Sunday, April 09, 2006

# 138: Three Short Subjects

God is made rich when we worship Him with our holy and pure lives. If our worship does not make God more real to us and enrich the lives of others, we are practicing a false form of Christianity. To worship God in spirit means that we seek to know Him and become like Him in order to reveal Him to others without the need for empty formalities and stupidity. To worship Jesus Christ in spirit means that we desire everyone, including ourselves, to be like Him in every way. That desire comes neither from our mouths nor in our spare time, but rather from one's whole life. God will accept no worship that is not heading in that direction. To worship God in truth means to worship Him without pretense of any sort, such as an outward show of religion with perfunctory rituals or morality without Godliness. To worship in truth is to take all the fakery out of one's life. To worship in truth means to be set free from the bondage of self-promotion. It means to have a clear vision of the absolute need to see what we look like in the eyes of God, with all of our faults and assets. Blessed are those who are aware of their spiritual poverty, for that is true wealth. The closer we become to being like Christ in our daily living, the further we see ourselves from that goal. That is not a contradiction. The purer and holier we become, the clearer we are able to truly see the unmatched beauty of Christ. That allows us to see the ugly condition of ourselves. The closer one becomes like Christ, the uglier one sees himself/herself. This is a divine secret that few in organized Christianity have experienced. This is the vision that is needed to eliminate pride in the lives of all who God blesses to do mighty works for Him.

As the saying goes, “The more one learns, the more one is aware of how much one doesn’t know, and how far one has yet to go.” All true humility springs from seeing oneself in comparison to Christ and not to others. Truth, though it may be in front of one's nose, will always be elusive no matter how hard and constantly one seeks until one finds the One who is the absolute truth (Jesus Christ). Truth as we humans know it through our belief process is the furthest from God’s absolute truth. Absolute truth must be experienced—if even in a small degree—to be known. The only way to know that truth is to allow Jesus Christ to live His life through our bodies, with no ifs, ands, or buts. That is what the true Christian life (the extension of Christ’s life) is all about. We may catch rare glimpses of Him, but we will find Him only when He becomes the very core of our life. We cannot find Him with words or wishes but only with a heart and mind that stays on Him. This is one of the deepest truths that can be known of Him. As God gathers those who desire to worship Him in this fashion, there is absolutely nothing He won't spare in blessing them with the fullness of Himself, so that others can also worship Him.

A Standard of Comparison

A good standard of comparison in attempts to measure God's love for you can be made with this analogy: A vote was taken worldwide to see who the most important person in the world was. All six-plus billion or so people unanimously voted for you. When you saw the result of that vote, how did you feel about yourself? What type of life will you now start to live? Will you go on as usual with little change? No! You will quickly realize you now have the most awesome obligation in the world. It will take maximum effort (and then some) to live up to your new status, but you will do it. God loves you for the very same reason because of your new status of perfection, with only one exception: His love for you is even greater than all that human love put together. He voted you the most important person in the world.

God is able to deal with you on a one-on-one basis. He does this in a very unique and logical way. He is able to divide Himself in His completeness, as it were, between all His children. Each Christian has his own personal God. Now God (The Holy Spirit) has your undivided attention. You now have all His love. Being loved any less would not totally satisfy. By this love, God demonstrates that you are the most important person in the world. Love always makes a person not only important but also complete. When you know for certain that you are totally loved in this fashion, for the first time you will not seek after the importance the material world and human love (attention) offer. As you experience all of this love, you will start to love others selflessly, without need of love in return or fear of losing any of that love.

Who Really Needs Him?

This affluent, materialistic culture of the last century has not been in the least bit conducive for anyone to be made aware of their need for God. Man/woman has acquired God on his/her own through the physical world. No doubt man is still the problem, as having more than one needs materially quenches the need for God. Jesus confirms this in Matthew 11:28 when He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.” He does not say, “Come to me, all you who are well-fed and comfortable.” So, a prerequisite to becoming aware of a need for Him is quite often the result of some unpleasant situation of want.

Modern technology has made God obsolete. Who really needs Him? We have our religion, comfort, televisions, computers, and Internet; and at the rate we are advancing in gene science, we will be able to create intelligent life from scratch in a few years. Then we will have a god who we can actually see, and he or she will fit our real need (greed). Or will we have become synthetic gods ourselves? As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.” With these facts in front of us, demonstrating to religious people the true nature of God is not very effective because they don't want a God that is so demanding and strict. Their present god—whose religion is self and materialism—meets their needs. Their god’s name is Fool.

Then there are the intellectual atheists. They say they have no god. They say that the universe and man/woman came about on their own, without help from any god. They do have a god, however, whether they believe it or not. He is the same god that play-acting Christians worship. His/her name is Satan.

The crux of this short statement: As a few of us make a maximum effort to reproduce the life of Jesus Christ before our pagan Cchristian neighbors and to the intellectual elite of this world, we must never get discouraged but keep on plugging away. God knows what He is doing through our persistence. This post is one such effort. He will permanently put these writings in the hearts and minds of humble and needy people so that He can be made known as He desires while exposing religion’s crime against God.

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