To Him Who Believes

As my spirit was praying for you a few minutes ago I walked over to the living room window.  There along the path way that winds into the woods behind our home a young deer was walking.  He is a very beautiful creature.  His new growth of antlers has reached three to four inches and looks as though they are about to begin to fork into multiple points.  Because it is Saturday, the usual early morning dog walkers have not yet come to disturb his browsing on the fresh young branches and shrubs.  Despite the people built encroachments on his woodland, this young deer was living just as the Creator God intends him to live.

I am very glad you have found time to join me.  I have been asked several times recently how people can receive this blog automatically.  If you look up in the top right corner of this page you will see a spot to click that allows you to "Join this Site".  Click it and follow the instructions.

QUERY:  What is the essence of being a Christian ?  

Our traditions throw lots of answers at us for this all important question. 

• Go to church
• Be a good person
• Follow the 10 Commandments
• Speak in tongues
• Get baptized
• Belong to a particular group
• Pray
• Read the Bible

While all these things can be nice things to do they are all completely wrong answers and irrelevant to whether we are Christians.

The essence of being a Christian is our trust and belief that Jesus is who He says He is.

This, of course, is not new.  But its implications are profound.  Jesus says He is Truth.  Thus anyone or anything that disagrees with Jesus must be false and deceptive.  He is always trustworthy.  Please notice trust and belief are not the product of intellectual assessment of evidence.  Trust and belief are the result of setting ones will to trust and believe.

In the midst of that Truth, we hear Jesus say things about ourselves.  For example, by His Holy Spirit He declares you to be the Righteousness of God.  Can this be true ?  Are you in fact the Righteousness of God ?  If Jesus said it, it is true.  

This brings us to the mirroring essence of being a Christian.  Jesus has complete trust and belief that you are exactly who He says you are.  

Husband love your wife as Jesus loves His Bride, us, the true Church.  How does He love us ?  He chooses to believe in and trust us to be exactly who He says we are.  He then proceeds to lay down His life for us to make that transformation possible.  He empowers us to become exactly who He says we are.  So husband to love your wife, the essence of your marriage covenant is for you to choose to believe that she is exactly who Jesus says she is.  Then you proceed to lay down your life to empower her to be transformed just as Jesus says.  Please notice that Jesus does not wait until after we have been transformed to love us.  It is His deep love that empowers and encourages us to love Him and to receive the transformation He offers.  His love and belief are unconditional.  So also you need to let your love for and belief in your wife be unconditional.

Wife respect your husband.  This also is the mirror essence of the marriage relationship.  This response to love (respect, sometimes also translated reverence) is the choice to believe and trust that your husband is exactly who Jesus says he is.  It is a choice not based in your husband's performance. It is a choice based in your confidence that Jesus is Truth.  Moreover, confidence that Jesus by the power of His Spirit is both able and willing to persuade your husband to permit Jesus to bring about the needed transformation.

Tragically,  in our marriages there is an enemy at work.  The enemy is continually at work seeking to persuade us that Jesus is wrong.  This accuser is continually pointing out to us how our spouse has failed and falls short of what Jesus has said.  And let's be real, most of the time there is lots of evidence to persuade us that the accuser is absolutely right.  This person looks nothing like Jesus says he/she is.

Moreover, this spouse does not believe what Jesus says about either one of us.  How can I believe about this person what he or she does not believe.  How can I believe things that are the opposite of the way things look?  This comes back again to the essence of our trust and belief in Jesus.

But, this also brings us to a very important part of a healthy marriage.  The breakdown of marriages begins when either partner is unwilling to recognize and confess his/her failures to the other and to effectively repent.  When this does not happen consistently the ongoing failures operate to convince our partner that Satan's accusations are correct and Jesus is wrong.  That seed of doubt will grow rapidly as long as we insist on maintaining our pride and refuse to confess and repent effectively.

His, thus Yours, 

   Stuart