Lusts of Their Hearts

Well, I never would have dreamed I would get excited about all the discoveries waiting to be found in Romans 1 and 2, but the more time I take to linger and look for more possibilities the more fascinating insights keep rising to the surface. What makes it so interesting is that there are so many positive truths about God camouflaged under the cover of the apparently negative “tirades” of Paul, as some people view these passages.

Today I again decided to stay in the same area and resist the urge to move on. I have become confident that the Holy Spirit likes to open more things to the minds of those willing to be taught and patient enough to spend time in active interaction with Him. I have been enjoying this “style” of study for several years now ever since I learned about inductive Bible study and began utilizing it for my own growth.

This time my eyes were attracted to the phrases “lusts of their hearts” and “bodies would be dishonored”. I try to always be alert and listening for connections and patterns that belie profound truths woven throughout a passage. If you tug on them carefully and follow them with patience you can trace another thread of beauty from one place to another as it emerges in different settings but contains the same essence of truth. One way of doing this is noticing the same or similar words used several times throughout a passage or even with links to other passages if that linkage is not stretched too thin.

It has also greatly helped to apply updated definitions to words that are too often taken for granted perpetuating centuries-old false views of God. When more accurate meanings are used to understand the passage it quite often dramatically changes the whole picture being painted by the author and thrilling new truths suddenly come to life that have been laying dormant under the veil of false assumptions. That is what I am starting to see in these chapters more and more as I spend more time allowing God to reveal Himself in this unexpected location.

As I read, I also have learned to ask more questions of the Spirit while I am reading. If I don't understand something or if it seems to conflict with other things I have been learning I do not shy away from it anymore or try to rationalize it away as so many religious people are prone to do to avoid apparent discrepancies. I am willing to ask the hard questions, not in a spirit of antagonism but in a spirit of dialog and ignorance. After all, God obviously knows more than I do here, so who better to ask what it means than the original Author Himself.

That is not to imply that everything I discover is assumed to be the final immutable word of God on the subject or passage. On the other hand, to be constantly discounting the validity or accurateness of the personal revelations uncovered during my own times with God may not be so much of a sign of humility but of fear of what others may think about me. If I am constantly discounting the credibility of what I believe God is teaching me personally, it soon becomes evident that I am more concerned about people's opinions about me than I am about God's. That reminds me of the verse about bragging that tends to not fit our typical religious mold.

Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NAS95)

Even though it still seems uncomfortable to declare that there is a proper place for boasting given the abuse of boasting by far too many religious zealots and self-focused leaders, God Himself declares that there really is a reason and context for human boasting after carefully warning us of all the wrong alternatives. He reminds me of this occasionally when I tend to start discounting too much the intimate relationship that is growing between us. He is asking me in this text to be honest about our friendship and confess our loyalty to each other more openly. It is not an arrogant kind of boasting but more like a blushing admission to a secret love that is starting to become so strong between two people that it has become impossible to hide from the public anymore.

Again I got side-tracked from what I started out to write. Back to what I am starting to see in Romans 1. When I read the phrase “lusts of their hearts” in verse 24 the first thing I noticed was the word heart. That word used in the Bible has now become like a flashing strobe light to me to look closer to see what God is trying to tell me in this place. Since I have been pursuing a more intentional life of living from my heart recently I am finding that many things in the Bible on this issue are now far more interesting and insightful than I ever realized before. So in describing these people with all the problems listed in this passage, I see that there is something about their hearts that is likely causing them to display all these results of dysfunction and shame.

Another word that was helpfully redefined by Oswald Chambers for me is the word “lust”. Instead of associating it primarily with improper sexual cravings, he defined lust as simply “wanting it right now”, whatever “it” may be of any sort. Generally speaking from this perspective lust is the opposite of patience. That, of course, very often does apply to sexual matters, but it also shows up in many other areas of life not generally associated with the idea of lust.

So to put those two words together in this phrase, these people described are wanting what they want and crave in their hearts immediately in whatever way they can get it for themselves without waiting. Then to look around in the surrounding verses I look for cause and effect relationships to see what might be going on in their hearts and why they are so full of lust.

One of the effects listed in the same verse is a dishonoring of their bodies. This drew my attention back to verse 21 where I saw the word honor and likely has something to do with what is going on in their hearts. This is near the beginning of the description of the downward spiral of sin described in this chapter so it is significant to see how they are connected.

Another key ingredient in this area is the contrast of creature and Creator as well as the element of worship. As I broaden my view of the surrounding verses through this lens I see again the apparent core problem of sin that affects every one of us and easily discovers us in the complicity described in chapter 2 if we are not careful. Those who choose to worship – to look for life from – anything less than their Creator will have the resulting effect of suffering from lust in their heart.

This lust is really a description of the intense dissatisfaction experienced by anyone who is starving to death from lack of life-giving necessities. This lust is not a choice so much as a hunger for life itself. Our hearts crave life, intensely desire intimacy, cannot thrive without love-bonding to other hearts and ultimately cannot live for long without some connection to the heart of God, either directly or indirectly.

Somehow honor is an ingredient of this mix as well. There is something here, some equation in reality that attests to the unequivocal certainty that when we fail to honor our Creator and God – whatever that really means – we will end up dishonoring ourselves, partly because we were created in His image. So it looks like to me that when one dishonors the original then the reflection is dishonored as a result. That makes perfect sense if we are simply mirrors designed to reflect the true glory of God.

There is much, much more here that quickly expands the discussion but I must stop again for lack of time. Your comments and insights are always welcome and appreciated. Some of the most exciting times of the heart comes from group “Bible study” when done in the true spirit of openness and hunger for real truth instead of simply an impartation of pre-determined doctrines and unquestioned beliefs.

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God's Character by Contrast

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; (Romans 1:28-31)

This is a list of opposites of God's characteristics. By analyzing the real meaning of each of these descriptions and then looking for the opposite, a picture of God emerges that is quite accurate. As well as describing the life of Jesus and His true followers, it also helps unmask the growing obscurity of some words.

Unrighteousness	Righteous
Wickedness	Holiness
Greed	Generosity
Evil	Good
Envy	Thrilled to see others succeed
Murder	Life-giving
Strife	Peace and harmony
Deceit	Truthful
Malice	Only good motives
Gossips	Love covers a multitude of sins
Slanderers	Blessing – speaking well of
Haters of God	Lover of sinners
Insolent	Polite, respectful
Arrogant	Humble
Boastful	Entrusts His witnesses (us) to vindicate Him
Inventors of evil	Good plans
Disobedient to parents	Submissive to parents
Without understanding	Full of understanding
Untrustworthy	Completely trustworthy
Unloving	Abounding in love
Unmerciful	Merciful

If you have some suggestions for better definitions of opposites in this list I would like to hear them.

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Exchange and Choices

My perceptions are changing – in more ways than one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Righteousness Defined

If righteousness is defined in the Bible as believing that God will do what He says He will do, then does that in turn apply to God's righteousness and if so, how? Is it possible that God's righteousness is defined the same way as the Bible defines our (true) righteousness?

If that is true, then it must look something like God trusting us to do what we say we can do. (I am exploring this while I am writing so I am not currently expressing something that I have uncovered or yet understand.) That seems to be what happened in what is called the Old Covenant. The people at Mt. Sinai claimed that they would do everything that God had said they must do. It's pretty obvious that was a complete failure and disaster. But still, God acted in a way all through the centuries that could easily be seen as trusting them to do what they claimed they could do even though He knew from before the start that it was impossible for them to do it.

This thread does seem to remain consistent right on into the New Covenant but with very important alterations. It seems to me that in a New Covenant relationship with God, to be “successful” we must become completely honest and admit that we cannot live a godly life ourself. In this situation from God's perspective it would be consistent with this definition of righteousness that God could still trust us to be what we say – that is, we will be consistent with our own claims. God is trusting us to do (and not do) what we say. So when we admit and agree with God (confess) that we are completely and utterly helpless to change ourselves and live a life that measures with the life of God, then God trusts us that we are in fact what we say we are and that our lives are consistent with what we are saying.

From that point we can move to the next which is called repentance which is a gift from God. Remember, the only thing we truly can do is choose who we are to be slaves to. We will never, ever be able to live godly lives independently like Satan has led us to believe. So our only hope of escape from this body of death is to throw ourselves on the mercy of the only Source of life and exercise our will to become His love-slaves. So when we choose to receive repentance, which means a change of thinking, of direction, of heart-motives, and live in that repentance by continual surrender of our rights to ourself, then the incredible arrangement of indwelling divinity accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus for this very purpose is installed in our soul and a new life is experienced within.

From this position we move on to an experience that theologians call “sanctification” which has its own hazards of misunderstanding. Very many people who seem to “get it right” up to this point fall into Old Covenant thinking at this stage and end up right back in the mire of struggle, defeat and “works religion” that plagues anyone attempting this route. It also puts God in the position, according to application of the above definition of righteousness, of trusting us to do the impossible which is just as impossible now as it was in Old Testament days. In essence, we are putting God in a terrible situation when we believe that we can be “good” through any efforts of our own, even when those efforts are supposedly combined with “help” from God.

In the experience of sanctification we must continue to remain in the same relationship with God as we did when we first came to Him for justification and trusted Him fully to apply the merits of Jesus to our lives in place of our sin and guilt. Sanctification is not discovering new formulas that will now enable us to live perfect lives with help from God. Sanctification is living in total consciousness of our continuing utter inability to live “right” at all from any of our own strength and instead resting fully in the resurrection power of an indwelling Divinity gifted to us in Jesus Christ. It is learning to live from the heart Jesus gives us.

When we live in that kind of relationship with God, then His trust in us to do what we say we can do – which is nothing but choose to allow Him to do what He says He can do in us – is a revelation of His righteousness. This is the gospel, the good news that Paul preached and was so pumped up about. This also allows the same definition of righteousness that is used by the Bible to equally apply both us and to God.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (Romans 1:16-17)

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How Am I Saved?

I received indirectly a response to my last post discussing Romans 1:17,18 that has got me thinking about more in there. This person emphasized that the important phrase in this text was about the righteous living by faith. He went on to assert that “the righteousness of God, which is trusting God, is revealed when we in fact trust God. This trust in God is what qualifies us for salvation, nothing more or less.”

I was raised in a religious environment that emphasized this belief so it is not new to me. However, based on what I have been learning over the past few years about the gospel and salvation, this assertion is starting to raise red flags in my mind. I in no way want to enter into a theological debate over the topic, but I do want to know what God's plan really is differentiated from any counterfeit that sounds very plausible, very religious or has been accepted by great numbers of people. I try to maintain an open mind and heart so that the Spirit of God can challenge and correct the many lies about God and His ways that permeate so much of religious beliefs, both in those around me and in myself.

In my search for truth, I am realizing that it has to stand the test of fitting into the heart in addition to passing intellectual tests using the Word of God as a virus check – test every spirit. The world is full of religious experts that can prove all sorts of notions about theology based on stringing together proof-texts, quotations, philosophy etc., but it is much more difficult to find people who are grounded in the Word but just as in earnest to live and grow in their heart-life and be open to learning from other people of like “mind”. I will say that some of the visitors to this blog site have blessed me with this perspective and spirit and are enriching my life.

So – I got sidetracked a little. As I was starting to say, I am quite uncomfortable with the statement above that could just as easily come from my own mouth only a few years ago. I am still learning more in this area and I do not want to make any dogmatic declarations, but based on my deeper understanding of what constitutes the gospel and salvation this explanation cannot work for me anymore. As I look at the context in this chapter, the message emerging is not the one expressed above but something quite different.

The core difference I believe, is where the source and origin is from – the initiative. “Religion” always wants to slip in some percentage of human performance no matter how small, into the mix. Paul was well aware of this penchant and took great pains to expose and denounce it. Unfortunately theologians have taken great pains to try to rationalize what he said to undo and confuse the very points he was trying to get across. Hence there is great confusion as to how we are saved and why. When we believe that our trust in God is what qualifies us for salvation, as I have been taught all my life and was again repeated in the above comment, then we in fact are inserting an ingredient of performance into the equation no matter how subtle it may seem. I have heard many of the arguments about this issue and I am sure this may heat some of them up again. But the Word, when properly understood both with the head and with the heart, simply does not support man helping out God in “saving” him.

Of course some of our problems come from starting with very different definitions for many of the words we are using in our discussions. This adds greatly to our confusion and is one of the major factors in heating up and extending arguments indefinitely. And even when the definitions are clearly spelled out it seems that others do not apply them when listening to repeated explanations. This again, I believe, is a symptom of disconnected hearts and an over-emphasis on left-brain arguments that sometimes demand to be “right” at all costs.

To present what I believe I am seeing here as the real message about faith in relation to salvation, I would like to start out by saying that there is a great difference between “having” faith and exercising faith. I know that at first glance that sounds ridiculous and it certainly exposes the problem of condensing heart concepts down into English words. But in my experience “having faith” always carried with it the subtle implication that somehow I had to work up enough “faith” to convince God to do whatever it was I was trying to have faith about. Usually in my mind the idea of faith was simply believing hard enough that what I wanted God to do would really happen and blocking out any and all doubts from my mind that might give God reason to refuse my request because I didn't have pure enough faith. That's stating it from a heart-perspective more than a mind perspective, but I don't think I am alone in that perception. Most of the religious world is trying to get God to do all sorts of things for them and trying to “use” God to force circumstances and/or other people to their own advantage. Then when God doesn't deliver what they want they assume they didn't have enough “faith”. This even opens up great opportunities for the enemy of God to step in and provide the supernatural power they are looking for and in the process they are deceived into believing that they have “the truth” because their prayers and faith seem to be “working” and they are being “blessed by God”.

I learned something yesterday about faith that made much more sense to me than this typical approach so familiar to us. It was pointed out to me that most of the references in the New Testament to faith in relation to Jesus are referring to HIS faith instead of ours. Different translations of the Bible render it differently depending on the translator's bias, but the original language as well as the contexts support a reading of “the faith OF Jesus” rather than “faith IN Jesus” as is so commonly thought.

This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and insights from the Word. That is a subject for another study, but it has strong implications for this passage. Let me quote the verses I am looking at here.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:16-18 NAS95)

Looking at the interconnections of these phrases I see the “gospel” as the focal point of everything else surrounding it in the text. It is the gospel that is described as the power of God. It is the gospel that is the revelation of the righteousness of God. It is the gospel that is lived out by those with faith. And it is the gospel that is the truth that is suppressed by those who are ungodly and unrighteous.

Since the gospel is defined as “the power of God for salvation”, then it would be very helpful to know what salvation means. Again, we are diverted by the commonly held assumption that salvation is all about getting us to heaven so we don't have to live in discomfort and pain in this sinful world anymore. Face it, that's the underlying belief of most of us though it seems crass to express it that way. If we honestly think about the way most people preach and teach about salvation today, you have to conclude that salvation is centered on human beings and God is just the external Force that must alternately be appeased or induced to make us feel better and get us out of our mess. This is sick and selfish thinking but, in reality, lies at the foundation of most religious systems, thinking and teaching.

What we desperately need is a much bigger perspective on what is really going on. We need the eyes of heaven to see the real issues and keep in mind the much larger controversy over the battle about God's reputation. That too, is another discussion that I try to address on my other web site but am only referring to for context. Our biggest problem is that our view of the gospel and salvation is so small and so self-focused that it corrupts our theology without our realizing it. That is why we find ourselves looking at these verses and putting the emphasis on living by faith (self-focused religion) instead of receiving the revelation of God thereby entering into an experience of real power in our lives.

I am beginning to sense that one of our big problems is our broken “receiver”. One of the tasks of maturity for an infant is learning to receive, and many of us never learned that very well. I know I certainly didn't, and it has been a serious problem for me all of my life. I believe this is a core problem in our relationship with God as well. We are so conditioned and determined that we must give something, that somehow we must do something to EARN, that it filters into our relationship with God and we contaminate the gospel with our faulty thinking and assumptions; hence, our emphasis more on our faith than on accepting the revealing of God's righteousness.

That triggers an even bigger block for understanding this passage because the word “righteousness” is possibly one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. That is not surprising though, because the core problem of the whole great controversy is our misconceptions and lies about what God is really like. So as long as we don't have healthy and truthful concepts of the truth about God we will equally have misunderstandings about the true meaning of the word righteousness.

This passage gives us a window into the true meaning of the word by telling us that, whatever it is, righteousness is revealed in the gospel, and the word gospel simply means the “good news”. If we take the definitions that I have on my definition page and apply them in this passage, it might read something like this –

I am not ashamed of the good news about God, for the good news is that the power to salvage us, to restore us to our original design and function is released in our lives when we begin believing the truth about God. This can happen first in those who have had a better picture of God to start with, but it will also happen in the hearts of everyone else as well who enter into this relationship by accepting and believing the truth about God.

In this good news about God, we find the righteousness of God – His faith and love – revealed which inspires faith within us that responds to His faith in us. It has already been stated in the Old Testament that real righteousness, people who want to be righteous, live in this relationship of spontaneous faith created within their heart in response to God's amazing love and faith in us.

On the other hand, the “wrath” of God, that misunderstood passionate love that appears so threatening to those who don't believe in His faith and love, is revealed from heaven to be working in a different direction from those who resist it. Everyone who refuses to respond to God's love and be brought into harmony with His faith and love for them, who suppress this truth about Him and cling to Satan's lies about God will experience the natural consequences of that resistance that they will believe to be “wrath”.

What I see here is an issue of getting my receiver fixed by God so that faith can more easily be produced in me spontaneously in response to the faith of Jesus in me. Jesus had so much faith in us that He took the immense risk of eternal death, took upon Himself all of the consequences of pain and suffering that happens when we resist God's power of love, and let all that sin and its effects kill Him through unfathomable internal torture while externally wicked men tortured His body and mind on the cross. He did this in faith that some of us would see enough of His love for us that we would allow Him to work and live in our hearts and restore us to the original intimacy and family relationship that God originally created us for.

If I am willing to believe with my heart that God indeed has this kind of love, that He is passionate about restoring me into close association and fellowship with the Godhead, that He trusts me enough to give me complete freedom to choose His love without any coercion, to even go so far as to offer an arrangement of marriage to God and all the privileges that that implies – then I will discover that faith will grow spontaneously in my heart, which was designed for this very purpose. I will discover that if I receive first, then I will find myself beginning to give to others and back to God.

But nothing that I give has anything whatsoever to do with “saving” me. That is absolutely preposterous! The only thing I can do to participate in salvation is to exercise my power of choice to give Him permission and authority to live in my heart and face the mirror of my heart in His direction. I surrender my “rights” to myself and abandon myself to His love, just as lovers give themselves unreservedly to each other in the act of making love. In that surrender I will find the abundant life that is found only in connecting to the one true Source of life. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)

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Judging - Mirror or Light?

It has been something of a mystery for years why Paul asserts in Romans 2 that when we judge others we are guilty of the same things. I have heard many explanations and expositions and declarations about this but they always left me dissatisfied. Maybe my mind works too simple, but I have felt there must be some way of understanding this better.

Lately an analogy has come to me that seems to fit. I like analogies as people probably notice who have listened to me lately. While analogies usually fall short of complete explanation and may fall apart if taken to an extreme, they can also be very useful in translating concepts that are better understood by the heart into language which is primarily the function of the mind.

The passage I have been meditating on is Romans 2:1-4. It must always be remembered clearly that the chapter breaks were not part of the original text and many times disrupt our ability to get into what the original author was trying to convey. This is indeed the case here as well. These comments by Paul are in the context of Romans 1 and all the things presented there about the two “sides” of God being revealed: righteousness and wrath.

I like the way this reads from the Bible in Basic English. It goes like this –

“So you have no reason, whoever you are, for judging: for in judging another you are judging yourself, for you do the same things. And we are conscious that God is a true judge against those who do such things. But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you? Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?” (Romans 2:1-4 BBE)

The New American Standard Bible that I study from reads as follows –

“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:1-4 NAS95)

What I am starting to see emerging as I have contemplated this longer and dialogged with God about it is that obviously there is a major difference between humans judging each other and God judging humans. It seems quite plain from the passage, though very baffling to most of us when applied to ourselves, that when we judge others for the “bad” things they do we are guilty of the same things ourselves. That is the part that I have struggled with for most of my life. It just seemed very illogical to claim that every time I judge someone for something I see in them that I am the same as they are.

I have over the years noticed more and more that the things I notice in others, the weaknesses and failings that seem to stand out for me, invariable show up sooner or later in my own life, albeit often in a different form or style. This has caused me to restrain myself more and more in my penchant for condemning others though it is still a great temptation. Many have settled on this principle as the full explanation for this passage. People in AA have a saying that goes, “if you spot it, you got it”. This is a very true fact of reality in how human beings are wired; we see most easily in others the weaknesses that plague our own lives.

But if that principle is equally applied to verse two then we introduce another major problem not so easy to explain. How can God “judge” people without having the same discrepancy that is seen when we judge them? I cannot except the arbitrary “religious” solution of simply saying God cannot sin or some other such declarations that shut down any exploration of this concept. I believe that there is a truth here that can be clearly understood and that will help us grow both in our understanding of our own nature and in the beauty of God's perfect character.

First of all I realized there might be a difference between the “judging” that we do and the “judging” that God does. Generally when we judge someone for their faults and sins we do it while infected with a spirit of condemnation. We are in fact projecting onto them the secret or not so secret feelings of guilt and pain we are feeling and want to draw attention away from ourselves onto others in a subconscious attempt to relieve our own uneasiness. This in fact is the process that I just discussed. But when God “judges” we must be extremely careful not to project onto Him the same motives and context that we are so familiar with inside ourselves. He has stated very emphatically, “'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' declares the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.'” (Isaiah 55:8-9) That is one reason I like the way the BBE renders this as a “decision” by God rather than a “judgment”. It conveys the idea that what He is doing is not the same as what we do that carries with it a spirit of condemnation.

Our paradigm of projecting onto God our own perspective has been much of the cause of most of our crazy ideas about God, about His character and motives. Many popular and deeply entrenched beliefs and doctrines could be traced back to contamination from this source. Because we view God through human passions and paradigms we tend to mold Him into our image instead of accepting the truth about Himself that He wants to reveal to us through His word and His Spirit. This passage is a good illustration of God's efforts to reveal the real truth about Himself if we will take the time to meditate and receive higher truth as we lay aside our preconceived beliefs and listen to a new and thrilling revelation of the heart of the Almighty.

The analogy that I see here that helps me understand this more clearly is that of a mirror. There are several places in the Bible that use this concept directly and indirectly. I have been learning that we are all like mirrors; we reflect to others whatever it is that we focus on, whatever we fill our minds and hearts with, whatever direction we aim our mirror. If we focus on the faults of others we find ourselves becoming those faults. That's one reason I am becoming more and more reticent to listen to the media and the news as much as I used to because I see that it produces within my heart emotions and reactions that are most unhealthy and even destructive.

But God is not a mirror, although when we create a heart-belief about God in our own image we come to believe that He in fact does mirror our own emotions and characteristics. But, in fact, God is in reality not a mirror but the ultimate source of all light. A mirror cannot even be useful if there is not an external source of light which it can reflect. That is an amazing thought in itself that usually escapes us. But that is why when God “judges”, it is so different than when we judge. When God judges it is simply a “revealing” of what is, not an arbitrary decision or accusation. When God comes near, His very presence reveals what is true just as a light exposes more and more detail of anything we look at as a bright light comes closer and closer to it.

When Paul asks the question in verse 3 about religious people thinking they can escape the judgment of God while judging others, it is like he is asking how a mirror can escape being discovered itself in the presence of light. And to carry it logically farther, if a mirror is directed toward the sins of someone else when the light is turned on, what will be seen in the mirror is those very sins – not a very good position to find ourselves in the the day of revealing (judgment).

But the really exciting discovery in this passage is the revelation of what God's light looks like. It is found in verse 4 and should be the focus of our mirrors if we want to come into harmony with God so we will be ready when He appears in glory. The solution for us and for those we tend to judge is the same – repentance motivated by the “riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience”. For contrary to popular religious thinking, it is not fear and intimidation and terror that leads us to repentance; it is the kindness and love and tenderness of God that draws us into His embrace of forgiveness and empowering presence.

And if we continue to disbelieve this truth about God? Then the unavoidable consequences will be the effects of resistance being stored up within our hearts against His kindness and love called the “wrath” of God as stated in verse 5. It is not wrath as we normally think of wrath from a human perspective except that it will seem like it is because we have locked our minds into believing that God is just like us and will stubbornly insist that He is the one who is hurting us. We will resent Him and accuse Him and join with the enemy of God, the greatest liar in the universe, in charging God with atrocities that, in fact dwell in the heart of Satan and all his demonic kingdom.

The alternative to this is to live in the truth about God and grow in knowledge of His true character. This is the experience described in verse 7, “those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” (Romans 2:7)

(next in series)

Resisting the Current

Wrath/power is revealed by the effects of resisting it.

Sin is transgression – resisting, living at cross-purposes with God's ways.

If you are enjoying white-water rapids flowing with the current you can have the thrill of being carried along with the powerful, surging water beneath you. But if you “dig in your heels” locking yourself to a rock or even trying to move cross-wise to the current, you will suddenly find yourself in realization of how intensely powerful and dangerous the water can be if you are not willing to move in synchronization with it.

The last half of Romans 1 is describing this very situation in contrast to the first half describing the very opposite. The identification of each is found in back to back verses 17 and 18 - “the righteousness of God is revealed”, and “the wrath of God is revealed”. Reading all the previous verses before 17 reveals the righteousness of God. Reading the following verses reveals the wrath of God.

But unlike the typical spin that most people assume by projecting their own feelings of wrath onto God's character, what in fact is revealed here is the natural consequences of resisting the powerful current of God's intense passion of love.

Just as trying to stop in the middle of a surging river or even move in a different direction suddenly and dramatically produces life-threatening danger, resistance to the power of God's love and His ways of relating produces life-destroying results. Why then do we blame God/the current for the dangerous consequences of our resistance when we could be enjoying the most exhilarating ride of our lives? In fact, this very penchant to blame God and accuse Him of arbitrarily imposing these “punishments” on those who resist Him in itself will put us in the path of resisting Him. If we chose to continue to blame God for sin's effects we will tragically find ourselves suffering those very effects. And the sad consequence will be that our conclusions will seem to be justified while in fact we are only living under the intense deception of sin and the lies that reinforce it.

Notice what Romans 1 really says about how God's “wrath” is revealed. I notice two important principles emerging here: (1) “they knew God” (v. 21), and (2) “God gave them over”, or released them. These are repeated in various ways throughout the rest of this chapter. What it is saying, to use our current analogy is that (1) they cannot help but notice that there is a strong current underneath their lives and that it is consistently urging them in a particular direction. But when they chose to “exchange” the real for the imitation (v. 23) and refused to “acknowledge God”, then in respect for their choice to resist the current of His love and passion for them God, in the intense anguish of His breaking heart for them “gives them over” to the terrible natural consequences of their stubborn resistance.

Just in case we glibly smile believing that we are safe from that problem, Paul goes on in chapter 2 to point out that when we harbor “judgment” in our hearts against others who are suffering these results of resisting the current we place ourselves in the same situation and will unwittingly find ourselves in the same danger as the ones we condemn.

I want to explore this much more but right now I want to sit in a raft and relish the sun and the spray in my face as the current of God's love surrounds me and carries me through this day.

(next in series)

What Must I Do to be Salvaged?

“'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.' And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.” Acts 16:30-32. I found myself asking God this very question this morning. Then I was reminded to think of what the words mean and how that might sound using their more accurate meaning. Since “saved” and “salvation” are the same, and the root meaning is “restoration, returning to an original design and function”, then I see that “doing” something and getting restored to my original design and function are the main elements of this question. Generally speaking, when we ask what we should “do”, the question is coming from the context of our left-brain, external-oriented religious thinking, even if we are not known as being necessarily religious to other people. Religious people do not have a corner on living fake lives. It is our natural response to an exposure of the emptiness of our heart that has been nagging us all our life but we could not satisfy it or even understand it correctly until we see someone else living from their heart in joyful fulfillment. Then our own heart screams out in agony of desperation and we become more aware of how empty we really are and how deep our heart hunger really is. Consider the people who approached Jesus with basically the same question. “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Matt. 19:16. “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark 10:17, Luke 10:25 and 18:18. As I was waking up this morning I couldn't miss the intense hunger of my heart awakened last night when I watched “Tuesdays with Morrie” at a friend's house with friends and family. It has stirred up awareness of how selfish I am, of how much the faults in others that irritate me are only reflections of how I must irritate them. The self-deception of my own hypocrisy is so effective that I find it impossible to see much of the truth about myself and of course cannot receive it from others attempting to tell me about it. But the heart is communicated to by example and demonstration, not with words and logic. Thus my heart was able to at least slightly communicate back to my brain how empty it is as I watched the actions, spirit and transparent unselfishness of Morrie in the way he related to the self-absorbed young man swallowed up by the typical distractions and busyness of hectic living, too distracted to be able to receive or give love with anyone. I saw myself portrayed painfully accurately in the example of the young man far more than in the character of Morrie. And my heart cries out, “What must I do to be saved?” I realize even more now how helpless I am to change myself. My only hope is outside, supernatural intervention by a Power that can transform me from a selfish, pride-filled, self-deceived nice guy (many would even dispute the nice guy part) to a genuine, caring, loving and expressive man with a servant heart spontaneously reaching out to touch the hearts of everyone around me. In the answer of Paul and Silas to the jailer who found himself asking this same question after having his own callous heart awakened by their startling behavior under persecution and abuse; their answer alerts me to the underlying basis for hope. It is not an intellectual answer, though it has often been degraded to that in religious teaching. It is a heart answer – belief in Jesus, the Creator and original Designer who created our hearts and is the only One who knows how to really satisfy them and restore them to their original design and function. Believing in Jesus involves trusting His motives and integrity and passion as well as His ability to change me. This kind of trust does not insist on knowing ahead of time how He will do it or having every question about His past dealings with me answered before I let Him have His way with me. Believing means that I let go of my resistance to Him and allow Him access to my emotions, my pain, my fears and my shame. Believing in God is not the same as believing facts and doctrines about God. That is a left-brain function and often blocks us from allowing our hearts access to true faith. Real faith/belief is a heart response as well as a choice to allow our heart to come out in the open and take the ultimate risk of self-abandonment. In so doing we are promised that we will find true life, true heart-satisfaction, real fulfillment and joy. But now my left brain analytical thinking is hijacking what my heart was trying to express and my heart is complaining that it is being ignored again. That is what a lot of people around me have been feeling as well. My mind wants to find a nice, tidy answer to wind up this post so it will conform to literary expectations and social norms. But my heart wants to scream, “What must I do to be saved, to be alive, to thrive and connect and bond with other hearts around me like I was designed for?”

A Tragic Exchange - round 1

Rom. 1:21-25 The tragic exchange. This is in the context of the revealing of God's wrath. (v.18) Professing to be wise, they became fools. This is a classic description of a person who has shifted their focus from a heart-based relationship with God demonstrated in honoring Him and giving thanks (v.21) to living in left-brain speculations resulting in the heart going dark. This implies that previously the heart was not dark but was designed to be full of light, of fire, of passion in a vital connection with the ultimate Lover. Professing to be wise... This is more description of the cause that results in the tragic results further described in this chapter. This is likely one of the most subtle and effective deceptions that Satan uses on us. Because this profession of being wise entrenches us in self-justification and defensiveness blocking all attempts to reveal the truth about our cold, darkened hearts. Exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for and image in the form of.... Notice what is exchanged for what. Glory is let go of to receive an image. An image of what? What is an image? What is glory? Be careful not to assume the answers too quickly and rush on. Allow the text to contribute to the real meaning of the words it uses and still maintain an open mind even then. It seems to me that the image is the counterpart or counterfeit of the glory, since the enemy is into counterfeiting everything that is true. We lose most of the significance and application to our own lives of this powerful passage when we brush off the reference to image as being carved idols worshiped by weak-minded people. I don't believe that a physical image is the primary issue revealed here. That is not our great danger. What is the real problem is looking to anything or anyone as a source of life instead of an intimate, dynamic, growing vital connection with the only true God. Exchanging real glory for an image is exactly like looking to pornography for pleasure in place of enjoying the ultimate sexual experiences in the context of a healthy, exciting and deeply bonded marriage relationship. The first is a self-destructive and very poor imitation, an “image” of the glory of the second. The text goes on to reinforce this truth even more. God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts... This is not an arbitrary act of a God that is offended by sinners and determined to punish them in retaliation as is so commonly thought. This is the reality of a spurned lover finally relinquishing and releasing a determined person stubbornly rejecting all attempts at reconciliation. It is acknowledging and sadly respecting the decision of the other to permanently break off an intimate, healthy relationship for a twisted, lifestyle of indulgence and and self-destruction. It is a parallel to exchanging the truth of God for a lie (v.25). This is just a preliminary note to be explored much deeper when I have more time. (next in series)