Here stands God on the day of creation: He looks at stars and He says, “All you stars, move yourselves to this place, and start in this order, and move in a circle, and move exactly as I tell you until I give you another word” and they all obey Him. “Planets! Pick yourselves up and whirl, make this formation at My command, until I give you another word”. He looks at mountains and He says, “Be lifted up!” and they obey Him. He tells valleys, “Be cast down!” and they obey Him. He looks at the sea and says, “You will come this far” and the sea obeys. And then He looks at you and says, “Come” and you go, “No!”. Does anybody have a problem with that?
~ Paul Washer
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in him,
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith,
just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one takes you captive
by philosophy and empty deceit,
according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world,
and not according to Christ.
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
and you have been filled in him,
who is the head of all rule and authority.
In him also you were circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of the flesh,
by the circumcision of Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the powerful working of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And you,
who were dead in your trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with him,
having forgiven us all our trespasses,
by canceling the record of debt
that stood against us with its legal demands.
This he set aside,
nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities
and put them to open shame,
by triumphing over them in him.
~ Colossians 2:6-15
Truth is truth. Just as light is not invalidated by the closing of our eyes. Truth simply is. Our refusal to accept anything true in no way makes that truth untrue. All things dwell in truth’s light across the æons in the eternal court of ideas.
Our pre-apocalyptic civilization has emerged with some insanely-inflated views of itself and its occupants. Going so far as to say that, somehow, we humans, can define that which is real. Surely this has gone beyond any boundaries when we hear new age celebrities admonish us to proclaim, “I’m God! I’m God!”
But beloved, before we point the finger at our noble opposition across the aisle of truth, don’t we do the same thing? Don’t we look at G_d’s Word, nod our head at its completeness; its beauty, and then walk away looking for our own solutions to our problems? No really. Don’t we do it every day? We quite simply, by the lives we live, look Him in the face and say: “You are not enough.” Do we not elevate ourselves like some ridiculous frontispiece against His light in the medium of our existence?
Do we not actually say the same thing as Shirley Maclaine? Do we not say that G_d and His Word is not sufficient to fully address our issues? And in making this absurd claim, do we not expose the true condition of our souls? We are proud. We try to hide it, but our actions and attitudes show ourselves to be anything other than servants of the One who is really in charge. We will do, say or think anything other than yielding to a simple truth:
Jesus is abundantly able to more than handle all of our pain, our problems and even all our potential. He has our past, present, and future firmly in His Loving grasp.
Oh pray friends! Pray that each of us, even now, would have the strength to yield to all of His truth for our lives! Pray that each of us would see that He alone is sufficient for the task of life. Any other source of power will only bring hopeless failure.
God gives us the will wherewith to will, and the power to use it, and the help needed to supplement the power… but we ourselves must will the truth, and for that the Lord is waiting.
~George Macdonald (1824-1905)
