Sense in a Senseless World

If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.

John 7:17








Many years ago, I came across the promise from John 7:17 and it was a balm for my troubled soul. For I wrestled with the fact that God could be loving yet there was so much evil in the world. I thought God was random and arbitrary, but the verse of John 7:17, proved otherwise. We need only be willing and God will get the gospel to us. It is as easy as saying "yes" to God, I do believe that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be.

I have an old booklet containing the message of salvation in John's gospel, written by a James Ely in 1924. Mr. Ely has a note for John 7:17 which reads: "Since Jesus was what He claimed to be-- God incarnate-- then if you will fulfill the requirements set forth in 7:17, God will absolutely convince
you that the doctrine of Jesus Christ is true and He will do it in His own good time and way."

When I first read the words, "willing to do His will," I wondered what God was really asking. Was he asking something that really was too hard to do, something nebulous and ill defined? But I kept reading in John's gospel and found the answer to that question too in John 6: 28-29.

"Then they said unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent."  John 6:28-29

The answer is simple, believe on Him whom He (God) has sent. Anyone can do that, it is so simple a child can do it.

This is the absolute beauty of our salvation. It is a free gift to us, because Jesus had to do the hard part. He had to take in His body the sins of all the world and provide Himself as the perfect sacrifice for them all.

It has taken me years and years, but I am just starting to realize that if it seems He asks us to do something and it seems hard, like saying no to yourself in order to be His disciple, it really is because He really does know what is best for us.

He doesn't ask us to deny ourselves for the gift of salvation, only that we believe in the name of the Son of God. But if we want to know Him more and more, then we must say no to ourselves. Through hard circumstances, He allows us to try out our own way in contrast to His, realize it is utter vanity, and then trust Him with each day and find out how wonderful He is, how loving, patient and kind He is with His wayward and rebellious children.

Both the beauty of a simple flower or the millions of galaxies attest to the fact that we are not here by some random accident. I heard a famous atheist give the explanation for denying God.His reason for being one  it was based on a total misunderstanding, that because there was evil there could not be a good God. 

We are here by some random chance then? 

But I would say to him, yes there is evil. It is only intensifying more and more with each passing day. But that does not mean that there is not a God who doesn't care. 

All we need do is to gaze on the bloody cross upon which He died to realize that God loves us and wants the best for every one of His creatures.

In a senseless world, the simple truth of the gospel is the only thing that makes sense.

The Exclusivity of Christianity

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

This was and is the core belief of Christians throughout the ages. Believers living in the centuries before us demonstrated great faith as they spread the Gospel across the world. I am amazed at what great faith of men such as William Carey, Charles Spurgeon and Oswald Chambers could accomplish. Do we believe the Bible as they did?

Has the Bible changed? No, not in the original autographs. But modern man can change the Word to fit his own likings, because man is more savvy than the old fashioned God we always believed in. For instance, there are Bibles available for those want God to not be referred to exclusively in the male gender, but either a He or a She. I don't get that. It says what it says. In the days of William Tyndale, just to get a Bible was a treasure. They printed it as it was translated, and did not apologize for hurting people's feelings, not even the King of England's. I wonder what William Tyndale would have thought about all our modern Bibles today, and how they cater to people's sensibilities.

I thought that all Christians believed in the necessary atoning work of Christ upon the cross. But now, there are other more "popular" fads that are in trend. Popular teachers write books that make these beliefs attractive, because it appears to comfort people from thinking about the reality of hell. One of them is Universalism. That is the belief that somehow, all in the end will be saved, no matter if they believed in Christ or not.
I ask you, why then did Jesus come down and suffer upon a bloody cross for us if all will be saved in the end regardless? Christ did not force us to believe on Him. It is our choice. He paid for all sins on the cross, yet there still is one sin that will keep people out of heaven. That is the refusal to believe on Him personally as Savior. Jesus is not just any old god, He is the One True God. I don't have to argue with that, just accept it on faith.

Deuteronomy 4:39: "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other." I wrote this verse in calligraphy many years ago and hung it in my kitchen for all of our eyes to see, including my children's. What an onslaught awaited them in the world. Children raised in Christian homes are abandoning their faith even more so today.

Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Him at night: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Jesus never said there were other ways to come to the Father, a notion that is believed by man. No, there is only ONE Savior and One way to heaven.

1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus."

Now that is exclusive, and many turn away at this point. You cannot add Jesus + other ways to heaven. Other cultures did not have the Judeo Christian heritage as we did, but yet Christianity still spreads like wildfire to them who have never heard. Even as we turn away from it, they embrace it.

People who never heard of Jesus before discover that when they cry out to these gods, they do not get an answer, just like the prophets of Baal with Elijah's challenge to the false prophets in I Kings 18:21. He ends up asking the universal question: "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word.

I Kings 18: 25-29 continues, "Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, "O Baal, hear us!" But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention."

Do you see? No answer. But when Elijah prayed, God immediately answered Elijah and consumed his sacrifice with fire from heaven.(I Kings 18:38) Only the True God heard and answered. Do we believe the exclusive claims of Christ, or are there other ways to get to heaven as well? Has "another faith," and "another Jesus" crept in unaware?

II Corinthians 11: 3-4: But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted--you may well put up with it!"

The power of the gospel lies in it's simplicity. Simple for us, because it was very difficult for Him.

John 6: 28-9: Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

A Fleeting Life

This summer I had a great privilege to take part in a memoir class. I loved writing about my past. It was so cathartic. Memories that had been stuffed down, actually lying in my brain dormant, surfaced again as my fingers hit the keys. Good times, bad times, things I wished had never happened all came back in a flood. And then I began rummaging through the pictures I had always said I was going to get organized. I was going to, yet I never did.

Actually many of those precious Kodak moments lay in my attic in the corner, in the very back, forgotten, until I was on my memoir quest. Suddenly, they became very important. Learning how to scan them into my computer and then into my stories, those pictures came alive again for me. I wrote about college days, about passing my boards, getting my lifeguarding certification, hey, I even wrote my very first memory. My mother confirmed that it, indeed, had really happened.

When I was a baby in Christ and I read the book of Ecclesiastes I was totally depressed. Why did the Preacher write in the second verse: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity(?) Who was God to allow God to make life so fleeting like that? I remember I questioned that after I had given birth to my first child. I didn't understand the point of the book.

If life was so transient, then what was the point of life? The point is given after the Preacher had experienced all the pleasures of life and found them meaningless.

Eccles. 2: 10
"Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold from my heart any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor.
2:11
Then I looked on all the works my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed it was all vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun."

Now, as I look back on the faded pictures I see that life is a vapor. I was a girl. It seemed I would never grow up. My mother said, "You have your whole life ahead of you."

Now, that life is at least half gone. The faded pictures are memories. Then the Preacher is right if this life is all there is. But at the end, the Preacher too, comes to wisdom and says:

Eccles. 12: 13

"Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all.
For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil."

Finally, the one commandment He wants us to obey, or "work: today, which is answered here:

John 6: 28-29

Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them, " This is the work of God, that you may believe in Him whom He sent."

Then life will not be vanity, but will suddenly have new meaning, destiny and purpose...