ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!

Jimmy: “All right, this is it. These crummy aliens stole our parents; it's time to show them what we're made of. We're tough, we're mean. Darn it, we're carbon based life forms.” (From the Movie; Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius)

Perhaps you have not seen this movie. Personally, I might count that as a blessing. The setting takes place in a community where Jimmy Neutron, the boy genius, makes contact with aliens. This eventually leads to

aliens coming to his community and abducting their parents and taking them to their planet. The aliens take over control of the parent’s minds, which leads to making them do the “chicken dance.” At first having their parents abducted by aliens seemed like a good idea to them but then they missed them and became determined to go to the planet where they were kept and get them back.

                                                          

Authentic Christianity is alien to those outside the faith. Authentic Christianity means a changed life. It is not a reformed life. You don’t need God to do that. It’s His life in us. It’s a Life not of this world. Those who knew the “old you” are not comfortable with the “new you” and often try to bring you back to your senses. To them, one who is giving control over to God is as strange as an alien taking over your mind to get you to do the chicken dance.

For those of us who are Christians, sometimes it’s not those outside the faith trying to get us back. Sometimes it’s God trying to get us back. He tries to get us back when we have stopped listening and responding to Him. We replace the living faith with something lifeless He seeks to turn us again to a living faith, full of His life, joy, strength, holiness and love. He is not trying to do this to get us to do the chicken dance, but to cause us to sing the songs of heaven and dance the dance of redemption.

In the book of Hosea God was speaking of the sever judgment Israel would face because of their “vile (spiritual) adultery”. That was a prophecy for the near future. But He also delivered them a prophecy for the distant future. It begins ….

Hosea 2:14 - "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her”

Israel, as a nation had the same problem we sometimes have, replacing the living faith with something dead. God was “alluring” them into a place where they could hear Him again.

For most, to hear God’s voice is not an audible. But if we are paying attention, He most certainly speaks to us. It is the experience where His Life enters, and moves within us. It reveals itself through alien thoughts and desires. We know we have heard Him, for example, when we find we have a strength we didn’t have before, a confidence our circumstances can’t explain, or a love for Him that seeks fulfillment in a desire to respond or obey.

When we listen God speaks to us. When God speaks, He creates. He is creating a different “us.” The more He speaks to us, the more alien we seem to those who don’t understand this experience. And those who don’t understand this experience don’t like it when God speaks to us. They don’t realize we were created to be more than “carbon based life forms.”

Ignatius of Antioch, in A.D. 110 said this prayer on his way to the Coliseum: “May I enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me. I pray that they would be found eager to rush at me, and I will also entice them to devour me speedily and not deal with me as some, whom out of fear they have not touched.”

What compels a man to say a prayer like that? Perhaps he was abducted by aliens.

Getting Rid of Unwanted Guests

“Quite a nasty piece of work. Not the sort of person you'd want to have dinner with.” 

[On the subject of Mr. Bean] Atkinson, Rowan

Now perhaps we have all felt that way about someone. But some guests are harder to get rid of than others. Of the hardest, to me, are the unwanted guests that enter my mind. Of the unwanted guest that can enter man’s mind, perhaps one of the hardest are thoughts brought about by wounds of others. Our minds go to them almost naturally, and once in the door they run through the rooms of your soul wreaking havoc. They cycle around producing vindictive thoughts, anger, and darkness. Like an unwanted guest that shows up at your door, and you can’t seem to get rid of.

Yet God is more merciful to us.

Psalm 86:5 says; “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, - And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.”

How comforting it is when we think of God we think of one who is “ready to forgive.” 

Then we came to a passage like this… “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others” …

Now praying that is almost frightful. It’s like saying, “God I want you to forgive me to the level I am willing to forgive others.” Now this seems terribly unfair to me. God is all powerful – so powerful He has the ability to forget. I am not, and I have the hardest time forgetting old wounds.

The best definition of forgiveness that I’ve run across (I believe Jay Adams) is something like; “a commitment to not bring the matter up again, to the offender, to others and to yourself.” Sometimes, good definitions make all things possible. Consider, it is first of all “a commitment.” It is committing to process until it becomes a reality. Forgiveness is a journey, a pilgrimage, and a destiny. Of the three commitments; not bringing it up to yourself is the hardest (and takes the longest). Yet this is the point in which we are made free. It is the point where old wounds stop invading our minds and we brood over them. One might say, the point of forgetfulness.

It’s like keeping an unwanted guest outside the door, until you forget his is out there. That is where the journey of forgiveness leads to – it leads to freedom.

Now one of the principles of forgiveness, is to remove an obstacle that is between two persons – or between God and man – that leads back to an open relationship.

Consider what 1 John 1:7 says: - “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

To walk in the light means walking in God’s truth as well as being enabled by His life. God wants to empower His church. He wants to send the blood of Jesus Christ through the whole body. Now when scripture speaks about blood, it is speaking about life. The blood of Jesus Christ is the life of Jesus Christ.

Leviticus 17:11 tells us “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

Heaven's Secret Prayer

Are we guilty of the sin of prayerlessness? Does prayer seem hard? Should it? Christ won the privileges for us of open access to the Father. So why aren’t we possessed with a kind of wonder of it all? The exhortation to “Pray unceasingly” though coming from the lips of Paul, comes as an uncompromising standard from Mt. Sinai, that tells me what I ought to do, without giving me the power to do it.

I’m finding what draws me to my Father’s throne room has to do with perspective; perspective that has come to me a piece at a time from heaven. Lately I start by praying through the Lord’s prayer. That is, I take a petition at a time, and meditatively pray through it. So I begin with “our Father” – in which I’m struck how the prayer begins with intimacy. When I’ve contemplated the Father’s delight and love for me, the next petition “Who art in Heaven” – teaches me I’m in the process of leaving this world for a time. I call this a divinely ordained sanctified escapism. Another thought I recently received is the idea that prayer is feeding the New Spiritual life in me. 

Consider What C.S. Lewis said:

“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I am struck with the phrase; “letting the other larger, stronger, quitter life come flowing in.” When I kneel before the bed and quite myself before the Father, this is what’s happening!!!! I’m allowing a door in my heart to be upon – and I contemplate the strength of Christ – the strength of heaven coming into me. My Father knows how much I need this.

In “If You Will Ask” by Oswald Chambers I came upon these words:

“When we are born from above, the life of the Son of God begins in us, and we can either starve that life or nourish it.” … Prayer nourishes the Life of God. Our Lord nourished the Life of God in Him by Prayer.”

As I was contemplating this, Matthew 25:35 popped into my head.

“for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;”

Now I realize this has a primary application in its context. But wondered if the life of Christ in me could say that? But maybe is sound more like ….

Matthew 25:42 - for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;

When I take time in my “closet” prayer, I now realize I’m opening up my heart for manna from heaven to enter the Life of Christ in me. This is an amazing thought to me. Prayer has been removed from Mt. Sinai – with its terrible but true standard, and transformed Law into Grace.

The Power of Song

"Who hears music, feels his solitude Peopled at once.” 
― Robert Browning
Rev. 14:3 “… and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.” 
When we truly connect, or enter into a song, do we not feel as if we broke out of something restraining, like the skin of a chrysalis – into something much more expansive.
In Rev. 14, the 144,000 could learn a song no one else could. What qualified them to truly sing it wasn’t their ability to sing, but the things they experienced with God. Experience brings a new ability to sing a unique song more than voice lessons. 

 When we sing hymns or praise music, worship depends on our response to the music. Some may sing a song and remain unaffected. Others may sing the same song, and find their heart “peopled” suddenly with soaring thoughts. They may be connected with a deeper desire; or they may be connected with a deeper understanding. Consider these lyrics of one of my favorite songs. 
“Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name”

There is a desire to connect to, not to suffer, but to be able to bless God even though we have suffered. To come to the end of suffering with a deeper affection for God, and a voice that exclaims “God is good!” When we recognize this as a desired state, the lyrics become a prayer. When we have experience it; it becomes a praise. 

Redeeming Rusty Trucks

I have an old dodge pickup. It so rusted out, that when I changed its tire, the frame bent as I jacked it up. I know this because right after, the driver’s side door began to bind and still does. I acquired this deal from in an exchange for wiping out some debt. Now I don’t mind the deal – I love the truck. You could say though, I wanted the truck even though I knew it could be defined as “damaged” goods before I got it. How can I complain? I was damaged goods before God acquired me. Our God is a God who takes damaged goods – and doesn't pay a token fee, but top dollar for those goods. He takes those who are dissipated and dilapidated. He takes those who feel unwanted, unneeded, and unworthy and unloved. That’s grace – “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” 
We are rusty trucks that need God’s grace to give them new Life. God can redeem them as long as we admit the rust exists. Of course rust is simply a metaphor for the corruption of sin in our souls, like eroding salt under the fender. If you were to see my truck there is no denying the amount of corruption my truck has suffered. The human soul has experienced a like corruption, but we can sometimes hide it with ingenious methods. It’s a dangerous practice to convince ourselves we are hiding the corruption from God. It is “sin” that corrupts the human soul.

Sometimes we fall into an insidious trap. We long to be connected with God and to feel that everything is OK between them and God, and don’t want to submit to the light of His truth. Instead of admitting that we have corrupted souls in need of redemption, (and repentance), we convince ourselves that God agrees with our lifestyles, worldly affections, patterns of gossip, and self-righteousness and any number of other practices that Scripture clearly condemns. When we do this, we refuse to allow God to stop the corrupting influences of our own desires. Grace doesn’t give us permission to redefine God; to call evil good, and good evil. We may be a mess, but we can be God’s mess. There may be a hundred things we see in our life that doesn’t meet God’s standards and yet His mercies are new every morning. The moment we say God approves of those hundred things, we just called Him a liar.
I heard it said “You have created us in your image, and then we returned the favor.” Psalm 50:21 says: These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes (NKJV).
I find the most disturbing words in the Bible are “depart from me for I never knew you.” The reason they are disturbing is that these words are spoken to those who claimed “He” did know them and they knew Him. If you don’t want to hear those words when you pass beyond this world, consider these simple principles.

1. Make sure that the God you “claim to know” is the God “He claims to be. “
2. Grow in Your knowledge of Him – Study and Obey Him.
3. Thank Him for what you understand, trust Him with what you don’t.

Nagging the God of the Universe

Luke 18:8 -   … Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

                  I was reading a story in which one of the characters was a young teenage girl.  She, who was a child herself, was desperate for her own child to get medical attention at a hospital.  After jilting the taxi cab driver from his fee (she was by no means honest) – she demanded from the receptionist that a doctor see her baby.  After the receptionist, the nurse and the security guard tried to brush her off, they found she just could not be brushed off. She stated over and over again that she wasn't leaving until the doctor saw her baby.

                  Scripture gives us another story where in Luke 18 of a woman who seeks justice between her and her advisory. She had to appeal to a judge who really didn't care.  He didn't fear God or man and so wasn't overly concerned about justice, even as a judge, but himself.  Yet he gives in. Why?    Luke 18:4-5 tells us that “that the judge said ….  'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, [5] yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' "

                  Now the agreement is simply if an unjust judge gave in and answered this widow’sprayer – how much more will a just God. There are a couple things that strike me as strange.  1) God seems to be asking us to make a nuisance of ourselves before Him.  In a sense He seems to be saying “I will respond to your nagging.”   Most of us don’t like to be nagged, He seems to welcome it.  2) If we can manage to be“troublesome” before Him, He calls this faith. 

                  I have been told that God has three answers to prayer; yes, wait, and no.  I think this is theologically sound.  Yet I’m struck by how many times scripture seems to teach us that we should not take no for an answer.  Have you ever wanted something so bad you just wouldn't be denied? Our son used to drive his mother crazy because after being denied something he would continually come and ask again.  He would find all kinds of different ways to ask the same thing. His desire was harder to slay than a dragon.    The next morning at breakfast, after we thought the dragon was slayed,  you could see in his eyes the dragon was still alive: plotting, pondering, planning His next fire breathing appeal.  Do our prayers look like that?  Do they even begin to look like that?  Do they even begin to begin to look like that?  Can you imagine a human situation where that occurs – the urgency, the desperation, that attitude that “I’m not leaving until you say yes”? Has God ever seen that behavior in our approach to Him? Has he observed you digging in – appealing to His every ability? Has He seen your soul straining upwards with a hunger that must be fed, and ache that must be relieved? Is what you desire more important than five minutes of your time?

Maybe we fail to “persevere” in prayer before God because we don’t really think He hears us.  Maybe we fail because we don’t give Him the honor of treating Him as if He’s real.   If you’re going to be this determined with someone, you have to believe you can persuade that someone, and that someone must be real, and that someone must have the ability to do what you ask.  May God teach us to knock on the doors of heaven in such a way.  May He teach us to nag Him, rather than each other.  He seems to rather enjoy it; the rest of us not so much. 

Paper Souls

Hebrews 6:19 -  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul,both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil

Hope = an absolute certainty of a future good.

  - Peter Anderson put it "Hope is faith in the future tense."

 
How easily it seems, that when some wind of trial and circumstance blows our way; some bad news, some concern about an unmet need,some pinch, some insult or hurt or sickness;   when such winds cross our paths, our souls seem like paper boats caught by the wind,and carried along at the wind’s pleasure. In life the winds will surely come, but how we long for strength and stability during those times. Paper Souls, like paper boats don’t have weighty anchors. Sometimes I felt like a paper soul, have you?

For both ancient and modern sailing vessels, the stabilizing effect they had in wind and storms depended on their anchors.  The anchor typically had two “flukes” or teeth for securing it to the ocean floor. The anchor became an emblem of security and stability in the ancient world, especially among the early Christians. They were painted on their ancient cemetery and meeting place in Rome, called the Catacombs.   

Like the two teeth of the anchors made to lay hold of the ocean floor, God gave us anchor with two teeth as well.  One is his promise.  We can trust in Christ to hold us during uncertain times.  God cannot lie and therefore His Word cannot fail.  I am convinced the more we treat His promises as real – the more real they become in our lives – the more metal is put in our soul as well as the comfort that comes from “full assurance” of Christ’s hold on us. God gave Abraham a promise of a son – even though Abraham had to wait 30 years for it to be fulfilled.  But Abraham believed God’s promise. 

As sure as God’s word is, it’s a comfort to know He understands a frailty.  He gave Abraham His promise – but He also gave Him an Oath – a Covenant.  This oath was solely for his benefit.  It was an aid to his faith.  What a wonderful thought that God comes down to us in such a way – to help shore up our faith.  He doesn't rebuke the need but meets it in what has been called God’s “condescending grace.” 

Blessed is the person who can believe in the finished work of Christ.  He gave us His son … what more can He give?  The Blood Christ Himself becomes His oath to us.  If we lay hold of Christ, He will surely lay hold of us.  Confidence in the storms comes from continuing to lay hold of Christ.  He has “entered behind the veil.”  Heaven holds its children.  Souls become anchored by the Love of God; a weighty anchor for the soul both sure and steadfast. 

His oath, His covenant, His blood,

Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.