wall and suddenly realized, to my utter amazement, they were blasting a tape of my original music that I had given them many weeks ago. I was being attacked by my own music! I laughed out loud and my perception changed immediately. I no longer desired to call them and complain. Indeed, the music sounded pretty good. And, of course, how could I question their taste?
Dear Lord, You are my Almighty God. You are the Judge of all things. So often I am wrong about what I thought was happening, Lord. More than just this time, I have jumped to conclusions that were condemning when your children (or, at least, potential children) were innocent. Lord, please help me back off from judgment altogether. My full submission to You will help me get out of the loop. It's You, oh Lord, it's You. It truly is none of my business how you judge, Lord. Often when I am disturbed it could me rattling the wall. It very well could be my tape that humanity plays that is disturbing me. I am not qualified to judge what is happening. I praise You, Lord, and ask always for Your clarification of what is happening. I desire to know Your answers, not mine.
*Crack in the Mirror
In a major city, in a typical middle class suburb, the house of crack became apparent. The family living across the street watched in horror as users and sellers came and went at all hours of the day and night. Strange chemical smells issued from the house of crack.
There was a sense of threat here. Should they call the police? Could that be done anonymously?
As a family, they were suddenly inspired to clean up their own house. After fully submitting to the Lord, He redirected their energy from the house of crack to their own home. The whole family worked together, scrubbing, shining, cleaning, and hauling garbage away.
In a matter of weeks, with no apparent reason, the parties involved with the house of crack, moved away. An operation that seemed to have no end, ended.
Now that I am saved, my only responsibility is to accept God's healing grace for myself. Jesus said to judge not lest you be judged. My judgment needs to be relinquished. It is automatic when we no longer rule our lives and allow the King in our hearts to rule. Fully trusting Him is the only way out of judgment. This is my only responsibility. With complete trust, forgiveness will come in. Yes, my only responsibility is to myself. There may be a lot of people I want to correct but true correction can only come from Jesus, and He does it within myself. Certainly you've noticed that very few people are moved to change their behavior because you have judged them harshly and let them know about it, either in writing or verbally. Why is this?
Now that I am saved, I am responsible to change no one but myself. This does not mean I am selfish or uncaring. It means I am allowing myself the perimeters I need to recognize the scope of healing that is possible in me. The scope of healing is a lot bigger than one at first might believe. By allowing Jesus to be in charge, His Holy Spirit instills His perception in me, and I no longer will see the way I used to. I will see through Him and not through my own convoluted, distorted, carnal mind. We can't continue to view through our unsubmitted mind and expect changes to occur externally, to others. Only when we view our world through Jesus Christ and with His blessing, submitting to His guidance as a defenseless child, will our perception be cleansed and error (which went deep in us, extending outward) will be corrected, producing true healing. Once the problem is brought home, and the proper responsibility is taken, it is easily corrected by God. As long as the problem is seen as "out there," it will remain elusive.
I need to continually seek the Lord and trust Him to show me how to clean up my own house (He asked us to remove the plank from our own eye before removing the splinters in other people's eyes. But truthfully He knows us better than we know ourselves and He should be the surgeon removing all planks and splinters, not us).
As much as we would like to believe we don't have any say in the matter, we do make our own world. The key is not keeping it. It must be submitted, along with our lives, to the Lord for His correction. He died for this. Let's not make His death a small matter. Fighting to change my world from the outside is futile. Allowing the Holy Spirit to see for me, withdraws me from the addiction I have to try and manipulate my world. When I no longer feel the need to manipulate my world, wonderful healings can occur and correction that looked as if it were only needed by someone else, becomes a healing for me as well.
*I heard this true story in a class several years ago in California. I do not remember the actual names of the participants.
The Puzzle
I enjoy a good Columbo. I like this police lieutenant with his dirty gray rain coat and his persistent and inquisitive ways. Columbo is very irritating to the perpetrators of the ghastly deeds. I enjoy it when the suspect breathes a sigh of relief and Columbo, just about to walk out the door, suddenly turns around, lowers his hand from a thinking position near the top of his head and says, "Oh, one more thing..."
Something appears to be poisoning me. I walk into his office and shut the door.
"Columbo," I say, as I sit down, "it's very puzzling when someone pushes my buttons, irritating me and I can't shut off the recorder in my mind that plays the situation over and over again. The only difference between what goes on in my mind and a real tape recorder is the real one plays the tape over exactly the same every time. My mind plays it slightly different each time. What if I said this? Or what if I did that instead of what I did do? It feels like I'm being poisoned, Columbo."
The detective with the dirty rain coat and inquisitive mind, asks me, "Why do you want to play that mental tape over and over again? This sounds more like a suicide than a homicide. Here, you better read this." He hands me a piece of paper with some writing on it.
"When you're upset and have grievances," I read, "Jesus Christ recommends that reconciliation be made. Grievances hide the light that can shine in the world. Jesus Christ is available to help you uncover what you have hidden. Why keep the grievance when Christ wants to relieve you of your burdens?"
"I know it is true, Columbo, but how do I let something that's bothering me go? If this recording of what I perceive happened were set to music, in my mind it would be a hit. I mean, I'd personally buy a million copies. Why?"
"Yes, it's very puzzling, isn't it?"
I stop and think. Indeed, since I've accepted Christ, it is as if my true self is shining but I've built a jig-saw puzzle around me that shuts out the light. Each grievance I hold is a puzzle piece that blocks the expression of Jesus dwelling in me. The more grievances I hold, the more pieces of the jig-saw puzzle are blocking Him.
The glue that holds these puzzle pieces in place is manufactured by me. It seems I can't, no, I won't let go of these grievances. They appear to give me something that I want, perhaps even need. But what could I want or need that is better than sharing the light of Jesus Christ?
Take these puzzle pieces, oh Lord, take them. Give me the strength to let them go. Take them and let me NEVER again place a puzzle over Your face, Lord, either in me or in others. Since You have saved me, dear Lord, teach me how to pray that the glory of You, dear Lord, will shine in this carnal world and help me recognize what is true and what is deceptive.
Columbo scratches his head as he thinks through all aspects of the crime scene. He turns to me and says, "Vic, when your buttons are pushed and you get upset, it is good. As long as your buttons can be pushed, a puzzle piece can be dislodged by the Holy Spirit, when we get down on our knees in true submission to Him. Strange as it seems, you should be thankful when someone irritates you. But, I'll get on the case right away."
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