Apologia pro Vita Sua

Some readers don't like my blog-posts.  Usually that's because they disagree with my views on politics, and I write frequently about politics.

But as our brother-in-Christ Tim so wisely says, it's not really about politics.

And I figure people's perception it is says a great deal more about the mindset they are coming from, than mine.

I know the mindset I am coming from, as surely as I would know being on fire.  God has given me an intense passion that the Church, the Body of Christ, Christians, act in the Spirit of Christ.

That's not a desire from my natural heart. Nor did I choose it for myself.  No one would.  It is a fierce desire guaranteed, always and inevitably, to break any man's heart.  It breaks God's Heart...that no one, Christians included, will ever from their natural heart act in the Spirit of Christ: and that everyone, Including Christians, tends to act first from their natural heart. 

Yet God's intense desire for each member of the Body of Christ is that we act contrary to our natural heart.   I'm surprised when people can't perceive "where I'm coming from:" but surprised most of all when Christians can't hear in it God's most burning desire for them.

I'm also surprised anyone believes that we can talk honestly about unrighteousness in the American Church without talking about politics.  The deceiver's thoughts and attitudes in the hearts of today's American Christians have virtually all been insinuated there from politics.  And the unrighteousness infecting American Christianity most notably manifests in Christians' political ideas and deeds.

When I write about what scripture says is righteousness or unrighteousness: scriptures about Truth or lies, about being merciful to the poor and refugees, about arrogance and rebellion, about loving good and doing justice: I often use politicians' words or political events as specific, widely-known examples...usually bad examples.

But those who find my comments "too political" tip their hand.  When I write about righteousness and (especially) unrighteousness without using those examples, their reaction shows they know their political "heroes" and attitudes are bad examples. 

That some people find my comments "too political" tells me the Spirit sharpens to their hearts His condemnation of the political unrighteousness they accept...or even endorse.  What I pray is that The Spirit will also sharpen to their hearts His call for repentance, and His passion that Christians act in the Spirit of Christ.


Amen !

More Truth

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love...God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."  (John 4:8, 16)

 I'm thinking again about what it means when Jesus says "I AM...The Truth..." (John 14:6)  That's been the core of my Christology for some years: as it SHOULD be for everyone's Christology (along with His Self-identification as "The Way" and "The Life").

I'm thinking even more about what it means that Jesus IS "The Truth," as the contrast between Himself and the "post-truth" world grows wider and more stark.

I am fully convinced (including experientially) that Jesus is God, powerful and able to do whatever He will: able even to BE an abstract noun.  But it seemed one of His "hard sayings" (John 6:60, KJV); such as when He identified Himself as the "Bread" from heaven, which we must eat to "abide" in Him.

"I AM...The Truth" seems a "difficult statement" (in the NASB's translation).  Most difficult of all, to understand how we can functionally identify with Him...the essence of faith.

It helped, as I studied, to see that in Greek there is a verb "to truth," used in Galatians 4:16 (translated, "tell the truth"), and Ephesians 4:15 (translated, "speak the truth").  In both cases, "truth" is an action we are exhorted to do.

 But the greater understanding came in testing Jesus' words.  If Jesus IS "Truth," every scriptural mention of "truth" should still make sense when His name was substituted for "truth."

It was a convincing test: and one that gave further light.  "You will know Jesus, and Jesus will make you free" (John 8:32) particularly stood out.  As it did that God's Spirit is repeatedly called "the Spirit of Jesus" (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13).  The clincher was that He asked the Father to sanctify us in Truth/Jesus, because "Your word is Jesus" (John 17:17).

Jesus gave us a hard saying to understand, when He told us Who He IS.  But He also gave us operational understanding in which to act in identity with Who He IS.

That understanding is obvious, and simple.  Those who love Jesus love truth.  Those who follow Jesus, follow truth.

It's exactly analogous to what the opening scripture (above) tells us: God's identifies Himself as Love...and all who are His, love in identity with Who He IS.

By this we "test [ourselves], to see if [we] are in the faith" (II Corinthians 13:5).  We can know that we "...[have] both the Father and Son" (II John 1:9) when we are "truthing in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

And by that same measure with which we measure ourselves, we can unmistakably know the "many deceivers...and the antichrist" abroad in this world (II John 1:7).  They are those not merely devoid of truth and love: they actively embrace and walk in the spirit of their "father, the devil;" and Jesus said he is a murderer and a liar (John 8:44).

The deceived of today's "post-truth" world (including many "Christians") are unabashed in their desire to be ruled by unrighteousness, by love for violence and lies.  But in this world of darkness, God is making His light even brighter.

To all with Spiritual eyes to see, He is today giving increasing clarity of vision...to know Him more clearly, and more fully, as "The Truth."  To those who receive Him as "The Truth" He IS, He gives the power to become "sons of God"...as He IS (John 1:9).