“A babe was born away in a manger, to us He’s our Lord not a myth or a stranger.
Why would God visit our sin-riddled earth? Why’d He ordain this miraculous birth?

To give us a gift that we never deserved – To show us the way: our life be preserved.
He taught us to love, and how to forgive – He laid down His life that all may yet live.

We love Him, we know Him, and yet we still fall – Only in Christ have we strength to do all.

If gifts were given on account of our merit – a lump of coal is all we’d inherit.
It’s dark and its ugly, like parts of our whole – Our anger, our loathing, a black lump of coal.

Oh how they sting our sins ‘gainst each other – Parent and child – brother and brother.
But we’re not alone, God’s Son resides here – We’ve invited Him in, His Word we hold dear.

His love is full of amazing grace – His mercy is shown when He looks on our face.
Let us reflect the love God has given – Our hurts, our differences now be forgiven.

Our family endures, with Love at its core – Thank you Jesus, it’s you we adore.
We’ve opened your gifts of Faith, Hope, and Love – We know that each of them comes from above.

Thank you for giving us more than just coal, thank you for loving us; saving our soul.

Happy Birthday Dear savior, we pause and we say: may your life in our life be what we display –
In All Ways and Always, together, we pray.”

” I want to bring you my postulate that most present-day Christians live sub-Christian lives. As a result, Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone.

Most Christians are not joyful persons because they are not holy persons, and they are not holy persons because they are not filled with the Holy Spirit, and they are not filled with the Holy Spirit because they are not separated persons.

The Spirit cannot fill whom He cannot separate, and whom He cannot fill, He cannot make Holy, and whom He cannot make holy, He cannot make happy.

My postulate further insists that the average modern Christian is not Christ-like. The proof of this is apparent in the disposition we find among the children of God. They have moral weakness and suffer frequent defeats. They have a dulled understanding and often live far below the standard of the Scriptures and thus outside of the will of God.

To be honest, let us admit that the application of the gospel is being pulled down to the standard of the most carnal, the cheapest saintling hanging on by the teeth anywhere in the kingdom of God.”

Mr.Tozer has been with the Lord for over 50 years! Imagine what he might say were he able to observe the churches of today! By trying to be “relevant” we are indeed compromising the Scriptural standard to be comfortable for “the most carnal” among us. We don’t call sin sin, we don’t speak against abortion or the homosexual life CHOICE, we glorify the numbers of lukewarm seekers any gifted presenter can gather as proof of the “success” of his church, and justify materialistic living as proof of God’s blessing. We have lost our influence in the public square and are being gradually marginalized out of existence following our European forefathers path.

I wonder what A.W. would have to say today?

Romans 8:28

Calling. God’s calling. What is it and what does it mean to be called according to His purpose? And how what does it mean specifically in our lives as 21st century believers?

Let’s start by a general discussion and definition of “calling.” Calling is often thought of as something that only happens when a Christian “surrenders” to the “call” to the professional ministry. Ie. to be a pastor, missionary, etc. This is a cultural misunderstanding of the term. While it does apply to the offices within the Church (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher – Eph 4:11) it is by no means limited to them. It may be that no other misunderstanding of God’s Truth has so handicapped the work of Christ and held back the Kingdom of God in the Earth. The fact is that EVERY believer is “called” to full time ministry in the Church. (Church = The Body of Christ)

In this sense “calling is destiny.” We each have a destiny in God.

Each person is a unique design, specifically created to do very specific things that are intended to contribute to the completion of the wonderful Plan that God has had in His mind since before He created the Earth. (Eph 2:10) Every one of His children who respond to His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation in Jesus Christ is born again, not only to inherit eternal life with Him in heaven, but also to do meaningful and specific things in His Kingdom building on Earth. The true “calling” of God is to “Come, follow Me.” To follow Him in the work that He has set aside for each of us to do, to “run the race that is set before us. (Heb.12:1) Notice that He picks the race. He picks it and calls us to follow Him in it.

Life’s highest honor and definition of success is to obey and to fulfill His purpose and “calling.”

Life’s greatest challenge is to find that purpose and live it out faithfully.

Our greatest enemy is the Deceiver whose sole purpose in the life of a believer, since he can’t steal our salvation, is to obscure, deflect, discourage, or if possible, prevent our understanding God’s call and block the fruit that would be borne within it. Our call and the fruitfulness potential within it is only realized in the center of God’s will for us. This is at least true in the sense of maximum potential. God will use us even when we are not centered in His will but the fruit produced in any other place will never be all that it could be. That’s why the Deceiver works so hard to deflect us. If he can’t steal our salvation he will try to steal our fruit. And he will steal just as much as we allow him to, even causing some to end their race barren and beaten.

The Deceiver offers his distractions in many forms. He knows our weaknesses in our flesh and he plays on them incessantly. His offerings always appear to be attractive but they all have in common that they deflect us from God’s call and lead us on a different path. He often uses money, either the hope of getting some or the fear of loss of some.

God doesn’t make junk! He doesn’t make or design any person without specific purpose for that life. Each and every piece (life) is designed to fit perfectly into His Eternal Plan.

He gives perfect gifts, talents, abilities, and provides perfect training and preparation for each one to follow His calling and to participate in His plan.

He will provide every thing each of us needs to fulfill His plan and calling in our lives. He must or He is not the Sovereign God. God will meet every need of one living within His call.

His calling is always accomplished within His order, never contrary to His Word, and always produces His fruit.

Some characteristics regarding God’s calling:

1)      Finding and fulfilling it will require faith. (Heb 11:6) Finishing in it will require endurance.(Heb. 10:36)

2)      It will require sacrifice and may fly in the face of worldly wisdom or custom. (Phil. 1:28,29 -  I Cor.1:26) It is very possible that following God in His calling will not be the most financially rewarding thing that we could do. It very well might mean that others will not appreciate us or what we do. We will be asked to walk by faith and not by sight. (Habakkuk 2:4)

3)      No matter how it may appear to the flesh or the world, it is in the center of God’s will and in fulfilling His call that the highest fulfillment in life, the greatest peace, joy, and purpose are found. (I Peter 1:1-7)

4)      Our commitment to God’s calling will always be tested by adversity. Often it will be challenged to the very point of breaking, the point where there is nothing left to hold on to except the knowledge that God has called and is able. (I Peter 5:8,9 – 4:19) There is a storeroom in Heaven where the forfeited rewards lost to those who have been deterred from pressing in to God’s calling rest, wasted to them forever, waiting to be passed to those who have faithfully persevered. (Matt 25:28,29)

5)      God desperately wants us to know His will and in it to fulfill His calling! He does not play games with us or try to confuse us. When confusion comes it is not from God. (I Cor.14:33 – Romans 12:1,2 – II Chron. 16:9)

6)      Once we know our calling we can’t not do it and have peace. (James 4:17) Sin destroys peace.

Are you “called?”

If you aren’t sure you are called, at least not yet, pray and fast if necessary but waste no more time. Do what you have to do to get on God’s agenda and stay there. Here, there, or anywhere. Just get there for your sake and for the Kingdom!

You give the first 10th or more of you gross income away for Christ’s Kingdom

You have a daily “quiet time or have read the Bible every day for 5 years or more.

You have ever shared your faith with a stranger. Even more with a friend.

You have not done something that you really wanted to do simply because Jesus said “Don’t do it.”

You believe that the gifts of God’s Spirit still work.

You believe in miracles and look for them.

You’re starting to think that heaven might be actually better than earth.

You would rather have the approval of God than man.

You think that ministry is your job and your pastor’s is to teach you how to do it.

You know that God is the source of all you have and that you’re a steward of all of it.

You believe that you can’t separate your faith from your public life.

You know that abortion is murder and marriage is between one man and one woman.

You have enough “stuff.”

You know and accept that you are in the minority in the church and don’t really care.

You are willing to call sin sin and not mistakes or bad choices.

If you’r a radical, rejoice! If not, repent!

The evil one has implanted such distortion in our perception of reality! We need to step back and refocus, rethink, and in many of our lives redirect our energy.

One step in that process might be to spend some time learning about our true home, heaven. If you resonate with the brief introductory challenge you might well find the following outline helpful and actually very exciting. The more we learn of what our real home is truly like the less we will feel the need to hang on to this sin-scarred place. For your eternal blessing:

Heaven

What is heaven like?

Physically –

1. Beautiful beyond imagination – 1 Corinth. 2:9 – Rev. 21-22
2. A place where our home will be – John 14:2
3. A place with no night or day, lighted by the presence of God and Jesus – Rev.21:23

Emotionally – What won’t be there?

1. Hunger or thirst – Rev.7:16,17
2. Tears – Rev 21:4 – What causes tears?
3. Death – Rev 21:4 – What causes death?
4. Sorrow – Rev21:4 – What causes sorrow?
5. Crying – Rev 21:4 – What causes crying?
6. Pain – Rev 21:4 – What causes Pain? (3 kinds of pain – Physical. Emotional. Spiritual.)
7. Curse – Rev 22:3 – no more curse – What are the effects of the “Curse” – (Gen. 3:15-24)

Relationally – If all of the above is true, and all those things and all that causes them are gone, what kind of relationships will exist in heaven? What things hinder or hurt relationships on earth as we experience this temporary physical experience?

1. selfish agendas
2. love with strings
3. jealousy, envy
4. manipulation
5. bitterness
6. dishonesty
7. unforgiveness
8. disappointment
9. comparison, competition

What would a perfect relationship be like?

1. no strings
2. no hang-ups
3. no jealousy
4. no competition or comparison
5. total acceptance
6. total transparency
7. no hidden or selfish agenda
8. other…

In heaven we will have nothing less than or other than perfect relationships. Not only that, there won’t even be the possibility of any thing that hurts!!! How much time and effort do we spend now in trying to protect ourselves against those things that hurt?!!!!!

Who will we relate to/with in Heaven?

1. God, our Father, Jesus our Savior, The holy Spirit, the angels, the Saints who are our brothers and sisters – Our ultimate family!

What will I be like in Heaven?

1. I John 3:2
2. Luke 24:16 & 36-43
3. John 20:16 – John 20:27
4. Luke 16_19-31
5. I Cornith. 15:35-49

God created us to be human. Why would He save us to be something totally different? We will be a new and changed us, not a different kind of us. A new car is still a car.

What will we do in Heaven?

1. a. We will reign with Jesus – II Timothy 2:12 – Rev 3:21 – (reign – The exercise of sovereign power)
2. We will rule over “many things” – Matthew 25:14-21,23 (rule –

1. to exercise control, dominion, or direction over, to govern)

2. governing power or its possession or use; authority

3. to dominate by powerful influence

4. to decide or declare judicially or authoritatively; decree

5. to be in total control or command, exercise supreme authority.)

1. c. We will “have authority” over cities.” Luke 19:17-19 (authority – the power to enforce laws, exact obedience command, determine or judge; power assigned by another, authorization)
2. d. We will serve Jesus – Rev 7:15 – Rev 22:3 (serve –
   1. 1. To work for
   2. 2. To be a servant to
   3. 3. To give homage and obedience
   4. 4. To be employed as a servant
   5. 5. To act in a particular capacity
   6. 6. To meet requirements or needs

What about rewards? Are there rewards in Heaven?

1. Matt.6:1-19 – Matt 10:41,42 – Matt 19:21
2. Hebrews 11:6
3. Luke 14:12-14 –12:33 – 18:22 – 6:21-23
4. John 6:27
5. Mark 9:41 – 10:21

What are rewards? Define: Something earned or attained by or for specific performance, behavior, actions.

The law of rewards: Our faith determines our eternal destination. Our behavior determines our eternal rewards.

Works = what we have done with our resources (time, energy, money, possessions, reputation, etc.).

What determines rewards? The “Bema” judgment of “works.” “Things done in the Body”

1. Matt. 16:27, Luke 12:48
2. John 5:28,29
3. Matt 7:24-26
4. Rev 20:22-15
5. II Corinth. 5:10
6. Romans 14:12
7. Matt 12:36
8. I Corinth 3:11-15
9. John 15:1-8

What is “fruit?” Eternal fruit = Lives turned toward God Fruit is the result of “good works.”

What does God say about works?

1. Titus 1:15,16 – 2:7 – 2:14 – 3:14
2. Matt 5:16
3. Ephesians 2:10
4. I Timothy 2:10 – 6:18,19
5. II Thessalonians 2:16,17
6. Rev. 14:13 – Rev 2:2 Rev 2:23 Rev 19:7,8
7. II Peter 1:10,11
8. II Timothy 3:16,17 – I Timothy 5:254

How then shall we live? Our answers will demonstrate our true values and create the basis for our eternal experience.

Think friends, please think!

First the macro. These are indeed difficult times and many of us are yearning for the return of the good times of the recent past. In this we are like the children of Israel who longed to return to Egypt. Egypt in the Bible represents the world and its strength and prosperity. Our ancestors had a very consistent record of turning to idolatry after a season of the Lord’s blessing and also first looking to Egypt for help when He brought chastisement on them for their sin. They cycled through this process multiple times.

Again, in the macro view I believe that this is a picture of our national situation. We aren’t Israel, but our nation was surely founded on the principles of God and intended to honor Him and to encourage us to live according to His ways. In many ways this commitment brought His blessings to our nation. As a nation we have been challenged in our understanding and application of this concept over the years but until just after He delivered us from evil attack
at the end of WWII we stood pretty true. The late 50s and 60s ushered in a season of rebellion and resistance to all authority including God, and to the worship of a materialistic, hedonistic form of life,basically idolatry, which has grown steadily to this day, leavening even our church culture.

I believe that, in the manner of our spiritual forefathers Israel when they sinned and turned from God, we are now in a time of chastening as a nation. Chastening always increases in intensity with the purpose of leading God’s people to repentance and restoration. God will not relent and the severity will increase until repentance is manifest. If and when true repentance comes God’s blessing is restored, but not before or until. In the Old Testament this most often came as a result of a prophet calling out leadership. (We are presently in a season where we are short of both!)

I’m sure that there were many in Israel who were not directly involved in the national sin but just sort of lukewarm as the nation slid down the slippery slope of turning from God to idols, but when the hammer fell, they were punished along with the worst offenders. As an example, although they weren’t guilty at all of the sin of the majority, Joshua and Caleb marched in the desert with all the rest for 40 years until the generation that sinned died off. There are always sinners and always a remnant, but there is also a “tipping point” with  God it seems. There comes a time where He says “Enough!” I believe that we are near or at that point right now.

Personally I believe that those hoping for a quick return to our recent past prosperity are going to be very disappointed as, in my opinion, things are likely to get worse, maybe much worse, before they can get better. The macro view can be discouraging, even depressing.

That’s why I praise God for the micro view. “I will always have all I need to do all God asks.” Each individual who responds in obedience to the call of God is taken under His wings in a way that the material world or the flesh will never know or understand. Each of us has been identified and called out by God to walk with Him and extend His Kingdom. As such the promise of constant supply is ours. Our area of influence is the marketplace. It is a critically important niche at this point of history. Business is the language of the world, perhaps the most universal form of communication since
Babel. If our country and our world is to be led in a turn from idolatry it will never happen apart from our niche and, it is very possible, if not likely, that it will lead it. Each of us has been given a holy work to do in His Kingdom and actually selected for such a time as this and equipped by God for the work from “before the foundation of the earth.” We are truly called to our role in the marketplace. May we walk worthy of our calling.

Two more points; Of course it is hard. It always has been. It’s not nearly as hard for us as it is for most of our brothers and sisters in the world, but it is hard in comparison to the spoiled life that we recently had, and had come to think that we deserve. Yes, it’s hard,but no one is dieing here, no one is starving, or tortured, or really persecuted – yet.

We are called not to a life of ease and pleasure but to a life of sacrifice and obedience that is centered in our service to others while being conformed to the image of our King as we walk His narrow path with Him.

Our associates are suffering under the pressure of the prolonged economic recession and the uncertainty of the ever-changing globalization process . Many of them are hurting and fearful because of the loss of, or threat to, idols such as personal wealth, reputation and financial security. So are some of us. Some of them will quit and run for Egypt.
Of course they will, they always have. Will we? Should we cry to our Father for a return to Egypt? Or should we expect to be exempted from the trials that those we are called to serve endure? I say NO! We are called to lead in faith under trial and in perseverance through adversity. How can we model these qualities to them and truly lead them if we are unwilling to be example to them? We are called to remind them that “God works all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose” and show them what that looks like applied by faith to real life. Our light shines brightest in adversity. Ours is a role that is true leadership, Christ-like, servant leadership. It is our destiny.

You will note that there is a question mark after the word ”Encouragement” in the subject line above. These words are surely not the “feel-good” fluff and “I’m OK, you’re OK” babble that many mistake for encouragement in our day, but they are reality. Our God, His call, and our life in Jesus Christ and His in us are reality. Eternal life and the rewards God has promised to His faithful servants are reality. His sovereign supply to do all He asks is reality. The cross and the
narrow path are reality and they guard the way to the joy of our Lord.

I pray that reality may bring refreshment to remind and to renew. May the joy of our Lord be our strength! Press on!

For the King our God and for the Lamb! Forever!

Of course some writers speak more clearly than others and seem to have a discernment that resonates within one in a special way. One such for me has always been A.W. Tozer. I have read much if not all of his published material over 30+ years and found him to be one of the most influential and reliable in terms of his commitment to and exposition of a Biblical, Christ-centered world-view. I commend him to any sincere follower of Jesus and doubt that any will be disappointed with their effort.

As an example, let me quote from his daily devotional “Renewed Day-By-Day”;

“A Compromise: The Church Must Change”

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine… and they wil turn away their ears from the truth… II Timothy 4:3,4

“Any evangelism which appeals by common interests and chatter about current events seeks to establish a common ground where the sinner can feel at home is as false as the altars of Baal ever were.

Every effort to smooth out the road for men and to take away the guilt and embarrassment is worse than wasted; it is evil and dangerous to the souls of men!

One of the most popular of current errors, and the one out of which springs most of the noisy, blustering, religious activity in evangelical circles, is the notion that as times change the church must change with them. Christians must adapt their methods by the demands of the people. If they want 10 minute sermons, give them 10 minute sermons! If they want pictures, give them plenty of pictures! If they like stories, tell them stories!

Meanwhile, the advocates of compromise insist that “The messgae is the same, only the method changes.”

“Whom the gods would destroy they must first make mad,” the old Greeks said, and they were wiser than they knew. The mentality which mistakes Sodom for Jerusalem and Hollywood for the Holy City is too gravely astray to be otherwise than a judicial madness visited upon Christians for affronts committed against the Spirit of God!”

Kind of leaves you wondering how he really felt doesn’t it? That’s one of the things I love about Tozer, he never does that, never tries to please or cater to feelings, or to please the middle of the bell curve of the contemporary culture. His clear call is always to “the upward call of God in Christ.” The lukewarm Christian never want to go there and always resist one who does. It will never be popular to truly follow Jesus and if popularity is your goal you will inevitably compromise with the clear teaching of Jesus to gain it.

But if you, like I, are tired of playing church and long for real and faithfully fruitful relationship with our Lord, you can do much worse that take a dose of Tozer daily along with a double dose of the Gospels. Focus on just the red letters for a season. Listen to the words of Christ first every day, and then take a shot of Tozer to chew on it. Digest if you will. It can transform your life.

Oh, and by the way, A.W. died in 1963. Wonder what he’d say today?

So, how’s it really working for us? Do you feel safer, more secure, and more happily prosperous than you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20? 40? 50?  Are we experiencing a “kinder, gentler” culture?

How is our public education system working? 50 years ago we were number 1 in the world. No one would dare to claim that today. Most estimates rank us in the 20s somewhere. Are we getting better?

How about our economy? 50 years ago we were the richest lender-nation in the world. Today we are the world’s greatest debtor-nation, our debt growing every time congress is in session. (Republican or Democrat)

This is progress? How the mighty have fallen! And where will the bottom be? And how did this happen?

Here is my take. It all started in the Garden of Eden and accelerated greatly when in 1960-61 the Supreme Court took God out of our public  schools. This opened the door to resisting ultimate authority and the rebellion against all authority of the 60s, including the sexual revolution fueled by the pill and resulting in the objectification of women. Sexual liberation brought none of the hoped for benefits to women and actually deprived them of the respect of men and severely damaged the integrity of the family unit. Men were freed from the responsibility of parenting children they fathered when aborting (murdering) unwanted children was legalized and amazingly recognized as a constitutional right by the Supreme Court. A society that accepts the killing of babies is not a “good society.” God was not considered to be a part of the decision to grant the right of a woman to murder her unborn baby either legally or morally.

Through the 60s and 70s all measures of societal health trended down leading to the greed and immoral public behaviors of leaders in government, business, and the church of the 80s and 90s which expands and continues to this day. Obscene rappers and immoral entertainers have become our “heroes” and the definers of acceptable behavior. Unwed and homosexual procreation are accepted and our vice-president just proclaimed that homosexual marriage will soon become the law of the land. (Elton John’s having a baby!)

We have lost shame. We have lost extrinsic standard. We are losing hope for a better tomorrow.

This is all the inevitable result of ignoring the truth of a statement made by Fyodor Dostoevsky when he said “Without God anything is permissible, crime is inevitable.” Our Founders knew this to be true.

John Adams said: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

George Washington echoed: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable parts.”

John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence is quoted: “Corruption of morals make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten material together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual.”

Has crime increased or decreased? How many prisoners do we have locked up as a percentage of our population today compared to 50 years ago? What is your chance of being a victim of violent crime today versus 50 years ago?

I could go on but it would be purposeless. The obvious fact is are that, when any honest person looks at the last 50 years they will see serious deterioration in our national moral standard which has led to the devastation of every measure of societal health.

Wonder how we have so lost our moral compass? If you want a clue go to http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010 and get a sense of what happened to the church in 2010 and possibly http://buckjacobs.com/think-about-this-two-huge-flaws for a short discussion of the two critical flaws that have contributed mightily to our current situation.

There is only one possible recourse to reverse our slide from a culture of hope to a culture of ever increasing despair – repent and turn to God. And if we who claim to follow Jesus won’t or don’t lead our culture to a better place – who will? (II Chronicles 7:14)

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.