Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Faith Against All Odds”. Last week I maintained that the Reformers’ motivation in their “Standing for the Truth” was really a stand for the God they had come to see in His Word. To stand for their “Father” against the false picture of our God presented by religious authorities. I can think of nothing that motivates more than standing-up and even dying-for the one who loves you and the one you love. Isn’t that true? Few lay-down their lives merely for an idea, a philosophy, or a concept. But laying down your life for love … now that is another story. History is replete with such cases.
There is an instance of people laying down their lives for an idea. Those instances are marked by that person truly believing in his heart that the idea is the only hope for mankind. But again, this is not the love of an idea exactly. It is more the love of mankind. But those who have seen the Father as He is have love even for their enemies… the very ones that are torturing you to death!! This is important. It is evident that Christ came to dispel the spiritual darkness that surrounded the Father. The misconceptions about the Father and His character. The Son came in order to break the paralysis that a false picture of the Father had created in the minds of people. Christ did not come to straighten-out mankind’s religiosity. He came to reveal the Father, knowing THAT was the pivotal issue. The truth about God's character. And that the truth about the Father is the essential truth that sets us free. Until we have a Father that is not punishing us, not out to get us, is forgiveness personified… until we see that, we have a God who must punish every sin (in the person of His own Son???), will never accept us until such payment is made, and is unforgiving and will only forgive us until each sin is paid-for. Until we see the truth about Him and His never-ending Agape-Love for you and me, the wellsprings of our devotion will ever be lukewarm. The false picture of God is what keeps us from loving deeply, with devotion inspired by that love. That false picture keeps us from “Standing for the Truth… (with) Faith Against All Odds” (op. cit.). It keeps us from “Home” and the deep abiding relationship with our Father… which is the only true way in which love and righteousness can grow in our hearts. Love even for our enemies.
The “Faith Against All Odds” is not faith in the accurate symbols of our “faith” (baptism by immersion and not by sprinkling”; the true “state of the dead”; the seventh-day Sabbath; etc.). It is trust (faith) in a Person. Our love-filled Father. Love for this Person, who by that love creates an identical love in us for every brother and sister on earth. For this Father, and for love of our brothers and sisters, we would gladly sacrifice our very lives… rather than renounce that love. This is the heart devotion that is the true “works”. True Faith that works (made evident) by love.
May it be so for each of us, is my prayer. To know Him who is love.
With brotherly love,
Jim