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Epistles of the Heart
Livingwalk.com
- June 25, 2005
...clearly
you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink
but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on
tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3)
When I reluctantly
embarked on Livingwalk.com I promised myself before God that I would
never merely write anything for the sake of posting something on a
regular basis. I have come to believe that the only truly helpful
things we can share as disciples of Jesus Christ spill vicariously
out of our daily walk and life in Him. As limited vessels of an
infinite and boundless God, how could it not be that His free-flowing
life and love and light pour out of us into the lives of others?
Theory and
abstraction have no place in this living breathing testimony, nor
does merely echoing what others are saying when we really haven’t
grabbed hold of it at the spirit level ourselves. It’s just too
easy isn’t? Perhaps this is why so many do it, online and in
churches every Sunday morning.
Yet, my friends,
slinging proof texts or web links at you to prove a point that the
Spirit hasn’t actually fleshed out in my life serves no one, and
can in fact be dangerous. I recognize this and am deeply sorry for
the extent to which it may sometimes occur.
What I like and
respect about the Apostle Paul is that practically everything he
wrote and shared was embodied in his own personal testimony and
example. He could encourage these young believers to abandon
themselves to Christ wholly and completely because he had done so
himself. He could exhort them to share their lives deeply and
sincerely with one another in love, just as he was doing. Never does
he ask them to cross a bridge of faith that he had not crossed
himself many times. Never does he expect them to grasp a teaching
that he himself had merely conceptualized.
What the written
testament does not contain - but something we can deduce - is the
many solitary hours, days, weeks, months and years that Paul spent
alone with our Lord, learning at the Master’s feet, walking and
living in the Spirit quite apart from the ideas of men and the world.
From milk to meat, he had matured to the point of being able to
really share the Lord with others, to preach Christ as He truly was
without speculation.
Sincerity and
transparency marked all of his ministry and writings, and how can I
or anyone aspire to anything less? His very life and example
represented a living epistle perhaps far more compelling than
anything He wrote about matters of doctrine or church practice. Yet
because He was living it, oftentimes at great risk and damage to his
person, he could faithfully share it. And even today we are immensely
blessed to have his living testimony laid open and available to us.
In all sincerity
before you here, I believe the Lord is shaking a lot out of me
lately, as to be perfectly honest, I feel just about as unworthy of
sharing anything to anyone as ever in my life. There are fundamental
issues of stewardship and my deeply-engrained attachment to what the
Bible calls this world, that are causing me to re-consider my entire
life, and all that it represents. This does not make for a very happy
camper - you know the kind we are expected to represent as
“perfect Christians”?
The more perfectly
the Holy Spirit reveals this phenomenal Being called Jesus Christ to
us, the more we are stripped down and exposed - increasingly reduced
and naked in our own eyes. The more wretched and hopeless we become,
as we gain an ever-clearer glimpse of the transcendent Wonder and
Glory of the Lamb of God. Joy and even peace tends to elude us as we
come to grips with what we really are deep down in relation to Him.
He must first tear us down that He might build us up again in Himself.
The Cross of
Christ stands ever before us, performing this reconstructive work,
and it is painful and hard just as any death is. Yet on the other
side of that cross is the joyful promise of eternal fellowship with
our Heavenly and Holy Father.
(Why has the
church seemed to have forgotten that the bright side of Calvary is
only made possible by the dark side?)
Consider Job
coming into intimate contact with the precarnate Christ, after many
deep yet abstract conversations with his friends about God&ldots;
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
"I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
You asked, "Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?'
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, "I will question you, and you shall answer Me.'
"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:1-6)
Yet I am to blame,
for like many of you I have prayed those superlative prayers in a
rush of expectant zeal. You know, like when we ask Him to show us
ourselves and the world as He sees it, as we really are. He does seem
to answer those prayers doesn’t He – and often for the next
little while we are not the happiest campers, not very smiley-faced
or pleasant to have around. That sharp two edged sword is cutting
deeper, past the flesh and bone to where idols reign proudly on a
stolen throne.
I am afraid it has
to be this way, my friends, and I am sorry if this is not what is
presented to you as the normal Christian experience. This world is
not our home you see, and the gods of the people all around us are
not our god. Here where men and devils are increasingly finding new
and perverted ways to exalt men and creation in the place of the
Creator, how can we ever truly be settled and at home?
“You’re
quite alright”, says that liar of old, with all of his
clip-winged minions nodding&ldots; “look, you have a good job, a
nice home, peace on all sides, a quaint little religious website, men
respect you&ldots;what more could you ask for?”
Get behind me
Satan&ldots; for what I really want is to grab my Heavenly Father
around the neck and to be finally restored to Him forever. I want to
eat from that Tree of Life that represents His ultimate love and hope
for me. If this takes pain and the loss of everything else in this
tangled garden, so be it. Oh but Father, please hold me up, for I am
by no means strong enough to live up to this bold commitment.
Dear Father...
Why do we
Christians always want to do something for you rather than simply
allow you to restore us in your Beloved Son? Oh, that His life would
fill us, and pour out of us in the encouragement and edification of
others who share this awesome and wonderful journey back home to You.
I thank you, Father, for all opportunities to share Him and His life
with others, yet I pray that we will learn from the example of your
son Paul&ldots; that the life is only in the living, and the sharing
must flow out from this living walk with You. Thank you, Father, for
the True Vine, and our attachment to Him from which all life and
fruitfulness flows. May this life be multiplied in your children, and
may the light reflecting in each of us combine to enlighten this dark
and forsaken garden!
In Jesus’
Name. Amen.
Please pray for us
here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work,
and understand what He would have us do.
Your friend in
Christ Jesus,
Wayne
Copyright 2005 Livingwalk.com
Permission is
granted to share this material freely and with attribution.
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