We Speak

[phareztamar]

CHAPTER TEN

WE SPEAK

Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

As we travel this winding, narrow way, we grow. We grow in grace and knowledge. We grow more intimate with our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. And we grow old. It’s a rough road, but wonderful just the same. In fact, life was made, for humanity to find this narrow way. To feel its dirt between your toes…to leap over its potholes…to scale its sheer cliffs. And so engaging is this narrow way, that we can completely drift away from our fellows. Different passions take us down different paths. Now…our affections are set on things above. Now, our treasures are laid up in heaven. And erelong, we may find ourselves alienated, from the very world we live in. Though our bodies and minds are at home…at work…yet are we wanderers in a strange land. Still hubby…still dad…still a shift mechanic…but ever harder to reel in our heart, from far, far away.

On this path, every journey through the word of God, yields the new fruit, of that year’s harvest. Each reading pulls us deeper into those spiritual things…which the Holy Ghost teacheth. It is a mind boggling journey. As gentlemen of industry, we want to do well…for our families, and for the comforts it affords. Yet the more we grow, the dimmer even these comforts become. A monkish existence even starts looking good.

Yet, the Spirit does not allow us, to so rest on our laurels. We are to make noise…make a stir. We are to make all men see…with urgency…and by all means. We have not the luxury, of awestruck silence. Those wonderful things that the Holy Ghost teaches us, are supposed to be which things also we speak. As the apostle so fitly spoke: woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.

For all of eternity past; there was no man…no earth…no universe. So, what’s been going on for gazillions of years…prior to our Genesis? Between eternity past, and eternity future; why did God choose now, to float our 7,000 year capsule of time? Given the utter vastness of the universe; why did God choose here…on the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy…to put the earth, and the story of life? And in that huge, endless universe; how did sin find the earth? Why was it allowed to contaminate the entire life capsule? Why can the spiritual realm see us, but we can’t see them?

Whatever went on for eternity past…we know only that God was there. And knowing this, we know that love was there. Holiness, mercy, and truth were there. All that we know about our God…from his word…was there. For our God never changes.

To live, to work until we retire, and then to die…holds not a hint of eternal purpose. To live such a life, denies that God had a reason, for speaking creation into existence. It ignores the cold hard fact, that from the nursery, we are sentenced to die. It supposes that there is no forever…and that life doesn’t have eternal consequence.

By the time we do retire, our bodies are broken, and the wood is rotted through. The wood we used to build a floor, over that eternal void…in the cavity of our soul…so we could get on with our lives. Now, the floor is falling through. We can no longer silence its call. Because through even our happiest final leisure’s, death looms on the horizon…closer in our winter years, than ever before. And contemplating the end of our life, makes for bone-rattling meditation.

Salvation is a 6,000 year old revelation. It rests at the very core, of God’s eternal plan. Salvation is splashed across the poetry of creation…and is weaved deeply throughout the word of God. Every year, the death of autumn…and the burial of winter…give way to the new life of spring. You see, the fall in Eden was not some unforeseen accident…not a fracture in the plan of God. Emmanuel…Pentecost…The Church…these aren’t God’s damage control measures. This is His plan. This always was His plan. And like a detailed map overlay, your own salvation experience, should harmonize with the entire 6,000 year mystery. Your new birth, must deal with sin versus holiness…and answer why, we are condemned to die. Your born again experience; must qualify for eternal purpose…match the first Pentecost…and agree with thousands of allegories in the scriptures.

This truth…this born again experience…is not a multiple choice quiz. In pursuit of the narrow way, there are right answers, and there are wrong answers. By design, you’re free to believe what you will, all the way to the grave. But your belief doesn’t change the location of the strait gate. It is in a fixed location, forever settled in his Word. No matter when you lived…on this 6,000 year timeline…there has always been but one, true doctrine of salvation…just as there is today. Because God’s plan…his eternal purpose for man…remains unchanged from the beginning.

Our purpose in eternity…our role in God’s plan…our forever occupation…is still unclear. We know that our bodies…infected by sin…return to the dust. We know that our spirit…the breath of life…returns to God who gave it. Our soul is eternal going forward, and is destined for great, regal things…much too fabulous to speak of. But God has ordained, that this soul must first enter through a strait gate, and travel a narrow way. It must be redeemed…crushed, and re-born. It must be tried by the fires of life, to prepare for the glory of eternity.

We know…in that forever place…that the very heart of our holy God, is great love. And so we believe in light, and not darkness. This human soul…housed in this body…is a vessel of untethered free will, ignited by the breath of life. There are billions of us. And of all living things, only we, can consider the way before us. Cows don’t contemplate the vastness of the universe. Bears want only a fish…not a reason why. Leukocytes care not a whit for eternal purpose. They were created for a single purpose. Only man, can think these thoughts.

Turns out, that by the very design of free will, God’s eternal purpose is reserved for a very few. Those who come to realize, that free will is actually a speeding, runaway car…with a small child at the wheel. Too small to see the road…too short to reach the brake…but steering like crazy. It’s reserved for those few who are drawn by God to repentance. Those who realize, it is their very own filth-by-birth, which condemns them to die. All our lives, we’ve succumbed to that filth…that law of sin…flowing in our veins. Perhaps fully tasting the shame and guilt of what we are, is somehow a stamp on our soul, required for eternity. Our reason for forever, requires the results…the impact upon our soul…of falling on the Rock, and being broken. Like chisels to the soul, the events of your life are in the master sculptor’s hand.