Making It To Heaven

You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come. (John 7:34)

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

As a person raised from birth to live as a Christian, I have been seeking God, or at least some version of that, my whole life. In my early years I was not so much seeking God Himself as seeking to keep Him appeased enough to let me live for eternity and not burn in hell. I was never too sure about wanting to live that close to Him in heaven but I liked the descriptions of all the fun activities. And since the alternative was far worse I kept pursuing a life of trying to be good enough to fulfill all the requirements that were being handed me by religious people to make it into heaven.

I can see now that my mother was not satisfied with this kind of religion and was beginning to seek to discover something better, something more heart-oriented than the behavior based, controlling, external appearances kind of religion that was so pervasive all around us. She was agitating to experience and share a religion that would work more from the inside out based on love, but she met almost insurmountable resistance from my father and all the others who were firmly in charge of the church and religion. She died when I was only sixteen and never knowing how much things would change after her death, though it took many years to develop.

When I was somewhere in my thirties and had a family of my own, I began to feel confronted by the Spirit that the religion I had assumed was from the Bible was not the kind needed for true salvation. A rule-based religion focused primarily on behavior control and keeping up appearances was not the kind of religion that would bring about the desired results I needed to experience. Slowly I began to sense more and more the Spirit guiding me to challenge and expose many false assumptions I had grown up with in religion and to become aware that only a religion involving my heart and emotions along with my head would prepare me to live enjoyably with God for eternity.

When I read the above verse from John this morning, it suddenly aligned itself in my mind with the very similar verse from Jeremiah and really highlighted this important truth of a heart-based relationship with God. I was raised by people who opposed the idea of true religion as an intimate relationship with Jesus. Additionally it was considered dangerous to have a solid assurance of salvation, so you might be able to imagine a little of what my life was like in those early years. But this is always the sad result of living under the counterfeit system of religion that is based more on fear than on the attraction of love.

I am now learning more and more how important it is to keep my focus on knowing Jesus personally rather than becoming caught up in allowing guilt and shame or fear becoming the dominant force in my life. But this is far easier to say than to actually stay. In fact, Paul speaks of this as the fight of faith. And since faith is what happens spontaneously in a relationship with someone who is trustworthy, then the real battle is to keep my attention on deepening my relationship with Jesus rather than on trying to keep up the appearance of having a relationship without really engaging my heart in it.

When I look at the difference between these two very similar verses above, it become clear that the primary element other than seeking Him is my heart. Unless my heart is involved and engaged in the relationship there can be no lasting change in my life. I may attempt to look like what I think a Christian should look like and act like what people think Christians should act like, but unless I allow Jesus and His Spirit full access to the messy areas of my heart, my emotions, my painful, wounded places deep inside that fill me with shame and fear as well as challenging the intellectual beliefs that I hold to, I cannot enter into the kind of saving relationship that will prepare me to live in love with Jesus for all eternity.

Jesus repeatedly makes it clear that our greatest need is to come to Him. But in this verse He mentions those who may end up seeking Him but not being able to find Him because they fail to come to Him in the way necessary to encounter Him effectively. Unless I am willing to give my heart access and permission to come into the open along with my mind and I lay aside my obsession for keeping up appearances, I may never enter into the rest that Jesus promises those who come to Him. The rest that Jesus offers me is that assurance that I am loved, accepted and wanted in heaven and in the heart of God. It is a heart kind of rest and the only rest that really refreshes and brings new life into the soul.

Jesus, give me this rest today. Fill me with Your presence, Your peace, Your compassion and love and humility. Make me a channel of Your grace and peace to others so they will come to want to know You better for themselves.

Fear of Openness

Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews. (John 7:13)

I am seeing some patterns in this passage that I want to explore a little more. Previously in this chapter it talks about Jesus refusing to go up to the feast with His brothers, partly at least because it says that the Jews in the region of Judea were seeking to kill Jesus. He had gone to work in Galilee for awhile ostensibly to let things cool off in Judea before He returned there – or so it might seem on the surface. His brothers were found urging Him to go back into the region where His life was being threatened because, according to the passage, they did not believe in Him at that point.

Now here in the above verse it speaks of the crowds at the feast in Jerusalem (which was in Judea) who were so intimidated by the hatred and threats of the Jewish leaders against Jesus that most people were afraid to even speak of Him openly for fear of coming under some of the same censure and effects of that anger. So it might be assumed that the reason Jesus had chosen to operate more secretly was also because of fear of the leaders.

But upon reflection it doesn't make much sense to draw those conclusions. Jesus did not derive His sense of safety, value or identity from any human being. Nicodemus pointed that out in chapter three and before that near the end of chapter two it mentions that Jesus did not trust Himself to anyone. But just because He didn't confide to anyone in that level of trust does not mean that He was ever motivated by fear or intimidation. These are tools that the enemy uses to manipulate and control most of us, but Jesus never fell for the schemes of the enemy and did not make any of His choices based on fear or threats from others.

So why did Jesus appear to act in ways that could easily be interpreted as being afraid of the Jews? And if He was not afraid and not acting in secret based on those motives like the others who are mentioned in this verse, then what were the motives He had for doing what He did? And how might I learn from this how to better respond when I am faced with similar situations designed to intimidate and control me through means of fear?

Controlling people through fear of violence, shame, or attacking their reputation is how the enemy and many of us choose to live too much of our lives. As a result we have also come to believe that God treats us pretty much the same way. Religion has taught us that God uses the carrot and stick approach; that on the one hand He invites us into a loving relationship with Him while on the other He holds out threats of extreme punishments or even torture if we slight His advances toward us. If we reject His kindness and mercy we are told that He will eventually throw us into painful burning fire to torture us for failing to embrace His love for us and the salvation He has provided.

But these are bald-faced lies about God that have been passed down through many generations but still have no validity whatsoever. And Jesus never gave countenance to such notions about God but instead came to this earth to reveal the truth of how God really feels about us by the way He related to sinners in person. So for Jesus to hide in Galilee out of fear of being killed by the Jews is inconsistent with the very character and attitudes that Jesus demonstrated throughout His life. Jesus was not afraid of death or He would never have come to this earth to start with. Something else was going on here.

In contrast to these people at the feast who were still under the slavery of fear and could easily be controlled, intimidated and manipulated by abusive leaders, Jesus was free of all such fears completely. He did not go to Galilee in order to hide out there until He felt safe enough to return, He went there for the same reason He went anywhere – because the Spirit led Him there and it was the will of His Father.

To allow fear to control His decisions would have been to cave into the temptations of Satan in His life. Jesus never lived in fear of anything because He stayed in such tight connection with His Father and maintained His constant awareness of the Spirit's guidance in His life. It was His Father who impressed Him to keep a low profile in Galilee for a time, not because of fear of the Jews like these other people were doing, but because it was not yet time for Jesus to be killed. Certain things needed yet to develop and mature and take place before the time would be ripe for Jesus to be offered up as the ultimate sacrifice for sin on Calvary. Because it was not yet time, Jesus was sent to Galilee by the Spirit to work there more while circumstances were developing for the final showdown in Jerusalem sometime later.

But another compelling conviction comes from what I see in this verse. How many times do I find myself so intimidated and influenced by fear of what others may think or do to me that I allow that pressure to keep me silent about Jesus? It says in this verse that no one was willing to be open about Him because of the pervasive fear that surrounded the reputation of Jesus. How often I sense that my own fears of what others think creates shame inside of me that prevents me from speaking openly about Jesus at times. I feel awkward, I feel inhibited, I begin to hear all sorts of rationalizations springing up in my head as to why I should probably wait for a more opportune time to speak out in favor of God. But am I any different than these people in Jesus' day who were too afraid to be identified with Him when His popularity was on the low end?

Who am I allowing to dictate what I am willing to express? I am all too aware of how much I have this problem myself and I want to be free of these fears as soon as possible. I want my life to be led by the Spirit like Jesus was rather than allowing fears of other people's threats or shame associated with God's reputation to govern my choices and actions and words. I want to even be willing to be misunderstood if necessary to obediently follow God's directions, even if my motives may appear to others to be different than what they should be. I want to live my life in response to God's directions and will rather than reacting to what is popular or unpopular at the moment.

Glory and Truth

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (John 7:18)

He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. (NIV)

The man whose words come from himself is looking for glory for himself, but he who is looking for the glory of him who sent him--that man is true and there is no evil in him. (BBE)

If I taught my own ideas, I would just be trying to get honor for myself. But if I am trying to bring honor to the one who sent me, I can be trusted. Anyone doing that is not going to lie. (ERV)

If I wanted to bring honor to myself, I would speak for myself. But I want to honor the one who sent me. That is why I tell the truth and not a lie. (CEV)

Those who speak their own thoughts are looking for their own glory. But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent him is a true teacher and doesn't have dishonest motives. (GW)

I find these words of Jesus to be a fascinating and useful test by which to measure not only the things other people teach and preach, but my own thoughts and words that I share with others. Jesus seems to be strongly implying here that the test of truth has far more to do with the motives of the presenter far more than the accuracy of the information they may be sharing. This idea is one that many, especially in the academic world, can find quite offensive. Yet Jesus has no apologies for His measurement of determining who is a viable source of truth.

Almost as if to underscore His controversial assertion, He immediately contrasts it with the legal, fact-based mentality of those who were listening to Him and already feeling offended by His words. He asserts that though the religious leaders had spent a lifetime seeking to know 'truth' from the Word of God and to align their lives with what they believed to be the purest source of truth to be found anywhere on earth, they had failed to comprehend or appreciate the only source of real truth that was standing right in front of them. The standard of determining who should be recognized as a reliable authority for speaking truth according to Jesus is the motives that are behind their claims, not the ability to proof-text successfully or to overcome opposition through compelling arguments and logic or even the performance of miracles.

This key principle of determining what or who is true is one that is very often ignored or marginalized. Yet it is the standard of truth that was spoken by the One who came to reveal the ultimate truth to the universe, the Son of God who is called The Truth as one of His appellations. Yet Jesus, the very embodiment of truth, never attempted to rely on His own authority or power to compel anyone to believe truth simply because of His claims. Jesus did not primarily rely on claims or even miracles to validate the truthfulness of His teachings but constantly pointed people to examine motives of the heart to discover the real truth.

Sin has brought about a great divorce inside the brains of humans ever since the fall. The part of us that is commonly termed our heart, the seat of our emotions, affections and creativity, what is now becoming known as largely located in the right hemisphere of the brain – this part of our makeup has been dissociated to a great extent from proper coordination with the logical part of our being which is primarily located in our left brain. This severe imbalance has served to produce much of our faulty thinking and theology. As a result there have developed all sorts of false and confusing beliefs in and out of religion. People either tend to gravitate toward an overemphasis on emotions, excitement, obsession with the miraculous and other such stimulations, or they pull away to the other extreme and try to focus as much as possible on a more sterile, intellectual, fact-based religion.

There is no end to the counterfeits used by Satan to deceive us into thinking we have or know the real truth. But all of these counterfeits have one thing in common – they are rooted in selfishness. Some of them are far more self-deceiving than others and even lead us to believe we are living an unselfish life of service for others. But hidden deep inside are motives of vested self-interest, and at times God allows circumstances to expose our true motives of selfish 'service' and gives us opportunity to turn to the real truth, both about ourselves and about Him.

How can I be certain that what I am propounding is true, or that the influence my life has on others is beneficial for attracting them toward the truth more than perpetuating or increasing the darkness of delusions? Jesus says here that the measuring stick to use for determining my truthfulness is my motives.

What are the gut-level motivations behind my desires to share what I believe with others? What is the fuel that drives me when I get excited and want to share some thrilling new 'truth' with someone? And since I am becoming more and more aware of how slippery my own heart can be in relaying to me what its true motives really are deep underneath the religiously correct answers I want to find there, how can I really know if I am in the truth and the truth abides in me?

There are a lot of clues to answer these serious questions in this passage. The more that I meditate on this chapter the more I am convicted of my own questionable motives that can bring into question whether I am really dealing with truth or just traditions or self-interest. According to the succeeding verses, I can see how easy it can be to fall back on the use of law and rules or even proof-texting to be the measurement of what is true or false. Yet it is still just as true as it was back in Jesus' day that relying on the law as a measurement of truth can be very deceptive itself. The Jews were meticulous law-observers and teachers, yet the motives which infected their hearts were not in line with this measurement of truth that Jesus speaks of in this verse.

I want this lesson to have its affect on my own life, my own relationship to truth and to serve as a constant reminder of my own need to challenge my motives in everything I do and say. I also need to have more transparency and willingness to listen quickly to the convictions of God's Spirit when I sense that my motives may be more about improving my own reputation more than living humbly for the benefit of the reputation of my God.

I find it all too easy to slip from simply sharing what I am learning from the Word and from His Spirit without any personal agenda, into allowing hidden pride to seep in and cause me to desire a little of the attention or credit to come for my benefit. It is so easy to want to desire a little of the glory, the credit, the honor, the admiration elicited by fresh revelations of 'truth' as I am sharing it with others – to want to siphon off a little bit of that for my own to help make me feel better about myself. I may try to insist that I am doing it all for God's glory and may even, like as sometimes seen on a football field or a music performance stage, point my finger to the sky as a means of convincing myself and others that I am really putting God ahead of myself. But God cannot be fooled and the standard of what is real truth still lies in the inner motives of the heart and who is really desired as the recipient for the responses of appreciation and affection that truth will produce in the hearts of its receivers.

The more I look at this the more disturbing it is becoming to me. But I am convicted that these words of Jesus must be appreciated for what they imply and must to be applied to my own experience. Because I am naturally selfish and this problem inherent in my sinful nature is not going to disappear without being daily crucified, I must allow this truth to remain fresh in my thinking as a constant warning to examine my own motives for why I share what I believe to be truth with others.

Am I secretly trying to maneuver myself into position to look better in other people's eyes by the way I teach truth, the way I defend truth, by the way I interpret Scripture or train others to pursue truth? Am I allowing what others think about me to supplement my need to feel valued by God? Do I allow affections that belong to God to be misplaced on me because I happened to be the messenger for Him?

That last question is the most disturbing and exposing one. I have come to realize that whenever I am triggered by someone that it is a sure symptom that something inside of me is still connected to a reliance on others for my sense of value and identity. It is exposed in my desires to control or manipulate what people think about me instead of resting in the secure identity and value that Jesus desires for me to experience in Him. He does not condemn me when I am exposed in this way, but it serves as a reminder that I have a long way to go in replacing the foundation of my spiritual life from what others think about me to exclusively resting in what God thinks about me. I am coming to believe that this process may be the core of the transformation that God is seeking to accomplish in each one that is serious about coming into right relationship with Him.

If I taught my own ideas (even if they are well proof-texted and supported with lots of footnotes). I would just be trying to get honor (more self-worth, affection, credit, assurance of value) for myself. But if I am trying to bring honor to the one who sent me (speaking well of God, looking out for His reputation more than for my own, seeking to be simply a reflection of His disposition and true character while I become transparent in the light of His glory), I can be trusted. Anyone doing that is not going to lie. (ERV enhanced)

Jesus, I worship You right now. I want to honor You and to improve Your reputation here on this earth along with Your Father's reputation. I confess that my motives are always mixed at best. I cannot free myself from subconscious desires and impulses to want to benefit improperly from the glory that belongs to You. Sometimes I catch myself trying to siphon off some of the affections from others for myself when I am sharing Your truth with them. But remind me that my greatest pleasure and satisfaction can only be realized when I lay down my own desire to gain value in the eyes of others and simply relax in Your love for me. Help me to live in humility and transparency so that You can reveal Yourself through me without interference from me.

Father, I rest in Your love, in your declarations of my worth to You, in Your Word and Your promises and in Your Spirit. Thank-you for Your Spirit that constantly guides me, draws me, instructs me, warns me, affirms and loves me. Thank-you for these words of Jesus intended to help me to enter more deeply into Your joy and into intimate fellowship with You. I accept them from You as truth for my own soul and embrace them. I also ask that You keep reminding me of them especially when I am in danger of wanting to stray from them. Remind me of the amazing, incredible love and value that You have for me personally. Your love is what my heart really craves while all other sources of pleasure only leave me hungry and empty again.

Keep me open and close to You today. Make me a cleaner, more efficient channel of Your truth and love to attract others to want to know You more than to know me. I commit myself into Your love and care for me today and cast all of my cares upon You, for You really do care for me.

Real Righteousness

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (John 7:18)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Wow! I never saw the tight connection before between these two verses before. This really helps clarify for me some of the confusion about the word righteousness I have had much of my life. What I am starting to see more clearly here is the issue of where one's focus is. When my focus is on looking out for myself and my reputation more than for God's, then I am in the condition called unrighteousness. When I am choosing to live in relationship with God so that He can vindicate His reputation through me and I allow Him to transform me into a reliable witness to disprove the allegations of Satan against Him, then I am considered in heaven as righteous.

For too long people have viewed this word righteousness as having to do primarily with behavior or external activities. But the way the Bible defines righteousness is along the lines of how we are positioned in reference to the great trial of God. The testimony of our life determines the kind of witness we are in relation to the false charges that have been leveled against God's reputation. Truth at its most fundamental level is the real truth about God, not the provability of some set of facts or doctrines. Jesus did not come to give us a corrected list of doctrines to believe but to expose the lies about His Father that have torn the whole universe apart and vindicate His reputation in the way that Jesus lived.

The most damaging lie about God that Jesus came to refute with His own exposé is the idea that God is in any way selfish, that He is sometimes more concerned with His own reputation and gets His way even at the expense of others if necessary. This is such a natural assumption on the part of those of us born in sin that it is hard for us to imagine that God could be totally devoid of any such characteristics.

But the real truth is that God is totally unselfish, totally loving, totally other-centered and He is this way all of the time consistently, not just when things are going good. No matter how desperate circumstances seem to appear, God never resorts to anything even remotely akin to the attitudes and motives that He has been accused of harboring by His enemies. Righteousness and God are one and the same thing just as love and God are one and the same. We are all infected with the idea at times that God is not always fair, but this secret, or not so secret, feeling on our part is simply reflective of the confusion that sin has produced in our hearts through our fallen nature.

Jesus revealed the truth about God by living as a weak human under the most trying and severe circumstances while maintaining this attitude of totally selfless love and service to others. In fact, this was the most important reason of all that Jesus came to this earth as a human. To believe or claim that Jesus died for some other reason, like in some way placating an offended God on the behalf of sinners, is to actually reinforce the very lies about God that Jesus came to refute. Religion has then actually joined forces with the enemy of God by perpetuating the very lies that Jesus came to unmask, and in doing so is serving the enemy's schemes to keep us in darkness and fear of our heavenly Father.

All of this I am seeing in this very potent statement of Jesus in this verse. The very core of what it means to be righteous is found here, and that core is that what righteousness is really about is to vindicate the goodness and fairness of God while exposing the accuser's lies about Him by doing so. The closer we come to embracing this fundamental truth about God the more we will be living in true righteousness. For righteousness is simply reflecting the real truth about God's character and allowing Him to use us as channels to reveal His character to the world. In so living we become His truthful witnesses to vindicate His reputation and bring glory to Him.

How to Know Truth

If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. (John 7:17)

People who really want to do what God wants will know that my teaching comes from God. They will know that this teaching is not my own. (ERV)

I have pondered the meaning of this verse for as long as I can remember. The issue of knowing the right version of truth, what is the real will of God, has been at the center of debate in circles I grew up in and around in my culture. People became very worked up about knowing the will of God and unfortunately often tried to impose their ideas of truth on many around them by various means.

Jesus in this passage gives a clear statement about how a person can know the truth. He is telling us the reliable method that we can use to discern between what is true and what is counterfeit. But even though Jesus laid it out this plainly, it still remains a confused issue and a topic of debate. Why is that?

What I have experienced in recent years is a growing awareness of the dramatic difference between relating to God with the mind and allowing a real heart connection to dominate my relationship with Him. Because a heart-based relationship is so out of the realm of control by the left brain logical mindset, many have great fear of giving the heart permission to let go of their resistance and allow the Spirit of God to introduce things that may at first feel very frightening. When the heart gets involved in a meaningful relationship the emotions begin to show up, but many of us have been taught to be suspicious at best of our emotions.

On the other hand, because of the abuse of others who rely more on their emotions than on the objective guide of the Word of God to govern their lives, many in the conservative camp end up throwing out or at least marginalizing the emotional part of their lives instead of allowing God to integrate them and bring them into close fellowship with His heart. Jesus addressed this issue directly with the woman at the well in Samaria.

An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. (John 4:23)

But what does Jesus mean here when He talks about a willingness to do the will of God? I have observed that everyone tends to have their own spin on this verse to justify their preferences and their comfort zone. But if I know Jesus right, He is not the kind of person that likely will encourage staying in our comfort zone. If a person is unbalanced on the intellectual side and afraid of emotion, they will likely be confronted with their need to surrender their resistance and stubbornness and allow God to access the deep, painful places they have been hiding from Him deep inside. If they are used to defining their religion primarily by excitement and feelings while ignoring disturbing truths from the Word of God, they may find themselves confronted by the Spirit to be more attentive to their conscience and allow their intellect to be more involved and resist their natural impulses.

I looked through a number of versions to see how they rendered this text. I suspected that the typical translations might not make it as plain as it would be in the original, and my suspicions were confirmed. However, I did not find any versions that really gave good expression to what I found in the definition of the words from the Greek. I believe that this verse could be translated much more clearly and strongly than most have chosen to do. The reason I say this is because this is such a vital point and one upon which much hinges in our perception of how to know what is true. If we miss the underlying principle Jesus is conveying in these words we are in danger of prolonging and complicating our religious pursuit of truth to a great degree or worse yet, missing it altogether.

In the Greek, there are much stronger nuances that I find compelling that most of the translations I have looked at on this verse do not convey. The word translated will, as in the will on our part in this verse, is the Greek word thelo. This word conveys a lot more than what we normally attach to the word will in English. In the Greek this word is intentionally stronger than the typical concept of will as we think of it. It includes the ideas of preference, to wish, to be inclined to, to be disposed toward, pleased, love, delight in.

Jesus is clearly saying here that it takes more than the typical kind of intellectual belief we often think about in order to have the necessary confidence that what Jesus says in His teachings is really what is truth. In our minds we too often improperly disconnect what we call intellectual truth from a heart engagement with a Person. We have come to think of truth more along the lines of the validity of certain facts, the ability to win arguments or the scientific proving of a theory. If we can't line up enough hard evidence for some idea, then we view it with great suspicion until it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

However, that approach to acceptance of something as truth will become the insurmountable barrier that will prevent us from ever really experiencing the kind of truth that God has for us. For the kind of truth that Jesus is talking about here has far more involved in it than simply the accuracy of facts or the authenticity of theories and claims. While the facts about God may be important for strengthening our grasp of truth, without a choice rooted in our hearts to give preference to knowing Jesus personally, we will remain with debilitating doubts that will prevent us from the kind of assurance that our souls so deeply crave.

What is needed is for us to enter into a solid relationship of dependence and assurance that Jesus is the only valid source of all truth for us personally. We must be willing to come into a delighting kind of relationship with Him. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalms 37:4) What are the real desires of my heart? What my heart is created to crave more than anything else is that experience of joy, a relationship of being loved, cherished, valued and wanted by another who is genuinely glad to be with me.

According to this verse in parallel with the words of Jesus, my part is to allow my heart to delight myself in God, to respond in my growing awareness of His love for me by letting my heart connect to Him. As I do this I will find myself able to experience the kind of confidence in truth that I yearn to have, confidence that the instructions and insights from Jesus have that ring of truth because they resonate with the spirit inside of me that is synchronized by the Spirit sent by Jesus.

This interconnection with the mind and heart of God provided through the ministry of the Spirit empowers all who enter into this kind of relationship with Him to have the discernment necessary to detect falsehood and deceptive counterfeits that so closely imitate truth that they are very compelling and attractive. Only the Spirit of God can protect us from being deceived by the counterfeits of the enemy, for human wisdom is so far inferior to the minds of supernatural beings that we cannot trust our own mental equipment to protect us from deception. Only as we enter into delightful, interactive intimacy with God can we enjoy protection from error and knowledge of truth He has waiting for us.

Father, fill me with the joy of knowing Your truth which is the same as knowing Jesus. Joy always involves fellowship at the deepest level and that is what my own heart yearns for deeply. You have shown me today that this joy relationship is part of what is necessary for me to have assurance of truth and the deep peace that comes from increasing freedom from deceptions and lies. Cleanse my mind and heart of lies about You, about myself and about reality as You deepen my conviction and understanding of the truth of Your words. Speak Your words to me directly and continue to draw out more and more of my heart's affections to attach to You. Thank-you for Your word here for me today, and make me a cleaner channel of Your truth and love to others, for Your reputation's sake, Amen.

Discovering Righteousness

If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (John 7:17-18)

There are so many things in this short passage that I hardly know where to start or end. But what I do see is yet more universal principles that govern reality and that need to be understood if one wants to live in harmony with heaven.

One of these principles has to do with the definition of righteousness. I have been slowly learning over the years what this obscured word really means. It has been obscured partly because its original was translated into Latin and kept there instead of directly into common language hundreds of years ago. Latin became a code language used to complicate many concepts that did not need to be complex. Much of the confusion today in religion results from the deliberate obscuring of simple truths by religious leaders during the Dark Ages through this means so that common people could be controlled and kept in ignorance by a select few and the Bible was kept in an unfamiliar language.

Most of the confusing words we have inherited today in religion are a result of current translations being routed through the Latin before getting to us. Righteousness, justification, sanctification, propitiation etc., all of these words are a result of religion using Latin to create all sorts of interpretations instead of allowing the gospel to be clear and simple. As a result we find ourselves today working hard to unpack these big words and attempt to re-simplify them and make them practical for everyday people.

Jesus never used complicated words but always spoke in such simple terms that everyone could easily understand. At the same time He folded into His illustrations and teachings such profound truths and insights that the most educated were astonished at His wisdom. This was because Jesus was intimately familiar with the bigger picture, the truth about reality as heaven lives it instead of the confused and distorted ideas that we have about how life works. Thus, if we want to be shaped into harmony with the principles of heaven and be prepared to live in concert with the perfect beings who live there, we must immerse ourselves in the teachings of Jesus to learn from Him how to be molded for this future.

What I see in these verses is a clear explanation of the word righteousness. As with all true religion, it has to do with our state of mind, not a factual, external concept. Jesus came to demonstrate what righteousness looks like, but it was not through His working hard to keep from doing bad things to other people. In this passage He explains that true righteousness means that a person has the orientation of living totally selflessly, living for the glory of God. That expression too has been so over-used that it has become yet another cliché. What does it really mean to live for the glory of God?

When we begin to grasp the fundamental truth about the great war taking place in the universe between Christ and Satan, the great accuser of God, then everything else suddenly makes more sense. Lucifer, now Satan, long ago began this whole war by fabricating accusations about God's character while serving as the highest, most honored being in the universe in the role as chief covering cherub over the very throne of God. In this privileged position he was entrusted with the job of conveying to all other created beings revelations about what God is like. Because of the incredible trust placed on him by both God and everyone else, he was in a unique position to also deceive the most because of his advantage.

He exploited his position to circulate false ideas about God that created such tension that the time finally came when there was no longer any acceptable place for him to live in heaven. He had over-stayed his welcome there and now is restricted to living here on this earth where he seeks to deceive and confuse as many as possible to take them down with him in his demise. The fundamental lie that he spreads about God is that God is not totally selfless and loving or worthy of total trust. Given the circumstances, God can be forced to act in ways other than loving and selfless, that in extreme circumstances God will defend Himself and will resort to force or intimidation and violate our freedom to get His way.

The primary reason that Jesus came to this sinful planet was to refute these false charges against His Father before all the universe. He was to do this by living out the fundamental principles that make up the character of God and that shape reality as God defines it. These principles of reality are the governing guidelines that create harmony and unity for all who abide by them. To live outside these principles is to create disharmony and to disconnect from the only system that provides for our very existence. The most fundamental principle in God's way of living is totally selfless love and service for others.

God is love, and love is always completely selfless. 1 Corinthians 13 describes to a great degree what love looks and acts like. This is a description of God and is unfailing. God never acts or works outside of that description of His character. Likewise, the “10 Commandments” are simply a description of His character of love (though most of them are stated in the negative). Both Moses and Jesus declared that those commandments could be summarized in two simple statements – to love God supremely and to genuinely love those around us like we love and care for ourselves.

Here in this passage, Jesus is restating this most fundamental principle that describes the truth about God and what He is like. Jesus came to demonstrate that truth by living solely for the sake of God's reputation. When one lives selflessly for the benefit of the reputation of the God they love and want to honor ahead of looking out for themselves, that is the plainest illustration of the true meaning of righteousness that can be found. Therefore, Jesus is saying here that as we are transformed into living for the benefit of salvaging God's reputation before all who are watching us rather than living for our own selfish desires, we are considered righteous, and that process is called in religious terms, 'cleansing us from all unrighteousness' or sanctification.

Again, unrighteousness is not so much doing bad things as it is being contaminated with selfishness. Because we are born in sin we are born naturally selfish. Jesus was not born in sin and did not inherit selfishness. However, He took on the nature of humanity in such a way so as to feel all of our weaknesses and be tempted in every way just as we are tempted. The problem many have with this concept is that they don't understand the truth about what real temptations look like. Most people think that our temptations are when we face opportunities to do 'bad things'. But real temptation is not at that point in our experience but was usually already succumbed to long before.

Real temptation is not about the bad things we want to do but is encountered when we desire to live for ourselves rather than laying aside our own priorities for the good of others. Self-preservation is the fundamental driving force behind all temptations and is part of being human. Jesus, while not selfish, did have the natural desire of every human for self-preservation and this was the level of all His temptations from Satan. If you carefully analyze every place where there are indications of Jesus being tempted, you will see that they always involved trying to induce Him to defend Himself or work miracles for His own benefit, not temptations to sleep with a woman or to steal something for Himself or some other violation of the external commandments.

It is extremely helpful to clarify the true nature of temptation and to understand what living in harmony with heaven involves. As we place everything into the context of the greater picture, all of the religious ideas and the principles revealed in the Bible suddenly come into clear harmony with each other and form a perfect whole. Living for the purpose of vindicating God against the false charges of His enemies and allowing God to transform us into examples of the power of His love is what being a Christian is all about. When we begin to grasp this most important truth, we can then be used by God to be far more effective witnesses for bringing this war to a close and reuniting us with the great family of heaven from which we have been mostly estranged all of our lives.

Father, I ask You to live inside of me by Your Holy Spirit and to place within my heart a burning desire to live for Your glory and Your reputation more than for my own. You are the one that has been put on trial before all of the universe. All of us are deciding if You are really worthy of being trusted, if You always tell the truth and if You are really fair all of the time. Forgive me for so often giving false testimony about You by giving others the impression that You are sometimes selfish. By calling myself a Christian and then acting selfishly I convey the message that You are like me.

Father, I want You to so transform me, to have You live through me Your selfless life of love and passionate service for the good of others, that Your name can be better vindicated. This is what it means to live for Your glory. I understand that this can only happen as I allow You to dwell in me and to capture all the affections and attentions of my own heart. Continue the healing and molding process You have begun in me and use me to bring honor to Your reputation today and for the rest of my life. Make me willing to do Your will so that I will know the truth about what is real, what many people call 'doctrine'. Capture my heart with fresh revelations of Your incredible beauty and loveliness that will turn me into a magnet that can draw others to want to know You better for themselves.

True Education

The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" (John 7:15)

When I read this verse this morning, at first it looked like the Jews were doing double-talk. How can this man be educated without being educated? So I decided to look up the original words in Greek and see what they actually say.

The word translated learned seems to mean simply understanding, familiarity with writings, even the Scriptures. In a day when not many people learned to write very much or had access to literature, for a man who came from a very poor family to be well-versed in Scripture would certainly be a surprise. Most of the average Jews likely relied heavily on the scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the law (the Old Testament) to relay to them the Word of God during Sabbath services. What Scriptures they did know was likely reflected from what they had heard from their leaders. Of course this also entailed interpreting these Scriptures the same way as those who taught it believed them, which is why misunderstandings of the truth about what the Messiah was to be like was so widespread.

The word translated here educated also means to learn. But the implication seems to be the kind of learning received from someone else. It was the kind of learning typically gained from what we would call a formal education.

Given that Jesus' mother was very young when she bore Jesus as a baby and that their family probably struggled to make a subsistence living in a very poor and rough town in Galilee, it truly is amazing that Jesus grew up with such a thorough knowledge of the Writings. I suspect that Mary may have been quite insistent that what little they were able to obtain must also include scrolls of the Old Testament even though those were usually reserved for others who were in formal training under Jewish religious instructors. Mary must herself have been unusual to know how to read and write as a woman and to be able to home-school Jesus with such amazing effectiveness. With Joseph busy as a carpenter she must have exerted a lot of effort in both training herself as well as passing along all that she could to Jesus in His early years.

Jesus and His mother had very likely immersed themselves in the Old Testament writings for many years. The result of this intense exposure to the truth about God, authored interestingly enough by Jesus Himself before His incarnation, gave the Holy Spirit full opportunity to reveal truth to Jesus in a learning process that is just as available to any of us as it was to Him. Because there is power in the Word of God unlike any other literature in the world to fill the mind and heart with truth, it has ability to be a transforming, educating, elevating effect in the life like no other training can produce.

Traditionally, both then and now, people assume that one has to go through formal training by others who have earned degrees and have received public recognition as teachers and philosophers before they can reason out things and have legitimate knowledge themselves. There is a stigma associated with those who educate themselves or even those who have been home-schooled, particularly if they did not follow some accredited curriculum. There seems to be an obsession about making people pay lots of money and being carefully brainwashed through the systems accredited by the world before a person can be referred to as educated.

As I have observed the formal educational system over the years, there are a number of things that concern me and that Jesus avoided in His own training. Not only do formal educational institutions often impoverish people financially, especially higher educational programs, but the way of thinking and the focus and style of reasoning are heavily influenced by the deceptive nature of the world's assumptions about reality. There is constant tension between the true Christian and most of the world's institutions of learning that tends to pressure people into being squeezed into the world's modes of viewing life. Even in Christian schools where this pressure is supposed to be eliminated, there are still problems due to the desire to please the world and be recognized by worldly accreditation and have graduates be generally accepted outside Christianity. While Christian schools are usually more conducive for allowing Christian practices to occur, there is still an amount of worldliness accepted and taught and a lot of subtle assumptions that draw away from truth are present.

It is generally assumed that if a school promotes religion then it is a good place to be trained, at least if that religion is the brand that one already subscribes to or associates with. But religion, as we sadly know, is usually a counterfeit of true spirituality and often is a decoy that keeps people from relying on a vital, saving relationship with God. Counterfeit notions that parallel Scriptural principles so thoroughly saturate most religious training that it is nearly impossible to separate them without an intense focus on discerning error from truth. In fact, being indoctrinated with many religious facts and obtaining a lot of knowledge in the head is usually so time-consuming and pride-inducing that the heart's need to rest quietly and learn in the presence of God has little or no time to take place.

Religious formal education too often ends up working counter to the kind of practical training in character development that God wants us to experience. I have observed that even in schools specifically designed to train ministers and teachers for God that the programs are so concentrated and the schedules are packed so full of intensive knowledge acquirement that most people suffering through these processes have little to no time to keep their hearts open and sensitive toward heaven. In addition there is little if any specific training and mentoring that will effectively encourage the kind of education most needed to be a religious leader, such as training in lessons of faith and everyday godliness. These are things that cannot be learned from books; but book training is the method of the world and is the accepted norm for most all education.

Jesus received the kind of education that heaven values the most. True education involves a balanced training involving the heart and the body just as much as the head. It also requires that one live in a community of widely varying maturity levels so that one can be mentored all along the path to full maturity by others who have things to offer. This also provides the chance to in turn mentor and respond to others in interactive ways that form bonds and connections best for thriving toward maturity. Book learning can be a part of this process, but knowledge from books can actually become unhealthy when divorced from practical and parallel applications to the life.

Mary likely was so open to the influences of heaven that she was the best candidate chosen to raise the Son of God as a baby up through manhood. She was not heavily influenced by the prevailing teachings of the doctors of the law even though she was somewhat limited in her understanding of the Scriptures as most people were then. She was open enough in her heart to respond to the impressions from the Spirit of God who could guide her to provide the balanced kind of long-term, practical training using both Scripture and everyday experiences to cooperate with God in the healthy upbringing and true education of the Child who had been entrusted to her tutoring. As a result, Jesus even at the young age of twelve displayed a grasp of truth and a knowledge of the Scriptures that stunned even the most advanced and trained teachers and leaders of His nation.

Jesus was not influenced by the pride, the arrogance, the traditions and the attitudes of those He would have been exposed to if He had attended the synagogue training programs. Mary caught much flak for not sending Him to these schools, but the outcome was just what God intended for His Son. The kind of personal tutoring and mentoring education that Mary provided for Jesus' life was the kind of true education that is so sadly missing in most models of training today. A practical education in learning lessons of faith, in analytical thinking based on close examination of the Word of God without the confusion of worldly thought from other sources, allowed Jesus to also be tutored directly by the Holy Spirit who could unpack the Word accurately for Him and embed the principles of the Kingdom firmly in His thinking and character.

Everyone of us has the same opportunity to be retrained in the school of heaven if we choose to enroll and allow the Holy Spirit to become our teacher. Jesus promised His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit to provide just such a training opportunity for any who accept His offer, and we can immediately enter into this kind of heavenly classwork. The Bible is to be our main textbook and the style of training must involve quiet times of reflection as well as times of interaction with God and with others who are in similar training. We also must allow ourselves to be taken through practical application periods where we are going to share what we are learning as well as make mistakes but not feel condemned as we learn from them. We do not receive letter grades in this school which tend to create pride or shame like the world's systems do, but we learn to form lasting bonds of love and joy as we experience life in the context of the family we plan to live with for eternity.

Is it wrong to go through formal education accredited by the world? Not necessarily. But we must be very aware that our first loyalty must be to our heavenly teacher rather than seeking to achieve the letters of recognition by the world. Learning in the world's system often involves paying out money to hire teachers to compel us to learn things we could do ourselves if we simply accepted responsibility to do so on our own. Our lack of motivation requires that we pay others to intimidate us into doing what we could do on our own, but if that is the case then it is better than not learning at all possibly.

But while gaining the typical education from the world's systems, even from religious institutions, we must realize that we are going to pick up a lot of confusing mental and emotional baggage and even erroneous ideas that God is going to have to expose and cleanse from our thinking if we are to work for Him using His ways and view things from His perspective. Jesus bypassed this step and never acquired the baggage from the normal educational channels and thus was able to move directly into becoming the most effective and wise teacher this world has ever known.

Those who learn in the school of Jesus will likewise sometimes produce astonishment from those who have leaned so heavily on recognition from the world's system of education. True education is learning the truth as heaven knows it, not acquiring degrees or accreditation from the brainwashing of being conformed to this world's system of thinking. Preparing for heaven requires a whole different standard of learning and only those who humble themselves and let go of their heavy dependence on the world's ways of thinking can enter into the school of Christ. But those who do will receive a quality of education that far surpasses that of any institution created by man. For even the foolishness of God is far greater and more valuable than the highest wisdom of men.

Authentic Testifying

The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. (John 7:7)

I have mixed feelings when I read this verse, maybe more than the average person might have. It is because I have seen verses like this misused to justify fanatics who irritate people by their rabid attacks on others and then use the opposition they create to claim they are suffering persecution for the sake of the truth. In reality they are creating unnecessary animosity against themselves and toward God by misrepresenting Him and indulging in a spirit of pride and spiritual arrogance. This kind of 'testimony' is not a presentation of the truth about God causing resistance for them, but is a counterfeit spirit that creates annoyance from the abrasiveness of their methods that they claim to be God's methods.

But putting that aside, I want to discover what this verse really has to say within the context of the circumstances of this story. Jesus was replying to His brothers who harbored resentment in their hearts against the purity of His life. They had spent years observing but resisting the growing exhibition of godliness in Jesus' life and they had come to resent Him so deeply that they were ready to already betray Him into the hands of those who wanted to kill Him. The beginning of this chapter states that Jesus did not work in Judea because the leaders there wanted to kill Him, yet His brothers were urging Him to go back there and work openly supposedly for the sake of publicity.

Jesus' brothers were not ignorant of the dangers facing Jesus in Judea. But they shared the commonly accepted false notions of what a Messiah, a deliverer was supposed to look like and how He was supposed to appear. Because the actions and attitudes of Jesus were in sharp contrast to that of the popular beliefs about God, Jesus' brothers shared the spirit of animosity that enraged the hearts of His enemies in Judea. And because they were in more sympathy with the Jews who hated Jesus than they were with their own brother, Jesus stated that they were in no danger of being persecuted like He was.

What I would like to look closer at is what Jesus meant when He talked about testifying of the evil deeds of the world. Because the examples I have most often seen of 'testifying' against the world have been poor imitations of Jesus, I need to perceive more clearly what the real way of testifying should look like. How did Jesus testify against the evil of the world without misrepresenting the love and compassion of His Father? How did Jesus' life and testimony expose the evil of the world without condemning sinners like the Jews loved to do?

One thing is clear in this passage; Jesus was avoiding the path of seeking publicity which seemed to be one of the sources of irritation by His brothers. He explicitly told them that it was not time for His publicity, while they were urging Him to seek more of it to be successful. This should be an important point to ponder, even in connection with learning the real truth about godly testifying. Seeking to gain publicity by seeking confrontations with those who disagree with us is clearly out of harmony with the example of Jesus in this passage. If He had believed in those methods of 'testifying' He would have taken His brother's advice and gone out looking for a public fight with His opponents.

A more fundamental issue that creates confusion when seeking to know the truth about testifying for God, or witnessing as it is popularly called in church, is the definition of the terms Jesus uses here. Just what do we mean when we talk about evil? And is it really the same thing that Jesus is thinking when He talks about testifying of evil? If our ideas and beliefs about evil are not in harmony with God's definition of evil then we may find ourselves actually promoting evil rather than opposing it. That would be a very tragic thing to do, but it may be far more common than we might imagine at first.

As with all issues, I believe it is vitally important to pay careful attention to the spirit that is in charge of our heart to discover what our real message is that other people are receiving. This is far more important than the words we may be using. We might think we are condemning evil and working for God and are faithful witnesses for Him while in fact we may be unconscious pawns of the enemy who is using us to further his own schemes and drive people away from God instead of attracting them toward Him. If we attempt to advance the work of God while employing any of the techniques of the enemy, we are deceiving ourselves and are promoting a false picture of God.

What are some clues within this passage that might help me to unpack what true or false witnessing might involve?

Jesus was avoiding unnecessary conflict by not working openly where He was strongly opposed. He was not out looking for a fight, putting up antagonizing billboards, screaming epitaphs against abortion doctors or threatening torture and eternal damnation on those who disagreed with Him if they didn't obey Him. Instead He chose to simply follow the leading of the Spirit of His Father each day and wait for God's timing to determine the time and place for the public exhibition of His death that would turn the tide of all history in the most public manner possible.

Jesus was not seeking to promote Himself by grasping for publicity. That is the method of the world, to enlist popularity, to seek votes, to maneuver one's self into positions of influence and power by getting ahead of others. Jesus' whole life was spent in doing just the opposite of what the world believes is needed to be successful. He humbled Himself continually and progressively until the very point of torture and death while never ceasing to forgive those who attacked and shamed Him. He challenged the assumptions of the religious establishment and presented a picture of a heavenly Father so different than most have ever thought about that it aroused the fiercest antagonism and even accusations of blasphemy against Him. Yet He continued to demonstrate the ways of love both to the ostracized of society as well as to those who opposed Him most viciously.

By refusing to go with His brothers up to the feast openly, Jesus refuted their assertions that He was trying to gain publicity for Himself. They implied that He needed to seize the moment, to make Himself known at at every opportunity. But He declared that creating opportune times was easy for them because they were in harmony with the spirit of His enemies while He was choosing to wait for His Father to determine the timing of events in His life.

His brothers insinuated that Jesus' disciples needed to see His works in Judea for His ministry to really take off. There are other implications in their assertions also, but Jesus did not get into an argument about the most effective way to advance His ministry. He simply treated them with respect but refused to be swayed by their attempts to intimidate or shame Him into doing things their way. And while He knew He was planning on going to the feast, He would not allow His brothers to determine the specific timing or route He would chose to follow.

Jesus came to testify of the real truth about His Father, yet to this day it is still quite obscure to most of us. In His life, the way He related to sinners and those who hated Him as well as in His teachings, He presented the clearest picture of God's character and motives that has ever been seen in all of history. And it is this same type of testimony that is needed from those who come to know Him now and are willing to develop a similar relationship to Him that He maintained with His Father while living here on earth.

Publicity

Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." (John 7:3-4)

What are some more implications found in these words of Jesus' brothers?

Go to Judea so that Your disciples may see Your works. That implies several things.

• Your disciples can't see Your works in Galilee, only in Judea.
• You don't really have disciples in Galilee; they must all be in Judea.
• The things You do here don't count. Only if You perform Your works in Judea are the things You do effective proof of Your claims.
• The real reason You perform signs is just to gain publicity.
• You are confused and are trying to live in secret when You should be more open. Because it only makes sense that You must have publicity to be successful, You should take our advice on how to get real publicity.
• Since we insist that You should be known publicly, why are You not showing Your self to the world in the places where the world pays attention to people?
• You need publicity, and the only place to get valid publicity is in Judea where all the important people live. Remaining in Galilee where the people are mostly poor or politically powerless is a cop-out and an act of cowardice.
• You teach others to not be afraid and to trust God but You Yourself are afraid and You are hiding from the very leaders who only can give You the publicity You need. Why do You insist on remaining at odds with them and defy their authority? Shame on You.

The main issue within their comments was more about publicity, not validity. They based their opinions about their brother on their own assumptions that were both tainted with years of resentment and were strongly influenced by their own desires for legitimacy, acceptance and popularity with those in power. Jesus was hurting their reputation and they were very irritated about that.

There are very many subtle lies embedded into these comments that are so common with most of us that they are often quite hard for us to detect. The many assumptions built into their comments are so common that they are accepted wisdom – the wisdom of the world. Some of these lies are obvious in contrast with Jesus' life and teachings and are easier to spot, but many of them are so 'normal' that we struggle to believe they are really false. We need the Holy Spirit to give us discernment and humility and a willingness to challenge these same assumptions that influence our own relationships with those around us.

What role does publicity play in the life of a true disciple, a follower of Jesus? What does Jesus' example teach us about this factor in society? Is publicity bad, good or something neutral that must be very carefully dealt with to avoid becoming distracted from the true purpose of life?

Clearly, Jesus at times performed certain miracles apparently to draw attention to Himself – publicity – in order to challenge deeply entrenched paradigms of society and religion that had to be exposed. But just as clearly at other times He also turned circumstances away from drawing attention to Himself and even commanded His disciples to disperse when they got caught up in emotions of intending to exalt Jesus in the world's way. Jesus repeatedly refused to participate in the 'normal' means of getting publicity while other times He seemed to intentionally attract it. What can we learn from His example?

And what about some of the other assumptions woven into these comments of Jesus' brothers? The insinuations they were making were certainly not very complimentary, but then feelings of bitterness usually produce sarcastic statements. I know, I have had that weakness much of my life. But these symptoms are revealed to me to allow me to acknowledge these underlying problems deep in my heart and let God into those areas of pain and false beliefs to repair the damage while He works to restore His image in my soul. God uses the stories of others to bring light to the issues within our own hearts so we can have opportunity to come to Him for healing and be restored to wholeness in Him.

In Jesus' answer to these assertions by His brothers there is even more hints about the issues of publicity that we need to learn. Most of His life Jesus avoided publicity and even during His years of ministry He carefully managed how much publicity was allowed to develop around Him. In telling His brothers that His time was not yet come, He was directly addressing this issue of publicity. It was not yet time for His publicity to fully blossom, for He already knew that when He opened up all the stops and allowed His publicity to go unchecked, it would very quickly bring about His death. But the timing of His very public exhibition through His death had to be in God's time, not something Jesus was to chose for Himself.

The context for all of this is vitally important to understand. Jesus' purpose in coming to this earth was for one thing primarily – to reveal to all intelligent beings in all the universe the real truth about God and especially what God meant when He informed His created beings that the natural consequences of sin was death. (Romans 6:23) Because God had never yet allowed anyone to die that kind of death, the question about God's honesty in this had remained open for millennia and doubts about God's truthfulness and trustworthiness had swirled around His created beings with many tragic results. Satan up to the time of Jesus had believed that since he had avoided death this long that he could live for eternity. He actually believed that he had found a loophole by which he could defeat the claim of God that sin results in death; for as long as there was doubt in anyone's mind about the real cause of this sin-death, then if God allowed anyone to suffer it that death it would only serve to plant seeds of rebellion in the hearts and minds of those who would assume that this death was caused by God.

Satan assumed that it would be an easy thing to keep doubts about God's character and truthfulness alive in at least some minds and this had thus far served as his insurance against suffering this death. But God had set up a secret plan that would actually cause the devil to destroy his own protection he had invented and had depended on to avoid death while he used fear of death to keep so many others under his control.

The Godhead had decided long before to allow Jesus – God Himself – to demonstrate what the second death, the consequence of separating from God, i.e. sin, really looks like. God chose to demonstrate to the entire universe through His own human body the truth about this 'second death' rather than allow anyone else to demonstrate it, so that He could finally remove all doubts in the minds of His created beings about the true cause of this death. And by removing these doubts it would also allow those who had chosen the path of rebellion to remove themselves from existence through the second death while allowing those who had chosen to be loyal to God to be free of all suspicion that this death had been imposed by God on rebellious sinners.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV)

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." (Revelation 1:17-18)

The timing of Jesus' life and death was very important to the working out of this secret plan to extricate the universe from the fear of death and the subtle lies about God that had been so effective in protecting Satan from the natural consequence of sin. It was from this much larger context that Jesus informed his brothers that His time was not yet ripe. It was vitally necessary that He have the full time He needed on this earth to demonstrate as far as possible the truth about how God feels towards sinners and what His character of righteousness really looks like before He would then demonstrate what real death looks like. That is why Jesus refused to allow His publicity to advance too quickly before His Father indicated that it was time to die. To suffer a premature death before this demonstration was complete would be to short-circuit the very plan put in place to end the whole problem of sin once and for all in the day of final judgment and revelation.

The Problem With Common Sense

Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." (John 7:3-4)

Sometimes it is too easy to miss a very important point in Scriptures because we already think we know the outcome of the story and the lessons we expect to be learn from it. Knowing the factual end of a story often short-circuits not only our ability to really enjoy much of the suspense and the sequential progression of the emotions and unfolding drama, but it prevents us many times from really getting into the minds and feelings and attitudes of the players in the storyline.

The Bible sometimes lets us in on what is really going on behind the scenes, and that is extremely important for us to know. However, in the process it is easy to think we know the the main point while possibly missing things far deeper or more significant because we don't spend enough time immersing ourselves in the interactions, the tensions, the culture and the implications of what is really taking place. I believe that it can be extremely helpful to sometimes discipline ourselves and try to place ourselves inside the heads and feelings of various people in a story while ignoring what is coming next in the story so we can better perceive how those people would have felt and thought, them not knowing either the outcome or what was really going on from heaven's perspective.

I also believe that the Bible gives us very important clues to be able to do just that if we are willing to take the time to key in on them and allow them to guide us through a story. It is also vital that we ask for the Spirit of Truth to take our minds deeper into the story to reveal otherwise hidden concepts or vital lessons that may be personalized for our lives and our current situations. This is why a study of the Bible can always be totally fresh and new, for each time we come to it, even though we may be reading something we've read hundreds of times before, we have never been in the same set of circumstances or the same internal arrangement of emotions before. Consequently the perceptions and applications of a given passage can suddenly take on dramatic new meaning while the Spirit may use some surprising passages to bring crucial insights to us just when we need them.

I have been reading and rereading the first half of this chapter for several days to allow it to become more familiar to me while listening for whatever God might want to show me here. As I have done so I am beginning to see more and more connections and implications and can sense more clearly some of the dynamics that may have been in place between Jesus and His biological family. Other than His parents who had experienced direct revelations and had personal dialog with angels before His birth, Jesus' family generally did not view Him with much awareness of His divinity according to what I have seen. But that would be very understandable given the extreme reality of Him being the Son of God rather than a true son of Joseph. This sort of claim forces everyone to make hard decisions about what they are going to do in relation to this man who claims to be far different than any other human who ever existed. And Jesus' brother's and sisters were no exception. In fact, they had to grapple with these issues from a very early age more than most people have to do.

This is where it can be extremely helpful to try to get into the minds of His family members and allow ourselves to ponder the implications of what it might have been like to live in the same house and grow up with Jesus in a very rough part of the country. It might be easy to say that we would love to have grow up knowing Jesus and observing His perfection beginning to become more and more obvious over time. But if we really begin to understand the true nature of how repulsive purity and love can be to a sinful human who feels exposed and condemned by such things, we will begin to sense that life in the Joseph home might have been anything but loving and peaceful, especially with older siblings that may have likely been present from a previous marriage of Joseph as many believe may be the case. This would also have created further tensions of having step brothers or sisters as well as younger siblings that may have been born of Mary after Jesus was birthed.

Either way, the presence of a child who not only consistently refuses to sympathize with any devious activities or suggestions by other children, but who acts so humble and gentle and compassionate toward everyone that it is nauseating to the average kid in the neighborhood, only tends to invite hostility and harassment on a regular basis. And being related to the odd kid who is always the spoiler for any mischief that others want to indulge in would make them embarrassed simply by that association. So it was likely that Jesus' siblings early on tended to try to distance themselves from being identified too closely with Him in order to establish their own identity as more in tune with the average people rather than the strange kid who never seemed to fit in very well but happened to be their brother.

This situation that went on for many years would eventually have deepened their embarrassment and even hostility and anger toward Him over the years. The more different Jesus became as He grew older, the more irritating it became to His siblings and sometimes even to His mother who was sometimes influenced by their complaints about Him. This tension that had likely been there from a very early age would be a ripe breeding ground for sarcastic and deprecating remarks on a regular basis. Jesus' brothers just couldn't make much sense out of the way Jesus related to people and couldn't grasp what motivated Him inside. From their perspective, many things that He said and did simply did not agree with common sense.

And that is precisely where we too get into trouble in trying to analyze the life and teachings of Jesus. Much more like His brothers than we might realize, we try to squeeze what we see in Jesus' life into the mold of our own common sense and are forced in the process to often tweak the meaning of many words and ignore the implications of much of what He said and did. But as we do this we are unconsciously blinding ourselves with deception because we are not allowing the Spirit of God to orient our minds and hearts to perceive reality from heaven's perspective. But it is only from heaven's perspective that much of what Jesus said and did make real sense or become congruent with each other.

But heaven's sense and our common sense are most often going to very different and even in conflict with each other. Given that we are much more comfortable with the common sense that we have grown up being taught to depend on more than trusting in the 'nebulous' leading of an invisible 'Spirit' immersing us in the Word of God, we usually try to judge and interpret everything based on how much sense it makes to us from our frame of reference and those around us rather than allowing God to challenge our deepest assumptions about reality that are by default fundamentally flawed.

In this case, the brothers of Jesus were simply expressing what most of us would assume to make sense and what most of His disciples may have assumed at that time as well. If a person claims to be a great deliverer, a rescuer, the champion needed to deliver people from extreme hardship and distress, then he needs to make himself obvious and display his power and exercise His charisma so that people will be rally around him and assist him in achieving success for their lives. To claim to be the Messiah and yet repeatedly rebuff people's attempts to help Him achieve that 'goal' seemed the height of inconsistency to them. They may have felt that Jesus was missing key information in how to be a real Messiah because of the ignorance He had suffered due to missing out on all the accredited education offered by the established school system of His country. His mother had refused to allow Him access to the teachers who were recognized as the authorities in religion and approved education and had instead chosen to completely home-school Him using almost exclusively the Scriptures as His textbook. As a result of this, many felt that Jesus had possibly become rather unbalanced in His thinking and this was part of the reason that He always acted so weird and different than other 'normal' children growing up.

These comments by His brothers have a lot of implications built into them. I can see years of resentment loaded into these words along with very strong sarcasm and even betrayal to some extent. Just verses before this it states clearly that Jesus was refusing to hang out in Judea because it was too dangerous for Him there at that time. Yet we see His brothers almost taunting Him to go back to the very place where they knew He life was in danger. In saying this they were pitting His actions against their assumptions about His desire to become famous and popular which is what everyone thought the Messiah certainly should do. In effect, they were daring Him to 'show His colors' and face up to the inherent risks of acting on His claims to be who He claimed Himself to be.

John says in the next verse that His brothers simply did not believe in Him at this point. He does not elaborate much on this point, but if we allow ourselves to meditate on this passage we will find our own levels of unbelief potentially exposed as well. The more we come to understand the real claims of Jesus the more we are pushed to either embrace or to reject His radical claims with all the implications of that choice determining the direction of our life. The claims of Jesus are so polarizing that I am convinced most of us don't really feel the real impact of them at the heart level yet. We are so inoculated by religious familiarity that we are not yet convicted of the abrasiveness of what Jesus was all about in relation to our 'common sense' beliefs about life.

Who Chooses Who?

"We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you,...?" (John 6:69-70)

There is something in these verses that highlights a very subtle problem that afflicts most Christians. We find it very easy to have a mindset that we have to work hard at being a Christian, that we must please God, that we must do what is right, that we must be diligent to eliminate all sin out of our lives by refining and perfecting our behavior. We are prone to look to rules, to commands, to traditions, to church expectations to keep us in line so that we can present the appearance of being a good person. And just ask about anyone you meet as to the requirements for getting into heaven and most people, if they are really honest, will include the idea of being good enough.

When we invite people to accept Jesus as their Savior, and many Christians phrase this by saying one should “get saved”, the idea is that we have to enter into belief in such a way as to impress God with the authenticity of our belief so that He will then forgive us and do something to our records in heaven so that we can then live in heaven after we die. Nearly all of our theology revolves around what we think it takes to get saved, which in most people's thinking means being guaranteed a place in paradise.

But notice something about nearly everything we talk about in religion. Isn't our focus almost exclusively centered around having ourselves saved from some dire alternative? Many Christians think that the alternative to escape is suffering the terrible torture of an angry God who is hell-bent on making rejectors of His grace regret for all eternity that they didn't agree with Him or keep His rules well enough. But whatever your beliefs about hell may be, it is still the case that nearly all religion focuses on what we have to do to get right with God and there is almost no consideration given at all to the controversy going on involving God's reputation in this universe.

Jesus here had just stated more than once that some of His disciples did not believe even though they had plenty of evidence to do so. This whole discussion revolved directly around the issue of belief and Peter had not missed that point. When Jesus mentioned that some of them did not believe in spite of everything He was doing to encourage belief, Peter and probably some of the others began to feel that Jesus maybe was beginning to doubt their loyalty to Him. Their positions in the coming kingdom they were sure He was going to set up were possibly in jeopardy and they felt compelled to assure Jesus that they intended to stick with Him even though others were too offended to stay around. “Though all forsake thee, still I will follow” was their theme song for the moment.

But this mindset has a very subtle danger to it that Jesus did not want them to entertain; for to believe that salvation is primarily dependent on our initiative and our belief rather than seeing the initiative of God is to embrace one of Satan's counterfeit concepts of religion. If we think that our salvation is dependent on us believing hard enough rather than recognizing the great passion of God in pursuing us at all cost to Himself, then we leave place in our relationship with God for pride to come in that will inevitably contaminate that relationship.

Jesus immediately addressed this misconception in Peter's statement by correcting him and asserting the truth of their relationship. It is a truth that is very easy to overlook, but to do so will produce very debilitating consequences. Later on Jesus reasserted this truth even more clearly as He talked with His disciples just before His death.

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (John 15:16)

Why is it so important that we come to really embrace this truth about God choosing us and see the fallacy of thinking that our faith is what saves us?

It would take too much time to explain this in full, but nevertheless it is vitally important that we become aware of the dangers of thinking that we are somehow co-authors of our remedy and rescue from sin. We in no way can contribute to our salvation; all we can do is to respond and accept and embrace the truth about God that Jesus came to reveal, for that is the real 'good news' that constitutes the gospel. As soon as we begin to entertain any notions that we somehow are contributing to God's arrangement to save us we seriously obscure the real issues being contended in the great cosmic war we find ourselves in.

Contrary to popular opinion and religious assumptions, we are not the primary focus of the war between good and evil. Getting us into heaven is not the critical issue in this war though God makes our restoration very high on His agenda. There are far greater issues involved in this war that we fail to take into account much of the time and that too many Christians are completely ignorant of unfortunately. And until we begin to open our minds to the larger picture and begin to see God's true purposes in the plan of salvation that go far beyond our being saved in heaven, we are going to be very vulnerable to the ideas planted by the enemy that our works or even our self-generated faith somehow earns us credit with God to help us gain access into heaven.

Jesus made it explicitly clear that it was His choice to draw these men to Himself and offer to train and mentor them. It is true that they had to respond to His invitation and keep following Him, but in no way were they to begin slipping into the idea that this saving relationship was something they could contribute to in any substantive way. All they could do was to respond to the initiative of God and allow Him to transform their distorted ideas about God to the point where they could come to trust Him with their hearts.

I grew up with a great deal of confusion about this issue. I still find myself, like so many others, feeling like there is something I must do to be saved. Others asked Jesus that same question because this is such a universal misunderstanding. We have been led to believe that there is something we have to do to help earn our salvation. This issue is sometimes quite blatant but many times it is so subtle we don't even realize we are thinking it. But the righteousness that Jesus offers us has not one thread of our own devising in it. And while it is vital that we must have on that robe before we can be allowed into the presence of God safely, we can do nothing to help construct it, not even in the act of believing itself.

It has taken me many years to begin to really grasp this vital truth and even yet I come under frequent conviction of various ways I might be subconsciously trying to earn credit points with God. But God does not offer us salvation based on anything at all we do, not even the level of faith we may be able to muster up. And part of the reason for this can only be seen when we begin to understand the bigger issues involved in the war between Christ and Satan. The bottom line in this controversy is not how good or bad or worthy or worthless we are but how trustworthy and good God is. And while we easily say that, of course God is righteous and good and worthy of trust, when it comes to our everyday existence and the pressures of life cause us to question how much He is ready to take care of us, the real beliefs of the heart begin to emerge and we are then faced with whether we are going to follow Him still or whether we are just going to keep up religious appearances while failing to believe the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus Christ and in the Word of God.

I want my own heart to grasp much more deeply the truth about Jesus choosing me rather than basing my experience on any supposed value of my choice to follow Him. I sense that if God allowed me to remain under the allusion that it is my determination to follow Him that counts the most, then when the pressure becomes strong enough for me to lose that determination and I see that it will not prove sufficient, I would crash and burn and become totally despondent. But when I realize that it is God's choice to draw me into close relationship with Him alone that is the strength of our relationship and all I have to do is simply keep responding to that drawing, then even if I crash and burn spiritually, God's choice to draw me still remains and I simply have to trust His heart to not condemn me but to use those experiences to grow me up and come even closer to Him.