It was early and I was not expecting anyone to call so I picked up the phone with a bit of concern. The person calling, a man, asked to speak to me and I acknowledged that he was. “Good,” he said, “I was hoping to see you this morning. I think that I have a message from God for you.”

“Who are you, and what is the message about, and why do you think it is for me from God?” I asked. I am by nature a skeptical person and, while I fully believed then and do now that God does speak to us personally at times through others, I am slow to accept it and careful to try to discern the basis and credibility of any such event.

The man laughed disarmingly and told me that his name was Richard Plache and that he had formerly been a high official in a worldwide cult, leading their operations in Europe. Through some miraculous intervention, God had revealed the lie of the cult and the truth of the Gospel to him and led him to faith in Christ about four years prior. When he tried to share his new found faith with his associates, he was of course asked to leave. He had returned to the US and had started an intense period of study and search in the Scriptures hoping to learn God’s plan for the rest of his life.

He told me that he was attending a church that I knew of in California while attending a well known bible school, and had just learned that his father, who happened to live in the city in Illinois that I lived in, Aurora, was ill and about to have surgery. He had no money to fly home and in answer to prayer had been led to a Gospel singing group that was driving to Chicago in their bus for a performance and who had invited him to ride along. Aurora is a suburb of Chicago and his brother could pick him up and drive him home.

He said that as he settled in the seat of the bus to begin his trip that he felt something under him, stuffed between the cushion and back of the seat. He pulled out a magazine called Voice, a publication of the Full Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship. Out of idle curiosity he opened the magazine and was surprised to see that the article he opened to was the testimony of a man from Aurora, Illinois, the very city he was headed for. The man’s name was and is Buck Jacobs. My ears perked up substantially.

He told me that he sensed that, because of the rather unique circumstances, God had a special reason for our meeting, that it had to do with what he had learned as a result of his study, and that he would like very much to come over that morning to talk to me about it.

As he spoke to me, something within me stirred and I moved past my normal skepticism and eagerly arranged for him to come by a little later after I had breakfast and some family time. We agreed on ten o’clock. To prepare for our discussion he asked me to read and think about Galatians 2:20 which reads, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” I did read it a couple of times wondering what was on his mind and not seeing anything particularly in the verse.

At ten o’clock Richard appeared and we immediately related well. He was personable, very easy to talk with, and did not seem to have any agenda except to follow what it appeared God was leading him to do. We shared some background, found much in common, and he started in to his story, which led to our being brought together.

He began to explain to me his search for a way of living in which Jesus is truly at the center of one’s life as opposed to mere religiosity which results in legalism and which had been at the heart of his experience prior to being born again. The cult he had been a part of was based on a “works” doctrine, typically purporting to show the way to God by obeying a strict set of rules. It had sounded good but never really brought peace or true meaning. As he had studied after his conversion to Christ he had been led to investigate a different way of relating to life. A way which various notable Christians had practiced through the centuries with profound results. Men such as John Wesley, Hudson Taylor, George Muller, and D.L. Moody, as well as some Christian mystics like Madam Jean Guyon and Brother Lawrence, a  way called variously “the deeper life” or the “replaced life.”

He explained that the heart of this concept was found in Galatians 2:20 and that the true meaning of this key verse had been obscured by various doctrines which had developed over the years. As he spoke I became somewhat agitated because I was not able to grasp or understand the significance or meaning of what he was trying to explain and help me see. He was very patient, taking me to the tense of the Greek verb which is at the heart of the issue here. It is the verb translated “have been crucified.” Richard explained that this word is used in the perfect tense, meaning that it is an act done in the past and completed, yet has continuing effect. The significance, he said, was that when Christ died on the cross, as I had become one with Him at my new birth, so did I. And since I had literally died sin no longer had power over me. He said sin has no power over a dead man, which I could understand, but, according to Richard, I was apparently very much alive and dead somehow at the same time. He said it was like when you add salt to water, the salt becomes one with the water and thus participates with all the water has been, is, or will be from that point on. He took me to many other scriptures to support his contention that, at new birth, each believer is united with Jesus in His eternal Spirit and thus becomes eternally one with Him. Including verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:17 which says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him”, pointing out that a spirit is not limited by time or space. And Romans 6:3-9, especially verse 6 which says, ”knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him…” He pointed out Colossians 1:22 which says that the mystery of the gospel is“ Christ in you the hope of glory.” He was far more a Bible scholar than I and had an ease with the subject that was obviously born out of long hours of study and prayer.

Richard told me that God had made me to be a unique container for Himself and that this purpose was fulfilled by my accepting His gift of forgiveness in Jesus and receiving His Holy Spirit to live in me. As Jesus lived in me and through me His plan for me and my life would be actualized. He said that it was to be Jesus in me, through me, as me. It was this part that I was struggling with and at this point I simply could not understand. It was extremely frustrating. I strongly sensed that there was an important truth being presented to me and, that if I could only understand and appropriate it, my life would change for the good. But I just could not get it. And I had an additional problem; I was getting very time-compressed.

Years before our church had “adopted” a group of mentally handicapped adults who were residents of a home near the church. One in particular, Jimmy Walker had become very dear to our family and had visited us often. Through Jimmy we also met Sherman Tatarsky, his roommate, and Sherman occasionally joined Jimmy at our home for Sunday dinner after church. Jimmy had died a couple of years earlier and Sherman had sort of assumed that he had inherited our invitation and us. And, as he was very bold and demanding in some ways, was not the joy to be with that Jimmy had been. Nevertheless we had felt that we should continue to see and share with Sherman who was Jewish and did not know Jesus. I had promised Sherman that he could come to spend the day with us and have dinner that Saturday. And to keep my word and be on time to pick him up, I would have to leave by noon. He became very upset if I was late.

Richard could see that I needed to talk more with him and that I was close but not yet understanding what he felt it so important that I know. He gladly agreed to come by after church the next day and share some more. I walked him to his car as I left for Chicago to pick up Sherman. “Don’t worry Buck,” he said, “God will show you what He wants you to see.”’

I left and as I drove down the interstate I began to grumble to God. “Lord” I said, “What am I doing? Here you send a man all the way across the country to tell me an important truth. You put the Voice under Richard’s seat and you put on his heart to come to see me and share what you’ve given him with me. And then I have to leave to go and pick up this hardheaded Jew who isn’t very nice, doesn’t care to know You, and probably doesn’t even appreciate my trouble. Lord, why am I doing this?”

I have never heard God or Jesus speak in an audible voice. I don’t doubt that He does or that some others have heard Him do so. I have never, but there are and have been times where I have known just as surely as if He had spoken aloud, that He did speak. God makes Himself heard to me somehow at times just as clearly as if He spoke out loud and this was one of the clearest. Just as I said, “Lord, why am I doing this?” He said, “YOU’RE NOT, I AM.” And in that instant all that Richard had been trying to tell me, and that I could not understand, came clear as glass. No, the Buck who was would never have taken the time to even speak to Sherman Tatarsky, let alone go out of his way for him, let alone have him in his home. The Buck who was saw all people in terms of their utility or value to him, and certainly Sherman was anything but utilitarian or valuable to me. He was a pain pure and simple.

But it wasn’t the Buck who was driving the car, going to Chicago to get Sherman. It was Jesus in His Buck outfit. Jesus in me and, to Sherman, Jesus through me. It was true, the old man, the Buck who was, had in fact died with Christ. And it was and is now Christ who lives in me. My personality, gifts, talents, and quirks still intact – me – but energized by Him, in me as me. The life that I was now living I was living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me. No, Buck wouldn’t mess with Sherman, but Jesus would, and was, and Richard’s words became so real to me. Jesus in me, through me, as me. I could hardly wait to get home to call him and tell him.

That Saturday morning was over twenty five years ago but it is as fresh in my mind as today. There are of course many doctrinal and theological things that need to be explained to try to understand the concept of the replaced life and we don’t have time or space here and this is not the forum to go into them. This segment is hoped to be a testimony and a call to those who struggle with who they are and why they live as Christians.

To those who God brings across our paths each day, whether they are our family members, our neighbors, our customers, our competitors, sales people, or others we trade with and meet through our business, we are Jesus. We are to the degree we understand the truth illustrated in this testimony and allow Jesus to live through us. God has designed us, called us, saved us, and given us all we have, not to waste on our pleasure, but to let Him live through – to others. The mystery of the gospel is Christ in us, through us, as us. The fact is that Jesus doesn’t live in buildings made of bricks and mortar. We don’t go to church to meet with Jesus, we bring Him to church. He lives in and through His people. He doesn’t live as a statue nailed to a cross. He left the cross 2000 years ago to go to the grave as a prelude to proving forever who He really is by rising from the dead. He sent His Spirit to live in as many as received Him.

Now it’s our turn. He lives in us and He will live through us as us if we will let Him. The as us part is important, don’t miss it. The reason I was having such a hard time getting what Richard was telling me was I thought I had to change to be like someone else in order to be like Jesus. Now I know that what I really have to do is let Him do what he wants to do through me. Him as me. There is a world of difference.

As a footnote to this story: Just before we moved from Aurora, Illinois to Florida twenty-five years ago, Jesus as me thought I should take Sherman Tatarsky to lunch. He had been moved to another home even further away. The new place was much better than the first with many activities and support for the residents. We had sort of slipped away from a monthly visit with Sherman to a once in a while type thing which he didn’t seem to mind. I really didn’t have the time but I felt I needed to see him and tell him we were going to move so I called and arranged to take him to lunch at his favorite restaurant.

After we were seated and gave our orders I asked Sherman what was new. I almost fell out of my seat when he answered, “I got baptized last Sunday!”

“You did” I asked, trying to hide my amazement, “How did that happen?”

“Pastor Jack Hiles sent a bus to pick me up and take me to church at his church” Sherman said, “he asked me to get saved and I did.” A big smile lit up his face. I can still see it. Jesus in me,as me rejoiced.

                                                                                                Galatians 6:9

 “Let us not grow weary….” Do you ever feel weary? Tired, wornout, burned out? Does the burden of being somone chosen by God to deal with the particular frustrations and difficult people that make up your life and relationships in its environment ever make you wonder if it is all worth the effort required? Do you ever feel like just chucking the whole deal and simply taking a walk? I do.

One thing is for sure, if you answered “no” to any of the above you will lie about other things too! We all grow weary at times. If life were easy we would never need God. He would be irrelevant. God is never irrelevant.

No one gets a pass from the challenges of life, everyone has a piece of the action. A perfect life without trail or pain doesn’t exist, yet. But the Bible quote that we started with tells that we shouldn’t “lose heart.” Have you ever lost heart? I have. When I take my eyes of the reality of life and look through the lens of wrong expectation it’s easy to do. Let’s ask ourselves some probing questions and reflect on our answers. Jot down your rresponses to:

• What is the “good” that we are called to do in our roles as Christ-followers? And who calls us to do it?

• Why do we get “weary” even doing what God asks us to do?

• When that happens, what or who would you suppose is the most likely cause?

• What do you think might be the most powerful cure for weariness?

• What can we do to avoid getting weary?

• Who determines what “due season” is?

• What shall we reap if we remain faithful and don’t lose heart?

Take your time and think through these questions and then ponder this statement; “The circumstances of life don’t make me what I am, they reveal who (whose?) I am.” Only by accepting and adopting the true eternal perspective on life abundant”can we have any chance of not growing weary and losing heart and, even then, to maintain perspective we need the encouragement we gain by association with other like-minded Christ-followers to sustain it.  

So, how’s life workin’ for you?

For those of us who claim to be Christ-followers, does that fact stand out in any significant way to the “watchers?” Is there and discernable difference between what they see in us and what they would see in anyone else? Should there be? All true Christ-followers know the answer to that question is a loud yes! Of course it should matter that Jesus lives in us. Of course His values should not only guide us but lead us to a lifestyle that is based on His example and teaching. If that is true, our lives today, as His did then, will contrast to the lives of others in a way that is pretty obvious. We will be light and salt. Are we?

Jesus asked some of His followers, “Why do you call me Lord Lord and don’t do the things I say?” Were He to ask us the same question, what would we answer?

What are some of the distinctives that “watchers” should see in the lives of Christ-followers?

Where do you think the typical non-Christ-follower would see a difference in the life and lifestyle  of the average  member of your church? Your pastor?

Jesus told some of His followers that He wished that they were either “hot” or “cold” and that to be “lukewarm” was disgusting to Him. What do you think a “lukewarm” Christ-follower might look like in today’s culture?

In the first century a non-Chris- follower, Artstedes, described Christ-followers to his Emperor this way: 

 They love one another, they never fail to help widows. they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something they give feely to the man who has nothing, if they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers, instead through the Spirit, in God.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the “watchers” of our lives could say that, or something very close to it today about you and I and the Christ-followers that we hang with? It’s not impossible, but it won’t  happen by accident, it will need to be the intentional result of choices we make based on the values and priorities we hold most dear. It is our choice to make, we don’t have to guess what His would be. Why would we call Him Lord and not try to do whatHe says?

We are in a unique condition as we read this material, a condition that is temporary but very significant, a condition that, in all of eternity, we shall only experience once. We are as we are because God has created us to be so. He has chosen to create us to be, at this moment, spirit beings that temporarily inhabit a human body. We will not be forever as we are now. A day will come when each of us will end this human life experience and we will go on to another experience of life called eternal life. But, for the moment, we are living in the human experience of life.

During our human experience we have spiritual experiences because we are spirit beings in our essence. The part of us that really matters is our spirit.

There is now a part of us that says with God, “I AM.” We could go on, but our point today is not to do deep theological exposition on the subject, although we pray to have piqued some interest along the way that may lead to deeper study, but to lay the groundwork for establishing a different way of seeing the mundane of life. After all most of what we do appears to be mundane. Perhaps by lifting our eyes to the infinite we can learn to see the mundane differently. And if we learn to see the infinite in the mundane, then the mundane will never be truly mundane to us again.

Our great need is to see God in the mundane. Our failing is that we tend to only look for Him in the extraordinary or the obviously spiritual realms of life. Because we do, we miss so much!

God uses the ordinary circumstance of life to reveal His extraordinary glory and grace.

Where is He when we spill our coffee? He is there, telling us to laugh at ourselves, that it is no big deal. He is using the circumstance to build the character of Jesus in us, to conform us to His image. Circumstances reveal our inner selves. Our reactions to them allow God to show us our need for Him and to experience our unity with Him, if we will let Him.

Where is God in a demanding customer? Why doesn’t He just handle it when we need Him to? Why does He allow us to hire brothers-in-law who He knows won’t work out?

Can you begin to get a sense of the difference it would make if we could learn to see the glory of God in the moment?

The basis for all discontent and all unhappiness is unwillingness to be content in the present moment.

Joy, peace, contentment, love, happiness and every good thing exist only in the moment. Life in this human form is composed of a series of frustratingly variable trials and problems, interrupted by momentary respites of serendipitous glimpses of grace. No one gets a pass. The rain falls on the just and the unjust and the sun shines on wicked and good alike.  Most days are a combination of problems and trials galore with God always present, and His glory always just a choice away.

Victor Frankl was a Jewish man sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Aushwitz during WW II. He made a profound discovery during the horrible trial of deprivation and torture that he experienced there. He realized that he was helpless at the hand of his captors in all ways save one. They could take away everything material, they could torture his body, and they could kill him if they chose. But they could never take away his freedom to choose his response to what they did to him. He survived, and after the war taught others about what he learned to call the moment between action and reaction. It is in this moment, he taught, brief as it may be, that we choose our reaction. We own that moment. No one can take that moment from us.

Now, if Victor Frankl could use that moment to choose his reactions to the brutality being forced upon him and survive, could we learn to use it to see the glory of God in our moment in the midst of the tests and trials of this human life? We can, indeed we can. And as we do, life is transformed, changed in an instant from mundane to sublime.

Practice taking God into the present moment. For the next week or so, stop in the middle of something and mentally realize that, at this moment, you are One with God. You in Him and He in you. Let His glory overcome the circumstance and capture the moment. It’s all we have and He is all we need.

Flaw number one is the paradigm that the members of the church exist to equip the pastors for the work of ministry. They are do this by bringing their tithes into the “storehouse” and building ever larger and more ornate storehouses. The beautiful storehouses will attract the lost and they will want to come visit the beautiful storehouse and be saved. The lost will become saved and then will help the building of even more ornate storehouses. This paradigm is exactly backwards from the true model which says that the pastors and leaders are given to the Church to equip the members to do the work of ministry as they “go into all the world.”

Flaw number two is that the Church needs to bring the current culture of the world into the church rather than taking the Church into the culture of the world. Again, exactly backwards from reality of Biblical model and truth. Christians are to be “salt” and “light” not sponges.

These  maladjustment’s have produced a compromised and powerless church. Think not? Get a grip. Read on.

I know that many of you will be saying; “Yes, but what about the wonderful mega-churches that are growing and prospering? Aren’t they they way of the future? Isn’t the “emergent church” the new way of doing church.”

Is it? Think about this – if we were to add together all the attendees of all the mega-churches and emergent churches together I doubt there would be a total of a million attendees. And if we use George Barna’s statistic to measure the true believers (those having a Christ-centered worldview) out of the total attendees we end up with a fraction of those who attend, say 10% . Statistically this says that there are less than 10% (100,000) of  1 million real believers out of three hundred and fifty million in our population. That’s ,0035.  Statistically insignificant. and that’s what the church has become in contemporary American culture, insignificant. Quibble with the numbers if you want to but even if you double or triple them the resultant powerless and insignificance won’t change. All the result of the two basic flaws. Think about it. What has to change?

It wasn’t always this way for me. I have known the emptiness that comes from following the world’s system of hedonistic materialism. I have set meaningless goals and accomplished them over and again without ever gaining lasting satisfaction or peace through the processs At 30 I was living in a villa north of Rome, Italy having surpassed every financial goal that I had ever had, yet I was empty and unfufilled. I knew there had to be more but didn’t know what it was.  

How about you? What do you see looking out at the coming year? What are you hoping for? What needs to change in 2010 to make it a better year for you than 2009? More stuff? A raise? A romance?

This will be just a short post but I want to do two things. First, to remind you that, if nothing changes nothing changes, and if in your heart you aren’t where you want to be at the start of this New Year, and not excited about what you see looking back, something has to change or 2010 will be a reflection of 2009. I’m not talking about the normal New Year’s resolutions type stuff. We both know that 99% of them don’t live to see February. I’m talking about the deep inner changes that produce a truly better life, not just a more prosperous life or a healthier life. Are you happy with who you are and where you are heading? I pray that you are but if not, what has to change?

I’ve learned the hard way that happiness exists on the inside and has little to do with what’s outside of us. When we depend on what’s outside for our happiness it is always threatened, we can always lose it. If it’s an inner thing no one can steal it or take it f rom us. If our happiness depends on another person it is never secure. (unless of course that person is Jesus Christ who never changes!) Human people always change and happiness that depends on human relationships is always vulnerable.

For me it was a change from the inside out that was the start. I gave my heart and life to Jesus in 1973 and told Him that if He would forgive my sin and wanted to lead me in His way that I would give it up to Him and do whatever He wanted with the rest of it. That was 36 years ago and the very best deal I ever made! If you have never done the deal with Jesus there couldn’t be a better way to start the New Year.

But even if you have done the deal and know Him you may need to make some changes to know Him better. If so you know it and you also know what I’m talking about. He’ll help you change what needs to change, just ask Him.

The great news for 2010 is that He is real, He loves you, and He is calling to all who will listen. If life going forward doesn’t look as exciting to you as it does to me what you need is more of Jesus and less of the world. That fits no matter where we are. young or old, new Christian, old saint, or lost sinner. Jesus is the key to life abundant now and forever. Trust Him more in 2010 and it will be a great year!

I care about and prefer small government and low taxes and a strong national defense but I’m not passionate about them. I would easily vote for a pro-life Democrat over a pro-choice Republican. Those are my choices and I will live with them. I’m disgusted with self-serving politicians period. I don’t like being lied to the way we have been and don’t care who knows it. But politics isn’t the answer anyway.

The thing that I care about above all others is The Kingdom of God. I am a citizen of that Kingdom and belong to the Church of The Firstborn there. I’m only here for a short time on assignment as Ambassador for Christ so the amount I pay in taxes etc. is important to me, but not most important. Living my life in this world as a citizen of heaven is what I care about. Above all other considerations, God and His way in life is what matters. I know that I’m different and not worried what others think of me. We are all accountable for our choices and I’m comfortable with mine.

I have a Statement of Purpose that I wrote in 1992 to help me keep my eye on the ball and to remind me of what is most important to me. Some of you might benefit from seeing it and I hope that, if you haven’t done one for yourself yet, that mine might encourage you to do so. It’s been a great help to me. God bless you and Merry Christmas!

A Statement of Purpose

Buck Jacobs – Jan. 1992

My purpose is: To be used up for God as I completely fulfill His plan for my life, and to honor God through obedience in allowing Him to live His Life through me as; Husband (Jerusalem), Father (Judea and Samaria), Grandfather & Minister  (To the ends of the Earth)

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To honor God through obedience to His Word and His Spirit in life situations.

As Husband –

Loving Bonnie unconditionally, sacrificially, as Christ loves His Church. Praying for her. Meeting her needs for affirmation, security, and freedom to be herself.

As Father –

To Beth, Sarah, and Leah by loving and communicating with them, affirming them, and, as far as I am able, modeling for them an example of a heart hard after God. To share with what I have with them.

As Grandfather –

To be a godly grandfather for Jake, Garrit, Aubrey, Jay, Mallory, and Les – staying close to them and encouraging them to know that God loves them by showing them His love through me.

As Minister -

To serve the Body of Christ as a minister of encouragement and faithful commitment. To love the Body, to minister wholeness and against sectarianism.

To be an example of a Christian citizen. To be involved with Christian candidates and to avoid being entangled with people or causes that do not represent Jesus Christ.

To steward a Christian business that lives and models what it teaches and goes where God sends it.

To be a faithful friend and relative, attempting to see the good in others and to put their interests ahead of my own. To always speak the truth, hopefully in the love of Christ. To faithfully point them to Jesus as the answer to all of life’s problems.

To share faithfully with them my failures as well as my successes.

To encourage them to have a daily quiet time with Jesus.

But if we were to follow up with the question “What is success for you? How do you define it” we would get a hodge-podge of answers that would predominately be either immeasurable or amorphous. Things like “To Be happy” or “To have a lot of money” or “To be famous!” Meaningless non-answers.

And if we asked a third question, “What are you doing every day to become successful by your definition?” the answers would be even more vague.

The problem is that, while all of us want to be successful, most of us don’t really have a clue as to what success is, let alone how to measure it or obtain it. Success as it is presented to us in the media, or generally in our culture, is almost always linked to material wealth, reputation, or power. The problem is that those measures are always moving targets, actually attaining them is very rare, and even for the few that do, prove to be far less than we conceive them to be.

I’m a bottom line guy so let’s cut to the chase. There are only two ways to measure success, material and spiritual. I am a Christian so I measure success in spiritual terms. Here’s why. I believe that we are all eternal beings and that what we do in the short time that we spend on Earth matters greatly to us after we eject the planet.

If there are no consequences beyond what we experience in this life, then the only sin is getting caught and the survival of the fittest is the deal. Don’t talk to me about what I owe to civilization, or to my country, or to others, I owe nothing. If all there is to life is to grab as much of what there is and then die like a dog, I owe nothing! If I can cheat you and get away with it – fine. If I can kill you and not get caught – no problem. If I like your wife better than mine – I take her, and if you don’t catch me – no sweat. If I am smarter or stronger or luckier than you too bad for you. When we die, we die. Dust to dust and that’s it. If there are no consequences to bad acts beyond what we experience in the present, no afterlife, no ultimate judgement – get what you can while you can, just don’t get caught or be sure that you have enough money or clout to get out of it if you do!

I know that in our culture many if not most disagree with me. Most believe that there is no absolute truth and that everything is relative. Most live like they will never die in the face of conclusive evidence to the contrary. Get a grip! I’m dieing, you are too! The only real question is the date, it’s not if it’s when! And then…what? Nothing? OK, live for today, get all you can, enjoy it while you can.

I don’t believe that and I could really care less what anyone else believes, I’m all in. I’ll live with my choice. You may or not agree, but it’s for sure that we will both know the answer in the second we draw our last breath.

The options are simple, live for today or live for THE DAY. Too many Christians are just as fuzzy about what success will look like for them as those who have no promise of eternal life. By default they accept the world’s standards and live like practical atheists. What a waste! We only get one trip around the track, one chance to get it right. Is this important? Is spiritual success important  ? You bet it is, eternally important.

The problem is that “stuff” is not and never has been the answer to what leads to a content, happy, and fulfilled life. We are not happy because we have bought into an alternative reality that focuses our lives on this material world and the material things of this world. We live as though we will never die – in spite of the one absolute certainty of our lives that we all will! We stuff our physical minds and bodies and hang as many gaudy ornaments on them as we can was if they are what really matters. We focus on our physical comfort and starve ourselves spiritually. WE ARE DECEIVED!!!!!!!!!

We join with all the fools who have ever lived who have ever believed the lie that was first told in the garden of Eden, the lie that anything other than obedience to the will and way of God can bring something better. The devil offered Eve an attractive alternative to God’s way and she took it, Adam went along, and people have been falling for it ever since.  A manifestation of the lie is that happiness is found in possessions, reputation, sex, power, fame, or all the things that are part of the American dream, which is just a different manifestation of the lie itself. It’s not there! It won’t work! And as long as we pursue this course God is honor bound to increase our level of dissatisfaction and frustration. He has to because it’s false, and HE WILL!

Not everyone believes the lie. In every generation there are a few who see through it and live their lives in the reality that “We are NOT physical beings who have occasional spiritual experiences, we ARE spirit beings who are having a temporary physical experience.” We don’t have to live in the lie, it’s our choice to perceive life as we choose to.

But, here’s the bottom line; the happiest life can only be found in the center of God’s will for that life, yours or mine. It doesn’t matter where that will is expressed or what the circumstances are on the outside of our lives. Happiness exists only on the inside and it can only be is found in this; to know God in Jesus Christ, to learn His will for our lives, the reason He created us and sent us here right now, and then to do it with all of our heart as long as we have. Nothing more, nothing less.

I know that many, maybe most, will scoff at what I have said. It’s always been that way. The deceiver is powerful, the delusion is strong. Most men and women through history have risen to his bait like a fish to a lure and, once caught never really fight to be free.  The lure (lie) is attractive and the hook doesn’t hurt much at first, and then we sort of like it for a while, until we have it for long enough or enough of it. That’s why so many American Christians are rich but not happy. The shame is that we have exported the lie so well. Materialism is the world-wide god of our age.

You can step off the track of the rat race and onto the narrow path that leads to life that is truly abundant. It’s your choice. God will call you but He’ll never force you. I made my choice 37 years ago and wouldn’t trade my life with anyone.  Here’s an easy way you can start, it only takes one simple prayer. Say out loud; “God, if what Buck has said is true – reveal yourself to me and help me step onto the path.” Then watch….let me know you’re watching. I’ll be praying for you.

1) Real per-capita income in our country has doubled since 1960.

2) Life expectancy has nearly doubled in the last century and continues to rise?

3) The size of the average new home has grown from 1100 square feet post WWII to 2300 square feet today?

4) We Americans are more prosperous today than 99.4% of anyone who has ever lived?

5) We have technology and labor saving devices beyond what could be imagined just 50 years ago?

6) The total of the knowledge we have gained in the last 50 years is 50 times greater than all that was previously known to man and continues to double every year or less.

7) We live in the country with the greatest individual freedom that the world has ever seen?

In spite of the above, all studies show that we are no more happy or satisfied with our lives than we were two and three generations ago. We are living in the most abundant and liberated society the world has ever seen. We have the greatest degree of personal freedom. But…

25% struggle with or are experiencing depression.

Our rates of addiction and suicide are flat or increasing.

Violence against children is rising.

We have a greater percentage of our population in jail than ever before.

Divorce is more common than fidelity to our marriage vows.

With all of the gains we have made through science, all the incredible total knowledge we have gained, with all of our basic needs for food and shelter met beyond anyone, anywhere in history, we’re not happy by even close to the same degree.

The question is… WHY????