Some Things I Have Learned Along the Way

In light of the fact that I not only just celebrated by 66th birthday, but also am approaching my 60th year, as a Christian, I thought it appropriate that I share with you some of the things that He has taught me along the pathway of my journey, truths that for the most part did not come easily because in order for me to accept them, I had to set aside what I was taught, as a young Christian, by well-meaning significant others—things that I held as being very sacred:

1. God’s purpose for His children is to drive us to that place in which we find more pleasure in Jesus than we find in anyone or anything else and He will do whatever He knows to be necessary in order to accomplish that purpose. Those who believe that God’s purpose for us is to give us health, wealth, and prosperity in order to make us happy are deceived, and very much so.

2. God never intended for His church to use the many and varied tactics it uses, such as Sunday schools, drama productions, children’s ministries, youth ministries, rock bands, orchestras, coffee shops, gymnasiums, et al, to attract people to Him. As strange as it might seem, He intended for the gospel to be the truth that attracted people to Him, and, I might add, He has never placed Himself in competition with any rock band, youth ministry, slick tongued preacher, or anything else, for that matter, and He never will.

3. God did not design the modern-day plan for evangelism; He has, certainly, allowed it but it is not His design. The fact is God would never design any plan that exalts man and attempts to make Him a victim, which is in fact what most of protestant evangelism is about today.

4. The teachings of Jesus were never designed to be goals for which we strive; instead, His teachings were designed to further confirm the Law’s purpose—to define sin for us, to show us its exceeding sinfulness, and to drive us (in desperation, I might add) to Jesus as our only Savior—and in so doing, to fulfill the Law’s purpose.

5. God intended for us to spend large amounts of time in solitude; consequently, He did not devise the popular and controlling plan that requires us to be so busy doing His work that we would have no time for solitude. His plan offers us the opportunity and the time to spend our lives resting in His finished work—the work of redemption, so that we would not be distracted from spending large amounts of time in solitude. The truth is most of the “work of the Lord” with which we busy ourselves should be terminated immediately. Of this you can be sure: there has yet to live the man or woman who knows God intimately, who does not spend large amounts of time in solitude.

6. God did not design prayer to be the tool we use to manipulate Him into changing His mind so He will give us what we want. Much to the contrary, God intended prayer to be the means by which we find our way into submission to His will, regardless of whether or not it is what we desire. The truth is this: most prayer is selfishness shrouded in religion, even fasting prayer.

7. God loves the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper); consequently, He did not design it to be merely a memorial symbolized with saltine crackers and grape juice. Much to the contrary, He intended for the Eucharist to be just that—the giving of thanks by a believer. This Eucharist is expressed through the eating of unleavened bread (the body of Christ) and the drinking of wine (the blood of Christ), signs that become through the work of the Holy Spirit true food and true drink in the life of the believer—true, spiritual nourishment. The Eucharist is not about what man can do for God; instead, it is about what God has done for man.

8. The most difficult part of living the Christian life (other than I cannot live it) is maintaining the courage required to take the risk of living in intimate relationship with other believers. To be sure, the desire is ever-present; however, I have come to believe that it might be easier to live as a hermit (well, I don’t really believe that—yet!).

9. Every one of us is self-centered and, consequently, we do very little (if anything) out of pure motives. Virtually, everything we do, we do with some selfish purpose in mind, even though it is often very covert; consequently, it is very difficult to trust man—even those, who call themselves Christian.

10. God never intended for the church to be another arm of corporate America, whose purpose and mission (although disguised in so-called not-for-profit ministry) is to make money, at the expense of the very people to whom it claims to minister; instead, He intended the church to be the Body of His Son, Jesus, whose purpose is to die, in order that others might live.

11. God intended for the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelation to be His revelation of Jesus, not a rule book for successful living and the sooner we realize this, the clearer our revelation of Him.

12. Worship is not something we do for God or for His children; instead, it is something we do because He is God and we are His children, and this tells me much about most of what the church calls worship.