Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Music of, Life, and Everything "IT" Changes



“Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek the gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his gospel soak into your soul.” 

C.H. Spurgeon


 It happened many thousands of years ago and was recorded in philosophical and banned texts, that were presented before the religious leaders and Orders.  Many were tagged as cover-ups for the purpose of keeping the masses understanding the truth as they could handle it.

There was a ban on the “scientific” exploration and discovery of this Gospel, and yet manifest truth would not be quenched.  It was the sacrilege and heresy of the day, and was branded of the devil. There is little doubt in this authors mind the father of lies (he doesn’t get capitals grammar correct or not) smiled at such a "branding."

It played out in so many arenas of history.  To research and footnote is not the purpose of this.  Instead ripened purpose is for reintroduction, of the divine amidst the dull, and the drab. 
In fact you're experiencing this Gospel right now even as you read.  Don't be mistaken it is not “a gospel,” but the real unadulterated Gospel of truth of Jesus Christ. It is preceding and continuing after the man of Jesus himself.

No, it is not a watered down new age way of looking at the world.  It is creation aching for us to see, and to hear in full stereo sound.  For all to witness, the story of Jesus was both the corner stone and the capstone to “The Grand Riddle.”

For those who would refuse to see and hear, that stone became a stumbling block.  A path marker  many might regain balance from in their journey. For some though, a stumble so great, because their myopic world view and tunnel vision of Messiah, this could not be complete in such a way as “This.”
Have you discovered the riddle yet? The answer?

I hope so... I hope not...

It is the unsolvable equation, for it continues through eternity.  It is however, the known glimpse into reality that most of us have missed.  It is The Gospel.  And though I believe there is an expounded Gospel that comes through Jesus Christ, the essence of it is what we proclaim, and believe.

 This Gospel is simplified for the cause of Paul’s letter in 1 Corinthians 15, but the student knows that it involves a grander scope (not a greater complex understanding), than the three fold 1. Christ died for our sins. 2. He was buried. 3. He was raised.

Do not misunderstand me.  This is it! The Gospel boiled down to its essence.  But to say these three things assumes a lot of background underpinning knowledge.

Let us assume though that you already are in possession of those parts that support this 3 fold brief statement of Paul, a solid understanding of what The Gospel (the good news) is. 

Have you yet noticed its place your world yet?  

Have you noticed that nature has held this truth of what was to happen even before the fall of man?  I mentioned part of this in a past post “The Burden of the Cross, Seeds, and A Transformed Life.”  That Jesus himself gave the analogy of a kernel of wheat.  How it must die, fall to the earth, and then be raised.

What if the above analogy was not an analogy (as we should understand the concept of the word), at all?  What if it were the hidden truth, that prophecy and teachers, and the evil one, would not recognize.  Even though it was replayed over and over again thousands of times in an hour, all over the globe, both before and after the Christ came.  And when He came the Gospel was the defining proof of God’s exquisite orchestration?

Travel with me for a moment in questions:  What must happen for you to eat an apple?  Yes. Yes, there are the cute answers we can all give where we talk about human interference with the natural progression… but naturally speaking?  It must grow into an apple before eating an apple right?  From where did that apple grow?

 “An apple tree,” you so wisely reply.

And from where did that tree come from?

Some might get hung up here with the concept of grafting and saplings and the like but when pressed your answer is drawn to, “It grew from an apple seed.” 
 
And did that apple seed get plucked from a watermelon, and immediately get planted, so a tree might begin, and more apples might be produced?

“No…” you reply, understandably wary of such questions.  “Like all other things, according to Genesis 1.11ff, it came from its own kind.  And before it was planted it needed to remain dormant, in a sense ‘die’.”

Aha! You already know!

What about the body then? What cells are really the only ones that go through no change or mitosis in their life span?

After consideration of how the question above is worded your reply is, “Sex cells I suppose.”
And you would be right.  

Now, let’s begin to allow this to unfold without the “Q and A.”  For a sperm and an egg in all vertebrates, that I am aware of, (granted I’m not a biologist), to continue in life they must give up what they are to produce a life.

A sperm does not a person make. An egg does not a person make.  Only the combination or, “death” of the one, planted into the other does a person make.  It lives, it dies, it is raised again.
As you look around you this IS the process by which life is given to all things of the natural world.  It was alive, it had to die, and only then it became something new, alive and dare I say it REBORN.

We could even go into the wonderful poetic relational side of this, but let’s save that for another time.
This is the concept with which Nicodemos struggled, in talking with Jesus.  “How can a man be born into a new life if he is old?”

In light of the above thoughts consider Nic-at-Night’s discourse with Jesus below, and see if there is fresh meaning to it:

John 3.3f
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
Did it resound differently this time?  I hope so!

What then of Romans 12?  When Paul says, “do not be conformed to the world… be transformed into ‘Christ’s’ likeness...”  He is speaking of this renewed or dead body and mind becoming something different. Something that is LIFE… So Many more examples, but I’ll stop with these for the moment.
Yes, one can argue over semantics, or that a Christian body  (by example of Jesus) will be the same after it’s raised from the dead, …only different and transformed; or other arguments about angels dancing on a pin-head (pun intended).  But those arguments simply dilute the Truth of it all, which is to say this:  “The Gospel is proclaimed every moment of everyday in some fashion!”

Why make this point?  You may draw your own conclusion, and applications.  But for me it is this:  If I don’t proclaim God’s greatness, His Gospel of Truth that is proved through Jesus.  If I refuse to declare the wonder of possibility to all who would hear…, the rocks and trees and birds, and all of creation are going to do it in my stead.  

I believe he would much rather nature to be 3rd and 4th chair instruments in this Orchestra.  God has called us into the Solo, and 1st chair positions, when he commanded us to “Go.”  Then, with Christ as the conductor, the music produced His flowing and dynamic Spirit, and The Almighty as the composer that has breathed life into it all.

The orchestration is played, but what sweat melody is missing when I refuse to listen to the composer and conductor?  

"I don’t want the spotlight of a soloist; I want the music to be pure. For I believe this is the desire of the Almighty: My desire, harmonizing into the unity of His Wholeness, for the purpose of all creation. When his Church does this, the dissonant (out-of-tune, chords of death), are seamlessly woven into a musical tapestry of Perfect pure LIFE. Life born from a mother's water, and then Born of the Spirit.

HIS desire, to be my desire, to be an instrument of all surpassing PEACE. Peace, as death looses it’s terrible sting, and LIFE reigns.

In the “Upside Down, Backward Kingdom,” THIS is the song that plays."

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