Chapter 2. There’s a party going on!

<< Back to contents page

“Your eternal destiny is not cosmic retirement; it is to be part of a tremendously creative project, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast scale, with ever increasing cycles of fruitfulness and enjoyment.  That is the prophetic vision which ‘eye has not seen and ear has not heard.’”

___Dallas Willard

Have you ever been alone somewhere when you hear the raucous sounds of a party down the hall?  Everyone sounds like they’re having a ball and there you are, lonely and excluded.  The temptation to sneak down the hall and peer in seems irresistible.  You even dream of wrangling an invitation to join in the action.  We seem wired to run toward “the action” and away from loneliness, especially if it involves interesting people and significant events.  Nobody enjoys being left out.

Suppose there was “a party” going on right under your nose; one that you can’t see physically, but is real nonetheless.  Think of it this way.  Scientists agree that there is something counterintuitive about our universe.  Total mass-energy calculations seem to indicate that there is no such thing as “empty space” as most of us understand the term.  No matter where we look in deep space, we can only “see” about 5% of what we think of as ordinary matter.  The remaining 95% of what exists is a mysterious combination of something called dark matter and dark energy, and is totally invisible and thus far unmeasurable by conventional means.

The bible tells us that there are two primary components to humanity’s perceived existence that are every bit as mysterious as the physical universe described above.  There is the natural realm which is visible to our eyes and also there is a “supernatural” realm, which is completely invisible to the eyes.  Similar to dark energy and dark matter, the supernatural realm is every bit as “real” as the visible realm, though undetectable to the naked eye.  The bible teaches that the supernatural realm is ultimately more powerful and will last longer than the natural realm.

The bible also indicates that while one portion of this supernatural realm is constrained by time and space, another portion exists outside of time and space and is eternal.  All universal power and authority resides in and emanates from this eternal supernatural realm which Jesus Christ referred to frequently as “the kingdom of God.”  This kingdom, is ruled by a single Person who is simultaneously manifested as Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Arthur Custance in his Doorway Papers described the difference between the realms of time and eternity this way,

“The really important thing to notice is that time stands in the same relation to eternity, in one sense, as a large number does to infinity. There is a sense in which infinity includes a very large number, yet it is quite fundamentally different and independent of it. And by analogy, eternity includes time and yet is fundamentally something other. The reduction of time until it gets smaller and smaller is still not eternity; nor do we reach eternity by an extension of time to great length. There is no direct pathway between time and eternity: they are different categories of experiences.  The fundamental point to grasp in all this is that when we step out of time, we step into eternity, and we cannot be in them both at once. But God can.” [i]

Many mythological writings depict heaven as a place where its inhabitants are sitting on their own private little clouds strumming harps.  Dallas Willard debunks such fanciful notions, “Your eternal destiny is not cosmic retirement; it is to be part of a tremendously creative project, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast scale, with ever increasing cycles of fruitfulness and enjoyment — that is the prophetic vision which ‘eye has not seen and ear has not heard.’”  Think about it—if God is creative and resourceful enough to create all this, why would he stop here?  Suppose he has much more to do and he’s inviting us to participate?

And the best part of the story is that God is eagerly recruiting new members into his eternal enterprise who will populate his heaven with an all-volunteer army of joyous co-creators.

Your personal invitation into the very mind of God

Right under our noses, the most remarkable communication in human history calls out from the realm of the supernatural and beckons us upward into the very mind of God.  At first the bible appears to be a jumble of ancient writings, speaking of long-forgotten people, during times that hardly seem relevant to our lives today.  Yet strangely, perhaps miraculously, those few who take the time to study its pages, are rewarded with a glimpse “behind the scenes” into the eternal workings of an invisible kingdom.  And at its heart, this kingdom is centered not upon some “force” or omnipotent “thing,” but upon a Person.  A Person with whom we share many divinely-implanted characteristics which make it possible for us to know him, communicate with him, and to love Him.  And best of all, He has been speaking to us from the very beginning of time if we are willing to stop long enough to listen. Here is how one bible scholar put it…

“A certain copy of the Constitution of the United States was once executed in superb penmanship by the hand of an artist.  In some places the words are all cramped together, while in others they are spaced far apart.  Looking at the manuscript closely, there seems to be little reason for such a spacing of the words.  Standing back, however, and looking at the production from a distance, the artist’s purpose becomes clear.  He not only wrote out the Constitution but also portrayed the face of George Washington, his cramped and spaced-out words forming lights and shadows on the page.”

“Thus it is with the bible.  The creation of the stars is covered in Genesis 1 in five short words, “He made the stars also.”  Yet the story of the tabernacle is spread over some fifty chapters of the bible.  All we know of the life of Jesus between His birth and His baptism is covered in a single page of scripture.  Yet page after page is devoted to genealogies which perhaps appear endless and pointless to us.  We ask, “Why such an uneven choice of subject matter?”  The answer becomes clear when we take a survey look at the bible.  Woven into all the scripture is the perfect portrait of God’s beloved Son.“ [ii]

The “qualifications” to join the party?

So, do I have to go the “right” church, be baptized, perform religious rituals, read the right books?  What’s it take to “belong” and how much do I have to pay?  How will I know if I’ve joined the right organization?  Sadly, this is where things can get murky for most people.

If you were to ask the question, “what is a Christian” of one hundred people, you are likely to get one hundred different answers.  There is widespread confusion on this issue due in no small part to relentless pressure on churches to “dumb-down” the message to attract the maximum number of people which can hopelessly blur this most important of questions.  We get mired in religious minutia and in the process lose the “pearl of great price” that lies at the center of our very reason for being.  No, it is not about the building we meet in, or the denomination we belong to, nor is it about some theological test that we think we’ve passed.  We could do all those things and still miss the whole point.

We’re all familiar with a Geiger counter which detects the presence of radioactivity and emits a strange crackling sound in response.  Suppose there was a “Holy Spirit counter” that could positively identify whether a person has been “signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit?”  Bottom line, it’s pretty simple, either you have the Holy Spirit or you don’t, either you are, ”God’s own possession…” or, you are not.

Scripture asserts unequivocally, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”[1]  Pretty straightforward.  A touching illustration of the clear mark of belonging to God comes in a decidedly candid exchange between God and Moses, Israel’s leader during their Exodus out of slavery in Egypt.  At a time when God was frustrated with Israel’s continued intransigence in following Moses’ leadership, Moses approaches God with this:

“Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.  God said, ‘My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.’ Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?’  God said to Moses: ‘All right. Just as you say; this also I will do, for I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name.’”  [2]

The unmistakable mark of belonging to God?  His very presence with you.  That’s where the sealing and indwelling Holy Spirit comes in.  It also means, as God said to Moses, “I’ll see your journey to the end,” “I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name.”  It is the same today as it was 3,500 years ago—not a relationship with a detached, remote, stand-offish God, but One who is invested, connected, and involved—a God who knows your name!

The Divine Gauntlet

Jesus Christ laid down a challenge to the religious know-it-alls of his day that still rings down the centuries, “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”[3]

This pivotal exchange between Jesus and his fiercest critics came in the form of a challenge, “OK Jesus, since you’re so smart, boil it all down for us, summarize what you think the whole bible has to say about what God requires of us!”  They and the crowds who listened on, were startled at Jesus’ succinct, brilliant, authoritative reply.  His hecklers were silenced and His piercing words have driven religious pretenders to cover their ears ever since.

You’re kidding….right?

As I read those words of Jesus and ponder their implications, my inner sceptic whines, “That’s easy for you to say Jesus,”  “But what about the rest of us ordinary earthlings?”  “How are we supposed to pull that off?”  Perhaps you might even dare to say, “Love God?” “I’m not even sure if there is a god.”  “How am I supposed to love someone or something that I can’t even see?”  Or, a bit closer to home, “how do you expect me to love my neighbor?”  “Your neighbor maybe, but not mine!”  “You have no idea how much of a jerk my neighbor can be.”

Have you ever felt that way?  When those words of Jesus really sink in, do you feel like “Wiley Coyote” with his ears down as the train comes barreling towards him?  The bible can seem like a collection of impossible demands, unreasonable standards, with no obvious “payoff.”  No wonder it’s thought of by many as something for religious fanatics and monastic loners.

And then to make matters worse, Jesus up and lifts the bar even higher with this, “And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [4]

“Oh great, now all I have to do is be perfect!”  “Here we go again, impossible.”

Could we be missing something?

It is a sad fact that most people, “churched” or not, have the idea that the “Christian life” is something they need to live up to on their own and if they fail, there will be serious consequences.  They see it as a religious system of “do’s and don’ts” to which they are expected to conform…or else.  Is it any wonder that so few even dare try?

Yet paradoxically, we learn that when Jesus walked the streets of Palestine, children flocked to Him, drunkards, prostitutes, and broken people ran after Him as bees to honey.  No such crowds were spotted shadowing the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, who always seemed to view the unwashed heathen with particular disdain.  In fact Jesus was more in conflict with the religious establishment of his day than any other group of people, including the all-powerful Roman occupiers.  So, what accounts for the appeal of Jesus to the street people and concurrently, the universal hostility of the religious know-it-alls?

To begin with, this was no concocted “Hollywood Jesus,” six foot tall blond Caucasian with freshly coifed flowing locks, speaking impeccable English in a slow, measured cadence for maximum persuasive effect.  This was a working man from the backwoods of Galilee with a country accent, calloused hands, and an unremarkable appearance.  He would have been short by our standards, likely dark haired and dark skinned.  The Old Testament prophet Isaiah wrote of Him hundreds of years before He was born as follows:

“For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” [5]

This was hardly the kind of resume you would expect for a first round draft pick to quarterback a world-shaking spiritual movement.  Yet this He did and the effects of that solitary life have been rippling down through the centuries ever since.  Jesus never pulled any punches during His earthly ministry.  If He were trying to attract people to His religious movement in this day and age, He would be defying conventional wisdom.  This was no feel-good preacher trying to fill auditoriums with paying customers who expect to “receive their blessings, etc.”

Far from presenting Himself as a dispenser of limitless blessings, he reminded people of the difficulty of the path He was calling them to.  He explained that His cause would be violently opposed jointly by dark spiritual forces, entrenched religious and political powers, and innumerable individual prejudices that would require the divine might of the hosts of heaven at their side in the battle.  And not least, it could very well cost them their lives.  He was not trying to win a popularity contest.

Nor could it be said that Jesus was anyone’s “buddy,” or that he was easy to “figure out,” like you would expect were he the simple carpenter from Nazareth that his detractors alleged.  Quite the opposite, he confounded his harshest critics, terrified his closest associates, and exuded genius in every encounter.  Far from being predictable, he shocked his friends and enemies with astonishing insights, brilliant observations, and breathtaking acts of healing and dominance over nature.

The effect Jesus had on observers may well have been similar to the way people reacted to the genius Albert Einstein. An article in the Wall Street Journal recounted,

“Once Albert Einstein was at a film premier with Charlie Chaplin, and the crowds went wild.  Chaplin explained to Einstein what was going on:  ‘they cheer me because they all understand me, and they cheer you because no one understands you’” [iii]

This gentle rabbi from the sticks talked as much about hellfire and damnation as He did about heaven and happiness.  But people never shrunk back from Him or held His flat-out approach against Him.  He spoke with authority and with great personal concern, unapologetically warning people of dangers ahead and at the same time pointing them to the only available safe haven, Jesus Himself.  He didn’t attract his hearers to a religion, an organization of men, much less to buildings and paraphernalia.  He drew them to Himself and the people loved Him for it.  He calmly declared Himself to be the “ground zero” of authentic spiritual transformation and called anyone and everyone to follow in His steps.

Somehow the people knew that in coming to Jesus, all the “doing and conforming” would take care of itself.  They trusted this winsome visitor from another dimension—His character, his words, his actions were self-evident as all the proof they would ever need.  If Jesus said it, then it would be OK—somehow he’d provide the wherewithal to get it done.  They had no idea how close they were to the truth.

A brand new deal, a new covenant

mazeNothing is quite as exciting as a treasure hunt, especially when it involves mysterious clues and hidden messages.  Over the years popular movies have held audiences on the edge of their seats as heroes and villains frantically race to find “the holy grail.”  The details vary but there always seems to be a professor or white-coated scientist who alone is able to “connect the dots” and find the treasure.   Imagine for a moment that there has been a real-world treasure hunt going on since the dawn of time–one that leads directly to the secret of eternal life.  I’m not talking about gold, riches, or anything material.  Who among us isn’t fascinated by the notion of living forever, of never having to die, never going out of existence?  Add to this the tantalizing notion of taking part in a grand adventure, in a noble cause, against formidable opposition.  It’s the stuff of countless novels, movies, and plays as long as man has existed.

But as far as mysteries, secret codes, numerical keys, fascinating characters, UFO’s, and alien creatures, nothing beats the bible.  And most importantly, woven throughout its pages is the secret of eternal life, progressively revealed from cover to cover.  But the dots need to be connected by the reader.  And more importantly, the bible’s “treasures,” its deeper secrets, can only be discovered by true seekers who are willing to patiently follow its clues and lead them beyond their own prejudices.

Who doesn’t love being let in on a mystery?  Especially if the mystery has confounded the best minds throughout human history?  This brings us to the point where Christianity parts company with all the other religions of the world.  Here is how the Apostle Paul put it,

…that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” [6]

The long-hidden mystery of eternal life was none other than the God of the universe taking up residence inside of every single believer in Jesus, “Christ in you.”  Not only would this cohabitation characterize every true believer’s life in the world, but it would be the means by which that promised “eternal life” would be imparted in the first place.

God would not stop at just laying out the rules and expecting His followers to adhere to them—that would hardly be good news—no, he quite literally would come and live out the Christian life in them!  An ancient prophecy in the Old Testament put it this way, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” [7]  Now that’s more like it.

Now don’t be put off by the metaphysical intermingling talk.  You stay you, but there is another dimension added to your character that slowly but surely works its way into your decisions, actions, and aspirations that are distinctly Christ-like.  It isn’t so much that we bring God down into our lives as much as it is that God brings us up into His.  The relationship is decidedly upward and a whole new heavenly perspective begins to open up before our eyes.

Jesus viewed the intimacy of this human-divine relationship as a living, functioning organism, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” [8] You can do nothing of eternal value that is.  Self-effort has no place here.  Either it comes from Christ dwelling within, or it carries no eternal “weight,” however well-intended and “religious” it may appear to be.  This reduces the believer’s “job” to simply getting out of the way and letting God “do His thing.”  After all, what does a branch have to do?  Simply be there and bear the fruit which is naturally produced by the vine.

Christianity’s basic “value proposition”

The unique proposition of Christianity is that any willing person can have a direct encounter with the living, resurrected, and ascended Jesus Christ in a personal, conscious, ongoing manner.  No such promises are made by any other religious system.  The founders of all other religions died and stayed dead.  Jesus promised, “…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [9]  And best of all, Christ offers membership in an elite band of believers whose sole purpose is to join him in heaven and bring glory to God for all eternity.

Our ultimate purpose

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.” [10]

The psalm above refers to the heavenly bodies of our universe reflecting the glory of God for all on earth to see.  In Paul’s letter to the early believers in Corinth, highlights another dimension to mankind’s original purpose going all the way back to creation as recorded in the book of Genesis:  “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…” [11]  The moon, while merely a lifeless rock in itself, faithfully reflects the light of the sun to a benighted earth.  Likewise, we get to take our proper place in God’s cosmic order by reflecting his glory back to himself, all the while shining the light of his presence to our fellow men on earth.  Now that’s a value proposition on a global scale.

None but the hungry heart

The countless versions of man-made religions in the world at any given time share a common feature, the entire process of belonging, adhering, and maintaining is left up to you.  The organization provides the “system” and it’s up to you to follow it.  Jesus would have none of it.  He made rather a startling promise that is pregnant with meaning,

“Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.” [12]

Notice where all the intention, energy, and power lies in this unequivocal declaration.  It’s not really about you and me at all.  It begins and ends with God.  Someone has said that man-made religions are always saying, “do, do, do,” while the Christian message is, “done, done, done.”  Done by the power of the implanted Holy Spirit.  Here is Christ’s own invitation which an offer that still stands today,

On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.’ (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)” [13]  The single qualification is that you come thirsty.

Jesus once said, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”  When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”[14]

That last part, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear” implies we have a pivotal part to play in the process.  This parable involves a farmer sowing seed, the seed being the truth of God.  But evidently, only a few people ever open their hearts up and allow God’s secrets to penetrate their carefully-constructed defenses.  The truth goes right over the heads of those who are not seriously seeking it in the first place.

Making sense of your life

Bottom line, the bible reveals a Person who at last makes sense of life, death, and the hereafter.  This is not a detached, sterile set of principles, or rules to live by.  This is a flesh-and-blood personal revelation of a divinely winsome Lover that grabs us by the heart and sweeps us into his arms.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”[15]  He meant it.

That ancient Bible promises men eternal life, strength to face life’s challenges, peace and joy here and unimaginable bliss in the hereafter.  It boldly states that God exists, God has spoken, and the Bible is his message system.  And most importantly, God assures us that we are not powerless pawns set loose like a bobbing cork on a boiling sea.  We have been created for a divine purpose and are encouraged to unleash the most potent force ever invested in a created being, that of exercising our personal free will and choose for or against our Creator’s plans for us.

C. S. Lewis wrote,

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”[iv]

We are much more in charge of our destiny than we ever imagined.  In our power to choose, and specifically, in our power to choose what to believe about ourselves, we act in a way most like God.  As He breathed His very life into that first handful of dust in Genesis, He endowed this highest and most noble of creatures with a fearful, terrible power—the ability to forge our own destiny.

Every child of Adam and Eve is the product of his or her own decisions, the most momentous of which is “who will be my god?”  Do I choose to live my life conscious of His presence, or live it out as though He does not exist?  It is in that singular choice that my destiny and life purpose is cast.

Socrates instructed that “The unexamined life is not worth living for man.”  We arrive at defining moments in our lives, preceded by piercing self-examination, and in that moment decide that we are either hapless victims of unknown forces, or children of destiny.  Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ unapologetically called to men everywhere to, in effect, write their own life story by embarking on a road “less traveled” when he instructed, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”[16]

A higher calling

Sadly, our westernized strain of Christianity often is infected with the mistaken impression that God is “our butler.”  A sense that we can just “pull a little god down” into our lives when we need something or when things are falling apart.  This “Chapstick Jesus” approach assumes God is just waiting around until we develop a sore spot somewhere and then he magically appears to make it all better.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When Jesus was raising up a group of followers at the beginning of his public ministry, he was unusually blunt in his approach:

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.  When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.”[17]

Note the direction of the invitation.  Jesus was not saying, “Hey guys, mind if I join you?”  This was a big paradigm shift.  He was inviting them upward into his program, not volunteering to go downward into theirs.  This was no “prosperity gospel,” no appeal for blessings, health, and riches.  The call was upward, on Jesus’ terms, which included laying down their own nets and “taking my yoke upon you…”  They were about to enter the spiritual “twilight zone,” filled with a dizzying mix of unknowns, rejection, danger, excitement, terror, conflict, all pregnant with eternal meaning.  Jesus was about to turn the then-known world upside down and was inviting this motley crew of laborers to come along for the ride.  They would never be the same again.

Have you ever wondered what would have happened to these ordinary men had they not responded as they did to Jesus’ call to join his extraordinary adventure?  They would have died in obscurity, never heard from again.  Instead, for example, that humble fisherman Peter has the spectacular “St. Peter’s Basilica” named after him, which in the words of one historic site expert is no small accomplishment:

“Located within the Vatican City, the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter, commonly known as Saint Peter’s Basilica, is the greatest of all the churches of Christendom and the center piece of the Vatican, which contains the government for the Roman Catholic Church…After Jesus’s death, the apostle Peter found his way to Rome where he started to establish the foundations for the Christian Church. Peter was crucified head down and buried in Rome during the time of Nero who blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in AD 68. For many years the Christians were persecuted until the Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity and reversed that persecution. It was Constantine who constructed the first Basilica in the year 326 over the spot where Peter was believed to have been crucified and buried.” [v]

Most of the other “70 disciples” of Jesus have been commemorated in similar fashion throughout Europe and the ancient Middle East.  Millions visit these sites each year, still influenced by the ringing testimonies of these great men’s lives and heroic deaths.

There are no extraordinary men… just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.

___William Halsey

In a tantalizing portion of scripture we are told how God miraculously transforms ordinary people like his first followers into beacons of light to the world, “Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.”

“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us.” [18]

The Christian life is not about us after all, though we benefit immeasurably from its influence.  It’s about God in us, a very different and far more interesting reality.  More on that later on in this book.

<< Back to previous page        Forward to next page >>

__________________________

Copyright © 2015 by D.C. Collier

All rights reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.



[1] Romans 8: 9 New International Version (NIV)

[2] Exodus 33: 12-17 The Message (MSG)

[3] Matthew 22: 34-40 New International Version (NIV)

[4] Matthew 5: 47-48 New International Version (NIV)

[5] Isaiah 53: 1-3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

[6] Colossians 1: 26-27 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

[7] Ezekiel 36: 26-27 New International Version (NIV)

[8] John 15: 5 New International Version (NIV)

[9] Matthew 28: 20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

[10] Psalm 19: 1-4 New International Version (NIV)

[11] 2 Corinthians 4: 6,7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

[12] John 14: 11-14 The Message (MSG)

[13] John 7: 37-39 The Message (MSG)

[14] Luke 8: 5-8 New International Version (NIV)

[15] John 14: 6,7 New International Version (NIV)

[16] Matthew 7: 13-14 New International Version (NIV)

[17] Mark 1: 16-20 New International Version (NIV)

[18] 2 Corinthians 4: 7-12 The Message (MSG)



[i] http://www.custance.org/Library/Volume6/Part_I/chapter4.html

[ii] Phillips, John. “Climbing the Heights.” Exploring the Scriptures. Chicago: Moody, 1981. N. pag. Print.

[iii] Wall Street Journal, “The Life of the Mind”, May 9, 2015, p. C5.

[iv] Lewis, C. S. The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2001. Print.

[v] “Famous Historic Buildings & Archaeological Site in Italy – Rome, Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon.” Famous Historic Buildings & Archaeological Site in Italy – Rome, Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>