YOU
ARE
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ONLY
YOU
GOD
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PRINTER VERSION
YOU ARE THE ONLY YOU GOD HAS
[The following article is an edited transcription of our Nov/Dec 1999
bimonthly teaching, You are the Only You God Has by John Lynn.]
The title of this teaching is You Are The Only You God Has. I have also
put four other sort-of subtitles on it.
I am going to ask you as you read this transcription to ask the Lord to
show you his heart in it. I am going to ask you to lock your mind in and
think very biblically. I will ask you to ask yourself, 'Why do I believe
what I believe?' That is what I ask myself when it comes to God or any
spiritual matter. I want to be certain that what I believe is exactly
according to the written revelation of God Himself, as found in His
Word. I honestly believe with all my heart that the Lord can change your
life through this teaching. I know what the truth contained in it is
doing in my own heart, and I believe that he is going to do the same or
even greater things for you.
The word so that in verse two is a purpose word; that is, if what comes
before it does not happen then what comes after it will not happen. You
need to do the part that comes before to get the results that come
after. That is the point that I want to focus upon as we continue.
It appears very clearly from those verses above that if we pray as the
verses exhort us to do then his-story will be different than it would
have been. I only picked that section; I could have picked probably
thousands of places where the same principle is very evident in the
Bible. Now, most people would immediately acknowledge that, but then
when you probe deeper into the principles that are involved and the
ideas involved with that, some people balk-I was one of them. I believe
that I balked based upon a misconception of God that was handed down to
me from ancient Greek philosophers, which infiltrated western theology.
We will be getting into some of those things. The point that can be made
in the verses that we just read in 1 Timothy chapter two is that the
future is not fixed. Our choices allow God to intervene and make things
different. If that were not true then what is the point of prayer? We
will talk more about prayer, and I will read you some quotes from a
wonderful book that I think will, if it does for you what it did for me,
improve your prayer life even beyond what it already is.
1 John chapter 1, as you may know verse 5 says, 'God is light.'
Now putting these two things together helps us to take a look at current
events in a different light than some Christians do. I have in my hand
the cover of the September 4th, 1999 issue of World Magazine, which is a
Christian periodical that looks at the news from a Christian
perspective. It has a very sad picture on the front cover of a Turkish
man after the earthquake on August 20th. The man is holding his dead
child who appears to be about two or three years old wrapped in a
blanket. You can see the little foot of the child sticking out. The
expression on the man's face is extremely poignant. I know that if you
saw this picture your heart would go out to him, especially if you have
children or you remember your children being that age and how much you
love them. Just think about what it would be like to be holding your
dead child in a blanket.
Well, at the back of the magazine an editorial is entitled 'Whence and
Why: Finding Meaning in the Earthquake in Turkey.' I am going to read
you some excerpts of it. A well-known man who is the senior pastor of a
large church in a large American city writes it. You will see where I am
going here. He begins talking about where do we turn for answers in a
horrible tragedy like this. He says, 'So we turn to the Word of God for
help.' I say, 'Amen, hallelujah!' The next sentence, however, is kind of
sad. 'No earthquakes in the Bible are attributed to Satan.' I am going
to have to take issue based upon 1 John 5:19 and 2 Corinthians 4:4:
Many other verses show that evil and tragedy are caused by the Devil. At
this point, I heartily encourage you to read our book called Don't Blame
God (we have posted key chapters online) because it will greatly
elaborate on some points that I will only be able to briefly touch.
So he says, 'No earthquakes in the Bible are attributed to Satan. Many
are attributed to God.' He then quotes Luke 8:25 and says, 'This is
because God is Lord of heaven and earth. He commands even the winds and
the water and they obey Him.'
First of all, that was Jesus that commanded and from where was the winds
and water coming? They were coming from the Devil who was trying to kill
Jesus. Jesus says, 'Hey, knock it off!' That is the context; it is not
the context of God sending the earthquake to kill someone. Again, that
makes it plain that a battle is going on there.
Reading on in the article:
Is that a biblically accurate statement? No, because God gave Adam
genuine free will, and that will be one of the absolute main points of
this teaching, so be thinking now, 'What is genuine free will?' God
certainly looked down and saw Adam starting to relinquish, if you want
to look at it that way, to hand over his authority and dominion over the
earth (see Gen. 1:26-28 - man was given authority). God did not say,
'Hey, hey, hey, I did not give you that. You just keep that dominion,
and you little serpent just get lost!' No, He did not. He did not
because that would violate the nature and the character of God, and also
it would go against the sovereign decision that God made when He was
once upon a time all by Himself. He had the right and the ability to do
things anyway that He wanted to. He sovereignly decided to enter into a
genuine free-will love relationship with His created beings. He, in His
sovereign choice, determined the kind of sovereignty that He would
exercise in the world. We will be talking more about that.
God does owe Satan freedom because Adam delivered unto Satan the
dominion that God had originally given to the first man, Adam. Of
course, we will see then how God can intervene in what the Devil is
doing. That is the point of Jesus and that is the point of you (and
other fellow laborers with God) inviting Him into the mix. This is
fabulous, so buckle your shoulder belt as well as your seat belt!
This is the next sentence from the article that makes me very sad:
Oh, hello, I am here to knock your kid upside the head. You being the
parent say, 'Yeah, but don't hit him too hard.' Would you say that? No,
you would not give anyone permission to hurt your children, and neither
does God!
The article goes on and says:
I wish that you could see the cover photo because I want you to tell
that man who is holding his dead child in the photo that statement, 'It
is alright sir; God has a good purpose for that.'
Back to the article where the man quotes Isaiah 31:2, 'He also is wise,
and will bring disaster.' I took the time to look up that verse and the
context is stopping evil. The disaster is aimed at the Devil in that
verse. It is doom for the wicked. Then the article quotes Job, 'The Lord
gives and the Lord takes away.' Of course Job said that. Do you know
what God says? God says, 'Job said it.' This is all explained in our
book Don't Blame God (and our article Job: The Righteous Sufferer). At
the end of the article, he makes a real strange statement. He talks
about how an earthquake is very disconcerting because there is no place
to go. In other disasters, the earth stands firm. He says, 'Where do you
turn when the earth itself is unsafe?' Answer-God! Am I goofy? He just
said that God sent the earthquake and now we are going to turn to God
for help! That just does not make sense to me; what about you?
The author of this article believes that God is totally in control of
every single event that happens. I am going to question that because we
just read that it is God's will for all men to be saved. If that is
God's will, and His will always came to pass then all men would be
saved. If that were true, then we would not have Jesus saying in the
Lord's Prayer, 'Hey, you guys really need to pray.' Why? 'So the will of
God will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.'
I am going to read another editorial from another issue of World. This
is from October called Wedge Wood Witnesses. 'Where is God in the
tragedy in Texas?' In the Baptist Church, where a man went in and killed
a number of people sometime in September of 1999. The article continues:
Now, this is a very good statement:
I would like to suggest another possible alternative, which does not
compromise either the power or the character of God. The Bible, this
teaching, and our book Don't Blame God is all about this. God is not
lacking in power.
His character is given in Scripture, and it cannot change. Of course, I
feel sorry for the pastor of this Church because he had to get up and
preach after this tragedy. That would have been a terribly challenging
job, but he of course went to Romans 8:28. He told his people that God
is in control.
That does not make any sense because all things do not work together for
good! Lots of things have no redeeming goodness whatsoever, like the man
holding his dead child. The NIV says it more accurately:
Amen! The pastor then says, 'God is sovereign over every molecule in the
universe.' The article continues saying at the end, 'We cannot expect to
compromise church preaching with a diluted gospel to produce the kind of
conviction that true martyrs have.' I say, 'Amen, amen, amen!' There is
a much more deep-rooted suspicion of God and distrust of God in
Christian leaders today who preach this kind of Gospel than people
realize. People's lives are being very negatively affected.
I saw an email that was going around on the Internet about the Wedge
Wood Church shooting. Someone in the church apparently put out this
email. It said, 'This is a testimony to the power of our God.' Well, it
is a testimony to the truth of Romans 8:28 properly translated. I am
only going to read to you one or two lines from it, but it tells about
how the gunman passed by one room with a whole bunch of little kids in
it, and he did not shoot them. Yes, God was in there. God was right
there doing everything that He could, but if He were really in control
the guy never would have shot anybody.
It says:
Now look, I am sure that he did not have in mind to have a gunman
brought in to kill some of the people to get their commitment level up.
I know that he did not mean that, but that is the implication of this as
it reads. The email continues:
No, God's control was only partial. He couldn't do it. If God were
really in control, the gunman would not have shot anyone. The email
continues with a quote of Genesis 50:20 about Joseph, and it is kind of
skewed the way that it is handled. Again, that particular verse is
covered in our book Don't Blame God.
I am going to read briefly from my column On The Edge in the June 1999
issue of The Contender. It is about the shooting in Littleton, Colorado.
It says:
Well, we know that He could not because He did not. By God's nature, He
cannot allow evil; therefore, if God does not stop something, it is only
for one reason; He could not stop it.
The article continues:
You see questions are good. Do not be afraid to have questions. Golly,
the theology that most of us were subjected to growing up, if we grew up
in a Christian environment, deserves a lot of questions. Really it does
because a lot of stuff does not add up.
Well, the perspective that we are going to present in this teaching adds
up to the highest total for us, so to speak. It resolves most
efficiently and biblically the deep philosophical issues involved, and
these are issues that surround the human heart on a daily basis.
This is the next question in the article:
There was plenty of evidence in the aftermath that God was trying to
make the parents of the boys aware of what was going on in their garage!
1 John 3:8 says that is one of the reasons that Jesus came. He is
passionate about rubbing the Devil's face in the cement-dirt would be
too soft.
The article continues:
The article continues and elaborates on that. Of course, Jesus is the
representation of God, and in him we find great truth. I will quote just
a little more from the article. It says:
I want to interject just a brief letter that some precious folks on our
mailing list sent me some time ago. It says:
Well, bless their hearts.
The last part of the article that I want to quote says:
Your choices depend upon your faith. You are made in the image of God,
and one aspect of that is that you are a free moral agent and you can
'create.' You have created by your choices the 'world,' in other words
the circumstances, situation, and the way that you look at them. It has
been the past choices that you have made that have furnished your
present world, and you will furnish your future world with the fruit of
your current choices. I do not think that anyone would argue with that
statement. Everyone understands these things practically, but then
sometimes we go to mythos-ville. Mythos is the Greek word for myth.
We have quite a bit in our book, One God & One Lord, about the ancient
philosophical Greek mindset of mythology, which has totally infiltrated
Christian doctrine today versus logos, the logic or the plan articulated
by words that make sense, but when we go to mythos-ville we are wasting
away because nothing has to make sense there. We can just believe
anything, and Monday through Saturday, the way that we really live, goes
out the window because on Sunday at church, anything goes. [For further
study read Gnostic ideas have had an influence on Christianity.]
Well, I am asking you to think because your free will is so awesome, and
it is so precious, and you never want to relinquish it. Not only that,
you want to put it to work for you and do not let the Enemy use it
against you because then you get in this victim mentality.
In Deuteronomy 30, God is speaking to Israel near the end of Moses'
life.
In this chapter are a lot of 'ifs.' If you do this, you get this good
thing. If you do not do that, then you will get this bad thing. Remember
that is how God spoke in the Old Testament because He could not reveal
to the people the truth about the Devil that Jesus revealed in the New
Testament. Why? It was because before Jesus came, lived, died, rose,
ascended, and then poured out the gift of holy spirit on the Day of
Pentecost, God could not equip every person for the spiritual battle.
This is all explained in our book, Don't Blame God! In the Old Testament
some people were given holy spirit for a period of time to do a specific
job, but the vast majority of the people did not have it. Suppose God
had said over the radio, 'Good morning Israel. Hey, here it is. Here is
the deal for today! You have an invisible spiritual enemy. Actually, he
is second in power only to Me, and he hates your guts, and he wants the
absolute worst for you! You cannot see him, hear him, smell him, taste
him, or touch him! Have a great day!' I do not think so. They would have
freaked out, so the testimony of the Old Testament (it is figurative
language when compared with the New Testament revelation) is that, 'Hey,
you do good, and I will bless you. You do bad, and I will pop you.' But,
God is not actively popping anyone.
Look at this next verse, how reassuring verse 11 is!
Now, that is a phenomenal verse. In this reciprocal relationship between
you [The only you that God has], and God [The only God that you should
have], is the dance. 'You can do it; you can do it.' He will never ask
you or me to do anything that we cannot do. Keep that in mind, it will
be helpful.
They 'limited the Holy One of Israel.' Think about that. If you said to
most people, 'Did you know that you could limit God the Creator?' Most
people would say, 'No!' Especially if they adhered to certain
theological belief systems where He is totally in control. Free will is
not really free will because that would be attributing to man too much
credit. After all, we are just these fallen creatures and in no way can
we do anything like that. We really are just pawns on a big chess board,
puppets in a little marionette show.
I do not think that is the testimony of Scripture. The KJV reads, 'They
turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One...." In Ezekiel 9
the verb translated limited in Psalm 78:41 appears only one other place
in the Bible. I love these dual usages because they are short word
studies; besides that, they often have some real nuggets of truth hidden
in them. I am aiming at Ezekiel 9:6, but let us get a running start at
verse one. It is God once again speaking completely in regard to Israel
and the future judgment upon them. Why? It is because of their unbelief
and idolatry. Oh man, some very deep stuff is in the Old Testament. God
is extremely graphic. Yikes, it is X-rated about some of the stuff
Israel was doing and how they were just 'thumbing their noses' at God,
to put it so mildly; it is absurdly ridiculous.
In other words, mark the good guys! This is the magic marker man.
Wow, most people would read this and say, 'Oh, God is so mean. He is so
this or that.' No, no, no, this is Old Testament language! It is not God
actively doing this. Whose choice was it in which group the people
were-the marked group or the unmarked group? It was their choice; it was
the choices that they had made up until that time that determined
whether or not they lived or died. That is exactly what we just read in
Deuteronomy 30.
Let's look at Matthew 13:58. Remember what we are reading; our choices
either limit God's involvement in things or they expand God's
involvement. We can make it possible for Him to see His will come to
pass. It is just a fabulous truth that can change your life. Perhaps you
are familiar with this verse where Jesus had been hanging out in his own
town trying to do the same things that he's tried to do in other places.
He had become unplugged?! No, no! He was tired? He had forgotten the
Bible? No, no, it was because of...
Was Jesus just as willing and able there to do what he was doing in
other places? Yes!
Look at this verse:
In other words, it makes a difference what we do.
That is exactly what we just read in Matthew 13. It was the same word
that Jesus preached in his hometown as he preached in Capernaum or
wherever else he went, yet the results were different. Why? It was
because of the choices of the people.
Many examples can be found. We are going to go to Ezekiel 22, but first
we will look at Esther. Esther is only one of many individuals stepping
up, to stand in a gap, which is what we are going to read in Ezekiel.
Esther is a rather unique example in regard to what is said. Remember,
she is a Jew married to a pagan king. Her uncle is Mordecai, and Haman
is the bad guy, and he tries to trick the king into killing all the
Jews. Esther is the only one who can save them, but she has a big
decision to make because she was only to come in to the king when he
invited her. If anyone walked into the king's presence without being
invited and he did not hand them the golden scepter, they were taken and
killed.
Mordecai is exhorting Esther to do what she needs to do, to stand in the
gap, to step up.
A qualifying clause can be found here because the statement, 'If you do
not step in there Esther, relief and deliverance will arise from another
source for the Jews' cannot be a blanket statement of doctrine because
Littleton, Colorado and Wedge Wood, Texas will show us differently. No
deliverance arose from another source in Littleton, Colorado. Those
people died because no one was there to step up and stand in the gap!
That statement Mordecai makes to Esther relates to God bringing the
Christ into the world. God had promised that Jesus would be born, and to
that end, He would have found another way to deliver at least some kind
of remnant of Israel to preserve the bloodline. The power of one,
consider Joseph of Arimathea, a man who stepped into the gap and was
responsible for making possible the witness of the empty tomb-one of the
historical proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Think about King David. He was the only David that God had. One day
David was bringing food out to his brothers who were at war. They were
cowering on one side of the valley with all the other Israeli soldiers
because of this big smelly guy who kept coming out into the valley and
screaming and cursing at them. His name was Goliath; he was a freak.
David was a young teenager. He comes out with the food and says, 'Who is
that guy? I am sick of him and I am not putting up with this guy!' David
stepped up and stood in the gap! No one else would do it. David went out
there and said, 'I ain't puttin' up with you.'
How about Joseph of Arimathea? I think that he was the only guy that
believed that Jesus would rise from the dead, so he went and got his
tomb ready. He was the only guy who went to Pilot and said, 'I want the
body of this man.' [For further study read The Burial of Jesus: Starring
Joseph of Arimathea.]
Ladies and gentlemen, you will have opportunity after opportunity, and
gap after gap come at you in your life. You can be the man because You
are the only you that God has. You can be the woman of His dreams. You
can be the man of His dreams. You can be somebody's hero in the right
sense. You can step up and obey God in a moment and bring deliverance to
others. The choice is up to you, and God says, 'In every situation,
choose life!'
In Ezekiel 22, God was looking for a man to stand in the gap. Let me
clarify that obviously God can do many things that are independent of
human cooperation. Humans would not be able to cooperate were it not for
what God did without our cooperation previously. He is working in many
ways, but the testimony of Scripture is that in the vast majority of
situations, His hands are tied to a certain extent by our choices. That
could be bad news, and it could be good news. It depends on the choice
that you make. How do you know that God is not in control of your life?
You know because it would be a lot better if He was, but you are in
control. That is not bad news but good news because you have what it
takes. Remember, it is not out of reach to step up.
I know that you may not live in the United States, but I think that you
could look at your country the same way that I look at the United States
of America in that the place is a mess. In Ezekiel 22, God is looking
for somebody to do something for Him. I say the situation is totally
parallel to today because I do not believe that much of what is passing
as Christian doctrine and Christianity is that effective for God. I
think that it should be having more impact on the world.
Okay, so the physical land is messed up. The same thing holds true on
the earth today. Let us see if the government leaders can help.
Yikes, perhaps the religious leaders can do something about it?
That means that they do not hold the Written Word as the absolute
standard of truth.
Maybe other government officials are there who could step in place?
Have any government people ever done anything like that? I think that
surely we can count on the prophets.
I would like to say that some Christian leaders today are doing exactly
the same thing and claiming that certain government officials are God's
choice, because of course God is in control of everything and giving all
these revelations and dreams and visions about all this stuff. It is
exactly what is covered here.
That is what they say, 'This is God!' When in fact it is not God at all!
How do you know that? You know because when you read these things, they
contradict the Written Word. Okay, the last hope verse 29-of the people,
by the people, for the people, let us come to the rescue? I do not think
so!
In verse 30, God was surveying the pitiful scene.
How many? He looked for one. How many are you? You are one; the power of
one, the human element, you are the only you God has.
Once again it is Old Testament language. God did not actively destroy
His people. It was the Devil who wanted to destroy Israel like he has
from the time that they were birthed as a nation, because he knows that
the redeemer came from them. It is the Devil's goal to stop them, and
the coming time of Jacob's trouble known as the tribulation will be the
ultimate persecution of Israel by the Devil. God is saying (literal
rendering), 'I looked for a man to stand in the gap so the Devil could
not destroy my people, but I did not find anybody and the people went
down the drain.'
I want you to do your very best right now to stick with me and think in
the most biblical way that you have ever thought. I am going to get into
the subject of fellow laborers with God. I need to introduce something
to you that relates very closely to the idea of God being in control of
everything that happens. The corresponding idea that is very closely
related is that God once upon a time, or at some time in the past, saw
as present reality every single event of the future including the shoes
that you are now wearing. He knew that you had gotten them on sale two
weeks ago. I do not believe that this is the testimony of Scripture. I
am going to share some things with you that I believe right along with
what I am sharing will enhance your vision of the importance of your
life as, the only you that God has, and greatly increase the urgency of
obedience for you.
I am going to read some quotes from a book called The God Who Risks by
John Sanders. You can order this book from a Christian bookstore,
Half.com, or Amazon.com. I am going to read about six sections and then
wrap up with some fellow laborer verses and some points on prayer. It
says:
He then answers the objection about the word foreknowledge that only
occurs seven times in the New Testament. Five times it is used of God
knowing something in advance. Two times it is used of humans knowing
something in advance, so that the word itself does not answer the
question because it is used of humans also.
This is why He is awesome beyond my comprehension. This is the next
point from the book:
The author writes:
I want to elaborate on this briefly. Remember, why did I believe what I
believed about God? Was it from the record of Scripture or because of
philosophy that infiltrated Scripture? To sum up some of these things:
God in His sovereignty chose to risk. That is the point that John
Sanders makes in this book that God set things up without a guarantee
that His will would come to pass. Because if He gave Adam and his
descendents genuine free will, then He took the risk that we would
choose not to love Him and not to obey Him. In that regard would you not
agree that God models love because God is love. What is love? Love
risks; it is never manipulative or controlling, and that is God. Of
course, what is God's ultimate communication-Jesus! Did Jesus risk? Yes,
he risked everything. We read about the heart of God not only in
Scripture but also in Christ. Think about this. God is grieved. He is
joyful and He repents. Jesus wept! He was happy and he was sad. Think
about it. You can make God smile, or you can make God cry! That is what
Adam did. God said, 'Adam where are you?' That was the cry of a broken
heart. Remember, God was sovereign; He could have done it anyway that He
wanted. He could have made robots, but He decided to limit His
sovereignty and risk. What an awesome God we have. He is not in control
of every little detail of life.
Now, let's discuss the idea of a future seen by God as a present
reality. If God at some point in the past can see the total future, then
there is no other way that it can turn out to be. Understand that this
is not a question of whether or not God has foreknowledge; of course He
has foreknowledge. He is amazingly resourceful in bringing to pass His
predictions and His prophecies. The question is what kind of
foreknowledge are we talking about? Is God's foreknowledge absolute-that
is what He already pre-visions is going to turn out? If that is the
case, then He cannot genuinely intervene in it. Think about that.
I used to teach that it was like God looking down at a parade so He
could see the beginning float and the ending float, but I am standing on
the corner and I can only see part of it at a time. I will have to ask
the question, if God already saw everything ahead of time, then do you
really have free will? Many people will say that is not incompatible but
I do not believe that Scripture will stand up to that idea. You will
have a very hard time with someone asking, 'Do you mean to tell me that
God absolutely knew that Lucifer would rebel against him, that Adam
would sin against Him, that my daughter would be killed or be born
deformed or raped and dismembered, and He went ahead and did it anyway?'
If you hold to classical western theology, you will have to say, 'Yeah.'
It will be real hard to get that person to like God.
I would suggest another alternative that you consider. We have been
chewing on this and sort of came to this conclusion a couple of years
ago but did not want to open this particular can of worms, but I promise
you that the worms will line up. They will be wonderfully in sync when
you just think about it. This is going to make God much bigger!
This is a quote from Greg Boyd, author of God of the Possible. He is
quoted in World Magazine and has taken a lot of flack because of a
statement like this. As free world beings he says:
If you are having a hard time with this, think biblically, no verse is
there that portrays a foreknowledge of God as seeing every event in the
future once upon a time. Does He know the end from the beginning?
Absolutely He knows the end from the beginning, but the way that we get
to the victory celebration is completely open and history will be
written by the interaction of humans with God.
Let me make this point. Jesus Christ was the greatest risk that God ever
took. I am going to write to Mr. Sanders and send him a copy of our new
book, One God & One Lord: Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian
Faith, and hope that he will really consider what is has to say because
his book, The God Who Risks, articulates some things along the line of
what we are talking about just fabulously. Yet, he has no axe to grind;
it is not a belligerent piece of work. He is just saying, 'Hey, think
about this.' I am going to suggest that he go a little bit deeper
because he is a Trinitarian and thinks that Jesus is God. I am going to
suggest if that is true then God did not risk at all with Jesus because
if Jesus is God, then he could not have sinned etc, etc. Jesus was the
greatest risk that God ever took. Did Jesus have free will? Yes, he did.
Could he therefore have sinned and walked away from the cross? Could he
have sinned like the first Adam? Yes, he could. Then what would we do
with the Old Testament prophecies? Could he or could he not have made
them lies? I believe that Jesus could have. That is why God put all His
eggs in the basket of Jesus. That is why Jesus is now God's favorite
subject because of what Jesus did. That is what our whole book is about.
It is about Christianity 101. Until Jesus said, 'It is finished.'
Everything was up for grabs, but once Jesus said, 'It is finished.' God
said, 'Amen!' The future then was assured, but the way that we get to
the future is not fixed. It is open for discussion. What discussion? The
prayer and dialogue that happens between you and God-we will get to
that. We believe that the administrations in Scripture are evident of
God's resourcefulness in working with His people.
How about the chess game analogy in our Don't Blame God! book. Bobby
Fisher sits down across the chessboard from me. Bobby Fisher was the
world's greatest chess player. Is there any doubt of the outcome? No, no
doubt is there of the outcome because Bobby Fisher would win. Think
about it. Would he win because he already knew every move that I am
going to make, or would he win because of his expertise in chess, for
his unbelievable ability and resourcefulness? Which Bobby Fisher is an
impressive Bobby Fisher? The bored Bobby Fisher just sitting across
there, just moving according to what he already knew that I was going to
do, or the Bobby Fisher locked on to the board perceiving a hundred
different moves for every move that I make because he had worked to
become the greatest chess player in the world? I do not think that God
worked to become the greatest God, but He is the one and only true God,
and He is awesome. I would rather place my faith in His steadfast love,
His resourcefulness, His power, and Romans 4:21-His faithfulness to do
what He had promised. He is not a static impersonal abstraction of some
kind of divine perfect knowledge of every kind of thing out there. I am
sorry, that does not resonate for me. I think that the chess game
analogy is absolutely awesome. The Bobby Fisher who is more impressive
is the Bobby Fisher of ability, power, and resourcefulness.
How about when God said to Abraham, 'Do not kill Isaac, hold it....because
now I know that you are serious' (Gen. 22). If those words mean
anything, they mean that up until this point I did not absolutely know
based upon a prevision of seeing exactly what could happen. "I had a
very good idea because I am God, and I am omniscient (as defined as
knowing everything knowable). I know every thought of your heart. I know
every thought of Isaac's heart. I know every circumstance around you. I
know the thought of every demon. I know the thought of the Devil. I know
My own persuasiveness." God speaks in the way He speaks for a reason.
Now of course, those who want to cling to the classic theology-we will
say that is a figure of speech (anthromophism / condisencio), but what
does that do then? If all of the emotions of God are reduced to figures
of speech, then He is an abstraction, and not a personal God who is in
there holding your hand through the trenches of life and agonizing with
you. When I disobey, He agonizes with me cheering me on to obedience.
That is the God that Jesus represents.
Romans 4:21 is the classic verse where it says that Abraham judged Him
able and faithful to be able to do what He had promised.
That is what I want to put my faith in. How do we know that we can count
on God to do what He promised? Give me a J, give me an E, and give me an
S-U-S! That is how we know that God is faithful. Jesus is the ultimate
indication of God's faithfulness to His Word. When God makes an
unconditional promise, it will happen. The Bible is loaded with
conditional promises.
Let us now go back to the God Who Risks book for these quotes:
Risk then quotes W. Norris-Clark who says:
Finally Sanders writes:
He does not have to determine everything that happens because He is
Bobby Fisher, so to speak. He is supremely wise. He is endlessly
resourceful. He is amazingly creative, and He is omni-competent in
seeking to fulfill His project. In the God-human relationship, God
sometimes decides alone what will happen and other times God modifies
His plans in order to accommodate the choices, actions, and desires of
His creatures.
That is the record of Scripture. Look at the dialogues that God has with
Moses and Abraham. Those are real. Those are not figures of speech. He
really entered into and was affected by those dialogues, and prayer is
the heart of the dialectical relationship that He wants with you-the
only you that He has.
You know the context here, reaching out with the Word, planting the good
seed of the Word...
Think about it, you are a fellow laborer (sunergos). Please take some
time and research this for yourself. There are a lot of good verses
there about working together with God. Remember, Deuteronomy 30:11, it
is not out of reach; I would not ask you to do anything that you cannot
do.
'I remember the time that Michelangelo and I painted the Sistine Chapel.
It was awesome; I held the ladder, and then we took the photo, while
arm-n-arm and said, Yeah, we did it, uhuh. I held the ladder. I am a
fellow laborer.' Who gets the most credit? Mike does. Who gets credit
also? Me. You get credit for what God asks you to do-if you do it!
Then, you have 2 Corinthians 5. He has committed to us the ministry of
reconciliation and also the word of reconciliation, and so we are
ambassadors and God says, 'Please, please, please get involved; please
do your part; I need you'
Verse one of chapter six indicates that we very well can receive God's
grace in vain, does it not? It absolutely indicates that. We can receive
it in vain or we can step up and be fellow laborers and enable God to do
everything that He wants to do. One way that we are fellow laborers is
by prayer. Writing from prison, Paul says:
2 Corinthians 1:11 talks about you also helping together by prayer. That
is the reciprocal relationship.
Listen to these final quotes from The God Who Risks about prayer:
Not because like most people think that our time is up. Life is not a
big bakery. "Ah number 52." No! That is Old Testament language. God did
not kill Hezekiah. What happened was that God stopped the hand of the
Enemy in Hezekiah's life because Hezekiah prayed. It says about these
people and others, 'They received because they asked." It is quite
possible for us to miss a blessing that God desires to give because we
fail to ask. [For further study read Does God Determine the Time of a
Person's Death?.]
How about James?
Think about it. Sanders continues:
This is talking about the Old Testament:
He talks about how sometimes God will take our suggestions, so to speak,
and other times He says, 'Sorry Charlie, that ain't best; we are going
my way.' He continues:
Quoting another author he says:
Thank God for the way that He set it up. Let's look at Ephesians 5 and
cover 'a kairos moment.' A moment, an opportunity that comes at you in
the chronos; chronos is the Greek word meaning time in general, but the
chronos is made up of kairos moments. The kairos moment will become a
Kodak moment in the Book of Life when you act in a godly way in that
moment. Wow, I cannot tell you how much more I have prayed since reading
those quotes. I pray much more often and much more fervently and with
much more faith. I pray that the same thing will happen for you.
Why? Because it makes no difference what you do? I mean do anything
because it is all fixed; it is all going to happen that way anyway. It
makes no difference-I do not think so.
The KJV says, 'walk circumspectly.' That is the word used of a mountain
climber. He has to know every little thing to grab onto up the steep
face of the mountain. It makes a difference where he puts his foot! It
is life and death. He chooses life.
The KJV says, 'but as wise, redeeming the time,' and the NIV says,
'making the most of every opportunity.' Why? Because the days are evil,
and the Devil is real and he does not like you, but we have a bigger God
who will help you. It is awesome!
How do we do that? We do this from the written revelation of God's heart
to us - the Bible. However, for years I thought, 'Well, that is what the
Bible says.' No, it is what somebody told me with a few verses out of
context, and I allowed myself to believe it. I do not want to do that
anymore.
Here we see that opportunity will be there for us after-after is a time
word is it not? One after another-here they come, opportunity,
opportunity, opportunity. The days are evil!
We have to pay attention to what we are doing because it makes a
difference. You furnish your world with the fruit of your choices, so
let us choose life.
Some people have thought of the hand in the form of a fist. 'Humble
yourselves under God's mighty hand or He is going to pop you.' No, no,
no! Just look at the next phrase:
At the right moment, God will exalt you. He will give you the fruit of
your good choices. That is what it is saying. Stay put under His hand-in
other words, under the umbrella of His love. How do you do that? Give me
an o-b-e-y. By obeying His written Word, He can exalt you.
John 12 is going to be about the supreme example of everything that we
have talked about here, The Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, as we
are fellow laborers with God, we make possible kairos moments, and then
it is our choice whether or not we act. God will continue to provide
those moments as we walk with Him. You are the only you that God has;
you are the world's biggest deal. Jesus knew who he was, and he knew his
mission and his destiny if he would be successful in carrying it out.
Jesus knew that he was the promised seed of Genesis 3:15. He knew that
for him to produce fruit, he would have to go into the ground looking
much different than he would in the category of the fruit that he would
produce.
Sure, when you follow someone, you end up where they are.
In verse 27, do not let these just be words on a page, this is not just
a little troubled.
Everything in him was shaken to the core of his belief system. His faith
was stretched to the limit, even in this moment, and it would be
stretched further as he walked from Gethsemane to the cross.
Time out, Father, get yourself another boy? No! Save me from this hour?
No! It was for this very reason I came to this hour.
This same God who loved Jesus in this moment will be cheering you on.
You may not hear a voice from heaven, but you will hear the written Word
in your heart, and you will hear the spirit of God in you, and if you
surround yourself with the right people, you will hear them encouraging
you. Think about this man - Jesus. The clock is winding down and his
team was 2 points down. He needed a three pointer. He said, 'Give me the
ball. I will make the shot.' That must be our attitude. We must have
Samson's attitude of seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
Remember, it is not out of reach. We can do it! Jesus said that I am so
troubled; I am so concerned, but I will not back out of this kairos
moment because I know that this is why I came.
You are the only you that God has! He is going to bring to you moments
that are similar to this. You will never have to have the pressure that
Jesus had, but guess what? You have the same strength that Jesus had to
deal with whatever pressure that you do get because it is Christ in you,
figuratively speaking, by way of holy spirit. You have the potential to
be like Jesus, to speak like Jesus, to stand in the gap. God was looking
for a man to stand in the gap so that humanity would not be destroyed by
the Devil, and Jesus is the man. Today, you are the one (the fellow
worker), with Jesus on one side of you and God on the other side on this
path of life. No matter what comes at you, they are never caught off
guard, and they are anticipating way ahead of you. If you listen and
obey, a right next step will always be there for you to take. Our God is
an awesome God. Our Lord is an awesome Lord. They are not small; they
are not ignorant! They are not lacking anything that they need to keep
their promises and to do what they say that they will do. We are
guaranteed a victory in the coming age because of what Jesus Christ did
and God's faithfulness to keep His Word. God will do no less for you,
the only you that He has.
http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=734
 
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
May you, and all those you love,
be so blessed and fortunate
as to stand approved before God,
unashamed of your workmanship.
May God Always Bless You and Yours As
You Stand Steadfast on His Word Of Truth!
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