Exchange and Choices

My perceptions are changing – in more ways than one.

Part of it is due to my preparing my mind and heart for the fast upcoming date for the Bat Barakah for two of my daughters this weekend. I shared with a friend yesterday that I can't remember a period of time in my whole life that I have spent so much effort trying to listen to my heart with my mind. I find it quite frustrating at times because I am so inept at this. But I feel it is very important to try anyway if I am going to be effective as a channel for God's blessing at all. So part of my perception shift is very slowly starting to see both myself and others from more of a heart perspective than I have before. It is so incremental that most people probably can't notice it yet, but I keep praying for God to give me the eyes of heaven and the heart and feelings of Jesus and then I have to leave it up to Him to answer that request in His time and ways.

The other perception change is coming as I have spent more time than ever in the first chapter of Romans. Some time ago I left off my study of Romans in chapter eight and returned to the beginning because I just felt I had missed far too much and wanted to uncover much more that was sure to be there. So far in that experiment I have not been able to leave Romans one for maybe a week or two now and it seems to only be beginning to open up. I had a similar experience several years ago in the first few chapters of the book of John that proved a real blessing to me.

I have to say for context that Romans one and two have always been pretty depressing to me and something to get through as quick as possible so I could get on to the “good stuff” later in the book. Romans one is one of the primary sources of ammunition for those who want to fuel their bigotry and hatefulness against homosexuals. They like to thunder their human wrath against these “wicked” people and firmly attach God's name to their tirades to give it supernatural authority. This spirit of hatred and merciless vengeance is one of the prime examples of very popular lies about God deeply embedded into religion that has little hope of being eradicated. Because most people believe in a God who indulges in the same “wrath” as men are so familiar with in themselves they simply assume that these words in Romans are God vengeful outlashings against those who have offended His sovereign decrees. Of course they don't bother to continue to apply the text just as strongly to themselves as it turns the tables on them in chapter two. But that is another subject.

However, as I have spent morning after morning reviewing, exploring and meditating on the various interlinking truths just in this one chapter I have begun to see a much different picture of God emerging that is starting to get me more excited as I see the true beauty, passion and mercy of God that is quite opposite to what many claim to find there. Each morning it seems that some other word or phrase is pointed out to me that had roots and tendrils that are connected and show up in surrounding verses. These amazing interconnections become more and more fascinating as they weave together to form the outlines of a picture that more accurately portrays the real truth about God.

This morning I noticed even more references to the word “exchange” or its variants. All of them are in the section where the “wrath of God is revealed” which, when properly understood is a very exciting and liberating subject of its own. So far I have found this word in v. 23, 25, 26 and alluded to in parallel concepts in several other verses. Then I was reminded of the idea of exchange that had surprised me in a teaching several years ago from the Old Testament. There is a popularly quoted text in Isa. 40:31 that people find comfort in quoting for difficult times. “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

What surprised me was when it was pointed out that this verse actually may be saying something quite different than what it appears to say in the typical English translation. The word translated “renew” can instead be translated “exchange” which puts a whole different filter on the picture and exposes a truth about the gospel more clearly. There is even a ministry named after this verse called Exchange Life Ministry. What this text can say is that those who wait (trust patiently in God to work things out) on the Lord will exchange their strength (if you can even call it strength at all by comparison) with God's strength. The rest of the verse is simply the results that can happen in the lives of those who exchange their strength, their dependence on themselves, for trust in God and choose to live in His strength.

I find this “exchange” principle significant in the light of Romans one. It is possibly talking about the same thing in reverse. In Isaiah God's plan for exchange of the right kind is laid out and in Romans the opposite kinds of exchange are laid out with the corresponding tragic results. Given this perspective it is easier to see that the dire situations and perversions of life described are not God's “punishments” on those who have offended Him; rather they are descriptions of natural consequences of pulling away from the only source of true life and looking to any other source to get satisfaction and fulfillment.

That takes one right back into the study of worship and what it really means – but that too is a subject for another day that I have been wanting to explore much further and share what I have been learning and experiencing.

What I see in Romans one is a choice for every person: Do I believe the gospel – the good news about God and the real truth about Him apart from what is taught by most “religion” today? Or do I choose to exchange real glory for imitation glory, exchange the truth about God for the lie, or maybe even go so far as to exchange the natural function of my body for lust-filled distortions of God's original design for me and suffer the tragic consequences as some of my close friends have done?

Life is all about choices. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)

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