God-Centered in a God-Ignoring World

Jesus told the disciples that when the Spirit of truth comes “He will guide you into all the truth…He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you” (John 16:13-14).  Whatever it means for a people of God to be present in a community in the name of Jesus the Holy Spirit will make clear.  He is the Guide.  He is the One who, in the midst of God’s people, takes what Jesus has given and discloses it to the people of Jesus.  He will guide the people “into all the truth,” about what it means for Jesus to be who He is and what it means for Him to be in the midst of a people who call Him Lord.

All that the presence of the Holy Spirit means is focused toward glorifying Jesus.  As the people of God we are present to be guided by the Spirit to take what Jesus has given us and to use it as the source and foundation of our being faithful in this place at this time.  True to the Spirit, we also seek to glorify Jesus.  This is our mission, and it is our passion.

If someone asks you what the church is supposed to be doing just tell him or her that we are here to glorify Jesus.  We are here to be a recipient Christian community, who takes what we are given by God and then lives here in faithfulness to God and His Word.  That is why we worship and give ourselves to hearing and obeying the Word of God.  That is the context in which we fellowship and live out the implications of being a God-centered people in a God-ignoring world.

The key to our being present for God is for us to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit’s presence.  He knows what Jesus has, takes of it and then guides us into all the truth concerning it.   We are a Jesus-glorifying community because the Spirit is the Jesus-glorifying Spirit of God among us.

As we all seek to be a presence for God in the world we need to hear what God is saying to His local churches around the world.  I find a helpful and needful story in Exodus that might just help us all to realize that the work of God must be done according to the will of God, for the purposes of God, and for the establishment of the kingdom of God.

On the shore of the Red sea where faith and fact met face to Face, Moses made a most remarkable statement to the people of God. 

The army of the Pharaoh was behind them and the sea lay before them.  If the sea would not open up before them, they were in trouble – deep trouble.  But, on the seashore Moses said, “Do not fear!  Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today” (Exod. 14:13).  The rest is history.

As was their custom, in the spirit of grumbling the people of Israel took their eyes off of God and focused their attention on the situation at hand.  So it was that Moses stepped up to encourage the people. 

Apparently God was not impressed with the grumbling and told Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward” (Exod. 14:15). 

           

I’m not sure how to receive God’s statement here, but I sure like it.  I believe it signifies that if God is God in the group, then the group had just better “go forward” regardless of what lies ahead. 

But we might drown.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway.  But it doesn’t make sense.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway.  But the odds are against us.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway. 

So the question comes down to “Who is Lord around here, the sea or God?  Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit or the Sovereign power of Almighty God?”

I have decided that maybe trapped is not a bad place to be, because it forces us to know that the only way out is GOD

I invite you to hear and reflect upon a wonderful poem by E. Stanley Jones, which appeared in his book, The Christ of the Indian Road, (The Abingdon Press: New York, 1927), 144-145. Ever since I discovered the book and this poem, they have rocked my world. 

                                               Rick Savage

WHAT LIFE HAVE YOU?
WHAT LIGHT HAVE YOU?

I took my lamp and went and sat

Where men of another creed and custom

Dwelt together in bonds of common search.

I pressed my lamp close to my bosom,

Lest adverse winds of thought and criticism,

and the damp of unsympathy should snuff it out.

And many a trembling prayer hung upon my lips.

But I determined that I would love--just love.

I loved and listened and learned, and now and then

threw in a thought or word or observation.

I heard their gentle speech, saw their mild ways;

felt the Hand of Peace rest gently on my soul.

Here was not the tearing of the flesh,

nor the fierce agony of the spirit, in its quest for

                  God.

They gently searched and, through the crevices of

                  their thought,

the light of the Father's Face streamed in.

They caught the footfalls of the Mighty Spirit,

as he moved each moment through palpitating

                  Nature.

And I heard them tune their heartstrings to catch

                  the music

of God, as he hummed and sang through things.

But when, in sympathetic talk and mutual quest,

I asked the learned pundit whether he had found

A "jiwan mukta," one who knew deliverance, here

                  and now;

He sadly shook his head and said, "I have not seen."

In his voice spoke an aching world: "I have not

                  seen."

Then there stole within my heart a quiet joy;

for I saw, amid the search of peoples and races,

One standing who, with Chalice in hand, offered here

                  and now

to thirsty souls a crystal draught of life eternal,

which, if a man drink, he shall never thirst again.

Had I not drunk?  Had he not put the Chalice

To my parched lips, and, with thirst assuaged,

had not my happy soul gone singing down the years?

A child had thus revealed to him, through prayer and

Surrender of the mind and will, that for which

the wise and prudent had vainly searched

and caught but glimpses; while I, unworthy,

stood face to Face.

As I pondered thus, I glanced, with trembling, at my lamp--

And lo, it burned up brighter than before!