Living as an Overcomer

 Last Sunday Pastor Mike told us his sermon was going to be about “How do you have victorious faith in troubled times?” Then he asked us to read with him Genesis Chapter 1. My initial thought was, “How is he going to use this text to show that?” He then proceeded to show that this account of creation lays the foundation for developing victorious faith, and I realized that is true, even for an overcomer of atheism like me, because I now know the One who rested on the 7^th day. Knowing my Creator results in me having faith for the difficult time in life I am going through now, and also for facing these troubling times in the life of the Church in America that we are all going through. Thank you Pastor Mike.  

Genesis 1 is poetry that establishes powerfully the “what and why” of faith. The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 3 summarizes the Christian’s response to Genesis 1, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. This establishes faith in a spiritual realm of things we cannot see.” In the Genesis account we learn that the Creator, who we can’t see because He is spiritual, reigns over all he has created, and that includes any other spiritual (heavenly) things as well as all physical things, which we do see.

Mike speaks of certain inaccurate ideas concerning the physical and spiritual realms. For example in Biblical times, certain Greek philosophies had trumped Biblical thinking by believing that anything physical is evil. For example, sexuality is necessary for reproduction but it’s still evil because it belongs to the physical realm. That cannot be the Biblical view because God created the physical realms and said they are good.

The opposite error concerning the physical and the spiritual came as a result of the scientific revolution. Naturalism said there is no spiritual realm at all, everything that might appear to be spiritual will eventually be explained by natural science. This view was popularized by a kid’s TV program in the 70’s. Rob Reimer calls it the Scooby Doo theory, and it claimed there is always a natural explanation for every happening that appears to be supernatural. This was a form of the secular humanist philosophy that held me captive for many years. It is not Biblical either because it plays into the lie that “Now that we have science we don’t need God.” According to the theory, scientific method is all we need, even to help us know what is good or bad and right or wrong in our everyday lives. The creation becomes our god instead of the Creator.

God never gave up his position of kingly authority, we did. He gave mankind the ability to do science, to think.  All science is doing is discovering more things about the world God created. When scientific experiments don’t go the way expected a good scientist tries something new, he takes a risk. God wants ordinary people to be thinkers also. That's what troubled times are for, but he wants your risks to be motivated by the love of God. The apostle Paul prayed that “…your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

I hold up the record of Christ, not my own record but His. Amen.

He Told Me Everything I Ever Did

Last Sunday God used his people at Risen King Church, and Dr. Rob Reimer, to show me that, like the church at Ephesus I was doing everything right, but had drifted from the Lord. I wanted to return to my first love, so when He said "Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:5), my thoughts went back to 1979 when I first became obsessed with Jesus. 

While reading the Bible for the first time, I had come to the story of the Woman at the Well, who meets Jesus in the fourth chapter of the gospel of John. I immediately identified with her. She was interested in theology, and so was I, she had a “past,” and so did I. She was surprised when Jesus spoke with her, kindly but with authority. People from his culture (Jewish) didn’t associate with people from her culture (Samaritan), yet he seemed to know an awful lot about her. She brought up the subject of the Messiah, a prophetic figure in both of their cultures, and said, “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus dropped a bombshell. He declared, “I, the one speaking to you … I am he.” (John 4:26). She left her water jar behind, raced back home and told her people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he be the Messiah?” (Jn. 4:29). Immediately these Samaritan people made their way to Jesus and urged him to come stay with them. Is it not reasonable to suppose that the woman was with them? I think the reason she left her water jar behind was that she knew she was coming back, hoping to talk with Jesus again. She was obsessed with him and I’m sure that sometime during his two days with the Samaritans, he found time to explain to her more fully what he meant by water that “will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) and what it is to “worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:22).

Like the woman at the well, when I chose to believe who Jesus really is … the Son of God, not just a man, but God who had become a man … I hurried home and told my people in Connecticut about him. I told them the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation, and it reveals that Jesus is the Messiah. The Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the life of Jesus, who we read about in the New Testament. I was obsessed with Jesus. My audience, at the time, included my brother and his very young son, who is now finishing his Ph. D in Christian mission.

Like the woman at the well, I also was intrigued by the fact that Jesus knew “everything I ever did” and he was not condemning me. He knew my past because he had been there all along. Even when I was too young to understand what was happening, he was coming after me, leaving the 99, chasing me down until I was found. Then his Spirit began teaching me things I could never have learned on my own. He showed me I was never the ‘rugged individualist,’ in control of my own destiny I had been pretending to be. It was humbling to realize I could never have fulfilled my childhood dreams, of getting an education and traveling all around the world, if he had not been working behind the scenes. I began writing out the lessons he was teaching me, because writing has always been my best way of communicating with myself, with other people, and with God.

Even now, as I'm finishing this new post, doing the things I did at first, he is with me. I’ve returned to my first love.  Our Father is always working, he never stops working !!!

You must be Born Again

I first learned about Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night, from Pastor Robert Hickman at Montvale Evangelical Free Church. That was way back in 1979 when I was 41 years young. At that time Pastor Hickman was my pastoral counselor. I came to him by night because I was working at the Pan Am computer center in Rockleigh, NJ during the day, but I also needed to talk one on one, away from the noise of other people. In one of my counseling sessions, I was attracted by Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus, “You must be born again."  I liked the idea of starting over again, but of course I couldn't go back into my mother's womb, so I listened to Pastor Hickman as he explained to me the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the “spiritual” birth. At first I made jokes because, unlike Nicodemus, I didn't believe in anything spiritual. I was a secular humanist; that was my 20^th century “religion.”

Secular Humanists, like John Dewey on whom I had recently written my doctoral dissertation, had abandoned belief in a spiritual realm of being - no God, no Devil, no Heaven or Hell. The only things that exist are things that can be seen, touched and studied by the scientific method. You can't study God that way so He doesn't exist. Mankind was my god and science was my bible. That's what I believed.

When I came to Pastor Hickman I made no pretense of being “spiritual” in any way. I had left home long ago, had not married, and had chosen to live as a “rugged individualist.” I felt I didn’t need “sustaining” relationships with anyone. I believed I was in control of my own destiny, “If it is to be it all depends on me.” I had even managed to realize my childhood dreams, of getting an education and traveling around the world, without help from anyone except the secular establishment. I was pretty proud of my accomplishments. Like Nicodemus I was well educated in the “religion” of my day. It might also sound like I had also attained power and wealth, but that is not true; I was a computer programmer trainee making $10,000 a year, and my personal life up until then had been more like the Woman at the Well who encounters Jesus in the next chapter of John’s Gospel, rather than like Nicodemus.

As I look back, I know the Holy Spirit had been doing His pre-conversion work to convict me that my Secular Humanist beliefs were wrong; my whole life based on those beliefs was wrong. As I continued my weekly counseling sessions, confessing my sins to Pastor Hickman and reading God's Word, the good news of Jesus Christ began to make sense to me, I wanted to believe, and I prayed the sinner's prayer to receive Him into my heart.

A few days later I was lying on my bed, confessing my sins to God, especially my sinful attitude of ignoring Him all those years, pretending He doesn't even exist. Then the Holy Spirit fell on me with power, my whole body began to shake, bittersweet tears welled up from deep within and became tears of joy as I felt God’s love embracing me, telling me He forgave me and wanted to be a Father to me. He was teaching me, I didn’t have to figure everything out by myself. I began to devour his Word, I was born again.

However, there were still deep emotional wounds that needed healing. You can’t live for many long years, dominated by the fear of Man and the Pride of life, without serious consequences for your Soul. It takes time to be transformed from a self-deceived fool to a mature daughter or son of God, yielded to his Spirit, ever-growing in the fruit of the Spirit. 

God is not finished with me yet!