Raw

This is not for everyone, but to those that it speaks to...

To people still sitting on the outside - those without the understanding or the experience of true relationship with the God of heaven, much of what I've said in the past from this small, pitiful soap box must sound like utter foolishness and maybe even pure fantasy. For them I'm sorry... not for what I've said... but for them - for what they're missing. The beauty, the passion, the freedom and the majesty escapes them.

I settled on a phrase a long time ago that relates to the difficulty that some of those people that I've mentioned above struggle with and among them you would sadly find some who call themselves Christian. That phrase goes like this: "A world that must see in order to believe will never experience what must first be believed in order to be seen." To have the humility and faith to take God at His word - to believe unshakably that what He's said is true, begins to open a door to the reality that supersedes and reigns supremely over all of our feeble humanity.

It's true that we can't see God with our own eyes here, but as the Reverend Billy Graham once asked: “Can you see God? Have you ever seen Him? I’ve never seen God. I know He exists. I’ve never seen the wind. Have you ever seen the wind? I see the effects of the wind but I’ve never seen the wind. There’s a mystery to it.”

God's a mystery to the mind of mankind without knowing Him, and even knowing Him as much as we're able, He retains an amount of majestic mystery still. But if we're sincere in our innocent efforts to see them, we can see the effects of God all around us even though we may not be able to see Him with our eyes. He's made His existence known and His evidence is everywhere. The Apostle Paul pointed this out clearly in Romans 1:18-20 (NLT)...

"But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."

There are still some who in their arrogance declare that God doesn't exist and some of them are quite vehement in those declarations. For them, I bear my best wishes and pray that they find great comfort and blessings in this life because what awaits them beyond it are horrors they would not choose except in their hopeless ignorance. I pray for them further that God, in His great mercy, would reveal Himself to them unmistakably in order to counter their rhetoric and make Himself known to them while there's still time for them to change their course and destination. I bear them no personal ill will - they've chosen enough evil for themselves by the assent of their own mouths. The issue is between them and God... and God will honor their horrific choice if they remain unrepentant. 

Note that my comments here aren't meant to be condemning, but instead simply to point out facts and tragic mistakes. When it comes to doubting God in any way, including what He's said and made available to us to know, I guarantee that it's a most definite mistake - a costly one. Many have made an effort to explain God away using limited understanding, sometimes using fragments of scripture, and have constructed arguments based on faithless accusations, but it doesn't change the fact that He is all that He's said that He is and that all that He's foretold to us will come to pass. God exists far beyond the reach of man's pitiful arguments and there absolutely will be a price to pay for unrepentant faithlessness.

I suspect that convoluted Christianity may be partly to blame for the downfall of some in the end - having been turned off by what they see and hear in holistic observation and confusion. Many may see modern day Christianity as nothing more than a process of cattle branding and a parade of performances for profitable employment rather than an intimate and individual participation in relationship with the one true God that created us and the submission of our all to His will.

Confessing Christ simply to avoid the horrors of hell by speaking a few words and then feeling finally safe, might serve us in the easing our minds, but does little to advance God's purpose and intention in our creation - that purpose and intention being to have an intimate relationship with each individual that He creates - like He once had with Adam and Eve early in the garden. Mass gatherings and orchestrations "may" please Him if in the right spirit, but the fruit of His goal is recognized one at a time on an individual basis as true and intimate relationship is achieved individually and the progressive, ongoing growth from it in each individual is accomplished. God's continued focus is on the individual as He raises them and watches them grow up in Him as His own child - not willing that any should be lost to Him in a crowd from His personal focus and attention. And if any should fail that given purpose for this life, the price for it will be paid one at a time.

We've watched as history has logged the efforts of mankind to pervert God's design by changing the message - weakening God's clear declarations, intentions and commands, and by creating order to suit man's own convenience, lusts and comfort. In the end though, the hard granite of truth will be the immovable monolith on which their passage will end against suddenly. Humanity has little time left to "get real" - to "get personal" and "intimate" on an individual basis with the God who reigns supreme. Each relationship, or lack of it, will be judged individually - not by denomination, race, or congregation, but individually, just as He created us all - one at a time.

Processing new Christians by saying a few words does little to establish true life relationship with God in His order. Without making unmistakably clear one's incredibly perilous standing sans redemption, the availability of God's wondrous grace to save, His desire, His perfect, beautiful character and His available nurturing and caring for each individual in His garden, there's little hope for a true harvest of fruit. However, the presence of those fertilizing with a contaminated relation of God's message perverts growth and promotes a cancer among those God loves passionately as individuals and there will be accountability to Him for each individual child that it costs Him without repentance for it.

The weapons of our faith are poorly recognized and poorly used without courageous conviction... and I have to ask what that says about our faith in front of those "on the outside". What is our message to them as compared against God's and what does the reflection of our "faith" demonstrated say to them? If they do not squarely align with God, then we have good reason to examine ourselves in the mirror of God's own unadulterated words. It was time, a long time ago, for us to be serious about what we believe. This life is not a free-for-all, but a one time opportunity to establish a relationship with God before being cast aside into the fire as worthless dead wood if we fail to truly engage with Him on an individual basis.

Where is the urgency of our conviction in the way that we live, speak and think? God's not fooled by any thing or any one. He sees us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. Where is the demonstration of our courage and conviction while passing through the midst of a God rejecting society - standing up for what God's commanded? Where is the humility of Christ in us to suffer just a little while, just in this short life, for Him? By what we've been privileged to know by faith - taking God at His word and seeing because we believed... we have no excuse for not being what we've been instructed. If we are to represent the person and glory of Christ flowing from a love relationship with Him... where is He seen now?

As far as we may have come on this journey, there is farther still to go. Please take no offense. I know that I'm speaking to myself as well as anyone else... and I have farther to go than some.

Walk with me as we go.



"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (NLT)