Learning To Die (Part 1)

It seems the longer I walk with God, the more convinced I am that God is asking me to die. Jesus tells me to lay down my life. He tells me to deny myself. He tells me to follow him. He went to the cross to die. But like Him, my death is not an end, but a gateway to eternal life. In order to enter in, one must die to self. Some feel this happens at the moment I accept the gift of Christ’s atonement. But, I do not agree. I think the acceptance of atonement is the beginning of a process that takes one, if done correctly, to the death of self. This is also called sanctification. Sanctification is the process that God takes us through that will make us more and more like Christ, it will at its conclusion make us perfect. However, the thought of us becoming perfect is not a conceivable target. We cannot comprehend ourselves in a perfect state. Therefore, the process of sanctification is hindered by our inability to comprehend the final product. If you look at the words of Jesus, He spends much more time, trying to get us to a point of self denial. The point which is his target is the death of self. And during His ministry He spoke about the death to self numerous times.

To come to a point of self death will take you through every lesson taught in the word of God. There is scarce a lesson in the bible that does not have a root of self death woven into it. It is for this reason that I believe that this is the central point of sanctification and the main purpose for us in this life to realize.

Why use the word Death? It is so final, so permanent. Jesus is not calling us to a temporary denial. He is not calling us to a limited denial. He is calling us to a level of denial that is permanent and unlimited. In this sense it is a form of death. The words used are specific and have a purpose. The finality of death is something we can all relate to.

To find the life that God has for us, we must first lose the life that we are presently clinging to. Like a snake that sheds it skin, we must first lose the old to make way for the new. Jesus spoke of new wine in old wine skins. Like a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly, it is necessary that the old worm dies to make way the beautiful butterfly. Why is it that no one ever morns for the worm that died? One answer is that most if not all realize that the worm never really died. But if that is true, where is the worm? The worm is gone. The worm died, and in it’s place something better was left. A butterfly was born. Some will say that the worm was transformed into the beautiful butterfly. God’s words says not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind. So it would be correct to say the worm transformed into a butterfly. But the central fact still remains… where is the worm? It is gone, be it death or transformation, the old has past away and the new lives on. No where do we see the butterfly returning to the worm stage of life. And the butterfly is not a worm with wings. It is, as the bible says, a new creation. The worm is dead!

The end of the story

As I read the stories in the bible I am frequently amazed at what awesome things God did for those who stepped up to be used. At the same time I am troubled by the fact that for my whole life I have heard these stories and now, when I can truly appreciate them, I find them less than inspiring. When I probe my heart to determine why this is, it becomes clear. I know how the story ends. Have you ever known someone who has recorded their favorite TV program or a ball game and respectfully requests that you don’t tell them how it ends. If you do tell them, they get angry because you have spoiled the experience of having it unfold. It is like we take a journey of discovery when we follow a path that we don’t know where it ends. There are nuances and emotions that are conjured up with every bend in the stream or bump in the road. It is like a roller coaster ride in the dark. There is something magical about the unknown that we attempt to weave even into our entertainment. It is like we are living out the moment with those players. Will the detectives find the killer? Will the kicker make that game winning field goal? We wait on pins and needles to know the ending.

If we have been Christians for any length of time, when we think about the stories of the bible, we know the endings. God delivers Isaac from the alter, the children of Israel cross the Red Sea, David kills the giant, Job gets all his stuff back and more , Joseph saves the day and the tomb is empty just to name a few.

What we are missing is the moment right before God reveals His provision for us. We are missing that emotionally charged moment when we as humans must overcome our own self doubt and step up to the challenge and stand firm. It would be just like if we told a friend that the game came down to a last minute field goal and the home team lost the game. At that point do you even really want to even watch that game any more? Have you ever thought about what Jacob was thinking as he raised his knife against Isaac? Or what was David thinking as he approached Goliath with a sling? How did Peter feel when he denied Christ? How did Saul feel when he met Christ for the first time and became Paul? How did Joseph feel when his brothers sold him into slavery and his bosses wife accused him of rape? How did Ruth feel when she approached her husband about her heritage? How did Daniel feel when he knelt to pray? How did Shadrach, Meshach and Abed Nebo feel when they defied the king’s order? We know how the stories end, but they didn’t. How did they feel?

I think they felt like we would have given the same circumstances. How do you think you would feel? What are the range of emotions you would experience? Frustration, anger, weakness, sadness, self doubt, fear and the list can go on and on. We would run through many of them just as I believe they did. Ask yourself this one question… how many stones does it take to kill a giant? Again, not the answer you know, but put yourself in the valley on that day. You are David. You are gathering stones. How many do you pick up? It seems like a stupid question. Only because you know the stories ending. But if you don’t … how many do you pick up? David choose five. We can speculate as to why, but he just did. He proved for us once and for all that David did not know the end to his own story. We all know that he only needed one. Or, did he? How did the giant die? God killed him. Well of course he did. Because we all know that a man cannot kill a giant with a stone and a sling. Why did David pick up anything at all? David was a man after God’s own heart. But, (and this is important), he was also a human. David knew that God was able to deliver him from the giant and he brought to the table all the skill and ability that he had. He picked up five smooth stones and walked toward the giant. What was he thinking? Remember, you are David and you don’t know how this turns out. Maybe this is your time to go. Will they talk of the day David was killed by the giant for the next 2000 years? I assure you his mind was lit up with the possibilities. His mind was also lit up with fear and anxiousness and the full range of human emotions that we would imagine we would experience in the same situation.

So what did David, Jacob, Daniel, Joseph, Saul/Paul know that we don’t? Nothing! What set them apart, was their faith in God. These and other like them in the bible and in everyday life had one thing in common. They rose above their circumstances to see the end of their stories revealed. Without our cooperation in letting God work through our lives he will not have opportunity to work through our lives. If God cannot work through our lives, then great story endings cannot happen. If great story ending cannot happen then God cannot be glorified by man. And mans chief end is to glorify God. Game over. The home team losses. The giants win. The faith of the young Hebrew boys are crushed. The followers of Christ are nothing more than foolish fisherman. The twelve bothers and the tap root of God’s chosen people dies in the desert.

The stakes are high. What is your story? How will it end? Are you setup for a dramatic, minutes left in the fourth quarter, come from behind win. Or, have you given up and run away from God and his provision. I would challenge you with the idea that all these heros of the faith confronted odds that were stacked against them. To all of them the signs were ominous. To all of them it looked to the human eye as the beginning of the end. But they stepped up to the line and they stood their ground and they made a way for God to come through in the final minutes and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. So swallow your fear, choke back the tears, lift up your head and step up to the line and think about how good your God is and how inspirational the end of your story will be to the masses 2000 years from now and how glorified your God will be that you made it possible for Him to work through your life and reveal a powerful ending to your story.

Life’s stage

The stage of humanity seems to be set. Here I am, dropped onto this stage with my life, my flesh and my choice. The drama unfolds as I embark on life’s journey which must be lived out sequentially, one second after another, until the story has completely unfolded. On this journey I will be tested. The purpose of the test is to see how I will cast my choice. Will I cast it toward God, or elsewhere? To assist in the test (and to ensure that it is particularly challenging) my life has been inseparably wrapped in flesh; a strange device this flesh. It senses things like pain, pleasure, odor, taste, touch, sound. These senses will either bring me pleasure or discomfort. On top of that, this flesh comes with a built in urge to care for itself. This is probably it most annoying feature. Left to its own, it will seek to promote itself in some sort of “survival” mode. From this we get things like greed and lust. It is a dirty business playing this role wrapped in flesh. But, God promises that it can be done. He has also provided a helper, the Holy Spirit, to assist. The challenge seems to grow in complexity when you discover that other peoples flesh is having an impact on your own. You may have yours under control, but countless others have given themselves over to it like they are being held hostage. This is because the flesh, when it feels pleasure, is the most addictive drug on the planet. Urges turn inward and the flesh will do anything to get what it wants. Unfortunately, I have to deal with those in this state. Unfortunately, I find that, in survival mode, my flesh tends to react to their flesh and now my job is more difficult. Multiply this times every person I come in contact with and now you have the big picture.

If we look into our own heart and break away from those influences motivated by the fleshes desire to survive, and then we can begin to cast our choices toward God. If we feed our flesh’s desires, then we make it stronger and harder to over power. If we look to our heart and manage our lives from that point, our flesh (as a by product) will weaken to the point that it will be rendered powerless in our lives. The Holy Spirit will help us to sort through our hearts to find connections to the flesh and remove them. Sometimes, the flesh is so convincing in its seduction of us that we fall under its spell like a sirens song. The Holy Spirit is capable of knowing what is real and true and what a seductive lie is. Once we can sort this out, the Holy Spirit also assists us in removing the flesh’s influence in our heart. Once the heart is clear of the flesh we can cast our choices with abandon and keep the flesh where it belongs. Where is that you say? The flesh is the carrying case for my life. It should be treated with care as a valuable asset and managed meticulously. It is a wonderful, awesome and dangerously complicated machine. Handle with care steward or it will rot your soul. It is your choice.

Isn’t the song getting old?

Everywhere we look, we see it. The old song. The song that was sung since the fall of man. This song is love song of sorts. The song is about us and to us. We sing it…to ourselves and to each other. The song tells us how great we are and how powerful we are and how dashingly handsome we are. We look into the mirror and admire ourselves and sing the next refrain.

In Revelation it says that we will sing a new song. I don’t think this is a song we have never heard as much as it is a song we have never sung. We have heard the song, it is all around us. The song is in all creation and in the created order. But, we do not sing the song. Jesus, when asked, on what we know today as Palm Sunday, to have his disciples stop singing His praise, told them that if they stop the rocks would cry out. If you stop and look and listen, you can hear them crying out now. It is hard to hear it against the loud voice of our own selfish song. What makes the song new is that we will begin to sing it. For the first time we will stop singing OUR song and start singing His. To us this will be a NEW song.

Here is my challenge today. Why must we wait until we are around God’s throne in eternity to being to sing this new song? I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of the old song. There is nothing standing in our way, nothing keeping us from it. Isn’t the old song getting old?