So here’s what I’ve learned about writing a book and getting it published. 

1. Writing is relatively easy compared to…
2. Getting Published. 

Writing is not necessarily easy but getting published in today’s marketplace is a feat of extraordinary proportions. Here’s the very short version of what it takes. 

One must have a Platform. A Platform is very simply a large network of people, organizations, contacts, etc. that can easily be turned into buyers.  In other words, one has to have a huge network of friends that see his name and say, “I’ll buy that” because “he” wrote it. Absent that, publishers are typically not interested.  It costs too much to edit, print, promote, etc. a book if a high probability of success can’t be proven before the project begins. 

So what if you have the passion for a subject, ability to write compelling material, and professionals in the industry confirming that your work should be published - But NO Platform? Don’t get me wrong – I have a very small (and dear) platform of friends and acquaintances who are interested in me and the subject matter of my work - I’m not having a pity party. What I don’t have is the ability to be a shameless self-promoter or reach thousands of people interested in buying a book simply because it has my name on it. Nor would I want that. I wish my name to never be the draw for the sale of a book. I want to write clearly Biblical challenges that help the Body of Christ to live victoriously in a fallen world – it’s that simple.

The encouragement I've received from many Christian leaders is that this book NEEDS TO BE PUBLISHED - it will truly help thousands of Christians that have been hurt by fellow believers. With that compelling encouragement I have decided to take another swing at getting the book to print.  I have landed on a way forward that I would like you to consider helping me with. I have a Publisher willing to meet me two thirds of the way (*see his comments below, reprinted with his permission). He will invest $10,000.00 if I will invest $5000.00. I don’t have $5000.00, nor do I have 5000 friends with $1 each. But I do have you and potentially your friends. And I also have the finished manuscript, which I will GIVE YOU in PDF form for any donation amount. My hope is that you will read it, consider it worthy of publishing in book form, and tell your friends about it. 

USE THE "DONATE" LINK ABOVE. !!IMPORTANT!! - ONCE YOU'VE DONATED YOU WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY TAKEN TO THE SITE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF. IN THE EVENT THAT THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN PLEASE EMAIL CHURCHONENOW@GMAIL.COM AND WE WILL EMAIL THE LINK TO YOU.  Thank you in advance for your support!

*Publishers Comments

Dear Mr Turner,

I have personally read your MS with much interest. Apart from a couple of minor details, more matters of presentation, I must say that you have done an excellent job with a difficult subject. Obviously it will have critics, we must disarm as far as possible. We will not win everybody. We must, and I believe you do, make the case solidly from God's Word.

This is a work our publishing house would be delighted to engage with. If published, we would trust that under God, it would have opportunity to help take the heat out of many an argument and have us focus on other equally valid and important truths.

Should you feel comfortable to move forward, I will have any questions addressed, either by myself or directly by the person responsible.

Sam Lowry PUBLISHER

Ambassador International (800) 209-8570

www.ambassador-international.com

WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN AUTOIMMUNE SPIRITUALITY - COMPELLING AND CRITICAL INFORMATION FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN AND EVERY CHURCH!

AutoImmune Spirituality: When the Church Attacks Her Own.

Overcoming and preventing the most common source of pain in many Christian lives. Healing torn relationships and restoring relational connection between brothers. The key to advancing the Gospel in a love starved world. Drawing close to Christ by caring about what He cares about.

• The two life altering things on Jesus’ mind the night before He died on the cross. 
• The most powerful rebuke to the early Church and how to avoid it for yourself, your church, or your Christian ministry.
• THE EVIDENCE the Church presents to the world to prove that God loves them and sent Jesus to die for them.
• The wisdom of God about differences in the Body of Christ and how to deal with them.
• The healing power of rightly relating to believers with whom we disagree. 
• The Bible passages that confront personal “truth” attacks and give instruction on how to stop them.
• The rare occasions when Christians are commanded to avoid or separate from other Christians.
• The importance of recognizing “Those who Can and Those who Can’t”.
• The Apostolic challenge to the modern Church to address what may be the greatest hindrance to our Gospel witness in the world. 
• The dividing line between Christian and Non-Christian – what Christians must agree on. Or, What makes us Christian. 

I’ve come face to face with an enemy in the last few days. Horrid, twisted, silent, devilish. Capable of immense devastation. One who delights at ripping hearts to bits, creating bottomless wells of emotion I don’t really know how to deal with. An enemy that masks himself in laughter and old stories to hide the pain – maybe hide is not correct – to endure the pain. An enemy that stalks an entire crowd even as they gather to remember and honor one of his victims.

I despise his frothing malice, his knowing sneer, his absolute confidence of victory. I stand like an angry, red-faced child looking at him, powerless to stop his pursuit and his reckless arrogance. I want to scream at him, pound my fists into his chest, and make him go away. I want him to die! And that’s exactly what Death wants of me.

And yet I know something very keenly. I know in that room where the crowd gathered and he stalked and weighed out his next victim he lost a little bit. Some of his power was drained. I’m certain of this because there was a room full of living, loving people gathered to remember Life and a Loved one. We filled the room with a humble defiance of everything our enemy stands for. We determined to push back at his callous advance. We set aside rivalries and bitterness and misunderstanding, knowing them to be petty and small compared to the reality of life that pulsed around us. We hugged, laughed, and said uncomfortable things but we lived and in so doing, frightened our scowling adversary!

Many of us in the room knew even more. We know this enemy as a shriveling coward, striking from a secret place, never showing himself, always skulking around the corners of life, too ashamed to crawl out from his shadowy lair. We know his influence is relegated to a passing time.  He knows even as he rages that his end is certain. The day is coming when this monster Death will begin his eternal dying. Right now for many, death has no sting! He has been rendered utterly impotent by one with power - unrivaled, unimaginable, raw, limitless, death crushing, life exuding power!

Even as I watched death celebrating in the corner I knew he couldn’t see the brightness and glory of his conqueror towering over him. He chuckled like a scorned and lonely bully, taking pleasure in causing pain, but his laughter hollowed out in the presence of a resounding peal of victory. I know the truth. I know that Life stands ready to annihilate death.  I know there is a resurrection. I know that death cowers in the reality of his certain defeat.

I know that Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will never die.” Nobody talks like this unless they are insane or they can back up the claim. Have any of my friends or loved ones ever told me that they can be my life? Overcome death for me? Conquer my most feared and hated enemy while giving me abundance above and beyond anything I could ever ask or imagine? Either he is capable of doing just what he said or he is an absolute evil. To claim so much and deceive so many would be abominable. If not true, he cannot be considered good. If true, my greatest enemy is slain!

Knowing this, I see death as an insolent whelp; a whimpering, angry, powerless, puny god (to quote a large green man). He’s a pretender, insecure, frightened, anxious, and mean but he is no threat. The Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of the living and the dead. Death has robbed him of none that he has saved. Death is simply the threshold into a ravishing love meant for everyone who will believe. The journey to that threshold begins the moment we die to ourselves and live unto God. My greatest desire is to know for myself and every one of my friends and loved ones that we share this great confidence – Christ has conquered death for me and will raise me up so he can love me eternally. This is my hope for Darren and for everyone who hates death with a holy passion!

James is encouraging us to treat as the prince of graces, every trial of every kind that surrounds us. Usher in every trial as if it were a king, esteem its presence as you would a great royal (not a royal pain): whether it be from God (Luke 22:28, Acts 20:19, 1 Peter 1:6), from internal battle with sin (Luke 8:13, 1 Cor. 10:13, 1 Tim. 6:9, Luke 4:13), or from external pressure to sin or despair (1 Peter 4:12 Matt. 26:41).  These variegated trials are to be cherished as means to holiness and grace. Conflict is a minister of grace. James is all-inclusive of the types of trials – the word “various” meaning many-colored, multi-striped, or dappled with different hues.

This is an incredible picture to describe what our attitude toward conflict should be! James is asking us to welcome trials/temptations as we would welcome a regal king or queen. Imagine the fuss and toil to prepare for such a visit!  This idea of conflict as royalty comes from the word James uses. The word esteem (consider or count) is a word rooted in the idea of giving honor to imperial figures. James uses this word to describe the joy, anxious anticipation, delight, and diligence we should exercise when engaging with trials that enter into our lives. Not that we are signing gold leaf invitations for more of them – but that when they come we see them as gifts of God sent to perfect us. Even more powerful is the nuance Thayer’s Greek Lexicon adds to the use of the word. He says esteem “denotes a belief not resting on one’s inner feeling or sentiment, but on the due consideration of external grounds, the weighing and comparing of facts.” In other words when we consider the usefulness of conflict to create character it is not a subjective (touchy, feely) whim, it is a truth proposition based on the integrity of God. God says to “consider” conflict a joy! Weigh the evidence – God is working in your crucible of grace!

That’s driving in the rearview mirror to me. Joy is the last emotion I conjure up when facing trials. It’s a contentious correction of my normal response. I’m provoked by this approach and also humiliated that I so seldom get there. But it’s such a radical challenge that it summons me. I want an about-face in my attitude toward suffering. I want to bow to it in honor, expectation, and triumph. I want to be in the holy place of welcome for those friends who would make me more like Jesus. I want joy in the midst of trial so I want James to continue drawing me toward this extreme contradiction to my standard response.

Is God’s instruction a shock to you? Does it surprise you that the Lord directs us into an entirely supernatural attitude toward suffering? Does it irritate you that He does not allow us one moment to gripe about our circumstances or wallow in our “woe is me” self pity? Isn’t it a little perturbing that we can’t invite the attention of others to our trials for a little sympathy? Can’t we indulge ourselves in a rousing chorus of the old Hee Haw number, “Gloom, Despair, and Agony on me, Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me!”

The short answer - No! Why? Because to do so denies the very reason God allows trials to come. These royal guests come with Gifts! They come bearing “an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones” like the queen of Sheba brought to Solomon. (1 Kings 10:10) God sees the gifts brought by His noble ambassadors as worth more treasure than all the empty dainties brought by our self-appointed kings and queens. The store of wealth they bring is of eternal value – unfading, stainless, lasting, fulfilling, and precious. Once their incomparable value captures us, penetrates us, we will find ourselves welcoming these imperial visitors in ways we never imagined. James is going to give us unrestricted access into the regal planning room to reveal to us just what God has in mind for us. He is the giver of “every good and perfect gift” – Want to see what He’s got working for you?

Conflict Sucks! But it just might be my best friend.

Saying that conflict sucks is shouting the human perspective out loud. It’s the earth’s-eye view. Seeing conflict as a good thing is almost never in my range of thought. I see trials, temptations, testings, and the like as gross inconveniences to my comfortable daily doings. I can say very glibly (especially with no conflict on the horizon) that we all grow when tested. I can repeat the worn illustrations of the tree that is strong because it endured the fiercest winds. I can trip merrily along on these quaint idioms until real, raw, conflict stalks into my world. Then I hate it. I want it out faster than it came in. I want relief and I want my comfort back. I don’t want the pressure and I don’t believe that it can really do me any good. There it is – that’s where I live. How about you?

So where did I get this idea about conflict maybe being my best friend? From James, the guy that many would characterize as being the sternest apostle of them all. We are going to learn that the various trials that come into our lives, regardless of their origin in evil or good, are to be esteemed like royal monarchs. They are to be honored and given heed as if they were kings and queens in full ceremonial regalia. They are to be treated as some of our dearest friends – not because of the pain and displeasure they bring – but because of the refining and fruit bearing they produce in us. James will show us that great gain often hides in the folds of displeasure and great loss is sewn tightly into the broad fabric of self-interested pleasure.

And what about the things that make me happy or bring pleasure? Where do you get off telling me they may be my worst enemies? We love pleasure don’t we! We are all closet hedonists. We want what we want. We know that pleasure as a gift of God is not evil so we excuse many of our wanton pursuits. I’m not speaking of God given pleasures and neither is James. James will be pointing out to us those pleasures that have slithered into the camp of the righteous masquerading as virtues. Those masked manifestations of our dark but lively old man. The ones we excuse and nurture and brandish at the time most appropriate to our advantage. The ones that are truly our darkest enemies posing as our dearest friends. He is about to expose them to the white-hot light of holiness. He will show us our love for them and make us recoil from ourselves in the realization. James never shoots but that he unloads the whole clip. Gird up, my brother, to face the man in the mirror.

That conversation took my brain out of idle and shifted me into another gear. Living in the “idiot light” zone seems a common theme for me. I haven’t traditionally been very good at paying attention to warning lights. I’m a “foot on the gas” at the yellow light kind of guy. Braking is only a last ditch fallback. My mindset is - I can always go another 50 miles with the light on. Maybe you, or your husband, are the same.

God uses “idiot lights” you know. The Bible is replete with cautions to pay heed to the pitfalls of life. A quick reference search for “take heed” in the KJV reveals no less than 65 passages that warn us to pay attention – at least 65 “idiot lights” for us. I’m sure there are many more – we seem to need frequent alerts. 

One of the most poignant of these warnings is found in Galatians 5:15. It reads, “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

At first glance this seems like a very strange analogy –  a reference to some sort of cannibalism – a little freaky to my ears. Paul is setting up a stark contrast with this phrase. Paul utters this immediately after saying, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Vs. 14” Cannibalism Vs. Love is the message. The analogy is shocking but valid. We do have a tendency to cannibalize one another – we do bite and we do devour. Been bitten lately? Have any bite-mark scars from past attacks? Are you a biter?

I’m continually amazed at how much devouring goes on within the Kingdom. If you are reading this blog my guess is that you read others and maybe you keep up with some of the controversies within the Church. If you’ve entered the scary world of the Christian blogosphere then you may well have seen Christian Cannibalism up close. (Not that blogs are the only place this happens!) It’s a frightening and often disgusting experience. Snarky comments, arrogant accusations, fangs out, eyes afire, slavering saints ripping at other saints with the ferocity of a feeding frenzy. Sometimes I think there are believers that lie awake at night lusting for the next fight. They feel no life unless there’s a battle.

Paul was God’s instrument in a similar frenzy. He flicked the “idiot light” on with the intention that it shine brightly in our eyes when we are tempted to exalt correctness over concern for our brothers. The love of truth (or their own idea of truth) had pumped the Galatians into a snarling, thrashing, flesh tearing, and bloody fight. The clear warning is that the fight for truth threatened to consume the Body. We could never rightly accuse Paul of not loving truth so let’s not think that he is asking us to put truth aside for love. The warning light is against destruction – take heed that you don’t destroy your brother with your appetite for your infallible position.  

The stinging brilliance of this warning is that Love doesn’t trump Truth – Love trumps being right! Love is ONE with Truth – they are completely impossible to separate! If we decide to bite and devour for the sake of our prized position – be warned – we might be consumed! We never ignore God’s warnings without consequences. In this case we don’t just run out of gas – we drive straight into the jaws of destruction. We threaten ourselves, and those we are supposed to love, with extermination. It’s serious business to kill the Bride!

If you find yourself in the midst of a fight and the “idiot light” flickers in your soul – take heed. If you can’t slow your own momentum – get help. If the brakes are failing – call a mechanic. If the car is out of gas – find a filling station. If you’ve tried everything you know of and haven’t found peace or resolution – contact us at churchone! We want to help! Don’t hesitate – cautions come before casualties.

The servant girl was an Israelite and as we said, the leper was an Aramean. Aram was a border country of Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet and Jehoram, king of Israel, son of Ahab. In those days marauding bands of Aramean soldiers would assault Israeli villages with intense raids. They would attack swiftly, grabbing what they could, killing any who resisted, and plundering anything of value. It was dry-land piracy meant to weaken the enemy’s borders and enrich the king of Aram.

Caught up in one of these raids was a small family unable to resist the onslaught of ruthless warriors. I’m sure they would have traded anything they had in place of what was to be taken.

The common events of the day were precious although unrealized – a normal family going about daily chores with uneventful, maybe even mundane, toil and happiness. Children probably laughed and played, maybe got a little cantankerous, but lined up with smiles when poppa came in from the fields. Then the evening meal, poppa relating stories about Yaweh’s might and faithfulness, a little firelight flickering on his brow and cheeks as he told of Adam, and Noah, and Abraham, and then to bed. The house was warm, tummies full, and no fear intruded upon the children’s minds as momma and poppa sang their hearts softly to sleep.  Soon all the lights were out and the day’s weariness was fading into dreams.

The night was silent, a gentle breeze rattled the leaves just outside the window of the small home, no rumor of what was about to happen reached any member of the little family. Then, Crack! The door burst open like an explosion. All eyes jolted wide open! The little families’ house was just outside the cluster of homes huddled into the small arms of the village.  They were the first to feel the assault. Shock, fear, confusion, and raw aggression were the tools of the raiders. The family was engulfed in the maelstrom. Merciless men clutching at anything with greedy determination. The little family powerless to defend. The young mother instinctively lurched for the children and clenched them tightly. The oldest of the children, a young girl, following her mother’s lead, grabbed up the baby and put her quickly into momma’s arms.  Hostile men with strong arms callously ripped the girl from her mother just as momma took the little one. Rough voices shouted, “take the oldest, leave the babies, they’ll do for the future. Take anything of value.”

Through the melee she heard poppa’s strained voice, “NO, NO – take me, take me. Not my precious…” He was knocked to the ground silent before his plea was finished. Mother screamed, groaned, cried, and heaved in a mixture and wrath, grief, and terror. Everything was over in a flash. Into the night the little girl was swept, fires were burning, children screaming, men fighting, mother’s wailing and cursing the Arameans. The band fled as quickly as they had come, leaving behind devastation, emptiness, and ruin. Families had been torn apart, fathers killed or wounded, mother’s left to contemplate the horror of what might be happening to their stolen children. Children were left bewildered, wondering what became of their brothers and sisters, daddies and mommies, and all the happy days recently past. 

Night passed, the little girl recovered quickly. She had wise parents. They had prepared her for the horror of the night before. They always knew the danger of the border and spoke of it often so to keep everyone alert. It had been long though since any trouble had arisen but now it was upon her. She was alone in the hand of ruffians and scared, just a young girl who had been viciously torn from her home. The home where until recently she had played on the floor with her siblings, helped her mommy in the kitchen, and been loved tenderly by father and family. She gathered herself and determined not to be afraid. She would trust Yahweh and all would be well. She was now a slave – on the block to be sold – but retained that strength that comes with confidence.

The Captain always liked strength - He had risen to become the favorite of the king because of his. Power in battle, leadership, stealth in raids, ability to command a victory, had all given him a uniquely prominent position with the Aramean king. He was Captain of the mighty Aramean army – chief among fighting men. Weakness was his enemy, power his companion. He recognized might when he saw it. He saw strength in the young girl. She had a sort of inner potency he admired. He wanted only the most noble to serve in his house so quickly chose this one to wait on his wife. “She will do nicely for my dearest,” he mused.

The girl held her head high as she was escorted to the Captain’s estate. It was enormous – bought with and filled with the spoils of war. He was wealthy. There were people everywhere, mostly slaves, but family members and fellow soldiers also tended to the Captain. She was introduced to the Captain’s wife as her new slave – to wait on her every whim. She knew her place – she had heard the tales. Do everything precisely and with respect or suffer the consequences. The Captain’s wife was gracious to her husband and thanked him. She was in turn kind to the girl with the sort of kindness one shows to human property. Not cruel but nothing close to intimate – a distant benevolence due to a good nature.

The girl worked heartily for her mistress. Always waiting upon her with diligence and a smile. Never cross. Never impertinent. She did her crying at night. Her heart burst for her momma and poppa. Would she ever see them again? Would she ever hear them sing to her as she fell asleep, ever with a free heart play with her sisters and brothers, ever walk the paths of her little village, ever feel loved again? She prayed and gushed her heart to Yahweh, silently her tears streamed into her pillow, silently she gathered strength for the next day.

Time passed and the girl grew in favor with her mistress and her God. She always carried a cheery disposition, always a help to her mistress. She was sensitive, knowing when to approach and when to keep distance. She trusted Yahweh. She prayed constantly. She longed for her family but found friends in the Captain’s estate. She came to be relied upon. She heard the daily discourse of the joys and sorrows of her captors and she felt them. She never grew hard. She waited.

Time brought change. Something new sneaked in. A whispered tension pervaded the Captain’s estate. Everyone felt it. To the house of strength came a great weakness. A spirit of measured grief crept into every heart at the news. Gallant, but knowingly fearful, was every soul upon hearing the murmurs. The Captain’s wife was most affected. She was strong and unwilling to show her inner turmoil, but the slave girl could sense her distant despair.  News like this could not be held silent long, muttered in the shadows when the Captain was away. Soon the Captain’s demeanor, normally steady as a rolling stream, became a bubbling cascade of confused emotions. Crashing and splashing against rocks here and there, sometimes pooling into a deep still, sometimes pulsing over a great precipice like a vengeful waterfall. Everyone was on eggshells, full of pity, fearful to say the wrong thing.

The Captain was face to face, skin to skin, with the enemy of his life. He was in a pitched battle with the greatest foe known to any of his kind. He wrestles an invisible adversary, a ruthless rival, one without pleasure in victory, no pain in loss, no emotion, will, or passion, nothing to limit its effectiveness in battle, no mercy, no ability to feel its own pain – the perfect killer – Naaman is a leper. His weakness hammered at him. Never had he felt helpless, never without device or skill to deliver himself from any danger. His mind boils at his misfortune. His great heart despairs and convulses at the thought of an unseen enemy conquering him. His patience and serenity is shattered. The cords of his sanity are snapping – he’s short with everyone, agitated, fierce at times, brooding at others, sharp of tongue but weak of words. He feels as if the gods have made him a sport for their amusement. He is wretched, inconsolable.

He is still wealthy though. Able to pay for any doctor, any soothsayer, any medicine man, or folk cure. He can give hoards of money to the gods, great charities to win their favor. He tries it all. His wife faithfully searches out every known remedy, a wild grasp or not. The entire household is consumed with finding a cure and restoring peace to their beleaguered companion and master.

On a day of particular stress Namaan’s wife audibly groans about her inability to find help for her husband. Wide eyed, effervescent, and confident, the slave girl desires aloud, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” The unwavering certainty of the girls’ wish burst into the mistress’ meditations of futility. “What did you say, child?” The girl’s unflinching answer was the same. Hope flooded into the empty cavern of her mistress’ heart. The news burst through the house like a song – there’s a man who can heal our master! A tentative expectation started to rise in the household. Namaan went to the king.

The rest of the story is familiar. Namaan goes to Elisha. Elisha makes an uncomfortable demand, Namaan refuses in his pride. His servant pleads with him to try. Namaan submits to God through the instruction of Elisha and prodding of his servant, is healed, and humbles himself to return and give thanks to Elisha and Yahweh, promising to worship only Yahweh the remainder of his days even though he has to tend to the king who will continue to worship other gods. And they all lived happily ever after…

But let’s go back to Namaan’s estate. Do we suppose that anything changed for the girl? Was she released to go back home because of her good deed? Was she reunited with her family to live out her days peacefully in the little village? Did Namaan promise to never invade that little village again, ensuring the family and friends of the girl a peaceful existence? Probably not!

The most likely scenario is that the girl remained a slave. She may have enjoyed the added benefit of better treatment for suggesting her master’s means of healing but all in all probably never escaped slavery, never saw her family again, never visited her village, never knew what became of all those she loved. Sad, isn’t it! But somehow familiar don’t you think? Do you ever feel it? The separation I mean, the loneliness, the partial fulfillments of an uneventful slavery, the distance from home, the longing for something buried deep in your heart, the ache of an unknown anticipation. Do you feel it?

The unrealized longings of Namaan’s little slave girl foreshadow our own. We live in a foreign land. We are slaves to an unfamiliar master, longing for our real King. We are aliens in a hostile country. We long for, and wait for something we have only a vague sense of. What will our home look like once we arrive – when will we get there? Will we see our loved ones again? We feel in many ways like that slave girl must have. The similarity may or may not stop there though. The point is not, do we feel the same as her, or can we commiserate with her. We do. The point is, how will we live each day while we wait for things to be set right.

The remarkable thing about the Israelite slave girl is that she believed. In spite of her circumstances, her youth, her position, her broken heart, her separation from those who shared her faith, she held fast. When faced with the biggest crises her new household had ever faced she did not flinch. Her undaunted faith blazed through as naturally as a child’s wish. My God can do it!

How’s our faith? While we await our unseen future – full of promise and joy – are we abiding in faith others can see? Are we tenaciously watching every day? Are we anticipating good from our Heavenly Father? Are we trusting Him with a child’s abandon? Do we shed our tears at night, longing for home, and get busy in the day, preparing for Him?

Do we realize that “our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory..?” Are we the sort of people who ask, “what sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…”? Are we waiting expectantly and serving freely like the little slave girl?

In my heart of hearts I’m certain that God is enough to meet every real need I have. As I sort through the everyday rubble that so easily piles up I run smack into the practical reality of seemingly unmet needs; not enough money, not enough time, difficult relationships, physical or emotional weakness, loneliness, or perhaps an overall brooding dissatisfaction with my circumstances. This practical bubble of daily battles I live in often creates a barrier to delighting in God. So, my thoughts often turn to those battles and barriers. Just how can I overcome the daily distraction of temporary cares and get to daily delight in my infinite God? 

That’s a good question isn’t it? Don’t you wonder how to get past the “nasty now and now” and onto the “sweet by and by” in your mind, heart, and soul? If you don’t mind learning from a person many Bible scholars consider rough, doctrinally incorrect, and insensitive, you, like me, may be able to pick up a few pointers on the practice of delighting in God.  I found this person, this “counselor” in the book of Job. He’s one of the “three wise guys” who sat in the dirt with Job but later flung some accusatorial mud at him. Even though Eliphaz dishes out some suspect advice to Job, he does circle around the truth from time to time, and in a few cases lands right on it.

I found some help to my dilemma of pursuing delight in the daily rubble of my life while reading the last few lines Eliphaz as quoted in Job, Chapter 22. The phrase that caught me was in verse 26, “For then you will delight in the Almighty.” Really? When will I delight? I read backward from there to find out what the “For” was referencing and found a great agenda for daily, lifelong, practical delight. Eliphaz, whether he knew it or not, lays out a doable daily regimen for delighting in God. I hope you’ll find this as helpful as I have. Let’s look at the simple steps first and then we’ll dig in a bit.

Doable Daily Delight

Do This:

1. Yield. 
2. Receive Instruction.
3. Return to God.
4. Remove Unrighteousness.
5. Bury Your Money.

Enjoy This:

1. God Will Be Your Treasure.
2. God Will Be Your Delight.
3. God Will Hear Your Prayers.
4. God Will Establish Your Decrees.
5. God Will Be Your Confidence.
6. God Will Be Your Salvation.
7. God Will Be Your Deliverance.

Yield:  This is a fascinating word that has been translated differently in nearly every major Bible version. Some of the options are Acquaint, Submit, Agree, Yield, Reconcile, or Acquiesce.

Regardless of the word choice, the idea is to defer to or be of use to someone deserving of your deferment or service. It’s an imperative that carries with it the idea of “getting to know” God with an attitude of  “yielded-ness or submission”. Verse 29 shines a bit more light on this attitude by saying that God will save the humble person. The simple meaning – Humble yourself and abandon your insistence upon self-defense, self-promotion, self-interest, or self in any of it’s manifestations. You are standing before God, you know!

What does this look and sound like in my moment-by-moment world? It’s the habit of saying to yourself and to God – “Ok Lord, this moment is yours, tell me what to do with it.” It gets repeated tens, hundreds, or thousands times a day in your mind and spirit as you walk with God. It’s a constant, tangible yielding to His desires while retreating from yours.  The immediate outcome of this deferment is peace. When we give up our tightly clutched trinkets of self-promotion, God will replace them with the true riches of delight in Him.

Receive Instruction: I love the NAS’ emoting of this phrase by putting the “please” in front of the phrase. It’s a plea, “Please”, I beg of you, be instructed by God. The book of Proverbs fleshes this out sufficiently as to not need more commentary. In fact, the invitation to learn at the feet of God is extended de facto by the very fact we have a Bible. Every word is a feast of delight because they all unfold for us in some fashion who God is and what He is like.

Eliphaz doesn’t stop there though. It’s not enough to simply receive instruction. We all know that “hearing is not doing”.  He adds a phrase to his plea, “establish His words in your heart.” It means to put God’s instruction in a readily accessible storage location. This is not the self-storage rental space down the road that keeps the stuff you don’t need quick access to. This is the easy to reach pantry of essential items, the silverware drawer, or sock drawer, or key rack, if you will. It’s that place and part of us that’s often hard to organize and manage.  The place that gets messy and disorderly if we don’t keep up with it – in my case and perhaps yours – it’s my Mind. I constantly have to place God’s word in the drawers of my mind and keep them organized for easy access.

There, I said it, and you know what it means – Meditate, Memorize and Practice Scripture. How many times have we heard this? Are we doing it? This is the most basic root-level truth any Christian teacher could express. It’s the golden key to delight. God’s Word is the conduit for every blessing, every joy, and every delight. The Word has to enter in and find a permanent place in our minds and then travel well-worn paths to our hearts. It has to be worked out with every breath and footstep. Will you start now? Perhaps the question we asked about yielding also fits here, “Ok Lord, this mind is yours, tell me what you want me to do with it.”

Return to God: Simple – turn around – go back. Yes, it may cost your reputation, your fortune, your secrets, your position, your pain, your whole self! God’s promise is that it is worth it. (Isa. 35:10) Restoration to glory, joy, and gladness is an abundant substitute for the empty pursuits that are keeping us from God.

“Doable” is a little naïve here. This may be a tough one, depending on what force may have you in its iron grip. Our enemies build their largest ramparts and dispatch their fiercest warriors to prevent our return. It may be a bloody and bitter path back to God but there is healing for any wound once we are there. It may seem like an unbearably long journey to get back but it is really only the distance of a desperate whisper. Cry out to God – He will navigate every obstacle and battle every foe with you. Perhaps a good first step here would be to keep the same theme we have been emphasizing “Ok Lord, my life’s a wreck, I’m coming back, what do you want me to do?” May you find it safely back!

Remove Unrighteousness: Tic Tock, Tic Tock, tic tock, tic tock, tic…. We don’t hold live grenades hoping they fail to detonate. We throw them as far from us as we can. Remove means to thrust away or repel. You may be holding a grenade, not knowing how long you have till it detonates – it’s time to hurl that thing away – violently!

To me, unrighteousness is a soft word. It’s akin to a “white lie”, wrong and sinful but not quite as aggressive to my ears. The KJV uses “iniquity” here and the Hebrew Lexicon’s render it “wickedness or depravity”. Now those are hostile and intimidating words, much more descriptive of the danger. Sin hurts us in every painful way imaginable, like a little boy slowly tearing the legs off a grasshopper before he stomps it. If we could see the complete grotesque picture of it and feel it’s ferocious reality we would treat it like that ticking grenade. Problem is, sin is pleasurable, a short lived but addictive high, insidiously beautiful, deceitfully captivating, and stubbornly adhesive. It’s hard to throw away.

So even while I encourage you, according to Scripture, to cast it far from you I’m painfully aware of the reality of that action. In part, that’s what the Body is for. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who will engage our battles with us. You may need to find fellow Christians to hear your confession, refuse to judge, and fight with you – go to them – NOW! The Holy Spirit is ever at the ready as well. Listen and obey His voice concerning the bomb you’re holding. Again, cry out, “Ok Lord, my sin is killing me, how do I get rid of it?” Find books and lessons by godly writers that address and give practical advice on beating your sinful struggles and demons – then follow their counsel. All of us have besetting sins – few of us discipline ourselves to fight to the death against them. The delight of victory and the presence of God is ours once we slay these enemies.

Bury Your Money: This is a short way to say, “you cannot serve two masters”. It’s God or Stuff! Eliphaz is quite poetic here. He exhorts Job to “place his gold in the dust” and “toss it in the stream” like so many common pebbles. I like that! If we can truly look at our wealth as “dust and rocks” and consider it of similar value in contrast to our delight in God, we will mirror the attitude Eliphaz describes here.

The Bible is ripe with instructions about materialism and money. Books have been written expounding the Bible truth about finances. I don’t want to repeat them, I want to encourage you to read what’s been written. Check out Randy Alcorn, Larry Burkett, Ron Blue, Dave Ramsay and others like them. They will help you. Remember our question again here, “Ok Lord, this money is yours, tell me what you want me to do with it.”

The core of the whole subject is this – When we value God and His works as our treasure above all other possible treasures, we will find our ultimate delight. How do I do that? How do I cultivate delight in our invisible God when the things I can touch, see, and sense cry out for my attention? That’s just what we’ve been discovering – everything we’ve said up till now is included in the answer. Everything we’ve said up till now can be described succinctly with one word – discipline.

To yield, receive instruction, return to God, remove unrighteousness, and bury our money is to practice spiritual disciplines. These are not skills we learn once, master, and never return to. They are cultivated habits that require continual nurturing and laborious exercise. This is the stuff of Paul’s confession that he beat his body (figuratively) to keep it under. He was speaking of the hard work of living for eternity. Investing in infinity by resisting the transient involves work, wisdom, and focus. Mastering these disciplines is what leads us to delight.

Athletes have a daily workout regime often with core items they do every day. Eliphaz gives us the Doable Daily Regimen for Delighting in God. Submit to this routine and we will find ourselves delighting more and more in God. We will also reap a substantial list of other benefits. More on those later…

Yield, Receive Instruction, Return to God, Remove Unrighteousness, and Bury Your Money, ‘Then the Almighty will be your gold, and choice silver to you. For then you will delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.” Job 22:25-26

Catch yourself in this situation lately? We are such word warriors, truth tracers, and rigorous caretakers of what’s right that we often get dragged into controversies completely irrelevant to our ministry or sphere of influence. I’ve done it – spent hours reading, commenting, and chewing on issues that really mean squat to my walk with Christ and those He’s called me to influence. It’s easy to do these days. Everyone has a voice via easily accessed mass social media and we love to tune in. 

“Connecting” via mass social media has two sides. It is good to have quick, easy access to godly men and women who are truly wrestling with great questions. It is bad to get entangled in issues that waste time, create unnecessary stress, tempt us to unrighteous anger, and have the potential to cause gratuitous division in the Body of Christ. Our Lord, through the voice of the Apostle Paul, throws down a warning for all of us tempted to bandy over words.

When we trace through both letters to Timothy we find Paul’s insistence on maintaining truth juxtaposed with his insistence on avoiding frivolous arguments about truth. Check this out:

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” 2 Tim. 1:13-14

Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. 2 Tim. 2:14

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.  2 Tim. 2:15

But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. 2 Tim. 2:16-17a

But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. 2 Tim. 2:23

The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Tim. 2:24-26

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them.  2 Tim. 3:14ff

Navigating this posture is like crossing a rope bridge on a windy day with one leg.  It can become a game of spiritual mumblety-peg or worse, religious Russian roulette. The balanced instruction of Paul is to carefully pick our battles - Some are worth the war, some are not. Our difficulty (at least mine) is to discern what hills to die on and which ones to surrender. Fortunately there are some easy to grasp instructions in Paul’s fatherly letters to Timothy. These are meant to guide us through some of these battlefields. Take a look:

1. Retain the Standard (vss. 1:13-14).  In essence, Paul is encouraging Tim to maintain the truth he passed on to him. He qualifies that he should do it with an eye to faith and love. In other words, “live out what you were taught.” Live it with all faith in its veracity. Live it out with agape love toward God and others. Paul said it like this in 1 Timothy 1:5, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  To summarize, Exemplify the truth entrusted to you through a life of love filled faith. Guard truth through the power of the Spirit.
2. Remind them of Truth (vs. 2:14). Keep repeating the truths that Paul taught. Never grow tired of refreshing the mind to truth.
3. Demand a Cease-Fire (vs. 2:14). “Solemnly charge them before God…” is serious business. Paul is telling Timothy to take charge. Don’t be afraid to say, “In the name of God, with the authority of God – Stop It!” when it comes to the issues of wrangling over words to the hurt of all. It’s useless and leads to the destruction of people. Be brave, put a stop to it where you find it.
4. Diligently Study Truth (vs. 2:15). Accurately handling the truth means diligently studying truth. This cannot be separated from #1 though – study is not enough. Paul means for Timothy to know truth, love truth, and live truth. His progress is to be recognized by his word-infused, Spirit-led life.
5. Refrain from Empty Babble (vs. 2:16). Stay out of controversies about non-essentials. Stop wasting time on worldly, empty chatter. It’s a corruption that leads to ungodliness. These arguments are vacant and do not lead to a closer walk with Christ. They only spawn more argument. On the other hand, it may be a good argument. It may be something that needs to be debated. But, is it my debate? Is it essential to my walk? Or, is it a distraction from what I should be doing? Is it edifying to those I’m called to influence? Is it a necessary addition to my knowledge of God? Test your involvement in these issues with these types of questions.
6. Refuse Stupid Questions (vs. 2:23). Yep, that’s what it says. The actual word is “moron”. Paul is referring to moronic, undisciplined questions that lead to more moronic undisciplined questions. How many blog-flames would be prevented if we all exercised disciplined refusal to respond to moronic questions? We can pour ice-cold water on red hot but foolish controversy by simply refusing to participate. I invite you to walk the other way.
7. Don’t Be Combative (vs. 2:24-26). Do you grit your teeth and furrow your brow as your issue-oriented blood pressure rises? Do you get angry with the opposition? Do you blast and minimize your brother? Do you attack and assassinate? I don’t mean only that you actually write your attacks or say them out loud – I mean to ask, “Are they in your mind?” Are these your instant reactions?  These are signs that you’ve taken on the mantle of a crusader. You’ve become a warrior – not a servant. Combative Christians are not winsome. They don’t attract others to the beauty of Christ. Paul commands a different attitude.
8. Do Be Kind, Able to Teach, Patient, Gentle (vs. 2:24-26). This is the winsomeness of Christ. This is true godliness. We win wars with kind, gentle sacrifice. We teach with grace and patience. We hurt for those in the wrong. We plead with those taken up in error. We weep for truth. Perhaps God will grant them repentance. We may win an argument but lead to further ungodliness. We may prove our point and lose a soul. What a tragedy to win an acre of ground and lose a battalion of saints. We speak the truth and let God win the hearts. God releases captives. God detains the devil. God bestows knowledge. Let God fight, perhaps we will have the joy of seeing them “sitting down, clothed, and in their right minds.” Mark 5
9. Abide in the Truth (vs. 3:14). Make truth and the exercise of it your intimate companion. Draw truth up into your heart like umbilical blood. Let it energize your actions. Love in truth. Laugh in truth. Weep in truth. Pray in truth. Speak in truth. Live in truth.

So why unity? Why does Jesus spend verses 20-23 with three or four references to His desire for the unity of the Church? “…that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us…”  I don’t pretend to know anything beyond a distant and vague sense of what might be involved in being one with God. Phrases like this temp me to mysticism. They befuddle me. They twist my mind in the same way the Trinity does. I probe the barriers of eternity only to find myself tired and vacant. I can and will make an attempt at what it means for the Church to be one, unified for Christ and with one another.  

The request for us all to be one is mystical and intriguing on its own but Jesus doesn’t leave us with that thought. He goes on to mention the “why” behind His prayer for unity. It’s the great “why” that captivates me. What’s at risk? Is it really that big a deal?

It could have been a nice platitude wrapped in the mystery of Deity for us all to wonder at but never really grasp. It could have been easily read and forgotten due to the impenetrable nature of the subject. It could have been dismissed as God speaking in language too high for us but Christ did not leave us any of these options. He clearly states the reason He desires unity in the Church. Read slowly with me, verse 21, “that they may all be one…SO THAT the world may believe that You sent Me” and verse 22-23, “that they may be one…that they may be perfected in unity, SO THAT the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them…”

The unity of the Church is THE PROOF to the world that God the Father sent God the Son and that God the Father loves the world. Incredible that the witness of God to the world hangs on the frayed thread of the unity of the Church!

Think of the ramifications! A unified Church shouts sacrificial love to the world. We are truly an aroma of life unto life when perfected in unity. Expressing accord one with another expresses God to lost and dying souls. Unison and harmony sing mighty hymns of compassion and grace, mercy and righteousness, humility and acceptance, to a world blinded by sin and lost in darkness. Let those who have ears to hear – hear! Unity is powerful!

On the other hand, a divided Church is proof to the world that the Father did not send the Son and does not love them. Ouch! Strife among brothers is tantamount to denying the Gospel. It’s the devil’s holiday to see brothers at odds. It’s the world’s justification for ignoring and distrusting the Church, the Bible, and God Himself. Brothers, we are to blame in part for the continued rejection of Christ. We are culpable in the matter of the message going unheard and unheeded. When the lost see factions and fractures in the Church they “know” there’s no real Jesus and no real love. We need not be surprised at their reaction when we try to tell them differently – our actions are shouting denial while our words are faltering feints at the truth.

Miserable thoughts aren’t they! What should we do with them? My will to write about these things is often wrapped tightly in my own guilt for participating in and perpetuating division in the Body. I recoil at the thought of my own failures in this area. I have most likely been one who has placed a stumbling block in the path to peace. Rather than wallow in those thoughts we need to press on. Let’s resist the temptation to lie where we’ve fallen. I’d like to persevere. I want to see God win this one.

And God fully intends to win. We see this in the return of Christ to His first request and the main theme of the prayer. He wants us to be with Him and to see His Glory. It’s all about His glory. Look at how He even ties unity to glory in verse 22. Jesus has given us His glory so that we may be one. A unified Church is a glorified Christ! The glory, the “otherness” of God, given to men, so that we might live in such a way that all men might know that God loves them and sent His Son to die for them. We share the glory of God in order to reflect His character to desperate individuals “without hope and without God in the world.” We share the unity of God to show the world that there is “One God and Father of All Who is over all and through all and in all.” The way we live preaches one thing or another to the lost – will we “be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?” 

Whoaaa there –isn’t that a caustic, belligerent, intentionally shocking comparison? Maybe. Depends on if you’ve ever felt the tension. I’m surmising, but I think the Jew knows he’s free up until the moment he peeks through the keyhole to see the uniform of the Third Reich.*  I’m free up until the moment I open the door for my brother who is about to judge my freedom. He’s going to go there you know – to that standard, that personal conviction that he must impose on me. 

What do I do now? Paul says swing the door open with a smile, a hug, and an open heart. In fact, give him full access to your heart. (Romans 14:1) Seriously? My soul cries out, “Paul, you wouldn’t say that if you had met this guy”. Then my Bible trained mind corrects me – yes he would and he did. It’s the heart of God. Scripture makes it clear that Paul had to wrestle with every sort of personality and quirk of conviction that existed in the first century. Beyond that, Jesus Himself faced every doubting disciple with the calm assurance of His freedom in the Father. Thomas had to see and touch, Peter corrected Him and even cursed against Him, the sons of thunder wanted the preeminence, Judas was smarmy and in the end, evil. I think it’s fair to say that Jesus never closed His heart to any of them.

Ok, so I’m opening the door. I’m even going to pray that Jesus helps me open my heart but I do-not-like being put in this position! 

If I may, dear brother/sister, pull you aside for a moment. This is your opportunity to display true, supernatural love in blazing glory! Conquer this and the legions of hell cannot refute it. This is the moment – this is where Christ shines! He must increase but we must decrease. John 3:30

Back to the door and my "sensitive of conscience" brother. What next? According to Romans 14 you enjoy his fellowship, encourage him as a brother, love him as Christ would, and DON’T bring up his issues of conscience for discussion. It’s forbidden. The free brother, the stronger brother, is not to make the weaker brothers’ doubts or convictions a matter of conversation. And definitely DO NOT flaunt your freedom in any way. Put your freedom on the shelf, limit your liberty, and express full-flighted love for your brother.

“But you don’t understand, he always brings it up!” Using always is almost always hyperbole in this context but I get where you’re coming from. You’ll have to wait for another post on that one…

*My apologies to anyone for whom these memories are real and intensly painful. Corrie Ten Boom speaks very clearly of her experience in just this sort of situation in one of her recorded talks.