ALLIGNING WITH HEAVEN

ALLIGNING WITH HEAVEN

                As a child growing up in an Adventist family we lived with the conviction that we were God’s remnant people. We were God’s remnant people because of a unique set of doctrines and especially because of the Sabbath. Our idea of a remnant people in those days was more or less a corporate one. We were God’s remnant organization.

                Well, I am not here to put down on those early ideas, because in these last days we see the Lord bringing forth the appointed times of the Lord including the Sabbath. We are being called out of Babylon, (the pagan world system), and back into alignment with heaven. As such we are being drawn away from pagan tradition and even mixed pagan/Christian tradition to the foundational roots of Judeo Christianity.

                God did not build the ancient foundations of the faith just to blow them away and to start something entirely new when Jesus came.  Jesus came rather to demonstrate to us how those appointed times and types and shadows are fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (See Romans 8:1-4)

                We have often painted a wrong picture of God, inferring that He tried something that didn’t work, so He scrubbed it and tried something new. This is a horrible picture and one that leaves the God of the Old Testament to be the consummate grouch and Tyrant, while Jesus came to stand between us and an angry Father. But this is absolutely not true and John 3:16 should have put that idea to rest a long time ago. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”

                Well, if Christianity drifted away from its Jewish foundations and embraced a pagan view of God that made Him distant to us so that we were in need of the church to mediate for us; then what is God calling us to as a last day remnant people? Is He not calling us back to an alignment with the foundations of the Christian faith? After all Jesus proved His own identity by beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explaining to them the things concerning Himself in all of (Old testament) Scriptures.

                Jesus gave us a positive ID and that ID is found throughout the foundations of Scripture, from which our New Testament is derived.

                Unfortunately, some have resurrected the ancient ways and tried to keep them legalistically, sometimes ignoring the life of the Holy Spirit that alone can fulfill the ancient patterns. Some have gotten the idea that if we observe the ancient patterns in the ancient way, then that will make us God’s remnant people.

                But this was the idea that Paul fought against so vehemently. Paul’s Gospel in a nutshell was this: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. “ Rom. 8:11

                Paul even went so far as to say that “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Romans 8:8b

                But the Holy Spirit must be more to us than one of the persons of the Trinity whose name we invoke at baptism, or as a theological statement. The Holy Spirit is indeed our new life in Christ. Our bodies are temples in which the Holy Spirit dwells and therefore it changes everything. We are to glorify God in this body. 1Cor. 6:19, 20.

                There needs to be a coming together of ideas in these last days. In many ways we are at polar ends of God’s truth. Some completely ignore the Spirit, while others completely ignore the body, and as such God’s glory is diminished by His people. Some ignore the Holy Spirit while others ignore the Law and again both are diminished.

                We know that God’s remnant people are identified as those who keep the commandments of God. Revelation 12:17 and Rev. 14:12 clearly identify the remnant as those who keep the Commandments.

                So we list off the Commandments and we say, “Hey, they are easy. Look at them: I can put away all other gods and worship the One. I can do away with idols… no problem. I can stop using God’s name as a cuss word. I can make it to church every Sabbath… and as for the last 6, well, I don’t mistreat my parents, I don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie and for the most part I don’t even want to do those things. I’ve got it covered.

                And then we wonder why people keep saying that the Law is impossible to keep. It is a simple list that basically any good citizen in the civilized world would keep. But in truth it is the Sh’mah that gets us. And Jesus quoted the Old testament when asked which commandment was the foremost of all and He answered: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
“The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:29

                Suddenly we have jumped from matters of doctrine to matters of the heart. How much do I really love God and how would such a supreme love change my life? If I were to love God with all of my heart and my soul and my might, that really leaves no space for a self-driven life. Everything, every thought and every action of my life is now oriented to serving God. Therefore all of life must be holy and there is no space left for what you might call a “Secular life.” I am a temple of God and my entire life is consumed with a love for Him. This love then underlies every thought and action, every desire, every goal and every ambition.

                Now we have stepped into a territory that is humanly impossible. Flesh cannot even begin to do this. So if this greater Law is to be fulfilled in my life I am going to need the very Spirit of Christ dwelling in me and living out the life of Christ in me. There is no other way.

                Suddenly the Holy Spirit has been taken off of His high shelf and by necessity He has become the very life of my life, the very core of my existence as a professed Christian.  And there is no moment of any given day when we set the Holy Spirit aside to address the flesh. Likewise with the second spiritual law which says that I must love my neighbor as myself. Well… how does this shape my relationship with others and my responsibility to others if I must love them as much as I love myself? Would I be willing to lay down my life for my neighbor if he was in trouble? Would I even be willing to lay down my life for a brother or sister in Christ?

                Do not our limitations on love show when we drop a dollar in the offering plate and then stare at it longingly as it goes down the row? What about stuffing myself with all of the delicacies of life even as part of the town goes hungry every night? To even think about the ramifications of true love for God and my neighbor, I find myself in way over my head. There is no way that I can even enter that arena unless the Spirit of God takes over this selfish flesh of mine.

                And in spite of the fact that we believe in life in the Spirit, wet rarely ever connect this directly to our actions and attitudes. We live primarily for self… the neighbor be damned, especially if he starts up his leaf blower at 7 AM… or lets his dog bark incessantly. And as for the poor… well… there are homeless shelters for them and most of them are probably on drugs anyway.

                So once again we have to ask ourselves what a remnant person really is and how can anyone qualify as a commandment keeper if we are going to talk about the Sh’mah? We are all toast.

                Well, being finite beings as we are, God has not required us to love the whole world. In fact He has narrowed down our scope in caring for the brethren first and in all practical terms, it is how we treat the one person that is in front of us right now. Do we live by divine appointment, treating each person with the love of Christ as they cross our path? But He doesn’t limit it to that and much of the church today, limits its love and action to those within the four walls. Our entire concept of loving our neighbor boils down to two hours on Sunday or Saturday when we put on that Christian smile at church.

                Oh my… are we squirming in our seats yet? And what about our love for God… have we narrowed that down to 2 hours a week as well?

                This is why we cry out to God. Even Jesus cried out to God in anguish. He knew that if He relied upon His human flesh for even one moment He would have fallen short of the glory. He lived every moment of His life in the Spirit. And even though the Sabbath is one of God’s appointed times, we must surely realize that with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, every day is holy. There is no time when holiness is not our purpose.

                So in essence, this is what God is calling His people out to in these last days. He is calling us out of a pagan/secular world to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves and for this we need to learn how to live life in the Spirit just as Romans 8 is telling us.

                If we aspire to become the sons of God for whom all of creation waits with eager anticipation, then we must learn how to live by the Spirit of God even as Jesus did for: “All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14.

                Paul boils it all the way down to even what we eat or drink saying that whatever we do; do all to the glory of God. 1Cor. 10:31 And to the Philippians he said: “For many walk of whom I often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.” Phil. 3:18, 19.

                Even when it comes to the control of our appetites we need the Holy Spirit, for Temperance, or self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit... and how many of us live lives that are out of control and addicted and self-indulgent?

                Well, have I crossed over into legalism? No, emphatically No! We are coming into a time when the Remnant people are being formed and called out. It is a call to live fully by the Spirit of God and not by the flesh… and in this we can see that the Body of Christ has never connected the dots on holiness and righteousness. We live like the world in almost every way. We are self-indulgent and gluttonous, with uncontrolled emotions and attitudes about others that reflect the world much more than they reflect Christ.  And for this, a great shaking is coming in which everything in our lives that has not been conceived by the Holy Spirit will be shaken out so that what remains will be of God. Heb. 12:26-29

                During His earthly ministry Jesus cleansed the temple twice… once at the beginning of His ministry and once again at the end. (John 2:15, Luke 19:45, 46) Likewise, He cleansed the church at the first Pentecost and He will cleanse the church again at the last Pentecost. (His outpouring for the harvest also called the latter rain) In it He will come to His threshing floor and purge it and He will remove the chaff and the tares from His wheat so that He can bring forth a harvest that is wheat only, no longer mixed with the world.

                This is one reason why I believe that we must go through some very hard times. Our lives of freedom and ease have not produced the kind of fruit that He is looking for in a Bride who will reign with Him. If we cannot learn to fully live by the Spirit, then how can we teach others to do so?

                Jesus warned us that life would be like it was in the days of Noah and Lot when He returns. He says that they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. They were buying and selling, planting and building. Luke 17:27, 28. What on earth is wrong with that?

                Paul defines idolatry saying: “The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.” This he quoted from Exodus 32:7 in connection with their worship of the golden calf in front of Mt.
Sinai. The idea was that they were living life as if Moses had died and there was no God. But don’t we also do the same thing? We claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and yet we eat and drink and get up to play as if God doesn’t exist. We tend to leave our living by the Spirit to that one day a week.

                Man, this is a tough lesson and I don’t even know what to do with it. Why is God using me to say such tough things? I certainly cannot set myself up as a shining example of what is right. So this is for me as much as for anyone.  I am certainly not legalistic. I am easy going and fun loving… and I don’t believe for a minute that God is calling His Remnant into legalism. He is calling us to live a miracle of life in His Holy Spirit and He wants us to become aware of how sloppy our lives have become because we have tossed out most of what His Word says about holiness and righteousness.

                Our temples have become polluted and He is about to cleanse them. Put you trust in Him.